Living with Eternal Urgency: A Call to Faith

Thank you so much for being here with us this morning. It really does mean a lot that you braved the rain to get out here. My name is Jake, and I get to be our campus director here at our Washingtonville location.

For our folks here in person, you're going to notice some of our camera crew walking around here today, and that's so our folks online can have an excellent experience wherever you're joining us from. If you are new, grab one of the connection cards in the seat back in front of you. There's a card there and a pin. Fill that card out, and after service, you can bring that to our info center, which is right outside those doors, and they have a gift bag there waiting for you as a way to say thank you for being here with us today because it really does mean that much.

A few things you'll hear us say here at Grace is that, first of all, you are a gift to us. It really does mean a lot that you chose to be here. Second of all, it's okay to not be okay here. Our hope is that we don't want to stay in that not okay place, and we say that every single week. We love you enough to tell you the truth, and that is the capital T truth of Jesus Christ. We believe that whatever makes us not okay, that Jesus is the answer. So we love you enough to tell you about him.

Today is going to be a special day for us. We have a special message from our Warwick pastor, Pastor Mike Evans. I'm excited for you to hear from him today. But we're looking ahead—what's next? What's going on next for you? How can you get plugged into the life of Grace? Fill out one of those connection cards, but you can also take some initiative for yourself. See what's coming up, go to our website, sign up for our weekly email, and every Monday you'll get an email with what's coming up and what's going on and how you can get plugged into the life of Grace. So don't miss out on that opportunity as well.

One last thing is you’ll notice we won't pass a plate or an offering basket here at Grace. We believe that giving comes from a grateful heart, not from a heart of guilt, but from a place of gratefulness for what God has done and what he's going to do, trusting him with our finances.

Let's just take a moment to thank God for all that he has done.

Good morning, everyone! My name is Andrew, Katie, Candace, and the team, and we are excited to join you in worship this morning. We're gonna give God glorious praise and lift up our voices and sing along as loud as we can because He is worthy and worth it.

There is a King of glory, there is a God who saves, one who is strong and mighty; freedom is in His name. Jesus, the King of glory, foreign and our future like that.

So if you've come today prepared to give, you can place that in one of the brown wooden boxes by the doors on your way out. You can also give online, and for our folks online, there's going to be a button for you to press as well.

So I know you're excited, the band's excited. I want to invite you to stand to your feet, and let's sing together. Guys, thank you, Jake.

Let's sing at the top of our lungs: there is a King of glory, there is a God who saves, one who is strong and mighty; freedom is in His name. Jesus, the King of glory, foreign and our future like that. Nations just one day foreign, so give Him all your worship with everything you have to the depths of your soul; praise His name this morning.

I've got one response, I've got just one thing; it's all that I have that's fit for a King, except for our hearts and Hallelujah. I've got nothing else, so I throw up my hands; I praise You again and again. We call upon His name today, God, Hallelujah. Come on, let's sing this out together, 'cause You gotta go, 'cause all that I have is fit for a King.

I know my words fall short, I've got nothing new; how could I express my gratitude? I could sing this song as I often do, but every song must end, and You never do. So I throw up my hands; I praise You again and again.

Let's just take a moment to thank God for all that He has done and all that He continues to do. So we just worship You today, and we give You all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory, and it's in Your name we pray. Amen.

I invite you to greet those around you, and let's just take a moment to thank God for all that He has done.

Welcome, everyone, to Grace Community Church! I'm Mike Evans, the Warwick lead pastor at our Warwick campus. I'm brand new to the area, having moved here with my family from California about six months ago. My family is quite large, so every family event is at least 50 people, if not more.

Yesterday was my youngest daughter's fourth birthday, and it was our first New York birthday. We're still getting to know people, and my kids haven't made a lot of friends yet. The Warwick team decided to throw a little barbecue for her, and when I got back, they sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles. The look on my daughter's face was priceless, and it was a reminder of why I'm thankful for Grace. The church is not the building; it's the people.

I've seen it in my six months here, from going to the hospital to pray for people to throwing a birthday party for a little four-year-old. How incredible has this gospel series been, and the opportunity to hear from all these great pastors? Let's show love to all the pastors out there that have been here, sharing their hearts. God bless them!

I'm excited. Today I want to talk about something that is not as popular to talk about when we talk about the gospel, but it is very important. I'm thankful that our church took time to really break down what the gospel is, why it is important, why it matters, and what we should do with it.

Growing up in church, I knew of Heaven and Hell, but when I was around seven or eight years old, my parents took me and my brother to a play called Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames. This play is an evangelistic tool with short skits and characters who die unexpectedly and then stand before God. Depending on if they received the gospel and put their faith in Jesus while they were living, they go to one side of the stage for Heaven or the other side for Hell.

As a little seven or eight-year-old boy, I was scared straight that day. I realized that this life is just this life, and we will spend eternity somewhere else. This has been the church mascot of Grace, and I think it is a great illustration of our life versus eternity. Our life is like this little blue tape, while eternity is the rest of the stage.

God cares about us and how we respond to the gospel message. What is this life compared to eternity? Pastor David Platt said it would be cruel to stay silent about this reality that we live this life, and depending on how we respond to the gospel, we will spend eternity in heaven or hell.

We don't stay silent by making signs or chasing people around asking if they know Jesus. We choose not to stay silent by hearing the gospel, accepting it, and putting our faith in Jesus. We want to live the rest of our life with eternal urgency and an eternal perspective.

Jesus talked about eternal urgency and eternal punishment a lot. He was on this Earth for 33 years, and only three of those years were ministry years. We have to ask ourselves, with Jesus' own life, how did he live with eternal urgency? We can learn from Jesus and live our life with eternal urgency.

Jesus, the son of God, had his three years of ministry. During this time, Jesus went into great detail to talk about eternal urgency and eternal punishment. He described a great chasm over which none may cross over from there to us (Luke 16:26). He spoke of a time when people will be separated into two groups, one entering his presence and the other banished into eternal fire (Matthew 25:46). He spoke of a place of great torment (Luke 16:23), unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43), weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:32), and outer darkness (Matthew 25:30).

But why did Jesus go into such great detail to talk about eternal punishment? The answer is found in Romans 3:23, which says, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard." We all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, making hell a default destination for all people apart from Jesus.

But God has an answer. In Romans 3:24-25, it says, "God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Jesus Christ when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin." This is why the gospel is so important and amazing. God knew that hell was a default destination for all mankind because of our fallen and broken world, and so he provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus.

God says He is going to give us a free gift, a free gift that will save us from our destined path to hell and allow us to go to heaven. All we have to do is put our faith in Jesus, the Son of God, and receive this free gift. This is the good news, the gospel, and why we want to take time to go over it. We want to hear it, accept it, put our faith in it, and live it out. We also want to clearly pass it along.

Jesus loves us so much that during His earthly years, He went into great detail talking about eternal urgency and eternal punishment. He doesn't want to spend eternity without us. This is seen in 2 Peter 3:9, which says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

By making a decision to follow Jesus, we make an eternal decision. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Making this decision impacts our lives right now. It is not about planning, saving, going on vacations, having a better car, or eating more kale and spinach. It is about making an eternal decision that will enhance our lives right now.

John 10:10 states that Jesus' purpose is to give us a rich and satisfying life. This is in contrast to the enemy's purpose, which is to steal, kill, and destroy. To receive this Abundant Life, we must hear the gospel, receive it, and put our faith in Jesus. This is not something that can be achieved by thinking and planning, but rather by experiencing it.

I remember when I was 15 and I lost a friend and teammate. Everyone was crushed, but there was a difference. I had put my faith in Jesus and had something that I couldn't explain—a peace that surpasses all understanding. This is the Abundant Life that Jesus was talking about. It is not a life full of riches and rewards, but rather a life of peace and hope.

When it is your time to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're not gonna walk alone. I'll walk with you no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter what's going on around you, pandemic or whatnot. That is the Abundant Life that Jesus is talking about, and that abundance is experienced when we live with eternal urgency—not worry, stress, and concern about this life, but thinking more of eternity.

God wants us to understand that life is short. This is a sad but true reality that maybe some of you have experienced personally. I remember being a freshman in high school, and this one week through my freshman year, everything stopped, and it was this harsh reality check that life is short. In this one week, there were three students that passed away in a car accident, a student who had been battling a sickness that passed away, and a teacher that committed suicide.

God doesn't want us to get caught up in the busyness of life; he wants us to understand that life is short and that this life, even though enhanced through Christ, is short. He wants us to live now with eternal urgency. Psalm 90:12 says, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Psalm 39:4 says, "Oh Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am." James 4:14 says, "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."

Jesus loves us too much for us to find out when it's too late that life is short. He doesn't want us to be in eternity without you. He wants us to accept this reality that life is short and to live with eternal urgency.

We should live our life with eternal urgency right now because there will be a day for all of us when we will stand before God and give an account for our life. Matthew 7:21-22 says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." On that day, many will say to Jesus, "Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?" Jesus will reply, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

This passage is sad and scary because it shows that it is not enough to do good works, but we must also know and understand the gospel message. We must care more about who we know and the gospel message than what we do and what we know. This understanding of the gospel should make us want to live with eternal urgency and tell others about it.

I often ask myself a sobering question: when I stand before God on that day, what would I wish I did this day? What kind of spouse would I wish I was? What kind of parent would I wish I was? We should be mindful of this question and strive to live our lives with eternal urgency.

On this day, let's have that day drive who we are, dictate who we are this day, and let it determine the kind of attitude we're gonna have. When we stand before God on that day, what type of conversations would we wish we had? How would we have wished that we worshiped God on this day?

I just want to encourage you to write that down somewhere, put it on your mirror, put it in your phone, put it on your fridge in all caps, and remind yourself that I will have that day. Because I know I will have that day, I want to live my life with eternal urgency, and I want that to dictate who I'm going to be this day.

Thinking about one day I'm standing before God, and I'm gonna have to give an account for my life. On that day, it won't matter how much money you made, what you did with your career, what kind of car you drove, or what vacations you went on. What will matter is what I did with the gospel. Did I believe it? Did I hear the gospel message that Jesus came to die for my sin, and did I choose to put my faith in him? That is all that's gonna matter on that day.

I want to offer everyone the opportunity to make an eternal decision for themselves. I know that I have sinned, but I want to receive the free gift that God sent to bridge the gap between us and God through his son Jesus on the cross. I want to receive that for myself.

If you haven't already, then go find somebody in this room that you don't know and introduce yourself. Say, "Hi, I'm new here, and I just said yes to Jesus, and I'm so excited to be here. I want to be part of this family, and I want to get to know you, and I want to get to know this church, and I want to get to know Jesus more."

So go find somebody and introduce yourself, and let's start this journey together.

I just want to ask you to repeat this prayer after me: "Dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you died on the cross for my sin, and I believe you rose again. Help me now to live for you for all of my days. Thank you, Jesus. Amen."

Today, Pastor Mike was talking about this eternal urgency he's calling us to have. When we start living with that eternal perspective, looking beyond this moment, it changes the way we even see this moment. Having that eternal perspective can give us anxiety, but looking with that eternal perspective changes how we see right now.

If you prayed that prayer with Pastor Mike and you're saying yes to Jesus for the first time today, we have a gift for you. We have this gift bag, or "Yes Bag," which has some next steps in there for you, including a Bible. Reading your Bible is a gateway to spiritual growth. It's important to know that you're going to upgrade when you start reading your Bible.

We want to be walking with you as your new family in Christ. There will be people up here to pray with you, but I want to challenge you to take one step further. Go grab this bag, and then go find somebody in this room that you don't know and introduce yourself. Say, "Hi, I'm new here, and I just said yes to Jesus, and I'm so excited to be here. I want to be part of this family, and I want to get to know you, and I want to get to know this church, and I want to get to know Jesus more."

So go find somebody and introduce yourself, and let's start this journey together.

If you prayed that prayer and you have given your life to Christ, outside in our info center right outside those doors, we have somebody who wants to pray with you and walk with you and give you this gift as you walk in your new life with Christ.

Would you pray with me, and then I'll let you go?

Lord, thank you for all that you've done here today. Lord, the people that have come and lives that are being changed and hearts that are being transformed. God, I pray that you would walk with them, most importantly that you would walk with them, but also that they would be bold enough to make that step, walk out there, talk with somebody, and that we will be able to walk with them as their new family.

And you, Jesus, thank you for this message. Lord, I pray that it would be soothing to every single one of our hearts as you give us an eternal perspective on life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

May God bless you guys as you go, and we'll see you real soon.