Seeking Things Above | Christian Saldana | Colossians 3:1-4 — Christian Saldana

Open your Bibles this evening to the book of Colossians. The book of Colossians chapter three this evening. Again, it is my privilege to stand before you every time. And so thankful for our pastor, just allowing me to share just what God has for us tonight. And so thankful for him and his ministry to me. And it's hard to believe that this November 17th will be two years of Sarah and I coming here. It's crazy how fast it's flown, but truly we're so thankful to our pastor, his wife, and Canyon Ridge. I tell the staff all the time that Canyon Ridge, and especially Pastor Chris Chadwick, has permanently, I would say, altered my brain chemistry. I now like CrossFit. I don't know how that works. Seriously, though, the way I think about the Bible, about evangelism, just about people, my screensaver on my laptop says this. Ministry is people.

That idea has just been just shown to me, displayed to me, not just by our pastor, but also by the staff and each and every one of you. Again, I don't know why I said that. I felt like I was Spirit-led. I just want to encourage you just how much you've been an encouragement to me as well as my wife, Sarah. Again, Colossians chapter 3, so grateful to be here before you. Lots of exciting things going on at Canyon Ridge that I get to be a part of. One of the things we've been keeping you updated on is our college ministry. That's going to be part of our message. I won't dive straight into it, but just want to say thank you for those who have asked how it's going and those who have been praying actively. I really feel like, especially at Mesa, we've really found a good foothold there. We know a lot of people, for instance, I just had coffee on Friday with a professor/counselor who's just interested in helping us.

He's a Christian believer, and so we were just talking about what God was doing. And again, he's just interested in giving us a hand. So I don't know what that means looking forward to the future, but again, ministry is people. And so part of that is making those kinds of connections and just talking to people. And so I've been just so privileged to be a part of that of what God's doing there, as well as our new campus ministry starting at UC San Diego. And right now I'm also helping a pastor help him start a Bible club, in our name, kind of our same thing at, I think it's CSU Bakersfield. So they're in the process of getting some students together, and I've talked to Pastor about that. And so anyways, I don't know, you know, two years ago, if you were to ask me if God was going to do this, I would have said, I don't know how. And so this is all a testament to what God is doing.

So we're going to be covering the first four verses today in Colossians chapter number three, and we will be doing a little bit of background here just to get you up to speed. But to kind of begin, I just want to mention again that last week was our first week at UC San Diego. It was the first time that we were on campus. And truly it's a mini city. I've got some visuals here of what it looks like. That's me, like taking our cart down. If you've never been on campus, it truly is a little city. And then I think beyond that, you can see more students. It was like this the whole time. Our table was set up right there, right to the left, just out of scene is a target. So it gives you the scale of the campus there. There's just students everywhere. And so I just wanted to show you that, just to show you how many people are there and we're there. When it's on, we're on campus and we're there to stay.

And College Campus Ministry presents many challenges, which there are the obvious, right? Christianity is certainly not the most predominant ideology on campus. And yet what feels harder than maybe just trying to shine a light on campus is just trying to get people to look up from their phones while they're walking. And most people, if they're not walking and talking with a friend, usually they have a phone in one hand. They've got their water bottle in the other hand and they've got earbuds in their ears. And so they're really, actually really difficult to try and talk to you and they're so used to that. And as we sat there trying to build connections with the thousands of students that were walking by us every hour.

I began to listen to the conversations happening all around me and especially the conversation that was going on to the left of me, which happened to be, there was other clubs on the library walk, it's kind of like the main area that everybody puts tables up. And this club, particularly I found out, was a club dedicated to K-pop. No I had no idea what K-pop was up until that day. And just by listening to their entire conversation I got a crash course on what K-pop is. Now if you don't know what it is, I'll just tell you this, it's probably not worth looking up. And so K-pop. And they seemed to know all the drama and they knew all the concerts and they knew all the names of their favorite K-pop artists. And really what was interesting is that they didn't seem intimidated to invite people to their club. It didn't seem intimidated to talk to people about what they were interested in.

They didn't seem intimidated to spend three hours just as long as we were there as we were trying to share Jesus with people. They were sharing K-pop with people. And they were very passionate about doing so. And as I studied for this message, I thought of those girls, the table of girls there and some guys as well. And how their affections had been captured by K-pop. And as silly as that might be to most of us, I began to think to myself, you know what, they're enamored with what they find interesting. They're enamored with what captures their attention. But isn't it interesting that there might be some Christians, even in here who all you are here on a Sunday night when you could be watching Sunday night football. And so I assume that most of you are in here wanting to grow to be more like Jesus, but that there might be some Christians that we would know who are like this too.

That they can name off every stat about their favorite sports team. They can name off every favorite music track to the music artists that they listen to. They can name the release date of their favorite franchise movie that's coming out or they're obsessed with their work and they can tell you every detail about it but ask them to quote a verse and they struggle. Or ask them how their spiritual life is going and it's hard for them to get that part of their life out. And I began to ask the question because I've been guilty of that as well, why is that? Well I think if we dove deep into it, we would say this, that their affections have been drawn to something on this earth. But their attention has been devoted to, has become sports or their job or success. And now they can, they're so interested in it that it's so easy to talk about because it's what's the most, what's the most predominant thing on their mind.

Now this isn't made easier for each of us because of the world that we live in. Social media and those around us, you watch the news and any kind of content that you ingest, all of it gives us a list of things that we should seek that aren't Jesus Christ. You open the news on the Monday morning and immediately you're shown how you should be seeking wealth. Or you wait for the late night television series and you're taught that you should seek sex outside of marriage. You should seek popularity or notoriety or success or happiness. And if we're not careful, we can believe the lie that once we find these things, we will be satisfied. But the Bible is clear that satisfaction only comes through the person of Jesus Christ. So what's the solution? The world says the solution is to seek, seek, seek after all these things that are on this earth. The Bible gives us a better way.

Now our attachment to the world is nothing new, which is why in the first four verses that we're going to cover in chapter three gives us this idea that as Christians who've been made new by the power and resurrection of Jesus Christ ought to seek after new things, not things on this earth. Now to again to give you context, to get you up to speed as we enter into this study of these first four verses, I want you to understand that the human author who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul the Apostle, has just finished making a case against counterfeit spirituality.

Most of chapter two is basically Paul saying, hey, you've been fed this lie, these false teachers that come into your church and have promoted these ideas of asceticism, meaning that holiness is found by self-imposed suffering or Gnosticism which talks about this higher knowledge that you can achieve or works based religion that the Judaizers, as we heard about this morning would come in and say, well, you have Jesus but you need something else, you need the works of the law in order to truly find favor before God. And all these ideas had infiltrated the church promising a greater holiness apart from Jesus Christ. But Paul refutes that and he says, you can try all these things but you're going to come up wanting. And so after he's refuted that this last chapter, he's basically said that's not enough, it will never satisfy, it's not going to make you more holy, it's not going to give you a favor before God.

He opens in the first four verses of this chapter. And it's to be noted that chapter three marks the transition from the theological to the practical but don't think that those two things are disconnected. Because as John MacArthur eloquently said, he says, all practical Christian living is built on the foundation of theological truth. And it's been so important that we understand why we do what we do and we're going to still kind of go into that. This is kind of a transitional message. So as you look at with me, read verses number one and two with me in your minds today.

The Bible says, ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.’ The first thing I want us to understand tonight, and I believe God wants for us, is that we need to understand that we are risen with Christ. We are risen with Christ. He says they're the first part of the verse. If ye then be risen with Christ. Now the term there, the if then statement in the verse points us to a clear command for all who claim to follow Jesus Christ. We could say it this way, since you are a Christian or since you have believed in Jesus Christ, he wants us to understand that there's some responsibility that we have now that we've been transformed. And in fact, he introduces that fact earlier in the previous chapter from Colossians chapter 2, verse 12.

He says ‘Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.’ So he's talking to Christians right now. Now I don't want to assume again that tonight we have all believers in here. So let's define our terms. What makes somebody a Christian? One of the great things I get to do while I'm on the campuses is ask people, hey, what would you describe yourself as? And a lot of people say, oh, I'm a Christian. But then you say, okay, what does that mean to you? And that might mean something for somebody and somebody for somebody else. And let me tell you tonight, again, for those of us who are Christians, we know this, but from the Bible, what makes somebody a Christian? Well, it doesn't mean that you have decided to just start going to church regularly. And doesn't just mean that you've decided to follow the tenets of the Bible.

No, it means you have submitted to Jesus Christ that you've acknowledged that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. And you've trusted Christ to be your one and only salvation. Zane talked about it this morning that it's by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. And if you don't know that for sure, we would love to share that with you at the end of the service. But here's the reality. Those of us who are Christians, since we have been raised with Christ, that's the theological understanding that we've learned from chapter two, there's certain behavior that's appropriate for all of us. If you're a Christian, what follows is for you. We see it after the common there. He says this, "Seek those things which are above." The word "seek" means "to strive after" in order to find.

In fact, it's the same word that Jesus uses in a famous verse in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 where he says, ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ See Paul commands us, those who are Christians, to seek those things which are above. Now if you're like me, you might be asking the question, "Well, what are these things? What are these things I'm supposed to be seeking?" Now although we could find a multitude of right answers from throughout Scripture, I want to point us to the immediate context again, which is chapter two, which relates to what Paul has just said. Because Paul called outward conformity or self-induced suffering and mystical wisdom of this world. He literally says in Colossians 2:20, he says, ‘Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?’

So if he calls that worldly and he's calling us to seek those things which are above, we can deduce that to seek those things which are above is to live now in alignment with our new life in Jesus Christ. It's been said by some that the Christian life is merely just trying to align what God has already made you to be with how you're living on this earth. It's this constant realignment. You've already been saved by Jesus Christ. Your sins have already be cleansed by Jesus Christ. You already have salvation. We heard such a great message this morning about our inheritance and that we are heirs of God, that we already have these great riches in Christ. But now we've got to live like it. Now we have to conform our lives to those things. We still live in this world, but now that we have been raised or saved, our mission and life is so much bigger than it was before.

You see maybe before you used to climb the corporate ladder to impress your friends, to get a bigger paycheck. But now that you're risen, you do it to honor Christ and to give more to missions. You see, the perspective has changed. Maybe your circumstances have not changed. Maybe your situation is not changed, but your mission has changed. Maybe you used to seek after women or men for sexual gratification, but now you pursue holiness to honor Christ and for the sake of your future spouse. You used to work out to show off your body, but now you work out to keep your body under subjection and to live longer for the service of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see, seeking those things that are above is having Christ as your reference point, as your true north, and that every decision you make is in alignment with trying to honor Him. That's what it means to seek those things which are above.

And seeking those things which are above becomes easy when we understand why we are doing so, because look at the next part of the verse. He says, "Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." You see, we should seek those things which are above because that's where Jesus is. That's where Jesus is. Now, I went to college in Oklahoma, specifically Oklahoma City, which if you didn't know, has a vastly different weather pattern than Southern California where I grew up. And I was fortunate never to really endure much homesickness while I was out there. I was always so busy and I had a lot to do and a lot of responsibilities. So I didn't experience a lot of homesickness, but I would always begin to desire to come home around the same time every fall. And it was when it would start to get cold enough to make me mad. You ever been that cold? And specifically in Oklahoma City, it's a lot of wind.

And a lot of times you just walk outside and you're like, "Man, this is so frustrating. Like, existing is so frustrating." That's how I felt recently with the heat wave. Now, of course, you know, excuse me, and as we got closer to Christmas, I would grow more fond of going home. Now, of course, the weather was a factor in wanting me to come back to beautiful Southern California where Christmas Day would be 70 degrees. It's awesome. And of course, I missed my own house and having my own room again and enjoying my bed. Yeah, those are the things that made me long for home. You know what made home the most enticing? Even all the stuff that I just listed, it was because of who was there. My mom, my dad, my brothers. And I longed for home because that's where the people I loved lived. And in the same way, Paul points us upward, not just to seek heaven for the pearly gates or the streets of gold or the loved ones that we'll see there.

Although those are beautiful and wonderful things, he commands us. To seek the things which are above because that's where Jesus sits on the right hand of God. That should be our desire. That should be where our affections are drawn. He's in heaven right now, sitting at the right hand of God. Now, that also means he's also with us and present right now. Like he's God. So hopefully you'll understand that he could be in multiple places at the same time. But this picture that Paul gives us, he says, listen, you're so enamored with this life because you forget who is waiting for you on the other side. Because Jesus Christ, seeking those things which are above becomes a struggle sometimes. Thinking heavenly, thinking beyond just work and finances in the future, that becomes a struggle because we often lose sight of Jesus.

You see, perhaps the reason we struggle to seek those things which are above is because we don't often think enough about Jesus. We're far too enamored with our stuff. We think about the next car we're going to get. We think about buying a house and think about the next job and listen, this is not a message that says you can't have nice things. But it is to say if that's what occupies your mind day and night, your affections are on the things of this world. What you love is on the things of this world and it should be on Christ. So the question is how often do you long for heaven? If you think to yourself, well, I haven't really thought about heaven lately, why not? Could it be that our life is too good here? And that's a scary thing to say. You're like, I like my life, nice life.

Again, God is not saying, you know what, again, there's been messages pre-before already through this series that asceticism or self-inflicted suffering just for the sake of suffering does not make you holy, but here's what it's saying. Are we too attached to the stuff that we have, to the things around us? How often do you wish to see Jesus face to face? I understand, I want to live long, but do you think of Jesus and how wonderful it will be one day for our faith to become sight? If you don't have these thoughts, you may be too focused on the stuff in this life. Now, every time I hear preaching like this, I always ask myself, well, does that mean I have to give up all of my earthly pursuits and live like a monk? Now, some of you would like that. You'd love to go out into the mountains and never talk to anybody again. But that's not what God is talking about.

Again, in the words of somebody else, Paul is not offering us another kind of asceticism. He's not saying, "Go suffer for the sake of suffering," or, "Give up your good things just for the sake of giving up your good things," or, "Trying to earn favor with God." He's not inviting us to a spaced out spirituality or telling us to sit in a corner like a Buddhist and contemplate nothing until you reach Nirvana. No, this isn't the idea. He's simply saying this, "Let the reality of heaven shape how you live on this earth." He says in verse number two, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." The word "affection" means to direct one's mind to a thing, to seek to strive for. It was so encouraging this last week to have a conversation with a young man who's been attending our church for some time now. And he's a grad student and works among very highly intelligent, highly intellectual researchers.

And what blessed my heart was that during our meeting, he didn't primarily speak about the complexity of his research, the academic accomplishments that he had achieved so far, or how impressive his line of work was. He didn't define himself by his career field, his career path, or his degree. Rather, what was awesome is that he saw himself as a Christian who's been given immense opportunity to impact the lives of intellectual atheists and agnostics with the gospel. Now that's an example of what it means to set your affections on things above. It doesn't mean that you abandon your pursuits or the things you feel like God has led you to. And that's what you walk into your boss's office on Tuesday and say, "I quit to go pursue nothing," or to go live with the heavenly mind. That's not the idea here. Again, the idea is that now everything you do is reframed through the lens of Jesus Christ and heaven.

The career we pursue, the life goals that we make, a desire for financial stability must all become guided by our love and desire to be with Jesus one day. So God may not be calling you to sell all you have, but he is calling you to change your affections. He is calling to either change or re-evaluate your affections. So here's another question. How do you know if I have too much affection for this world? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's a couple questions. What has the power to ruin your day? What has the power to ruin your day? A canceled plan. You got a plan for the day and things got went crazy. Friday had a plan and then my wife called me and sent me a picture of her flat tire. You know, that'll change your day. Poor performance review. Someone else receiving recognition. Again, it's good to desire to be a good employee. It's good to desire to have a plan and structure your day.

But if it ruins your day and everybody else knows it, it might have something to do with the fact that you've given so much affection to it that now your peace is not grounded in Jesus Christ. It's grounded in that thing. Here's another question. If I lost blank and you fill in the blank, if I lost a job, if I lost a job, if I lost this relationship, if I lost my wealth, if I lost my health, if I lost my money, if I lost my comfort, would I still believe God is good and worth obeying? If I lost all these things, would I still believe that God is worth trusting and obeying and that He is good? Another question. What do you think is essential for your happiness? Some of you might say a pumpkin spice latte. That's not essential for my happiness. But you might have those things, right? I always used to joke in my roommates, you know, you used to get so frustrated that people were just like, "Don't talk to me until I have my coffee."

I was like, "Oh, I didn't know the Holy Spirit was in coffee." But what's essential to your happiness? What occupies your mind the most during the day? Financial decisions, revenge, advancement, entertainment, approval. Again, I'm not trying to beat anybody up tonight because I wrote all those things thinking about myself because I know how often I struggle to think heavenly, to think with eternity in mind, to not just go through the motions and I work at a church. So I know we're all in this together. We all struggle to think this way. So the goal is not to feel guilty about every good gift. The problem begins when a good gift becomes a supreme love, a source of our identity or a condition of our happiness. So here's the command, "Make Christ the center of your affection."

Now Paul continues to build upon this theology of seeking things above in the next couple verses and he says something in the next verse that almost, almost seems contradictory to what he has just stated. Look at verse number three with me. He says this, "For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God." So here's the second thing I want to understand. We are hidden with Christ. We are hidden with Christ. So I'll explain that in a moment. The first part though, he says, "For ye are dead." And again, at first I thought it was confusing because I was like, "Didn't Paul just say that we are risen?" So how can we be dead at the same time? Well, although we are raised in Christ what Paul is describing here is that we are now dead to our old lives. We are now dead to the person we were before we got saved or the manner of life we used to live before we got saved.

And this is our theological basis for thinking on heavenly things rather than dwelling on earthly things. It's because we're dead to the world. We're dead to our old life. Now one of my favorite stories in all of the Gospels is the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. And the image painted by John the Apostle is powerful and has a ton of truth all throughout this account. But imagine with me that the story plays out as it normally does in the Scriptures and Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave and he comes out of the tomb and Lazarus who was dead is now alive again. Imagine with me that all happens and transpires but instead of walking out like he did and instead of rejoining his family or re-entering society he instead makes his home in the tomb. He begins to bring in bedding furniture. He even decorates the wall with a nice little painting and art and puts flowers in there.

Imagine Lazarus who was dead begins to make his home in the tomb. We would say, "You're crazy Lazarus. You've just been raised from the dead. You have so much life. You've been given a second opportunity at life. Why wouldn't you use it?" And yet this is how many Christians live their lives. They've been raised from the dead by the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. They've called on Jesus to save them and yet their life continues to look very similar to what they used to live before. They haven't understood the concept that true repentance means leaving the old life and turning to Jesus fully. Now for most of us, obviously if you're a Christian I believe that it's important for us to understand that if you're a Christian your life will bear fruit. But for most of us in here that is true but there might be areas of your life that don't bear fruit.

Meaning you might be good in this area meaning church attendance, I mean you're here on a Sunday night. When it comes to how you speak to your family, how you speak to your wife, you haven't allowed your life to be radically transformed in. You're holding on to that. That's what I mean tonight I believe the application is for us tonight. That there might be areas in which we are truly alive and we're passionate about but there are areas in our life today that we're still acting like dead men. We're still acting like we used to live. We have been raised with Christ so let's live like it. Let's live like it. Now he says this here in verse number three again. He says for your dead, what else do you say and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now the word hid confuse me as well because I didn't understand the connection with us being dead but also our lives being hidden.

I didn't quite understand it but the word hid here is not the word that we might use for hide and seek or the word my wife might use when she hides the cookies for me in the house. So the word hid is used throughout the Bible to describe a treasure that is hidden or something of value placed out of sight for safe keeping. Therefore, when Paul says that our lives are hid, he means our lives are protected with Christ in God. Now there's really two applications that we can find here. The first is this that your eternity is secure in Christ. You've been raised from the dead. You're not going back in that grave. Christ is the one is the keeper of your salvation. You can't lose your salvation because you aren't responsible for protecting it. Christ has hid your life and what does it say? In God. So you are protected not only by Christ but your life is also in God.

So if you're struggling with your eternal security, you're constantly saying I remember there was a time I didn't get saved until I was 13 but from the time I was 8 years old until 13, I felt like almost every night I would pray this love prayer. God if I'm not safe, please save me. May God if I'm not safe, please save me. May God because I had connected my salvation with a baptism when I was 8 years old rather than a true repentance in faith in Jesus Christ. Now again, we can talk this out afterwards but because you might be struggling with your assurance and salvation because of some kind of sin in your life or some kind of struggle there or you might need to be saved. That's all for debate but I want you to understand that what is not for debate is your eternal security if you truly are saved. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, your life is kept with God. But here's the second application.

If you're Christian and it's the fact that your identity is secure in Christ, your identity, your life. You see so often the reason our affections are directed toward things below meaning things of this earth giving our attention, giving our love for the things of this earth. The reason why that often happens is because we are looking for security in those things. We're looking to place our identity in those things. We believe that if I just get this job it will make my family proud. We think if we enter this relationship it will satisfy my loneliness. We believe if I reach a certain dollar amount in the bank account that it will make me complete. But friend, if you're saved your identity is secure in Christ and it is hidden with Him in God. Man, whatever happens, again, pursue success, be a good employee, strive to steward the resources God has given you. But your identity is not found in those things. It's found in Jesus Christ.

You're a child of God, as we heard this morning, fully loved and fully known so you can freely seek things above knowing that your identity is secure in Christ. Now, as I studied for this message I counted in these four verses five direct references to Christ in these verses. So it's safe to say that Christ is to be the center of our attention. But why is that? Well, Paul says here in the next verse, which is what we'll cover, which is this, that we are hopeful with Christ. Look at verse number four with me. He says this, ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.’ He says there at the start, "When Christ, who is our life?" It's almost like Paul wants to be extra sure we haven't missed the point here. that Christ is our life. I want to park here for a second because so many times Christianity as a whole treats Jesus like He's just part of your life.

Like I always say it this way, I call it like seasoning Christians. Like Jesus is the seasoning to their life. He makes it taste better. But that's how Jesus works. He's not just a hobby. He's not just something you add to your life. He's not just the genie you ask things of, Christ, if you're a Christian, is your life. He's everything to you. At least he should be. Now I understand we're constantly fighting for balance, right? Because sometimes we want to show care to our families and sometimes we want to be a good employee and sometimes we want to care for our futures. Those are all true. But at the end of the day, we need to know without a shadow of a doubt that Christ is our life and that everything we do revolves around Him. We often say about some people and sports are their life. His work is his life. His money is his life. Oh her boyfriend is her life. We say those things may be said of every Christian. Jesus is their life.

It's so evident. They won't stop talking about Him. They go to church every Sunday, every Wednesday. It's like they're church all the time. They go to retreats and they talk about the Bible and they bring their Bible to the break room. They do all these things. May it be said of every Christian that Jesus is our life. And shame on us if we receive any other title. It's convicting for me. Think about it often. Do people see Jesus in me? And they look at me as immediate that there's something different about me? Jesus ought to be your life. Then He says here in the latter part of the verse, Jesus who is our life shall appear, excuse me, let's read the whole verse, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. So thankful for our pastor and his series through the revelation because every Sunday I get to be reminded that Jesus is coming back.

And all the wrongs I see in this world and all the perceived wrongs that I experience myself are going to be corrected by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You know, when I was younger I would hear preaching on the subject of the imminent return of Jesus Christ and I would always pray, "Please Lord, don't come back until I..." And then I would feel something. Don't come back until I go to college. Don't go back until I meet my wife. Don't come back and then you list all these things. And one of the big ones was, "Don't come back until I'm married." And now that I'm married I'm like, "Lord, surely come quickly." I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. That was for you. I'm kidding. I love my wife. Oh, I love you. See, yeah, I love my wife. We'll get ice cream afterwards. Of course I'm joking, but we think like that, don't we? We think to ourselves, "Ah, but God, I have so many goals. I have so many plans. God, don't you see my dream sheet?

My bucket list? Come on, surely you could wait until I check some of these things off. I want to see the Grand Canyon. I want to go to Europe. I want to get married. I want to have kids." Listen, all those things are great. But Paul points us to something greater. And that's the fact that one day Jesus will come back for us. It's our blessed hope. It's something we ought to look forward to. Sadly, if we're honest, most of us, if we're honest, most of our goals have little to do with eternity. So if you're a Christian, the thought that Jesus could come back at any moment should bring much comfort and peace into your heart. So when Christ returns on your mind, here's the reality. Everything else becomes noise. That's the focus. Now that's not to diminish any pain or suffering that you're going through. It's just to put things into perspective. Who wins the midterm elections becomes less important because Jesus is coming back.

Still important, but less important because Jesus is coming back. What the economy does in the next year or few years is less important because Jesus is coming back. Now that doesn't mean just throw away investments because Jesus is coming back. People tried that and didn't work out for them. But live with that in mind. That house you've been longing for, that thing you've been longing for, the vacation you've been longing for, again, good things. But when put into perspective of, man, Jesus could come back at any moment, maybe less appealing. Even for things that we're going through, right? The diagnosis, the loss of a loved one. All those things come into perspective when we truly understand that Jesus, our King, is coming back and everything wrong will be right once again. These things remain real. Our struggles are still real. Our life is still real. Hopefully you're not leaving this message thinking that I'm against good things.

I'm absolutely not. Neither is the Bible. But here's the reality. Christ's return puts them in their proper place. So my final question for you tonight is, what has your affections? What is your mind drawn to? What are you constantly thinking about? Is it Christ? Is it the things of God? Or is it the things of this earth? Maybe the reason why you struggle with such anxiety is because you're constantly thinking about things of this earth and not heavenly things. Maybe the reason why you can't sleep at night is because you're thinking of things on this earth other than things of heaven. So again, the challenge for you tonight is to maybe reevaluate your life, consider what it means to think on things above. And maybe I need to spend some extra time tonight and this week considering Jesus, heaven, eternity, get those things in alignment and what does Jesus say in Matthew 6:33? All these things be added unto you.

They'll come into their proper place.