What are you living for?

1. What are you living for? 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 Lewis Winkler

2. What are you living for?

3. A Brief Review: • The New Covenant in Christ is more glorious than the Old Mosaic Covenant. • The New Covenant is eternal and will never fade away. • Our trials and tribulations can be faced by fixing our eyes on the daily transformation God is bringing about within us as we look to and trust in Him.

4. Longing for Heaven (1-5): • Our Earthly Bodies as Tents:

5. Longing for Heaven (1-5): • People who live in tents: • Sojourners • Gypsies • Nomads • Vagabonds • Wanderers

6. Longing forHeaven(1-5): • Our true home is not here on earth. • Like impermanent dwellings, our bodies are wasting away. • Our true and eternal home is being built by God in heaven!

7. Longing for Heaven (1-5): • As Christians, we are aliens and transients in this impermanent world. • We groan with both suffering and with longing to live forever in the home that we were made for and that was made for us.

8. Paul’s Journey through Suffering(2 Corinthians 11:23-28): “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in great dangers from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from the Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have know hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

9. Some Possible Ways toRespond to Suffering: • Materialism: Eliminate suffering by obtaining more and more things.

11. Some Possible Ways toRespond to Suffering: • Romanticism: Eliminate suffering through personal relationships and sex.

12. Some Possible Ways toRespond to Suffering: • Experientialism: Eliminate suffering through extreme entertainment and drugs.

13. Some Possible Ways toRespond to Suffering: • Rationalism: Eliminate suffering through intellectual analysis and scientific progress.

14. Some Possible Ways toRespond to Suffering: • Buddhism: Eliminate suffering through right understanding, ritual practice, and proper moral action.

15. A Christian Response to Suffering • Suffering is only finally eliminated in the life that is to come. • Our ability to endure suffering in this life with persistent joy and humility comes through keeping our hearts and minds focused on the hope that one day we will “be clothed with our heavenly dwelling . . . [and] swallowed up by life.”

16. A Christian Response to Suffering • The Holy Spirit is given as our guaranteed down payment for all that awaits us in heaven. • Meanwhile, we somehow feel naked, exposed, out of place, as if we do not belong here but were made for another world.

17. C. S. Lewis on Longing for Heaven “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”

18. The “Intermediate State” Debate • What happens to us between the time that we die and the time when Christ returns to give us a resurrection body fitted for the new heaven and the new earth?

19. The “Intermediate State” Debate • Three Main Views: • When Paul talks about our longing to be clothed, he is describing an intermediate state of existence where we are disembodied spirits who long for Christ’s return when we will finally be clothed in our resurrection body.

20. The “Intermediate State” Debate • Three Main Views: • Paul is not talking about the idea of an “intermediate state” of existence at all. He is merely describing the Christian longing to be free from the suffering of this life and to finally live forever in the unhindered presence of Christ.

21. The “Intermediate State” Debate • Three Main Views: • Others argue that those who die will simply go to sleep and not wake up until the end of the age when Christ returns and we all receive our resurrection bodies.

22. But Before We Miss the Point . . . • As Christians, our focus should be on the hope of our divine and eternal home in heaven rather than feeling at home in the things of this life. • By living in view of our heavenly home, we will be far more effective at living well in the life that we have been given by God here on earth.

23. Updown Court

24. The Main Point: • Our real home, our real dwelling, the place that we were made for and that God is now making for us, cannot be found here on earth. • It is being built by God for us in heaven!

25. Some Questions to Ponder • Do you long for heaven? Do you long to be with Jesus forever? • Or do you long for Updown Court—or maybe just “Good Enough” Court or even “HDB” Court—here on earth? • Where does your longing lie? Do you really want something eternal and unfading, or merely something in this life that you will ultimately have to leave behind?

26. Living by Faith (6-8): • Our confidence comes from knowing an eternal home in heaven awaits us. • We know this is true because we live by faith, not by mere sight.

27. Living by Faith (6-8): • In other words, we live for the unseen things that are eternal rather than the visible things which are only temporary. • Although things appear to us to be one way, they are, in fact, extremely different.

28. Colossians 3:1-2 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

29. Elisha and the Servant of God:2 Kings 6:8-17

30. Living by Faith (6-8): • Living by faith means seeing things the way God sees them. • That is best done through listening to and reading His word, the Bible.

31. Romans 10:17 “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

32. Living forChrist(9-10): • As Christians, we will all appear before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. • This judgment is not a matter of salvation. • It pertains to rewards, accountability, and our desire to please God.

33. Living for Rewards:1 Corinthians 3:11-15 “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

34. Living for Rewards:1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave . . . .”

35. Living to Please ChristMatthew 25:21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

36. Living for Christ (9-10): • How we live out our lives in this decaying, temporary earthly body really matters for all eternity! • This should be a source of both hope and persistence through the tough times of life. • It should also be a sobering reminder during the easier times of life that we will all appear before Christ and give an account to Him concerning how we lived out our lives upon this earth in the light of eternity.

37. Conclusion and Application: • What are you really living for?

38. Areas of Assessment • Thought Life:

39. Areas of Assessment • Casual Conversations:

40. Areas of Assessment • Financial Priorities:

41. Areas of Assessment • Time Commitments:

42. Areas of Assessment • Thought Life: • Casual Conversations: • Financial Priorities: • Time Commitments:

43. The Student Volunteer Movement

44. William Borden of Yale University “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” —Psalm 116:15

45. William Borden of Yale University • No reserve. • No retreat. • No regret.