In Light of Eternity: Live the Truth
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As most of you are aware, this week Krista and I will be heading to Malawi with a small team from the Northeast Conference. We will be spending 10 days with our African brothers and sisters in the faith, teaching and learning, encouraging and participating in the ministry of the Global Methodist Church in Malawi. All for the purpose of spreading the Word of God and making disciples of Jesus Christ.
These past few weeks have been full of preparation. Our team has met over Zoom to finalize details and develop the training curriculum. We updated passports, purchased plane tickets, and made sure Krista’s vaccinations were current. We’ve even tried to learn a few basic phrases in Chichewa. Krista has her luggage fully packed; I’ll probably wait until the night before. Most importantly, we’ve prayed—for our team, for the churches we’ll visit, and for God to be glorified. Knowing we’ll be serving at a ministry that cares for many orphans, we bought a couple of deflated soccer balls and air pumps as gifts.
None of this would have been possible without preparation. Passports, tickets, vaccinations, and a clear plan are essential. The same is true in the Christian life. If our ultimate goal is to reach our eternal home with Jesus, then what we do in this life truly matters. We must live with our eyes fixed on our heavenly destination, intentionally imitating the way of Jesus that He passed on to His apostles—and that they have passed on to us.
Paul makes this crystal clear in his letter to the Philippians:
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Now how could Paul, with confidence, call others to pattern their lives after him and after those who exemplify the godly qualities he does?
Is it because he thinks so highly of himself that he believed everyone ought to follow?
No, not at all. In fact, Paul admitted earlier that he is a work in progress and has yet to obtain Jesus-level perfection, but Paul has patterned his life after Jesus. And he knows the importance of setting an example for others.
We all need good examples to follow - not just people we read about, but people who we know and walk with. I wasn’t raised in the most godly environment, so when I placed my full trust in Jesus, I knew I need to find some folks mature in the faith who I could learn from and pattern my life accordingly. I’m grateful to this day for those brothers and sisters who showed me how to follow the Way of Jesus. I suspect that is the same for quite a few of you.
Paul could boldly say “imitate me” because he was first imitating Christ. Hear how he describes that pursuit:
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Paul considered everything this world offers as rubbish compared to knowing Christ. He chose the path of self-denial, suffering, and loss because he believed the resurrection and the life to come were worth far more. The way of the world says, “Pursue what feels good and take what’s yours.” The way of Jesus says, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Paul set his heart on the eternal prize.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The question for every one of us is simple: Are you pressing on toward that upward call?
Jesus painted a sobering picture of what happens when we don’t in the Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14):.
“A certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people. When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The dinner is now ready.’ One by one, they all began to make excuses. The first one told him, ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I bought five teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ When he returned, the servant reported these excuses to his master. The master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ The servant said, ‘Master, your instructions have been followed and there is still room.’ The master said to the servant, ‘Go to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”
Each of those invited servants were so preoccupied with their occupation, their possessions, their family - all good things - that they crowded out the most important thing - the honor of being invited into the King’s great banquet. It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to figure out who the king is in this parable. God is inviting you to a great banquet that He has prepared - a wedding feast - and you are a guest of honor.
Don’t let anything—however good—keep you from your seat at the table.
Paul describes the tragic outcome for those who live with their minds set on earthly things:
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Their appetites rule them. They justify what should bring shame. Their eyes never lift beyond this world. If I’m honest, I still feel that downward pull more often than I wish. But I am not left to fight it alone—and neither are you.
Jesus prayed this powerful prayer over His disciples—and over us:
John 17:15–19 (ESV)“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. … Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. … And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
He doesn’t say “may they sanctify themselves” - he prays for the Father to sanctify us - to make us set apart and holy. This is the work of the Holy Spirit - we are not alone.
So today, my brothers and sisters whom I love and long for—my joy and my crown—hear the urgent and loving appeal of the Apostle Paul:
Philippians 4:1 (CEB)“Therefore, my brothers and sisters… stand firm in the Lord.”
Stand firm. Not in your own strength, but in the Lord who has laid hold of you. Stand firm when distractions pull your gaze downward. Stand firm when suffering comes. Stand firm when the world offers cheaper, easier paths. Stand firm when you’re tempted to make excuses and miss the banquet.
As Krista and I fly to Malawi this week, we go with open hands and expectant hearts—prepared, prayed up, and pressing on. But the greater journey is the one we are all on together: the journey toward our true homeland, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let this be our daily resolve: To count all things as loss compared to knowing Christ. To forget what lies behind and strain forward. To live with eternity stamped on our hearts. To run this race side by side, encouraging one another, imitating those who imitate Jesus, until the day we hear the Master say, “Come! The feast is ready.”
One day the temporary will give way to the eternal. The suffering will give way to joy. The partial will give way to perfection. And every sacrifice, every act of obedience, every tear, and every mile walked in faith will be proven infinitely worth it.
So let us press on. Let us prepare daily. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And when that great day comes, may we all take our places at the table He has prepared for us—together, complete, and forever with the Lord.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
