Fix Your Eyes on Forever: A Call to Eternal Perspective

So over the last few weeks, God's put it on my heart to preach some messages

where I can then send you out.

I can then send you to go, go into the world.

And this week's no different. Title of this message is, Go and fix your eyes

on what will last forever.

Go and fix your eyes on what will last forever. Let me read 2 Corinthians 4.18 again.

I read it at the beginning. says, so we don't look at the troubles we can see now.

Rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see

now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Here's an illustration. You know I'm an illustration type person.

Here's an illustration just to put in your mind. Picture yourself on the seashore,

standing before a magnificent sandcastle.

Okay?

Josh, put that picture up for me. There's a fairly magnificent sandcastle, isn't it?

That's in the Guinness Book of World Records. Well, it was. It was in the Guinness

Book of World Records. Six meters tall.

Incredible. Incredible. But picture with me, standing on the seashore looking

at a magnificent sandcastle. every tower, every wall, every detail is crafted carefully.

It looks strong. It looks permanent.

But then what happens? The tide comes in. The waves come in.

The waves crash against it, and piece by piece, it washes away.

Even that, piece by piece, gets washed away. and guess what?

That's a picture of the world today.

Beautiful at times, yeah, no doubt about it. We witnessed it yesterday.

Peter and Jean are witnessing it. Everybody witnesses it when you go out,

but it's temporary. It's temporary.

And yet, how often do we spend our lives building sandcastles,

chasing wealth, status, possessions, even our health, the things that feel secure in the moment,

but cannot stand against the test of time or the tide of time.

Again, let me read 2 Corinthians 4.18 where it says, so we do not look at the troubles we can see now.

Rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will be soon gone, but the things we cannot see will

last forever. Church, the question is this today.

Where are you building? On the sand that the tide will wash away or on the rock

that will never be moved?

Jesus Christ is the rock.

Jesus Christ is the rock. His kingdom is eternal.

When you build your life on him, your hope, your trust, your obedience,

you're building on what will last forever.

So Paul writes to the church in Corinth.

In this letter, Paul's writing to the Corinthians, the church in Corinth.

And it's a city that was marked by wealth, by commerce, but also by immorality.

The believers there knew what it was to live in a culture obsessed with status,

possessions, and pleasure. On top of that, the believers faced persecution and

hardship for following Christ.

Yet Paul doesn't tell them to focus on their suffering, nor does he tell them

to chase after what their culture values the most.

Instead, he lifts their eyes higher.

Paul's message is this, don't get

caught up in the sandcastles of Corinth or

Sydney or New York or Utah

or Boweral or Middigong or

wherever you live today don't anchor your hope in what the tide of time will

eventually wash away because it will fix your eyes on Christ fix your hope on

eternity build your life where the waves cannot reach,

There's a Greek word, isn't there, brother?

I know it is, and I'm about to explain it to you.

There's a Greek word, or the word translated to fix our gaze,

which is what Paul said to the church at Corinth.

He said, fix their gaze was actually the biblical Greek word, skopio. How'd I go?

Skopio. You've got, so you see with, in the Australian language,

I'd be calling it skopio.

Skopio, but the vowels have to blend together. So the EO at the end is actually skopal.

It's a rich Greek verb that carries more depth than just to look or to see.

It comes from, or the root meaning of the word skopal is to look at,

to observe, to fix your attention on and even to scrutinize.

And it comes from the word skopos, which means mark or goal.

And it's the same root word where we get scope from, as in microscope, as in telescope.

This is good, isn't it? That Greek is great. I love the Greek.

Come on, say it. You know So your intentions, it means your intentions.

What are your intentions? Yeah, yeah.

I'm preaching this morning, mate. It means actually, scopondon.

Scopondon.

Scope. I love it. Telescope. You can see it more clearly with a telescope.

Microscope. You can see it really up close.

That's how we need to fix our gaze on Jesus. this.

So it implies setting your mind or your focus on something with purpose and persistence.

Paul uses that same word, scapeo, on a number of occasions. For example,

in Philippians 3.17, where he says, keep your eyes on those who walk according

to the example you have in us.

And also in Romans 16.17, he says, watch out for those who cause division.

It's not just a glance at them. It's not just glancing or casting your eye upon

them, but rather studying closely, giving careful attention to and ongoing attention to.

Paul wasn't writing, now have a listen to this bit.

Paul wasn't writing this letter either or these words from an easy chair either.

Okay. He was suffering for the gospel.

Earlier in the same chapter, he was saying we are pressed in or we're pressed

on every side by troubles, but not crushed, perplexed, but not even driven to despair.

That's 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8.

2 Corinthians 4:8

His point here is very clear, I believe.

Earthly affliction, earthly problems is real.

It's real, but it's temporary The pain, the hardship, the rejection,

the trials They're not the end of the story Compared to eternal glory that awaits

us in Christ The troubles that we face,

the troubles that we see on the news every day Are momentary,

Paul calls them light and momentary troubles.

And that's not because they felt

light in the moment. Shipwrecks that Paul went through. Have a listen.

Shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonment, betrayal.

Those are all pretty heavy burdens, I would suggest. But Paul had an eternal perspective on them.

He knew the glory ahead would so outweigh that suffering that in comparison, they would seem light.

Praise God. Praise God.

Now, I want you to hear this. Your suffering does not get the final word either.

The tide of trouble may rise against you, but it cannot wash away the eternal

glory reserved for you in Christ Jesus.

Paul contrasts two realities here when he writes this letter.

There's two realities that he's contrasting, the seen and the unseen.

The seen is temporary, the struggles, the pressures, the passing pleasures of this age.

The unseen is eternal.

It's the glory of Christ, the resurrection life, and the coming kingdom of God.

Paul is urging us to lift our eyes above it all, to lift our eyes beyond the here and now.

Our hope is not anchored in this present age with all its instability and decay

and horror, but in the kingdom that is breaking in and one day will come into fullness.

Fix our eyes on Jesus.

If all we see is temporary, then suffering will crush us and possessions will own us.

But when our vision is fixed on the eternal, we can endure hardship with hope

and hold loosely the things of this world.

This world is passing by. Have you noticed?

This world is passing. God's kingdom is permanent. Hallelujah.

So Paul says, don't live for the sandcastles of today.

He says, live for the city that is to come.

The one whose architect and builder is none other than God.

We live in a world obsessed with the here and now, don't we?

Instant gratification, immediate success, fleeting pleasures.

Yet scripture reminds us in James 4.14 when it says, How do you know what your

life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog. It's here for a little while, then it's gone.

Think of a mayfly, a little mayfly. Does anyone know how long a mayfly lives for? 24 hours.

One day it lives for. Its entire life lasts for less than 24 hours.

It hatches, it flies, it mates and dies in a single day.

How tragic would it be to live only for a few hours you've gotten,

forgetting the eternity that is beyond?

John Piper once said, life is a mist.

Eternity is an ocean. When I hear that, I'm reminded how often we hold tightly

to the mist and let the ocean slip by.

Are we living for the fog or are we living for forever?

What are we living for? What are you holding on to at the moment that's not

going to last? Your career?

Your bank account? Your health?

None of these are wrong, by the way. None of them are wrong at all,

but none of them are permanent.

The believer is called to live with open hands, ready to release the temporary

for the sake of the eternal.

Paul says, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

What are these unseen things he's talking about? They are the promises of God to start with.

They're the presence of Christ in our life, and they are the inheritance of heaven.

Hebrews 11, verse 1 talks about faith.

Hebrews 11:1

It says, faith shows the reality of what we hope for.

It is the evidence of things we cannot see. Remember?

The seen and the unseen. And then 1 Peter 1, verse 4, we have a priceless inheritance,

1 Peter 1:4

an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled,

beyond the reach of change and decay.

Imagine being given the deed to a house that will never crumble,

to a house you never need to maintain, to a house you never need to repair,

a house that will never lose its beauty.

Angela and I were talking yesterday about the front of our house needing some paint.

Yeah, imagine that. Imagine being given a deed to a house like that.

Now, would you, if you were to be offered a house that will last forever,

would you trade that for a cardboard box on a rainy street corner?

Of course not. That would be absolute stupidity. Okay?

And yet spiritually, that's exactly what we do.

People choose the cardboard box of sin, temporary pleasure,

fleeting security, false comfort over the eternal mansion, the eternal mansion

of the salvation that Christ offers.

Because it says in John 14 too, Jesus says, there is more than enough room in

my father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going

to prepare a place for you?

We're going to live in a mansion that has so many rooms, we're all going to fit in.

That's the promise. That's the promise. Eternal security, eternal joy,

eternal beauty in his presence.

Why settle for a soggy cardboard box?

Exactly. No sleeping. No time for sleeping. Why settle for a soggy cardboard

box of this world when the mansions of heaven or the mansion of heaven is freely

offered through the cross?

We need to obey God and leave all the consequences to him. Amen?

Fixing your eyes on eternity means trusting God's promises, even when the present seems uncertain.

How do we focus on the unseen? Good question. Like this, through the word of

God. Where's that Bible, Brad?

Through the word of God. Through the word of God. Through prayer.

We focus on the unseen through prayer. We focus on the unseen through worship.

Through fellowship, meeting together. And if he can't meet, then listen in.

Obedience. Every act of faith is a declaration, and this is the declaration, the world is not my home.

I'm living for what will last.

The greatest unseen reality is the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Paul could look at his chains, his beatings, his betrayals, and still call them

light and momentary. Why?

Because he measured them up against the weight of the glory of Christ purchased on the cross.

At Calvary, Jesus bore the heaviest affliction so that we could inherit eternal glory.

How good is our God?

What he accomplished there is invisible to our natural eyes,

but it's more real, more lasting, and more certain than anything we can see in this world.

The cross looked like weakness. It looked like a man dying. It looked like weakness, but it was victory.

It looked like defeat, but it was triumph. So Paul can say.

Church.

Fix your eyes on that. Go this week and fix your eyes on Jesus.

The cross is our anchor. The resurrection is our guarantee.

We get a guarantee as well.

And the kingdom is our destination. Compared to that glory, every sorrow here is just a shadow.

Romans 8 verse 18 says, Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory

Romans 8:18

he will reveal to us later.

Is this good or what? Come on up, Josh. Okay. A gospel message right here. Okay.

2,000 years ago, a little bit more than two, how long have we been saying 2,000 years now?

A little bit more than 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God,

stepped into our temporary world.

He lived a sinless life. He died a sinner's death upon the cross. He was buried.

And on the third day, he rose again. Why?

For you. for you to offer you eternal life sin is a great divider you know it

separates us from a holy God it condemns us to eternal death but through Jesus'

death and resurrection the penalties of sin has been paid in full it is finished.

The power of sin has been broken and the promise of eternal life is freely given

to each and every one of us.

This is the greatest unseen reality of them all, the finished work of Christ.

You can't buy it. You can't earn it, thank goodness.

You can only receive it, how? By faith. That's how you receive it, by faith.

So the question is from me to you this morning is this, where are you standing today?

On the shifting sand of this world?

In the cardboard box of sin and shame or sin and self?

Or on the solid rock of Jesus Christ? The only foundation that lasts forever.

Did you hear me? It lasts forever.

Tim Keller once said, the gospel is this.

We are more sinful and more flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe.

Yet at the very same time, we are more loved and more accepted in Jesus Christ

than we ever dared hope for. Wow.

Will you fix your eyes on the Saviour this morning who sees you,

who knows you, who loves you?

Will you repent of the sin that binds you and turn to the one who opens your eyes to all eternity?

Will you set your eyes on that?

We need to stop living as if the world is all there is.

Your trials are real. They really are real, okay? But they're not final.

Live for the glory of Christ, not the applause of men. Be generous to one another. Forgive freely.

Share the gospel urgently. People need to hear the gospel.

Eternity is not a distant theory. It's a coming reality. Heaven and hell are real.

They are real. Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.

He says, I am the way, the truth, and the light, the life.

If you've never surrendered to him, do so today. Do so today. Repent of your sin.

Believe in his death and resurrection and confess him as Lord.

We need to do that. So I'm going to close now with a little bit of a benediction.

Is that okay? I'm going to close with a benediction.

As you go this week, may your eyes be lifted above the fleeting troubles of this world.

Don't live for what is fading. Live for what is forever.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, steady your heart this week and fix your

gaze upon eternity until the day when faith becomes sight and we will see him face to face.

Amen. Amen. Bless you guys. Let's pray quickly. Lord, we thank you for that,

Lord God. We thank you for eternity.

We thank you for the promise of eternity with you, Lord God.

That we, yes, this is a horrible world that we are having to live with on a

weekly basis, Lord, but it is temporary and our future is eternal with you in Jesus' name.

So, Lord, we thank you for your sacrifice for us.

We thank you for your death on the cross and we thank you for your resurrection

back to life for us, for us, and we thank you for it, precious Jesus.

Amen. Amen. Bless you guys. Be loved this week. Go and fix your eyes on the eternal. Amen. Amen.