Are You Living In The Hope Of Eternity

Are you living in the hope of eternity? How much hope do each of us truly have in eternity? Do we really desire to stand before God? Do we desire to go to heaven? Is this world more important or is heaven? These are important questions. There are things that we cannot live without in this world. Our Lord promises to us that when we lay aside everything and follow Him that He will provide us all that we need and that He will remain with us. So then we ask, why is it that He gives us everything and then takes it all back? Why are we not allowed to posses anything of this world? We ask why it is we have to give up everything to attain the things of eternity? But God, our Father, has given us everything in this world, to rule over it, overcome it and take care of it, but it is our inability to do as we have been empowered to do. God has given everything to us into our own hands, but we are unable to handle it. We are unable to posses and use the things of this world and also unable to hold onto the hope of eternity. We stand at a crossroad refusing to follow Him. The reason is because the Word of God is not real to us. We do not believe that the Word of God is eternal. We do not believe that the Word of God is truth. There is no appreciation for His creation. We do not believe that He is our Lord and Savior, nor that He is our Father. Unless we accept that He is our Father, we cannot accept that we are His children. Even when we are talking about earthly parents and children, if the child cannot accept their parent as their own then there will be conflict in that relationship. If there is doubt to the child as to whether nor not the mother or father is their own then the child will not be able to put their trust in them. Because we cannot accept God as the Creator of all and as our Father, who has given us life through our parents, we do not want to accept that we are to worship Him with our lives and live according to His Word and by doing so we will be with Him for all eternity. This is why we refuse to give up the things of this world. God does not tell us to give up. We think that we must abandon everything. We think that God is stealing everything that He has given us, and we think of Him as a thief. God has never taken anything away, but whenever we experience difficulty or hardship we question Him and ask Him “why?” We ask Him why He gives us pain, suffering and hardship and we argue and complain. We have no gratitude in our hearts. We think of Him as one who takes things away. We harbor these thoughts and feelings against Him and therefore can’t put our trust in Him. We say that God is good. We say that He is holy. But when we really look inside ourselves, do we really believe that He is good? Do we really believes that He loves us? We do not. We think that He takes everything away from us, so when we have a little or enjoy life a little bit, we think that He will take everything away from us so we live in anxiety. We are worried that He is going to take of what little we have. We are worried that He will make us do things that we do not want to do. He is not this kind of God. God is love. But when we say that God is love, we base that love on our own selfish love and and do not understand the true love that God has for us. God’s love is that which was willing to sacrifice His one and only Son to save us from our sins. This is the love that God has for us, but we think that a God that loves us should let us do what we want and give us the things that we ask for. We misunderstand God’s love and therefore cannot accept His love and this is the reason we do not posses hope in eternity. But with our lips we say that God is good, that He is love. Do we really believe that God is good, that He is love? Are we overwhelmed by His love and so grateful that we cannot contain ourselves and unable to explain with words because His love is too great a gift? Are we holding tight to this God and living for Him? We fail to do this because daily we fall into the trap of our own thoughts and waiver back and forth. If a student fails to study for an exam but passes with a high grade and the teacher praises them for doing good work then the student is happy but did not deserve the grade nor praise. True joy comes from doing what one is supposed to do. A student should be filled with joy when they have put in the work and studied hard and then gotten a good grade, but a student who studies half-heartedly but receives a good grade did not achieve the result properly. But this is what we want. When we are at work, and money comes to us, more than we have worked for, then we are happy. If we receive money for the amount of work we have done then we are unhappy. When we feel that we are underpaid for our work, then we get frustrated, complain and no longer want to do our work. Where is your standard? Is it your desire? Everyone’s standard is different. Someone who earns $10,000/month may be content, enjoy it. Another person may earn $1000/month and equally be content and happy and enjoy it. Someone else may earn $100,000 or $200,000 and not be content and want to posses more. Who is the one that posses love? Who is the one who is content and happy? You are not content because you have more. What is important is your standard. When your standard is God, then how are we to live our lives so that we can be filled with joy and have hope, and how are we to live in that hope of eternity? The Bible shows us the way. But to many of us the Bible has no effect on our lives. We read it because we are forced to read it or else we feel obligated to read it one time a year. Where is the love for the Word? When young couples like each other they will do anything within their power, even against their parents wishes, to find a way to communicate with each other and be with each other. Do you really love God if you read the Bible out of an obligation and you pray to Him just because you feel forced to do so? We mistakenly believe that because we have read a few chapters and prayed to Him that we have completed our homework for the day. We think because we have done this much that God will love us in return and He will bless us and make the way before us easy. Is this not the way we think? How can I attain eternal life? How can the path of eternity be opened up before me in this manner? Think about it deeply? We are promised in the Bible that when we repent of our sins that we will be made white as snow. It also says that if there is any sin, then we cannot enter into heaven. But many of us do not repent. If we do not repent we cannot attain eternal life. We cannot enter into heaven with sin. But we think if we do just enough then we can enter. We look at others and think that there is no one who does as much as we do so we will enter on our own merit. In Revelation it asks will there be any left who believe, it is stating that there will only be a few who truly believe in the end. We have heard other pastor’s testimonies where God has shown them that only a handful from a few thousand will enter. At other places there will be none who enter. Some places will have a few from a thousand. I have told you many times before, and I was pleased to see that other pastors were seeing what I have been shown. God has shown me places and asked me “If I were to come today, how many do you think will enter my kingdom from here?” I answered that I did not know. He said that none would enter. At other places, and other meetings and groups I asked Him and He told me a few from here at other places none would go. It does not shock me anymore because I am no the only one to share this. How foolish it would be to be wrong and to lose your soul for all eternity. This would be the most foolish person. The issue is not about having everything and living well, the real issue is about attaining eternal life and spending eternity with our Lord which is the true blessing. God tells us to practice living in heaven as we live here. Then you will go to heaven. If you live as if in hell then you will enter hell. It is a simple truth. When I first started my ministry God told me to practice the things of heaven here. He told me to teach the practices of heaven. If your family represents heaven then so shall it be. The family has no secrets, the family is one, they communicate, and they live in faith with one another, they serve each other, forgive each other, and repent to each other. The family is the place where you practice your walk with God. If you practice the things of hell in your family then you cannot enter into heaven. The second thing I was told to teach in my ministry would be that everyone is to do only what they were placed there to do, whatever it is, wherever that may be. God has told me that your reward will not be better because you run away from your duty or you decide to do something else. You have been given a purpose and you are to be obedient and fulfill that purpose. You may decide you know better than God and go do whatever you want to do. Other times you may not want to do it because the path is difficult and the work is hard. Both are disobedience. If God tells you to go out in the middle of nowhere where no one will give you any recognition for your work then you must go. If He tells you to go to Manhattan then you must go. You cannot tell God that you dislike Manhattan and you would rather go to the middle of nowhere. Neither tell Him that you dislike the middle of nowhere and would rather be in Manhattan and that is where you will be a witness. You are being disobedient to God. Obedience is simple. It is not as complicated as we think. People refuse to accept it. People think that they are doing God’s work when they do what they want to be doing. There is real joy when you really do God’s work. When you remain in Him and He in you, when His will becomes my will and His desire becomes mine and I really understand His heart, and when I am obedient to His Word then I am able to serve Him. Our problem is when we disobey God’s will for us and we do what we want and say that we are doing His will. We are being disobedient. We cannot attain eternal life in this manner. This is the problem. How will you live your life in faith? God tells us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and to give thanks in all circumstances. When we live our lives we think that there is not much to rejoice about. This may be true. There are hardships, difficulty, pain, suffering, sin and many other circumstances that we do not want. Do you think that God did not know this when He tells us to rejoice? He knows. Just as there are seasons that change, there are also joy, pain, anger, and happiness. These things happen to believers and non believers alike. We that believe argue and complain when we suffer a little. We ask why is it that we have sickness when we believe in Jesus. We question why our family suffers when we believe in Jesus. We complain. This is where we start to mistakes. I used to question God why it was that the more I tried to follow Him, that there seemed to be more pain and suffering? If we separated all the believers from nonbelievers and only the believers had blessings and good things happened to them, then there would not be a nonbeliever in this world. This is not the way. In this world, whether you believe in Jesus or do not, God gives the wind, breath, and blessings to all alike. In this life we are to seek and find the truth and find joy. Our lives as a believer must be an example who do not believe so that they will see us and we can show them the way to a life of faith. As believers we think that everything should be only blessings and happiness. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that when you believe in Jesus that you will no longer suffer. This becomes a stumbling block in many people’s walk and many people abandon Jesus because they thought everything was going to be easy. I was startled recently, I never thought that anyone would become a buddhist after following Jesus. I have heard that many people turn their lives over to Jesus after being buddhist but never the other way around. Recently in a statistic report in Korea, the number of people that changed from Christian to buddhism was twice the number of buddhist turning Christian. Why? It is because they had no faith. They did not really know God. They had no peace on the inside. How sad our Lord must be. Those of us who believe think that we are something greater than we really are. We refuse to see the suffering and pain that fellow believers are going through. As long as I am good and I am receiving the blessings we think that everything is fine. We sing praises that say that we are one with each other, but refuse to look upon the suffering of those around us. Then when those believers fall away and go to another religion we point fingers at them, hate them and ridicule them. We don’t want to understand their suffering. Are we praying about this? Are we praying for those who do not believe? Is it right for me to go to heaven alone? God does not desire such people who are selfish. Is it right for you to eat well and live well while those around you are going hungry? Is this having the right kind of faith? It is not. God tells us to go sell everything and give it to the poor and them come follow Him. If God desires for you to sell your house then sell it. But he is not telling all of you to go sell your houses. If you are not right before God and have a proper understanding of what He wants from you then it will not matter that you sell all that you have. There is someone in the Bible who sold their possessions and was killed before God. Why did this happen? It is because He as hiding things from God. If we are hiding things from God then everything we do will be useless. God blesses us when we give joyfully and truthfully to Him. However, you may think that you have a house and that if you sell it God will grant you eternal life, but God will not give you eternal life for doing so. Why? It is because God looks at your heart. He looks at where your focus is. We hide our desires in front of people act a certain way thinking that God will acknowledge us for doing so. We must first settle the matters in our heart and find and pursue God’s will through our daily walk with Him. If we would have been able to to attain heaven in a day then there would be no need to practice the things of heaven within your own homes. It is in the daily walk and living the life that we continue to draw closer to our Lord. Jut because I confessed Him as my Savior at one time does not mean that I will enter into heaven. Yes, the one crucified next to Jesus did enter into heaven, but you do not have the faith that the criminal had. We have had two thousand years pass since the Jesus was here and have been given the Word and told to believe in Him and yet we still do not. The one crucified next to Jesus was hanging on the cross in the same manner and to him Jesus could be seen as another criminal. To believe that the one hanging on the cross next to you in the same manner and to believe Him as the Savior is a miracle. We do not have this much faith. We think that like the criminal that we will just put our faith in Jesus right before we die and go to heaven, but you do not have that much faith. That faith was an incredible faith. We have the Word and we still do not believe. Let us say that you were hanging on the cross like the criminal, would you have confessed Jesus as the Savior? Would you have confessed to Jesus to take you to the place where He was going? We look down on this criminal. I pray for that kind of faith. We have the Word of God and we see many miracles and workings of God and have a greater understanding of God’s creation, but when Jesus came during His time He was not revealed to them as He has been to us. Jesus had no fault and was crucified and that criminal put his faith in Him. If you have this kind of faith, then you will be able to attain eternal life. This is the kind of faith that you must have, to hold onto dearly, to walk with this kind of faith, to be one with this faith, but how much do you truly desire to have this faith? May you have the faith, like the criminal, that will help you attain eternal life. Sermon by Pastor Joy Lee Translation by Miguel Lee