Just a real amen to the song: “Look off unto Jesus.” You know, I always mention that I am really nervous when I stand up here. But here is the song: “Look off unto Jesus.”
It is a privilege to have this time to speak to brothers and sisters. I just pray that I can make it clear.
Well, let us turn to the Bible first. We are going to look at a couple of verses. Esther 4:14—that is in the Old Testament.
Now, I am sure everyone is very familiar with the story in Esther, so I just want to read one word there:
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then will relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house will perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Just focus on this little phrase at the end: “For such a time as this.”
Let us turn to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 18, verse 37.
Now, this was the time when Jesus was interrogated by a fallen government—interrogated by Pilate. Pilate therefore said unto Him, “Art Thou a king then?” Jesus answered:
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.
Now, if we can concentrate on the words, “To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world,” it seems to me that the Lord had something in His heart that governed all His activities when He was in this world—one primary thing. And He said that the reason was to testify to the truth.
Let us turn to Matthew 24:14. The Lord is talking about the end times and the conditions of His return:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
When you think of it, we think of the Lord’s mission. He was on earth as a testimony of the truth, and now He says that before the end comes, the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached as a testimony to the world. I hope that speaks something to us, and I will come back to that later on.
A couple more places. Let us turn to Hebrews 11:1. This is the definition of faith:
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
It seems to speak to me in this sense: faith is based on something that your physical eyes cannot see, but your spiritual eyes can see. Later on in the same chapter, you see all these things done by faith. They faithfully followed what the Lord showed them.
At the end of Hebrews 11, verse 39, it says:
And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise.
But they gained something better: they gained the approval of God. That is way better.
Then we turn to Hebrews 12:1-2:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“Looking unto Jesus”—that is what the hymn is based on.
Well, let us bow our heads and commit this time back to the Lord Himself.
Lord, we do thank You, Lord, that You give us an opportunity that we can meditate on Your words. Lord, I just feel that it is Your word. Apart from You, we can do nothing.
So, Lord, I am just an unworthy vessel. Lord, I am not adequate to share what You put in my heart. But, Lord, I do look unto You and look unto the Holy Spirit to enlighten the words, Lord, that You may do the speaking.
Lord, may You touch the hearts of the brothers and sisters so that there could be some eternal value deposited in the midst of the saints. Lord, we just want to commit this time unto You. Lord, may Your presence be with us. Lord, we thank You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
You know, a sister reminded me that it really has been a while since I had an opportunity to speak to the brothers and sisters. It must be four or five years ago.
I think I shared with you all what happened to me with regard to my health. It has really been almost two years now. I look back at what happened in May 2010.
At that time, it was a very routine thing. You know, it was my turn to see the doctor for the annual examination. So I appeared at the doctor’s office and got blood tests. I did not expect anything to happen. At least, I did not expect any bad news.
But I remember the day. It was late in the day, and I was at my office trying to finish up all the work. I got a call from the doctor’s office saying, “Well, you have some problems. The tests have come back, and we really have to send you to see a specialist. You can see Doctor So-and-So in two weeks.”
You know, I had never been sick before. It really turned our life upside down. It has been almost two years now.
In the past two years, when I have time to sit and think about it, that is the question I always ask. When you face those kinds of situations, I ask myself, “Is this it? Is this the end? Does life have meaning at all?”
There seem to be big questions sometimes.
The Lord led me to think of someone in the Bible. There was a king over the Jewish nation—a great king, actually. God gave him wisdom far above anyone at his time. He was the greatest king. Under his rule, the boundaries of the Jewish nation extended as far as possible. He even finished what his father intended to do: he built a house for God.
We know that this house, this temple, was the pride of the Israelites. Also, he had great wealth. He could do whatever he wanted. He could pursue anything he liked to satisfy his heart.
But when he was old, we can read in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 what King Solomon wrote:
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
He is saying, “Yes, I can do all these things. I can enjoy life. Whatever I want, I have.” Yet his conclusion was that all was vanity—all like vapors, all like air. There was no profit.
A man pursued everything, and in this case, he had everything. His conclusion was that there was nothing at the end. Everything was empty.
So I was sitting there considering: Who am I? I did not have King Solomon’s wisdom. I do not have his wealth. Obviously, I cannot pursue all the things he pursued.
If this man—the greatest king in the Jewish nation—claimed that life is vanity, how about me? If that is what I am pursuing, what is the end? The end is that it has no meaning at all.
But the Lord seemed to lead me to say, “Wait a minute. Maybe life does have meaning.” It is just that, at that time, King Solomon was not seeing the things he should see.
The Lord led me to 2 Corinthians 4:18:
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
You know, brothers and sisters, when you read those words, Paul is really saying that there are two classes of things: things that are seen and things that are not seen. What are you concentrating on? What is your focus?
Solomon, at the end, when he was old, concentrated on things that could be seen. He had them all.
That is what John referred to in 1 John 2:16:
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
That is it: things that are seen.
But then there are also other things—things that are not seen. Paul said that things which are not seen are eternal. We know our God is eternal. There are things that your fleshly eye, your physical eye, cannot see. Yet, as we believe in the Lord, He opens our eyes and lets us see things that cannot be seen by physical eyes. Those are eternal things—the things of God.
So, when I get back to this question—does life have meaning? At the end of my life, when I look back, is it all vanity and striving after wind?—I come to this conclusion: it really depends. It depends on the perspective. It depends on where you stand and what you are looking at.
Today, what is really in my heart is something very hard to explain. That is why we need the Holy Spirit.
When you read the Bible from beginning to end, maybe we do not look at every detail, but we see that God is moving. From Genesis 1:1, where God created the heavens and the earth, through all the recovery and how God drew people out—from Noah, to God deciding to have a family, to God deciding to have a nation and raising up Abraham, to bringing Israel out of Egypt into the promised land—we see how unfaithful men are.
Then the Lord Jesus came, really as a witness of Who God is. Of course, human beings nailed Him to the cross. Then we see how God works through the church, toward the end when, if you look at Revelation, the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven.
From God’s perspective, sometimes we are really satisfied. That is great.
But when we look at the Bible in a little more detail, we see men and women standing in God’s purpose. They play a very important role in God’s economy.
I think men are just privileged. It seems that without men and women, in this case, God’s purpose would not be done—at least, it seems to be that way. I am not going to uplift men at all, but that is the way it is.
So, coming back to the question of whether life has meaning, it depends on whether you are fulfilling God’s purpose. Sometimes we think that we are nothing, that we are just so insignificant. But indeed, God raises up people at the right time to fulfill certain functions.
Now, if we do not stand in God’s purpose, we will be frustrated. So I hope to spend some time sharing about that. Then afterward, we will look at what is the way to step into that role, that purpose, and what that means to our lives.
Again, I use many stories here. They really help me out. I think we all hopefully remember Esther, right? Esther is an interesting story.
It was a bad time—a terrible time, actually—as far as the Jews were concerned. They were unfaithful to God. They worshiped idols. That is the usual story. God exiled them to a foreign country.
Esther was a young Jewish girl at that time. Her parents had passed away, and she was cared for by her close relative, Mordecai. If you read Esther, somehow, under the hand of God, she became the queen of that country.
Also in that kingdom, there was a bad man named Haman. He was an Agagite, I think—I hope I pronounce that right. The Bible says he was the enemy of the Jews.
Mordecai would not bow to Haman, and that made Haman very angry. So Haman devised a scheme. He started by going after Mordecai, but he was going to get at the Jews. He requested something so that the Jews could be wiped out.
Mordecai came to talk to Esther and asked her to intercede for the Jewish people. That is how we come to Esther 4:14, which we read earlier. It was an important time.
God arranged all these things, and Esther became the queen for one purpose: to deliver the Jews. I do not know whether you have thought about it, but that is how it worked out.
At that time, even the queen could not just go to see the king as she pleased. She had to be called. Otherwise, if she just went in, she would face the death penalty.
But we know the story. She did go to see the king, the Jews were spared, and Haman was hung on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
So, what do we learn from here? Esther, a young Jewish girl in the midst of a foreign country, stood for God’s purpose, and the Jews were preserved. How important that is! It is very important.
We know the Messiah came from the Jews. If the Jews had been wiped out, where would the Messiah come from?
So, in this case, you can see that an insignificant girl in a foreign country stepped into God’s purpose, and He did great things. She may not have known it.
I am caught by this phrase: “For such a time as this.” Just remember it. We will come back to that point.
I also read the words from John 18:37. The Lord Himself was interrogated by Pilate. Of course, Pilate had no idea what the Lord was talking about because he was a natural man.
I thought it was very interesting, the way the Lord put it: “To this end have I been born. For this end am I come into the world.”
I am not quite sure how I can emphasize it. It seems to me that this was the Lord’s purpose as far as His dealing with the world was concerned. He was here to testify to the truth.
Okay, what is truth? Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Truth is one thing that characterizes Who God is, Who the Son is, and Who the Holy Spirit is. They are truth. Of course, outside is everything untrue—lies, deceitfulness, and all that—and that represents God’s enemies.
Think about it: if the Lord Himself was here to bear the testimony, to be the witness, then Matthew 24:14 speaks of the end conditions before the Lord comes. What will be the condition for the end of the age? What will be the condition for the return of the Lord?
The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations. Right there, again, you have this word: testimony, or witness.
I do not know how you feel about this time. Are we very close to the end times? Are we very close to the Lord’s return? What would enable the Lord’s return? The Lord has to have this witness—a witness of the truth, a witness of Who the Lord is, Who God is.
A witness is not like, “I heard something, so I can tell you about it.” That is not a witness. That is just secondhand knowledge. A witness must be firsthand. We have to know the Lord. That truth has to be in us before we can be witnesses.
I am kind of drawn to this term, “witness.” When you think about it, what is a witness? Of course, we have that term in Acts 1. I think the word for witness is martyr—the one who lays down his life for the truth.
But the Lord seems to lead me to Hebrews in this case.
When we read Hebrews 11, I do not know what impression you have. We always say, “Look at all those men and women of faith.” That is very true.
But I find it very interesting when I read Hebrews 12:1. In the New American Standard Bible, it says, “Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses.” Now, there is the term “witness.”
The Amplified Bible says, “Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony to the truth.”
So, when we look at Hebrews 11, all these men and women of faith, as we call them, were witnesses. They were witnesses to the truth.
Over generations, from Genesis to the end, God is going to have His witnesses of the truth. I think God calls us to be witnesses of the truth. So, if you want to know what that is, I think we should read Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 is the “well-known chapter.” We do not have time to go through all of it, but I would like to pick a few names. We have been with them as an assembly. If God can enlighten us, ask Him to enlighten us. When you look at those names, ask the question: How were they witnesses to the truth? What role did they play in God’s economy from the past to the time to come?
That is not only good education or head knowledge. Really, when you read the story and see how they played a role in God’s economy, then you will understand what role you should play and what role we should play in God’s economy. That is a very big thing.
I normally take three names. It is kind of a principle: three. I am just kidding.
I am going to take the first three names in Hebrews 11. The first one is Abel. Hebrews 11:4 says:
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaketh.
There is one thing to say: why is it that he is dead, but he still speaks?
If we want to know what Abel offered, it is in Genesis 4:4:
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
Now, we do need to understand the background. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they were cast out from the garden. The door of heaven was closed. There was no way in. There was no way through.
Abel became someone who raised sheep, I guess. Cain came with the best thing that he could produce by his own hands, and God did not accept that. So, to Cain, the way to God was still closed.
But Abel came with a little lamb. Actually, that lamb is a weak, defenseless, helpless thing—a foolish little, undeveloped lamb. Could anything represent nothingness more than a dead lamb?
When we come to God, how can that door be opened? How can we be accepted? The attitude is this: by myself, by ourselves, we can do nothing. I cannot offer anything. I can offer nothing. I am nothing but defenseless.
There has to be something else to substitute. And that something else is the Lamb—capital “L”—the slain Lamb, the Lamb of God.
So you see that the testimony of Abel is this: the door is open only when we come to Him by another Substitute, and that is the Lord Himself. We can come to Him. The door is forever closed if we come to Him with human things, things that are of our own hands.
After Adam and Eve were cast out from the garden, the door was closed. Now, it seems to indicate to me that the Lord said there was going to be a way, and that way is the Lamb.
The second person is called Enoch. Hebrews 11:5-6 says:
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God:
and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
Again, what speaks to me is that God desires fellowship with man. But there are conditions. That fellowship has to be based on a heart desire of seeking Him—believing that He is and sharing the same heart.
The Bible says Enoch walked with God three hundred years. That is a long time. It would be difficult if they did not have the same heart.
So, God raised up people. Now the door is slightly open, as a symbol in Enoch.
The next person we come to is Noah. Again, the earth had become very bad. In Noah’s time, the Bible says the earth was corrupt and full of violence, and God had to judge.
But He found one man called Noah and his family. Hebrews 11:7 says:
By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
We know Noah’s time was a very sad condition. The world was corrupt. The enemy was working. It was full of violence, and God had to judge it. But He found Noah. He raised up Noah, and Noah prepared an ark according to the pattern given to him.
We may think the story ends there, but I find it very interesting when you read Hebrews 11:7. It does not say salvation for Noah. It says, “for the saving of his house.”
Now you see a progression: from Abel and Enoch, who were individuals, God desired fellowship; but God also desired to have a family, a household. Noah prepared a way for the salvation of his household.
If you go down the list of names, you find that it expands to a nation. Then it talks about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. So it gets bigger and bigger. Progressively, God is revealing His heart through His people, through His witnesses, so that we may come to know what God is really after.
Now, I will leave Hebrews 11 there because I want to move on to Hebrews 12. If you have time, ask the Lord to enlighten you concerning all these people, all these men and women of faith—or they could be called witnesses. How does that speak to us?
If we turn to Hebrews 12, the first word in verse 1 is “therefore.” Someone told me that is a key word. When you see “therefore,” it means all this happened in Hebrews 11, and you ask the question: How did that happen? What is the way?
Then you read the rest of the words and find out what made these people witnesses of the truth.
Now, I must go back to one point. When you read chapter 11, one thing that comes back again and again is “by faith.” By faith. What does “by faith” mean?
We already read Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.”
I have very poor English, obviously. I have trouble understanding what that is. But there is something called the Amplified Bible. It uses more English to explain to a poor person like me what that means. It puts it this way:
Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality—faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.
So, by faith—what faith is—is something that cannot be touched by hands, but we do have the spiritual senses to sense it.
But it is not just sensing it. In Hebrews 11, it says, “By faith.” The saints recorded in chapter 11 stood on their faith. Something happened in their hearts—something drove them. It is called “by faith.”
I do believe it is because God revealed to them all these unseen things, and they faithfully walked their way as they found in their hearts to pursue what was set before them. That is how I interpret Hebrews 11 and what “by faith” means.
Now, how do we come to the point that we can have that faith and have that fire in our hearts to pursue what the Lord puts into us? We have already seen the answer, and I assume you got the hint.
In Hebrews 12:1-2, the key thing is fixing our eyes on Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus.
A couple of things happen when we fix our eyes on Jesus. These are not physical eyes; they are spiritual eyes in this case.
Number one: when we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Holy Spirit reveals unseen things to us. And, as we saw in 2 Corinthians, those unseen things are eternal. They are God’s things.
We also need to remember that Hebrews 12:2 refers to Jesus Himself as the Author and Perfecter of faith. He is the beginning and the end of faith.
So, fixing our eyes on Jesus is not just for a moment. It is not just, “Oh, I need Jesus, so that is why I fix my eyes on Him.” It is continual—beholding the Lord from beginning to end, from the time we are born again to the time we meet Him.
As we fix our eyes on Him, something happens inside. I can testify to that. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says:
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
We may think that fixing our eyes on Him does nothing, but when we do, something happens in us. We are transformed. When we look at Jesus, we are transformed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory.
We may not understand how that happens, but the Bible says that is what happens. We are changed.
One lesson we learn from the saints, from the witnesses in Hebrews 11, is that when we are changed, our eyesight can go further.
In Hebrews 11:10, it speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
How marvelous that is. Their hearts were focused on one thing: the city. And the city bears the characteristics of God. It is the city that manifests the glory of God.
That is what they had in their hearts, and they were pressing on. Sometimes I feel that we are so blessed these days. You read Hebrews 11:13, and you get the impression that they looked from afar. They were looking forward. It seemed to be far away.
But we have the Holy Spirit who reveals that into our hearts, and we are going to know that it is true.
Hebrews refers to that city as a better country, a heavenly one. Can you imagine that?
Even though we might think there is a fulfillment in the future, and that is true, today, where we are, the Holy Spirit is working within us. I used to learn the term, “constituting the character of the kingdom.” We spoke about the kingdom lately.
The Holy Spirit is working and making, constituting, the character of the kingdom—the truth that is within us. We have a foretaste of what is yet to come. We are truly blessed.
So I shared about looking unto Jesus. Of course, I want to give you the entire story. All these things are very good.
We continue to read Hebrews 12. We need a little bit more to step into God’s purpose.
I put down the results of fixing our eyes on Jesus. Something happens. Kenny shared that the Lord is going to work in you something called discipline a couple of weeks ago. Can you say, “This can work?” Amen to that, right?
But sometimes we think this is really individual—building character individually. But I think the Lord has a bigger heart.
Think about this. This is for a reason. I just want to add another angle into this discipline. That is the word from Jeremiah 18:2-4:
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words.
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
The potter and the clay. We can remember that the clay is not for itself; the clay is for the potter.
So I really want to share this picture: discipline is like being in the Potter’s hand. We are the clay in the Potter’s hands. What is He making? Kenny always mentions that the Lord is making disciples. Well, today, the Lord is making vessels—vessels for the house of God, vessels for the Lord’s use.
Do not take things lightly. It is not easy. It is a grand thing to be used by God, right? That is why, when you look through the history in the Bible at men used by God, there is a lot of discipline.
One example I want to speak of is Jacob. I think Jerry shared with us—I do not remember whether it was Friday night or elsewhere—in Genesis, when we look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we see the Father in Abraham, we see the Son in Isaac, and in Jacob we see the hands of the Holy Spirit.
The hands of the Holy Spirit: He is making something.
Jacob’s life was hard. But if we only focus on how difficult it was, we miss the point.
In Hebrews 11:21, it says:
By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
I am not quite sure what you make of the truth there. One thing is that he blessed Joseph’s sons. Another thing is that he was worshiping.
We like to think about worship. Of course, it is the Father’s heart to seek worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth. But we cannot stop there. If we ever want an example of how God makes a worshiper, look at Jacob’s life.
It says that he worshiped God on his staff. Now, I would like to ask the question: Why did Jacob worship God at that time?
Was it because his family was safe in Egypt? Was it because his son Joseph was the second man under Pharaoh? Is that the case? I do not believe that is the case.
If you go back to Hebrews 11, you find that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were co-heirs of the promise. They were together, co-heirs of the promise.
When you think about Jacob, at the end he gave instruction to Joseph, saying, “I do not want to be buried in Egypt. Take me back. I want to be buried with my fathers.”
You see, his heart was not in Egypt, even though there were all the nice things. His heart was back in Canaan. He was looking because he understood the promise that God made to Abraham concerning the land, the people, and the descendants. He wanted to be together with Abraham and Isaac.
So that is where his heart was, I believe. To translate that into another term, he was looking for a city. He was not looking at Egypt as his city. I also believe he foresaw the fulfillment of the city. He was grateful, and he worshiped God.
When you think about Jacob, what do you think of? I think of Jacob and Bethel—the house of God. The house of God should be a place where God is worshiped.
This point is not for no good reason. Jacob standing in that place really tells us, illustrates for us, and witnesses to us what Bethel means and what it means to worship God.
We do want to worship God for all He has done for us. But I do believe the key thing is this: if the Lord opens our eyes to look at the city, the New Jerusalem, or the Bride, I think we will bow down and worship Him.
The other thing mentioned in Hebrews 12—I mean, as I said, I want to give you the whole story—is that we look unto Jesus, right? It is all like that.
I spoke of discipline. There will be discipline, but for a good reason: He is making vessels for the Master’s use.
Also, I want to remind everyone: sometimes we go through tough situations, things we cannot explain why they happen, but they do happen. Just remember: God is making vessels for His own use.
In Hebrews 12:2, it also speaks of the Lord Himself:
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame.
In Hebrews 13:12-13, it says:
Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without the gate.
Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
As we stand in what God wants, there are things called afflictions, and there are things we do not like. But it seems to be that because the Lord Himself, our Master, despised the shame and endured the cross, I do not see any way that we can avoid it.
Really, in this world, it is a conflict. It is a battle with the enemy. Affliction is an outcome.
But what I am going to say is that when we see afflictions, there is something good coming out. There is Christian work coming out from afflictions. It is not all bad things.
I find that in 2 Corinthians 4:17:
For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.
At least what I read here is that affliction is light. At least that weight is going to be light to me. And it is only for a moment, only for a short period of time. But something good is coming out from it.
Paul refers to it as the eternal weight of glory. So God is working glory in each one of us. There will be afflictions, but I always say, what a deal! We are trading something that is only temporary for something that is eternal. I think we have the best end of the bargain in that sense.
Affliction is not the only point. There is also endurance. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
John said it is like a marathon; it is not a sprint. It is a long-term race. Actually, it is from the beginning, when we believe in the Lord, to the end, when we meet the Lord. It is a race.
The Lord Himself endured. It says He endured the cross.
So we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and focus on the end, and that will bring us through. What is the end?
Jerry mentioned Joseph last time, and he quoted Revelation 3:21—sitting together with Christ on His throne. That is great.
In Hebrews 12, it says Christ Himself sat down on the throne. Kenny mentioned Haggai—Haggai 2:9:
The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
So the end is the throne, the city, or the house. The glory of the house is greater.
But there is one more thing. I do not see him here—is Matt Berman here? It is something I picked up in the last part of this meeting, and I am really grateful that I could be there.
He said that at the end, we are all going to appear at the judgment seat. What he wanted to hear was, “Good and faithful servant.”
When you look at Hebrews 11 at the end, it mentions that all these witnesses received God’s approval. What is our desire when we meet the Lord, when we appear in front of His judgment seat? What do you want to hear?
“Good and faithful servant.”
Well, it is twelve o’clock. I have to sum up here.
I am very much touched by this phrase that Kenny shared last time from the prophet Haggai: “Consider your ways.” It just spoke to me. Consider your ways. I hope it spoke to all of you too.
I started by sharing about King Solomon, how he had everything, but yet, to him, life was empty. I shared from Esther and also from John. I tried to emphasize that we are not just going on and on in time. The Lord put us here. We are born again for a purpose—for a purpose.
I do believe that as we are in the end times, over the ages, that purpose is that we are witnesses of the truth.
To be a witness, I mentioned that witness has the same term as martyr: a person whose life is laid down for the truth that is in Christ. It is a person who has firsthand knowledge. It is a person who embodies the truth.
We are at a critical time. Are we going to fulfill that calling?
Of course, it can only be fulfilled by faith. We have to see the unseen. That only comes about when we fix our eyes on Jesus from beginning to end.
We know there will be things represented by discipline and affliction, but in these stories, everyone has a unique role in God’s economy. Just keep that in mind and remember it too: you cannot be me, and I cannot be you.
Naturally, sometimes we feel, “Oh, I do not want to be in this position. Maybe you can take my place.” No. You cannot take the place of others.
I want to leave you with a word from Moses, Psalm 90:12:
So teach us to number our days,
That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
I do feel that time on earth is but a moment. I do not remember exactly the way Kenny put it, but time is precious. It is short. We do not have that much time.
May the Lord teach us to number our days. How are we using them? What are we pursuing? Are we really going after things that can be seen, things that are really like vapors that vanish? Or are we standing in God’s purpose, to do what He wants us to do, to stand in?
We do have a very important role. As I mentioned before, the end is glorious. But think about the parable of the talents, recorded in Matthew 25:14-30. There are only two outcomes.
Every time I read it, I say, “Lord, I want to be this and not that.” There are only two outcomes. At the end, it is either praise from the Lord, and He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or it could be a reprimand: “Thou wicked and slothful servant.”
I do pray that our desire is to have that praise from the Lord at the end. That is our destiny. Are we willing to walk into it?
Well, that is all I have today. Let us bow our heads.
Lord, we do thank You, Lord, that You gave me an opportunity to share what I would consider to be in Your heart. Lord, I do pray that the Holy Spirit may use that to touch every one of us, Lord, in the bottom of our hearts.
So that, Lord, we may sense how precious time is. Lord, may we hear You say, “Consider your ways,” so that our years, our time on earth, are not spent pursuing things that, at the end, Solomon called vanity after vanity.
Lord, help us to focus our eyes on You. Lord, look unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.
Lord, I do pray that all our desire is that, at the end, You would say, “Good and faithful servants.” Lord, in all these things, we do pray that You would have mercy on us and continue to work in the midst of us, Lord, to bring us unto the point that we can stand in what You have—Your purpose in our lives.
Lord, may that be accomplished. Lord, we commit the brothers and sisters unto You. Lord, we all love You. Lord, may You have Your way.
Lord, we thank You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.