Have you ever noticed that it seems like a bunch of people’s primary goal and pursuit is to be happy and live as long as they can? Let me reframe the question. Have you ever noticed that it seems like a bunch of Christian’s primary goal and pursuit is to be happy and live as long as they can? It’s like we need to nudge the church sometimes and say, “You know those promises about eternity and being co-heirs with Christ and living with God and enjoying Him forever? Do you know those promises are for you? Because it kind of seems like you would rather be here than there.”
I was feeling tired and stressed one day because I had a lot to do and not enough time to do it and this thought entered my mind. I thought how nice would it be if we just never felt tired. How productive could I be if I felt good all the time and my knee didn’t start hurting for no reason or I didn’t randomly get heartburn? Wouldn’t that be great? Or what if time wasn’t a constraint at all and you just had as long as you needed to do whatever you needed to be done. Man I would love to be somewhere where there is no fatigue, no sickness, no pain, and no time constraints. Then it hit me that these are just a mere few things that we will get to enjoy in heaven forever.
Now please don’t get me wrong I am not against people being happy or having long lives. However, if our chief pursuit in life is being happy as the world defines happiness then we run a great risk of living our lives only for ourselves and chasing earthly comforts that will never bring true happiness. And if our chief pursuit in life is only to extend our time on earth to as many years as we possibly can then we run a serious risk of disobeying God because we seek safety and comfort rather than living in faith that He will keep His promises. Do we remember what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16?
25For whoever wants to save their lifef will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
We don’t find a disciple in the Bible that thinks remaining on earth is a better option than being in heaven. The only one who seems to want to stay at all is Paul and his motivation is to suffer longer while he tells others about the salvation that comes through faith in Christ. Whatever you look forward to most in life, whether it is getting married or retiring or accomplishing your goals, that will not compare at all to the riches we have been promised by God through Christ Jesus. Jesus is worth giving up everything for, and that’s exactly what we are called to do. The verse before in Matthew 16:24 says,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
In our Sunday school class last week, our teacher and Minister of Education and Families Jon Jeffries shared with us a quote from John Stott.
“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.”
― John R.W. Stott
When you come before the cross do you look up at it and think, “That should’ve been me up there. I deserve every bit of it.”? And not just the nails through the hands and feet and the crucifixion, but a realization that I deserve to drink the cup of God’s wrath because I have sinned against Him. Pastor J.D. Greear sums up the Gospel as “Jesus in my place.” This accurately infers that Jesus went where we should have been which is getting our punishment for sin poured out on Him. Jesus shouldn’t have been there because He is perfect and holy, but He had to be there because He was fulfilling God’s plan of salvation by being the perfect sacrifice and atoning for our sins. So the only way we can fully appreciate what Jesus did for us is to realize that it should have been us on the cross. We have a great and merciful Savior. And because we know that Jesus has proclaimed victory over sin by His death on the cross, we know sin no longer has reign in our mortal bodies. And we can declare victoriously as Paul did in Galatians 2:20 that we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. The life we live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
So we shall not pursue worldly happiness. The death and resurrection of Jesus has sealed an inheritance for God’s children that is much great than anything we can think or imagine. If we pursue happiness from what the world can give we will never be satisfied. And we will not pursue life preservation as if this world is our final destination. We are mere foreigners that are dwelling on this earth looking forward to going to our true home. And while we are here we will point others as we tell of our amazing God that poured out His love upon us and rescued us when we didn’t deserve it.
I was feeling tired and stressed one day because I had a lot to do and not enough time to do it and this thought entered my mind. I thought how nice would it be if we just never felt tired. How productive could I be if I felt good all the time and my knee didn’t start hurting for no reason or I didn’t randomly get heartburn? Wouldn’t that be great? Or what if time wasn’t a constraint at all and you just had as long as you needed to do whatever you needed to be done. Man I would love to be somewhere where there is no fatigue, no sickness, no pain, and no time constraints. Then it hit me that these are just a mere few things that we will get to enjoy in heaven forever.
Now please don’t get me wrong I am not against people being happy or having long lives. However, if our chief pursuit in life is being happy as the world defines happiness then we run a great risk of living our lives only for ourselves and chasing earthly comforts that will never bring true happiness. And if our chief pursuit in life is only to extend our time on earth to as many years as we possibly can then we run a serious risk of disobeying God because we seek safety and comfort rather than living in faith that He will keep His promises. Do we remember what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16?
25For whoever wants to save their lifef will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
We don’t find a disciple in the Bible that thinks remaining on earth is a better option than being in heaven. The only one who seems to want to stay at all is Paul and his motivation is to suffer longer while he tells others about the salvation that comes through faith in Christ. Whatever you look forward to most in life, whether it is getting married or retiring or accomplishing your goals, that will not compare at all to the riches we have been promised by God through Christ Jesus. Jesus is worth giving up everything for, and that’s exactly what we are called to do. The verse before in Matthew 16:24 says,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
In our Sunday school class last week, our teacher and Minister of Education and Families Jon Jeffries shared with us a quote from John Stott.
“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.”
― John R.W. Stott
When you come before the cross do you look up at it and think, “That should’ve been me up there. I deserve every bit of it.”? And not just the nails through the hands and feet and the crucifixion, but a realization that I deserve to drink the cup of God’s wrath because I have sinned against Him. Pastor J.D. Greear sums up the Gospel as “Jesus in my place.” This accurately infers that Jesus went where we should have been which is getting our punishment for sin poured out on Him. Jesus shouldn’t have been there because He is perfect and holy, but He had to be there because He was fulfilling God’s plan of salvation by being the perfect sacrifice and atoning for our sins. So the only way we can fully appreciate what Jesus did for us is to realize that it should have been us on the cross. We have a great and merciful Savior. And because we know that Jesus has proclaimed victory over sin by His death on the cross, we know sin no longer has reign in our mortal bodies. And we can declare victoriously as Paul did in Galatians 2:20 that we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. The life we live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.
So we shall not pursue worldly happiness. The death and resurrection of Jesus has sealed an inheritance for God’s children that is much great than anything we can think or imagine. If we pursue happiness from what the world can give we will never be satisfied. And we will not pursue life preservation as if this world is our final destination. We are mere foreigners that are dwelling on this earth looking forward to going to our true home. And while we are here we will point others as we tell of our amazing God that poured out His love upon us and rescued us when we didn’t deserve it.