Is He From History or From Eternity? | Dr. David Jeremiah

Message Description: It’s not always easy living for Jesus. But you can take comfort in knowing that Jesus is living for you! Dr. David Jeremiah looks at all Christ is doing on your behalf.

In Ecclesiastes 311, we read these words. God has put eternity in our hearts.
That means that every one of us has a hunger and a longing for god, even if we don’t know it.
That even when we might be rebelling against god, we might be saying, I won’t have him to rule over me.
There’s still this empty place in our hearts and god is the only one who can fill that.
One of the challenges we have in our culture is we try to fill that with everything else, don’t we?
We try to find meaning through riches or relationships or pride or money or sex or drugs or whatever, everything we stuff into that space doesn’t fit, because that space was made for god.
He created eternity in our hearts. Partly anything’s eternal.
In fact, nothing in this world is eternal, and given enough time, everything crumbles and returns to dust.
And that’s why you and I live in an antsy world, isn’t it?
We see around us the things that we used to think were movable, and they’re gone.
And unfortunately, for us today, the word eternal, and especially the word eternity has lost its meaning.
And eternity is a time thing for us, but eternity is not time. Eternity is beyond time.
We don’t understand eternity because we have no president.
Don and I were talking about it this week at home, and we were talking about how hard it is to wrap our our minds around something that never began and never ends.
Something that has no beginning and no end, but that’s what eternity is.
You live in a world which given enough time, everything crumbles, and nobody remembers us and life is ultimately meaningless and absurd.
And if you don’t understand what god has given to you in his word, to give meaning to this life.
It’s very difficult to make it all the way through because in Jesus Christ alone, is it for us to discover the meaning of eternity.
I wanna talk about eternity in history, eternity in your heart, and eternity in heaven.
First of all, eternity in history. Let’s begin.
In many respects, the idea of a so creating history with eternity is absurd.
Eternity is, you see, one of the great mysteries of the universe, one of the great mysteries of god.
Everything is now to the lord Jesus Christ.
This is a mystery, and it is difficult to get our minds around it.
And it stretches us, does it not?
It reminds me of that powerful thought that if the god you worship is small enough for you to understand he’s not big enough for you to worship them.
I don’t understand all of this, I learn everything I can from the revelation of the scripture, but when I’ve learned all I can learn about god, there’s so much, so much more about god that I cannot know.
One day, I will know, but I don’t know now.
So what that means for you and for me is that since Jesus is god, And since he has no beginning and no end, and he has existed ages before he came into the world to be our savior, When the prophet Micah predicted that Jesus would come to be our savior, did you listen to his words?
Listen to how he described it.
He said, out of you shall come forth to me, the one who is to be ruler in Israel.
Who is that? Jesus Christ. Who’s going forth are from of old, from everlasting.
In other words, Jesus Christ is coming to be the ruler of Israel, but he’s been around forever.
He’s never had a beginning.
One day, Jesus was talking to some of his friends, and he done them.
They they never did get over this. They were talking about Abraham and David and all of that.
And Jesus said, before Abraham was I am. In other words, here’s Jesus, thirty years old.
Saying that he knew Abraham, almost like Abraham and I were buddies, Jesus didn’t say before Abraham was I was, he said before Abraham was, I am.
In other words, Abraham had history. Jesus doesn’t have any. He is forever.
Well, you say, how does that affect me? Well, listen up.
The Bible says that you and I were chosen in Christ before the world began.
Ephesians 14 says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
What that means men and women is since we are in Christ before the foundation of the world, we have been loved by Christ for a lot longer than you may think.
We have been loved by Christ throughout eternity.
Jeremiah 31 3 says it this way, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Sometimes we think Jesus only loves us if we do good things.
You know, we sometimes pick that up along the way, going up in our culture, if you’ll be good, God’ll love you.
If you’d be bad, he won’t. Well, that’s nothing to do with god’s love for us.
The scripture tells us that long before the world was, long before there was a creation, long before Abraham, Jesus loved us, God through Jesus Christ has loved you before the foundation of the world before you could do anything good or bad you were loved by god.
That means he doesn’t love us because of who we are.
He doesn’t love us because of what we’ve done. He loves us because of who he is.
When we succeed, he says, I love you.
When we fail, he says, I love you because he is loved, there is nothing you can ever do to make him stop loving you, and there’s not anything you can ever do to make him love you more than he already does.
Because his love is eternal.
It’s a part of who he is as god, and it’s always been true everything you have ever done or thought, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent was in the future when god set his love upon you.
He loves you, my friends, like you cannot imagine. Well, you say, I don’t feel loved.
Let me tell you with authority. That is not god’s problem.
We cannot blame god for our feelings. God has told us the truth.
He loves us. Believe it. Eternity in history. God loves you.
Here’s the second thought, eternity in your heart. This is really an amazing thought.
Hold this because it’s important to this. He’s loved us forever.
Then he said about creating us, and he created us men and women with eternity in our hearts.
He created us literally so that all of us were made for him.
It should say on us, made for god, because every one of us have been created for his pleasure.
And the Bible tells us that when god created us, he left a space within us vacant.
A space that only he can occupy.
In Ecclesiastes 311, we read these words god has put eternity in our hearts.
That means that every one of us has a hunger and longing for god, even if we don’t know it.
That even when we might be rebelling against god, we might be saying, I won’t have him to rule over me their still this empty place in our hearts, and god is the only one who can fill that.
One of the challenges we have in our culture is we try to fill that with everything else, don’t we?
We try to find meaning through riches or relationships or pride or money or sex or drugs or whatever, everything we stuff into that space doesn’t fit, because that space was made for god.
He created eternity in our hearts.
God has put every one of us in a place of knowing god if we want to He’s built this place in us that specifically for him.
And if you do not know that, if you do not accept it, it doesn’t go away, it will continue to be there.
And do you know that even after we become Christians, there’s still a bit of that within us?
The Bible says that all creation is groaning, waiting for the day of redemption.
What that means is that in this world, in which you and I live, we can have the joy of knowing Jesus Christ in a personal way But we were not built for this world, and this world was not built for us.
We were built for eternity. Until we get there, we’re not gonna have that wonderful feeling that everything is right.
I think when we get to heaven, the first thing we’re gonna do is say, oh, man, this is what I’ve been looking for.
And I’ve heard over and over again people who’ve accomplished great things. They get to the place.
They hoped they could get to and it didn’t feel the emptiness in their heart. You know why?
Jesus is the only one who can feel the emptiness in your heart.
You can keep trying if you want to. It’ll be a frustrating existence if that’s what you do.
So eternity is in our hearts. In fact, St.
Augustine once wrote it this way, he said, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in the.
So what is eternal life? John 17 3 says it this way.
This is Jesus’ definition of eternal life. Listen carefully. This is eternal life.
That they may know you the only true god and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
What did Jesus mean by eternal life? Let me tell you a story.
I don’t know how I got fixed on this, but I, uh, as a young pastor, when I would ever go to do a funeral and go to the cemetery, I started kind of getting there early and walking around and looking people put on their tombstone.
It turned out to be sort of a little gathering of humor for me over the years, and then people found out about it, and they started sending me all these crazy epitaphs.
I got a whole book full of them, like, here lies the body of old man peas buried beneath the flowers and trees, but peas ain’t here just a pod.
Peace shelled out and went to god. There you go. That’s on a tombstone someplace.
Or this one, here lies the body of Mary Ann Brown at death she weighed £400, but now in sweet repose she rests in peace and rest on Abrams’s breast.
Little boy came along and saw it, thought, and they need another stanza, so he added it.
It may be sweet for Mary Ann, but it’s really tough on Abraham.
So I got all these epitaphs.
But you know what?
Folks the the strangest epitaph you’ll ever see, and you will see it over and over.
You can go to almost any cemetery, and you’ll see it. Here’s what it says.
Born, August 1 1930, entered into eternal life.
And then there’s a date. And the only thing wrong with that is, that’s not true.
You do not enter into eternal life when you die, You enter into eternal life when you receive Jesus Christ as your savior.
Jesus said, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Eternal life is described by 1 Scottish minister as the life of god in the soul of man.
When I accept Jesus Christ and he comes to live in that vacuum that god created in my heart, eternal life begins.
And when I die, it just takes a step forward. So I am living today, I have eternal life.
We say that on occasion, but we don’t really stop to think what it means.
You don’t get eternal life through death. You get eternal life through faith.
When you see Jesus Christ and you receive him as your savior, you become a Christian, the Bible says, you have eternal life.
So now you have eternal life. What does that mean? Well, first of all, it means enjoyment.
How many of you know, when you when you’re not a Christian, your attitude about Christianity is that you don’t want to be a Christian because it won’t be any fun.
I had a guy tell me one day, I’d be a Christian Doctor.
Jeremiah, but it’d be really inconvenient for me right now.
And what he meant by that was he’d have to stop doing some of the stuff he was doing because he wouldn’t think that would be right for a Christian to do.
I’m here to tell you that the greatest joy you will ever know, you will know when you become a Christian.
I’m not talking about happiness. I’m not talking about rah, I’m talking about the deep, subtle peace in your heart that all is well with you and your maker.
When you have that kind of joy, You’ve never experienced it before.
You can’t have it any other way, except through receiving Jesus Christ and eternal life.
You will have enjoyment, and then you will have enlargement.
When you become a Christian, it isn’t god’s purpose to shrink you down, but to expand you.
He gives you his holy spirit.
And when the holy spirit comes, he begins to identify gifts in you that can be utilized for the kingdom.
One of the greatest things to see for me is to watch people become Christians and then watch what happens to them after they become Christians as god begins to use them, and they explode into something far greater than they could ever have believed would be possible to them.
Becoming a Christian is not dialing life back, it’s turning it up and seeing how god allows you through your faith to touch people everywhere you go and to make an impact that you never thought possible.
Eternal life is enjoyment, and it’s enlargement, but it’s also enrichment.
When you become a Christian, you get the Holy Spirit, and everything the Holy Spirit brings to you.
Your life is enriched. You know, I can say this as a fact, I’ve been a Christian for many years, and I’ve been serving the lord now as I just discovered for 50 years as a pastor.
And I look back over my life, and I’m just amazed at how god has changed me as a person, everything that we have started, god got a hold of it.
He took it to the level I could never have believed.
When I left college, my goal was to be a disc jockey. I was doing that right then.
I didn’t want I didn’t want to go into the ministry because I thought by going into the ministry, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my love for radio.
Are you kidding me? I was on a couple of little stations as a disc jockey.
Turning point is now on 3000 stations in America alone. Who does that? God does that.
God saves us not only to bring joy to our hearts and to expand our influence, but to enrich us That’s what eternal life is all about.
Never forget it. Eternal life is enjoyment, it’s enlargement, and it’s enrichment.
When you become a Christian, those things happen in your life.
It doesn’t mean you don’t have issues, you don’t have trouble.
You start living life in a whole different way.
The Bible says that for 40 days after Jesus had risen from the dead, he was here on this earth showing himself to his disciples.
And then He ascended to heaven.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 12, by this man after he had offered 1 sacrifice for sin, sat down at the right hand of god.
Where is Jesus right now? He’s at the right hand of god.
And the Bible says he went into heaven and he sat down. He didn’t sit down because he was fatigued.
He sat down because he was finished.
He had finished what he came to do, and he sat down at the right hand of the father.
A lot of times children will ask you, is Jesus in heaven? Yeah. Is he up there forever yet?
What’s he doing? That’s kind of what they ask. And we often wonder that too.
What is Jesus doing in heaven? Let me tell you a few things I’ve discovered from the scripture.
First of all, he’s providing for you. At this very moment, he’s seated at the Supreme place of authority.
He isn’t resting. He’s raining.
Sometimes I look around and I wonder what in the world’s going on, and I sometimes even say to Don it.
It’s like nobody’s in charge. I wanna tell you Jesus is in charge.
And no matter what’s going on in this world that seems so disconnected to us, so crazy and unresolvable, almighty god has it all in his hands.
You say, well, what if this happens? Let me tell you what I know.
Nothing’s gonna happen that Jesus doesn’t let happen or want to happen. He’s in control.
So when you go to bed tonight and you’re tempted to worry about what’s gonna happen tomorrow, in this place or that place with this leader or that leader, just rest assured.
It’s all under control. We may not see it in the everyday things that go on around us.
But I have it straight from the word of god on the authority of the word of god, that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the father and he is in control.
Hallelujah. Here’s the second thing. This will surprise some of you.
Did you know that Jesus is praying for you? Or you say pastor, that’s wrong. I’m praying to Jesus.
No, no. Jesus is praying for you. Listen to this.
Jesus said to Peter, just before calvary, he said, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.
Who is the I? Jesus. Jesus said, Peter, I’ve been praying for you.
And I want to tell you on the authority of this and 2 other scriptures that he’s praying for you.
Romans 8 says, who is he who condemns?
It is Christ who died And furthermore, is also risen, who is even at the right hand of god, who also makes intercession for us.
Jesus is making intercession for us. He’s praying for us.
Hebrews 725, he is also able to save to the uttermost, who come to god through him.
He is always living to make intercession for us.
I have to promise you that I don’t know how this works, but since Jesus is the infinite eternal god, it is absolutely possible for him.
To at 1 at the same time, be always praying for those of his family, including you and me.
And he prays for us before we even know we need prayer because he knows what our needs are.
In this week, wherever you go, and maybe you have an interview this week for a job, or you’re facing a doctor’s appointment, you dread.
Let me just tell you something. Whatever’s going on in your life, Jesus is praying for you.
When you pray to him, you know he’s already praying for you. The scripture teaches that. I believe that.
I’ve experienced that. In my life. Here’s the third thing.
He’s providing for us, he’s praying for us, and he’s protecting us.
I don’t know how he does this, but he has this way of caring for us.
This is born out in one of favorite benedictions. Listen to this benediction.
It’s from the book of Jude, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.
And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Did you know that one of Jesus roles in heaven is to keep us from stumbling so that one day he can present us thoughtless before the father.
That’s what he’s doing in heaven. He’s providing for us. He’s praying for us.
He’s protecting us And here’s maybe the one you know best of all, he’s providing a place for us where we’re gonna live someday.
John 14 says it this way.
In my father’s house, our many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.
Jesus is up in heaven, getting our residences ready so that when we get there, we won’t have to get a real estate person to help us find where we’re gonna You say, well, what are they gonna look like?
I have no idea. Well, here’s what I do know.
Jesus took 7 days, 24 hour days to create the whole world, and we’ve given him a whole lot more time on that to work on our heaven, so I think it’s gonna be pretty good.
And if you take the descriptions of heaven that are in the Bible seriously and I do, it is, beyond anything you can imagine.
He’s getting ready for us, and one day, we’re gonna be with him, and we’ll live with him forever.
And you know how I know that? The Bible tells us that. The Bible teaches that.
And when does that start? It starts the day the hour, the moment when you say yes to Jesus.
When you accept him as your savior and you receive the gift of eternal life.
The Bible says this, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of god is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our lord.
I want to ask you today, do you have eternal life?
Have you filled that space in your heart that just cries out for god?
Are you still trying to figure out some way to bypass god’s plan and stuff everything else into that space.
I want to promise you you will never know and peace until you know Jesus.
I’d like to ask you to accept him as your savior today, I’d like to introduce him to you and tell you with absolute confidence that if you make Jesus Christ, the lord of your life today, It will be the absolute best decision you have ever made or will ever make.
It will change everything in your life, not only here, but in the future.
Please don’t walk away from that opportunity.
If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, You can do that today.
If you will allow us, Doctor Jeremiah would like to send you 2 resources that will help you.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
And the second is our monthly devotional magazine to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning Point today.
Next time, on turning point.
Jesus Christ is the promised Siah. There isn’t any question about it.
Any thinking person, any honest, reasonable person who goes to the study of it will come away.
Not doubting, but with their hands up high in faith.
Thank you for being with us today. Join doctor Jeremiah next time for his message.
Is he from the old testament or the new testament.
Here on turning point.