Recently I did a poll on an online community for Christian young people.
The poll asked that if they basically had a choice between helping their church or hunting for a job, which would they choose?
Surprisingly, the majority chose to hunt for a job rather than help their church.
And friend, I believe this little result from this poll gives a small crumb of evidence that the hearts of many professed Christians–especially among younger generations–are not fully set on eternal priorities.
And it’s easy wonder WHY.
A Book
There was a book I read one time by a youth pastor, and I distinctly remember reading a certain chapter in this book that honestly shocked me.
In this chapter, the youth pastor shared a story of how a young person came up to him after church. This young person basically said to the youth pastor:
“Pastor, it’s okay if–when Jesus comes again–I don’t go to Heaven. It’s a boring place to be, anyway. Why would anyone wanna go there?”
What made this so shocking is that, if I recall correctly, this same young person grew up in the church!
How could he end up thinking such a thing?
The Reason Starts With L
While it’s easy to think up many reasons why many professed Christian young people have such a low view of Heaven and eternal values, I’d like to share the BIGGEST reason why the majority don’t have their hearts set on Eternity.
In 1 John 2:15 we read:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
(1 John 2:15, emphasis added)
The root word for “love” in 1 John 2;15, the one that is highlighted in blue, is the Greek word agapaō (ἀγαπάω).
It’s the same Greek word used to describe the New Jerusalem in Revelation 20:9–
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city…….
(Revelation 20:9, emphasis added)
So, we can easily conclude that when you love the world, “the love of the Father” AND the love of Eternity is NOT in you!
Rather, it’s like the heart can either have a love for this temporal earth, or a love for eternity in Heaven.
It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
(Matthew 6:24)
Friend, would you like to learn HOW to practically cultivate an eternal love for Heaven rather than a temporal love for this world?
Then stay tuned for Part 3 of this series, where we’ll dive into HOW to practically set our hearts more on Heaven and its eternal values rather than this world and its temporal values.
For now, I would like to conclude this blog post with a prayer:
Amen! Maranatha!