BREAKING THE SPELL: Living for Eternal Purpose in a World Designed to Distract Us
“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”
— Luke 21:34 (NKJV)
There is something profoundly unsettling about these words of Jesus.
Notice that Jesus does not warn only about obvious sin. He also warns about something that can appear completely innocent:
“the cares of this life.”
That may be one of the greatest spiritual dangers facing Christians today.
This morning I watched a teaching by John Barnett titled “BREAKING THE SPELL—Living for Eternal Purpose.” His description of our condition as a kind of worldly hypnosis caught my attention.
We can become so absorbed with earning, buying, entertaining ourselves, planning, worrying, scrolling, watching, accumulating, and trying to make this earthly life comfortable that we gradually lose consciousness of eternity.
We haven't necessarily rejected Christ.
We have simply become distracted from Him.
And perhaps that is why Jesus said:
“Take heed to yourselves.”
The danger is subtle.
The Spell of This Present World
The world continually tells us:
- Make more money.
- Buy something better.
- Make yourself comfortable.
- Protect your lifestyle.
- Entertain yourself.
- Avoid suffering.
- Build your security here.
None of these things necessarily look evil by themselves.
That is precisely what makes the warning so important.
Jesus said that our hearts could become “weighed down” by the cares of this life.
A person does not have to renounce Christianity to become spiritually ineffective.
He only has to become sufficiently preoccupied with everything else.
That should cause every follower of Christ to examine his life.
What occupies most of my thoughts?
What receives most of my energy?
What am I building that will survive my death?
If Jesus evaluated how I spent this week, how much of it had eternal value?
Those are uncomfortable questions.
But they are necessary questions.
Salvation Is Secure—but Our Lives Still Matter
There is another danger that deserves careful attention.
We can take the wonderful biblical truth of salvation by grace and turn it into an excuse for spiritual passivity.
Scripture could not be clearer:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith...not of works.”
— Ephesians 2:8–9
We cannot earn salvation.
But the very next verse says:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
— Ephesians 2:10
We are not saved by good works.
We are saved for good works.
That distinction changes everything.
Jesus did not save us merely so that we could secure a destination in heaven and then spend the remainder of our lives pursuing ourselves.
He redeemed us for Himself.
Paul therefore writes:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:10
- Our lives matter.
- Our choices matter.
- Our motives matter.
- Our time matters.
And someday Christ Himself will evaluate what we did with the life He entrusted to us.
What Will Survive the Fire?
Paul describes that coming evaluation in 1 Corinthians 3:11–15.
- Our works will be tested.
- Some will endure like gold, silver, and precious stones.
- Others will disappear like wood, hay, and straw.
That raises an important question:
How much of what consumes my life today will matter one minute after I stand before Jesus Christ?
- Our houses will eventually belong to someone else.
- Our possessions will be scattered.
- Our bank accounts will be transferred.
- Our accomplishments will be forgotten.
- Even our bodies will return to dust unless Christ comes first.
- But what was done for Christ will remain.
- A prayer whispered when nobody heard it.
- A gift given sacrificially when nobody knew the cost.
- A lonely person encouraged.
- A hungry person fed.
- Someone introduced to Jesus.
- A hurting person loved.
- A temptation resisted because we wanted to honor Christ.
- A task faithfully performed simply because we believed God had given it to us.
- The world may never applaud these things.
But Heaven records them.
God Sees What Nobody Else Sees
- This is one of the most encouraging truths in Barnett's teaching.
- God does not measure our lives the way the world does.
- The world measures visibility.
- God measures faithfulness.
- The world counts followers.
- God sees obedience.
- The world notices platforms.
- God notices servants.
- Jesus repeatedly emphasized this in Matthew 6.
- When you give secretly, your Father sees.
- When you pray secretly, your Father sees.
- When you serve without applause, your Father sees.
- Nothing genuinely done for Christ is wasted.
That means some of the greatest treasures presently being accumulated in Heaven may belong to Christians whose names will never appear on a platform, book cover, television program, or social-media account.
God knows.
And God remembers.
“Pray Always”
Jesus continues His warning:
“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
— Luke 21:36
Prayer is not merely something Christians add to an already busy life.
- Prayer keeps us conscious of another world.
- It reminds us that we are dependent upon God.
- It breaks the illusion of self-sufficiency.
- Barnett makes an important point about the intensity of biblical prayer.
- Think about the leper pleading with Jesus for cleansing.
- Think about the father desperately pleading for his suffering son.
- These people were not casually reciting religious words.
They knew they needed Jesus.
Perhaps one reason our prayer lives sometimes become weak is that our earthly comforts have convinced us that we really don't need very much from God.
Jesus says:
- Watch.
- Pray.
- Stay awake.
Don't allow this world to put your soul to sleep.
The Great Spiritual Battle for Our Attention
This may be one of the reasons this message is especially important today.
Previous generations certainly faced distractions, but we carry distraction around in our pockets.
- Almost every waking moment can now be filled.
- There is always another headline.
- Another video.
- Another notification.
- Another purchase.
- Another controversy.
- Another entertainment.
- Another thing demanding our attention.
- Silence has almost become uncomfortable.
And when every empty space is filled with noise, it becomes increasingly difficult to hear the quiet conviction of the Holy Spirit calling us back to eternal things.
The great spiritual battle of our generation may not merely be a battle over what we believe.
It may also be a battle over what receives our attention.
Because whatever continually captures our attention eventually shapes our affections.
And Jesus said:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
— Matthew 6:21
We Cannot Recover Yesterday—but We Can Give God Today
Perhaps this is the most encouraging part of the entire message.
Some of us may look backward and think:
- I wasted too many years.
- I should have served Christ more.
- I should have prayed more.
- I should have given more.
- I should have cared more about people.
- I became too consumed with myself.
We cannot recover yesterday.
But God has given us today.
And if He gives us tomorrow, tomorrow becomes another opportunity.
This changes the question.
Instead of asking:
“How much of my life have I wasted?”
Perhaps we should ask:
“Lord, what do You want me to do with the life I have left?”
That is a question filled with hope.
Breaking the Spell
Maybe today is the day for some of us to wake up.
- Not to earn salvation.
- Not because we are terrified that God will stop loving us.
But because Jesus Christ is worthy of the life He purchased.
Paul wrote:
“And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:15
That may be the simplest definition of eternal-purpose living:
No longer living primarily for myself, but for Him.
- Pray.
- Give.
- Serve.
- Love.
- Forgive.
- Encourage.
- Share Christ.
- Help someone who cannot repay you.
- Use your spiritual gifts.
- Invest your resources in God's purposes.
- Do the unnoticed work.
- And do it all for Jesus.
One Final Question
If Jesus returned today, would I discover that I had been watching—
or merely occupied?
Would He find me investing in His Kingdom—
or simply maintaining my earthly kingdom?
Would I be living expectantly—
or spiritually asleep beneath the cares of this life?
Jesus' warning in Luke 21 is not intended to leave His followers frightened.
- It is intended to wake us up.
- There is still time to pray.
- There is still time to give.
- There is still time to serve.
- There is still time to love our neighbor.
- There is still time to tell someone about Christ.
- There is still time to lay up treasure in Heaven.
- There is still time to live for what lasts forever.
But there is only one time in which we can do it:
Today.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...”
— Matthew 6:33
Perhaps that is how we finally break the spell.
We remember that this world is temporary.
Christ is eternal.
And then we begin living accordingly.
I especially like the connection between Luke 21:34 and Matthew 6:21 for this chapter. Jesus warns that the cares of this life can weigh down the heart, while elsewhere He tells us that our treasure determines where our heart goes. Put those together and we get a sobering principle: whatever we continually invest ourselves in eventually captures our hearts.
ReplyDeleteThat also makes this a natural chapter for Preparing for Eternity. It moves the Bema Seat discussion from “What will happen someday?” to the much more practical question: “Knowing that I will someday stand before Christ, what should I do with today?”