Sunday Sermon: Make it Your Aim to Please Him (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

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Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

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The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, 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.

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For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked.

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For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

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He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

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So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the

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Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the

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Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please

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Him. 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.

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Let us pray. Our wonderful God and Father, we thank you for the adoption that we have received into your family through the blood of our

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Savior Jesus Christ, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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He was raised from the dead, and we are promised that we who are followers of Jesus Christ will be raised with Him also.

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Even now, we have been brought from death to life. We who were once dead in our sins and our trespasses in which we once walked, we have been made alive together with Christ by grace, by the grace of God our

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Father. We have been saved. And having been brought to life, we have been reconciled not only to God our

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Father, but also to all of His children in the faith, our brothers and sisters now in the

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Lord. And so we demonstrate that we are part of that family when we gather like this on a

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Sunday morning to sing the praises of God as we have done, to proclaim your mercy and ask for your forgiveness as a loving

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Father you have given to us. You discipline us as your children. You grow us and shape us more and more into the image of Christ.

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And so now may we desire to be worthy sons and daughters of God.

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May we want to be good examples of our Father who is in heaven, who has given us this great salvation at so great a cost, which we could never repay.

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And we're not being asked to repay. But instead, having been transformed by Christ, that we would display ourselves as those who have been redeemed, as those who wear the name of the

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Father. And we would so desire in our hearts to be pleasing to our

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Father, just as we might want to please our earthly fathers. So may we desire all the more to please our heavenly

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Father. And here, even in this passage, the Apostle Paul says that whether we are at home or away, may we make it our aim to please

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Him. And may that be our desire, God, to please you, to please our

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Father, and also to please our Savior, Christ, as we have been sealed by the

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Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. May the life that we've been given by the

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Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts be evident to those around us, as we speak truth and life from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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We remember this morning those who could not be with us, whether they are on the road or otherwise,

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Dave, the Durans, the Bleasners. We remember even Adam and Amy, as they and their sons have moved to Florida to care for Amy's parents.

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We remember our brother Jim and his family as they mourn the loss of a dear sister, and be with that family as they reflect upon the life of this woman, and also as members of the family will be traveling for her funeral.

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We are given this promise, that though we die in the body, we will live forever in the

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Lord if we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Nurture us in that faith and in that truth all the more.

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In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Thank you.

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You may be seated. So as I had mentioned to you,

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I was at the Southern Baptist Convention this past week in Dallas, Texas. I drove down to Dallas on Sunday, right after church, then was at the convention up until Thursday morning when

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I drove from Texas to Western Kansas to meet my wife and children for a family reunion on my wife's side of the family.

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Our youngest daughter, Mariah, is sick this morning, and so that's why Becky is not here.

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She's at home with Mariah. And Mariah getting sick is also why we had to come home a little bit earlier, earlier than expected, because she was so ill.

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We didn't get to stay for the dinner yesterday, for the lunch that they had. We were driving home yesterday.

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Originally, it was going to be in two separate vehicles. I was going to have to leave earlier so I could get ready for the sermon and things like that, and then

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Becky and the kids were going to come later in the day. But we all got to caravan together in two vehicles. Zeej rode with me.

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He got to be my navigator riding shotgun. And as we were driving along, we passed by a three -wheeled motorcycle.

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And Brother Dave was so kind to let Zeej ride on his motorcycle a few weeks ago.

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And so we were riding by this three -wheeled motorcycle. I said, hey, look, buddy, there's a motorcycle just like Dave's.

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He goes, yeah, it's not red like Mr. Dave's is. I said, yep, that one's black.

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And Zeej said, my favorite color. I said, which one, red or black? And Zeej said,

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I like all the boy colors. I said, okay, boy colors.

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So what would be girl colors then? And he said, girl colors would be like pink and some yellows and purple.

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He said, if Annie likes it, it's a girl color. Mint green, sea blue.

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Basically, if it has a food in it or creation, it's a girl color. I went, that's my boy.

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So I told Becky this story last night, and she actually didn't laugh. She just shook her head, and she said, he is so like you.

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And she has, as a mom, grown to seeing the differences between raising boys and raising girls, and anything that she doesn't understand about her son.

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Why is my son doing this when my daughters are not behaving this way? She'll come to me and ask me, why is it that you're not behaving this way?

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And I'll say, yeah, when I was a kid, I used to do that, and she would go, figures. But indeed, we bear the marks of our parents.

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There are aspects of you physically that look like your parents. You probably have a nose like your dad or ears like your mom.

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And we will talk about that with our kids, like our children will have Becky's ears. So we'll say, they have the

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Denning ears, and they might have my nose. We'll say, they have the Hughes nose. We'll kind of be like mad scientists whenever we talk about this.

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Your eyes, my mouth, maybe your aunt's high cheekbones. I really like, and then we think that we can piece our children together just by talking about it that way.

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But you bear the marks of your parents. There are aspects of yourself physically that look like your parents.

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But then there are also behavioral traits that you will pick up from your mom and dad, right?

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Certain things from your parents. Maybe there are certain things about your parents you didn't like, and then you find yourself doing the thing that you didn't like that your parents did.

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Sometimes it'll just be like certain ticks or little idiosyncrasies that really don't matter much at all.

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But because you saw your parents doing those things, so you also do those things. Sometimes when

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I'm reading, I have a tendency to look down at something like this, and I'll read it like this. And the reason why

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I do that is because that's the way my father read, looking through his bifocals.

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I don't even wear bifocals, but I still read like that because I saw my father reading like that.

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Little things like that you pick up from your parents. So we bear the marks of the parents who bore us.

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One of the pastors that I was with this past week has two adopted children. He has biological children, also two adopted kids.

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And he has said that he adopted those kids in their infancy, but there are still traits that they display that their biological children do not.

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And so there are even behavioral aspects that we carry over from our parents.

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And what we are given in scripture is that we inherit the sin of our parents.

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And likewise, mom and dad, your children have inherited your sinful nature as well.

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So the moment that you are frustrated and upset with this child, and you're going, what am I to do with this kid?

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Why do they act that way? They're just getting it from you, mom and dad. For we have all been born with the sin nature of Adam.

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And as we begat children, we who are sinners begat sinful children.

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But those who come to know Christ Jesus, we are born again into the righteousness of Christ.

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And so previously one who was doomed, who walked in trespasses and sins, and our lot was death, we were walking dead men and women.

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Now born again in Christ, we have been given life. We're no longer walking in death, but we're walking in life.

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Those who do not know Christ, step by step, day by day, they get closer and closer to their doom.

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But those of us who are in Christ, who are followers of Jesus, step by step and day by day, we get closer and closer to eternal life, where we will be forever with our

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Father in glory. Now being born again in Christ, we have been given a new

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DNA. And it is not the DNA that we inherited from our physical parents, but it is a

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DNA that we have been given from our heavenly father, to walk in the righteousness of his son,

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Christ. And so now as we grow in Christ, what we should be displaying in our life and in our walk are the marks of our heavenly father, are the evidences of that father by whom we have been born again through his son,

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Jesus Christ. We wear the name of our father.

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As Paul said to the Ephesians, by whom all of his children on earth are named.

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We are named for our father. The last name that you have likely came from your father.

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Some of you may have a last name that came from your biological mother, but you did not carry it over from your biological father.

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Probably because your father was not a faithful man, and abandoned your mother, and went the ways of this world.

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Not all of us can say that we have come from good examples of earthly fathers on earth.

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Yes, Father's Day is a great day, a wonderful day to commemorate those things that our fathers have done for us to express our appreciation for our fathers.

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I am a Christian today, and I am walking in the Lord because of the faith of my father. And I sent him such a message this morning and said,

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I am born again today. And I love the word of God and will step in the pulpit to proclaim the word of God because of you.

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But not every one of us can say that we've had so faithful a father that has given us such a fatherly example.

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Yet we all who are in Christ Jesus have a heavenly father. Have a father who is an example greater than any person on this earth could ever be for us.

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And we as his children adopted into his family by his mercy and grace should desire to want to be worthy sons and daughters of God.

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As we might want to please our earthly fathers, even those of you who did not have great fathers.

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There was still something in your psychology that desired to want to please your father.

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Maybe if I do this, I will finally get the approval of my father. So as we all have at one time or another wanted to please our fathers, whether they were good fathers or bad fathers.

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So we should desire to please our heavenly father with all that we say and do for our heavenly father is a good father.

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He is a benevolent father, loves us in ways that we have never experienced in any earthly relationship.

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And we as his children so desire to please our heavenly father.

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As Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

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You understand that whether we are here on this earth or we are with him in heaven, wherever place we are in, we make it our aim to please

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God. We come back again to verse 6 where Paul says, we are always of good courage.

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Always of good courage. And so as we go through this today, focusing on 2 Corinthians 5 verses 6 through 10,

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I want to be an encouragement to you today. And I hope that these scriptures would encourage you.

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That you might know that to be away from the body is to be at home with the

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Lord. And we have a promise that has been given to us by our father in heaven, who is faithful to keep his promises.

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And he will be faithful to deliver you to the end on the day of Christ Jesus. 2

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Corinthians 5, 6, we are always of good courage. I was reminded at the

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Southern Baptist Convention this past week that this word encourage, one of the ways that we could describe the word encourage is to put courage into somebody.

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A boldness, a confidence, a willingness to stand for the gospel in the name of Christ.

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That no matter what happens in this world, no matter what the world does to us, no matter what the people in this world might try to say to us, we are not discouraged.

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Because we have been given the courage of Christ to stand strong in these times in which we are in.

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Because we know that Christ whom we follow has overcome this world. The world will not overcome us.

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Paul says in Romans chapter 8, we are more than conquerors through him who is in Christ Jesus.

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And so likewise, we are to be of good courage. And so as we hear the word of God proclaimed, you would have courage put into you, you would be strengthened and emboldened with the confidence of the promises that we have been given in Christ.

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So likewise, if we are going to define the word encourage that way, to put courage into somebody, how might we define the word discourage, but to take courage out of someone?

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That we might say to them a certain word, or we might treat them a certain way that would be discouraging, and they don't have the confidence of Christ.

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Folks, anything that we do that is apart from the gospel and the command of our Lord Jesus Christ would be discouraging to another person.

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Whether you're talking about a brother and sister in the Lord or a person who is in this world who has yet to hear the gospel.

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If the ways that we live and the ways that we treat one another are not according to the commands of our

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Savior Christ, then we're behaving in a discouraging way. We would not be showing confidence to another person that we should be having in Christ Jesus, that our hope is upon Him alone and in nothing else in this world.

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If we live and act in ways that are contrary to the commands of Christ, we are acting in discouraging ways rather than encouraging ways.

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If you believe that happiness is dependent upon the things that you have, if you believe that happiness is dependent upon the people that are in your life, everybody treating me a certain way, if you believe that your happiness is dependent upon success in your job, if you believe that happiness is dependent upon winning the lottery or breaking the bank, not having to pay your taxes, having a

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Republican in the White House, if any of these things you need to have in order to have happiness,

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I would say to you, first of all, that you're worshiping an idol. But secondly, that you're going to find yourself discouraged because none of those things can satisfy and none of those things will deliver you on the last day.

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The only deliverance that we have is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we find ourselves of good courage when we are reminded of the gospel and we place our faith in Him.

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And we understand. See, this is part of the message of the gospel as well. We understand that Jesus is enough.

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Nothing else in this world satisfies. Christ is enough. And He's the only one who has conquered death.

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So we know that in Christ, we likewise will rise again from the grave. As Paul said in chapter 5, verse 1, 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 that has been given to us by Christ.

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You know, the doctrine of the resurrection, of the bodily resurrection of Christ has been under attack in recent years in ways that I have never seen it under attack in my lifetime.

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I am now encountering people face -to -face who do not think that the bodily resurrection of our

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Lord Jesus Christ is an important doctrine. Maybe you're supposed to believe there's a resurrection of some kind.

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That seems pretty important because why would we even call ourselves Christians if we don't believe we're going to rise again from the dead?

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But it's not essential to have to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ.

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Folks, I tell you this, I'm going to die in my body and so are you.

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And so a metaphorical resurrection is of no use to me. I need the bodily resurrection of our

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Lord Christ to believe that my end is not the grave, but that I will likewise rise again with him and join him in his heavenly kingdom.

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And we can only be encouraged by that good news when we hear the great story that our

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Lord Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried in his body in a tomb, and that body rose again on Sunday morning.

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So now I know that by faith in Christ, I likewise will be risen again with him.

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Not only will my spirit go to be with him in glory, but my body will be risen again, and all things will be restored as all things are being reconciled to the

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Father through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's the good news of the gospel.

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And it's that good news that makes us of good courage. We are encouraged by that message.

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And we know, so further on this statement that we're always of good courage, we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the

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Lord. And it's while we are here in the body and away from the presence, the actual presence of God being in his presence, which we are not in right now.

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Yes, he is present with us, but we're not actually in his presence in his heavenly dwelling.

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And while we are here in these bodies, we walk by faith, not by sight.

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What is faith? Praise God for being God that he gives us the definition of faith in his word.

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Hebrews 11, 1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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Now, we can break that down further to come to a deeper understanding of faith, but there is your biblical definition of faith.

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Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

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And furthermore, as Paul says in Romans 8, who hopes for what he sees? We hope for what we do not see.

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So faith is an assurance in things we can't see. There are ways that we abuse these two terms, faith and hope.

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We abuse those terms in crazy ways. I hope that the chiefs are going to have a good season this year.

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I have faith that when I swipe my debit card, that I'm not going to incur an overage charge.

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I've got enough money in my bank account when I swipe this card, that I'm going to be fine, right?

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I hope that my wife made me a great meal for after church today for Father's Day.

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Okay, that's the ways that we use those words like hope and faith. We approach those things blindly.

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I don't know what's going to happen. I don't have any idea what's going to happen, but this is what I hope. And then it's just a wish list.

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This is what I desire to have happen. I hope for things to go this way. But that's not the way that the

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Bible describes faith. That's not the way that the Bible says that we are to have hope in our

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Father in heaven. The way that faith is described for us in Scripture as the assurance of things hoped for.

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It means, folks, that you're sure. You don't just have a wish list.

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You don't just desire that this is going to happen. You know this is what you're going to get.

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I know that because Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the grave, that the

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Scripture confirms it, that the eyewitnesses saw it, that the apostles attested to it, that Scripture continues to teach about it even after the fact.

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I know that as these things are proclaimed for me in Scripture, that Jesus has risen from the dead, and that he fulfilled everything that he said he would do, and that he said that all who have faith in him will likewise have a resurrection like his.

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I know because the Bible says it, because God has promised it. I know that when

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I die, I likewise will be risen together with him. I know it.

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I don't just hope that it's going to happen. We don't come to church because we were looking for a religion and this is the one that we just happen to settle on.

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Maybe the Buddhists are right, but I'm going to put all my chips in on Christianity.

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I'm hoping that this is the one that's correct. That's not the way that we approach our faith.

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We know with confidence, with assurance, and then you truly have faith.

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If you're still guessing at this, and if you still have a religion that's piecemealing together all these other ideas and thoughts,

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Christianity, great, I attend church, but I also need this philosophy. I also need this religion.

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I also need this spirituality. And you kind of piecemeal this religion together, that doesn't work, and that's going to fail you.

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And once again, you will be discouraged and not encouraged, because you do not have faith that is sure of the things that we hope for.

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The true faith that we are given by Christ Jesus is certain that when we die, we are together with God.

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True faith in Christ is certain that my sins are forgiven and I'm accepted by my

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Father. True faith is certain that brother or sister where you're sitting today, you are loved.

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You have not been rejected. You are welcomed into the family of God because of the righteousness of our

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Lord Christ, and you know that, and you're sure of that. And when this world lets you down, you have a

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Father who you can cry to and you know hears you when you pray. That's the faith that we have in Christ.

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It is a certainty. It's not a guessing game. These piecemealed religions, which is so common to our postmodernist culture, does not satisfy and it will not deliver anybody.

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The Ephesians tried that. When you read about it in Ephesians chapter 18, they tried that piecemealed religion.

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You know what ended up happening? When they actually faced the adversary, a demon of Satan himself, they were overcome by him and could not defeat him.

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And fear filled the hearts of all the people there when they realized, our piecemealed religion is not going to save us.

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So what they did was they burned all the books of all their spells and incantations and spiritual nonsense.

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They burned it there in the public square. And the people came to know the fear of God, faith in Christ, instead of these piecemealed ideas that is the world's way to believe.

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We are always of good courage, for we know, we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the

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Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. And remember, faith, our definition, our working definition there is that it is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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I'm going to come back to that here in just a moment. Verse 8, yes, we are of good courage. Paul says this again.

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And as he uses that collective we, he is talking about himself and his other missionary brethren.

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Yes, also the Corinthians could be included in that as well. But primarily, as I've talked about when we started our study in this letter, this is an autobiographical letter.

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So Paul is referring primarily to himself and his other missionaries here. We are always of good courage.

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Though we're being persecuted for our faith, we're being handed over to those who would flog us and throw us in prison and in chains, and we've been shipwrecked, and we've survived that, and yet we continue to press on for the gospel.

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We are still of good courage because we know of what Christ has done for us. We walk by faith, not by sight.

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And Paul tells these things to the Corinthians so they likewise would be encouraged by the things that Paul and his brothers are going through.

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So whatever you are going through, know that God will deliver you through that, just as he has delivered us from the hands of our enemies.

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Just as we are promised he will deliver us into glory, so you may know that he will deliver you also.

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And he repeats it again, verse 8. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the

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Lord. To the Philippians, Paul said, I'm kind of torn between the two. Yeah, I desire to die and go be with my

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Lord in glory, for that would be far better. I want that. Who could argue with that? I go to be with the

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Lord in a place where there's no more evil, no more temptation, no more crying, no more death, no more pain, no more tears.

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Yeah, give me that existence. That's what I want. But it's better for you if I stay here, because as an apostle,

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I continue to encourage you in the word of Christ, in growing you in sanctification.

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So Paul says, I'm kind of torn between the two. I'd like to go be with Christ, but I love you, and my affection for you is that you may grow all the more in your knowledge and your understanding of the

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Lord Christ by the testimony that we have from the apostles in Scripture. And so here with the

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Corinthians, he says something likewise. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the

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Lord. But he is here encouraging the Corinthians in their walk of faith.

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Verse 9, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

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That's our theme for our message this morning. Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

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Do you desire in your body to please God? Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you keep my commandments.

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In the Great Commission, Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 through 20, he said to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Now therefore go, make disciples of all nations.

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Baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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And lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age. That's a passage of Scripture that we refer to as the

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Great Commission once again. And I reiterate that for you because I was shown a statistic at the

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Southern Baptist Convention this past week that 51 % of churchgoers in the United States have no idea what the

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Great Commission is and cannot repeat it to you. Fifty -one percent of those people who attend church.

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Only 17 % would be able to tell you. If you asked them what is the Great Commission, they would be able to say, yeah,

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I know what that is. I've heard my pastor talk about it, and it means this. Only 17%.

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The rest of that other muddy area, they just don't know. Well, I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. Fifty -one percent say they've never heard it.

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Seventeen percent is it. That's of the churchgoers in the country to be able to tell you what the

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Great Commission is and what it means. We have been told to go and make disciples, preach the gospel, and we would also teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded.

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We show our love for God through our obedience. Do you have faith?

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Then you will demonstrate that you have faith in Christ by your obedience to Christ.

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It's not that your works save you, but you will show that you are saved by the works that you do, and you will have a desire to please your

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Father in Heaven, who has given you this salvation through the great sacrifice of his

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Son. Paul speaks to this in Romans 6, and Romans 6 dedicates, for the most part, the entire chapter of Romans 6 to being slaves of righteousness.

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What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.

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In Greek, it's mygenoita. It is the strongest Greek word of refusal that he can offer.

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Shall we continue in sin? No. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism in death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

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So you don't walk in the old ways of this world anymore. You don't walk as a son or a daughter of Satan, of the fallen self that you once were.

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You walk as a son or daughter of the living God, desiring to please your heavenly

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Father. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

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We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to our sin.

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For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with him.

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We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

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Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

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So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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You make it your aim in life to please God. Paul goes on to say, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

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For sin will have no dominion over you since you are no longer under the law, but you are under grace.

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So make it your aim because you have been given the grace of God. Make it your aim to please

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God. With everything that you are, please the

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Lord. What was the greatest commandment? When Jesus was asked what's the greatest commandment, what did he say?

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He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

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With everything you are, love God and desire to please

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God. We make it our aim to please him.

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That while we are in these bodies, we desire to be worthy sons and daughters of God.

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And though we are not always going to do that well, we have this promise given to us by our

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Father in heaven. That if we ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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1 John 1 .9 In 2 Timothy 3, we are told that even though we are faithless, he remains faithful.

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That is how good a father he is. So may it be our aim and our desire to please

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God. And then Paul brings this home in verse 10.

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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, lest anyone believe, well,

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I've been forgiven by Christ, so I'm not going to be judged. No, you're still going to be judged. The difference being that those who are in Christ, we have an advocate.

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And our elder brother, as he's described in Hebrews, the Lord Christ Jesus, is going to step forward on our behalf and say,

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Nope, I've paid his debt. I've paid for her sins. They have been marked by my blood, and they are adopted into this family of God.

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But those who do not know Christ, when they come before God in judgment, and great books will be opened up, as is described there in the book of Revelation, and all that they have done will be listed off, those who are not in Christ, it will be said of them that they are not part of that family, and they will be cast out into the outer darkness, where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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As I've heard R .C. Sproul say, this means that there will be those who will mourn over the fact that they were excluded from the kingdom, and there will be those who will be bitter and angry for all eternity that they were excluded from the kingdom.

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That's what weeping and gnashing of teeth means. It is only in Christ Jesus that we have that reception into God's eternal heavenly kingdom.

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And we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Will it be said of you that your works were carried out by Christ Jesus in God, or will it be that your works were carried out in your own self -righteousness, which has no power to save you?

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All will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body.

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And you will display in your actions, whether you are a follower of Christ and a child of God, or whether you are not a follower of Christ and still a child of Satan.

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By your actions you show whether you walk in holiness or you are still enslaved to the trappings and sinfulness of this world.

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As Paul talks here about a judgment seat, the judgment seat was a tribunal bench in the

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Roman courtroom in which the governor sat issuing his judicial verdicts.

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And so, yes, there is a reference here to the judgment seat of Christ, but as Paul is referring to this judgment seat to the

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Corinthians, they would have known that he was referring to a platform that was right there at the center of the

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Corinthian square in some ancient writings as the rostra. Another word for this would be the bima.

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Some of you might know what a bima is. This is a bima. The pulpit's a bima. The pulpit in the

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Eastern Orthodox Church or a Greek Orthodox Church, they refer to it as a bima. And so there was a bima, or what was referred to as a rostra, there in the center square in Corinth.

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The whole city was built around it, and it was meant to be a judgment place.

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It was a place where all the judgments were brought before a judge or a proconsul who was over the judgments of the city so that all judgments would be delivered in view of the public.

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And we actually see this happen in Acts chapter 18 where the Apostle Paul is brought before that council by the

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Jews. But the man who is the proconsul at that particular time, his name was

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Galio, he was the proconsul of Achaia, he didn't want to have anything to do with this matter.

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He's like, hey, for you Jews, it's your business. This doesn't have anything to do with our laws, what you are accusing

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Paul of doing. So you take care of the matter yourself. And what they ended up doing instead of persecuting

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Paul, because God had appeared to Paul in a vision and said, preach the gospel with no fear.

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No one is going to lay a hand on you. So instead of the Jews persecuting Paul, what they did was they seized

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Sosthenes and they beat him in front of the tribunal because he was the head of the synagogue. It's Sosthenes' fault that Paul is preaching this gospel there in the synagogue, so we're going to punish him instead.

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But that place right there, that's the reference that Paul is making even here in 2 Corinthians 5 .10.

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That judgment seat that was there at the center of Corinth, which all the Corinthians would have known that was the reference that Paul was making.

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And so just as judgments are made in view of the public for all of Corinth, so it will be at the final judgment when we all appear before the throne of Christ.

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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 what he has done is good or evil.

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Turn with me to Matthew 25. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31.

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When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then

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He will sit on His glorious throne. And before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on His left. Then the

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King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My...

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Who? Father. You who are blessed by My Father.

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Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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For I was hungry and you gave Me food. I was thirsty and you gave

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Me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed Me. I was naked and you clothed

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Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison and you came to Me.

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Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?

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Or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you?

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Or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

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And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these

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My brothers, you did it to Me. Christ identifying

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Himself with the brethren, as we talked about with the kids this morning, the people of God.

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As you treated your brothers and sisters in Christ, so you treated Me. And the same judgment is going to be levied against those who are of this world.

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If you mistreated those who were My children, My brothers and sisters in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, so I will exclude you from the kingdom of God.

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You did it unto Me. That's the next judgment that we see in verse 41. Then He will say to those on His left,

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Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

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For I was hungry and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink.

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I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me. Naked and you did not clothe Me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit

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Me. Then they also will answer the King saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and we did not minister to you?

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Then He will answer them saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these,

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My brothers, you did not do it to Me.

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And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

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At the final judgment, when those books are opened up, it will be known to every single person, a public judgment before every soul that has ever lived on this planet.

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It will be known to all whether what you did was carried out in Christ Jesus or whether you were self -righteous in trying to work your own way into God's graces.

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Were you a servant of Christ or were you a follower of Satan?

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Everyone who has ever lived will know at that last judgment and Christ who searches mind and heart will expose those things that have been hidden and those things that have been hidden will be clearly seen and it is only by the righteousness of Christ that you are saved.

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Peter says in 2 Peter 1 to confirm your calling and your election.

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Confirming your calling means that you live as Jesus has called you to live, as a son or daughter of the

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Most High. Make it your aim to please

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Him. Do not presume that because you said a prayer one day that God is going to save you on the last judgment as though the words you said somehow had power to save you.

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The salvation that you've been given is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and no other way.

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But then you will demonstrate the evidence of that salvation by the things that you do.

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And if, my brothers and sisters, you are a child of God, you will make it your aim to please your

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Father. The King of the

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East I stand

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I once more praise

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Thy good

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Shepherd I sing

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Thy praise Within my heart

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Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

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For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

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On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.