you can be seated hey this morning Elder Chase is going to bring the word for us I’m excited for him I love him as a brother and you know that he relentlessly serves us here so we love you and I look forward to hearing from you thank you I look out and see a lot of family in here and friends and I’m grateful this morning to have those things and more so that you are all my brothers and sisters in Christ and we have a lot to be rejoicing over this morning and I think we’re going to see that even more so so we’re going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1-10 so if you’ll turn with me there

2 Corinthians 5 1-10

the word of God says for we know that if the tent that is our earthly house and home is destroyed we have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this tent we groan longing to put on our heavenly dwelling if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked for while we are still in this tent we groan being burdened not that we would be unclothed but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the spirit as a guarantee so we are always of good courage we know that while we are at home in the body we’re away from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight yes we’re of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord so whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please Him for we are always of good courage we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what He has done in the body whether good or evil I’m sure most of you have probably seen a movie with the two dogs and the cat Shadow and Chance and Sassy in the movie their owners take them out to this ranch and they’re going on a vacation or a trip or something and they leave them there and the cat is there and they take care of someone else the rancher well the pets in their fretting and anxiety they want to be with their owners they just shag out and they leave the farm and they’re trying to get back home and they go through many different perilous situations they face bears and waterfalls and white water rapids and he falls into a pit at the end of the movie but at the end of it all they do indeed make it back home and the reason that they left in the farm in the first place was to be with their owners and we don’t commend the reason that they left it was out of anxiety and fear and that sort of thing but we do commend their perseverance because they hoped so much that they would see their owners again that they endured through it all and they made it home and so as we look at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians his second one he’s addressing a number of issues one mainly being that there seems to be those who are challenging Paul’s apostolic authority and they are discrediting his ministry and in large part due to the fact that he suffers a lot and his body and his frame doesn’t really carry what they consider an appearance worthy of God’s truth worthy of the gospel and Paul in rebuking that says no on the other hand on the contrary it’s in my weakness and in my frailty that God’s power shines through me and so whatever I might face in this life whatever afflictions I might have it’s for your good because one day you might not experience the same comforts that you experience now and you may suffer like me and so you can look back and say Paul made it through God got him through so it’s for your good when I suffer because you know that God is still with me and so we’re going to see this morning that Paul has something for us in the midst of all of this in the midst of all of our trials and even the comforts of our life there’s something that he wants us to comprehend and to really get and lift our eyes above all that we can see now and that is the hope of being heaven bound and so the first thing that the hope of being heaven bound does is that it strengthens me to run with courage if you look in chapter 5 verse 1 he says for we know and he’s furthering a point that he made in chapter 4 verse 16 he says so we do not lose heart because we’ve been given this truth we’ve been deposited in us this treasure God has given to us in light of all that and the things that we know we can look past our current situation whether good or bad and we can run with courage that’s to say it positively he says don’t lose heart don’t despair don’t faint don’t give up but I’m saying it positively run with courage and so Paul says that we know this knowledge it isn’t a mere intellect it isn’t just a sack of facts that we carry around though it is those things it is of the mind but not only it is to be carried yes and by that I mean stored in your heart it is to be pondered upon meditated upon but ultimately the knowledge that we’re talking about is a conviction it’s based on facts yes but it is a conviction it is a driving force the facts they produce something something in which we base our lives around and we stand on they are a firm foundation they have been planted and given life by the Holy Spirit of God God has revealed them to us

and I will say only the Christians only the Christian who possesses and is taught by the Spirit of God can say I know in the sense that Paul is saying it right here and because of what we know we’re strengthened to run with courage so what is it exactly that we know? let’s unpack it first we know that if these earthly tents are torn down the tent is your body it is your bones your muscles your organs your cells and your tissues it’s your brain and I think we can and we should extend it to be where your thoughts and your emotions and your desires and your affections happen so I don’t think the tent is merely physical it’s at least that but there are other things as well it’s the body that you felt the wonder of your wife’s kiss this morning before you got out of bed to dress for church I hope you got to enjoy that it’s the body where little signals get sent to your brain and release endorphins and you say I don’t know that was the best steak I’ve ever had probably because brother Mark grilled it for you it’s where you experience the thrill of learning to ride a bike or to dance you can sit around a campfire and feel its warmth it’s when your little girl makes you the baddest macaroni necklace with her own hands custom painted and she gives it to you for your birthday and you’re just so overwhelmed with joy that your mouth smiles do you see the connection between the physical and the emotional on the other side of the same token it’s how you feel that awful throbbing when you mash your thumb with a hammer or you bang your toe into the door in the middle of the night it’s how you experience the heartache of a broken relationship

it’s where your blood pressure rises and you become angry because someone has crossed you you shouldn’t do that but it happens in our weakness it’s the relentless gripping sadness of when someone you love dies where grieving just has to run its course and the weight and the anxiety and the sorrow it physically hurts it’s the body that you endure months of chemo in because you’ve been diagnosed with cancer or maybe you’ve dealt with a disease that you were born with and you’re going to bear it your entire life it is possibly the body that in the face of persecution you will experience death in

the tent is temporary it’s not going to last forever and it’s probably more so a matter of when the tent will be torn down not if for us I don’t know only the Lord knows scripture says that it’s appointed to all men to die once and unless he comes back first we too will die but even if he does come back we’ll undergo some form of transformation we’ll have to shed this imperfect to put on the perfect

looking around today it doesn’t seem at all like we believe that there are diets cosmetics and workout regimens all sorts of things that will make you live longer I can go for an improvement on the quality of your life but your days are numbered you know not going to extend your life by a single moment

so I’m willing to bet that most of those things are a denial of the inevitable

so you may be thinking right now how how in the world does that help me run with courage well Paul says that if that earthly tent is torn down we have a building from God the building Paul is talking about is the resurrection body your resurrection body my resurrection body it’s eternal it’s not made with hands but by God himself I think this is an important aspect of including the emotions and the desires in the body because while those things do start to change now after you’ve been regenerated and you’re being renewed by the spirit yes but they will be perfected in the new body in the new building at the grand opening of it it’s a real body in which you will live and breathe and move where you will experience perfect love and joy and happiness and gratitude and excitement and all the other wonderful things that God has for us the new possesses its own degree of glory that the earthly and the temporal pales in comparison to it’ll be fashioned to never wear out or decay to never rage with anger or jealousy or hatred towards our people or our brothers it’ll never desire the things that are not of God never forced to watch a loved one suffer never to taste of bitter sorrow never to dread the news of a terminal illness and suffer its torment never to experience the sting of death again and with that hope we run I’ve had conversation with friends and it sort of amazes me the view that some hold of the resurrection I think it’s mostly based on ignorance and I’m not claiming to know everything about it but mostly because they think it’s not a literal physical one and I think that that comes in line with a lot of philosophers that hold that material things are evil and all of that and so the perfect can’t possibly contain the physical right I think we’ve consumed too much of that culture what the culture and sometimes even our own church culture says is true and too little of what the Bible actually says is true of heaven and all that is reserved for us there it has damaged our ideas of what comes after death and that has possibly tarnished our hope in it why would we hope in something that we don’t know anything about or understand we just don’t think about it enough we don’t think about what we really do have to hope for and we should again I don’t claim to have a perfect knowledge on what the resurrection body is what it looks like what it feels like to exist in it but I do believe the scripture gives us some idea and I’ll just give you one example this morning with Jesus himself before ascending into heaven he eats breakfast with his disciples on the beach on a barbecue he sat with them and he walked with them and he talked with them they touched him he was really there in his glorified body and if it is so with Jesus it is also true for us because we will be raised to be just like him Paul says that the resurrection body it has a glory of its own so it is different but what I want you to get is that it’s a body and that it’s infinitely better than the one that you currently have in every way if you go to 1 Corinthians 15 13-19 Paul sort of gives us an idea of the importance of the resurrection and it’s necessary in the Christian life to understand that it’s not just as much as we can and hope in the resurrection because if there is no resurrection of the dead Paul says not even Christ has been raised from the dead and if Christ has not been raised our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain if the dead are not raised not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is worthless and you are still in your sin those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if we hope in Christ in this life only we are of all men most to be pitied if we have nothing greater to look forward to friends let’s just pack it up here let’s go eat, drink and be merry because there’s nothing else but look on in 23 and 24 in 1 Corinthians 15 we know that Christ has been raised the first fruits and we who are Christ will follow in suit as His coming He’ll hand over the kingdom to the God and Father crushing all rule and all authority and all power abolishing the last of our enemies death hallelujah go on to verse 2 in 2 Corinthians 5 it’s true that we do groan in this earthly body

I do I’m sure you do too I long to put on the heavenly in this body it’s like being shut up in a prison I’m trapped we’re constantly dealing with physical infirmities and ailments and weaknesses that work against us but yet there is another war waging within us it’s a war of those passions and desires of our current state for the Christian who has been awakened by God’s grace changed from enemy to friend to son or daughter taught to love the things of God to desire what is right in His sight it pangs us that we still wrestle with the old nature we must crucify it daily we hate to sin against God’s law doing the very things that we don’t want to and not doing the things that we do plagued by the seed of sin inherited from Adam so many times and so easily we give in to temptation and we indulge ourselves in things that displease God sometimes maybe we fight tooth and nail and we win some battles and we lose some battles but I’m afraid it’s all too often that we just simply want another taste of the fruit that we ought not eat my flesh loves sin

that shouldn’t be and I say that there is conviction to repent of that sin for the believer more than anything we want so bad to be delivered from this house of sin and end the war we’ve grown in that and we should it should make us feel good it’s very uncomfortable so much so that we long to be freed from it Paul says something in Romans 8 it’s not simply the deliverance from the body that we long for in Romans 8 22 he says for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit we groan inwardly as we walk we wait eagerly for adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies and so it’s for something in the future that we really groan for yes it’s to be delivered from the current struggles and infirmities and afflictions of the body but it’s because we see something ahead Rebecca’s pregnant right now and she’s going to have to go through childbirth but it’s all worth it because she believes that she’s going to hold her baby in her hands and so because we hope in something we endure the suffering

the Christians groaning is fueled by the hope that they will one day live in a state that they no longer displease God and that is our desire we do not simply wish to be stripped of the body which would leave us naked we want to be clothed and it’s true that in and of ourselves whether in the body or not we are very much so naked we stand with nothing but shamefulness to be looked on by the eyes of God and in recognizing this our hope and our longing is to be even further clothed with the perfect that is Christ it is true that the one who is in Christ who has repented of his sins and has turned to be washed in his blood will put on Jesus’ righteousness and be clothed with that robe that will mark us accepted in his sight forever that is true have you repented have you sought the only one worthy to redeem your wretched life have you found Christ to be a perfect Savior because I can promise you that if you look to him to be that you will find him to be a perfect Savior you know the wicked too they groan in their earthly bodies but sadly they have no hope of being clothed with anything capable of withstanding or worthy of appeasing the wrath of God against the shameful things they’ve done after being stripped of their rotting shields they will indeed stand naked ashamed and condemned please don’t be counted among those people don’t be counted among those who took the kindness and the patience of God for granted don’t be numbered among those who supported and oppressed the overwhelming evidence of the glory and the majesty and the love of God on display all around us who heard the word and still deny Christ turn to him now for now is the time and today is the day of salvation see what he offers he offers himself and there is nothing greater to be offered than my Jesus

so we who hide ourselves in Jesus do find that our hope is in the heavenly and we long not only to be delivered from our groaning as if that were an end but we desire to be delivered so that we will be further clothed so that what is mortal weak shameful and frail will be swallowed up by life everlasting Jesus is that life Jesus is the resurrection look in verse 5 and so we continue to run with courage even in the midst of our groanings because God has purposed us for us for heaven and he’s given us the spirit as a guarantee

don’t get lost in the groaning yes we long to be delivered from it but our lives here aren’t meaningless God has purposed us so the now is not purposeless in the midst of your groaning in the midst of your suffering in the midst of your sorrows in the midst of your daily battles to resist sin and temptation in the midst of whatever it is that you’re currently walking through this morning know that God is preparing you for what he has purposed you for he is transforming you into the image of Christ with every passing moment no matter the circumstance each and every single moment it possesses a specific purpose all with the aim of getting you ready for heaven so don’t lose heart don’t faint now keep running he’s given you his holy spirit don’t miss that don’t underestimate that I’m preaching myself with this but Jesus said that when he ascended he would send the comforter and that title isn’t insignificant the comforter if you look at the Latin come is with forte is strong so if you think about a piano it used to be called a piano forte soft and strong right so in the holy spirit we are strong with him or you can think about it this way the spirit is in us and he is strong and he is with us so we can be afflicted but not crushed perplexed but not despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed shining the life of Jesus through our weak flesh all along the way as we run with courage he teaches us he sanctifies us he leads us in the path of righteousness for that is the ministry of the holy spirit it is righteousness so we know this is what we know we know we are being prepared for that moment we finally put on the robe of righteousness and live what hope

about a decade ago I was in a church my grandfather walked through colorectal cancer my dad’s dad and I was still just a heathen at that time and all of my folks were going over to his house for Christmas and probably making a special point to do so because of his cancer and so I figured I guess I better show face right so I show up my dad offers me a job and lo and behold I move up here I meet my wife I start going to church start hearing the word and the spirit of God gets a hold of me and I’m like and I repented of my sin and found my life in Christ and looking back now I see that as God’s providence I’ve gotten to talk to my grandpa about that and really I’ve just I’ve thanked him for enduring his suffering because I understand that it was instrumental in bringing me to faith it wasn’t meaningless and you know what he said he said I would do it again if I had to because he knows that this is what I do this life is temporary and it’s short and it’s fleeting and so if he only has to endure cancer twice for his grandson to spend eternity in the blessed presence of Christ then that’s what he’s going to do because it’s nothing in comparison to that

recognize the brief nature of suffering and the fleeting satisfaction of comfort in the light that this tent will be torn down meditate on and know well the future hope that we have and know that God is preparing you for heaven and is both strengthening and refining you with his Holy Spirit for that very purpose the hope of being heaven bound strengthens me to run with courage secondly the hope of being heaven bound allows for me to rest in confidence verse 6 I’ve chosen the word confidence purposefully Paul says we are always of good courage more literally confidence even though now we are absent from the Lord yes we have a spirit in our hearts but we are not present with the risen Jesus not now and it seems that Paul is saying the flesh would take an opportunity to doubt the enemy would take an opportunity to whisper lies to make us fear in light of this but in spite of being absent from the literal presence of the Lord we will rest because we are confident that same word for confidence is used in Hebrews chapter 13 verses 5-6 and it says keep free from the love of money and be content for he has said I will never leave you or forsake you so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear so though we may not see the provision of the Lord now he said he would provide so believe him remain confident and likewise in the midst of being absent from the Lord don’t fret because God has promised those whom he foreknew he predestined and those whom he predestined he called and those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified that’s a sure thing because God has said it to be so be confident don’t count his promise void why? because we walk by faith not by sight again going to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 we see that faith is the assurance of things hoped for it is the conviction of things not seen it is the conviction just because something is not a present reality to us doesn’t mean that it’s not a reality at all on the contrary it is a reality already because God has said it is so and what God says is sure we take him at his word like a present reality for we walk by faith by assurance of the things not yet seen and it comes down to believing God here and I’m not talking about believing God confidence as to presume upon God’s forgiveness and his graciousness but confidence in his grace that in Christ we will be forgiven and that he will come back for us one day just like he said will you believe him will you take him at his word on that or will you only trust in your short-sighted eyeballs to know and to understand Satan in his cunning whisper in his mocking tone he says has God really said and we say has God not said and just in case you missed it that’s rhetorical because he has said so then it is on rock solid sure reality that we walk and we can rest in that verse 8 so yes we are confident even now so confident that Paul says we would rather depart this life to be present with Christ if given the choice today we would choose to leave everything behind if it were only to be in the presence of the Lord let me clarify this isn’t a license to determine the time that we depart this isn’t condoning suicide this isn’t condoning just a carelessness of our current body we must recognize that God alone determines the day and the time of our death God alone determines when we’re ready to be home with the Lord and we must be good stewards of our temporary dwellings these houses on our homes so don’t furnish it but don’t go poking holes in the walls and burning the place down either okay be a good steward be a good exile be a good tenant

what it does mean is that our current comforts our current blessings our current blessings they pale in comparison to the joy and the glory and the comfort of being in the presence of our Savior so in that sense we do say we prefer to be with the Lord and when I’m if I’m honest when I think about this

it scares me and

but I would rather my wife wish me well and I wish her well and head on home if she were given the choice today that she would be with the Lord I want my two daughters one still cooking there to love the Lord so dearly that old dad will just have to make do if they get to go on home and be with the Lord and I want them to want the same thing for me I want them to love Jesus that much and to treasure being with Him that much and I want them to love Jesus that much that even when I look in the face of my wife and my daughter and my dad and my mom and my friends I’ll see y’all later I’m going to be with Christ nothing compares to that

the rubber really meets the road when you take it that close to home and you test yourself to see how much you desire to be with Him I love the part of the Last Supper where it says that the Lord’s beloved disciple John the Baptist

was reclining on Jesus it’s probably one of my favorite things in all of the Bible it’s simple but I long for that I long to see Jesus I want to look at Him I want to thank Him for all He’s done for my wretched soul I want to hug His neck and lay on His lap and feel His warmth just talk with Him

it really puts things into perspective when you start searching your heart to see how much it is you long to be in the presence of Christ sometimes probably too often we find ourselves clinging on to the things of the world we just want to enjoy them a little bit more a little more time to play a little more time with my wife a little more time with my kids a little more work a little more vacation a little more this a little more that test yourself where? do the desires of your heart lie? one commentator says this it is a token of unbelief if we are not ready to willingly depart from this life now to be with Jesus think on that

though it may be that we have to walk through a fiery furnace or hang on a rugged cross or feel the sharp edge of a sword or the cold chains of imprisonment to hear the crudeness of mocking voices or just the simple simple slow decay of our bodies we must be ready to and with joy willingly walk through death’s door at whatever moment God has appointed for us for that is when we enter into true life it’s not the end for those who are in Christ um I don’t know much about that I don’t know much about Fox’s Book of the Martyrs I read a little bit about them but either way the story stands on its own just the point that it makes so talking about the Apostle Andrew they were he was being persecuted and they were furious at Andrew and he demanded to know if he was the man who had recently overthrown the temple of the gods and persuaded men to become Christians a superstitious sect that had recently been declared illegal by the Romans Andrew replied that the rulers of Rome didn’t understand the truth the son of God who came into the world for man’s sake taught that the Roman gods were devils enemies of mankind teaching men to offend God and causing him to turn away from them by serving the devil men fall into all kinds of wickedness Andrew said and after they die nothing but their evil deeds are remembered the proconsul ordered Andrew not to preach these things anymore or he would face a speedy crucifixion whereupon Andrew replied I would not have preached the honor and glory of the cross if I feared the death of the cross he was condemned to be crucified for teaching a new sect and taking away the religion of the Roman gods and Andrew going forward to the place of his execution and seeing the cross that awaited him never changed his expression neither did he fail in his speech his body fainted not nor did his reason fail him as often happens to men about to die he said O cross most welcome and longed for with a willing mind joyfully and desirously I come to you being the scholar of him which did hang on you because I have always been your lover and yearn to embrace you he knew that that was the door that he was going to step through to be in the presence of Christ don’t be anxious God is true take him at his word just rest be confident in it and just think on Jesus more the hope of being heaven bound allows us to rest in confidence lastly the hope of being heaven bound enables us to remain committed verses 9 and 10 so since we have both the strength to run with courage and the freedom to rest in confidence we make it our aim to remain committed to be pleasing to him we give our all all the time we offer ourselves up as living sacrifices as a pleasing aroma to God consider Jesus who because of the joy set before him endured the cross and so we too for the hope that we have we remain committed through whatever it is that the Lord’s hand might bring to us about in our lives the knowledge of who Christ is what he has accomplished for us what he has purchased with his blood and what he has promised us to come all that we have of him in this present moment is more than enough to lay it all down at his feet because our future hope is such a reality to us now we live as though it is already so even as exiles though we wander through the desert for a short span of time a span of years we take the provisions that the Lord has so graciously given us and we give thanks we thank him for the manna and for the meat for the water for the cloud by day and the fire by night and we follow him wherever he might lead us we do not grumble we do not murmur we do not complain because we know that there is a promised land that lay ahead and we know that one day Christ will judge us and judge both the living and the dead so fear him for he is to be feared he is mighty don’t take for granted his kindness and his patience with us don’t assume upon his forgiveness on the other hand don’t forget his goodness to reward you of your good works not that they have any merit on their own but because they are done in Christ they are rendered acceptable and redeemable in the sight of God and he’ll judge rightly and he’ll judge with equity because that’s who he is

don’t you want to in the most humble way be able to say on that day I gave my all to you Jesus I gave my all don’t you want to be able to say that your walk with him was worthy to be imitated and followed

again not that you could achieve this in and of yourself but by the power of God working in you by fixing your eyes on Christ run the race and you finished and by the graciousness of our Lord at the judgment he would say well done you good and you faithful servant imagine hearing that with your ears imagine hearing the approval of Christ on that day work hard and I do believe that hearing that is a very real possibility

so know what it is that pleases God think on it day and night and then do it friends because we have the hope of being heaven bound we are compelled to both trust and obey because we have such a great future hope we can run with courage we don’t lose heart we don’t despair we don’t give up we can rest in confidence and know and hold on tightly grip firmly the fact that one day he’ll return and we’ll be with him and we can remain committed whether in these frail bodies or in the glorious one to come because we simply aim to please him and we know that we’ll be judged for both good and bad deeds and I’ll close with this in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 54 through 58 Paul says but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal have put on immortality then will come about the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your sting oh death where is your victory the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast run with courage be immovable rest in confidence always abounding in the work of the Lord remain committed to him knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord friends we’re on our way to heaven so trust and obey let’s pray Father we do thank you for this day that we have to rejoice in our risen Savior we thank you Lord for the hope that we have laid up in heaven in him that is reserved for us there it’s imperishable it’s unfading it’s not going anywhere but we just thank you for the joy that we have to long for and to look to we thank you for Jesus Jesus, and the fact that He is a perfect Savior. So, Lord, I pray that You would just continue to refine us moment by moment, day by day. Lord, continue to prepare us for heaven. Lord, and we know that whatever it is that comes to pass, that You’re with us there. You will not leave us. You will not forsake us. And You will fulfill what You have said, Lord. We will be with You one day. Today, we love You. We thank You for loving us first. In Jesus’ name, amen.