"ETERNITY IN OUR HEARTS"

Eccl 3:9-11

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. NIV

We are eternal beings

From our text we see Solomon recognizing this fact when asking the question, AWhat does the worker gain from his toil?" Eccl 3:9....

You are missing something very valuable if you think that all you gain from your working for a living is a paycheck.

‑‑ Vincent T. Lombardi said this:

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."

We can recognize eternity in life and pursue it in the immediate or the “now” by an act of our will.

Prov 16:3

3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. (NIV)

Prov 21:5

5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. (NIV)

There is an eternal realm we must deal with

Jesus spent a great deal of time dealing with this subject. Jesus worked wonders and miracles for the soul purpose of moving our thinking from the natural to the supernatural. He used the miraculous in the immediate the “now” to prove the existence of the eternal yet to come. Yet in the final analysis this course of action only further establishes faith already held and can cause deeper darkness for those who refuse to believe.

If you’re waiting for a miracle before you allow yourself to believe, it will never come. One reasons for this:

A. Miracles are seen by everyone but only faith can see beyond the miracle to the purpose and source of that miracle.

Philip dealt with this problem.

John 14:8‑11

8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (NIV)