27 Oct Eternity With the Lord

Last Sunday, Pastor Jason Finley preached from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 and encouraged us with the truth that ordinary faithfulness in daily life is a compelling witness to Jesus Christ.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

This Sunday, Pastor Will Jackson will encourage us from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to live for eternity. As you prepare for our Sunday gathering, be encouraged by these words from Paul Tautges.

Reflect: “Eternity With the Lord”

The glorified bodies of believers will one day be rejoined with their spirits, which are now present with Christ. One day, body and soul together, we will spend eternity with the Lord in a new heaven and a new earth.

God uses the sorrow of death in his church to produce in us a hunger for all things to be restored, to the glory of Christ. Our hope as believers is not bound to the things of this world, not even to those we love the most. “Ours,” writes Charles Spurgeon in a sermon titled “The Hope Laid Up in Heaven,” “is a hope which demands nothing of time, or earth, but seeks its all in the world to come.” The death of a believer reminds us that we must live every day in light of the imminent return of Jesus our Lord when he will usher in the final restoration of all things.

Our grief is real, but it is not final. It leads to understanding, to growth, and to our transformation. The Bible doesn’t discourage our sorrow, even when fellow believers are ushered into glory. We don’t need to pretend we are happy when we feel deep sadness. We don’t need to hide our grief. Lament is a normal part of our Christian experience. However, it is not the end, the final word. We are not left with just our tears. Rather, our sorrow has a purpose, namely, to lead us to seek for something more certain than this transient life. Our grief encourages us to seek the promises of the gospel as the anchor for our soul.

Excerpt from Comfort the Grieving, pp. 43-44, by Paul Tautges.

Sing: Song List for Sunday

1. “How Great Thou Art,” Arr. Paul Baloche
2. “Holy,” by Matt Redman
3. “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” by Keith & Kristyn Getty
4. “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me,” by CityAlight
5. “Turn Your Eyes,” by Sovereign Grace Music