Longing for Eternity but Clinging to the Temporary

There is something born within us that causes us to long for something better. The bible says that something eternal was placed within our very being.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

It is like having a spiritual vacuum on the inside with an emptiness that you will never physically be able to fill.

(Alcohol, drugs, sex, recognition, prestige, money, the finest clothes, no kind of possession)

That’s why we can work our fingers to the bone and still not be completely satisfied. It’s like the moment you think you have it all, either it leaves you or the feeling it once created is now gone. And the thing that you thought would make you happy, no longer does.

It is because at our core, there is something eternal.

When we think of eternity, we think of the end of ourselves + forever, but even though I cannot totally articulate eternity, I may be able to help you with this brief illustration.

Do you see this clock?

10am is the past

_____ is the present

7pm is the future

Let’s assume this center dot represents eternity. This is where God resides. So any point in time is all the same to Him. He is not waiting on anything or anyone at any time because time is not relevant, except as it becomes the fullness of time. And what is the fullness of time you ask? It is when God is ready to act.

So if this represents your birth and this point represents your death, because God is eternal, He can see both points in time at the same time.

God did not have to wait for you or me to be born.

He is not waiting for you to enter into heaven.

He is not waiting for the end of the world.

Because from where He sits, everything has been accomplished. Everything is done. Yet, everything is underway.

The day the world was created is present to Him.

The day the world will be judged is present to Him.

The full sweep of history is present to Him.

IN ONE GLANCE.

So, when we say, what is taking God so long to answer my prayer? Understand this, he answers prayers faster than soon or even immediately. In His time, all of the provisions you have ever or will ever need have already been provided. That’s why the bible says in the book of that “all the promises of God in Him are “YES and in Him AMEN unto the glory of God by us.”

So, when we say the Lord WILL provide, the reality is that the LORD HAS ALREADY provided. It’s just that every provision comes in the FULLNESS OF TIME.

Yet, even with God’s infinite knowledge of every decision we will make, it does not cancel our freedom.

What does this have to do with this morning’s lesson? I’m so glad you asked. In this morning’s message, we find a young man who is literally faced with a LIFE and DEATH decision. If you put the story together from the three accounts of the gospel found in 19th chapter of Matthew, 18th chapter of Luke and the 10th chapter of Mark, you will gain a description of this young man.

Mark tells us that he was not only a young man but that he was a respectful young man. Luke tells us that he was a powerful man. All three gospels tell us that he was a man of great possessions. He was not just rich but according to Luke the young man was very rich.

So if you can picture this, here we have this young man with power, status and stacks and he comes to this carpenter’s son, JESUS seeking his advice on what he might do to fill this longing in His heart that none of his possessions, prestige or power could fill.

It is the equivalent of Donald Trump’s son coming to kneel before the son of a common laborer to ask him “What can I do to satisfy this void that is at the core of who I am that is telling me there is something greater than just this stuff?”

The bible describes him as young, rich and part of the ruling class. So, he has power and prestige, money and the title to go with it. Yet, there is something on the inside that no amount of status or stacks could fill.

I know Christmas is still about 9 days away but can I give you a gift a few days early?

This longing this young man had in his heart was so deep that Instagram, Facebook and a Ferrari would have done nothing but made the hole bigger. Because you may not understand it today but you will never fill a spiritual gap with a physical plug.

Instagram and Facebook were of no value.

Facebook couldn’t do it.

But if you continue on in the story, you will see that this young man’s problem is the very same problem most of our young men have today. In fact, the issue the rich young ruler had is an issue for most of us today. Young, old, rich, poor, black, white, male, female.

We have something on the inside of us that we can’t quite put our finger on the source of, and we are all in one way or another trying to fill it with things that will never satisfy.

The only unanswered question is this… Once the young man comes into contact with the only ONE who does satisfy. Why does he leave sorrowful?

One might think that if he has been harboring this inner turmoil for years and years and years, then the one time he does come into contact with the solution he would grab onto it with all his might and never let go. Makes sense doesn’t it. So, why does he not do that?

Misplaced trust - He had become too self-sufficient and was only willing to trust in himself.

There is a clear and present danger anytime we begin to look more inward than we do upward.

A person who is overly self-sufficient would rather have cash than character.

If your credit cards are maximized and your righteousness is minimized.

If you have become smart instead of wise.

You have become too self-sufficient.

Self-sufficiency says, “if there is a problem that I cannot come up with a solution for, then there is no solution.” You refuse to accept that someone else could have a viable answer or that God will provide the right answer.”

If you are shopping in all the wrong places for

Self-sufficiency is void of humility. It is void of trust.

Self-sufficiency is the enemy of God because it is void of GRACE. Because the self-sufficient person does not need grace. They are confident that they will be able to respond to the pull and the push of the Holy Spirit on the inside of them each and every time. And the only people who really need Grace are the truly disobedient ones.

Can I tell you a secret? In the Eternal realm, there is no such thing as truly disobedient and occasional disobedient. There is only DISOBEDIENT. Either you are 100% obedient or you need God’s GRACE.

Either you live a life of spiritual perfection or you are a SINNER SAVED BY GRACE!

2. Misplaced priorities - He placed the things he wanted over the ONE thing he really needed.

If you’d rather have cash than character, if your credit cards are maximized and your righteousness is minimized, if you’ve become smart but aren’t wise, then you’ve been shopping in all the wrong places.

Misplaced priorities - He placed the things he wanted over the ONE thing he really needed

Newsflash - Your ACTIONS express your PRIORITIES

A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.

"Where's Harry?" he was asked.

"Harry had a stroke of some kind. He's a couple of miles back up the trail."

"You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?"

"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry.

Misplaced principles - He was using a calculator that concluded the things he would have lost were more valuable than the things he would have gained

Surprised to see an empty seat at the Super Bowl stadium, a diehard fan remarked about it to a woman sitting nearby.

"It was my husband's," the woman explained, "But he died."

"I'm very sorry," said the man. "Yet I'm really surprised that another relative, or friend, didn't jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for him."

"I don’t understand it either," she said. "For some reason they all insisted on going to the funeral."

Sometimes we can have our priorities in the wrong place. This young man prioritized his physical wealth over everything else.

But Jesus said, “35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “

Someone in here may be asking, “Well preacher, how valuable is a soul?”

A soul is so valuable that Jesus said that heaven rejoices when even one of them is saved.

The soul is so valuable that Jesus says that if you had a soul in one hand and the whole world in the other, the soul would be more valuable.

The soul is so valuable that Jesus was willing to pay a price that was immeasurable even for one that was sick and full of sin.

The soul is so valuable that he endured the shame, the suffering and the pain of Calvary to ensure the potential for the soul to endure for all eternity.

3. Misplaced principles - He was using a calculator that concluded the things he would have lost were more valuable than the things he would have gained.

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