"LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND
LOOK ACROSS TIMESCAPES"

Ephesians 1:3-6  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Ephesians 1:10-12  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Ephesians 1:17-18  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Look at what Paul says we will be involved with for the praise of God's glory.

Ephesians 2:6-7  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:10-11  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Ephesians 3:16-19  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

I am going to preach this morning one of the most awesome sermons God ever gave to me.

I am filled with inspiration and anointing today, after having been so tremendously blessed by God in my studies for you to receive God's word today.

Folks, when I study, I have you in mind to feed you the best spiritual dish I can be used of God to give to you.

• And its truly a privilege this morning to minister to you and for you, in God's service for my life.

• He was inspired of God to talk about awesome wonders of God's plans.
• He was made privy to mysteries that were kept in God's most holy realm in the eternals, to lay before you, when angels and prophets down through millennia were kept away from knowing.
• All so that you could receive a faith and strength in a powerful entity known as HOPE, to be able to let go of certain problems you could never seem to otherwise release, to successfully serve God.

• To help you experience a burst of faith to overcome any dreary slowdown you might have bogged yourself into

• Its Paul's message in no less than two entire epistles, known to be epistles of tremendous spiritual knowledge -- Ephesians and Colossians

Let's begin.

Paul went back to the beginning of time, and further.

• He spoke of the choice God made before the world even was created... before the foundation of the world...
• Which choice was the thought of having you and I in Christ.
• Way back then, God started something.
• Over thousands of years ago.
• And that purpose is towards the goal of having us be the means for God to be praised in His great glory.

Ephesians 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Ages-- eons of time.

• Like landscapes, these vast lengths of time can be called timescapes.
• You can look no further than the nose on your face and notice the objects around your feet.
• And even then you see the glory of God in the miracle of a mere flower.
• But to think that there are vistas and landscapes which, if you stand in the right position in this land, will stretch out before you in absolutely awesome splendour.
• And how many miracles of single flowers or a billion other miracles of creation fill up those landscapes?
• How great is our God?!!!
• Similarly, there are also timescapes.
• Ages and ages... eons and eons -- looming out before us in the eternity future.

Ephesians 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

He said that all the ages that came and went before Jesus were all destined to come together in a glorious main point... all worked together for a certain purpose...

• Since before the world was even created, this single point was in the mind of God.
• And that was to have Christ come and unify all the various elements in existence into Him.
• Gathering all things both in heaven and earth in him.
• All the saints of God who lived in various ages under different workings of God, from Adam to John the Baptist, would be unified in one grand body in Jesus Christ.
• And Paul adds..

And we're in on it too, since Jesus came.

• We're still in this dispensation of the fullness of times.
• One day, the opportunity as we know it, that was predestined before the actual creation, to be baptized into Jesus is going to be over.
• And then God will move on with His next age.

• We already noted Paul's thought about our purpose as being God's means to receive glory in all the ages to come.
• If the downpayment is so great, what will be the actual inheritance in those ages to come?

• And to think there are ages and ages yet to come, with who knows how many thousands and millions of years?
• I don't think time is going to stop soon.
• If this is one age, and some say the millennium is coming with at least 1000 years more, and then time is no more--- if they're right, that is only this age and one more to come.
• But Paul spoke of AGES to come.
• Beyond this age, there are entire AGES to still come.
• And AGES involve TIME.

• Something has come that has been waited for since centuries gone by.
• And there will be no more waiting for it, for it is then come.
• People have misconstrued that verse.

• He speaks in chapter 3:11 of an eternal purpose.
• He even says that ANGELS will see what they've desired to see.

 

 

Ephesians 3:10-11  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

1 Peter 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

They will see it.

• Through us!
• Imagine!
• A truth and reality about God's mercy that angels have wanted to understand for thousands of years as God directed the great drama on earth with mankind, leading up to the first major step with Jesus Christ.
• ALL SEEN THROUGH US.
• In the ages to come!
• The church and what God did with us will never be outshone by anything a billion years from now as God gets involved in whatever else he has planned out there in eternity future.
• We will always be the number one means through all the ages rolling into eternity of everything out there knowing God's riches of His grace.

All the sins we face and are tempted with....

All the demons we confront, and often don't even know it is demonic attacks....

All the pleasures of sins we are lured to delve into...

NONE OF THEM ARE WORTH LOSING OUT IN THIS FIRST AGE INTO WHICH WE CAME INTO EXISTENCE... and not making it on into the eternal ages stretched out before us like timescape after timescape.

To think that we can be so short-sighted as to get so stressed out and overly concerned with issues that will not even be hardly a memory for those who successfully serve God and enter on into the eternals before us, where no such temptations will ever exist again!!

In trying to get our eyes lifted up to see over the horizons of eons ahead of us, Paul said....

Romans 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

• We look at trials in this life as insurmountable mountains, until we give into them, and live a life that is less than what Jesus paid for on the cross.
• But when you lift up your eyes, as Paul is helping us to do in Ephesians, and look across veritable light-years of time, you can begin to realize God is a whole lot bigger than those trials.
• And they seem to start looking more like ant hills rather than mountains.

Hebrews 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Ephesians 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

The Bible talks about men like Abraham and Moses and the Hebrews of the Exodus who left their homes and walked away towards places God gave for them.

Hebrews 11:15-16  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

• But something called HOPE was in their hearts.
• HOPE of something far greater and more awesome before them, making what was behind them a ditch.
• It put all their past homes and lives in t the shadows.
• They were not going to miss what God had in store for them.

• You're going to have to be reminded of the HOPE.
• This world can really get hold of you until you're so discouraged that you feel like giving in to it.
• But the Word of God tells you of these glories before us.
• And the Spirit we feel together is literally out of this world.

• Right now we face trials.
• We are tempted with things that won't even exist in twenty years, let alone by the time this life is over.
• The devil is not going to last beyond this single age.
• We get all caught up with thinking of how hard it is to get past the devil and his temptations in this life, when he won't even be around a fraction of the time we will spend in ages with God.

• We turned 30 ourselves and laughed at that.
• But when we look at those 70 and 80, we realize, as far as we have gone to get where we are, these folks have gone twice that and MORE!
• But the folks at those senior years will tell you that you will think life was hardly long at all when you get their age.

• Then weeks.
• Then months.
• And finally years.

• Our beloved brother Baker is almost 93 years old!
• His next 7 years will bring him to an entire century!
• He's about twice as old today as a man who is fifty years old!
• And yet he remembers things that occurred 80 years ago, over two times the length of my entire life, like they were yesterday.

If an entire life seems so short right now, and there have been thousands of lifespans in this single AGE so far, since Jesus, imagine how short and how small and how meager this life will seem like by the time we've been around for three thousand EONS!!!

It sort of makes life's temptations today seem MINUSCULE!

• Less than insignificant!
• Less than nothing.

• Yet they can talk and understand and reason and go to school on their own!
• Seven years ago they did not exist!
• And so much is here now in their little lives.
• And I think of the awesome creation that mankind is.
• But I have been around about ten times as long as they have.
• Some others here over 20 times!
• But all of us have only just begun!

We think everything is here and now.

• We know the bible speaks of eternity ahead, but we don't really get it.
• Our actions and over-infatuation with the microscopically significant things that we face in this life expose our true beliefs and perspectives.

After he speaks of such profound thoughts, he writes words that are his main point and deal with this PRESENT AGE and making it through towards the one ahead....

Ephesians 4:1-3  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

LET ME SAY IT AGAIN....

=====
Paul was inspired of God to set your vision on ages that lie ahead.

• He was inspired of God to talk about awesome wonders of God's plans.
• He was made privy to mysteries that were kept in God's most holy realm in the eternals, to lay before you, when angels and prophets down through millennia were kept away from knowing.
• All so that you could receive a faith and strength in a powerful entity known as HOPE, to be able to let go of certain problems you could never seem to otherwise release, to successfully serve God.

• To help you experience a burst of faith to overcome any dreary slowdown you might have bogged yourself into

• Its Paul's message in no less than two entire epistles, known to be epistles of tremendous spiritual knowledge -- Ephesians and Colossians

I may be speaking to somebody who is struggling to let go of a sin in your life that you know is wrong, but simply has too much of a hold on you and occupies too much of your time and attention to have you completely serve God like you know you should.

• I'm talking about sins and temptations that you feel are too powerful for you to overcome, leaving you left to simply indulge in them, and settle with a life of always knowing you're not right with God.
• A life of giving in to these lusts and sins.
• You've just resorted to knowing you can't serve God.
• If you will lift up your eyes, and look past this life, itself, on towards and through entire ages and eons, and gain the strength and hope to see actually yourself there when all this world is long gone...
• Where is the strength for this kind of faith?
• Look back to the beginning of this age, which is now known as the dispensation of the fullness of times, when Christ came and died on the cross.
• Look back to the period before the world and think about when God first made His choice to include you in this awesome plan...
• Realize that such a HOPE thrown way out across entire EONS is there for you and encouraged to you to look forward to by the God who fills this infinite universe and promised to strengthen you to serve Him and MAKE IT ALL THAT ETERNAL WAY!

If you've been sitting in neutral for a few years now, and getting no further ahead than you were months and months ago -- in fact, perhaps, backsliding down the hill of progress to where you first started !! -- then its time to shift gears and start moving ahead.

Come on, church!

God just did not lay this awesome destiny out there and hope to see you do your best and meet him a billion years from now.

Paul prayed....

Ephesians 3:16-17  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

And he stops and adds...

Ephesains 3:20-21  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

• After talking about our purpose to bring glory to God in the ages to come, Paul notes for us to ask God for strength....
• Ask the God who wants you to get there more than you want to get there...
• Paul then says, its going to happen.
• He said IT WILL HAPPEN THAT GOD WILL RECEIVE GLORY IN THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT ALL AGES!
• That means people will have had their eyes opened to look across these timescapes, and turn to God asking Him to strengthen them to be able to stand strong right now in this first significant age, that they might be there way ahead in eternity, to one day look back and thank God in praise beyond what they can now attempt to thank Him, for giving them that strength to carry on.

• In your greatest dreams and most daring thoughts that pressed your imagination to the limits of what an Almighty God can do, you have not even scratched the surface of His abilities.
• Of what He wants to do for you!
• Awesome God!

• Let go of the weights that so easily seemed to be able to beset you.
• That sin and disobedience and rebellion is not worth losing eons and ages over.
• Don't be a fool and go down with the devil in this first significant age.
• You won't even get past first base if you miss this now.

These years may be small in relation to the eons that lie before us.

• But think of the INVESTMENT in a few days of total surrender to God, and release of all the devil's excuses to keep you from doing anything for God at all, will yield in giving you eons of eternity that are laying out there right in front of you, still within your reach NOW.

• These ages are still there before you yet.
• This age is not yet over.
• We're still in the ENTRANCE INTO CHRIST age, from which He is really beginning.
• Today, right now, you can get back to where you once were, and far beyond.

• You were just baptized.
• You just started within the last couple of years...
• You've done well so far.
• And you can continue to do well.
• You think you've not done well?
• You're still coming, aren't you?
• If Satan had his way he would have killed you the moment you thought to get involved.
• And you've been here for a couple years now!
• Don't stop now!
• You've needed top hear this kind of message to give you a good boost and inoculation of FAITH to push you beyond your hold-up.

The hardest thing to endure is suffering for wrongs done to you and patiently hold on in thanks to God.

But this is the very thing Paul said God wants to help you with.

Paul said...

Romans 8:24-25  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Let's use this faith and say...

WE WILL MAKE IT.

Thank-you, Paul, for praying that my eyes be opened and my vision and sight broadened to look across entire timescapes!

People, use the faith God has just gifted you with in this message, and let's come to altar and overcome these anthills together!

Look beyond the little fusses you've made over people talking about you, and offending you.