Courage for the New Year

Happy New Year, church. Where did the time go? I hope you had a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. Today I hope to keep this message very practical. I hope to give you.

Courage for the New Year. I would like to share 4 steps toward living courageously in 2022 from 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. Let’s read the passage before we begin.

I. Rejoice that God plans to give us a body designed for eternal life (vv. 1-5)

It’s crucial to understand what’s going on here, so I want to set the backdrop by going back to chapter 4:16. And in this passage, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that there is a life after death. Take note what he wrote to the Thessalonians in verse 16

Verse 16. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

That is to say, our bodies – yours and mine – are withering away. When we were young, we don’t necessarily feel the inner groans of our temporal state until we get older. But there will come a point of time in which all followers of Christ will have to face what Paul Bunyan poetically described as the River of Death.

You know the story. One writer described this way: “Christian and Hopeful are now nearing the end of their journey. They are within sight of the Celestial City, but one great barrier separates them from the Gate. They face a deep and foreboding river. The River represents death—the “last enemy” —and the pilgrims must cross it before they can gain entrance into the city. “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).

So I tell you my friends unless the Lord tarries, all of us will have to pass through death. But our King is on the other side pulling us through, as it were – and the writer of Hebrews described life after death as “a heavenly country, who’s builder and maker is God.” (Heb. 11:16).

Paul goes on to describe in verse 16 that though we are in a state of decay, “our inner man is being renewed day by day.” Paul has in mind our spirit – the eternal part of us – the part of us that has been made alive in Christ because we have come to faith in Christ by faith alone.

And because our spirit has been made alive in Christ, we will have spiritual cravings and hunger for the things of God. And the only way to feed our spiritual hunger is to read and apply the Word of God such that our inner self grows and matures into Christ likeness.

And when that appointed day comes to pass through death, our Lord will have us prepared and ready. Our spiritual luggage will be packed and we will ready to go home that lies beyond the sunrise.

Now, jump to 2 Corinthians 5 and take a look at what Paul said in verses 1-5 (read)

Verses 1-5 “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. ² For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, ³ inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. ⁴ For 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. ⁵ Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”

Paul likened the human body as a temporary tent. One day our bodies will finally give way – we understand that – we know this because we do so many things to keep this from happening or to mitigate the process of death.

When we were younger than we are now, some of us participated in a number of sports related activities. Some of us participated in Football, or Wrestling, or Track and Field. It seemed as though we were young and bullet proof – do you remember those days? I remember having the ability to do running front flips over 3/1-4ft fences! Today is a different story!

We’d succumbed to a number of sports related injuries, yet we’d bounce back relatively quickly. Then 20 years passes by and those injuries we’d bounce back from begin to rear their ugly head – I know you know what I’m talking about!

I have a neck injury that I received in wrestling back when I was a teenager. It didn’t really bother me then, but the older I got, my neck injury reminds me that it’s still there – how about you?

Have you ever looked in the mirror lately? Our skin doesn’t have the radiance it once had when we were younger – don’t you miss that? Some of us in this room have hair while others do not. Some of us have teeth while others do not, lol! Some of us wear glasses while others do not – Do you remember the days when you had 20/20 vision? How about some of you now?

Some of us have grey hair while others do not.

Transition: Our earthly tent is wearing away and we can all relate to the groaning, can’t we?

A. Knowing that our present body is not fully satisfying

We are susceptible to an array health issues. People die of heart disease, cancer, COVID, and countless other diseases every day. My father passed away of brain cancer and mom passed away of complications due to Covid. Gone – just like that. Virtually everyone in this room has lost someone or will lose someone. The older we get things just don’t work the way they used to. I don’t like it, but it’s the nature of the beast. We all face a losing battle with death.

2 Cor 5:2 “For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven”

Can you relate to that, Christian? And this groaning creates and so stirs in you a longing to be clothed with a heavenly eternal body? Do you long for that? I tell you what, last week I did. Last week we travelled to New York to see family. We had a blast. Then out of nowhere my son Jadon fell ill on the 24^th. Then he spread it to the family and it knocked everyone out. I was one of the last to finally get sick, and I don’t often get sick – but it finally got me, and when you get sick – you don’t want to do anything or eat anything except to rest.

And I asked the Lord in my prayers as to why did I get sick, especially on the week that I have to preach! Then it hit me. My body groaned – longing for my change to come.

Paul is addressing a very human issue here. God has set eternity in our hearts. He makes us long for what is to come. Some, to be sure, have so filled their lives and schedules with busyness that the eternal voice is quiet, but it remains.

We, who know Christ, should rejoice that the Lord will satisfy that longing. He will provide a new body without the same weaknesses of the old – do you look forward to that day, Christian?

To the unbeliever in this room – this reality can be yours too, you know. Just simply put your faith and trust in Christ alone and you will receive the gift of eternal life.

You still have the eternal longing in your heart to want to live forever. The Bible teaches that you will. You will either enjoy the blessing of the immortal, imperishable body designed for heaven or the suffer the challenge of the immortal, imperishable body designed for hell.

The difference is whether you will repent of your sin and believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as your only means of rescue. The Bible clearly teaches that you have offended God in your thoughts, wants, and behavior.

You are a sinner. God demands a righteous payment for that sin. One that you could never give yourself. That is why Christ came – to obey the Father’s plan of dying in your place. Now that the Father has made that offer, he wants you to respond with repentance and faith.

This is something you can do today, if you confess that “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” – Acts 10:9-10

If you would like to speak with someone about it, then we would be happy to meet with you.

Christian, He will give us exactly what our hearts want – a body that lives forever. I so love how verse 4 reads, “so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

Transition: Listen how the passage continues…

B. Knowing that God gave us his Spirit as a pledge of the glory to come

2 Corinthians 5:5 “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”

Do you like that? If you ever question God’s love for you, come back to this passage and have it spiritually wash your doubts away. He has given to us his Spirit so that we would know for sure that he would keep his future commitment.

Part of God’s plan from the beginning was to put eternity in our hearts and have us exchange the immortal and imperishable for a body designed to live forever. To prove it, God gave his Spirit as a pledge.

…Do you like that? Now, as we face the New Year, whatever happens, the Lord has provided for your future. Knowing that Christ has provided for my future is so deeply satisfying. It’s so deeply reassuring that he has my future in the palm of his hands, regardless of the breaking down of this earthly tent.

Transition: So then…

II. Enjoy your relationship with God through faith (6-8)

Verses 6-8: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— ⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight— ⁸ we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

I love this passage. Notice how Paul breaks it down

First, verse 6-7 clearly teaches that when a Christian dies, he or she is immediately ushered into Celestial City of full and complete salvation rest – into the very home of Christ himself. There’s no purgatory – there’s no place in between where our sins are burned off and we have to wait for a person to put money in a Roman Catholic coffer to shorten one’s stay in purgatory.

I say this in the strongest possible terms that that understanding is heresy - That understanding goes completely against what Christ taught his people, and he wants us to think correctly on these things.

Second, verses 7-8 is a bit of overlap with verse 6, but I only wish to highlight in your mind that we walk by faith and not by sight. Why tell us that we walk by faith and not by sight?

Because there will come a time when we will walk by sight. We shall become like Jesus for we shall see him as he is. And with that hope, that’s why we patiently wait for our faith to become sight. That is a life of faith. We cannot go to Jesus like we go to a trusted companion, but we go by faith.

We believe by faith that God will give mercy and grace to help in time of need.

Consider …

Hebrews 11:1-2 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

What follows is a list of God’s servants who lived faithful lives based on the promises they received. Abraham’s faith involved much less content than ours today. Yet, it was learning to live consistent with that belief that resulted in God’s approval.

Transition: Third, so we have as our ambition verse 9

III. Focus on Pleasing God with your life (9)

Verse 9: ^“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

A. With all our might and energy

In other words, where are your ambitions? Our Lord said that “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21. If you’re ambition is to make it your aim to please the one who bought you with a price, then it will follow that much of your might and energy will be there, but if not, that will be obvious as well.

When we work out physically to exercise our bodies, or eat properly, there’s some benefit in that and it will eventually show itself in healthy living – but you gotta do the time, right?

Getting in shape simply takes time. Even more so is spiritual exercise. It takes time and there’s no getting around. There’s no microwave approach to Christian living. But where’s your treasure is your heart will be also. So if you seek and work hard at becoming more and more Christlike, it will show more and more and your inner man will grow more and more towards holiness – it’s a light that will never be extinguished.

So find time to read and study God’s Word. Read books about spiritual things to keep your eyes spiritually focused. Pace yourself and learn to practice what you preach. Practice what you believe – pace yourself. Get plenty of rest.

I love what Pastor Rob Green said – it’s so very practical.

Rob Green

“Let me encourage you that physical rest is a part of the equation. Sometimes what honors Jesus most is a good night’s rest or a Sunday afternoon nap. Other times you need spiritual rest and renewal. You need an hour of silence with your Bible. At times I have found spiritual and physical rest sometimes go together. Thirty minutes with my Bible sometimes leads to 60 more minutes of sleep. Friends, biblical courage is not just taking mountains and slaying dragons. Biblical courage is accomplishing what God has given you to do when God wants you to do it with the might and energy we have at the time.”

My goodness, that truth speaks to my heart and I find it so very refreshing that all we need to do is…let’s pace ourselves for the new year and the year after that. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

B. Not allowing circumstances to change the goal

Paul also says, “whether at home or absent.” A lot of things change, but the central goal remains. If we lose our job because it is not needed, then we can safely assume that God wants us to please him in a different way.

If we lose a parent or our children grow up and leave the home, life is different. Pleasing the Lord looks different, but the goal never changes. Through all the seasons of life, both planned and unplanned, in seasons of strength and weakness, seasons of lots of responsibilities and seasons of few; we can always remind ourselves that pleasing Jesus is the goal. He is our ambition

IV. Remember eternal rewards go to the faithful (10)

Verse 10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Pursuing what is good

Paul explains to the church something he told them in a letter a year before …

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The Lord wants us to know that at the end, we all stand before Christ – even believers. For Christians, our sin is paid, fully covered by Christ.

Those who do not know Christ experience a different judgment. For them, it is their sin that stands before them and accuses them. Without a saving relationship with Christ they are given an immortal, imperishable body designed for suffering.

That is why the decision for you is so important. We encourage you to make that decision today, because tomorrow many not come for you.

But for us believers … not everyone lives equally faithful. Therefore, the Lord tells us that everyone stands before Christ alone and we give an account for what we have done. The Bible reminds us that we will give an account for every careless word for example.

I don’t know how to balance the general patterns of my life with specific instances. In other words, I am not sure how many times Jesus will bring up specific instances from my life, but here is what I know.

Jesus knows everything, including the attitude of my heart. I know that he is a righteous judge. I know that I want to hear well done.

Part of my job as a pastor is to help you be ready for that day too. We think about it for our own lives, attempt to set a good example, and encourage you to let it motivate you to action.

While we cannot change the past, we can change how we function in the future.

If you believe this morning that you have built with way too much wood, hay, and stubble, then let’s start using different materials.

If you believe you have been building with quality materials, then we encourage you to keep going. What does that look like?

Avoiding what is worthless

I used the word worthless to point out that what we are discussing here is not the choice between righteous and sinful. The choice is between good and worthless. It is possible that we spend our lives pursuing the wrong things … either because they are worthless inherently or they are made worthless by our poor attitude. Let’s not be the kind of people who pursue worthless things or make good things worthless due to our attitude.

Courage for a new year is not necessarily facing some particular fear and overcoming it.

Instead, courage flows from a belief that we win today and in the future.

Even if our body fails, we get an immortal one.

Although we do not walk by sight, we still walk by faith. Walking by faith is good.

While life in a broken world is hard, we can please him and we can be motivated by the reward coming to all who build properly.

Happy New Year! Let’s run the race that is set before us.