We enjoyed a season of Advent, and then we came back to where we left off in November with our journey through 2 Corinthians. And in my opinion, we're in just some of the most powerful verses in all of Holy Scripture. And we're going to be picking up today with 2 Corinthians 5 and looking at the first eight verses of that passage. And I was looking at this passage and I was kind of, the thought kept coming up about the end of the movie, The Legends of the Fall. Any of y'all see that movie, The Legends of the Fall? I mean, it's been out for like 25 or 30 years, so, which is good. Don't bother, I can save you $3 because I'm gonna tell you the end of it right now and ruin it for you. But it's got, there's about these three sons, they're in the West and they go to war and that kind of thing. And Brad Pitts, one of the characters, and he always, plays sort of this wild, uncontrolled, with his passions, young man, all right? And that's kind of the Brad Pitt motif. So Brad Pitt, at the very end of the movie, Brad Pitt ends up like wrestling a grizzly bear. And apparently he dies. And his mentor, who was a Native American who taught him how to kill grizzly bears and things like that, you know, at the very end, he shows him this scene where evidently the bear had died and Brad had died and all this. the Native American says, hmm, it was a good death. And I thought about that. And I thought about that with this text. And I thought about the fact that according to scripture, how you die doesn't make it a good death. It's how you live that makes it a good death. And that's what we're gonna be looking at today. The Apostle Paul is gonna be talking about the return of Christ. And what happens to you, specifically, what happens to your body at the return of Christ? Eschatology, the doctrine of last things. The thing about Corinthians is very often in scripture when that is emphasized, the return of Christ, it's because the church is being persecuted. the book of Revelation. The Apostle John is on Pasmos. The churches in Asia are being persecuted, so he writes to the persecuted church to encourage them about the return of Christ. That's not so much the case with the Corinthians. You know what the problem is with the Corinthians? They got it made. They got it made. They're comfortable. They are successful. They are attractive. Their city is attractive. They've got it made. And they need to be reminded to live a good life so that they can have a good death. Because sometimes that's harder than when you're being persecuted. And the success that they're experiencing is very much like us. I remember when we started this series, one of the An old pastor who'd been ministering in California for years, whenever he reads a passage from 1st or 2nd Corinthians, he calls it 1st or 2nd Californians. Because the morality, the success, the prosperity, so much of the Corinthian church reflects the Californians. Well, that's the case for all Americans. So today, we're going to look at this passage. And we're going to look at the return of Christ, and we're going to look at what happens to believers at the return of Christ. And we're going to be encouraged, not because we're being persecuted, but because we are such a distracted people. May the Lord bless us as we get our focus and our priorities straight for this coming year through this passage today. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we look in faith to you right now, and we ask blessings upon us, God. We are distracted people. We're a worldly people. We keep trying to just in some ways make the most of this life, which is not a bad thing, but then we forget that we're really created for the next life. So give us a focus for things eternal. Give us the eyes of heaven. Let us know what really counts. Let us live a good life that we could have a good death. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please do turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and we're looking again at verses 1 through 8. You'll find it probably helpful to look at your home group helps insert. I've got it broken down in three different parts for you, but I'll read the passage in its entirety, and then we'll take a look at these three different sections here. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 1-8, God says, the Apostle Paul writes, For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, insomuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. And indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now, he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, we walk by faith. not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Again, we'll look at three different sections here in verse 1. We see here that we're going to go from tent to temple. In verses 2 through 5, we're going to see we're going to be going from groaning to glory. In verses 6 through 8, from being absent being home. So first of all a temple and the Apostle starts off we know this earthly tent which is our house is torn down we will have a building from God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Now Paul has been emphasizing these things already and he emphasized these things back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So this is not a new lesson for them here, and I'll just pick up with where we left off last Lord's Day in chapter 4, picking up with verse 16. Do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal Weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And Paul, now in chapter five, says some of the same sorts of thing here. But he says this here, notice that he starts off, for we all know. Okay, here's his clause to introduce this next section here. Basically, he's emphasizing a fundamental truth of Christian doctrine. The body matters, the physical matters. We are not like the Greek dualists that say all things spiritual are good, all things physical are evil. When God created the earth, he said it was good before the fall. It was good, okay? So we have a high view of the physical realm, a high view of the human body. And this is where he wants to kind of emphasize what's going to happen to our bodies. But he says, we all know, because he wants everybody to understand that this is not a remote possibility. It's not vague. It's not speculation. It's not philosophy. It's not fantasy. This is a fact. We all know this truth. He's emphasizing, the emphasis is on assurance. He wants you to know, as they have been teaching, that you can be confident that what he says here is true. That's one of the foundational principles of Protestantism, assurance of salvation. That is not presumption. It is not presumption. If you are a Christian, these things are going to happen. So look at it that way. He is telling you your future right now. Be confident in that. If this earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, which of course is a metaphor for death, we all will die, the earthly tent is our house here. So basically, Paul is kind of presenting your body here as a tent, why? Why would Paul use that illustration of your body being a tent, okay? Well, for one thing, what did Paul do for a living? I mean, he was a tent maker, right? I mean, he, Paul knew tents. He was very well acquainted with tents. He made big tents, he made little tents, he understood tents. So he's thinking our body is a tent. But if you think about a tent, how many of you have been camping? How many of you enjoyed camping? None, all right. You know, you enjoy it when it's over with, you know. You never sit around telling the stories, boy, I remember we camped and we had coffee and we had eggs and we went on a hike and it was just wonderful. It's always like, remember that buzzard came down in the middle of the camp at four in the morning and almost killed one of the children? That's the kind of stories that we always talk about with camping. But anyway, Paul is talking about here, but when you're camping and you're in a tent, you feel vulnerable and it's temporary, right? It's temporary. And that's really what he's trying to emphasize here. We are in a temporary situation here. And the author of Hebrews picks up on the same things. We are strangers and exiles. Strangers and exiles. No one takes bricks and mortar to a campsite. You don't dig a basement in a campsite. You don't take shingles to a campsite. You stick up a tent and you leave two days later. Probably with some ticks. if your experience is anything like mine. And he makes this contrast here, but we have a building which is from God, okay? So he goes from a tent, which is temporary, to a building which is permanent, and he's probably kind of going back to the Old Testament. That's why you ought to read your Old Testament. And the comparison between the tabernacle, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, where the temple service was, the meeting place of God, which was a tent made of porpoise skins. They would break down and they would carry around with them everything. Probably a transfer from the tabernacle, which was temporary, to the temple, which was permanent, which at the writing of this was probably still existing. And the temple was amazing. Truly, it was one of the most wonderful buildings in the entire world. The roof, the furnishings were gold. It would shine in the sunlight. You can go there today and see the foundational stones. Some of the foundational stones of the temple are the size of a house. It's not going anywhere. The Romans destroyed the temple, the foundation is still there. It's permanent, it's fixed. That's the kind of body we look forward to. It's not a tent. We're gonna be going into a building. We move from the temporary and the frail to the secure, the steady, and the permanent. Paul made reference to this back in 1 Corinthians 15, a passage that we often use for funerals. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will 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 will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when the perishable will have put on the imperishable, and the mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Wow. Doesn't that just give you hope? How much better is a temple than a tabernacle? How much better is a house than a tent? And the other thing is, this is our house not made with hands, it's eternal in the heavens. So we're not creating ourself. Paul is always wanting to give the glory to God, isn't he? What's man's chief end, right? We learned in our first doctrinal lesson this morning. It's to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Paul is always about glorifying God. This comes from God. He gets the credit. He does so also with the Philippians, Philippians chapter three. For our citizenship is in heaven. from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." The same power that God used to create the entire universe is at his disposal to recreate your bodies to be fit for your heavenly existence for all eternity. That's very powerful. That's very powerful. And with all that powerful comes all that love that's behind it. So Paul brings this up all the time. And I think the older you get, the more meaningful this is to you. You know, I mean, if you're 20 and you're not humbled by your body, give it a little bit of time. It's coming, okay? It's coming. And they humble us all the time. They humble us all the time. So this is something to look forward to, isn't it? But I think he's not just talking about the physical weakness, the arthritis, the reflux, the cancer, the wrinkles, all those things. That's probably part of it. Paul was covered with scars. I can imagine what it was like to be the Apostle Paul, the number of beatings, the pain that he has gone through. Many of you have had knee surgery because you played football when you were young or you were in the military, you jumped out of airplanes, perfectly good airplane, you jump out of it. It hurts your knees, things like that. Well, try getting stoned. Try being shipwrecked. Try being whipped. I mean, Paul probably ached, but I don't think that's a negative thing. We can't wait to get rid of this body. But I think there's a positive thing. And part of it is this. And this is where it really hits home with the Christian. Your body is also the house of your sin. It's where sin dwells. Your mind, your glands, your hormones, your everything, your fatigue, your gluttony, your sloth, whatever, all those sins sin because of your body. And Paul was very much aware of that. And it's those sins that just exhaust us. Some of us would trade arthritis. We would take arthritis if we could just get rid of our lust. We would take cancer if we could get rid of our anger. It's our sins that plague us. Well, the Apostle Paul knew this, right? Romans chapter seven, wretched man that I am, who will free me from this body of sin? Well, guess who? Jesus. That's what his points, the point that he is making here. So we live in this tent, and then we go from groaning to glory here. He starts off here in verse two, so it says, for indeed in this house we groan. When I was a freshman at Clemson, We wanted to go hiking up to Whiteside Mountain. Ever been to Whiteside Mountain? Same number of people that's seen Brad Pitt's movie. Whiteside Mountain, beautiful mountain up in North Con, not too far away. And my roommate and I didn't have a lot of money, so we went in on halves for a tent. They had these newfangled tents made of nylon, as opposed to the canvas jobs we had when I was a Boy Scout. And we bought this tent $30. So both of us put $15 each in this tent. And we hike up Whiteside Mountain and we think, we're just such wonderful people. And we get up there and the fog moves in and it starts to pour rain. I mean, we had just set the tent up and it's pouring rain. And it's like 5.30 in the afternoon. And the tent was so small because we were so cheap, you could only lay down in it. So here are my roommate and I laying down 5.30 and it poured all night long. All night long. You ever had a camping experience like that? And all we had was like granola bars and dried fruit. You know, we couldn't do a fire. You know, we're just sitting there like this the whole time. And then it's one of those camping experiences where you kind of nod off and you wake up and you think, well, surely it's about, you know, the sun's about to come up and you look at your watch and it's 1030. Right? You've ever had that? And then you kind of sit there for a couple more hours and you nod off again and you look at your watch and it's 1033. You know? And it's just like, when will the sun ever come up? Anyway, we're sitting there. And I'm looking at the tent, and it's just soaked, you know, the water's pouring down. And the thought occurred to me, you know, in the old Boy Scout days, they said in those canvas tents, you never touch the roof when it's raining, otherwise the water will come in. I wonder if that's the same for these nylon tents. So I start to reach my finger up. You know how with the Holy Spirit, it's a spirit of self-control? I wasn't saved yet, so I'm busting my fingers going, and my roommate says, don't touch the roof, water will come in. And I just couldn't help it, I had to see whether, it was science, it was science. So I went, boop. Droop. 12 hours. 12 hours. Y'all, that's why we groan, because our tents leak. We are groaning. I groaned for 12 hours. That was a miserable camping experience. because I was an idiot, but still, we grown here. But the grown here is more of a positive, it's an anticipation of what is to come, not just what we're leaving behind us. The interesting thing about this groaning is creation itself groans. We're not alone in our groaning. Paul picks this theme up here in Romans chapter 8. Now he's talking about stars, he's talking about rocks, he's talking about dogs, he's talking about creation. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. You know, Christians have an answer for why bad things happen. Because we live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world. We're going to die. We're going to get sick. People we love are going to die. People we love are going to get sick. Earthquakes occur, sharks eat people. All those things happen because creation is waiting for the return of Christ, waiting for the redemption, the full redemption of the children of God. There's a great translation here by Phillips that I'll read to you, but I remember I was pondering Christmas pasts, and one of my earliest memories of Christmas was back in the 1960s. The big show in the 1960s was Star Trek, okay? And the real Star Trek included William Shatner, Captain Kirk, okay? The bald French guy didn't pale in comparison to Captain Kirk. Well, William Shatner was going to be the Grand Marshal of the Columbia, South Carolina Christmas Parade in 1967. So we all went. And the Christmas parades going, you had the Shriners on the bicycles and all these kind of things and everything. and we are just on our tiptoes. We cannot wait to see Captain Kirk himself. And all the little kids and all of their little 1960s cold weather gear are all just, and here comes the car with William Shatner, Captain Kirk, and he's out there waving at everybody and he looks at you and he waves and he's like, Captain Kirk waved at me, you know? That's what creation's doing. It can't wait for the return of Christ. It can't wait for you to be in your glorified body. Phillips paraphrased, J.B. Phillips paraphrased this idea, the whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. What we have now, the fittest among us is nothing compared to the glory that's going to be revealed to us. And we know that, so we groan, we groan. We long to be clothed, he says here, with our dwelling from heaven. He kind of mixes the metaphors here. He goes from a tent to a jacket or a garment where we want to be clothed with this so that we're not found naked or undressed. When you think about nakedness, it implies shame and vulnerability, exposure, that kind of thing. But when we come to the new world, we're not going to be in shame. There will be no more shame. There's no more embarrassment. There's no more confession of sin. Once you get up there, it's done, okay? There's not going to be any interruption to your relationship with Christ or with others. Not only will you not sin, you will not be tempted to sin. Man, we're looking forward to that. And then he says here that what is mortal be swallowed up by life. This is very similar to the phrase he used in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me read that to you again. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying, death is swallowed up in victory. It's not that we just, Christ comes back if we're dead, our departed spirits are rejoined with our resurrected bodies. It's not just that, that's pretty wonderful, it's not just that, it's that we won, we won. We really did fight the good fight. We really did run the race. We finished the course. In the future there really is laid up for us the crown of righteousness we run. And if you have been in ministry and involved with ministry and if you've got some scars, you've been persecuted, you've been picked on, that really matters. You may lose the argument at the time, people may make fun of you, you may be persecuted, you may become a martyr, but you will win in your martyrdom. I'll never forget this precious godly woman. Ended up going to a retirement, this was years ago, ended up going to a retirement home. And I think it was a Lutheran retirement home. And she was, community is very important at retirement homes. Nancy and I have become something of experts on retirement homes here in the last few years. And fellowship's very important. And there's always a queen bee in those kind of situations. And the queen bee at this table of these ladies, probably eight different ladies, was talking and she was saying, oh yeah, the Bible teaches that everybody goes to heaven. Everybody goes to heaven. And all the other ladies were going, oh, that's good, that's wonderful. They're all in their 70s and 80s and 90s, and that's good, and everybody goes to heaven. And then this godly, sweet Christian woman says, I'm sorry, but actually the Bible doesn't teach that. It teaches that you have to be a Christian to go to heaven. And she gave some verses. And the queen bee argued with her, how dare you? I am the queen of this table. And then she goes, I'm sorry, but this is what scripture says, and you're not teaching truth here. Not everybody does go to heaven because not everybody has the blood of Jesus. You have to have the blood of Jesus to have your sins forgiven. Well, those, that Queen Bee made sure that that woman was excommunicated from relationships. And when she would come and sit down, everybody would get up and move to another table. And they would ignore her in the hallway. And they would invite her to the card games and to the gym classes and things like that. They shunned her. They shunned her because she spoke truth. She spoke truth. Now that dear sister's dead. And you knew who else is dead? Everybody at that table who shunned her. And that dear sister has been vindicated by Christ himself. She spoke truth. And they persecuted her because of it. So we will not only will we have these glorified bodies, we will have these glorified bodies in victory. and the truth that we embrace and the things that we teach will be vindicated. It's really something to look forward to. One commentator says here, for the believer then the sorrows, disappointments, and suffering of this life are worse than death. Now you're a little weird if you look forward to death. We don't look forward to death and we certainly would never encourage anybody to bring death upon themselves. That is a sin. But there is something here. We all know that we're going to go. And what Paul wants the Corinthians to know is that you really need to prepare for that eventuality. It's going to happen. Your citizenship really is in heaven, not on this world. But he says this, and he who prepared us for this very purpose is God. Again, giving God the credit. He's the one that prepares us. Think about, you know that You know that parable Jesus talked about the wedding feast, where there's gonna be a big wedding feast and the wealthy landowner, the ruler, the king, sends out invitations and everybody gives excuses, they can't come. And then he goes out to the fields and invite all the beggars and the poor people and everything. And they dress him and they feed him in the feast. And it was the custom of that time that the person who was put on the feast would provide clothing for those who didn't have clothing. And then there's one person who doesn't have the proper clothing on and he's rebuked and condemned by the landowner because he wasn't clothed in righteousness. He kind of snuck into the feast. The beautiful thing about this is it's God who actually clothes us. He's the one that gives us the clothing, our new bodies, for us to be able to enjoy this feast so we don't have to worry about anything. You know, it's kind of like one commentator said that Death is like a forced eviction, a forced eviction. And back in, for several years, we lived in the hood, basically, around the hood. And it wasn't uncommon, we'd be driving around, and we would see people with all their possessions piled up on the street. And basically, we came to find out what would happen is a landlord would have to evict somebody. And then the person wouldn't pay their rent, and a lot of times, they would just skip out of town or leave whatever. The landlord would pay a crew, they would go in, they would take everything that's in there, and they would stick it on the street, haul it all for garbage, or people would pick through it, whatever they want and everything. I was thinking about this, the description here, this idea of death and the afterlife, and I was thinking, it's almost like you're forcefully evicted from your home. And you're standing there, all your early possessions there, and you're standing there, you've been evicted, you've been kicked out, okay? And then, Elon Musk pulls up in a brand new Tesla, And he says, get in, in his accent. And he drives you and he goes to a palatial estate and the gate opens up and he pulls in front of this mansion and he gives you the keys to the house and the title to the property and he says, welcome home. Welcome home. There's no regret leaving all that junk on the corner. There's no regret being kicked out of that tenant house. You are home. You are home. And you're enjoying it because you have a resurrected body. He says here, He gave us the Spirit as a pledge here, as the guarantee, as the down payment for what's to come. Y'all, does it hit you at least some point in time during Sunday or you're having a quiet time, just that emotional welling up that occurs to you? This, the Spirit saying, this is true, this is true. That's a down payment. You're gonna experience that all the time when you get into heaven. Paul speaks of this, of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and there's a connection here with that groaning that we talked about before. In Romans 8, verse 23, he says, So, you know what? Even the groaning that we're experiencing is actually sort of evidence that you're a Christian. Did you realize that? I'm a little concerned about pressing this point too far, because we have some baby boomers in our church. And baby boomers, they love complaining and groaning, right? You know, it's not like this. We were a kid, we had to do it this way, this kind of stuff. This kind of goes on and on and on. You know, we walked five miles in the snow to school, uphill both ways. That doesn't work in South Carolina. My daddy told me one time, he said, yeah, he said, I had to fight off alligators with a loose leaf notebook to go to school. And the problem was, I believed him. You know, it's funny, I joke around a lot, but I'm really pretty gullible, as many of you know. So I was down evaluating a school 30 years ago, and I went to his hometown down in the Lowcountry, in Hampton County, and I found his house. It's on Campbell Street. The street was named for his daddy, who was the doctor for the county during the Depression. And I found his house, and I looked across the highway, and there's the school. There's no swamp. There's no alligators. It's just a road. And I thought Tunky was joking. I didn't even get it at the time. That had a point. Complaining. We're always complaining about different things, right? But that groaning really is that sense that you're not home. that you don't fit in, that you don't belong. That actually is kind of evidence of the Holy Spirit, and part of it is to keep you from taking bricks to the campsite, I think. That's not just my opinion. Go back to the old times. Go back to Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter nine. I have to remind myself of this. Let me just pick up, you know, there's apostasy in Jerusalem, and the Spirit of the Lord departs. His presence departs from Jerusalem. And I pick up with chapter nine, verse four. And the Lord said to him, this angel, go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst. But to the others, he said in my hearing, go through the city after him and strike. Do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. So some of us can learn the rest from the baby boomers. Still, we gotta be careful about groaning too much, right? Because our hope is in heaven. We should expect this kind of thing. Now we see finally here, we'll go from absence to being at home, verses six through eight. Therefore, always being of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight, and we are of good courage, I say, to prefer rather to be absent from the body than to be at home with the Lord. He sort of repeats himself here, but I want you to notice this. Therefore, being always of good courage, There is an expectation that these truths affect your mood, your outlook. I don't think there's any of you who doubt these truths. We believe in the inerrancy of scripture. But I think all of you have a problem in this area. These truths are not affecting your emotions, your affections, your mood. You get so burdened by the tent stuff, you forget the temple stuff. And you're not allowing the joy that the Holy Spirit would give you if you really embrace these truths, not just in your mind, but also in your heart. This is our problem. He says, while being at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. He's probably talking about the intermediate state here. Basically, that when you die before the Lord comes back, you are a disembodied spirit. Your spirit goes to heaven. When the Lord comes back, he's going to raise your body in a glorified state, reunite your spirit with your body because you got to have a body to repopulate earth. That's the way it works. There's no soul sleep here. Your conscience, you're in heaven, but you don't have the body yet. We know this, you know, if you look at Hebrews 12, verse 23, the author of Hebrews talks about the spirits of righteous men made perfect. And then Peter talks about that we will dwell with the Lord in new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. So basically he's gonna recreate Eden and we have to have bodies to be able to walk on the new Eden. And then that's a whole nother subject, what will happen then. But the point here is that right now we don't see this. We walk by faith, not by sight. But when you get there, you will walk by sight and not faith. You won't need faith anymore. It's done. You will see the Lord. You will see those who've gone before. You will be friends with angels. You don't need faith. It's all right there. And we are to be of good courage, right? What do we have to be afraid of? Romans 8 says this, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called, and these who he called, he also justified, and these whom he justified, he also glorified. If you are called, you are justified. If you're justified, you are glorified. You just don't see it right now. And it's not yet complete. And Paul even kind of chimes in, I prefer a rabbit to be absent in the body and to be at home with the Lord. It's like the psalmist, right? Psalm 42, as the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God, my soul thirsts for you, for the living God. For when shall I come to appear before God? Or Psalm 73, one of my favorite psalms, because it's written by a depressed ministry worker who gets out of his depression, because he starts thinking about God instead of himself. Whom I have in heaven but you, the psalmist asks, and besides you I desire nothing on earth. Hey, you want to evaluate your prayer life? Don't sit there and think about how many things got answered the way you wanted them. Think about how closer you got to God as a result. That's the point of prayer. A lot of times he says no. A lot of times he says no, but are you closer to God? You're communing with God, you're developing a relationship with God, and one of the primary vehicles for doing that is through prayer. So to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord. So again, there's not this principle of soul sleep right there. There's an awareness that you're in the presence of the Lord here. And the point that Paul's trying to make with the Corinthians and the point that I'm trying to make with you is that this truth ought to dominate your life. It ought to dominate every single decision you make in the year 2022. If you want a really good death, you live a really good life, and you lead that life according to this principle that you are gonna be before the Lord one day. We'll emphasize that some more next Sunday. But we would want to join in with Paul in Philippians chapter one. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I'm to live on the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me and I do not know what to do. But I'm hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is much better. Yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary for your sake. So right now God has got us alive, he's got us on this planet, we are to do everything we possibly can but with this in mind. knowing that our hope is in heaven. So let me just close with this thought the same way that Paul closed in 1 Corinthians 15. What's the application here? How do you apply this? When he mocked death, O death, where is your victory? 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, For that reason, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing this, that your toil is not in vain. Father, please help us to live for the next life and be careful about the roots we plant into this life. Help us to have eyes that see these truths and that these truths affect not only our mind but our heart and our emotions as well. And let us have a joy this coming year that we've neglected to have in the past because we've been so concerned and so consumed with the tent instead of putting our hope in the temple that is to come. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.