Keeping our focus in deteriorating conditions

Psalm 11 and verse number 1. In the Lord put I my trust, how say ye to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain. For lo, the wicked bend their bow and make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple.

The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Upon the wicked he shall reign snares and fire and brimstone and horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. Now over please to Isaiah in chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1. Isaiah 6 verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.

His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings.

With twenty covered his face. With twenty covered his feet. With twenty did fly.

One cried unto another and said, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried.

And the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For mine eyes have seen the king. Now there's another king that he'd been looking at. But he says, mine eyes have seen the king.

The Lord of hosts and so on. Finally in Revelation chapter 4. Revelation in chapter 4. Revelation 4 and verse 1. After this, now I take the after this is what's gone in the previous chapters with the churches that have been brought before us. After this, I looked.

Behold a door was opened in heaven. The first voice which I heard was as it were the trumpet talking with me and said, Come up hither and I will show thee things which most must be hereafter. Immediately I was in the spirit.

Behold a throne was set in heaven. And one sat upon the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper, the sardine stone.

There was a rainbow round about the throne in his sight like unto the emerald. I'm not sure if you would pick up a connection in the three passages that we have read together, but I think it's very simple and I want to make it very obvious to you today. What we have is deteriorating scenes, deteriorating conditions.

I mean we cannot be living on the same planet. If you wouldn't hardly agree today whether it is in the world, commercially, economically, socially, morally, and unfortunately even into local churches there is deterioration. There is failure.

And I wouldn't stand here this afternoon with pointing fingers and saying well it's because of our oversight. We don't have leaders. We don't have this.

We don't have that. We don't have the other. I do remember a number of things that Brother Larry Steers said to me, but one thing he said to me I will never forget and it is this.

He said I would be hard put to criticize overseers because I had the answers for all that they should do until I was one. I've never been an overseer. Never had that challenging task of taking care in that capacity.

Now it's true we seek to shepherd people we see safe. Seek to guide them. But to actually take that responsibility has never been mine.

I don't expect it ever will be that. But nevertheless, brethren and sisters, we live in deteriorating conditions. I want you to notice how these people responded to deteriorating conditions.

What do we do? That's really what the psalmist is asking. What am I going to do? What are you going to do? What change will you make as a result of attending this conference here in La Crosse? Because I wouldn't, nobody's been feeding into my ear, nothing going on in any particular local company or that, but I just know enough that I've lived long enough and I've been in assembly fellowship over 50 years to know that doesn't matter where you go, who you speak with, and it isn't that they're crying blue and on your shoulder that, but we're losing ground. The only answer was this, was the right focus.

Focus will go before vision, always. I went into the automotorist's office a while ago, good thing Dr. Brandt isn't here, but my automotorist when I went in sat down and had all these screens up his computer, the latest of everything, you know, and first of all he said to me in this darkened room, he said, Mr. McCandless, I have a student here. It's not going to bother you if I have a student here when I'm doing the examination.

No, it's not going to bother me at all. So he introduced me to the student, young girl, and proceeded and brought up my, the eye on the screen, and he said, you know, he said, really? I don't like to say this, but for your age, healthy eyes. But I went out there with an increased prescription for glasses, for my lenses and my glasses, but he said healthy eyes.

I said, you know, quite a thing to think that for 11 years of my life I was totally blind. Well, a little miss student goes, oh, she's just trying to digest that, and finally, Mr. Doctor said, you know, he does some preaching. That's the answer to the questions.

But we've got to remember, be reminded, brothers and sisters, we came from a dark past. Not only were we in darkness, we were darkness, and we could not see. Like the blind men already referred to at the conference, we were given sight, spiritual sight.

And that's exactly what is happening here in these passages. I want you to think that in the 11th Psalm we've got a man that is a resident in deteriorating conditions. And we'll come back to that.

He's a resident there, and he's reflecting. He's got to reflect and decide, what am I going to do? He's telling us what others are going to do, and what others have been doing. But what am I going to do? Secondly, in Isaiah chapter 6, we got a man that is remembering.

Not necessarily a resident in it, but he's remembering deteriorating conditions, even in the golden age of a man like King Uzziah, that inaugurated the golden age for the nation, brought inventions, and gave it the name, gave progress a name amongst Israel. But nevertheless, it was a deteriorating scene. And here we have a man that is remembering that.

Revelation chapter 4. Dear John, there he is on that isle of Patmos, exiled for the cause of Christ, given a vision of those churches. What was taking place in those churches? And this man here is not necessarily a resident in deteriorating conditions, although he's given a vision of those churches. He's not necessarily remembering them.

He's raptured from them, raptured from deteriorating conditions. The first man will reflect. Isaiah will refocus.

As good a prophet as he was, you know what happened? Got his eyes on the wrong king. He's looking at Uzziah, everybody else was. So was this nation.

So was people over our country and further afield. You say, when was that? That was when you had a president by the name of John F. Kennedy. Young, brilliant, quick-thinking president.

Now, I'm not going to go into his personal life on that, but just for the minute. I have a good friend of mine, a Dutch man that moved here from Holland. And during the presidency, a short presidency of John F. Kennedy, when Mr. Kennedy spoke, Mr. Geelan insisted, silence in the house, because he had to listen to what that man had to say.

And the eyes of this nation were focused on a youthful president leading the country. They're very proud of him. He made some good decisions.

Whether it was the, I was not talking about the Bay of Pigs, but the Cuban Missile Crisis and sort of things. I remember one time when he was meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, and Mr. Khrushchev leaned over the table to an interpreter and said, he said, Mr. Kennedy, you don't understand. The Soviet Union is a young country.

I said, Kennedy, youth. He said, you're looking at it. But all that changed on November the 22nd in Dallas, Texas, a number of years ago, when that presidency and that man's life came to an end.

Now who are the nation going to look to? Now where are they going to go? Oh, I know Vice President Johnson was ready to take the offense and so on. But that was a moment when there had to be a refocusing. And you know, that's nothing wrong with that when it comes to Christian experience in many, many ways.

And that's refocusing. You say, on what? Your priorities. Your commitments.

They are first cousins. My priorities in Christian life is linked with my commitments. So let's come back and let's look at them.

You see, the answer in all three of these scenes, the answer in all three of these scenes is get your focus on something that is unmovable and unchangeable. And that was the throne above. It didn't matter whether it's the psalmist of Psalm 11.

It's the righteous Lord, he says. Those three times you've got the righteous in that psalm. Doesn't matter whether it's King, whether it's Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, or John in Revelation chapter 4. There's the throne.

Just in our home reading the other day, my wife and I were reading in the psalms. Just came into the 24th Psalm, those delightful words, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. I just read the night before Obama said about the earth and preserving it.

You know what he said? It's a true statement. He says we're a few hundred years too late. It's not going to happen.

He's right. It's the Lord's. It's the fullness.

He created it. He sustained it. And he'll conclude it.

And once we get a refocus on it, because it's very easy. Because people today are living in great quandary, if not great fear. Maybe not so much this country as other countries, but there's great concerns.

They're concerned about who's going to be the next president of this country. And there's a hue and cry for change in all this. You know, isn't it nice as believers to realize there's something that's never going to change.

And that's the one that is upon the throne and will reign eternally. Foundations are as strong as the person in whom they are found. You notice that foundations, we'll come to this in a minute, is a plural word here.

Now when we think of foundation, we know times when foundation is used in the singular. When it comes to the church. When it comes to even New Testament truth.

But these are foundations. In other words, what are the foundations? What are the foundations in your Christian experience? Well really, foundations in assembly testimony, first of all, is a sound conversion. I love it.

Listening to testimonies last night and you come away and say, yes, sound conversion. There's others, and even people have made me profess the meetings I've been involved in and they tell me how they got saved. I go, oh, I'm just glad I'm not the brethren who have to decide whether they're going to baptize this person or not.

But I've lived long enough to learn that it isn't by their story they're saved, it's by their fruits. I've listened to people tell a story that you could write in a track and they didn't have life, didn't have it. That's the foundation.

You could broaden out as much as you want. The truth of baptism. The truth of gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

These are foundations today that unfortunately the enemy has successfully started to erode. For example, how dare some overseer ask my boy where he was on Saturday night? Or my daughter where she's been for the last month? Excuse me? Isn't that their work? Isn't that their care? On the other side of it, some are saying, nobody cares about my boy. I asked a young man one time.

I did consider his father a friend. I asked him if he was saved. Well, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you that did not go well. Now that father came to me and I could tell he wasn't just too pleased that I asked him. The reason I asked him was because of evidence that was lacking in his life.

And from that day to that moment, that man will hardly speak to me. I asked this boy if he was saved. Come on, brethren, I'm not speaking.

Oh, something to pass coin with the brethren so we can baptize them or receive them into assembly fellowship. I'm talking on heaven or hell forever. That's what we're talking about.

The reality of where they're going to be forever. That's what matters. But here's the psalmist.

He's got a challenge. Right away, he gives you the right thing. First statement's the best one.

He says this, In the Lord put I my trust. Know what he's saying? Say what you like. I've already made up my mind.

Isn't that nice to have believers like that? Doesn't matter what. They've already, we've already settled that. Isn't that the Hebrew children there? We don't need to have a huddle and a discussion as to what we're going to do.

We've already decided that. How about it with you and Christian experience? Already been long ago decided? I'm staying with this. Because, you see, what's happening here is the result that we're fleeing.

I'll point out to you the singular and the plural words that are used here. That's why he says, How say ye to my soul, singular, flee, which is plural, as a bird to your mountain? Mr. Jim Finigan has a very good comment on this, on his book of the Psalms. When he comes to Psalm 11, he says, It's one of two things.

Are you with me? One of two things. Flight or faith. Either you flee because you don't believe and don't have that faith and confidence in God, or you'll stand by it.

So the psalmist has said, In the Lord put I my trust. In other words, you know what he's saying? You don't even need to ask me. Isn't it nice to have Christians like that in the assembly? There's no second guessing them.

You know they'll be there. They're lifers. Good for you, brother.

That's the kind to be. Good for you, sister. That's kept your husband likely in the assembly when times when he felt like taking off because somebody offended him or said something wrong.

But you're there for life. What a reward waits the coming day. One of those that will stand by it.

Remember, this psalmist could have well borrowed the language of a man, Nehemiah in chapter 6. You know what Nehemiah says? Should such a man, a man, as I flee. Is Nehemiah 6 somewhere on there? Should such a man as I flee. See, they're telling him here.

Lo, the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow upon the string that they may preferably shoot at the upright heart. In other words, you're in the crosshairs of an enemy.

You always are. You always are 24-7. The enemy is not only determined, brother, to take you down but take you out.

I'm reminded of a story that my preaching partner, Mr. Peter Orszag, used to love to tell. Of a series of meetings that he had in the assembly in Unionville, Ontario, Canada. And up there in Markham, Ontario, on this particular day, it was a storm-drenched, wind-swept lot where the tent was.

The brethren had made a decision, they have to at summertime. A lot of older people there that were coming from the home into the tent. And younger people too, but there's no way they could have that meeting in that tent.

That tent wasn't going to make it. They didn't want anybody to get hurt. So they just announced that everybody should exit the tent and go over to the hall.

And people were doing that. And the rain was just coming pouring, just sweeping across 2nd Avenue there. My father was there.

I had a series of meetings there with John Dennison a number of years ago. My father's in the home there now. I know exactly the lot.

They watched the storm from inside. Not a bad place to be. But sometimes you're in the storm.

And that storm came down and grabbed the corners of that tent, was whipping it around. And the side poles had gone flying. And everything that was up was going down.

Brethren thought, wow. Boy, that tent gets damaged or whatever. They just had rented the tent.

My boys are in the tent rental business. I know I hear them. There's pictures in the paper, some big ones they've had go down.

I'm talking 80 feet wide, maybe 200 feet long. This wouldn't have been that big. 30 by 60 was this tent.

Amazing thing was, now on a corner, you've got four corners usually, you have what they call anchor poles, double plate stakes. So instead of having one stake, you'd have three on each side. But they'll still come down in a bad enough storm.

And the brethren are looking out. Here is this one stake. And the tent wrapped around it almost.

It was just sitting there. It was moving just a little bit, but it was still standing. Somebody should go and let that stake down.

They said, you know, if it comes loose and that stake pops out to the roof, it's going to literally rip the end out of this tent and we'll not have a tent meeting tomorrow night. So they started looking at each other. By the way, one of the younger men there was a volunteer.

He said, hey, it's all going. I'll take the stake down. They said, well, be careful.

Be careful. I mean, it was still raining. The winds were high.

So he went out and he started to lift the canvas that would be vinyl up, and he started into that corner. And when he got there, here was an old man of 90 years of age. As long as he had life, that stake wasn't going anywhere.

Otherwise, it was taking him, too. He just tapped him on the shoulder, put his arm around him. He says, Gerald, he says, it's not safe.

He says, I know that. He said, you've got to come inside, Gerald. He literally had to peel the arms of that dear old gentleman off that pole.

You ever feel like that at the assembly sometimes, brethren? Are you prepared to do that? Wrap your arms around. It's worth it. The sidewalls may flap and snap.

Thunders may break and roll. But whatever you do, having done all to stand. There's a man that didn't know a lot more hardly than his own name.

Loved the gospel. One of the first there. They weren't counting his.

They didn't know who was missing. As far as they were concerned, everybody had gone back into the hall itself or over to the home, to Bethany Lodge there. But here's one man, just one man.

No tent got torn. I'm sure the tent went down. You know something? It went back up the next day.

If they would have let him, he would have come out and helped put the tent up. Do you know something? That character of individual is what's preserved testimony to this day. We have buried those kind of men.

Right where I come from in Ontario, Canada, southwestern Ontario. If we didn't have those kind of men in Wisconsin, we wouldn't have a conference here today. Are we clear on that? Somewhere, somehow, somebody has stood.

When under assault and attack, somebody has kept the focus. And they realized, like the psalmist, say what you like, I'm not leaving. I mean, the safety of any bird is in flight.

Take off. You understand? Others are doing it. You're going to stay.

Yeah, I'm going to stay. I can speak of this in a personal way. It's gone on record in other places.

It'll go on record again. My dear grandfather, and I do respect him, I took his funeral. But long in life, after he'd raised a family, his sons were overseers, and then the assembly decided he was going, just let me say, somewhere else.

Five boys in the family, my father being one of them. One girl, name was Jean, never married. No driver's license.

Most income she ever had was teaching music. My brother Tim and I, such big, smart entrepreneurs, I can remember one day, sitting in the living room, we must have been all of ten, and we were saying, Aunt Jean, how many students do you have? And she said, a few. She wasn't going to let us know how much she was making a week, because she's charging $2 a lesson.

Here's a lady, that's how she existed. Lived with her parents, looked after them. Rode with them, no driver's license.

Granddad makes the announcement of where he's going. He said, you're coming too, Jean. No, no, she's not coming.

Oh, she says. He says, you don't drive? She said, there's a bus. And she took the bus.

Now, that's not easy, in your own house. Dad and mom are going that way, and you're staying this way. Supposedly, the other place to which my grandfather went, I think there were seven people from it attended his funeral.

Likely 120 there, maybe 140 there, from what we know to be the gospel halls, because they respected his sons. And Jean. And at Jean's funeral, it was even larger.

Such respect. For someone said, not going. That's the psalmist, that's the language.

Here, he says. He said, the Lord is in his holy temple. This is what's going on.

I'm staying. Brethren, it's having done all to stand, but it's having done all to stay. Let's get it clear.

Somewhere along the line, every one of us have or will be, more than once maybe, tested as to how much you really love the place to which you gather. Circumstances will come in, where you may feel totally justified in packing up your bags and going. Come on, you've been there.

You thought it over again. Your dealings with God. And a result of that, you stayed.

But they're telling David, you know, David. Look, David had problems. He knew that.

There was an internal problem right in the family. I take it, this likely could be the time of the Absolute Rebellion. And everybody in Israel, of course, they knew about it.

Like today, they had all the answers. They just didn't know what the questions were. But they know about it.

David knew about it. Wasn't easy. Didn't have it easy with some of his children.

Chapter 42, he will say, or Psalm 42, rather, he'll say, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? 62nd Psalm, he will say, My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is of Him. That settled internal questions. I speak to someone today, and there's internal problems.

Listen. Those of us that do gospel work, those that are saved, who are the hardest to deal with? Family members. Family members.

As a believer today, when things come in, who's the hardest to deal with? Hasn't changed. Family members. I salute a man like Moses.

Don't know how he did it. When he took the family cap off and left it at the gate, and went in and dealt with his own sister and his own brother, and later would deal with two nephews. Not easy.

Must have been hard to ascend that mountain that day and literally disrobe an older brother, Aaron. I'll take you out easier up with you. There was internal problems.

There was external problems as well. Unfortunately, the men that should have stood by him had forsaken him. Of all, the elders of Judah? And they were the last not only to bring the king back later, but the very ones that should have stood with him were leaving him in the lurch.

Do you know, you say what you like about Samson. Samson could knock those Philistines flat in a second. You can put it all on Delilah if you want, but you know who else weakened the hands of a Samson? His own brethren.

When they came to him and said, Samson, we've come to bind you. That must have been quite a shock. His own brother working against him.

So there were internal problems. There were external problems. I love the hymn of dear Mr. Henry F. Light.

The hymn that was sung at the opening of the 2012 Olympics, the Summer Olympics. Mr. Light was a pastor, a minister. He battled with tuberculosis.

He died at a young age of 54. He literally used all the strength he had to deliver his last message. And he wrote a hymn.

This is the hymn they sang. It's been known almost as your second to Amazing Grace spiritual anthem. It are these words.

Abide with me. Fast falls the even tide. The darkness deepens.

Lord, abide with me. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. Help of the helpless, oh, abide with us.

Come friend of sinners, thus abide with me. Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me. In life and death, oh, Lord, abide with me.

You know why I'm telling you that? A couple wanted that to be sung at their marriage, at their wedding. The people convening it, their family said, that's a funeral hymn. No, they said, that's a wedding hymn.

They sang it. Too bad we didn't sing it at a few more weddings today. Abide with me, divine presence.

That's all that David needed. That's all it would take, really, to settle him. In other words, he's just simply said to these folks, my heart, and he's saying, as we sometimes sing, my heart is Archie Stewart's favorite old hymn.

My heart is fixed eternal God, fixed on thee. Where's yours today? Did you get refocused? Don't lose your focus. Very quickly, Isaiah chapter 6. We've got a man that's remembering deteriorating conditions.

This was the golden age. The economy was never better. The nation was never stronger.

I mean, they were going. They were a power, and they are today, to be contended with, obviously. But for a number of years, the eyes of the nation had been upon a great king, Isaiah.

What will he do next? What will he bring in next? Then we know the latter part of his days. I take it this is a grave that Isaiah is standing at. He says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.

In other words, I know where for the king to look to. When the only one left to look to, I looked to the Lord. In other words, forget all that's happened here, and the big name that the nation had, Isaiah saw an earthly throne that was suddenly vacated, and a heavenly throne that was solemnly filled.

Never changed. That's why Isaiah 6 is based on that premises. In view of a death that has taken place, but in view of the fact that there was one he could look to.

Losing our focus. Now, I am not into golf. I'm not a golfer.

Never played it. Wouldn't know how to play it. Not against those that are playing it, but I do remember a story that Arnold Palmer told, who used to be the golden boy of golfing, won millions of dollars.

That was back when. They didn't make it like they do today. I remember reading just a quick blurb, and it said the $1.8 million swing.

You wonder why golfers are under tremendous stress and pressure. One swing, you would win or lose $1.8 million. One swing.

Arnold Palmer was playing what is known, of course, as the Augusta, and he just hit a very satisfying tee shot, and of course he was in good shape, and he was being applauded by the people standing back behind the barriers where they were, and in the stands and that. A friend of his motioned to him, a personal friend, well-off man, a good friend. He said, good for you.

Motioned for him to come over, wanted to shake his hand. Palmer said, I just left the caddy, and I went over and I shook his hand. He said, I had no sooner shaken his hand, and I thought, I've lost something.

I have lost my focus. I've lost this game. He came back.

Next two shots, he hit the ball, first of all, into a sand trap. Then he put it over the edge of the green. As a result, he was beat out by one stroke, all because of the loss of focus.

Now, we're not playing golf. We're not playing games. Money, earthly monetary things cannot be put on this, brothers and sisters.

The value of that local company gathered to his name, so precious, every believer in it, purchased with his own precious blood, that here's a man in Isaiah, and he took this death to change that man. Not the first time this happened. I know a man today, I just saw him last weekend, personal friend.

You know what it took to change him? It was the view behind a hearse with his grandson in it. Those that don't have grandchildren maybe don't know what we're talking about. I want to tell you, that must be one painful look.

Hard to lose a child, but there's something about grandchildren. We had two of them with us. Their mother and father had gone away.

Of course, when grandma's there, it's the millennium, because there's no law. But when grandpa's there, it's the tribulation, because there is a law. We had them at the table the other night, I looked across at them, I said, you know, this is a wonderful privilege you're having, I hope you enjoy it.

They're looking at me, what's coming? Kind of suspiciously. I said, you understand, when I was raising your father, it was on the job training, I was an apprentice. I was flying by the seat of my pants in the fog and in the dark, I didn't know where I was going.

But I said, grandpa's had years of experience now, I've been in a lot of homes, so think of what you're benefiting from. The nine-year-old granddaughter, she's rolling her eyes, and the boy, he's 13, he says, oh, grandpa. Wasn't so impressed.

How about it? Took a death here. I want to be careful, because I don't know anything that's taken place in these parts. But I know people have wrote me some painful letters of some very painful experiences.

When everybody else had left, and finally they were the last vehicle out of the cemetery. There's two ways they can go. They go down the road of bitterness, or down the road of restoration.

That doesn't mean that when that happens in anybody's life, that's because they're away from the Lord, brethren. And sisters, don't take me wrong. But I want to tell you, we want to be careful, and we want to keep our focus right.

You see, if my focus is on what's up there, then my focus is going to be on what's down here that's his interest up there. That just goes to show. Whereas it's so easy today, there's so much going on.

It's just like we're talking about conferences, and it's just wonderful to see so many people here, especially yesterday, and a recent conference out on the East Coast where there was an increased number. Nice to hear of that. Because I'll tell you something, brethren and sisters, brethren, convening conferences, Christians are going to go somewhere this weekend.

Why not the lacrosse conference? What better place could they go? Really? Really? Did you ever, brethren, go home from a conference and say, I wish I hadn't gone? No? It was likely I rebuked you at times when you didn't go. Keep your focus. Finally, we have the last one of John in Revelation chapter 4. A man that is raptured from deteriorating conditions.

It's interesting, the outcome of both of these. Isaiah will say, I am unworthy. Okay? I am unworthy.

John will say, he's worthy. So, you see, there's a counterbalance there when I start to understand a little of just how unworthy I am. Not worthless.

I know we sing of the hymn, poor, weak, and worthless. Not worthless. Never were worthless.

But I was never worthy. I was never worthy. He's worthy.

John could have gone into deep despair as he thought of the conditions of these churches. Because remember, the last mentioned church is not Philadelphia, unfortunately. But it's Laodicea.

But they both look at the same throne. All three of these will look at the same throne. And the same throne sitter.

Different ages, different stages. All with the same conclusion and the same answer. And that is this.

Focused upon the unmovable and the unchangeable Christ. God help us as people. And this conference, for me too, just helped me to kind of refocus.

There's no... Listen to this. There might be on your iPhone 6 or your Android of the automatic focus. There's no automatic focus.

This is something you do yourself. It's handwork, brothers and sisters. It's hard work.

It takes the confession of sin. And in his presence and before him, a refocus on that which really matters that will be eternal.