Alright, I'll be giving my testimony tomorrow, but something Victor didn't mention that the
other two, I thought was kind of interesting, is that Victor obviously led his wife to the
Lord as well. So we've got three men who gave the testimony today who led their own wives to the
Lord, which is a blessing. And I've done that as well, so I think, and I was speaking to Matt as
well, so I mean there's a number of us here that have led our wives to the Lord. Praise God for
that. So please, if you've got your Bibles, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter
4 verse 18. And if you're wondering, while you turn there, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18,
if you're wondering why is this pulpit so small, it's not my pulpit, okay, it's Nicholas' pulpit,
my son Nicholas. His uncle made it for him, I don't know, maybe three years ago, because Nicholas was
practicing to preach and, you know, his uncle made it for him. So as Nathan was banging on the
pulpit before, I was like, hey, you know, that's Nicholas' pulpit. Take care of it. Alright, 2
Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18 says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things
which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen
are eternal. So what kind of things are we looking for? Are we looking for the things that are
temporal or are we looking at the things that are eternal? Here's the issue of this, right? Because
we've got eyes of flesh, we look at things that are temporal, we're often motivated by the things
that are temporal, but God says no, we as believers need to set our sights upon the things that are
eternal, the things that are invisible. And so the message that I have for you guys today is to set
your eyes on eternal things or set your eyes upon eternity, okay? And I know immediately, look,
before I even preach this, many of you have already set your eyes upon eternity. Many of you
have already got a vision for eternal matters and not looking at the temporal things. Some of you
have flown up from Sydney and spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars and some thousands of dollars,
and, you know, we could look at that and go, wait, these temporal things, you know, that's a
lot of money just to get up here and, you know, why? You know, a few days later I'll be back in
Sydney, but I know you're here because your sights are set upon eternity. You know, things that are
temporal are going to pass away, aren't they? But the things that are eternal are going to last
forever. So if we're going to set our sights upon eternal things, if we're going to set our sights
upon eternity, we need to know what are those things that are eternal. We need to know what are
the things that are going to last forever. Everlasting, you know, the Bible uses the term
eternal and uses the term everlasting. What's the difference between everlasting and eternal?
They're very similar, aren't they? But everlasting are things that last forever, right? And eternal
are things that never end. So you're kind of looking at it from two perspectives. Things are
going to last forever that way, and then you go, but it's never going to end either. That's the
difference between eternal and everlasting. The first thing that's obviously everlasting,
the thing that's eternal, number one, is God. Okay, we're here for our Lord God. We're not
here to praise man. We're not here to praise Kevin Sepulveda. We're not here to praise Victor or
anyone else here. We're purely here to praise our Lord Jesus Christ. God is eternal. Psalm 41 verse
13 says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen and
amen. So you got David here. I think it's David. I'm not sure, but you know, we see this in the
Psalm here where he says, hey, God is from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen and amen.
Amen true from before and amen true moving forward. He's going to last forever. So hey,
the person that I want to worship, the person that I want to love, is someone that I'm going
to be able to love forever for all eternity. You know, we love God. He's done so much for us. He's
given us our Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, this temporal life that I have, this vapor that I have, I'm
going to use it to serve my Lord. I'm going to use it to serve Him. And that's just now,
but it's going to last for all eternity. I'm going to worship Him with the angels, with the saints.
We're going to praise God for eternity. So first thing I want you guys to understand is that God
is eternal. We need to set Him first in our life. The second thing that's eternal is the Kingdom of
God. The Kingdom of God. Psalm 145 verse 13 says, thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. And again, this idea of generations
is found in Daniel chapter 4 verse 3. It says, how great are His signs, and how mighty are His
wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.
So the reason why the Kingdom of God is so important, guys, is because, hey, when we're
going out soul-willing, what are we doing? We don't have the millennial reign of Christ right
now. We don't have Christ's reign upon this physical earth just yet, but our job is to go
and preach the gospel and bring people into the kingdom. And this is what they were doing from
the time of Jesus Christ. This is what we're doing in 2017, and this is what we want our children
doing when they're old enough to preach the gospel. Amen. Because it's from generation to
generation. Every generation needs to set the Kingdom of God as their site, and to bring people
into that kingdom. What else is eternal? Well, obviously linked into that, it's souls. Souls
are eternal. Every one of you are going to last. It's going to last forever. Right? Every one of
you has been given a soul that's been given to you by God, and you can either reject Jesus Christ
or believe upon Him, and that's going to determine the eternal destiny of your soul. You know,
everlasting life. It's called everlasting life because it's everlasting. 1 John 2 verse 25 says,
And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1,
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
this earthly house speaking about this physical body, we have a building of God,
and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. God promises that we have,
if you're saved, an eternal body that's going to live forever. It's a building of God. Look
at the difference between this. Earthly house, we have a building of God, and house not made
with hands, eternal—sorry, this is what I'm looking for here. Earthly house of this tabernacle. God
describes our physical life as a tabernacle. And if you remember what the tabernacle was in the
time of Israel, it was something that was temporary. It was something that was moved
from place to place. It wasn't a permanent thing. So God distinguishes our physical life as a
tabernacle, but then the future life that He has given to us is a building of God, something that's
fixed, that's not made with hands, and eternal in the heavens. So we have our eternal life,
something that we ought to be living for. But also, what is it that motivates us? Yes,
to give people eternal life, but another thing that motivates us to go soul winning is the idea
of the everlasting fire, right? Hell and the lake of fire as an eternal place of torment.
Matthew 25 verse 41, Jesus said, Then shall He say unto them on the left hand,
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. I mean,
just the thought of souls going to a place of everlasting fire should motivate us to get off
our behinds and go and knock doors and preach the gospel, right? I mean, have you ever been burnt?
Have you ever felt that pain? And even after, you know, after you've taken your hand off that,
wherever you burnt it, it's still burning. It's still hot. It's still, you know, you're in pain.
Imagine having that pain for all eternity throughout your whole body, throughout your
whole soul. I mean, this should motivate us to, hey, understand this everlasting fire. You know,
we have a loving God. We do. He's given us so much, but He's got a wrath that's going to send
people to hell. You know, He's extreme on both sides. He's extreme love, but He's also got
extreme wrath for those that reject Jesus Christ. And He's given us the task to go and pull these
people out of the fire. Are we going to do it, guys? Yeah, of course. That's why we're here. Okay.
That's why we're here. So I want you to think about what are the things that are eternal.
Something else that's eternal. What else? The Bible. Okay. Matthew 24, verse 35 says,
heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Mark 13,
31. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Luke 21,
33. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Three times exact
phraseology given to us in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. What point is He trying to make? Hey,
that this book, the words in this book are eternal. They'll last forever. You can read
your novels, and you can read your books of, you know, positive thinking, and business growth,
and how to make money, but you know, you know, those things can help you. Yeah,
I get it on a temporal basis, but it's not going to be valuable to you once you pass on from this
life. What's going to be valuable, the learning that you can get today is found in the Word of
God. It's something that we're going to take with us into eternity, and I personally believe that
God's going to continue teaching us from His Word. I personally believe that the book here is not
just eternal, but it's eternally deep. I reckon you can never stop learning this book. I don't
think, you know, you might have read the Bible cover to cover. You think you have a good grasp
of the Bible. I tell you what, every time I read the Bible, I learn new things. I come across new
things, and that's just me, just in my fleshly body, in the limited capacity that I have in my
mind to understand God's Word. Imagine when we have our heavenly bodies. Imagine when we have
Jesus Christ standing before all believers and opening His Word, because He is the Word of God,
and teaching us His Word. So the Bible, please make the Bible a priority in your life,
because it's eternal. What else is eternal? What else is eternal in our life?
Rewards. Rewards in heaven. Okay, Jesus says in Matthew 6 19,
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust are corrupt, and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. So God is saying, hey, the treasures
you get in heaven, the rewards He has for you laid up there, they're never going to get corrupted.
Okay, no thief is ever going to break in and steal those rewards from you.
So think about that. You know, what are the things, what are we working for in this life?
This is our chance right now in the limited 80, 90 years of life. You know, I hope we all can
live that long. And some of us will live much shorter than that. But you know, what are we
working toward? Are we working toward the things that are temporal, the things that are going to
burn up, the things that are going to be no value for eternity? Are we looking at the rewards in
heaven? Right, we need to lay up our treasures in heaven, where there's value. Okay. And like we
said, hey, these are things that we can't see right now. I can't see my treasures in heaven.
I don't know if it's a small little pile, if it's large. I don't think it's that large,
to be honest. I think there's a lot more people that have done so much more for the Lord. But
one thing that, let me just see what I've got here. But one thing, yeah, I do want you to
understand is that a lot of people think that the pastor or the bishop is going to get the rewards,
right? They're going to think that the missionary, surely, you know, the deacons of the church,
they're the ones, you know, because they're in full-time ministry, they're the ones laying up
treasures. No, the treasure is available to every believer. Okay. And you know, what I want you to
understand is that obviously we have things we need to do in our temporal life. We have things,
we need to go to work, right? We need to feed the family. We need to provide a roof, you know,
for ourselves and clothe ourselves. And we need to do things just to live, just to be able to get
through this physical realm that we're in right now. And sometimes I've heard people say, man,
I wish I could give up my secular job, you know, because I want to get rewards in heaven. I want to
be in full-time ministry serving the Lord. But here's the thing that a lot of people don't really
understand is that you can lay up treasures for yourself in heaven doing your secular job,
doing the things that you need to do just to get through life. Because who told you to go
get a job, men? Men, who told you to go work and provide for your family? It was God, wasn't it?
Yeah, we understand that the income you're making isn't going to, you know, matter for eternity.
But the fact that you're obeying God and you're saying, yes, Lord, I'm going to go and work. I'm
going to provide. I'm not going to be worse than an infidel. I'm going to provide for my people.
That's you obeying the Lord. That's you obeying Him and saying, Lord, yes, I'm going to take what
you say on board. And by being obedient to you, I know you're going to reward me in heaven.
Do you see how your mindset will change when you set your eyes on eternity?
You can be doing the same task, but you can either be earning rewards on the earth, or you can be
laying up your treasures in heaven by doing the same task on the earth, because you're either
doing it for the Lord or you're doing it for yourself. And that's where, you know, this is
why it's important to make sure your eyes are laid on eternity. But I just want to, I'm going to try
to wrap up as soon as I can now, but what is going to, what's going to change in your life if you set
your eyes on eternity? Number one, if you set your eyes upon eternity, upon the things that are
invisible, the things that will last forever, number one, it will make you prioritize the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matthew 6-33, but seek ye first, what? Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. God says,
hey, my kingdom first, my righteousness first, try to live a righteous holy life for me, and I'll make
sure the things that are earthly will be taken care of. But that's number one, it's going to
make you prioritize the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Number two, it's going to make you
prioritize your fellow believers, your fellow brothers in Christ. Now, you know, some of you
have only met each other first time today, but I ask that you would please learn to love and learn
to serve one another. Look what it says here, maybe you guys can turn there, I want you guys to see
this in Matthew 10. Matthew 10-40, please go there, Matthew 10-40.
Matthew 10-40 says, He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward,
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man
reward. And whosoever shall, look at this, so it says, look, if you receive a prophet, if you serve,
you receive him, you take care of him, you show generosity and, and what's the word I'm looking
for? I forgot, yeah, you take him in, you take him in, you bring him in, sorry, hospitality,
that's the word I was looking for, thank you. So if you're hospitable to a prophet, guess what,
you're going to earn the prophet's reward. So the work that the prophet's been doing, the reward
that he's been doing, if you take care of that person, if you love them and take care of their
needs, you're going to earn the same reward as them. And then it says, He that receiveth a
righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man reward. So you might not
be very righteous, but you take care for the needs of the righteous man, the one that's trying to
live for the Lord, your brother in Christ, hey, you're going to get the same reward as that
righteous person. How good is that? How can you lose? And look at this, verse 42. And whosoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water, only in the name of a
disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. So the little ones, the
little children here, if you've gone and give them a cup of water, sometimes they can't, you know,
they can't make the sandwiches, they can't, you know, they're going to spill water everywhere,
you go and help them. It says you will not lose your reward, just the smallest things you can do
in your life. If you do it for the right reasons, you do it unto the Lord, you will not lose your
reward, you will gain those rewards that God has for you. And Jesus also taught this in another
place, a slightly different context, but it's the same teaching in Mark 9 41. For whosoever shall
give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, verily I say unto
you, he shall not lose his reward. So what's my point? My point is that you can earn rewards in
heaven even in the minuscule tasks, even the smallest things that you do. You don't have to
be the pastor, you don't have to be the missionary, you just do all your things. You live your life
for the Lord, you serve him and you serve the brethren, you learn to love the brethren,
you learn to love the children that God loves, then you will be earning reward as well. You see
how you can be who you are, God's put you in the place that you are, you don't have to think,
oh wow, it's these great men of God, they're the ones. No, I'm sure about it, that there's going
to be the so-called great men of God in heaven with nothing, and then you're going to have the
person that you thought did nothing for the Lord with great rewards because he loved the brethren,
and by loving the brethren, by receiving the brethren, he's received Jesus Christ
as it were, okay, and he's been rewarded for that.
Number four, setting your eyes on eternity will make you a more productive and satisfied employee.
How many times do I hear people say, oh my job is boring, I hate my job, I hate my boss,
but what does Jesus say? In Colossians 3 22, servants obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleases, but in singleness of heart,
fear in God, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as of the Lord and not unto men,
knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve,
who do you serve, your boss, for you serve the Lord Christ, so even in your job, okay,
you might find it boring, you might find it pointless, meaningless, you know, you're sick
of it, no, do it as unto the Lord and you will receive the reward of the inheritance,
okay, so you can go to work and be lazy and do as little as you can, yeah, okay, you'll get your
check, you'll get your pay, sure, you'll get your earthly reward, but if you put your effort in,
you do it as unto the Lord, not only will you get your paycheck, but God will set rewards for you
in heaven that are for eternity, so it's going to make you a more productive and a more satisfied
employee. Number five, it'll strengthen your marriage, look what it says to wives in Ephesians
5 22, wives submit unto your own husbands, I don't want to submit to my husband, no,
submit to your own husbands as unto the Lord, do it as unto the Lord, you know, wives and husbands
love your wives in verse 25, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it, why did God give himself to the church? So they could give him eternal life,
husbands, this is how you ought to love your wife to the point that you'd give your own life
for your wife and wife submit yourself to your husband, so you can see how by having that
relationship as unto the Lord or how the Lord has done it to the church can strengthen your marriage
and earn you those rewards in heaven. And just a few last points here, number six, it'll comfort
you, having your eyes upon eternity will comfort you from temporal struggles, right, because we all
struggle in life, all right, some of you guys look like you don't struggle, but I know that you all
struggle with something, it could be financial, it could be in your relationships, it could be
with your children, it could be with anything, your workplace, right, we all have struggles
to some extent, maybe you've got persecution from your own family for being a believer,
but it'll comfort you with temporal struggles because when your eyes are upon
eternity you realise this is such a short life, it's just a vapour, it's going to pass,
but I'm looking forward to what the Heavenly Father has set before me for
forever, for all eternity, it's going to last forever, and when I look back at my temporal life
it's just a vapour, all those problems were nothing, it just went up, it's gone, it's gone,
so it's going to give you comfort from your temporal struggles, it'll fill you with joy,
right, because how many people who are godless, who do not fear God, you know, out so many they're
like I'm just going to die and be fertiliser for grass, I mean what kind of joy is that in your
life, what purpose is there, you know, I mean just be fertiliser now, I mean because you're
not going to remember what you enjoyed in life are you, if you just die and that's all you become,
so it's going to fill you with great joy when you understand that life will continue and life
will continue in a place where there'll be no more sin, where I will be able to praise God,
I'll be able to see him face to face in all his glory, and number eight it'll give you great
purpose, okay, because here's the thing, I don't know if you've noticed this, but salvation,
Christianity, the gospel, often appeals to those that are kind of, that feel rejected in life,
I don't know if you've noticed this, people that kind of are a bit awkward who maybe were bullied
in school and they feel like they've been rejected by their family, rejected by their friends,
they're not the popular, you know, guys and the reason why the gospel resonates with them
is because they realise that God loves them, they realise that God's died for them, Jesus Christ,
this great sacrifice, and it gives them great purpose because now instead of being rejected
by people, they realise they're accepted by God, and so set in their eyes, you know, will give
them great purpose, it will give you great purpose, and you know, this is why I believe,
you know, Jesus would often talk about those that have mourned, and it's often these people that
will come and receive the gospel with gladness. So that's what I have for you guys today,
just, you know, thank you for that, let's just pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you
again, Lord, for being such a great God. Lord, I thank you for the testimonies that we've heard,
I thank you for the preaching from Victor, and Lord, I just pray that you would help us here,
Lord, this new church that's about to begin tomorrow, Lord, that we would please, Lord,
help us to set our sights on eternity. Sometimes it's hard to see the things that are invisible,
Lord, sometimes it's hard because we're blinded by the temporal things in life that we can see.
Lord, I just pray that you would help fix our eyes, Lord, Lord, that no one would feel that
this afternoon or today was a waste of time because they've got their eyes, Lord,
upon the eternal matters, Lord. I pray that our account in heaven would increase the treasures
that we have, the rewards, the great rewards we have there, Lord, to serve you. Thank you,
Lord, that we can just earn it even by giving a glass of water to your little children.
Lord, we thank you for being such a great God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.