Video Notes:
Our culture is constantly encouraging us to “live in the moment.” If that means to be fully present and engaged in whatever you are doing, rather than being distracted, this is a good thing.
But I have noticed this phrase being often used by people who are clearly moving away from Christian faith: “I am trying to live in the moment.” And if I understand what is really being said, it is: “I am going with what I feel. Sometimes I feel that I want to know God and sometimes I don’t.”
In a world that calls us to live in the moment, I want you to hear the Word of God that says, “Surely there is a future!” Your life that God is giving to you right now comes in two very unequal parts: You have a very short life in this world and a very long life in eternity.
The Bible uses pictures to explain this. In the first, the Bible says that our days in this world are like grass: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it” (Isaiah 40:6-7).
Grass grows for about a week, it is cut, and then it is gone. If you live 100 years, in the light of eternity, it is like grass growing for a week and then it is cut. So wisdom begins here: You don’t have much time. You are here today and tomorrow you will be in the presence of God.
In case you didn’t get that picture, God uses another picture to make the same point: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The mist that settles in the morning is blown away by noon.
We are all here today and gone tomorrow. And then we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Don’t plan your life on what makes you feel good now. Plan your life on what you will make you feel good then.
“Son, if you walk the path of wisdom, your hope will not be cut off” (Proverbs 23:18). What you want to hear on the last day is, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your master’s joy.” You do not want to hear, “Away from me. I never knew you.”
People want to be on the right side of history. What matters more is that you are on the right side of eternity. I don’t know where history is headed, but we know who holds history and who holds eternity.
Taken from Pastor Colin’s sermon “The Heart Gone Wrong.”
