Launch Night 3

Amen, praise God for the worship. Let's give Matt and the team another big hand. You just did an awesome, awesome job tonight. That was my first time being with Matt Gilman, and wow, what a blessing he is to the body, and such a blessing to be home tonight, amen? We've been blessed, my family and I, Darla's here, and my daughter Hannah, my son-in-law, Sonny, Sully, and we've been here for now for about a year, maybe a little over a year now, but about a year ago, we really felt like the Lord was transitioning us, and you saw Tyson Coughlin up there. Tyson was actually one of our former students, and he grew up in my brother-in-law's church, my wife's brother's church up in West Virginia. Now he pastors a vision church, but we were working with them, some helping them some with our traveling schedule, but we really felt like the Lord was leading us here, so we met with Pastor Jay and Pastor Mel, and just knew that it was a God thing, and we're just so honored to be here. Such a blessing to base our ministry out of the refuge, and we've met some of you amazing people. Look forward to meeting more of you in the days ahead. I travel quite a bit, but I'm usually here on Wednesday night so I see the Wednesday night crowd quite often, but anyhow, just such an honor to be here, and I tell you, I'm really humbled, and I come expectant.

I just came out of Australia about a week and a half ago, and just saw the Lord do some amazing things up in Upper Queensland, where he's moving among the people of God there, so just really humbled and honored to be here with you tonight, and again, I come with expectancy. I believe the Lord has placed something upon my heart. You know, sometimes I get a question from my mom sometimes, but different ones, and that is, you know, are you ever afraid to stand in front of a crowd to preach? And you know, I still preach in churches with 20 people. I preach in churches with 2,000 people, and you know, sometimes we're in much bigger venues preaching outside in evangelistic meetings in different parts of the world, and I never really have a fear of people, but I always have a fear, and that fear is just knowing that I've heard from the Lord, and that I'm gonna deliver what's on God's heart, so I'm gonna pray once. I'm gonna ask you just to pray with me, and we're gonna ask the Lord to speak to our hearts tonight and to do what only God can do, amen. Father, we thank you for your presence in this room already. We thank you, Lord, for what you've already done among your people, Lord, and Lord, tonight we, we come with hungry hearts. We come with expectancy. We come knowing, Lord God, that you are in control,

and Father, there is nothing that the enemy can do that can stop your plan, that can stop your strategies, and Father, we ask tonight that you would just show forth your power and your demonstration. We pray for signs and wonders and miracles. Father, we read in the New Testament that as the gospel was preached, that signs and wonders followed the preaching of the gospel. I pray tonight that supernatural power, that your glory, that your fire would be present and resident in this place. Lord, that every life would be so impacted by the power of your love and the power of your glory and the grace that you provide through your holiness, Lord, that none of us leave this place the way that we came, but Father, further conform us as your people into the image of Christ, and Father, I pray if there's one here tonight, even one maybe listening by live stream that does not know you, I pray that tonight would be that night that they would come to know you as their Lord, their Savior, their best friend, and their God. Have your way now, anoint your word, and be glorified in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Well, you know, Darla and I were just in the Maryland area over the past weekend. We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, amen, this past Sunday. So the Lord blessed me with the ability to preach on my 40th wedding anniversary.

But it was a blessing, and you know, the Lord put something upon my heart that I felt like that I needed to kind of continue that theme because it was just so real to me. And how many of you know, I've been preaching now for 40 years, and as Pastor Jay said, we've pastored, I think, four churches over the years, and oversaw Bible colleges, and just done a lot of different ministry, but I've often found that the messages that you preach from where you're living and from where your experience is are oftentimes the most powerful and the most penetrating, not only to you, but also to those that are hearing. So I wanna share something, not the same exact message that I preached Sunday, but some of those same themes that the Lord has just kind of kept into my heart, or kept in my heart, and I believe God wants to share them with you tonight. If you'll go with me to James, if you have your Bibles, or your phones, or your iPads, or we have the screens here as well, this is an awesome time. I remember the days when, if you didn't have your Bible, you were just lost. But it is a different generation. But James chapter four and verse 14 tonight, I wanna take my primary scripture from here and then I'm gonna read some other verses to you tonight as well. But James four and 14. And tonight, actually I usually read from the ESV

but sometimes different translations kinda fit with your message. And if the context and the meaning is not changed, then I'll use a different translation. So tonight I'm gonna use the New King James Version if you have that Bible or again, it's on the screen. But listen to the Apostle James here. He says, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life, it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it just vanishes away. As you know, I've read this scripture so many times but as I read it again over the last couple of days and just kinda meditated upon that as I was gonna deal with a certain theme, something kinda came to my heart and I felt like the Lord wanted me to share something that I'm gonna entitle tonight, Don't Waste Your Vapor. Not your vape. That's the first thing that came to my mind. I said, well, you know what, if I read that, I mean, we didn't know what a vape was when I was a kid but now it's pretty popular but anyhow, but don't waste your vapor. So one translation says that it is even a mist, a vapor which basically means it's just something that appears and then poof, it's just gone. So James said that listen, it's important to understand that you don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow, next week, even tonight.

We really don't know. And he said it's even like your life is this mist or this vapor that appears for a little time and then that small increment of time on earth is just over. So I wanna implore all of us tonight, don't waste our vapor or our life. There is so much that God wants to do in us and through us and you know, I don't know who prepared the video before, if it was the Refuge team or Matt, but anyway, I really love the video and one of the things that was pointed out is how easy it is to get distracted. Listen, I've known people that, I mean, they were on fire for Jesus. I mean, going to the streets and witnessing and all these type of things and in the prayer rooms and all this stuff, but somewhere along the line, they got distracted by life. It doesn't mean they don't believe in Jesus or even, it doesn't mean they don't even love Jesus, but they got distracted and they began to live with roots deeply in this present world. And how many of you know this world is so transient, it's so temporary? Some of you know that we stood in this room back in January and some were here in this room and we ushered our grandchild into the presence of the Lord. He was already with the Lord, but we had an official homegoing service

for our grandson, Jude, our 11-year-old grandson, who went to be with the Lord, one of our eight grandchildren, our oldest grandchild, actually. And you know, I've been around death my entire ministry. As a pastor, I've sat with people that were going into eternity and I have used to even work in a funeral home when I was young, when Darlene and I first got married and would deal with death and picking up bodies from wrecks and stuff like that and funeral homes and different things, but hospitals and things. But whenever it impacts you in such a way to where it's someone in your own family, then eternity becomes much more real. And at this season in our lives, I'll be honest with you, I mean, we know that the Lord still has us here. We're on this earth. God has planted us here for this season. We've got a work to do. At the same time, our hearts are homesick for home, if you know what I'm saying. And to be honest with you, I got saved on January the 24th of 1985 down in Florida, where I'm from. And during that time, you would hear a lot about the return of Jesus. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. I remember a brother in our church

who was like a Sunday school teacher, he gave me this book that said, 88 Reasons Jesus is Coming in 1988. Remember that one? I believed it, man, I'd only been saved for three years. So I'm like, man, I got just a little bit of, this was like the beginning of 88. So I had just a few months to win people to Jesus. But my point was there was an expectancy. Well, can I tell you something in the first century, with the original apostles, they expected Jesus to return. And they lived in such a way that they were owned by eternity and their hearts were not so settled in this present world. They refused to get drunk on carnality while they. Pursue Jesus. There was a depth of intimacy that they had with the Lord that kept them focused. And let me say this, and then I'm gonna read some more scripture. I'm not saying tonight that we can't have a good, blessed life. I enjoy my life, I really do. I enjoy my family, I enjoy my friends. Darla and I just, again, went out for about a week and celebrated our anniversary, and we got to visit Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello in Virginia. We went over to Mount Vernon

and visited George Washington's home, and that was interesting, and it was fun, and it was neat. And there's nothing wrong with being blessed. I consider my life to be blessed, and I've preached in 40 nations around the world. I mean, I've seen the world. I mean, the Roman ruins, the Grecian ruins, I mean, you name it, I've seen it, friend. It's beautiful, it's amazing, I've enjoyed it. I'll tell you what else I enjoy. I love SEC football. God bless you, hallelujah. And it's coming soon, and I enjoy it. I'm praying the Gators are gonna be back on track with this new coach this year. But anyhow, but at the same time, I realize that that's just a fraction of life. And the thing that really captures my passions is more and more of Jesus. And once you ever experience him, none of those other things, even though they're not so much sinful, sometimes they can become distractions if we're not careful. But even those things that are okay and even allowed, and some things that are even wholesome for families to be a part of, even those things lose some of their brilliance and beauty whenever you see the glory and the beauty of Jesus. And when eternity becomes real, your life changes, friend.

You just can't live the way that you used to live. Let's hear some more of what the New Testament says about what it means to understand that life is a vapor, it's a mist. Look at Acts chapter 20 and verse 17 tonight. Acts chapter 20 verse 17 for context here. Paul is at the end of his life. He has been faithful in his missionary journeys. He has peppered the Mediterranean sea basin with church plants. The history of Paul is phenomenal. He was a man that was persecuted on and on and on, but he comes to this season of his life and he's gonna go back to where it all started for him. He sets his face back towards Jerusalem and he calls the elders from the church at Ephesus to this place called Miletus. And listen to what he says. "'From Miletus,' Luke says this, "'from Miletus he sent to Ephesus "'and called for the elders of the church. "'And when they had come to him, he said to them, "'You know from the first day that I came to Asia, "'in what manner I always lived among you, "'serving the Lord with all humility, "'with many tears and trials, "'which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, "'how I kept back nothing that was helpful, "'but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly "'and from house to house,

"'testifying to Jews and to Greeks, "'repentance toward God "'and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. "'And see now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, "'not knowing the things that will happen to me there, "'except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, "'saying that chains and tribulations await me.'" But listen to what it says here. "'But none of these things move me,' Paul said. "'Nor do I count my life dear to myself "'so that I may finish my race with joy "'and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus "'to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. "'And indeed now I know that you all, "'among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, "'will see my face no more. "'Therefore I testify to you this day "'that I am innocent of the blood of all men, "'for I have not shunned to declare to you "'the whole counsel of God.'" Now can you imagine, as a human, I'm thinking of this in my own life. Here is a man that had already been through so much. He was beat five times with 39 lashes by the Jews. He was in prison. He was under house arrest. He knew what it was to be cold and naked and hungry. He was shipwrecked. He said, everyone in Asia has turned their backs on me and we could go on and on and on.

He said he bore the scars of the Lord in his body. I mean, here is a man, I can only imagine if Paul walked in here tonight without a shirt on. I mean, just the layers of scars on his body, his torso and his back from being beat. And here he is at the end of his life. He's not a young kid, he's not a young man. And he has set his face by the Holy Spirit to Jerusalem. And he said, the Holy Spirit warns me that there is greater tribulation and perils ahead of me. And he didn't say, God, why is this happening to me? He said these things do not move me now I Want us to understand Paul is not Superman, right? He's not spider-man. No, there's a new movie out that everybody's talking about the new spider-man I mean, he's a human with with emotions with with feelings with with nerves with human Understanding however, there is something that has appropriated him in such a way that he counts his life as Nothing compared to fulfilling the call of God upon his life his Connection and his love for Jesus was so radical that it took him beyond sheer discipline and commitment Those are good words But he was more than committed and disciplined friend. He was owned by something far greater than just love and commitment He was owned by this reality of the price That Jesus had paid for him to set him free from from from sin from from from Satan and even from himself He knew where he had come from matter of fact in his latter years. He calls himself the chief among all sinners Probably referring to as most scholars believe the time when he had persecuted the church and oversaw the first martyrdom of the church Stephen who was stoned to death and Here he comes to this place in his life and at the end of his life The Holy Spirit is telling him there's more tribulation There's more trouble

These things don't move me Paul said His life was consumed with things of eternal value This the we used to sing the old song or at least the churches. I grew up in down in Florida in the 80s This world is not my home I'm just a passing through my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue The angels beckoned me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Remember that well I'm concerned that a lot of people feel very at home in this present world now That that we've learned to invest deeply in things that are fleeting and passing very quickly Listen, I I used to actually drive the hearse to the funeral home when I worked at the funeral home And I never pulled a U-Haul behind the hearse on the way to the graveyard My point is this friend only things that have eternal value live and last forever What are we living for this night, let me read a few more scriptures 2nd Corinthians 4 16 through 18 The Apostle Paul said therefore we do not lose heart Even though our outward man is perishing You know no matter how much you put on or take off No matter how much you put in whatever you do to make yourself look good and preserve yourself. We're all perishing We are all decaying, you know, I'll be 58 and what September 14th. So that's like a month a little over a month I'm not the same man. I was when I was 25 I mean, I still travel well and stuff like that and try to take care of myself But but I can promise you like I slept the other night on my left shoulder Right well in the 10th grade, I had a football injury and I had three surgeries on this left shoulder and Usually it doesn't bother me but man I've been praying for a miracle since I slept on my left shoulder in West Virginia four nights ago That didn't happen when I was 25 and 30 you understand in other words Paul's very clear Listen, we are not made to live in this world forever Therefore we don't lose even though outwardly we are perishing yet. The inward man is

Being renewed day by day why for our light? One translation says our light momentary our light affliction Which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Why would you not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen? Are temporary but the things which are not seen are Eternal what is Paul trying to get us to see and understand listen friend only those things That never fade that never rust that never corrode really matter in the light of eternity I mean people listen, we we we stress about so many things that next week won't even be around to stress about anymore There's something about living with eternity in view There's something about coming to the place where Paul could come to and I'm not saying I'm 100% there. I Mean if the Lord would say listen Keith, I'm sending you to whatever maybe to the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen or something I'm telling you that there is persecution, and you're gonna be beat, and all this kind of stuff. I mean, I hope I could say that yes, Lord, I will go, whatever your will is, Lord, but I'm not gonna say that these things don't move me, hallelujah. You understand? Now, maybe if the Lord, you know, appropriated me, and that was my mission, that there is a grace, and I'll share a story at the end here tonight where I believe there is a grace in certain seasons like this. And I believe Paul had a grace, but the grace that he had was not just connected, again, to his commitment. It was connected to the fact that he was owned by things of eternal value, that his life was not about comfort and ease.

His life was not about, you know, the next speaking engagement. Matter of fact, speaking engagements for Paul was life and death, a little different. Everybody wants to be called apostle. I always tell people, just call me Keith. Listen, listen, everyone wants to be called, listen, if you were an apostle here, your head was on the, matter of fact, Paul, how did Paul die? Church history says that Nero decapitated him, had his head cut off. So you want to be an apostle, you want to be a prophet, you want to be a pastor. Listen, friend, there was something that Paul, it wasn't about his position or his title. It was about this radical relationship that he had with Jesus that gave him the ability to see beyond this present, quick, temporal existence called life, this vapor of time. That goes by so quickly and it's just over. And all that matters was not your stock portfolio or your investment portfolio. It's not the size of your house. It's not how many diamonds you own. It's not even about the levels you achieve in the workplace. And listen, I'm all about the blessing of God. And one thing I love about Pastor Jay, I love the way he prays over that you'll get raises and more sales as salesmen.

I've done the sales things for years. Listen, I'm all about that. But listen, at the end of the day, we even do that for the furtherance of the eternal purposes of God. That we might even be better equipped to fund the kingdom of God and to give into what God is doing. That everything has to come with an eternal paradigm or it gets messed up and it gets carnal and it gets fleshly. Paul lived in such a way where he could say in Colossians 3, one through three, if you then were raised with Christ, how many of us have been raised with Christ tonight? Then you seek those things which are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. My prayer for my life, my prayer for our life, my, listen, I believe God, I know, that's why we're here. I know God has planted this church for eternal purposes right here in this part of North Carolina. That we're not just another nice, really nice building sit on the side of the road in Kannapolis, North Carolina. But there is something supernatural. What is it? What is it? It's the eternal purposes of God that are connected to the house,

to the people that are a part of this place. Listen, that even from this place, lives are transformed and changed. And not only are they transformed and changed, but they're changed to even go out of this house and to change our community, to impact our region for the eternal purposes of God, that we live in such a way that we realize everything that we are as the people from the refuge, everything that we do has eternal impact. And we, listen, we become responsible. In fact, Paul in Ephesians said to live worthy of the call of God. To live in such a way that we don't allow ourselves to get distracted by the things of this world. That we refuse to allow things like lust and all these other things to pull us away from intimacy with Jesus. Why? Because when we get into that place, we become spiritually dull and we become ineffective and we learn to go through the motions of church life, but we lose our passion and our zeal and our prayer life. We lose a hunger to reach the lost. But when eternity is in view, when we live with an eternal paradigm and mindset, then something happens to our lives. We realize that we are our own mission. And that might be at the school, that might be at the Walmart,

that might be, in my case, sometimes preaching or meeting with other elite, wherever. But friend, everywhere that we're at, if we are truly born again of the spirit of God and eternity is real. In our lives, we're on mission. Every day, there are souls that are lost without Jesus that we come in contact with. Every day, we have opportunities to share the gospel. And that's why we have to be very deliberate. I'm gonna share some points about this in a minute. Be very deliberate about the way that we live. Very deliberate. This is not an easy thing sometimes. You know, Darlene and I just celebrated 40 years of marriage. And our marriage is a covenant. It's not just an idea that we just kind of say, well, we'll try this and see if it works. And if it doesn't, we'll try something else. And unfortunately, we see that a lot, even in ministry these days, unfortunately. But we knew from a very young age that this was a covenant between us and between the Lord. And it's not always been easy. It's probably been easier for me than for her because I've been a little challenging at times, especially hearing from God all the time, right? I think we moved like 20-something times in our first 10 years of marriage or 12 years of marriage.

And finally, we settled down a little bit and weren't so easily moved because, I mean, we love the Lord, but you know, you're young and you're just going for it. But we knew that it was based on covenant and commitment. And when it comes to the Lord, listen, our relationship is not based on just a feeling tonight. Thank God, listen, I felt Him tonight. I feel Him right now. But listen, it's not about feeling. It's about who He is in our lives and what He's called us to. And even when our flesh doesn't feel like it, we live for Jesus. Even whenever we are at a place to where maybe we don't have those, you know, liver shivers or whatever, we pursue to worship Him. We continue to pray. We're faithful to the house of God. We're faithful to share our testimony of how Jesus set us free. Why? Because eternity is more real than my feelings tonight. His eternal purposes are more important than my circumstances tonight. See, eternity is not meant tonight, it's not meant to distract us from today's responsibilities. It's meant to define our responsibilities.

You've heard the saying that, you know, he or she is so heavenly minded, there's no earthly good. I kind of understand where that comes from, but I believe with all my heart that whenever we really have an understanding of heaven, then we prioritize things in a heavenly way. And eternity, understanding that we just have this vapor, this mist of time, helps us to appropriate our responsibilities and our priorities of people of God. You see, the believer tonight, and if you're a child of God, if you ever lose sight of eternity, then you will inevitably overvalue the temporary in your life. If you ever lose sight of eternity, in other words, the things that really matter, then it's very easy to begin to overvalue temporary things in our lives. And again, we get dull spiritually. We lose our passion for revival. We lose our passion, again, to see the lost saved and to pray, and sometimes the Lord in his faithfulness will come and he'll awaken our hearts again. I've always thanked God for the life of revivalists because throughout history, revivalists came in seasons of dormancy and spiritual lethargy. Matter of fact, we've had two great awakenings, some scholars believe three,

with the Jesus movement in the 70s, but definitely two. First in the colonies in the 1700s, then in the 1800s, we had a great awakening, especially Pennsylvania, New York area. But the reason they're called awakening is because the church had become stoic and dead and dormant. They'd become very dead in their religion. So God brought an awakening, and what would he do? He would oftentimes just begin to breathe fire into different individuals like Jonathan Edwards or Charles Finney or different ones, and they would come with this message of the glory of God, the eternal purposes of God, the fire of God, and it would cause a stir, and then oftentimes it was accompanied by the weight of his glory. And hearts were so radically impacted. Listen, Darla and I, we were blessed. We were pretty much in the entire Brownsville revival. Pensacola's actually my hometown, but we showed up early into the revival days and hundreds and hundreds of meetings I was in and went through the school, then eventually became the dean of students at the school and then eventually the president of the school. But listen, night after night, just watching the fire of God touch hearts and people running to the altars

and with all the challenges. Challenges that come with revival. I can tell you tonight that there is still fruit around the world Because of what God did there as the fire of God. I'll be going to the Philippines in two weeks And I'm going to be with people many of them impacted by the revival back in the 1990s that are still Planting churches. They've got orphans there. They're taking kids out of human sex trafficking in Asia in other words God moved in power and throughout history. God would stamp eternity on the hearts of these revivalists And they would come and they would they would burn among the people and they they would bring this message oftentimes seasoned with with repentance and the beauty and the holiness of Jesus Christ and hearts were Awakened to the reality of what it meant to know Jesus in an intimate and a personal way And out of those movements we saw Missionaries launched churches planted powerful moves of God Listen my my cry for America and the American Church It's not bigger churches not more polished professional preachers, but my cry is God Awaken our hearts to eternity May we become a people that are so fixated on things of eternal value that the things of this world do grow Strangely dim in the light of your glory and your grace tonight that Jesus becomes the center of everything for us that there is such a hunger and Thirst to know him and to make him known that we are Willing to say Lord if there's anything in my life Even if it's not a sin But you know the Word of God speaks about weights and sins that can be whatever it is If there's anything in my life that distracts me from seeing how beautiful how glorious how worthy you are and keeps me from seeing Things on an eternal paradigm then God remove it from my life That we get radical in our relationship with Jesus, and it's about love and intimacy Understand all that I I taught here for three weeks on the love of Jesus and and all that and but but at the same time

It's also about us Coming to the place to where we're saying Lord through your love Expose any idols in my heart and if they need to be toppled and taken down so that I can live with an eternal Mindset and do the works of Jesus in my generation God then let those idols be taken out of my heart and out of my life Whatever the distraction whatever the hindrance Whatever the problem Whatever keeps me from prayer Whatever keeps me from worship Whatever keeps me from loving people like you love people art Whatever keeps me from sharing the gospel God remove those things in my life why? Because you got one vapor of time friend I'm old enough. I'm older to remember the eight tracks in my Stepdads remember those have a shed a Chevrolet Monte Carlo with an eight track I remember those But I'm definitely older to remember because I had a bunch of the cassette tapes You could rewind a cassette tape you can't rewind your life friend You got one life to live yet You can't relive yesterday or the day before now now thankfully the Bible says that the Lord Can restore the years that the caterpillar and the canker were gonna have eaten understand that but but you can't add Or you can't rewind to your life in other words you you've got one shot It is and what is that shot to bring glory to Jesus Christ? Ultimately, that's all that matters That's really all that listen all the trophy cases as neat as they might be and listen I love sports, and I I still believe that we should give trophies to kids that win forgive me But but anyhow, but but listen to me I listen as much as I love all that there's gonna come a day when they want a mount to squat You understand that there's a day when those things are just gone. They're just burned and all that matters is What we can lay at the feet of Jesus And we saying that he was worthy do we live what we sing

Heard Linda Ravenhill say one time On a recording he said there's three persons in each of us There's the person we think we are There's the person others think we are and there's the person God knows we are And Listen I'm not talking about being completely perfect I understand we're growing in grace, and I have a pastor a heart don't misunderstand But listen to me there has to come a time where we prioritize Jesus and eternal things There has to come a time when you say that listen I can't allow my eyes to watch something like that because I know it violates my intimacy with Jesus and maybe even with my spouse. There comes a time when you have to say I can't allow my ears to hear just, and I know sometimes just walking through a mall you'll hear, but I'm talking about deliberately allowing filth into our ears and into our minds and into our spirits that violate that ability to see eternally. We've gotta come to a place to where we say Jesus, my relationship with you is more important than this temporary desire I have to fill my ears or my eyes with something that is not godly. Some might think I went to meddling instead of preaching, but friend, you wanna have an eternal mindset, you want your life to count for eternity. You gotta live like he's worthy. Then a raven also said, are the things you're living for worth Christ dying for?

At the end of the day, as uncomfortable as it might be, and it is, in Corinthians Paul told us that the believer, the Christian will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for our words and our deeds, our actions. It doesn't mean you're going to hell, but it means that obviously, and I don't have time to teach this, there's rewards in heaven. In my mind, I don't understand it all. Paul said his ways are past, we see in part, we understand a lot, but listen to me, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna stand before Jesus knowing that I wasted part of my life because I was so fixated on carnal things, maybe not even demonic, but things that distracted me from intimacy with Jesus to where I could've lived in such a way that maybe I won more souls to the kingdom or maybe I made more disciples or maybe I prayed more effectively and birthed things in the spirit realm as the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, according to Romans 8, 28, through groanings and utterings, birthed things in a supernatural way through my obedience. I don't wanna live so distracted that I am so owned by the things of this world. I wanna be able to, and I'm not telling you I'm perfect in this, I'm telling you, I'm preaching to me like I'm preaching to you, but listen, we know too much not to be faithful and not to be consecrated unto him.

And it's out of that intimacy that eternity becomes real tonight. Listen, a generation captivated by eternity will never settle for comfortable Christianity. Can I say something? We should be the most loving, hospitable, compassionate people in the world, but we can't compromise the gospel. Just can't do it. Now, why? Because eternity, listen, they asked Charles Finney, Charles Finney was this, if you don't know who Finney is, most of you probably do, but this revivalist in the 1800s, the second great awakening, he was one of the primary voice. There were others, but he was a primary voice. And they asked Finney, and I'll paraphrase this, but this is basically what they asked him, because he was a very passionate preacher. I mean, they said he was just very passionate. And they asked him, Mr. Finney, how is it that you always preach with such passion? And Finney's response was something like this, I'm paraphrasing, he said, when I preach, I see the glory of heaven, and I behold the reality of hell, and I preach in that vein. In other words, he was consumed with the fact that tonight, as I stand here, this is what Finney understood, there might be souls that are weighed in the balance tonight.

We never know. We never know. Listen, there have been a few, not many, but a few times where I have preached, and I knew that the person that heard me preach, it was the last time they ever heard the gospel again, that they went out into eternity in some way or another. Finney had this understanding that, listen, eternity was so real that people are dying, lost without Jesus. And he had to preach with passion. He had to call people to salvation, to repentance. He had to call the church to an eternal understanding. Because why? Because life is just a vapor. And it's just here for just a moment, and then it's gone. There's a lady in our neighborhood, we live up in the settlements near the speedway, right over on the Charlotte line. And she lived to be 106 years old. It's pretty old in this present world. And our neighbor kind of looked after her son and went down and checked on her and sometimes spent the night with her. And she said her mom was still very good. She was very loving. and very lucid and very cognitive. And I think she told us that when she was like 101 or 102 or something, her kids in their 80s took her driver's license away from her.

Because she had lost peripheral vision. But my point is this, I mean her name is Miss Pearl. Miss Pearl is 106 years old, but friend in light of eternity, that's just like if you were to take a grain of sand from the Atlantic Ocean, walk all the way across the continent of the United States and drop it to the Pacific Ocean and go back, and you could take every grain of sand off the Atlantic and take it to the Pacific and you still would not even scratch eternity. You see, whenever that becomes real to us and we realize how brief our existence is on this earth, then we have to ask ourselves, what are we truly investing in? Do you know how fast 58 years has gone by? In my mind, I'm still little Keith Collins. I saw a picture the other day with my quick shop, was the name of a little store, T-Ball Hat On, and I'm sitting there playing T-Ball and at Brent Lane in Pensacola, I still remember, somehow I got from like six years, five years old, 52, 53 years later, and it went by so fast. When Pastor Jay asked me 58 years from now to speak, I'll be 116 years old. That's funny, but listen to me. This first 58 went by so fast. I don't have long on this earth. If I have 30 years, 40 years, praise God.

But what is that? We've been here, how long, over 60, I can't believe we've been in Charlotte for 16 years. Where is, listen, you got one life. You got one opportunity, friend. What are you really investing? What really matters to you? Let me ask you this. What do you stress about? Because oftentimes the things that we stress about are so temporal and so transient, but yet they occupy so much of our passion, our attention, and our energy, and our heart. My heart tonight is God, give us a true view of eternal things tonight. Take us to that deeper place of intimacy with you, Jesus, that we realize that we are part of this amazing eternal plan. In the midst of that, we're blessed, we enjoy family, but listen, at the same time, we always, always acknowledge that we've got one real reason for being here. That's to love Jesus and to make him known to a lost and to a dying world, to encourage his people to keep on going forward. That's why I'm here. I wanna give you three quick points and I'm gonna close. There's something unique about a church in Revelation chapter three. As I taught about our first love

on those Wednesday nights here in the month of first three weeks of June, I talked about the church of Ephesus. The church of Ephesus left its first love. The church of Laodicea exchanged its first love for the things of this present world. What they claimed, that they are rich and they've become wealthy, they have need of nothing. They do not know, though, the Lord said that you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind, and you're naked. The Lord said, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich in white garments, and listen to what he said a little, and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. That's the part that stands out to me. That's the part that stands out to me. What is the Lord telling the church of Laodicea? Listen, you've become rich in the temporal, but you've become impoverished in the eternal. Can I tell you that I believe a lot of the American church is like Laodicea. They've become rich in the temporal. They've become rich in their abilities to do church even, but oftentimes they are impoverished when it comes to eternal things, praying until heaven is moved, taking authority over demons. Listen, friend, realizing that this is also spiritual warfare, and it takes spiritual people

who know Jesus to fight these types of battles. Can I tell you something? We've gotta fight for our children and for our grandchildren and people that are fixated on the present things of this world. They are impoverished spiritually, and they lack the ability like Laodicea. Laodicea said, we are increased with goods and have need of nothing, Lord. He said, I beg to differ with you. You got everything you need externally, but on the inside, you are poverty-stricken, and there is nothing of legitimacy and power on the inside. You see, when eternity becomes real, that spirit of Laodicea just breaks off of us and we realize why we're really here. I'm going to close with these points quickly here and we're going to pray for people tonight. I believe the Lord wants to touch hearts in here tonight, that you're going to leave here different, that everything changes for many of us tonight. Number one, we must deliberately live for eternity. Listen to what Paul told Timothy, I love this, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called to have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. The Greek verb there, it literally means to seize or to grasp firmly or to take possession of in a radical way. So what is Paul telling Timothy? He's telling Timothy, son, you've got to be deliberate about the way you live your life. Lay hold on eternal life. Realize that you have been called for such a time as this. Remember your grandmother and your mother, Lois and Eunice, and the spiritual heritage that's inside of you.

Remember that I laid hands on you and imparted gifts into you. Let those things be fanned into flame as you lay hold of eternity and eternal life. I want to challenge us tonight, friend, we got to be deliberate about eternal life. What I mean by that, there's things in your life that maybe need to be taken out of your life because listen, you can't flirt with filth and lay hands on eternal life at the same time. It's impossible. You understand? In other words, there has to be a reckoning that we have sometimes with ourselves. And we've got to get honest before the Lord and we've got to say, God, if there's anything in my life that's doing what? That's hindering intimacy with you, Jesus, then Lord, as painful as it is to my flesh, get it out. As a matter of fact, Jesus is radical sometimes. He would speak in radical, exaggerated, the scholars call it hyperbolic ways, hyperbole. He would say, if your hand offends you, then just cut it off. If your eye offends you, just gouge it out of your head. He said, you are better off to enter heaven maimed than to enter hell with a whole body is what he's saying. That's radical, right? But I think his point gets across. What does he say? Let nothing hinder you from seeing eternally. Let nothing hinder prayer and intimacy with Jesus. Let nothing hinder the call of God upon your life, upon your marriage, upon your family. Let nothing stop what God has called you to do and who he's called you to be. Number two, we've got to walk in the spirit because walking in the spirit aligns our vision with eternity. Paul said, 2 Corinthians chapter five, for we know that if our earthly house, this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the

heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed haven't been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed. That mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared for us this very thing is God, who has also given us the spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident knowing that we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. So what do we do? We walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent to what? To be well pleasing to him. Why? I already said this. For we must all stand or appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or whether bad. You see, whenever we walk in the spirit, we are able to see with eternal eyes and we live for this place of standing before Jesus one day. Can you imagine? I heard one man say, when you get to the judgment seat, you don't have time to make up your prayer life. When you get to the judgment seat, you don't have time to love people correctly or forgive people fully. In other words, we live, it's not that we have this like unhealthy fear, but we have

a healthy fear of God knowing that one day, that yes, he's the lover of our soul. He's got a fathering heart at the same time. He's holy holy holy He's the judge of the universe and the fear of God the all and the reverence of God is the beginning of wisdom So we live with eternal vision knowing that one day We stand before Jesus And we give an account for the way that we lived our lives God take us to that place of obedience My last point is this and I'm gonna close This is a little challenging, but it's it's important for us to understand especially in this generation We must live as a holy misfit in a world That is not your final home or our final home. This is some of the most challenging New Testament verses come here John 15 18 and 19. Listen to what Jesus said. Don't get mad at me He said it if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love its own yet because you are not of the world But I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you Now listen to me. I Want to reiterate we are loving we're complete the doors are wide open to anyone. We understand that At the same time there's something that makes us misfits. I Remember my dad my biological father told me one time he died at age 51 Did drugs and all that. I shared his testament a little bit on Wednesday night here, but I remember before my dad died I'd been saved maybe Maybe two or three years and he was he was Catholic He was trying to get me to go into the priesthood and to become a Catholic priest. I'm like dad. It just ain't gonna happen Anyhow, I remember one time he told me he said Keith He said I know you think you really have the truth, but he said I want to tell you something He said going to heaven is like this. He said it's like train cars. He said there's a Buddhist cart. There's a Hindu cart There's a Protestant cart. There's a Catholic cart. There's a Mormon cart So they're all on the same track going to the same place and they all get there

And of course, he's my father my biological father. I just said dad I just have to disagree with you and my even as a young kid that had been saved recently. I was thinking Well, Calvary would be a big waste of time if that was true Why would Jesus come and and and be tortured and and suffer so much if all those other ways were a way to get to heaven? And I I knew because of what had happened to me that that that he is the way the truth and the life that no One comes to the father, but by me that acts 412 neithers are salvation in any other But there is no other way unto heaven given among men Such that we should be saying other word there. There is no there's not a plan B for salvation well, well, let me tell you something that makes you a misfit in a world of Confusion and tolerance and Even hate Jesus said the why did the world hates me because Jesus came claiming to be the only way The truth and the life You know when I was finishing up my master's degree years ago, I'll never forget. I had to had to study atheists in that fun I was doing an apologetics class and they made a study some of the renowned mainly these guys that lived 100 150 years ago Different atheists back then than we have today They were much more I guess you could use the word tolerant. They would be willing to sit with theologians at the time But I I noticed over the years that some of the modern atheists have gotten like angry In other words, I'm some my thought is why are you angry about something you don't even believe in? But But I began to kind of look at the way they profit and what are they angry about? I'm gonna tell you what they're angry about God says he puts eternity in the heart of every individual every man and I believe when the gospel is preached Whether they like it or not or claim to believe it or not believe there is something on the inside of them that recognizes There's something to this And they've got to either humble themselves Or they've got to resist and stiff-arm Jesus You see when you come saying there's only one way to heaven You're a misfit When eternity becomes a real friend Paul said I am NOT ashamed of the gospel

Why did he say it because he had the opportunity to be ashamed of the gospel I'm not ashamed of the gospel. He said it's the only way to heaven May we not be ashamed of the gospel It's gonna cause us to live like Paul told Timothy if you live godly in Christ Jesus you shall suffer persecution Peter said don't think it's strange these fiery trout these even demonic Spirits that will fight you and I've had them sometimes the battle is so egregious It's almost like the claws of the enemy run down our soul and we run red with blood in the midst of the battle But even there He is the bread of heaven He's the the table in the presence of our enemies and we know that he's worthy of every pain every trial Every battle every temptation everything and we also know as Paul said nothing can separate me from the love of God Eternity becomes our native air This world is fleeting Don't waste your vapor friend. Don't waste your life. I want you to stand with me. I'm closing with a brief story We're gonna pray Several years ago, it's been probably eight nine back before a couple years before Kobe. So maybe eight years ago. I Along with a dear friend of mine a pastor We're doing a pastors conference in Bulgaria outside of Sofia Bulgaria And then I was I was preaching the night we were doing Probably 200 pastors or so maybe a few more in the day services than at night. I was preaching as well The last night I'd finished preaching I prayed for all 200 me and Pastor Wayne this dear brother of mine I Was tired. It's probably 11 o'clock at night the next morning and we were scheduled to fly to Sofia back to Back to the States and I just wanted to go lay down and rest and get ready to go to the airport My brother came up to me and he said brother. He said would you please come to my church and preach for me, please? And in my mind, I'm thinking the next time I come to Bulgaria. I'm gonna go preaching this guy's church I said, well, listen, man, let me let me connect you with Sasha. He was the leader We were with Sasha has my information if it works out. I'd be honored to come and speak in your church

He said no, can you come now and speak in my church? It's 11 o'clock at night. We're flying out the next morning. I Look at Wayne We were just at his house a couple of nights ago Wayne Stotler and Wayne's like brother if you're going I'm going He's ready So anyway, I I mean even though my humanity didn't want to do it. I agreed to go We get in his car we start driving 30 minutes. We're still driving 45 minutes or so. He says now we've entered my country of Turkey. I'm like, wow, no visa for Turkey, but we're in Turkey At this time it's like midnight or maybe a little later So we drive maybe 15 minutes more into Turkey and he stops the car in the middle of the woods No lights, no street lights. We're like this is a if you look on a map It's where Bulgarian Turkey meet and it's very mountainous. It was freezing probably maybe 25 degrees Fahrenheit that night. It was freezing We get out of the car and he said brothers we have to walk from here We start walking. He's got like a little pin flashlight We get behind him and we're walking through this little wooded area five minutes or so later We we come to the place where he said this is our church His church was like one of those Maersk Cargo, you know containers that fits on a ship that they ship overseas Like like the back of an 18-wheeler with no axle sitting on the ground. That was his church. I Walk in this church, there's no electricity There's no heat and the doors had like curtains the door and it looks like they had maybe taken a cutting torch and cut a door in this steel Container so I walked in there and I remember was so crowded that Wayne and I and the power we had to walk Sideways because the people were just at no seat sit on the floor All those in there is three little little house on the prairie kerosene lanterns one two Three scattered throughout the little part of the building there and just very dim light So I stand there and he looks at me. He said brother just start preaching To be honest with you, man. I my mind is in the bed Getting to the airport packing. I'm just being honest

Spiritual giant here I begin to share He's interpreting. I'm just really encouraging them and their walk with the Lord Well, I'm maybe five or a few more minutes into my Exhortation and I begin to hear these loud Bang against and it's a metal containers. I begin to these loud. I mean like piercing noises against the side of this building. I Looked at the brother and I said what's going on? Here's what he told me. He said brother. They know we're here. Keep preaching I'll be honest with you You know, I'd spent years teaching about the persecuted church and the martyrs of the faith In my humanity, I really thought this could be it or at the least we might not get out of here without being really injured bad I I wish I could tell you that the spirit of Superman came on me that night but I'm glad to tell you that the spirit of the Holy Spirit came on me that night here's what happened as I stood there and I looked into the eyes of these people again just these little lanterns and most honestly most of the people were older women with scars or all you see was her beautiful little faces they weren't flinching they weren't even they weren't startled at all something happened to me that night as I stood there I literally felt as if someone poured a a warm vat of oil of me I could almost feel it like I could feel like going down on my nose I mean it was a supernatural experience from the Lord and I'll just say this I've never preached like that before or after but it was almost like I just had word of knowledge and I just began to exhort and share and God moved and in such a beautiful way and and we prayed with people and it was just such a glorious supernatural experience but I'm gonna tell you what I saw in the eyes of these people I saw eternity in their eyes it was real to them this commitment that they had made to Jesus living in a Muslim area Muslim village was so real that that death did not cause him or the thought of death or the fear of death or torture did not cause him to even flinch and it it it it messed with me in a very deep good way and I saw eternity in their eyes in their faces and I remember as we finished I was there probably two

hours and it's very late now as we finished we we begin to leave and the pastor told me this he said brothers he said put your hand put your face in your hands and cover your eyes and put your head down and just follow me we thought Wayne myself even he thought that they would at least throw rocks at us that night I don't know why I mean I could see up my peripheral a little bit through the cracks in my fingers look like maybe seven to nine young men there I don't know if the Lord stopped him if an angel stopped him or it's just not my time or I'm supposed to be here tonight maybe but anyway for some reason we got out of there and the pastor was even surprised and we found out the next morning before we went to the airport that twice a Muslim cleric in this village had had this pastors two children one was 11 and one was 7 had their shirts removed and tied them to a pole and came their blacks their backs bloody because their dad preached the gospel in other words these people were counting the cost and eternity and Jesus was worth it he was worthy I don't say that any of us will ever go through that in this building I'm not saying you're not you don't know where the Lord might send you what you might go through but I do know that around the world tonight listen I've got a radio program that plays every Saturday at 6 30 p.m. and this signal through shortwave enters into places like North Korea China Laos Vietnam Cambodia Lester Summerall put three towers on the island of Guam in the late 1970s and we've accessed those towers through a friend of mine in North in West Virginia and we send shortwave messages into these parts of the world and sometimes I'll hear from these little North Korean pastors and they'll they'll tell me that they have a group of people that that meet on Saturday night secretly and they listen to the world and the word and he interprets the word to the people that are in love with Jesus eternity is more real to them than their comfort and their safety and their protection and what is it tonight that would hinder us from seeing Jesus as he really is and for living for that that really matters I'll ask you the question of Raven here one more time are the things we're living for worth Christ dying for tonight bow your heads tonight