Fading Body, Lasting Work | 1 Corinthians 15:50–58

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Well, good morning, church. Oh, I love that. I'm so glad you guys are awake this morning. That's awesome. It's gonna be great because I hope and pray that my energy flows to you if you're still asleep this morning. So glad to hear that you all are uh doing well this morning. Um if you are new here, welcome. We are so glad that you are here worshiping with us here at life. We are a church that exists, that all may know Christ and make him known. And we have a saying here at life that if you desire to be known, we want to know you. Now, this is not just a pleasantry, this is something that we are actually convicted by because it says in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 23, for us to know well the condition of our flock and to pay attention to our herds. Now, that can only happen if you desire to be known. So know that we desire to know you. We want you to be in community with us. So if we have yet to have the opportunity to meet, again, my name is Chuck. I would love to meet you after the service. Now, we are continuing in our verse-by-verse study in the book of 1 Corinthians, which we have titled Beauty and the Broken. Now, when we first started this series, we encouraged everyone to actively engage with this series, not just spectate. Because the words that God provided for Corinth, He is also preserved for us today that they may come to bear on our lives. And we've created a few avenues for you to actively engage with the text. Pulpit curriculum. This is seen within our groups, which I know you all are a part of. Right? Amen. Amen. So in groups, we form discussion around God's word, going deeper into the message that we talked about on Sunday morning with intentional questions. We also provided scripture journals. This is where the scripture is on one side and lines are on the other side so that you can take notes. This is available at our coffee area, and we've had them available this entire series. This is a tool to help you to jot down your notes as we walk through the text. And if memory serves me correctly, I believe Jason said that anyone that comes to him with the journal completely filled out at the end of the series, he will give them $1,000. I'm just waiting, I'm just waiting. It's not a thousand dollars, it's a hundred. Now, we've also provided the Deeper at Life podcast. This is a podcast that we as pastors and our staff come together and provide every single week where we are walking through some of the things that we have yet to get to coming uh in the series that we have yet to provide from the pulpit. So it's the extra nuggets that you guys have that we have left off the table. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, well, Chuck, I have been actively engaging. I sing in worship, I aman the sermons, I personally apply the truth to life questions to my life. I live out the one another's in groups, and I even listen to the podcast on my way to work and coming back home for work. Listen, my journal is so filled that I had to get a new one. Praise the Lord. You're doing the work. You're probably saying, yes, I have been doing the work. But yet, my spouse is still not saved. My circumstances haven't changed. I haven't seen fruit in my kids' life. My prayers feel like they are bouncing off of the ceiling. I've been faithfully pouring into the Las Vegas community, and yet the darkness around me is just as heavy as when I first started. Listen, if you feel this way, my heart goes out to you. And I understand. And I'm hoping to provide a word of encouragement because if you feel this way, you're probably believing that your efforts are meaningless, that it's insignificant, or that it's destined to fail. Especially if out of all of this, all you get is $100 from Jason. But listen, underneath all of that is a question that most people spend their entire lives trying not to think about. What if my work is worthless? Listen, this is not just a passing frustration. This is a spiritual fear. And it is most quietly devastating for a lot of believers. They carry this weight. But I want to provide a word of encouragement for you here today. The apostle Paul has an answer to that ongoing fear. And the answer begins in a place that you might not expect it. It begins with your body and the work that we do in it. My hope and pray is at the end of this message, you see the value of what God has already been doing in and through you. And you see that every work that you do in him matters. So if you have not already turned there, I encourage you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're gonna be looking at verses 50 through 58 as we continue in these series. Now, I'm going to read the text out loud, and I encourage you to follow along, but I want you to be mindful that these are God's words that He has preserved and provided for us today. First Corinthians chapter 15, starting in verse 50, it says this. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass this this uh the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? 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 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Hear the word of the Lord's. Amen. It's a good text. Now, last Sunday, Pastor Andrew opened up with verses 35 through 49, and he showed us a promise of God that is beyond our imagination. Now, if you missed it, I encourage you to go back and listen to the message because it lays the groundwork beneath everything that we're going to be covering this morning. But let me provide you with a little bit of a summary. We saw that God promises to do with believers' bodies at the resurrection something that exceeds all our imaginations. That at the resurrection, our bodies will be transformed, fitted with a new kind of existence, raised with new qualities of glory, and shaped by the representative head in Christ. So now in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 50, we pick up, and Paul has been answering these two questions. How are the dead raised, and with what kind of body do they come? And he is methodically and theologically and beautifully answering these questions from verse 35 all the way through 49. But at verse 50, there's a shift. It's not as though he is not answering these questions. He's continuing to answer these questions, but he is also anticipating a third question that's not yet on the table. And this anticipated question ties the entire chapter together. It's not just the what, it's not just the how, but the why. Why do we need new bodies? Why does any of this matter? How I live right now. And that's the question that brings us to the truth that I want you to carry out as we leave today. Here's the big idea. Because Christ rose, your work matters forever. Not just temporarily, but your work matters forever because he rose. Now let's see how Paul gets here. In verses 50 through 58, Paul moves through this progression pastorally and theologically. He goes from hope to worship to obedience. And each movement answers the question that we are posing today. Because Christ conquered death, how then shall I live? Look again at verse 50 with me. The apostle Paul says, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Now, Paul is making a contrast with something that they already know: flesh and blood, which is a Jewish idiom for the natural human existence in its frailty and morality. It does not mean that the body is evil, which is one of the heresies that was being preached in Corinth. No, it is talking about how the body is temporal, it is flawed, is decaying, it is corrupted, and it is depraved, which is unable to coexist with that which is perfect and eternal, the kingdom of God. So the parallel is this that which de that which decays does not share in that which does not decay. Nobody is going to make a house out of paper and expect it to survive a wildfire. Absolutely not. I mean, the the the materials itself is unfit for that type of environment. It's not just weak, it's fundamentally incompatible to that environment. So too is your body for the kingdom of God. And Paul is not just saying this to those that were in Corinth. I want you to see that this is consistent in the letters that Paul writes to his churches. He tells them in Galatians chapter 5, verse 19, that they also, continuing with these deeds, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Same thing in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 5 through 6. You will not inherit the kingdom of God if you're continuing in this. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 10. We covered this a couple weeks back. He tells them, these will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Now, the things that he lists in these three sections are what Ephesians chapter 2 calls the desires of the flesh and of the mind. These are the lusts of the flesh. This is what happens when your natural body takes its course and does what you allow it to do. And Paul is not saying this to condemn you. He's not bringing these things up so that way you feel condemned. Paul is bringing this up to remind you of where you were because of what Christ has done and where he is bringing you to. This is not the behavior of Christians. We have the mind of Christ. We have a new heart that he has given us. We have his spirit that is indwelling in us, causing us to do all of those things that are pleasing to him. In our natural state, we are unfit for the kingdom. Which is why he says, we will be changed. Look at what Paul says. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. Now, when Paul uses the word mystery, he is not talking about a puzzle that we need to solve. Nor is he talking about a secret code hidden in the stars that we need to decipher. No, in scripture, a mystery is something God previously kept hidden, but has now revealed. And we see this revelation was through apostolic proclamation. And here is what was revealed. Not every believer is going to die before Christ returns. Some of us will still be living when Christ returns. Praise the Lord. And when he does return, we will be changed. But here's the point no one's gonna miss out. We will all be changed. We will all be having our glorious heavenly bodies in Christ Jesus. Now, this is a truth that you probably recognize because this is the same truth that Paul tells the church in Thessalonica. And oftentimes you hear this at memorial services to provide comfort. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul assures them that those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, will not miss out on the resurrection. They will not miss out because when Christ returns, he will raise them up. And then we will be caught up and we will be changed. So nobody will be left out. Nobody will be left behind. And notice what Paul says. He doesn't say they. He says we. Paul includes himself. He expects to potentially be alive when Christ returns. Now, that is a noteworthy point altogether. I encourage you to study that while you're in groups. But the larger point that Paul is making here is that what he fully expected transcends what the reality is when Christ returns. Whether you are in the ground or standing on it, when Christ returns, we will all be changed. Every single believer will undergo this transformation. Nobody is left out. Not those who have died before, and not the newest Christian when he returns. We will all be changed. Now, this change, he says, happens in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised in the perishable. Now, Paul is expressing the speed of this transformation. He uses the Greek word atmos, which is where we get our English word Adam from. And when used in reference of time, it is talking about the smallest possible and most precise unit of time. Faster than the blink of an eye. That's why he doesn't say a blink of an eye. He says a twinkle of an eye. That's fast, that's I can't do it, but that's faster than what we can even conceive with our minds. God needs no more than that to accomplish what human effort can't even produce in a lifetime. Our God is expedient in this. This is not a long, drawn-out event, but a sudden transformation of all believers, dead or alive. And this is what happens at the last trumpet. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the trumpet here is explicitly connected to the personal return of Christ. And the emphasis is on our transformation. And it's important for us to get this because when we look at the connections in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where the emphasis there is still Christ's coming, but on his descent, we see the connection that it is an expression of an Old Testament expectation. Isaiah chapter 27, verse 13, and Zechariah chapter 9, verse 14 through 17. It talks about the great trumpet that signals the regathering of God's people to himself for worship. This background helps us understand and explains why the trumpet is a fitting symbol of divine summoning, of God bringing his people to himself and the final restoration of his kingdom. It's not merely noise, but it is a theological marker where God is causing all of his people to return to him as he consummates his kingdom. His plan of redemption will be complete. Listen, the trumpet sounds, the dead are raised, all believers are changed, and all of this happens in one decisive single twinkle of an eye moment of God. Now, we need to also understand that yes, all believers will be changed. This means not a single believer will be left with a perishable body. The sanctification that is going on right now in and through us, God will finish. Philippians tells us that the work that He began in you, He will complete it. Now, think of it this way The thief on the cross. The thief on the cross, who moments before was cursing Jesus and mocking him, was granted eternal life. He's gonna have the same glorified body as the Apostle Paul. Church, listen, this is this should provide us comfort. Because it does not matter how weak you think your faith is, how new of a believer you are. You repenting of your sin and placing faith in Jesus Christ means that you are gonna have the same glorified body when he returns as the most mature believer. Praise the Lord. Why? Because it's not about what you do, it's about what he has already done and what he will do when he returns and transforms our bodies. It will be glorious. Because the state, the current state of our body, is in our own strength. We strive, we white knuckle, we try to do all these things, but God says that he will do for us what we can't even do over ourselves. Why? Because it's unfit. This body is unfit. Paul says in verse 53, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Listen, this temporal, flawed, decaying, corrupt, depraved earthly body must put on the eternal, blameless, incorruptible, pure, righteous, heavenly body. And we saw this back in verse 42, where our bodies are sown perishable. They're sown like how we are when we're born. But then he says they will be raised imperishable. We will have glorified bodies. Now, this is not the language of replacement. The language that Paul uses of putting on is the same type of language that he is using when he says, put on Christ, put on the armor of God, put on the new self. This is language of you changing clothes. Something that is completely changed for what you are now fitted for. Same body, new transformation, new nature, new glories, his righteousness. Now that's great. That is awesome. But you're probably asking, well, but how does that help me now? Listen, I'm glad you asked. I didn't think that you're gonna ask. I was waiting to get to this. My first point. I know it took me a long time. But here it is. Because Christ conquered death, I live in hope of my coming transformation. I can live in hope that he will transform this decayed, lowly, temporal body into a glorious one. And listen, this hope is not the kind of hope that the world talks about. Uncertain, wishful. Man, I hope my team wins tonight. Notice what that type of hope is built on. Feelings, sentiment, a wish. There's no promise behind it, no certainty, nothing to stand on when the labor gets too uh gets unbearable. That's worldly hope. Unsure, unsteady, and rooted in nothing solid. But, church, that's not the type of love that we have. That's not the type of hope that we have. We have a different hope. Our hope is the confident expectation that is firmly rooted in assurance in the person. Work of Jesus Christ. That's the hope that we live with. That's the hope that He's, when He said He will do something, we can trust that He will. Why? Because He did. He rose from the dead. And He said, When I return, I will bring you with me. So we have a confident expectation. This does not shift with our circumstances. It does not fold under pressures. It does not hold us. I mean, it holds us because we're not the one holding it. It is Christ. And because He rose, believers can live in hope of the coming transformation at the resurrection. And when you truly grasp the understanding of what this transformation means and you see what Christ actually did to conquer death on your behalf, hope does not stay quiet. It erupts into something. Look at verses 54 through 55, and you'll see exactly what I mean. He says, When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Now, Paul does something that I don't want you to miss by adding two time references, when and then, Paul speaks of a future event that has already occurred. The fulfillment of the then took place when Jesus rose from the dead. And him being the first fruits points to the when, the moment when all believers will rise to new life as well. This is a beautiful, beautiful contrast that he is making with the perishable and the imperishable. Talking about Jesus Christ doing for us first, and then we coming after. This contrast is also the tension that we live in as followers of Christ. The already not yet. Listen, Jesus has already secured the victory. And the promise is that we will fully experience that victory at the consummation of his kingdom. Now I want you to sit with that for a moment. You are living between two realities right now. Yes, the victory is real. Christ rose. Death has been dealt its fatal blow. But we still go to funerals. We still feel the breaking down of our bodies. We still wake up in the morning wondering if the work is worth it. This tension is not a sign of weak faith. This tension is the normal experience every believer who has ever lived between the resurrection and his return experience. You are not alone in that tension. And you're not without hope in it either. Because the same Christ who secured the victory is the same Christ who is coming to complete it. Hold on to that. Grab on to that. And listen, if you need a word to hold on, to keep that going for you, Romans chapter 8, verse 22 starts off by saying this. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers with the pains of childbirth until now. And not only this, but we also we ourselves also having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our body. For in hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes in what they already see? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. Church, this is the word that helps us as we persevere in this tension of the already and not yet. Creation also groans with us, waiting in this tension of the already and not yet. We ourselves, our bodies, make it plain to us that we are not yet there. We press towards the mark, waiting for God to completely complete his work. The posture that we need to have is not one of weakness, but the posture that we need to have is of confidence. Why? Because we know the end of the story. We know the fulfillment that is coming. So the tension of the already not yet should never make us stagnant. It should never make us complacent. Why? Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your scene? Listen, I love this. Now, when Paul quotes this, he says, Death is swallowed up in victory. And this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 25, verse 8. And no, he is not misquoting it, nor is he taking it out of context. He is making a declaration that an Old Testament promise has now been fulfilled. Isaiah looked forward to the day when God would eliminate death forever. And Paul looks back at the empty tune and says, That day has arrived. The decisive blow has been struck. And Paul does something next that I absolutely love. This is probably my favorite part of this entire section. He taunts the loser. Listen to this. He says, Oh, death, where's your victory? Death, where's your stain? Now, this is not language of someone who is afraid. This is not language of someone who is stagnant. This is not language of someone who is living in timidity. This is the language of a person standing over his victor, mocking him. This is what Paul is conveying with this. Paul is also quoting Hosea, who spake, who spoke of the ransoming of God's people from the grave. They were talking about how death was just this enemy that no one could overcome. But Paul takes that language and turns it into a victorious taunt. He is looking at death in the face and saying, You had a weapon. You had a sting, but my God took it away from you. Think about that. A scorpion. Don't like them. Not at all. Always going a little black light trying to find them, make sure the kids are okay, the pets are okay, and all that stuff. But the deadliest thing about a scorpion is its sting. But when you take that sting away from a scorpion, it's still scary. I get that. It's still there. But the death blow is now removed. This is what Christ did to death. He removed the sting of death. He says in verse 56, now the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. When Paul says that the sting of death is sin, he is telling us why death is not just an ending, but a terror. Sin is what gives death its condemning power. And we see this in Romans chapter 5, verse 12, where the apostle Paul told us that through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sin. Without sin, death would simply be a transition. But because of sin, death carries a verdict. And that verdict is condemning before God. Now, Paul takes this a step further. He says, the power of sin is the law. Now, I know this might seem puzzling because is Paul saying that the law is bad? By no means. That's Romans chapter 7, verse 7. Okay, okay. Is Paul saying that the law isn't good? By no means. 7 verse 12. Okay. You'll get it. You'll get it. But here he is saying what the law does. It exposes sin. It draws the line to show you exactly how far you have crossed it. And in Romans chapter 7, which I encourage you guys to read, so that way you can say, okay, we'll get there. But in Romans chapter 7, he he shows how the law did not create sin, but it exposed it. It names it. It demonstrates what the actions are ultimately against a holy and righteous God. And in doing so, it becomes the very thing that leads to condemnation. Listen, the law either produces pride in those who think that they can keep it, or it reveals the depth of depravity for those who know that they can't. Either way, apart from Christ, death becomes a dealing blow rather than a life-giving spirit. This is what the Apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth in his second letter. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6, he says, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now I want you to track this with me. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. Sin gives death its sting, the law gives sin its power. Now listen, if you are still confused after all of this, this is what the enemy wants to do. He wants to trap those people and blind them to the good news of the gospel. But here it is Christ tore the veil. We now have access to the holies of holies because of what Christ did. And guess what? We are no longer blind to the truth of what this is. He has revealed to it in his word that it is finished. He accomplished on our behalf what we couldn't do even on our best day. This is the gospel. Sin, the law, and death, these three enemies, fell to one victor. Christ. He defeated death. And it is because of his work and who he is, not what we have done. And that's just good theology. Now, this is grounds for worship. This is the basis for all the things that we worship God for. When you truly see what Christ has conquered on your behalf, that hope does not stay quiet. It erupts into worship. And this is exactly what the apostle Paul did. But before I get there, this is the thing that we need to see with our second point. Not only because Christ died, I mean, because Christ conquered death, not only do we live in hope of the coming transformation, but we also live in worship of the victor. We worship him and him alone because he did for us what we couldn't do or for ourselves. And here's how we know that this is a right response, because this is what the apostle Paul does in the very next verse. It's like he breaks his train of thought and he erupts into worship of our God. He says in verse 57.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. He's the one that gave us the victory. He's the one that defeated death. He is the one that fulfilled the law. He is the one that defeated sin. It is him and him alone that we praise him for because he did it on our behalf. Praise God. How can we not worship him?

SPEAKER_01 34:39

The hope that we have leads us to worship him. And the apostle Paul explodes with this worship. Listen, I listen to a lot of Christian hip-hop. And Shia Lin says this so beautifully. He says that right, that theology should always lead to doxology. If theology doesn't lead to doxology, we've missed the point of theology. Listen, we can't continue to grow intellectually knowledge and not change our heart. We can't continue to know and love this God and not move forth in action. When we know God, we love God, and that leads us to obey God. We worship Him with our lives. This is why when we give thanks to God, it is with a full heart, knowing that He is the one that fulfilled the law. This is why when we sing, we lift up our hands to a holy and righteous God, the one who victoriously satisfied the law. This is why we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despised the same, and sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because he is the one that defeated death. Death, where's your victory? Death, where's your sting? Death has been swallowed up in victory by the one man, Jesus Christ. And this is a beautiful bridge for what Paul does here. Because after he explodes in worship of our God, he then allows this to come to bear on our lives. Because in the next verse, this last verse, he says the word therefore. Now, anytime we see a therefore, we need to do what? Find out what it's therefore. Absolutely right. Now, this therefore, Paul is summarizing everything in regards to his argument of the resurrection. From chapter one, I mean from uh verse one all the way through verse 57. The apostle Paul gives a therefore. Because Jesus rose, our faith is not in vain. Because Jesus rose, we are no longer in Adam, we are in Christ. Because Jesus rose, we can have hope and worship him because he is the victor over death. And if we were to just stop there, it'd be enough. Praise the Lord. We can worship. But he calls us to move forward because this therefore now means that we need to pay attention because there is something that needs to come to bear on our lives. He says in verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. I want you to notice who Paul is talking to. He says, My beloved brothers, he's not addressing the world. He's addressing those who are in Christ, those who have placed their faith in him and him alone. Those who know that he is the victor, not their efforts. Those who know that he accomplished what they could never do on their best day. This call is for believers. And he gives them three commands. The first one, he says, be steadfast. This is a command to remain firmly rooted in right doctrine and right behavior. Do not waver, do not drift. Plant yourself in the truth of the resurrection and don't move from it. When the culture shifts around you, false teachings creep in, or when your circumstances make God's promises feel distant. You stay rooted. Because the resurrection is not a feeling, it's a fact. He also says, be immovable. Do not be swayed by the opinions of man. Don't be swayed by persecution when it gets tough. Don't be swayed by the false teachings that tickle your ears. Or by the comforts of this world. All of these things are passing away. And I think David captured this heart perfectly in Psalm chapter 16, verse 8. He says, I have set Yahweh continually before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. That's immovable. We need to be that type of immovable. Not someone who is shaky because of the circumstances that comes up. There's a lot of things that was shaken up in David's life. And yet he still remained immovable. It's because someone who has decided in advance that nothing will relocate them, or nothing would move them, or nothing would shake them because their confidence is confidence is in Christ remains immovable. Decide that now. Understand the truth of God now and be immovable. And he also says, abound in the work, always abound in the work of the Lord. There's a missionary named William Carey. He decided to go to the ends of the world and preach the gospel. India had his heart. And he wanted to be as effective as possible, but he wasn't a good speaker. He was a great translator. So he did all this translation work so that people would hear the good news of Jesus Christ. This is what he said. I'm not afraid of failure. I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter. Church, we always need to be abounding in the work of the Lord. Why? Because it matters forever. Everything you do matters. This is the heart that Paul is calling you to. Not the bare minimum. Not just activity, but eternal activity. Not just labor, but labor in the Lord. Not just when it's convenient, all the time. Not only when you see fruit, always overflowing, exceeding. We need to be those who are living out of the overflow of our relationship with Christ, doing the work that He has called us to do. Then He tells them, In the Lord, your labor is not in vain. This is something that we need to know. This is the confidence that we walk in, that every cup of water that we give, every person that we minister to, everything that we do that is in the Lord is not in vain. It is not the vanity of Ecclesiastes. Why? Because we are doing the Lord's work. We're doing what He has called us to do. And that brings us to our third point. Because Christ conquered death, we live in hope of our coming transformation. We live in worship of the victor. And we live in obedience, knowing my labor is eternal. It's not in vain. And here's what that means for the person that walked in here this morning thinking, is my work worth it? The Apostle Paul says yes. And here's a few things that I just want to encourage you with. Because you're doing the work. Even if you're wondering if it's worth it, it is. It's completely worth it. The biblical love that you offer your spouse, God sees it. Your quiet prayers offered in the darkness, God hears it. The gospel that you share with your neighbor will bear fruit in his time. The discipline that you're bringing your kids up in, listen, that is your faithful obedience to God. And he sees you. And he honors that. Because we are called to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Remain faithful with what he has called you to do and leave him with the consequences. Nothing is wasted. None of this washes away. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a guarantee that everything done in him, every act of faithfulness, every sacrifice, every season of labor that is unbearable, it's worth it. Matters because he rose. Your work matters forever. Now, here at Life, we want to make sure that this word comes to bear on your lives. We want to make sure that you just don't hear a word and walk out of here, but that this actually applies truth to your life. So I have three truth to life questions. These are for you. Not for your neighbor, not for the person that you've been thinking about. These are for you. I want you to hone in. What did the kid say? Lock in. Like lock in right now. This is for you. Question number one Do I have a living hope? Do I have a living hope? Or is your hope what the world offers? Is it fleeting, like your emotions? Or is it rooted and grounded in the personal work of Jesus Christ? Listen, in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, it says, it is because of God's great mercy that he causes us to be born again to a living hope. That living hope, you can have. It is offered to all of those who repent of their sin by placing faith in Jesus Christ. This is why we preach the gospel. Because the only hope worth having is a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So if God is impressing upon your heart to respond, don't quench the spirit. Don't harden your heart. Today is the day of salvation. Question number two What sustains my labor? Is it your own efforts? You white knuckling this? You saying, you know what, when I die, I'll get some rest. Are you trying to muster up all of this? Or are you abiding in Christ and allowing him to live his life in and through you as you worship what he is doing through you? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23 says, Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. Listen, even when you are faithless, he remains faithful. Rest and abide in him and allow him to do his work in and through you. That is how we labor. Then, question number three: who needs to hear death is defeated? I'm gonna give you this one. Everybody. Everybody needs to hear that death is defeated. Don't keep this message to yourself. The gospel is something that we continue to give to as many people as God brings into our vicinity. Your neighbors, the people at your work, the people at your school, the people everywhere. They need to hear that death is defeated because there are people out there thinking that it's just a transition and forgetting the verdict that comes to it because of sin. But they need to know that there is a man named Jesus who died while you were yet in your sins. He paid the penalty that you rightfully deserve. And he rose from the dead, proving to be who he says he is, defeating death, seated at the right hand of God the Father. And he is the victor that is calling us to walk in obedience and share this message. It should not just stay with you. We need to be those that trust in Christ, in him, and alone, and share that message to others. This is why our vision here at life is that all may know Christ and make him known. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. God, your word is perfect, holy, complete. It restores the soul, and it gives us what we need when we need it. Father, my hope and prayer is that this word of encouragement blesses all who heard it. Father, I thank you for using me as you do. And dear Lord, I pray that your word does not return to you void, but it accomplishes everything that you've set out for it to do. God, comfort where there needs to be comfort, encourage where there needs to be encouraged, and dear Lord, remind where there needs to be a reminder that you are the victor who sits on the throne and defeated death and will one day resurrect our bodies gloriously. Lord, we love you. We pray this in your Son Jesus' name. Amen.