PICK A FIGHT WEEK 4: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE END?

Growing up in church, most of the messages or sermons I heard concerning eternity focused on a couple of things. First of all, they normally were about how horrible hell is (and how much you don’t want to go there). Second, most of the time they would use a scare tactic of what would happen if you missed it when Jesus returned and you had to live during “the tribulation.” Then usually it wrapped up with the idea that you might only have right now, because you are not guaranteed tomorrow. Now while all those things are true, most of the conversions in these sermons resulted from fear and not necessarily from faith.

I’m not criticizing or knocking that delivery of the Gospel. There are probably many of us who are here because it was under that teaching that we accepted Jesus for the very first time. But what if being a Christian could be about more than just escaping the fires of hell by the skin of our teeth? What if instead, it is about living in expectation of eternity in the presence of God? What if being a Christian wasn’t about doing just enough to avoid eternal punishment, but living in such a way as to ensure the eternal promises God has offered to us? What if being a Christian became about living with such an expectation of what God had in store for us that there was a real excitement to live for him every day?

We’ve all heard the stories and ideas of what heaven will be like, and God offers every one of us the opportunity to live this way—not viewing eternity as an escape hatch, but rather as God’s restoration of his original plan. The plan where his creation—you and I—can live in perfect relationship with him. No more pain! No more hurt! The curse of sin broken forever! But that leaves us with a couple of questions we need to answer.

Am I living in expectation of eternity? Who do I know that needs to hear this message of the “blessed hope” of eternity? How will I live my life with this hope-filled perspective of eternity? It is available to all of us, and Jesus is calling us to come.