 as we sing together. Ahim that we rarely sing but it speaks about the golden morning when Jesus Christ shall come. Him two hundred and five. Let us rise on our feet as we sing together. Bless us in a special way. Be with us now for the rest of the day and the program because we ask it all in Jesus' name. I want to welcome each and every one of you this afternoon for the afternoon program. We had a beautiful morning shared by our speaker Pastor Mahanu and this afternoon I'd like to invite him again to share with us in our dream living and looking into eternity. Thank you all for coming and for those who are online wherever you are we want to welcome you to share in the word of God. At this time I would like to invite our speaker Pastor Mahanu who will take us through living for eternity. Thank you. Okay good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. You're welcome brothers and sisters. It's a privilege and honor again to stand before you. I hope we all had good lunch and I want to welcome you on our first day of our stewardship week of prayer and the title of our presentation the whole of this week is living in view of eternity. Living in view of eternity. I'll be speaking on this subject every evening and at the end of this presentation I'll share with us the topics as they will be running each day at the end of this presentation. But for this evening I would like to welcome us to consider this subject living in view of eternity and our key text is taken from the book of Ecclesiastes. Okay there are those who pronounce it as Ecclesiastes. Okay chapter three and we are looking at verse 11. That's where our our text of study will be coming from this particular afternoon. Chapter three verse 11 are we there? Verse 11 says he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. My version says in the human heart. Others will say in the hearts of men. Yet he says no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. That is the reading. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven every time we get a chance to sit at your feet and to consider your word that is eternally in nature. Whose effect is eternal? Whose consequences are eternal? Whose power is infinite? Whose authority is unlimited? We shudder and we close our eyes because it is beyond what we can understand. In the stillness of your voice in the coming few minutes as we consider this which belongs to the realm of eternity yet we belong to the realms of the finiteness. Help us to comprehend this thing your word that has power to save even power to heal and to create hope in a state of hopelessness is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. You see there are questions that we need to answer in life. These questions will never be set by anybody at your place of work. These questions may not be set by the curriculum developers in the KIC. They may not. They may not be considered as part of what you need to do for you to get married. In fact it will never be part of the interviews that you will ever attend on this other side of life for any job that we're looking for. There are questions that human beings are and must of necessity answer to and these questions part of them are this that we are going to look at this afternoon. The questions are why am I here and if you have never asked yourself that question you do not have the legis you you do not have the privilege of of simply glossing over it is a question that you must answer why am I here especially for those of us who are serious men and women in this life. The other question is what difference does it make for me to be here? Suppose I was I was born dead. What difference would it make? Suppose I died before I went to school or I died before I got married. Suppose I died before I got my job. What difference does it make? It's a hard question. What is it that will ultimately satisfy the curious and the longing of my heart? What is it? I am not claiming to have absolute answers to this question but in this study this afternoon we intend to respond somehow principally to them not exhaustively but principally to them. The order of this book is called Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. If you look at this man his credentials and I wish I had time to give us the credentials of Solomon but suffice it just for me to say at this time he is the president. He is the president of the greatest superpower on the planet earth called Israel seated on the throne. He is a wealthy man stinging rich with you know things he has. He is a man of means. He has acquired knowledge. He has tried to know this and why this is like this and not like that. He has gotten to that. He doesn't know so much but he knows at least something about everything. Most of the subjects that are you know going on at his time he has something he can contribute. He can tell them no guys if you've got this direction this is what will happen and because of this don't go this direction. That is Solomon. He's a man whose heart was open to get satisfaction from anything that his hand would lay on. He has tried knowledge. He has it but his heart is more vacuous and empty. He has said no you know the passion of the flesh you can't just starve the passions of the flesh. You need to satisfy you need to feed your flesh. He has tried to feed his flesh and and and ensure that every passion that comes is well taken care of. He has 1,000 wives. He must have been a very strong man. 300 legally married and about 700 Kongiubines. He keeps them all of them are funded by the state coffer. He is one man who you know will come from this house and go to this house. He sleeps in this house today sleeps in the other house tomorrow. He has all of them coming in different shapes in different colors in different sizes. He is allowing it to be the only moment to satisfy the passionate longing of his flesh and he has tried it and and and and and he comes to this text by the way if if you get time just go and read again you know his book Ecclesiastes just go and read and you will enjoy you know he comes and says man I have discovered that these things are vanity. In fact he doesn't say some things he says all everything else that you can do under the blue sky he says it is vanity. Everything else your hand can lay on that which your eye can see that which your body can feel that which your ears can hear that which your nose can smell everything else it is vanity. That is how he sums it up in fact that's how he begins this particular book. You can imagine you're writing a book and you start by saying all his money. This is a man who has hit a dead end and God allows him to write like this because to some of us who think that we can live by things and I repeat that statement intentionally. Some of us who think that what we can live by things and they are things that determine our life. It is a sharp rebuke because things and the things we live for and buy do not add even a single iota to the life that we have and so Solomon has been enumerating all various of vestitudes of prosperity and adversity. He has talked about construction and destruction here. He has talked about society and solitude. He has talked about love and hate and he talks about these things all coming in time and place for a reason and within its own season and then he comes down and in verse 11 that we are considering he puts it he says he has made everything beautiful in its time. Everything is beautiful only in its time. Everything is good in its time. Everything is appropriate only in its own time. Done practiced outside its own time. It is not. It is not and so Solomon says in the text he says there are two antagonistic facts here. Man himself is transient meaning we are on transit we are passing by we are temporal but what God has done is that he has said something called eternity in your heart and in my heart so man is a bipolar being man is schizophrenia if you may choose to call it he he is two personalities in one he is both temporal and yet in his heart is eternity set in it. I think God was wise I think he was wise so he allows eternity to be that which controls the transient and not the other way around and I'm going to explain that in a little while so then it goes on he says that God has made everything so there is nothing that we have there is nothing that we are that was not made by him nothing is that was not made by him nothing we are and nothing we have that was not provided for by him we and all that we have and are belong and come from him he God has made everything everything but beautiful in its own time it's outside its own time it will happen when it happens in its own time beautiful all natural things are so beautifully in their seasons consider summer and winter spring and autumn all these seasons coming each one in their place in their time is beautifully in its own consider darkness and light in its own whenever the natural cause of things is left to bear there is a strikingly beautiful results whenever natural cause is allowed to in other words there is only a challenge in the life of men whenever that which is natural is turned into unnatural every time everything is happening in their own cause and order of nature everything is beautiful any time there is an interference with the natural order any interference with the natural order of things I can assure you everything goes amese and these is where we are allow me ladies and gentlemen to let us know that if God has set eternity in the man in the in the heart of man or in the human heart it simply means that man is in possession of a stifled and misinterpreted longing something in our hearts that pushes us too long to yarn for something we cannot interpret even ourselves we don't know what it is because that eternity must make us to focus at a place beyond anything else the transitory however setting it may appear sometimes it may not be very active depending on your relationship with God if you haven't cultivated it over and over sometimes it's like that longing seems to disappear but that is never true it does not disappear forever there are moments when you are on your own at your best then you see and you feel and you sense it coming a misinterpreted longing in our hearts it will set in by God eternity is to be conceived as a long indefinite period of time God has placed in the inborn constitution of man the capability of conceiving of eternity and the struggle to apprehend the everlasting the longing after the eternal that will be man's portion for the rest of his life we may sometimes try to switch off the engine that seems to be propelling you towards longing for eternity but even when you have switched it off the engine will still be rolling inside you inside your heart there will be something that you need and that is determined by what we are doing in fact the reason why you woke up in the morning is because you're looking towards eternal you should have remained in bed the only reason why you ate food in the morning is because you had transient you had dying you want to eat so that you can that's the only reason why you went to the bathroom and showered and put on some good clothes the reason why you'll wake up every morning and go to work even though sometimes it's not very good it's because you are thinking of tomorrow eternity is set into our minds so man is nourished by two worlds the temporal world and the eternal world the temporal world with its all temporal things that we can see and the eternal world that none of our hands has ever laid on anything of it poor writing he says i has never seen ear has never heard that which belongs to the realm never when john the revelator is writing using andropomorphic language he he simply says he simply says i saw a city that was four square he says the city has gates of power and and he says and the city has streets of gold he doesn't know that he's interfering with our imaginations how can i imagine a city whose pathways are made up of gold he's interfering with our imaginations that's the language that could possibly be understood at that time that is a gentleman allow me to say this that god himself is eternal he has no beginning or ending he sees the end from the beginning he is omnipotent meaning all powerful he is omniscience or omniscient meaning he knows everything science then of course he is omnipresent meaning he is everywhere at the same time god he is eternal he has set this thing called eternity in the heart of man he has set the cycle and the clock that goes beyond the chronological clock that we have that is why we are living for next week and for next year even when we may die tomorrow our clock does not stop we plan as if we will be here for 1000 years even we know when we know that we'll be here only for two months it is because inside our heart there is a clock that was set that goes beyond the chronological time that we have today are you listening to me ladies and gentlemen it is important to know that this is how god created us he created us to last forever and what did he do he took the dust and then he breathed in the dust eternal spirit then man became a living soul so a human being is a composite is or a combination of that which is transient and that which is eternal at death that which is eternal lives and goes back to the realm of god and the body remains because of that my brothers and sisters you will always struggle to live in between these two and to balance how to live in this transient world yet looking forward to living in eternity is the greatest science of the soul this is not the science of the mind this is the science of the soul that is where we are we are above eternal and temporal now in the garden of Eden when god creates Adam he takes Adam and his wife Eve who are both temporal and eternal puts them in the garden and he wants to teach them to live a life within this temporal realm but living in view of eternity then he plants in the garden several trees and in the garden plants three kinds of trees or of roots one is the tree of life you eat of it you live forever the second one is the tree of knowledge of good and evil you eat of it you die and then he creates another one the third one is the tree that has fruits for food on daily basis and he tells men this third one you can eat of it it does not have any consequence but this too you eat of this one you live forever you eat of this one you die you eat of this you will live forever even as you continue subsisting on this temporal one you eat on this tree of life you live forever you test of this particular fruit of good and evil that one you die you end up god was teaching men on how to balance between temporal nature and the eternal nature now Adam chose to go for the fruits which are for this life they have no consequences but because of a lie that he believed in he thought that this one of eternity is good let it let it stay for a while this one i'm not pursuing it let me pursue this one first which has been prohibited because in it there seems to be some benefits and those benefits are going to make me great those benefits are going to be immediate they are not like have to wait and wait and wait i'm going to get them right now so he went for this tree and the moment he went for it he ate the bible says he died as a matter of fact the only reason why we are sitting here hello the only reason why we are sitting here is because they chose to go the temporal way and forgot about the eternal way the only reason why we are sitting here our loved ones some of them are dead it is because of what happened at that time the only reason why our sick loved ones are in the woods and hostels in beds in our houses it is because these guys are them and his wife the only reason why there is pain in your life the only reason why you have to quarrel with your husband and quarrel with your wife the one with whom you covenanted on the altar and said god our love comes sunshine or rain the only reason why that that challenge is there is because Adam and Eve chose to go the shortcut the temporal way as opposed to and i think for those of you who are in your lesson quarterly you must have discovered something about the choice that this great man lord made and the the author of the lesson said you know lord looked at the the green foliage of the plains he looked at the bamboo leaves when the wind is passing through the whistling voice he saw music in itself and he looked at the well the waters that run through the plain the rivers and he said man this must be the place he was going and living by the temboralness and not considering eternity which had been set in his heart you know i don't know if this has been your experience when i was a small boy one of the things i used to tell god god if you can just help me get 20 shillings because by then tembo would be available and tembo was enough to get me uniform tembo was enough to buy me a shirt and a shirt for my schools i would say god if you just help me get 20 life will be over i will i will be satisfied i got 20 i discovered that the moment i got 20 that was mine 20 that calls me father and a mother and i said oh my god if it is just 50 50 50 all my problems in the world will be over sometimes during a school break you know we would go gleaning from people's farms after harvesting would get maize and then we go to sell and i got 50 when i got 50 when i sat down to work on what i consider to be what i needed i said i wish it was 100 100 shillings was the highest you know denomination of our notes when we were growing up so then i got 100 i said i wish it was 200 then it got on going up you know until one day i was a millionaire but not you know kenyan money i went with pastor to rope to do some some call pota work down south and went to Botswana south africa and coming back we came to zambia and we had to exchange you know my friend you know our kenyan money i mean the dollars of course changing into zambian money you you got to carry a back that you you know we i think we had a note of almost a hundred thousands or something like that you know it's a it's you know it's a one note of about a hundred thousands and you know so i was a millionaire at some point of course when i was in zambia when i left zambia pastor to rope i left you there i don't know you know whether you also became a millionaire or a billionaire maybe yeah interestingly the more you get the more you wish you would get is that your experience also hello am i speaking to real people here has that been your experience too yeah then you know i said then of course i left i said no you know uh if i go to school and i i i i just finished primary i just managed to finish primary god i'll be so grateful i finished primary you're going on went to secondary after second i said man god i hear people go to college help me go to college once i get to college my life will be sorted out with my bachelor's there and i was still looking for another paper you know when went to went to school did my masters i was still looking for another paper went for my phd finished i was i'm still looking for actual i'm thinking of doing a second and third phd you know and and then the question you ask yourself then when does it become enough that is the question it's because everything else that is temporal will never satisfy fully your soul never satisfy fully your senses never you get it and you wonder what you are doing you see a beautiful dress and you you come sleep you go buy it and when you buy it you put on once and you wash it is on the line you look at it it's like i mean what what was it it is the beauty of this life god has set eternity in our hearts to help us live while subsisting on temporal things but our ultimate goal is focused on eternal things that balance is what we need to strike and so how do we do that god introduced men to a relationship in that garden of Eden he told adam adam you take care of this garden that does not belong to you take care of it take care of it turn it it doesn't belong to you it is mine but take care of it while you are taking care of it the choices and decisions that you are making those choices will under god they will define our my relationship with you they will that relationship and the choices you make will help you know who i am and who you are who you are is determined by the choices you make on how to balance between the temporal and the eternal things and who god is to you is equally determined by the choices you make when you're trying to balance between eternal and temporal things this particular thing that under gods or determines or defines our relationship in real in relation to god is what we call stewardship that we are learning this particular week man was to exercise his god-given powers to choose which way to go eternal way or temper away he chose temper away and by extension all of us choose temporal way adam was not stupid he was not foolish he just did it this particular relationship that helps us to know what is eternal what is temporal who am i and who god is is what stewardship is all about therefore i want to propose to you ladies and gentlemen that stewardship is a relationship subject it is not about your money it is a relationship subject it deals with who you are in relation to god and who god is in relation to you that is what stewardship is in a broad sense this subject of stewardship will facilitate the choices either for temporal or for eternal to live for things that are here today and tomorrow they are gone or to live for things that will be there forever and ever stewardship is a signboard that points either towards eternity or towards temporal because of eternity in our hearts we will never ever get satisfied with anything that our hands can lay on what satisfies is that which is eternal that we haven't seen with our eyes which we only exercise our faith to hold onto it that is what fills and satisfies our hearts he is not a fool therefore who gives out what he or she cannot keep in order to acquire that which you cannot lose because of eternity in our hearts few things we need to know one life is short it is not long i had a chance of going to view the body of our late president and i stood there and looked at this man the body is still being guarded by the great man the most powerful and the might man in this country the navy the air force and uh and i looked at the body and i was asking myself the difference between this body and me what is it and i came to a conclusion the conclusion was this the only difference between the body of a dead person and you who is alive is that there is that spirit of god that is still within you it has nothing to do with what you have it has nothing to do with what you do it has nothing to do with your position in society it has nothing to do with your agenda it is that spirit of god in you life is short it is in fact compared to a breath and suddenly life comes to an end suddenly or unexpectedly make the most out of this time especially in how you relate with the timber of things we should affect others in a very positive sense do that which once you have done you leave a mark behind let someone say yes there came a man or a woman who ever lived knowing that we are living in view of eternity should make us know that this life we live the choices we make on daily basis on how we relate with the timber of things around us determines how finally and where finally we will be eternally and finally the decisions have eternal consequences chalice lewis said this about those men and women living in view of eternity said we should always have heaven in our minds and he says it is because we should have heaven constantly in our mind so as to have an impact in this world in fact he says it is since christians have largely seized to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world in other words those men living in view of eternity are so much full of heaven that they are so good to their neighbors they are so good to their environment because they are so heaven minded and when christianity suffers from the blow of forgetfulness of their eternity in their hearts then you will see them being so full of us so absolutely minded that finally they don't even get the earth and they don't get heaven these are the things that we are going to study the whole of this week day one tomorrow we'll be looking at the principle of ownership our real worth what is your worth day two the principle of management being all that god has called us to be on day three the principle of character development they will simply look at your stewardship is your theological statement about life on day four the principle of responsibility walking with a full cup how can you without spilling over day five principle of accountability and here we're talking about partnership with god or enmity with god day six principle of sacrifice where we say give according to your earning or you will earn according to your giving and on Sabbath we'll talk about the principle of reward where we talk about faithfulness until the end this will form the structure of our interactions and discussions this week may the lord bless us all there may be a question that i want to respond to before we wind up any question maybe online viewers although seated here any question there being no question i'll ask that we pray and then we usher in the choristers let's pray gracious father in heaven how can we thank you better for not letting us wallow in misery and disappear into the thin air how else can we thank you for putting eternity in our hearts that will constantly remind us that even as we feed on the temporal things there is something that our hearts are longing for that is so indescribable but that largely and ultimately satisfies us as we go home as we meditate on these things about eternity having it having been set in our hearts we pray that this week speak to us speak to us and and correct us oh god rebuke our evil ways bring us back into the way of righteousness leaders into into eternity when you will come to usher as home may our minds ever focus on the path that leads towards eternity never to forget never to be distracted to live today as if we are living tomorrow we thank you and we praise you in jesus' name amen we shall if you saw nita kuandama kote rainbow number miamoya talatini nanane let us all rise through this week we bless lord in a special way that we may understand that i will for us bless every one of us even those of us who have been watching online wherever they are bless us in a special way and encourage us that this week we may fellowship together for the good of our own being in this world to this end i pray and seek thy face in jesus' name we pray please be seated thank you pastor for blessing us with those special words and we have come to the end of our program this afternoon i'd like to remind you that tomorrow we are starting at four o'clock and for the rest of the week we start at five thirty may god bless you all as we dismiss now and i hope to see you tomorrow at this time at four o'clock sorry and for those who are for any reason unable to come it will be live so you can tune in online and still enjoy the blessings of the lord god bless you all and we can dismiss now thank you