On Sunday we explored the story of the rich man from Luke 12:14-21. For all his business know-how, he made a huge miscalculation. In his frantic pursuit of the good life he forgot to pursue eternal life and abundant life. He gave his life for that which ultimately didn’t matter. As Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26, NKJV). We all need to consider the "then what?" question.
We are anticpating Easter Sunday in a couple of weeks. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:19, NLT). If Jesus’ death and resurrection doesn’t answer the “then what” question, we have no hope. Christ didn’t come just to give you abundant life here and now, he came so that you could have eternal life.
We can try to live like we are going to live forever and this life is all there is OR we can live NOW like we are going to spend eternity somewhere. Solomon writes, “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT). Did you get that? He planted eternity in the human heart.
In some of his writing, John Ortberg talks about nighttime prayers his grandmother would pray with him, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That’s a cheery way to send kids off to bed, isn’t it? There actually was another verse to this prayer that children would recite. Picture the scene: (CHILD): “Our days begin with trouble here, Our life is but a span, And cruel death is always near, So frail a thing is man.” (PARENT): Good Night honey. Pleasant dreams.
Ortberg makes this observation. “There was a day, much different than ours, when children said this prayer by the millions. Somebody wanted children to know: Earth is fallen and broken and not home. Life is not permanent. Death is both twisted and inevitable, and human life hangs by a slender thread. We have a soul and not just a body. God is the kind of person who can be trusted with our eternal destiny. To be clear about who keeps our souls is infinitely important.”
"Why is this so important? When you disconnect this life from the life to come, it has a practical result. When you believe that this life is all there is, you begin to mistakenly act as though the point of life is just acquiring more stuff. The word “more” becomes the driving force in your life. This was certainly true of the guy in Jesus’ story. More grain. More goods. More and bigger barns. More stuff. He thought making a living was the same as making a life. He was wrong. Just think how much stuff we have and how much “life” it takes to shop for it, clean it, repair it, manage it, maintain it, insure it, store it, and ultimately dispose of it."
Jerry Seinfeld has a great piece about all the stuff we accumulate and what it takes to keep up with it. He wrote, “To me, life boils down to one significant thing — movement. To live is to keep moving. Unfortunately, this means for the rest of our lives we’re going to be looking for boxes. When you’re moving, your whole world is boxes. That’s all you think about. Boxes, where are the boxes? You just wander down the streets, going in and out of stores, ‘Are there boxes here? Have you seen any boxes?’ It’s all you think about. You could be at a funeral. Everyone around you is mourning, crying. And you’re looking at the casket. ‘That's a nice box. Does anybody know where that guy got that box? When he’s done with it, do you think I could get it? It's got some nice handles on it. My stereo would fit right in there.’ I mean, that’s what death is, really, the last big move of your life. The hearse is like the van, the pallbearers are your close friends, the only ones that you could really ask to help you with a move that big, and that casket is that great, perfect box that you’ve been looking for your whole life.”
You spend all this time and energy stockpiling stuff. Then, you die and leave it all behind. Solomon says, “I hated all the things I had worked for here on earth, because I must leave them to someone who will live after me” (Ecclesiastes 2:18, NCV).
How about this…get a roll of red stickers and put one on everything that is temporary in your life…from all your stuff to the things that only bring temporary satisfaction, temporary fulfillment, temporary meaning. You’ll need a lot of red stickers and in the end you’ll find not much is left without a red sticker. It’s not going to last. And, you aren’t going to take it with you. Jesus says, “Real life is not measured by how much we own” (Matthew 6:19-21, NLT).
Plan, prepare, work hard, enjoy the fruits of your labor BUT be sure you have answered the "then what?" question. Eternity lasts a long time.
Last Saturday, March 28, William J. Reynolds died. He was a church musician, composer, arranger, editor, hymnologist and distinguished professor emeritus of church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
On this day in history, March 28, in 1937, Billy Graham got his first opportunity to preach when his teacher John Minder unexpectedly assigned him the Easter evening sermon. Graham tried to get out of it, saying he was unprepared, but Minder persisted. Desperately nervous, Graham raced through four memorized sermons, originally 45 minutes each, in eight minutes.
Many people have probably heard the old quote that "some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good." I tend to agree more with C.S. Lewis in his classic book, Mere Christianity. Lewis wrote, "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."
Folks have lots of questions about heaven. I picked up the following points somewhere years ago. I've included some of my own commentary. Why does heaven matter?
