Can Anything Give Us a Sense of Fulfillment and Eternity?

By Ernest O'Neill

I would ask you personally, not as a group, you know, but personally, do you believe then that Jesus is the Son of our Creator? Now, would you think, I really mean it, would you think it over, you know, and decide what do you believe about that?

You remember last Sunday we talked about how Jesus claimed to be the Son of our Creator and therefore is the best one to tell us what our Creator is really like. Do you remember how we examined the fact that He did not show the mental derangement of so many people who claim to be God? He, in fact, has a character that has been recognized universally as one of the most perfect characters that ever lived and indeed the only man who has ever lived a sinless life. 

Then you remember we looked at the power He had over sickness and disease and we looked at His ability to work miracles and to raise people from the dead and then you remember we looked at the difference between His resurrection and the many bluff imitation pseudo-resurrections that gurus have tried to produce through breath control and we sensed that this is the only resurrection that has ever taken place in the world.

The only man who by his own power has left this world, died and then come back and lived in it over a period of more than a month and appeared in different occasions to different people. And then I asked you at the end, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of our Maker? So, I'd ask you that now, loved ones. Would you settle that first before we start talking this morning? Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the only begotten unique Son of the person who made your hands? Now, if you do, do you see that you have to do what He says? Do you see that? I mean, that's just, it's just logical.

If I said to you, look, I am the Son of God and I prove to you that I was indeed the Son of God and I did things that you know only the Son of God could do, then you know your natural response to me would be, listen, what does your Father think about me? Would you tell me what I'm here to do in life? Would you tell me that? Now, do you see that follows if you believe Jesus is the Son of God. You have to do what He tells you. And,loved ones, He's the only one who can explain reality to us.

Do you see that all the other pseudo-religious leaders, they're talking just from their own imaginations and according to their own opinions and their own best thoughts. But He's the only one who can come to us and say, I lived with God before there was ever a world. Before the world was, I experienced glory with the Father and experience glory with the Father.

Now, I know what my God had in mind when He made all of you and I can tell you. And this is what He says. He says, first of all, you're not here forever. The life that you have at present is not going to go on and on forever. You're going to live no longer than your parents or your grandparents. That's what Jesus said.  He said, what is born of the flesh is flesh. That's it. And so, the life, the physical and the mental life that you got from your parents and your grandparents, that isn't going to last. Believe me, it isn't. It's just flesh life. It'll never inherit the kingdom of God. It'll never experience anything beyond this life. So, you're going to die out at the end of this life. In fact, actually, you're dying now, loved ones.

Do you know that since I started to speak, thousands and thousands of cells in your body have already died? Now, I know we like to think, oh yes, but aren't there others being renewed? Yes, but there are more dying than are being renewed. In a real way, even though so many of us look so young, we're all dying at this moment, really. You're a little more dead physically and mentally at the end of this hour than you were when you started. You really are. 

And then Jesus said, but you won't believe it. You won't believe that you're dying. And you won't believe that this life will come to an end after 70 or 75 years. You somehow feel that you'll go on through. You somehow feel, no, I wasn't made to go out like a light. There's something in me that says I was made for something better than that. And there is, isn't there - there's something.  
The most agnostic among us here this morning would admit that there's something in us that says, yeah, yeah, well, the person beside me might, and the other one on the other side might, and he might. But no, there's something in me that knows I'm different. And I know that I won't go out like a light. There's something in me that says I was made to go on after this life. And it's interesting, because of that desire for eternity, or that feeling that we were made for something greater than a temporary experience in this life, we do all kinds of things to try to create the feeling of eternal life in ourselves. We do.

We try to parlay the purely temporal attributes of the physical and the mental life that we have into the attributes that we think are those of eternal life. Oh, that's why we skydive. Did you ever think of that? That's why we skydive. And that's why we hang glide. And that's why we try to take corners on motorbikes faster than they can be taken. And that's why we take cocaine and uppers and downers. Because we sense somehow we should be able to burst beyond the bonds of this earth-born existence. And we feel we're made for something more than this.  And that's why we ski down slopes as fast as we possibly can. Because somehow we feel we're made for something beyond the limitations that we feel this physical and mental life has. And, loved ones, the truth is that this physical and mental life will never let you get beyond those limitations.

But, of course, we keep on trying. For instance, we feel we ought to experience the safety and the stability and the security of a life that goes on forever. We do. There's something in us that says you should be able to experience the security and the stability and the safety of eternal life. And that's what we spend our lives doing. We use our minds and the shrewdness of our minds to try to create that in this present life.  You know we do. We use our minds to try to get the best education we can. And then we try to exchange that education for the best possible career situation we can find. And then we try to create a cast-iron life insurance policy. And we try to create a cast-iron medical insurance policy. And then we spend most of our lives trying to trade up our cars for better cars, hoping that sometime we'll get a car that will never wear out.

And we keep trading up our houses. And we keep exchanging our investments shrewdly because we're always trying to bring about a controlled environment for ourselves, something that somebody cannot blow up or explode. And we use our minds constantly to try to get ourselves into an invulnerable position in relationship to our rivals, even in relationship to our colleagues at work.

So that we try to scramble up the heap with these clever minds to somehow get a place that is stable and secure and safe because we will feel we were made for that. And of course we're always haunted by the Howard Hughes. We're always haunted by those men that have got far more in this regard than we probably will ever get. And yet they die in fear of bacteria. And they die in fear of loneliness. And it haunts us. But it's strange, loved ones, I put it to you, don't we keep on straining the old mind to create this safety and security and stability? What Jesus says is, look, you'll never do it. You will never do it. What is born of the flesh is flesh.

As far as your mental and your physical life is concerned, you're always going to sense you're a fiddler on the roof. You're always going to sense you're just balancing on the roof there with the violin and just about to topple off. And Jesus says, you can't get anything better than that.

But we keep on, you know, we sense we were made for an eternal life that is more satisfying than this one, something that will have the serene peace and happiness and tremendous exhilaration that I know eternal life should have. And so we spend our life, in our emotional life, trying to find that. We can imagine some South Sea island which will combine the peace and the serenity of Walden Pond with all the excitement and exhilaration of the Arabian Nights.

And we seem to feel that we can get it somewhere. And loved ones, you know what we do? Every dear relationship, every dear relationship we have is pressed into service to that ideal. We use this one and that one to try to get peace and serenity from them in a relationship of love, to try to get excitement and exhilaration from them in a relationship of love.

We're trying to press relationships into a place where we can gain that serenity and peace, that excitement and exhilaration that we believe we were made for. Yet it's amazing, you know, however much we may chemically suppress the anxiety that spoils that peace, however much we take the uppers or the downers to try to get into that exhilaration, however much we use other people to try to experience that exhilaration physically, somehow we find we have a loneliness and a sense of anti-climax and a sense of desolation that is utterly in contrast to the conviviality and the interest and the tremendous exhilaration that we feel we're meant to experience in some great relationship. And so we keep on going with the old emotions, trying to produce it but never finding it.

It's the same, you know, as far as the will is concerned. I don't think there's one of us here hasn't felt like John Milton, the poet, who always felt he was born for something great, you know.  And we may all say, oh well, I don't think I'll be a John Milton, but I think all of us feel that we were born for something special. All of us feel we were born for something better than the gold watch at the end of the retirement or the end of the job. We feel we were born for something better than just a name on a gravestone that somebody would notice by chance since they visited some cemetery. We feel somebody, somewhere, somehow must notice that we passed through this world. Somebody must notice. Many of us have children because we hope they'll notice. But even then, we kind of feel, yeah, yeah, but somebody else, somebody else must notice. I'm here for some purpose, some purpose somehow. And of course, we try to will ourselves into a sense of importance. That's why we give the loved ones at home such a hard time. It's why we give the loved ones in the office such a hard time. We try to will ourselves into a position of domination where they'll notice us.

We try to will ourselves into a position of significance among our peers. We try to will ourselves into a position where somebody will notice how absolutely and incredibly clever we are in conversation. We're always trying somehow to will ourselves into some place where we sense that difference that we were made to sense. And loved ones, Jesus says, you'll never make it. Your physical and mental life, which is what you're using to produce this sense of eternity and infinity, will never produce it. What is born of the flesh is flesh. It'll die as all flesh dies. And it doesn't matter how much you try.

And in fact, Jesus, of course, points out that what you're making yourselves into is huge, hedonistic, egotistical, domineering monsters. And how many of us  have felt, yeah, I suppose, yes, that's what I am. In my moments of clarity, I can see it. That's what I am. And yet, loved ones, Jesus says this - the aspirations that you've had for eternity and the yearnings that you have for the security and the stability and safety of an eternal life and the yearnings you have had for serene peace and yet tremendous varied exhilaration and excitement and the yearnings you have had to be somebody that somebody noticed, those are all placed into you by my dear Father, because He wants to satisfy those.

 But you will never satisfy them yourself. Whatever you do with other human beings, whatever you do with the material things in this world, you'll never satisfy those yearnings. Those yearnings, Jesus says, are meant to be satisfied in a close, intimate, personal friendship with your Maker. That's the only way you'll ever experience the safety and the security and stability of a relationship that will never let you down, that will never drop you.

Jesus says, you're a little fly in this universe. You're a little fly. You'd be crushed in a moment. Two planets don't even have to crash into each other to destroy you. You can be destroyed if the wind is a little stronger than normal. You're a little fly. But my Father knows you and He knows your name and He wants you to be close to Himself and He wants you to know Him as a friend and not treat Him as some distant God. And Jesus says, all the things that you yearn after are to be found not in the world or in other human beings, but in a close friendship with His Father.

 And, loved ones, the miracle is this. You find, I think, that in certain relationships something new almost comes into you. I mean, haven't you found that? All of us who are married have found that, but all of us who have any friends know that. If you have a dear, close friend, you find that that friendship gives something new to your life. It brings in a new level of awareness or consciousness. Now, here's the miracle. Friendship with your Maker brings into your life the same power and the same life that runs through Him Himself. It's called the Spirit. See, you have physical life out here. These hands, these ears, this mouth, that's physical life.

You have mental life where you can think two and two are four, square root of nine. You can think that. Feelings, that you can feel emotions, you can feel a sense of acceptance or a sense of love, a will that says, hand go out and it goes out. You have a mental life, but, loved ones, inside you, in a place where no surgeon can get, there is a Spirit. You have a Spirit. Now, loved ones, you have a Spirit, a life that can connect up with God's life, a life that can be related to God's Spirit.  And Jesus says that's where you'll find all the security and stability and safety that you feel you were made for. But it'll only happen if you come alive to your Maker, if you come alive to your God. And that's what He meant by saying you have to be born again, you see.

See, we're all alive here physically, some more than others, but we're all alive physically. And we're all alive mentally, some more than others, but we're all alive mentally. And we all can see each other and we can hear each other and we can think the same thoughts as I share them, or as you share them with somebody else, and we can feel. But, loved ones, many of us here are dead inside and we have no real relationship with the Creator of the universe. We know about Him, we think about Him, we can even feel about Him, but we have no relationship to Him. He's not a dear friend to us.

Now, Jesus says it's in that friendship that you will find all the endless exhilaration that you have yearned for in other human relationships. But you have to be born again, you have to come alive to a whole new world, to a whole new relationship. Now, loved ones, could I share with you the problem here?  The problem is that you can't be married to two people. You can't be getting your kicks from cocaine and from alcohol and from sex and get your kicks from the deep relationship with your Father that you were made for. God will not share your friendship.

 And I think many of you say, but He has to. Because I've been doing this for years. For years, I've been depending on other human beings for approval and affection and recognition. For years, I've been depending on my bank account for my security and my stability and my safety. For years, I've trained myself in my job to depend on my career for a sense of assurance. I can't change like that. My personality is bent that way. It's going that way.

 I know because I've tried it.  I've tried to be different. I've tried to do what you say. I've tried to depend on God for my security and safety and stability. I've tried to depend on God when I lost my girlfriend or my boyfriend. I've tried to depend on Him for a sense of love and approval and worth. I've tried, but it doesn't work because my personality has been used to going this way for years.

Loved ones, that Jesus says is why He died. When He died—now, loved ones, I know some of you have heard it before, but for those dear ones who haven't or have listened to the words and have never really heard it, Jesus did not die on Calvary as an ordinary criminal. He did not die just Himself.
A miracle took place when Jesus died. God put into Him your enslaved personality and destroyed it there. That's true. That's what it means when it says, our old self was crucified with Him.

 Now, you're right when you say, I can't change.  You're right - you can't. You have a personality that's so enslaved to the rest of us here and to the other human beings in the world and to the material things in the world that you can't change it.  But what Jesus says, I changed it for you. A miracle was wrought by my Father in me on Calvary. When I died, you died. Your old self was crucified with me. And that enslaving connection that you have to other people for happiness, that enslaving connection that you have to your job for security, that was destroyed in me on Calvary.

And Jesus says, if you're willing to let my spirit destroy it in you today, you can be born anew today. You can come into a new relationship with my Father and you can experience in that deep friendship with Him all that you have yearned for in your present life up to this moment. That's what Jesus says. He doesn't say you have to learn more. He doesn't say you have to be better people. He doesn't say you have to believe even just in Him. He says, you have to be willing to join me on the cross and to die to the approval of your mother as I died to the approval of my mother. To die to the approval of your peers and the acceptance of your peers as I died to the acceptance of my peers. To die to your ability to earn good money and to base your security and your safety and stability on that as I died to my ability to earn good money in the carpenter shop. You have to join me on my cross and be willing to die with me to the world as a source of security, significance, and happiness. And then I will put into you the same spirit as I have and you will suddenly feel about my Father as I do. That's what it is to be born again. It's not something that you can produce in yourself.  It's something that only God's Spirit can produce in you and He can only do it in a willing person, in a person who is willing to die.

And that's what Jesus says we need to do. He says,  the old mental and physical life that you have is not going to last. You're going to lose it.  Now what I'm saying to you is you have to die to trying to parlay it into a kind of spiritual life. You have to die to using your mental and your physical life as a source for the security, significance, and happiness that you know you were made for. And you have to die with me to the physical and mental source of happiness. You have to allow me to put the same Spirit in you that I have and begin to relate to my Father as your Father. And begin to trust Him for your security. And begin to trust Him for your sense of importance. And begin to trust Him for whatever happiness He wants you to give, to have. And be willing to do without the happiness that He wants you to do without. And be willing to do without the security that He wants you to do without. And be willing to do without the sense of significance that He wants you to do without.

 But above all, put yourself into a personal relationship with your God. Now, loved ones, that's the heart of becoming a Christian. Being born again is not this shallow, superficial stuff that Time and Newsweek magazines are talking about. It is not just a new orientation mentally. It is not just a new set of ideas that you accept into your head.  It is a deep work that is wrought in the center of your personality, which has been empty all these years, whereby you die to trying to get imitation security, significance, and happiness from others and from the world. And you ask God to send His Spirit of life into you so that you can relate to Him. And loved ones, you can.

If you're sitting here this morning, dear brothers and sisters, and you know that this is truth, but you don't know how to do it, you can begin today. Really, you can. I know because one time I started. And you have to make a start, you see. It's no use listening to me and saying, well, that's good. I'll think about that and I'll try to work it up in me. It's not that. You see that? It's the only response to a man who says, all that is rotten in you was crucified with me when I died.

The only response to him can be, then, I know you're alive today.  I give myself to you. It has to be an act of faith. It has to be an action. See, if you go out of here, you'll do just what I did for years:  Let's think about it a bit more. Let's discuss it a bit more. That's like my saying the whole building is on fire. The building's on fire. And you say, well, I'll think about it - it's just an inappropriate response. You're really saying you don't believe the building's on fire.

Now, it's the same with Jesus. If you say, well, I'll think about it, you're really saying, I don't believe it. But if you believe what Jesus said about your life, will you take a step this morning and as we bow our heads in prayer, it doesn't matter if anybody knows you're doing it, doesn't matter what way you do it, doesn't matter if you use words or don't use words, but will you deal with God, your God, your Maker, and will you tell him, look, I have been looking everywhere else but to you for the things that I felt I should have in my life.

I'm sorry. And I thank you that you destroyed this whole habit that my personality has got into. You destroyed it in your Son on Calvary, and I accept that. And I give myself to you. And I want to know why you put me here on earth. And I want you to provide whatever I need. And Lord, I'll do what you tell me to do. That's it, loved ones. That's really what's involved.

 Let us pray. Dear Father I’m not going to pray a prayer for my brothers and sisters. I ask you to listen to their prayers. Jesus, I know that if somebody here in this room prayed honestly to you I know that you now have put your Spirit into their spirits. You’ve made them alive and they suddenly know you are real. You are real dear Father and I trust you to guide them this week and begin to show them why you put them here so that there life may be worth something and they will live forever. I ask this in your name.