Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Jack Lalanne died a week ago today at the age of 96. This was a man who was the epitome of perfect health. Not long ago, he stated that he couldn’t die because that would ruin his image. But he did die, because we all do, so how we spend our short life is vastly important. Jack made it his primary goal to be healthy and think positively. Our ultimate aim is to please God in all that we do.

“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please 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.” (2 Corinthians 5:5-10)

We need to look back to verse 4 to know what “this very thing” refers to. We talked last week about how we groan in these imperfect bodies of ours. But one day we’ll be made perfect. But we don’t just wait around until then. We actively pursue perfected bodies. We do this by putting on good works. We won’t attain perfection in this life, but we are to strive for it. Through this process of sanctification, God has prepared us (v. 5). It’s as if the process is complete. We can be confident that God will complete this in us, because we have the Spirit of God.

Therefore, since we can be confident not in ourselves, but in God, we have hope (v. 6a). We don’t have hope because we’re strong, but because God is strong. Consider Abraham, who lacked the ability to bring a great nation. Consider Moses, a stuttering murderer who was exiled from Egypt, who God called to lead his people out of slavery.

But then Paul writes something which would seem to discourage us (v. 6b-7). Why should being in the body and away from the Lord give us courage? It takes faith to live this way. It’s easier to live by sight. But since the Holy Spirit is in us, He fuels our lives. He gives us hope. He gives us courage. And He sustains us until that day when we go to be with the Lord forever (v. 8).

Not that we want to remain without a body forever. We were created to have a body. If we die before the Lord returns, we will immediately be present with the Lord (v. 8, Luke 23:43). But we won’t yet have our resurrection body. This happens when Christ returns (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). So we may, for a time, be with the Lord, yet without a body. Now I want us to get a glimpse of how weird this is. We often think of ourselves as a soul that has a body, and this is true. But it’s a bit more complicated than this. Our soul experiences life in our body, just as our body experiences the world with its senses. You’ve heard of people having out of body experiences, but how did they relate this experiences to us? While they were in their body!

Paul describes this condition as far better than the condition we’re in now (Philippians 1:23). But it’s not yet the perfect condition. If it were, we’re remain in that state forever. It will be uncomfortable in the sense that we’re waiting for our final state. I don’t know how that will feel. It won’t be uncomfortable in a painful or uneasy way. I do know that we’ll be so full of joy from being with the Lord and so full of anticipation for the consummation of God’s plan. And, even in this intermediate state, we’ll finally be able to live by sight as well. We’ll be able to serve God not only by faith, but by sight. We’ll be able to glorify God with our voices and hands as we see Him with our eyes.

We often long for Heaven because there it will be easy to praise God in service. But should it not be our longing here as well? (v. 9) When Adam first sinned, he did so, in part, in response to the temptation of the serpent. But Cain didn’t need an external temptation. Sin had found its place in his heart.

Will we make it our aim to please God, or ourselves? Is it your desire to please your Savior, or sin that lives in you? Sin desires to rule over you, but don’t let it master you (1 Corinthians 6:12). Let Christ be your Master.

Don’t be discouraged by your failures, by the limitations of your flesh, be encouraged by the Spirit inside you!

What we do in the body matters (v. 10). We will be rewarded or punished because of what we’ve done in this life. We don’t get the privilege of deciding what’s right and wrong for ourselves. A husband was arguing with his wife, and neither of them were willing to admit that they might be in error. “I’ll admit I’m wrong,” the wife said to her husband, “if you’ll admit I’m right.” Her husband agreed and, like a gentleman, insisted that she go first. “I’m wrong,” she said. And with a slight smile, the husband replied, “You’re right.”

But it doesn’t work like that in real life, does it? There is an absolute right and wrong, and we don’t get to decide what it is. Christ is the Judge. And we are all guilty. Yet He paid our debt for us.

We use our spiritual gifts, we use our abilities, we work, we play, not to repay God, but because it’s our aim to please Him.

I was given a book called “My Decrease for His Increase” a few years ago when the author asked if he could use my design on the cover. My favorite quote from this book is this: “How many times have we thought to do something meaningful in the way of a letter, phone call, email, gift, etc., only to ignore the impulse long enough to have missed the opportunity? That is not to say that every “good inkling” that ever comes our way is to be followed. Rather…we should measure the merits of the act and proceed if everything seems to favor the magnification of Christ even at the expense of our diminishment.”