Investing In Eternity!

Investing in Eternity!

Chuck Sligh

September 19, 2021

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the full title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

TEXT: Acts 16:9-10 – “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia, and help us.’ 10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

INTRODUCTION

Over the next few weeks, we launch out into a missions emphasis at Grace Baptist Church. [PROMOTE MISSIONS EMPHASIS SUNDAYS + SHOW “MISSIONS INVESTMENT CARD” (FORMERLY CALLD “FAITH PROMISE CARD” & OFFERING ENVELOPE IN THE SLIDES & EXPLAIN.]

As we launch into our mission emphasis, I want God to have His way in your heart and life. In our passage here, we see that Paul and Silas, and apparently Timothy and Luke who were with them at this time, were extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit. God was at work, and God gave Paul a vision—a vision that called them to get in on the next big thing God is going to do—to take the Gospel to Europe.

In our text, I want you to see four things God wants you to get in on that God’s up to in the world, and how it ought to compel you to get involved by giving to missions.

I. FIRST OF ALL, CATCH GOD’S VISION – Acts 16:9a – “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night…”

Paul had a literal vision, but I’m speaking of a different kind of vision this morning. Today I think we need a vision in two senses of the word:

First, we need a vision in the sense of having a mission.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish….”

God’s people move when they get a vision of what God’s plan is on earth. Did you know that Jesus has given the church a vision in this sense? It’s called the “Great Commission.”

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus said, “Go…therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: 20 Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

We need a vision to go forth and accomplish the mission of the church—to win the lost to Jesus both near and far; to baptize them in the name of the Trinity; to disciple them in the teachings of God’s Word.

Second, we need a vision in the sense of seeing things the way God does.

We need a vision of eternity—a realization that everyone will go to either heaven or hell.

Illus. – I remember years ago my brother and sister in law taking ut to the Reunion Tower in Dallas, TX. The dusk and we could see Ft. Worth silhouetted in front of the big orange sun setting in the west.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. My brother-in showed me various important buildings and then we just wandered around on the top of the building looking down below. I saw tiny cars like ants winding their way home on the expressways below. I could see miniature houses that looked like houses on a train set. I saw teensy trees that were throughout the city.

But I didn’t see what Jesus would have seen if he were on those towers. Shortly before His death, the Gospels tell us Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and saw Jerusalem across the valley. He didn’t gawk at the beautiful temple, or notice the tiny stone houses, or even notice the miniscule trees and scenery. He saw people who would spend eternity in heaven or hell. The Gospels say he wept, while saying, through bitter tears, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

When you get a vision of these contrasting destinies of every person, you realize that really, everything else pales by comparison doesn’t it?

We also need a vision of the holiness and perfect righteousness of God. If we realize that God’s holiness is perfect and infinite and all-encompassing, you begin to understand mankind’s precarious condition. It’s because of the holiness of God that God judges sin and why we cannot stand before God in our own goodness because our own goodness still falls short of God’s infinite perfection.

But we also need a vision of the goodness and mercy of God. God IS infinitely holy, but 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is also love. And it is God’s goodness, love and mercy that caused Him to reach down to sinners like us to provide a way to know Him and be His child.