SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in to Virch Church once again this Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um, our continuing web series on um preaching in slippers.
SPEAKER_00: It's always a nice time.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, we're continuing, we're going forward in 2 Corinthians here, and I say continuing because this passage is really picking up where the last one left off, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're kind of taking chapter four and going to the next level.
SPEAKER_00: I could almost say this is like the sequel.
SPEAKER_00: So this time the stakes are higher.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: We think about uh sequels, you know, we think about the characters in the movie that that have to face higher challenges and have to, you know, figure out new ways to deal with their problems.
SPEAKER_00: Um kind of reminds me of perhaps a more cinematic uh topic.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine here, uh he was in the uh Irish Defense Forces in an elite unit, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he talked about uh what it was like to plan a military operation.
SPEAKER_00: He said you would go through and you would look at all the details and you would look at all of the situation and you come up with the best possible plan, the best possible plan.
SPEAKER_00: And then you'd come back to it and you'd say, okay, well, if this doesn't work, what's our contingency plan?
SPEAKER_00: And you come up with a plan B.
SPEAKER_00: And then you come back to it and you'd say, okay, plan A is this, plan B is this.
SPEAKER_00: What if those don't work?
SPEAKER_00: What's plan C?
SPEAKER_00: And on and on and on until you felt like you had covered every single possibility that could come out of this operation, everything that could go wrong, every contingency, every contingency.
SPEAKER_00: So the man has since retired from military life, and he's since come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he says one of the biggest things that was an adjustment to him in the Christian walk is there is no plan B, right?
SPEAKER_00: Plan A is the only plan there is.
SPEAKER_00: We trust and obey, we wait and hope.
SPEAKER_00: So, sequel or not, we're gonna see a lot of the same ideas that we saw in chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Um, trust and obey, wait and hope.
SPEAKER_00: So, as we take a look at our sequel this morning, let's uh let's go to the Lord in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, Father God, we thank you that your word is timeless, and we thank you that the the wisdom that we see in it is not just some theoretical thing, but it's something that is uh to be applied to the very real situations in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, as we as we dig into this passage, that you would help us see what we need to see, that your spirit would be at work within us, that uh we would be transformed, uh, glory to glory that uh that um yeah, we would be brought closer and dearer and nearer into our affections to for the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for this uh this passage and pray that you would speak in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So depending upon whether you are a glass half full or glass half empty person, you could walk away from chapter four with some wrong ideas, right?
SPEAKER_00: Duncan's Duncan spoke on this last week.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't watched it, great sermon, great passage, great opportunity, watch it not now.
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll I'll give you time later.
SPEAKER_00: But um, you could you could very easily walk away from that passage with some wrong impressions, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're glass half full, gosh, you might look at at 417, where Paul calls his suffering, you know, light momentary affliction.
SPEAKER_00: You might say, Well, this isn't gonna be so bad.
SPEAKER_00: You might look at verses eight and nine of that chapter and see afflicted but not crushed, or struck down but not destroyed, get some sense of relief.
SPEAKER_00: That's like almost, yay, we're gonna have hard times, but they're not gonna be that bad.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, if you're a glass half-empty person, oh, you could look at that passage and recognize that yeah, if we get afflicted enough, eventually we might get crushed.
SPEAKER_00: If we're struck down enough times, we could be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: You might even look at chapter four, verse 16, and see the idea that our outer self is wasting away.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what's that?
SPEAKER_00: What's the end result of wasting away?
SPEAKER_00: That means ultimately there's gonna be nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: So your pessimists out there might conclude, chapter four, Paul is kind of sugarcoating it, you know, watering it down, under underplaying the weight and implications of suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at today's passage, we're gonna see Paul isn't really underplaying anything.
SPEAKER_00: The suffering, it's light and momentary only in comparison to the to the eternal weight of glory, which he says itself is beyond comparison.
SPEAKER_00: It's just as bad, if not worse, than the pessimist fear.
SPEAKER_00: But we'll also see that it's better than the optimists think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope in suffering is not limited to, you know, sort of thinking happy thoughts in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: We look ahead to a new life that is so much better than simply the absence of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So let's dig in.
SPEAKER_00: So, like I said before, we start this passage with the prior chapter firmly in view.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has just been talking about the last verse in chapter four, it talks about looking not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
SPEAKER_00: For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's how chapter four ends.
SPEAKER_00: And the first word in our passage, and I want to draw attention to this because the first word in our passage is for.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So this links these two passages together.
SPEAKER_00: This might be like saying, because, or with this in mind.
SPEAKER_00: So it's linking.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't sit down and write the write the book of 2 Corinthians with chapter and verse headings and breaks and stuff like this.
SPEAKER_00: He just wrote a letter.
SPEAKER_00: The chapters and verses were added centuries later so that we would have an easier time studying and knowing knowing you know what each of us is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So you can open up your Bible to chapter five, verse one.
SPEAKER_00: So I think in this passage especially, there's a lot of these little linking words that help to see how this thought flows.
SPEAKER_00: And that's far more important than chapter and verse breaks.
SPEAKER_00: So if chapter four ends with a with a mindset, it ends with a practice that Paul has, uh, that of focusing on eternal things rather than temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this starts off by explaining why he does that.
SPEAKER_00: So look at chapter five, verse one.
SPEAKER_00: This is our passage for the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that open.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna be referring back and forth uh to it as we go.
SPEAKER_00: It says, 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.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse one.
SPEAKER_00: And this brings us to our first point.
SPEAKER_00: We, as Christians, we look ahead with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is Paul on about?
SPEAKER_00: What does this verse actually mean?
SPEAKER_00: He's got tents, buildings, homes, and houses and dwellings.
SPEAKER_00: These are all word pictures, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul painting a picture, and he's talking about the human body, our mortal human body.
SPEAKER_00: So we can see this is a serious topic right from the beginning because he says, if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, okay, this is the real deal here.
SPEAKER_00: We could take the word pictures out of it and state it more literally and say, if the sufferings that characterize the Christian life lead to our death, this is nothing small.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is communicating very clearly that to be a follower of Christ may bring us into danger even unto death.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying that everybody who follows Jesus is going to wind up becoming a martyr, but he's carrying the discussion of the prior chapter to its logical conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: What if, as the pessimists would have said, all of this affliction and persecution, being perplexed and struck down, does prove fatal.
SPEAKER_00: Does that change things?
SPEAKER_00: So look at the rest of verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what it says.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Consider that contrast.
SPEAKER_00: On one side, we have a tent.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a tent is temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's something that you break out for a camping trip or an outdoor event.
SPEAKER_00: I went to a lovely wedding in a tent in someone's back garden a couple years ago, and it was great, but nobody was saying, gosh, why are you wasting time with that house?
SPEAKER_00: You've got this tent.
SPEAKER_00: No, a tent is temporary.
SPEAKER_00: When the event is over, you fold it up and you put it away.
SPEAKER_00: When the camping trip is done, you put it in your car and you go home.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens when Paul is talking about this?
SPEAKER_00: What happens when our earthly tent, this body, is destroyed?
SPEAKER_00: Does he say, gosh, look, you've got another tent?
SPEAKER_00: Does he say you've got a better tent?
SPEAKER_00: Does he even say you've got a glamping tent?
SPEAKER_00: No, he says, when this earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building, right?
SPEAKER_00: A house that's eternal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not built with human hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like this drafty house that I'm preaching to you from this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The building that God is talking, that Paul is talking about is uh is a new body created by God Almighty to be ours forever.
SPEAKER_00: So going on, verse two, it says, For in this tent we groan.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know a little bit about this.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are groaning this morning for one reason or another.
SPEAKER_00: But the idea of groaning in our mortal bodies is something that the apostle Paul uh talks about here and in other places as well.
SPEAKER_00: You see the exact same wording just a couple verses later in verse four.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in Romans chapter eight, which Paul also wrote to a different body of believers.
SPEAKER_00: In that passage, he even says, you know, all creation groans.
SPEAKER_00: He says that we groan within ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this is looking ahead.
SPEAKER_00: We groan because we long for something that's not yet here.
SPEAKER_00: We long for what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't this isn't blind wishing, right?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just like wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: We groan, oh, I wish I had something.
SPEAKER_00: This is based on knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that at the very beginning of verse one.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For we know.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the Bible, there's lots of times where we look at stuff that's certainty, that's sure to come, but hasn't arrived yet.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a word for this.
SPEAKER_00: The word is hope.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So once again, our first point here is we wait in hope.
SPEAKER_00: We see the brokenness of this world, and we look ahead with hope to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse two.
SPEAKER_00: We see the hardship of our own experience, and we look ahead with hope that what is mortal may be swallowed up by by life.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse four.
SPEAKER_00: We look ahead with hope that we will not face the shame in verse three, where it talks about being found naked.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we look ahead with hope that we will be further clothed, verse four, by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3 says, This is this is talking about this idea of being clothed.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's clothing language there.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus Himself in Luke 24 says, Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which was going to happen at Pentecost, the beginning of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: So all of us who are followers of Jesus are clothed with him, we're united to him, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: These are present tense realities that point to this future truth.
SPEAKER_00: So we can see this in in verse 5 even.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have the Spirit, we we we know we have this now, and it's it's pointing to our future, the guarantee of our future.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this idea of delayed gratification, this is not strictly a Christian idea, a Christian concept, right?
SPEAKER_00: People do this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the seven habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey's master work of self-help there.
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, number two is begin with the end in mind.
SPEAKER_00: So take your goal and and uh and and work towards it.
SPEAKER_00: It says, you know, here we are, we study hard with the idea of a degree, and the degree gets us the career and the lifestyle that we want.
SPEAKER_00: We're willing to work hard now for a reward later.
SPEAKER_00: Um we we can do it in simple ways by like, you know, just working hours in the kitchen to get a get a really nice meal out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Even me, even me in my earthly tent here.
SPEAKER_00: We uh I'm out in the park three days a week with David and we we do baseball training.
SPEAKER_00: And what am I doing?
SPEAKER_00: I'm putting aside other things that I could be doing and maybe would rather be doing, but uh suffering for the goal of possibly having a decent baseball season if and when the uh restrictions allow.
SPEAKER_00: So we know what it is to suffer now with the idea of reward later.
SPEAKER_00: And if the reward is something good and we have an idea of when it's coming, it's easy to put it off.
SPEAKER_00: You can even see this.
SPEAKER_00: All right, controversial time here.
SPEAKER_00: You can even see this when we see how uh the Irish government talks about our COVID restrictions because they always say, here's the restrictions, and they are in effect until this date.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So we only have to think about how long these restrictions will be in effect until such and such date, and then they'll reevaluate.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that you're listening to this today.
SPEAKER_00: There was a big protest yesterday because we got to that to the end of our COVID restrictions, and the Irish government said, nope, we're gonna continue on with these restrictions.
SPEAKER_00: So I can hear you.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying these are all examples of false hope.
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, they are all of these things that we hope in in the world to a certain at a certain point, they become false hopes because either they fail to satisfy us in the way that we that we hope they will, or they elude us completely, or you know, we just put ourselves in a cycle of having to continually re-renew and redo our things that we're working for here.
SPEAKER_00: We have to outdo ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's like in the movie Elf, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe I'm gonna quote the movie Elf, but I'm gonna do it right now.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning of the movie, Santa comes and he announces to all the elves, you mean let me let me read off the quote here because it's profound.
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, we've had another very successful year.
SPEAKER_00: So after all that hard work, it's time to begin, time to start preparations for next Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just an unending cycle.
SPEAKER_00: And when we're hoping in things of the world, we're gonna be in that unending cycle.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be hoping in things that ultimately won't satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: It is time that we as a church stop placing our hope in when COVID restrictions are gonna end and instead look ahead to a world where sickness will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: So we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_00: So, again, this is tying us back to the previous verse, which says that God has given us the spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: So for Paul, the certainty of our hope just doesn't just dispel the negative feelings, it gives rise to courage.
SPEAKER_00: This is another example of chapter five going to the next level from chapter four, the sequel here.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter four says we do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter five says we're of courage.
SPEAKER_00: It says we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_00: So this is our second point.
SPEAKER_00: Hope brings courage.
SPEAKER_00: Courage here does not mean the absence of fear.
SPEAKER_00: This would this would reduce the Christian walk to some kind of exercise in stoicism, right?
SPEAKER_00: That uh, you know, keep calm and suffer on.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what this is about.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Paul has not given this example in any way.
SPEAKER_00: Back in chapter one, he wrote, we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.
SPEAKER_00: This courage that Paul's talking about, it doesn't hide the difficulty, doesn't minimize it.
SPEAKER_00: And just as a side note, have you ever been around people who minimize, they try to offer you comfort by minimizing, don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be, you know, the it's not that big of a deal, you'll get through this and you'll be fine, you know, you'll be a stronger person afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to comfort someone who's going through it, try uh Paul's advice from Romans 12, where he says, weep with those who weep.
SPEAKER_00: Just a side note.
SPEAKER_00: But if this courage is not like that, if it's not this stoic exercise, and if it's not minimizing, and if it's not hiding it, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It's confidence in the Lord based on the certain hope that we have.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the psalmist.
SPEAKER_00: Psalmist writes, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: For you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: This is not some kind of false bravado.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a courage based on our ability to handle things.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sure and certain hope set to action.
SPEAKER_00: So going on with verse six, it says, We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If we read this in isolation, it might give us the wrong idea.
SPEAKER_00: It might sound like God is not with us while we're while we're in this body, in this life.
SPEAKER_00: But we know from the prior verse that he is through his holy spirit who's given to us.
SPEAKER_00: So that's not what it's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: I think this is looking just more at the experience.
SPEAKER_00: We're not literally away from the Lord, but it often feels like we are.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of a story I heard of the little boy, right?
SPEAKER_00: A little boy had a nightmare in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: He calls out, and his dad comes, you know, comforts him.
SPEAKER_00: And the dad says, Don't worry, son, God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: And the son says, That's great, dad, but I was really hoping for someone with skin on.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul immediately, because of this, goes to verse 7 and says, We walk by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: Our courage is not based on being physically present with the Lord Jesus, but rather on the hope, rather on the certainty that he's there even when we don't see him.
SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, it would be better to see him, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8 says, We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This brings us all the way back around to where we started.
SPEAKER_00: If the suffering of this world results in death, and of course it will, unless Jesus comes back first, we uh we're gonna be consumed by this world and it's going to destroy our mortal bodies.
SPEAKER_00: But even if that happens, we respond with hope, we respond with courage, and we even respond with the knowledge that to be away from this body and at home with the Lord is the more desirable place to be.
SPEAKER_00: Away from this earthly tent, free of the perplexity of this world, you know, very few things in this world are more frightening to us than the idea of death.
SPEAKER_00: Paul here is saying, not only does the Christian have nothing to fear in death, to be physically and bodily present with the risen Lord Jesus is better than the best our world has to offer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when my grandfather died, it was, I think, the first funeral I'd ever been to.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and something that the pastor said uh about my grandfather sticks out to me even to this day.
SPEAKER_00: He said, He's moving! He said um last week Jack wouldn't have chosen to die.
SPEAKER_00: But this week he wouldn't choose to come back.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read that again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, um, this is not a direct quote because it was years ago.
SPEAKER_00: He says last week Jack wouldn't have chosen to die.
SPEAKER_00: But this week he wouldn't choose to come back.
SPEAKER_00: So we live this life with hope-fueled courage, and we look ahead to a better life in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: So reviewing our points thus far, we look ahead with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Hope brings courage, and now we come to the last point where we aim to please the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, courage.
SPEAKER_00: We just we just got done with this idea of courage, and courage means a lot of things to a lot of different people.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think about you know, something big like climbing Mount Everest or running with the bulls, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
SPEAKER_00: Some people look at it and say it's more like you know, social courage, you know, working up the strength to talk to somebody you've never spoken to before, having those awkward or uncomfortable conversations that you need to have.
SPEAKER_00: It can be overcoming personal fears like public speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul has something specific in mind for this courage.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just courage for courage's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Verse nine, it says So whether we are at home or away, we make it our Aim to please him.
SPEAKER_00: The two questions come out of this when we talk about the idea of making it our aim to please God.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we need to please God?
SPEAKER_00: And how do we please God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, starting with the why.
SPEAKER_00: First, what this verse is not saying.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not talking about pleasing God so that we can become right with him or so that we can remain right with him.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a call to legalism, you know, to kind of a works-based salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's certainly not what he has in mind here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we see this just in the way that the passage flows, all those connecting words there, all the four and the so.
SPEAKER_00: It says, you know, we have this, so we have this, so we have this, so we have this, on down the line, and it's after all the hope, the certain hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's after all of the courage, courage that is built on this certain hope, after all of those things, we come to the idea of pleasing God.
SPEAKER_00: So this is more a result than a cause.
SPEAKER_00: This this is God-given hope forged into God-empowered courage, applied as a God-pleasing life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a result, not a cause.
SPEAKER_00: So once we've dealt with the why, we've gotten that off the table and out of the way, the how becomes less opaque because scripture is filled with examples of the sort of things that please God.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not trying to earn my way into God's good graces, what do I need to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus summarized the law and the prophets, summarized the the Old Testament in the in two commands.
SPEAKER_00: One, love God with all your heart and soul and mind.
SPEAKER_00: Two, love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's how we please God.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's what this means.
SPEAKER_00: We make it our aim to please God.
SPEAKER_00: Other passages in scripture talk about what is the what is the the heart of Christian ethic.
SPEAKER_00: There's other passages that talk about, you know, walk humbly into love mercy and and walk humbly with your God.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: There's other ones in there that talk about uh different stuff, but um our pastor back in the states summed it up.
SPEAKER_00: He said that Christian life is obeying the word of God by the power of the Spirit of God for the purpose of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: At City Church, we talk about loving God, loving one another, loving our community.
SPEAKER_00: However, we want to sum this up.
SPEAKER_00: Fact of the matter is we'll know more and better how to please God as we know him better.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I've been married 21 and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: I know how to how to care for my wife because I know her better.
SPEAKER_00: I'm better at caring for my wife because I know her better.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we can ask Dorian about that afterwards if this is if this is actually working out, but it's it's true.
SPEAKER_00: As we know God better, we know better how to please him.
SPEAKER_00: How do we get to know God better?
SPEAKER_00: Well, through his word, through prayer, through fellowship with his people.
SPEAKER_00: These are all these are all things that are available to us, whether we're in lockdown or not.
SPEAKER_00: And so we make it our aim.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, make it our aim also is not about a set of boxes that need to be ticked.
SPEAKER_00: It's about an orientation of our lives, of our affections.
SPEAKER_00: So valuing the things that God values.
SPEAKER_00: So we could just as easily discuss, you know, where is your heart oriented this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Who are we aiming to please?
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me read it.
SPEAKER_00: It says, for 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the same way that we wanted not to have the wrong idea about what it is to please God, we need to make sure that we're not misunderstanding this idea of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So look at what it does not mean.
SPEAKER_00: We're not looking at judgment in the sense of, you know, saved or unsaved, heaven or hell.
SPEAKER_00: This is not that.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, all of this passage is built on the certainty of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's built on, you know, our our courage in the Lord is built on solid things.
SPEAKER_00: And so our future is secure.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that off of the table, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the context of the passage, this points to something of a review, some some kind of a review of our lives when our lives are done.
SPEAKER_00: Have we hoped in God or in the things of this world?
SPEAKER_00: Have we uh been of good courage?
SPEAKER_00: Have we made it our aim to please him?
SPEAKER_00: Our future is secure, but still the way that we live, it matters.
SPEAKER_00: It makes a difference in the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: And God is uniquely qualified and uniquely justified to judge what has the content of my life been about.
SPEAKER_00: Since we just read that it's better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, we might conclude wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: That means this life is meaningless, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Just just hold on in hope.
SPEAKER_00: And uh eventually you'll you'll you'll be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But what this tells us is just another another application of that courage and yet another encouragement for us to press on.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing to bear in mind here is this comes in a big section of this letter where Paul has been uh defending his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He's been under a lot of pressure to be, you know, maybe more impressive, more imposing, more of an influencer.
SPEAKER_00: Back in chapter three, he says that he doesn't need to commend himself, he doesn't need to have grand letters of introduction like some of these other super apostles, more flashy people might have, because he's not living for the approval of people.
SPEAKER_00: His aim in life is to please God.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, God, not Paul's critics, not the more impressive speakers running around in the city of Corinth back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: God will judge the content of Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: So again, Paul is Paul is ending up this little section here with a with a mindset change.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we wrapped up chapter four with not looking at the things that are that are temporary, but the things that are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's saying that we're we're living for the approval, not of people, but of God.
SPEAKER_00: So, really, that's our sequel.
SPEAKER_00: We've got new challenges, higher stakes, but the same resources.
SPEAKER_00: In the gospel, we have hope, but it's not hope that just lets us curl up in a ball and wait for the end.
SPEAKER_00: It's hope that through godly courage enables a life that's pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: Like I was talking about before, there is no plan B.
SPEAKER_00: We press on, we trust and obey, we wait in hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if the previous chapter showed us that our suffering is not without purpose, then this section here is showing us that it's not without end.
SPEAKER_00: We live in hope of a better world and an expiration date on our trials and tribulations.
SPEAKER_00: Out of that comes courage for living in this world, and that courage is to be used in orienting our purpose with his.
SPEAKER_00: And what else do we have?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, our secular Western world doesn't give us a lot to go on for the topic of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We can rail against the injustice, we can fight or we can flight, but our world finds neither purpose nor escape in any meaningful way from the pain that is around us.
SPEAKER_00: The message of the gospel, though, is so much better.
SPEAKER_00: It says that in Christ our suffering is not meaningless and it is not everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not yet placed your hope in Jesus, I hope you'll see that this Christian hope and courage are so vital for the trials that we face in life.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to know more about the gospel, if you'd like to talk more about what it is to uh come forward in faith, please reach out.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure a lot of the other uh leaders here at City Church would be happy to talk to you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Just finally, here as a church, as a gathered body of believers here in this time, in this day and age, how can we encourage each other?
SPEAKER_00: Well, based on the hope that we have, based on the courage that it drives, let's get to work on verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make it our aim to please God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, our hope may not always feel hopeful, and our courage may not always feel courageous, but we will find them sufficient because they're rooted in the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So let's make that our aim.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be in each other's lives and let's encourage each other with these words.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do this as a church, let's do this as community groups, let's do this in twos and threes.
SPEAKER_00: Love God, love one another, love our community.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you've given us provision that we might have hope.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that that hope is not passive, is not uh just curling up into a ball, Lord, but it is uh hope that drives us in courage and that it uh brings us about to a point where we're not living for the approval of others, we're not living for uh our own purposes, Lord, but we are living a life that is pleasing to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray as we uh reflect on this and as we go forward in our week that you would remind us that the sufferings that we see and the trials that we uh endure, they're not forever.
SPEAKER_00: We do have a sure and certain hope for the future.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, may that stir us up, not only in affection uh in our own walk, but Lord, let it stir us towards um being proactive and talking to those who don't yet know you, those who uh need this hope and this courage in this world that is uh broken and falling apart in so many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you're with us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Have a good Sunday, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: See you at Teen Coffee.