Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 5, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - Looking to the Next Life

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November 5, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - Looking to the Next Life · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, TBC.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: My name is Jeremy McGrath, and I'm going to be filling in for Connor this morning because he had some pressing matters to attend to in Germany, like so many of our other congregants this morning.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: No, he's actually enjoying a much uh deserved family vacation, uh, but he will be back with us next week.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: But until then, you're stuck with me.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm excited to be here, guys.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: We got a good passage for this morning.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: So before we dive in, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to be in your house.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Lord, for the words that we just sang.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: That you are living hope, that you conquered death.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Your buried body began to breathe, and at that moment, Lord, you conquered our greatest enemy and you set us free.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, we would seek to live in that freedom in all of the ways that you desire.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning, Lord, for the message.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Pray that your spirit would be moving powerfully and that it would allow us, allow our eyes to be opened and to see some things that maybe our eyes have been veiled to for a long time.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: We love you, Lord.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Swing low, sweet chariot.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: It's a popular hymn from way, way back when.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly who the original author was, but the song originated from African American slaves pre-Civil War.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: This is a beautiful hymn, a hymn of hope and a hymn of freedom.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: But something that many of you probably don't know, there are some historians who actually believe that this song was code or a euphemism for the Underground Railroad.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Let me kind of break this down for you a little bit.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: If we look at some of the lyrics, uh, we can kind of begin to see why some historians believe this.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: If we look at the first line, swing low, sweet chariot, coming forward to carry me home.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: They believe that this swinging low of the chariot represented the north, freedom, kind of swinging low to rescue those in the south and bring them back up to the north.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And if we continue on, it says, I looked over Jordan, and what did I see coming forward to carry me home?
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And if you know anything about the Jordan River, we know that the Israelites had to cross the Jordan to get into the promised land, right?
2:31
SPEAKER_00: And the slaves back in that time also had another river to cross to get into their promised land, that was the Ohio River.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And so they would cross from Kentucky and over the Ohio River into Indiana to find freedom.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And so many historians, again, they believed that this was this was kind of what they were singing.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: This is what they were hoping for was this temporal freedom, freedom from slavery to begin a new life, and the hope that the Underground Railroad offered in that.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we've been kind of going through this series in 2 Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul is writing to this church in Corinth.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And specifically last week, we looked at this issue of suffering, right?
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Where Connor took us through how we should view suffering as Christians, and specifically, he addressed the fact that suffering brings us closer to God.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: In this hymn, for some of these African-American slaves, we also see that their suffering, they had got to have hope in the midst of their suffering because of potential freedom that was coming.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: But I want to address the question today: what about those slaves who didn't have the hope for freedom in this life?
3:58
SPEAKER_00: The Underground Railroad was out of reach.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: What about all of us, all of the people in this world who are suffering to such an extent that we know there will be no release or alleviation from our suffering in this life?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we feel like Paul did.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8, he says that he had despaired of life itself, and he continues, he felt as if he had received the death sentence.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: What hope is there for the Christian who is in such a situation when this life offers no respite?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're going to be going into 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and we're actually going to do a little review in chapter 4, and we're going to see that chapter 5, Paul spends his time making this assertion that as Christians, we are not concerned for what this life has to offer.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: We're not concerned for what this life has to offer.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not in this life, it is in something else.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to uncover what that is in this passage.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: As we dive in, we're going to be looking at three points.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: We're going to first see there is hope in the new dwelling.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: There's hope in the new dwelling.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Second, we're going to look at how there is hope in the abundant life.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, we're going to see how Paul addresses this false hope in the now.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: This false hope in the now.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: I've spoken enough up here that you guys probably already know what I'd like to do at this point in the message.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to say, are y'all with me?
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And you guys respond?
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, all right.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: That was pretty good.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: We'll have to do a little refresher next time.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're gonna start in chapter four, verse sixteen, skip to verse eighteen, and then introduce our first new verse in chapter five, verse one.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: It's up on the screen if you want to follow along.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you can open your Bibles as well.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and read.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I want to point out, as we look at verse 16, is that Paul notes we're all in the same boat.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: We're all wasting away.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Our physical bodies are decaying and we'll die.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter if you're old or young, if you're physically fit or physically infirm, we're all in the same boat.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you're gonna live another hundred years or if you're gonna die today from the pain of missing the Chiefs game.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: We're all going towards the same destination, right?
6:55
SPEAKER_00: We're all going that route.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: But then the next thing that he brings up in verse 18 is that not only our body is decaying, but everything around us is he called, he says, transient.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Everything around us fades.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Nothing lasts.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of to illustrate this and how important this point is to understand that not everything lasts.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to bring up uh this guy by the name of Mark Cahill.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: I actually brought him up a couple sermons back.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Currently, I'm going through this book called The One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven with a group of sophomore boys.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was written by Mark Cahill, the guy you see up on the screen.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And Mark Cahill says one of the most important things you can do when you're evangelizing is to get someone to think about what's next.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: To get someone to think about what's next.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And let me illustrate this here.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: He says often he likes to go and evangelize to those on a college campus, right?
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And he'll ask the college student, so what are you, what are you pursuing?
7:58
SPEAKER_00: What is your goal in life?
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And very often the college student will say, Well, I'm trying to get this major and then graduate with a degree.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: And he'll ask them, What next?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And often they'll respond, Well, I want to get a really good job and make a lot of money and just really enjoy my career.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: And he says, That's great.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: What next?
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I want to get married and start a family.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he's like, okay, what next?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Well, how about I punch you in the face?
8:23
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
8:23
SPEAKER_00: What next?
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay, like it's a little frustrating, I guess, chain of questions.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: But the the goal is to move them, to get them past retirement, and to get them to think, man, what is next?
8:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm striving for all of these things, but in the end, I'll lose it all.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, to this man's credit, there was a guy he was evangelizing to.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: He asked this line of questions, and the man responded, with after death, he wants to leave his family with enough to survive, right?
8:58
SPEAKER_00: To get through.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: So he he was thinking about what's next even after death.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: But I love Mark Cahill's response.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, he says, uh He says, This wouldn't you rather provide for their eternity than just for their temporary physical existence?
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And so this is one of the most important things, Christian or non-Christians, that we must grapple with and consider the fact that this physical life, everything that we strive for, is temporary.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Everything will fade, everything will decay, the people we know we will die, the buildings we build will crumble, the poems we write will fade from memory.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And so, what's Paul's response then to this really dark and sad reality?
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Where is hope if we decay and everything around us does as well?
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's go back to verse or chapter 5, verse 1, where we get our first new content for this morning.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Again, he says, For we know that if this tent, that is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, we we can't put our hope in anything in this life because it's all gonna decay, and so we look forward to a new life.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: He says, a new tent.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: This tent, this word tent, he's referring to a new body.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And this new body is something we will receive when Christ comes back.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: When Christ comes back.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: But but I think the question still remains: what good is another body?
10:38
SPEAKER_00: What good is it, what's wrong with the one we have?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: What's the good of another body?
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Caroline and I, my wife, we've been watching a new TV show, well, new to us, it's kind of old now, uh House, where there are some a team of doctors who tackle some of the hardest cases to try to figure out what's going wrong with their patients.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And with one patient in particular, he's an elderly man and they find out he needs a kidney transplant.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: But the kidney transplant is only going to be able to sustain his life for another couple years.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And so when he goes on the transplant list, he's straight at the bottom.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And they know he's got no hope for getting this kidney.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is, the reasoning behind it is these medical professionals say, man, I'd rather give a kidney to someone like a child who would be able to live for another 60, 70 years than to this older man who would only get a couple years out of that kidney.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: But my question, I guess, as I read this, is that the thing that God offers us with this new body?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Is it just that kidney transplant that's gonna give us a couple more years, another chance to pass go, just an ability to do it one more time?
11:51
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't sound very good if in the end we're still gonna decay.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: But that's where the next part of this verse comes up and really brings home why this is something we can have hope in.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Because this house that's not made with hands, this new body that God's gonna give us is eternal.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: It is eternal.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: It will not decay, it will not die, it will be everlasting.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: And this is why he can have hope in this.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: And again, we will receive this when Jesus comes back.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Not when we die and go to heaven, but when Jesus comes back, Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 15, 51 through 52, where he says, In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: We will have those new bodies.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that I want you guys to learn from this first point here, that we have hope in a new dwelling, is that as Christians, our anticipation of tomorrow banishes fear for today.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Our anticipation of tomorrow banishes fear for today.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: All right.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: But I want to move on to our next point here.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: I want to move on to our next point of hope in the abundant life.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Because we don't just have hope for a life, we have hope for an abundant life.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: And Paul even discusses this here in the next couple verses.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: So let's turn our attention to verses two through five.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: For in this tent we groan, longing to be longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: For while we are still in this tent, we groan being burdened.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: So that is what a mort so that is what mortal is mortal, may be swallowed up by life.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what's going on here?
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to turn our attention to verses two through three first, or two through four rather.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And we see here that Paul, Paul's really concerned with not being found naked, not being found unclothed.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And besides him caring a lot about modesty, which I'm sure he did, he has another idea in mind here when he's talking about this.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: When he's talking about this.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Now we need to remember a couple things.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: When he says, for in this tent, he's talking about our physical body.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: So we have this physical body now.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, We're longing for our heavenly dwelling, he's talking about the new body we're gonna receive when Christ comes back.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And so when he talks about this nakedness or being unclothed, he's talking about the intermediary state.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: When we all die, as Christians, we're gonna go be with God, but we will have no body.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: And so essentially what Paul's saying is he doesn't want to be no ghost.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to be no ghost.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: He's not, he's not looking forward.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: His desire is not necessarily to go and be unclothed, even though he wants to be in heaven.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, he would love to be with the Lord.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: He's not desiring, his main goal and priority and hope is not just to be with God, but to be given the new clothing that he will receive when Christ returns.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: All right?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And the question some of you guys might be asking is, well, like, does it doesn't really matter?
15:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're still gonna get to be with God.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool, right?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, can't we long for that?
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, why doesn't Paul long for that?
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Aren't they pretty much the same thing?
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Being with God after death and then being clothed with our new bodies when Christ returns?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: I think the reason that Paul is longing for Christ's second return and to be clothed is because of what Jesus talks about in John 10.10.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says this.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: And the thief comes only to steal and destroy, but I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: This word abundantly means more than necessary, more than what's necessary.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is saying is that I didn't just come so that you could have continued existence.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I didn't just come so that we could avoid death.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I came so that you could have perfect life, that you could live the life you were always meant to live, that you would have full purpose and full meaning and full joy.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christ came to give us.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: But do we have this now?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Do we have this now as Christians, even as Christians today?
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Have we taken hold of the abundant life that Christ offers?
16:26
SPEAKER_00: The answer is no.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: We can take hold of part of it.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: But as Paul realizes, we will not get the full thing until Christ comes again.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: But I want to think about this because some of us, like, we know this is true, and we know we're supposed to long for that abundant life, but it just seems kind of gray and dull, and we don't really get it.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: We don't get why it's so amazing.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: So let's consider this for a moment.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so amazing?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Why will it be so amazing, our existence, when Christ comes back and we get our new bodies and we're living in the new heaven and the new earth?
17:04
SPEAKER_00: A while back I was talking with uh with an elderly person, a man who was living at a nursing home.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh and we as I was talking with him, it became pretty apparent that he was he was quite lonely.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And I I mentioned to him as as we were talking, I looked around, I said, Man, you got you got a lot of people around here that you live right next to.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you try to befriend some of them?
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What for?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Just to go through the pain of losing someone again?
17:37
SPEAKER_00: One of the realities of this life, as we've talked about already, is that things fade.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: They don't last.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: The most precious and important things, the things we dedicate our lives to, the beautiful relationships we form, in the end, they all decay.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verse 11, the author says this when he thinks about all of the things that we could put our minds to in this earth, he says, Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and all of the things that I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: A chasing after the wind.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I had gained nothing by my work under the sun.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality of all of our work.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: It's all destined for decay, but imagine.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Imagine everything you do lasting.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Every building you build, every friendship you form, every poem you write, every kind word you say, nothing crumbles, nothing fades from memory, everything lasts.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that's exciting.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's the reality that awaits us in the new heaven and the new earth.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Everything we build towards will last.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's excited for that.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And we are too in Christ.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: But here's another reason that Paul's so excited.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: There's so many, but I'm just gonna give you two.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Here's another reason Paul's so excited for the new heaven and the new earth.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: It's because he can't wait for everything he does to be something that he's proud of.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: I was reading a book a while back on um, it was a book written by pastors on kind of the pastoral experience, and one of the pastors was writing about some of his proudest moments, but also some of his most shameful moments.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: This pastor had a daughter who at the time was four or five, and she had Down syndrome, and they had been working as a family to get her to pray for a very, very long time, but it just wasn't, it wasn't clicking.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: She had never prayed.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: And there was one evening this pastor recalled that he was exceptionally upset with his nine-year-old son, and he was chasing him around the dinner table, screaming at him at the top of his lungs.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys can relate.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: But he said he remembered looking over in the corner and seeing his five-year-old daughter terrified.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, she stands up and she holds out her hands and she says, Guys, let's pray for Daddy.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: His heart was broken.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: This is not how he wanted his daughter's first prayer to go.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want his daughter's first prayer to be motivated by fear from the one person that she was supposed to feel safe around.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: He'll deep regret for that moment.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And all of you guys have moments in your life where you hold similar regret, where you've uttered a harsh word, where your selfishness has hurt those around you, your moral failings.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: We all hold regret in this life that we wish we could take back.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: But imagine a life where there is no more regret, where everything that you do and say builds people up and encourages.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: It will make other people feel loved and special.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: This is the life that awaits us in the new heaven and the new earth.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: That's something worth longing for.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Man, I could go on and on about all of the reasons that we should greatly desire, as Paul does, to be clothed with a new body.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about it on the podcast, but that's all we have time for for now.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: But the takeaway I want from this point, I want you all to have, is that a Christian doesn't long for death, they long for our true life to begin.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: You see the difference?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: A Christian doesn't long for death, we long for our true life.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Life to begin.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: But let's go on to our last point here.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 6, 6 through 10.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you at the beginning, I do not have time to really dive into 9 through 10, but we will be hitting that in the podcast, so I encourage you to tune in there.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: But we're going on to our last point here, that false, this false hope in the now that Paul's addressing.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: So we are always of good courage.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: For we walk by faith, not by sight.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: What's Paul saying here?
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you notice, verse six and verse eight, he essentially repeats himself.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: He's saying the same thing.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: He says, have courage.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: We have this courage, okay?
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that when we're at home, when we're here in this present existence, we're away from the Lord.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Why would he repeat himself?
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Especially with something that seems so obvious to a lot of us.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, yeah, obviously, if we're if we're here in this existence, we're not with God yet.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the reasons is because the Corinthians, who he's writing to, they had this perception that scholars have labeled overrealized eschatology.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: You see, these Corinthians, they believed that the kingdom of God, the thing that we're awaiting when Christ returns to fully come, they believed it had already fully come.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: That everything that was to be done was done.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And that this current existence they could live fully as who Christ made them to be, and this was kind of it.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: This is where their hope was.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: They were living in the kingdom of God now.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's correcting this.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: When we're here in the body, we are not with God yet.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: We are still awaiting something.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, many of us here, I think, would not really identify with the Corinthians.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: We know that the kingdom of God is yet to come.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: However, I want to kind of put your attention here to verse 8, where Paul says to the Corinthians, we would rather be away from the body, from this physical body that we're in, and at home with the Lord.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Although we can identify with the Corinthians' idea, some of us can identify with a desire, with a preference for this life over the heavenly one, over the eternal one.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Some of us can understand what it's like, like the Corinthians, to live for this life as opposed to the next.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I think in a lot of our Christian circles, we have a pretty low view of heaven, and a pretty low view of the new heaven and the new earth.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't sound very exciting to us.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you're like George R.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Martin, who's the writer of Game of Thrones, he says this.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: They can keep their heaven.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: When I die, I'd sooner go to Middle Earth.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: I feel that.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Big Lord of the Rings fan.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's some of some of you.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, heaven doesn't sound all that great, but maybe at best, at best, heaven is kind of just like a nice backup.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: It's a consolation prize.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, if if you had to choose between heaven, hell, and eternal sleep, I guess I'd take heaven.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: But really, this is this is the good life.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: This is the life that I'm living right now that I want to exist in.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you why.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: This preference for this life, if you have a preference for this life, this can do immense damage to your walk as a Christian.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about this.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: I have two reasons.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: This can do immense damage to your immense damage to your walk as a Christian.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: A couple days ago at Fed and Lead, uh, Jason Hildebrandt is teaching one of our classes.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he showed a video of this test, this marshmallow test they did with some kids.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: You guys know what I'm talking about already, this marshmallow test.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: So, for those who don't, um, they got all of these kids into a room, well, one at a time, and they would put a marshmallow in front of them.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And and they told the each of the kids, they said, Hey, look, you can have this marshmallow now if you want, but if you wait for a couple minutes and don't eat this marshmallow, we'll give you a second one.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And it was hilarious to watch some of these kids, like just their tactics and and what they were struggling with.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Like some of them had as much self-control as Jesus in the wilderness.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: They're like looking at the marshmallow and they're like, away from me, Satan, man shall not live on marshmallow alone.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: And like, and they do it and they get it all the way to the end.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And then some of the other ones who like I really identify with, like, as the person is telling them they could get a second marshmallow, they're like, uh-huh, yeah, okay, that sounds cool, but you know, it's not gonna happen.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Like they just they knew they weren't gonna make it, so they just start eating that first one.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I bring this up, the reason I bring this up is because the the kids who immediately ate their marshmallow, they they had a really bad conception of the future reward, right?
27:18
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't taste it, they didn't grasp it.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't real to them.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, the immediate reward was much more tempting.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And I think as Christians, guys, if heaven is something that we don't really get or desire or anticipate, we're not gonna live for it.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: And that sin, that temptation that's right in front of us is gonna seem that much more alluring when there's nothing better to live for.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: But there's a second reason.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Second reason that our preference for this world can actually hamper our walk, or second way, rather, it can make the things of God, walking with God, doing things for God less important.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: And reference Mark Cahill again, that guy I referenced earlier, um, this evangelist.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: And another thing that he asked in this book, it was a it was a question to Christians.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask all of you.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you were given$5,000 every time you evangelized, how much more would you evangelize?
28:24
SPEAKER_00: I gotta be honest, guys, I'm stepping down as youth pastor, and I'm excited to become your new evangelism pastor, all right?
28:31
SPEAKER_00: That's my new calling now, all right?
28:33
SPEAKER_00: No, I think like that would be all of us, right?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: That would be our full-time job if we knew we would get$5,000.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: If we got to evangelize, but here's the deal: we get a better reward than$5,000.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's clear that we get an eternal reward every single time that we evangelize.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: We're building up treasure in heaven.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: So why don't we?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because we don't believe God when he says that this eternal reward is so great.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: And since we don't believe God, we don't do what he says.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: We don't live a life that's honoring and pleasing to him.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: What would a Christian life look like?
29:16
SPEAKER_00: What would our lives look like if we truly believed, the core of our being, that we were not living for this life, but we had something beautiful to live for in the next?
29:29
SPEAKER_00: I have a couple observations.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: I think we would see more Christians selling their home and giving all the proceeds away, like we see in Acts, the early church.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: I think we'd see more Christians adopting children and fostering.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: I think we'd see more Christians setting aside large sums of their income, 50%, 60%, to give to missions, to give to nonprofits, to give to those in need.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: I'd see more Christians choosing church over chiefs.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: We have a lighter crowd today.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: We'd see more street evangelism over shopping.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: We'd see more mission trips over vacations.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: The way we live would be drastically different, but also more beautiful.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to imagine for a moment how would your life be different if every decision you made was an anticipation for your future life?
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Just imagine it for a moment.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Close your eyes.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: How would your life be different now?
30:34
SPEAKER_00: How would it change what you pursue?
30:38
SPEAKER_00: If you truly, truly valued what was to come.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna end here with some application.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Y'all can open your eyes.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: As you were imagining that, I want to help direct those thoughts.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: I have some challenges for you guys this week on how we can grow a greater desire for what is to come and how we can live this life better for what is to come.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: First, I urge you all to read Revelations chapter 21 through 22 and write down all of the implications about our new life that excite you.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Second, I want you to ask yourself, what is my answer to what's next?
31:26
SPEAKER_00: If I were to ask each of you right now, what's next in your life, what are you pursuing, what's next, would your answer be something temporal?
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Are you pursuing something in this life?
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Or would your answer be something that had a heavenly focus?
31:45
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't think of any answers, any what's next that has to do with the heavenly focus, my third challenge is write down and commit to a new what's next that is based on working towards our future glory in Christ.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, I told you at the very beginning of the sermon that this hymn, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, some historians believed that it was really just a euphemism about gaining freedom from slavery in this life.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: But I think we would be wholly wrong in thinking that's all it was.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: I want to finish the song for you.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to hear where these African-American slaves, where their hope was in the midst of immense suffering.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: They said this swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: If you get back to heaven before I do, come for to carry me home.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: You'll tell all your friends I'll be coming there too.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: Come for to carry me home.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: They were longing for the future.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: They had their hopes set in the right place.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Are your eyes above?
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Are your eyes focused on the dirt?
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Building up sand castles in this life.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: As we transition here, I want to talk about where our eyes should be for this next portion.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Because we're gonna turn our eyes backwards for a second as we reflect on the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: And then look forward again as we anticipate what his sacrifice means for us.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: For those who don't know, those of you who are not Christian or have never experienced this before, we're gonna be taking communion.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Which is something that we do as a church, as we do as a Christian big C church to honor and reflect upon what all of this is about.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: You see, the reality is when we all ask ourselves what's next after death, the answer is eternal destruction and separation from God.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because all of us have sinned.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: All of us do horrible bad things like we talked about earlier that we regret, that hurt those around us.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: And God, who is perfect, has said this must be punished.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: A price must be paid.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: And you can't pay the price.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: No matter how many good works you do, you'll always fall short of perfection.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: And this is where Christ comes in, what we're all going to participate in together is Christ is the only being to ever exist who was perfect.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: He had no debt to pay to God.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: And so, because he had no debt, he took and paid the price that we all deserve to pay by dying on the cross and having God reject him.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: And so, by paying the price for our sin, we now have the opportunity for this eternal life, this new existence that's free from decay and full of purpose, the abundant life.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: But to take hold of it, there is only one way.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: You must believe in Jesus.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: You must understand and believe that you are sinful and in need of a savior.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: You must believe that his way is the best way.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, if you're not a believer, we're gonna have some elements that we're gonna partake of, but I urge you to instead of partaking, to consider what it would look like to walk with Christ.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: If you are a believer and you're here from out of town or from another church, I welcome you to take communion with us because you are a brother and sister in Christ.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: In a moment, I'm gonna step down and I'm gonna ask us all to reflect.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: And as we reflect, I want you to consider this question.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: What is it that Christ has freed you to pursue?
36:30
SPEAKER_00: What is it that Christ has freed you to pursue?
36:35
SPEAKER_00: We talked about how this hope in the eternal future causes us to pursue not earthly things but heavenly things.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: What has Christ freed you to pursue?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not pursuing this, ask for forgiveness and beg the Lord to give you courage and the drive to serve Him better.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and reflect.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: I'll come up back in a moment and we'll take the elements together.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, as we remember Christ's sacrifice, we are blown away by the grace that you offer in Him.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: As we talked about earlier, you don't just offer life, just some meager existence in Christ.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: You don't take us from death to just a hopeless and meandering life.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: You give us abundant life in Christ.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: You call us sons and daughters, you let us reign with you for eternity.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: You free all of our suffering and anguish, and you give us purpose and direction and joy.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: You have truly, Lord, given us an abundance, but Lord, I just pray that this future abundance that we all anticipate.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I pray that it would be the primary motivation of all that we do in this one, in this life.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: I pray we would take our eyes off the dirt and turn it heavenwards.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: We love you, Lord.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.