​“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”
or “WITH ETERNITY’S VALUES IN VIEW”

TEXT:  2 Cor.4:18
 
THESIS:  To try to impart a spiritual and eternal perspective to believers.
 
INTRO.: 

A.  Revival is nothing more nor less than focusing on God & the eternal.
       The Bible speaks of God as “the high & lofty One Who inhabiteth eternity.”  Is. 57:15  God was here before time & He will be here when time is not more. In time of revival the eternal God draws near to His own in a special way.  We need to focus on the eternal & ask ourselves the question...

“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”  We need to live “WITH ETERNITY’S VALUES IN VIEW.”    That’s revival!
 
B.  Someone has said that the problem is not that we are living in Post Christian America, but Post Christian Christianity!  💥America was once a great & proud nation, founded on the principles of God’s Word & operating on the morality of the 10 Commandments & the Judeo-Christian ethic.  How different things are today!💥
  1. At a recent ecumenical conf. The women delegates celebrated the feminine deity, Sophia.  The biggest applause came when a female preacher said: “We’ve been here all day & we’ve not done one thing in the name of the Father, Son or Holy Spirit.” When mainline denominations give their money & support to celebrate the femininity of God, it may play well now, but...
  
“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”

   2. When the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. allows Erin Swenson to retain his/her  status as a minister after his/her/it’s sex change, it may look O.K. now, but “HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”

   3. When racist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan can gather 100’s of thousands of men & make a greater impact than the old-fashioned preaching of God’s Word, it may play well on the evening news, but “HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”

   4. When 450 English Bible versions generate $400 million/yr. & confuse the masses instead of clarifying God’s demands, it may sound good on the cash register & look good in bank accounts, but
“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!”
 
TRANS.:  But now let’s personalize this.  Let’s ask ourselves HOW OUR LIFE & WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW - LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!

I. THE TEMPORAL VS. THE ETERNAL: 
 
A. The Answer Is God Not Government!
 
   1. We need to get our eyes off Capitol Hill & get them back on a hill called Calvary!

   2. It’s not who wins the election (or the Super Bowl) but how many souls you win!   
                           
ILLUS.: 🔶The reason our culture is unraveling is not political, it is theological!
🔸The Supreme Court (on earth) decreed that you couldn’t read your Bible or pray to God in a Government school classroom,
🔸but the Supreme Court in heaven decrees that believers need to read their Bibles in their homes daily! 
🔸We bemoan the removal of the 10 Commandments from the classroom, but most believers can’t even name them! 
🔸Don’t get me wrong, I would rather be a part of the “religious right” than the religious wrong! 
But we are fighting the right war w/the wrong weapons or the wrong war w/the right weapons.
Instead of asking God to save America, we need to ask God to save Americans! 
🔸We can’t picket, protest or boycott our nation back to  God.  (Did you ever notice that those who want to boycott K-Mart, etc.) never confront or withdraw from the pro-choice denominations to which they belong? 
🔸Why do some Christians want to impose Christian values on the lost world, but won’t do anything to enforce Bible morality in their own churches??!!
 
B. The Answer Is Soul-Winning Not Lobbying!
 
   1. It is good to be pro-life, but lost pro-lifers still go to hell!😢

   2. Social security is not nearly as important as eternal security!👍

   3. Welfare Reform is needed but what men need is a new man in the suit, not a new suit on the man!👍
                           
ILLUS.:  1️⃣Churches are more involved in the “social gospel” than the saving Gospel! 2️⃣Preachers spend more time counseling than preaching! 3️⃣Psychology tells us man has a disorder, the Bible says man is depraved. 4️⃣Psychology tells us man needs redirection, the Bible says man needs redemption. 5️⃣Psychology tells us man needs reparenting, the Bible says man needs rebirth. ▶Seminars replace preaching & workshops replace worship! ▶We need to put eternity’s values back in view!
 
II. THE HOLY VS. THE PROFANE: 
 
Ezek.44:23
23  And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
 
A. Keep Eternity In Your Perspective:
 
   1. Evaluate everything you say, do & think by asking yourself:

“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!” when I stand before Christ.
   
   2. There is pleasure in sin for a season, but there will be no pleasure in sin in eternity, neither for the saint nor for the sinner!
   3. Most Christians today are more closely related to Esau than to Jacob.
 
Heb.12:16-17
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
 
      a. Esau preferred the gratification of the here & now (a bowl  of stew) to the long range blessings of his future inheritance (birthright).
      b. The Bible calls him a “fornicator” & a “profane person;”  a fornicator seeks gratification of fleshly desires & profane means one who places little or no value on God.
 
NOTE:  The same factors which contributed to Esau’s profanity are still with us.  Sin, self, Satan & the world system present powerful temptations but we must ask ourselves...

HOW WILL THIS LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?
 
B. Realize You Are At War:
 
QUOTE:  Lester Roloff:  “It’s a battlefield brother, not a recreation room…it’s a fight & not a game!”  If we are at war, then we need to know our enemy…
 
1 Jn.2:15-16
15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
 
   1. Lust of the flesh: 
 
      a. Fundamentalists have always stood for the King James Bible, were against worldliness, had standards & preached against sin.
      b. Now all these things are being eroded.
 
QUOTE: “For decades the fundamentalists chastised the liberals because of the “social-gospel” & now many…have adopted the “sensual gospel.”  👿Whoever dreamed the day would come when rock/rap music, along w/stage antics that rival demonized cannibals, would be deemed as “ministry”?!  The “flesh appeal” is undeniable.”👿
 
   2. The lust of the eyes:
 
      a. “Lust” means desire to possess; it doesn’t matter whether it’s a woman, a man,  a bigger bank account or - ?
 
ILLUS.:  The wealthy oil baron was asked “How much money would it take to satisfy you?”  His reply was “More!” Materialism had blinded him to the true reality of eternity.
                   Contrast him w/the 81 yr. Old man who attended a missionary meeting along w/2000 others.  When the appeal was made to start a work among the Zulus, only one man responded - that retired 81 yr. Old man.  He went forward weeping & said “Send me.”  He sold everything & went to Zulu land.  He went blind during his ministry, but 14 years later he left a flourishing church when he dropped dead here & entered heaven. He had asked himself...

​“HOW WILL IT LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?!” 

🙄You must look farther than the horizon to find the meaning to life.  As one martyred missionary wrote in his diary “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” - Jim Elliott
 
   3. The pride of life:
 
      a. Perhaps you don’t have a problem w/the lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh, but everyone has a problem with pride!
      b. We are all ego or “I” centered.  Beware pride. It ensnares.
 
C. Visualize Yourself Standing Before Christ:
 
   1. Which of these 3 words will you hear?
   
   2. The “Well done…” of reward for faithfulness? The “Thou wicked & slothful servant…” of loss of reward? Or the “Depart from me…I never knew you…” of the lost soul?!
 
QUOTE: Vaughn: “The only things that count in eternity are souls.”  

CONCL.:  Every believer needs to ask... 

HOW WILL THIS LOOK 100 YEARS FROM NOW?

👀and refocus👀

“WITH ETERNITY’S VALUES IN VIEW.”

Fanny Crosby the blind hymn writer was asked about her greatest desire in life. She replied “…to remain blind.”  When asked why she said “When my eyes are finally opened, the first face I see will be the face of Jesus.”