Good morning and praise the Lord. You must be steady in the Lord to reach your destiny. I'm continuing from where I stopped from last time. In the book of Colossians chapter 3, we are going to read verse 1 to verse 4. But if God allows, in future we will go up to verse 11. For the interest of time, let's read together the word of God from Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 to verse 4 again. May you read God's word. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you again for giving us time and the privilege to hear from you. We are grateful. May you, God, speak to us this morning because we want to be steady in you for us to have an intimate relationship with You, and be able to stand all the temptations, to stand firm in the world with a focus on Your God. Come and speak to us. Your servants are listening. In the name of Jesus, I have prayed and believed, amen. You must be steady in the Lord to reach your destiny. Our destiny—I want to again confirm and affirm this—is heaven. Yesterday, in the sermon that was delivered by our VC, Christ confirmed to us that our destiny—confirmed to us our destiny when we heard Jesus speak from the scriptures in the gospel according to John chapter 14, verse 1 to verse 7, and I'm going to read it for us. The Bible says, don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. Jesus is speaking. My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." And he was saying that, then Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know. We don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Then he affirmed, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will also know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." This affirms to us that our destiny is heaven because Jesus says, believe in God, believe also in me, for in my Father's house has many rooms." And he went to prepare for us a place. So you have a place. And this place, Jesus has prepared it for you. The last time I stood before us, the word of God reminded us of the truth that says clearly in Colossians 3, verse 1, we have just read, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, where Christ is. It's not just in an open place. He says where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. This, to me, confirms that there is a place prepared for you. And it's Christ who says, I am coming to get you out of the world. I take you. I bring you to myself. And we will be together. So since then, you have been raised with Christ. Be steady in the Lord, number one, by focusing on heaven. by focusing on our destiny, which is heaven. Focus on heaven. Paul says in Colossians that, seek the things that are above. Seek the things that are above. Why do you think the word of God this morning is encouraging us to focus on heaven? The Bible says in Matthew, that in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33, that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I remember saying this last time. And all these things shall be added unto you. Right now, the focus of many, if you do research, if you move around, you would see that it is on the things It is on these things that shall be added unto you." We are forgetting to begin with the first thing, which is to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There is a reason why we are encouraged by the Word of God to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It doesn't mean that God doesn't care about these things that you want, that you're looking for. It doesn't mean that. But because God knows that He's your Creator, He knows what you need, not what you want. He knows what you need. What we need is to seek first his kingdom. and his righteousness. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Fixing your eyes on Jesus. Philippians chapter 3, verse 20 says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we get this encouragement from Paul, which says, seek the things that are above, we need to ask ourselves, what are these things? Let me do a recap for us. These are all great and blessed, truly spiritual things that are where Christ is, that come from him to us, who are joined to him to his death and resurrection. One commentator said, the things that are above means the things that God is doing to bring his kingdom. You can give an example of salvation. Remember I shared with us a testimony of one of the ladies that Christ saved, gave this gift of salvation. Therefore, you must be steady in the Lord by focusing on heaven because it is where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Continuing from where we stopped in verse 2, the Bible says of Colossians chapter 3, set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. This is calling us on a daily basis to meditate on heavenly life, not earthly life. Why do you think we need to meditate on a heavenly life, not earthly life. I have one reason for us, and this is it. Heavenly life, or heaven, will never pass away, will never vanish away. But do you know what will happen to the earth? The earth will vanish away, will pass away. That's why we have this encouragement. And even when Paul was writing, The church in Colossae had started believing in Judaistic beliefs. After they had stopped living their life, thinking that there's no, yes, they had believed, but they had this mixture. Their priority, their focus had been diverted by what Judaism, Judaistic beliefs were. And they were leading them to focus on the earth, not on God, whom they have believed. And Paul wrote to them to remind them, look here, people. You have been raised with Christ. When Christ came, he died for you. And when he died, you died with him because you took all your sins. He went on the cross, he died, and he resurrected. Now, you must change your thinking. You must change the way you live. The way you live should be different from those who don't know Christ. So Paul wrote them, encouraging them that. And he tells them, okay, this is how you're supposed to do it. You must focus on heaven. Don't focus on the earth. because the earth will pass away, the earth will vanish away. One poet, there's a poet called George Herbert. George Herbert wrote a poem on earthly pleasures and he entitled it, he named it Virtue, Virtue. And he says, of course, today we have opposing views of how individuals should spend their short time they have on the earth. We call it short time because it is short. Herbert is a Puritan who believed that earthly pleasures should be ignored as life should be spent preparing for another world after death. The decisions individuals make in life, he says, should be moral and exclude earthly destruction. It's in his poem. He as well said that people should spend their time on earth preparing for the next place after death. And this poem virtue acknowledges secular wonders that surround us every day. But the poem also recognizes that these wonders are unimportant. Sometimes you may think they are important, but they are not as important as the word of God is encouraging us this morning. It's giving us what is more important to focus on. In this poem, he ends by saying, to indulge and be intrigued by earthly pleasures is mindless behavior. Mindless behavior. Why? Because obsession with worldly pleasures is useless as it does not better an individual's soul. So if you sink your life in worldly pleasures, if you sink your life in earthly pleasures, your soul will not be better, will not be benefited. And in fact, you will lose your soul. Isn't it what the Apostle or Disciple John says in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15 to verse 17? Let me remind us. He says, love not the world. He makes an emphasis. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Why? If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father. But of what? but of the world. And the world passes away. I've just said that in a few minutes ago. And the last day of, but he that does the will of God abides forever and ever. We must, on a daily basis, meditate on the heaven life. not on the earthly life, because the earthly life vanishes away. And that is what we are getting, we are being encouraged from the Word of God, using the Apostle Paul in Colossians, encouraging this church. Please, meditate on heaven life. Let your focus be on heaven, not on the earth. set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. He reminds them again in verse three, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. There's something here. You have died. Okay? We need to understand this. You have died. Well, he was speaking to people who were, as in physically, alive, but we need to understand, why did Paul say, for you have died? Because of what Christ did. And when Christ came and died for your sin, or for your sin, and mine, we died with Him. And now, we, right now, when we resurrected, when Christ resurrected, we resurrected with Him. So what Paul says here is, now your life is hidden with Christ. You no longer live your life. You, right now you can't say, I live on my own. No. Christ, when he went down and he came up, he hid your life in him. Meaning, the next step that you make, it should be him to lead you, not you to lead yourself. And that's why even when we're on the earth, We need to focus on Jesus because He is the only one who can help us to live as He wants us to live on the earth. The stability that I'm talking about, you cannot have it unless if your life is hidden in Christ. You cannot be stable on earth, if your life is not hidden in Christ. This morning, if you're listening or watching this message, God is calling you. If your life is not hidden in Christ, he's calling you. Please, please, you're missing something. And this is affirmed in verse four, when he says, when Christ, okay, when Christ, who is your life? You see, who is your life? Christ, who is your life? When he appears, then you also, you will appear with him in glory. You will appear with him in glory. On the 1st of April, 2018, crown.org published an article, which was a study from the Vellmane entitled, Are These Guilty Spending Pleasures Wrecking Your Budget? And I was reading, I was like, OK, let me see what they said in this article and this research. They said, of course, they defined guilt pleasures, and they asked different Americans. And overall, in the research, they said 87% of the Americans admitted to spending money on guilty pleasures. And these are the top five. Eating out at a restaurant stood at 42 percent. Online shopping, 33 percent. Ordering takeout and delivery, 27 percent. I'm talking of 2018. In-store shopping stood at 25 percent. Streaming entertainment services stood at 20 percent. Now, listen to this. The top four of these five that I've just said, according to the research, are also what Americans would like to spend less money on. They were talking of 2019 in the incoming year. In essence, Americans were saying, yes, I know, I overspend. Yes, there are things I tend to overspend on. And yes, I would like to stop overspending on them. And this happens in our life, not only for the life of the Americans, but even in our life. There are things that you know that I'm not supposed to focus on them, but you Focus on them. That English is there. You're not supposed to focus on them. But still, you're like, you compromise. Well, I'm not supposed to buy that. I'm not supposed to. But again, you end up doing so. And I want to ask you a question this morning. Can you identify things in your life that you overspend on and yet your consciousness says you should stop? Let's advance it. Can you identify the sin in your life that you know is making you become worldly and you don't want to stop it? Can you? The reason I brought up this research is that out of all the good pleasures listed, Americans wanted to keep one, which was the streaming entertainment services. I'm going to explain that. In today's plug-in culture, I'm not sure if this is good news to you. Our relationships with our phones, our tablets, our computers, our TVs has gotten out of control. Has gotten out of control. I've been a media. for the last now 12 years, and I know what I'm talking about. I move in this city, in this country, but this, this, and if you're seated here, your phone, your tablet, your computer, your TV, is, has actually, is actually controlling you I think, and I want to suggest to you, Go on your knees and ask Jesus to help you out. Because what is on the phone, I'm not saying that using phones is bad. I believe you know what I'm talking about. But if these things are taking you out of control, your thinking, your focus has changed, they are diverting you, I suggest to you, you better stop using them. And in many ways, they are keeping us from stewarding our time the way God wants us to do it. Anything that you put your focus on and is stopping you and keeping you from stewarding the time that God has given you, that God wants you to do, it is not God. It's not God. The option you have is stop it. Think. You identify such things in your life because you know what I'm talking about. Is there anything in your life that is keeping you from stewarding your time the way God wants you to do it, the way God wants you to use it? Is it there? In conclusion of Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 to 4, we see that Christ is our life. He is your life. You must live in Him and for Him. And if you're a believer, your focus, your priorities in life are determined by Christ. Live a life in Christ, my brother, my sister. Live a life in Christ. Make Him the controller of your life. Make him the savior of your life. Allow Christ to lead you. Allow him, because your stability on the earth, in Christ, will help you to reach your destiny. Do you know what? Christ calls you upwards. The earth calls you downwards. Let me say that one more time. Christ calls you upward. Do you know what the world is calling you? What the earth is calling you? It's calling you downwards. The earth wants you to stay, you know, keep enjoying, keep enjoying life. You know, heaven is not there. Who tells you heaven is real? Because the word of God says so. And you know what? Even hell is real because the word of God says so. So let us not be diverted. Let us be stable in the Lord by focusing on heaven. May God give us the grace to live that life. If you're here, your four years that you're going to spend at African Bible University, let your stability be in the Lord. Let your stability be in the Lord. When your stability is in the Lord, you will reach your destiny. You will reach your destiny. Amen? Father, I want to thank you for the time you have given us to share from your Word. We can't be stable without you, Christ. And as we sang our hymn, Rock of Ages, we look to you. We look to you. We look to you, may you give us the grace to live a life that glorifies you, that honors you. We thank you, we bless you. In the name of Jesus, I have prayed and lived.