Living With Eternity in View

**Announcer:** Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. **Main Speaker:** Praise God! Hallelujah! Praise God! Amen, amen, amen! Blessing and glory, wisdom, thanksgiving and honor, power and might, be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen. Singing amen, amen, amen! Blessing and glory, and glory, wisdom, thanksgiving and honor, and honor, power and might, be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen. He has promised He will never fail, never fail, I will lean on Him, I will trust in Him. Oh, He has promised He will never fail. His faithfulness, Jehovah, is forevermore. His faithfulness is forevermore. Our Father, to You be the glory, to You be the honor, to You be the praise. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Christ is risen! Wow, we worship You our God. We thank You for the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. We are so glad, it is so wonderful remembering and celebrating the resurrection, the death, the suffering, the death, and the resurrection. For that is the basis of our justification, it's the basis of our adoption, it's the basis of our redemption, it's the basis of our pardon, it's the basis of our forgiveness, it's the basis of our hope. Lord, we thank You for this living hope. We have been brought into a hope that is alive, a hope that is living, a hope that is certain, a hope that is sure. We worship You, we worship You. We thank You Lord for the Easter. We thank You, we bless Your name, we give You glory. The reason for the season is Jesus. We worship You our God. We say thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You. Indeed, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes should not perish but have eternal life. Lord, we thank You for the gift of eternal life. We thank You for eternal redemption. Blessed be Your name our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, as we gather unto You again this special day of this special celebration of Easter, Lord God Almighty, we pray as we gather together online, as we gather physically, we who are here, our brethren online, Lord we pray Your Spirit will work within us among us. You will meet us where we need You most. You will instruct us again as we reflect on the Easter, as we reflect on Your suffering, on Your death and Your resurrection this evening. Lord, we pray there shall be a renewal in our spirit, let there be a fresh commitment again, let there be a fresh fire burning in our soul, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You our Father. Blessed be Your holy name our God, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen! Amen! I want to say all our brethren wherever you are, whether you are here with us physically or you are joining us on Mixlr, you are joining us on Telegram, we are saying Happy Easter celebration. We thank God for the birth of Jesus, but we thank more much the more for the death of Jesus. Our salvation was mediated on His suffering, His death, and His resurrection. We thank God for the Easter. It's so exciting this evening to see that this Monday also coincides with our Easter Monday, and we are going to look at something around the Easter that I titled this evening "Living with Eternity in View." Living with eternity in view. Living with eternity in view. We need to live with eternity in view. Why should we live with eternity in view? What does it mean to live with eternity in view? These are some of the things we want to look at this evening and then we pray together. And like I told you that this quarter, trusting the Lord on the issue of the dynamics of God's holiness which we concluded last week, we are trusting God that we begin to look at character studies in the Bible, different characters that showcase different aspects of this matter of holiness of God, the implications for their life and the lessons that we can learn from it. But for today, this Monday being Easter Monday, we are considering something around the Easter as a way of celebrating the Easter, because honestly it's worth remembering, it's worth celebrating. And as we do so, I pray may the implication of His suffering, of the suffering of the Lord Jesus, of His death and His resurrection, come afresh again upon our lives, upon our marriages, upon our families, upon our businesses, upon our career, upon our all our undertaking, upon our academics, our students, in the name of Jesus Christ. Easter, and we are looking at living with eternity in view. Living with eternity in view. And the text this evening is 1 Corinthians 15, that is where we'll be looking at much more the more from around verse 12. Now let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. We'll be reading from around verse 12. "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen," let's be looking at the implications, "then our preaching is empty." Everything we are doing now is empty. That you are born again, you are deceiving yourself. "Then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." Hallelujah! "But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death." Praise the Lord! Then I move on again to verse 34. "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. But someone will say, 'How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?' Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies." Is that not true? "What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun," hallelujah, "another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," hallelujah, "we shall all be changed, we shall all be changed, in the name of Jesus. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'" Hallelujah! Death will be swallowed up in victory. It now says, "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore," that is the conclusion of the whole matter, "my beloved brethren, be steadfast, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." We are looking at living with eternity in view. The first thing I want to say about that topic, I'll be beginning from the last verse of this chapter that we just read. One thing I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, one thing I want you to know friends, is that when you see yourself not being steadfast, when you see yourself not continuing, abounding in God's work, nothing able to move you, you are resolute in your faith, you are there unswerving, you are steadfast, you are committed, you are committed to the cause of the kingdom. When you notice that you are swerving, when you notice that you are compromising, when you notice that you are not abounding, when you notice that some mundane and earthly things they're getting you discouraged, you are not continuing steadfastly. You know what has happened to you? You have lost sight of eternity. What has happened to you is that your vision of eternity has become blur. Your vision of your end has been taken away from your sight. Your vision of where you are going is no more standing very clearly before you. One thing I want you to know, for everybody that eternity in view, the hope of resurrection in Christ, the hope of being changed, the hope of the last trumpet, that it will sound, and when it sounds I will be changed, and when I am changed I will go to be with my Lord. When you notice that you are becoming a compromiser, when you notice that you are becoming faithless, when you notice that you are becoming tired, you are beginning to give in to some immediate present circumstance, you are throwing away holiness, you are throwing away godliness, you are throwing away righteousness, you are throwing away living for Jesus, you are not committed again to the cause of the kingdom, you are not resolute with your Christianity. What has simply happened to you is that the enemy has put a veil. There is a veil that is blocking your vision of eternity. What I want to make you understand, brethren, is that one thing you should note is that when a believer is not steadfast anymore, when a believer is not abounding in the work of the Lord, when a believer some things begin