Groaning for Glory - Part B

Even though I have some contact with God, I can pray to Him, I can fellowship with Him in His Word, I have that inner dwelling of the Spirit. I want the full meal deal. And so even if it means a certain temporary nakedness, I want to be present with the Lord.

I'll be confident whether I'm in this body alive, or I'm in heaven. See, this is Paul the Apostle groaning for glory. This is Paul the Apostle clicking his heel saying, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, longing for heaven. If you've ever had a small child, you know it can be hard to do anything without having them follow you around. Young children find it hard to realize that not seeing someone isn't the same as someone leaving.

And because they can't understand that, they make sure you don't get out of their sight. Well, today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig reminds us that when we are absent from this body, as believers, there's only one place for us to be. Present with the Lord. And we'll see how that works as Skip continues this series from the edge of eternity. And as we begin today, we want to invite you to add Skip Heitzig to your social media for regular updates and encouragement. You can like Skip on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and add him to your Instagram feed.

And the hub for all that is at connectwithskip.com, where you can find out all about this month's resource offer. We all crave love. We will do sometimes almost anything to get it, to know that we are loved by somebody else unconditionally. No one did that better than Jesus. He loved the worst of sinners.

He loved the best of saints. Jesus showed the love of God in human flesh. We want to give you a glimpse of God's relentless love for all people, including you. By sending you the Jesus Loves People four booklet collection by Skip Heitzig. All four Jesus Loves People titles, including Jesus Loves the Broken, are our thanks for your gift of $25 or more today to help connect more people to God's love through his word.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. If you have a Bible close at hand or a Bible app, you want to open it up to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 today. Now here's Pastor Skip with our message. If we receive a temporary body immediately once we die, then why does Paul, in a number of his books, constantly talk about as a major theme the resurrection of our physical body?

Why does he make such a big deal? In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, a passage we will get to, the Apostle Paul says the only time when death is fully conquered and we receive ultimate victory is when our bodies are resurrected. He says at that point when corruption will put on incorruption, when mortality puts on immortality, then death will be swallowed up by life and then it will be fulfilled.

Oh grave, where is your sting? Oh death, where is your victory? Now look back in verse 3 at a couple of things. Notice how Paul refers to the moment of death as being naked. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. It speaks of disembodiment. He's not speaking about re-embodiment at the moment of death, but he calls it naked. Moreover, oh and by the way, why would he dread being naked if he was going to be re-embodied immediately after death? There's no dread.

What's the problem? Also verse 6 and 8, notice that to be home with the Lord means to be absent from the body. So here's the scoop. Believers get resurrected, that is their physical bodies buried in the ground will be resurrected when Jesus Christ comes back for the church. That's abundantly clear, 1 Corinthians 15 and what we read last week, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

Now to say that, well, we die and we get a new body immediately is tantamount to saying the resurrection has already happened. And Paul deals with that. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 he mentions two individuals. How would you like to be mentioned in the Bible? Your name's written down forever as somebody who was in error. Well, he does that. He writes down Hymenaeus and Philetus, he says, who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already past. So it's not past, it's future.

We wait for it. Erwin Lutzer, I mentioned his name a moment ago, wrote that great book One Minute After You Die, helps us. This is what he says. One plausible explanation might be that the souls of the departed dead may in some ways have the functions of a body. If that is the case, it would explain how they can communicate with one another and have a visible presence in heaven. If that seems strange to us, he writes, it may well be that our concept of the soul is too limited.

And I agree with that. I think that's our problem. We have a very limited concept of what our soul is capable of doing and expressing and being like. We think, well, it must mean since I can't relate to it, I only relate to physicality, it must mean that you just sort of wisp away into nothingness. And you're somehow in the wisp with the Lord.

That's just a limited view of the soul. So here's Paul groaning for glory. And that's what we ought to be doing, groaning for glory, wanting Jesus to come back when that resurrection comes. Now go back to verse five, because it answers a very important question. The question is, how can we be sure that's really going to happen? So he looks not ahead, but now he looks back. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Now follow me here. The word guarantee, arabon, better translation, down payment, first installment. You give a down payment, it means you're going to pay the rest off. Or let's put it in relational terms, you give your girl an engagement ring. That's a ring of promise. If you get an engagement ring, it must mean there's going to be a wedding and a wedding feast. And the Bible says we're the bride of Christ. We're engaged to Jesus. He's given us a wedding ring, a down payment, a first installment.

It must mean we're going to enjoy the wedding. Now what is it that we've been given? The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit lives inside of us. And the Holy Spirit has come into our lives and you've noticed you've changed since you gave your life to Christ. You have new desires, new hopes, the hope of heaven. All of that is a foretaste, let's call it a preview of coming attractions. So it's like what Uncle Johnson said, Man, if the crumbs of joy that fall from the master's table are this good, can you imagine what that great loaf in glory will be like? The Holy Spirit is the down payment that gives us that yearning. We know this is going to happen because of what has already happened.

Let's end this. Here's the third main thing that Paul brings up and that is when we're confident. This is the affirmation. So he says, so we are always confident knowing that while we're at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

This is what he's saying. Even though I already have a down payment, I want more. Even though I have some contact with God, I can pray to him, I can fellowship with him in his word. I have that inner dwelling of the Spirit.

I want the full meal deal. And so even if it means a certain temporary nakedness, I want to be present with the Lord. I'll be confident whether I'm in this body alive or I'm in heaven. See, this is Paul the apostle groaning for glory.

This is Paul the apostle clicking his heels saying there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home. Longing for heaven. And the reason that God's people can be so confident, again, is very simple. Because there are only two places that God's people are at and that is either on earth or in heaven. They're not soul sleeping somewhere. They're not in purgatory somewhere. You're either on earth as a believer and the moment you leave this earth, you are in God's presence.

That's why he says I'm confident to be away from the body and present with the Lord. Friday was a very sad day for some of us, self-included. I did a funeral for a four-month-old baby.

It was very difficult. You can't even imagine the kind of grief that parents go through. And it was very dear to our hearts because I had performed the wedding for the grandparents and dedicated the father of this baby years ago. And now we're burying his daughter. And I remember at the end of the service, it was a well-meaning statement.

I don't fault anybody for it. One of the funeral directors, it's just a typical thing that is said at a funeral. But it just sort of left me with that down feeling as he said, Now we will go to the cemetery to the final resting place of this baby.

So at the cemetery, I opened up by saying, with all due respect, I just want to modify a statement. This is not the final resting place of this baby. This body will raise again.

This is a seed that is being planted, as Paul said. That's why we sleep in Christ. If you go to sleep, you'll get up again. This baby will awaken to resurrected glory.

And in full glory be once again with her parents in the future. That is a guarantee. And that's why Paul says we are confident.

Let's just sum up what we know so far. At the very moment, at the very instant a believer dies, the body will go into the ground and be buried. Number one.

Number two. At the very moment a believer dies, the soul or the spirit, same thing, goes directly into the presence of God. There's not a believer in heaven today who's not there in spirit only, awaiting the resurrection.

Number three. At the moment of death when the spirit or soul leaves and goes to be with the Lord, there is a perfection, an instantaneous perfection of the soul in God's presence. Again, I refer you to Hebrews 12 23. It describes those dead believers as the spirits of the redeemed, here it is, in heaven, now made perfect. So if I die today, I keel over dead, my soul will instantly be in heaven. My body will probably be placed in a local cemetery. My perfected soul will be in God's presence.

And what will my perfected soul be doing in God's presence, seeing in God's presence? Well, let's see, the devil won't be there. The world won't be there. The flesh won't be there.

So there'll be no temptation. There'll be no persecution there, no mockery from the world for what I believe in. There'll be no disharmony, no disunity, no fights, no quarrels among believers.

Perfect harmony. There's not going to be any effort in heaven. There's nothing I need to pray about, nothing I need to fast for. There'll be no repentance. There's nothing I need to repent of at that point. There'll be no evangelism, no crusade in heaven, no witnessing, no need. Everybody's saved.

I'll be very conscious, very aware, able to express, able to articulate in some fashion, able to remember. And one day I will reunite with my body, which will be glorified in resurrected form, something we'll talk more about in future studies, because God designed us to be both spirit and body, not just soul, not just spirit, not just body, but both together. And that's why Paul makes a big deal about the resurrected body of the Christian.

Now, I know what some of you may be thinking. You're thinking, goodness, but that's such a long time to wait. You think a poor Paul has been up there, you know, not wanting to be naked, not wanting to be disembodied. He's been up there 2,000 years.

Goodness, what a bummer he got. Oh, my goodness, what a shallow way of thinking about eternity. Here's an analogy. Remember when you were a little kid how time seemed like so long? Your parents said, just wait one week. A week? That sounded like years to you. Now, as you get older, you notice the time foreshortens, doesn't it? A week, a year, a decade, who cares, right? Doesn't time change?

Your perspective of time changes rapidly, and it seems that time gets faster and faster the more mature you get. I've got to believe that eternity is like that on steroids and that what seems like a long time is instantaneous in heaven. See, in heaven, in eternity, we're not limited by a time-space continuum any longer.

There's no time. And so Moses had it right in Psalm 90 when he wrote, For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has gone by or like a watch in the night. I think what it's going to seem like is death, presence of God, Spirit made perfect, resurrection.

That's what it's going to seem like. Paul is simply making the analogy, don't get hung up on the tent. Let it go. Trade it in for a building as you wait for resurrection. I want to close with this. It's something that I typically pull out at a funeral service, but it fits the text so well, and I want you to listen to it.

It's a conversation between a human being and God. Now, God is called Mr. Tentmaker in this little story, and it's the story of a person who obviously ages and goes to the hospital and listen to how it's written. Mr. Tentmaker, it was nice living in this tent when it was strong and secure and the sun was shining and the air was warm, but Mr. Tentmaker, it's scary now. My tent is acting like it's not going to hold together. The poles seem weak and they shift with the wind, and a couple of the stakes have wiggled loose from the sand and, worst of all, the canvas has a rip. It no longer protects me from the beating rain or the stinging flies. It's scary in here, Mr. Tentmaker. Last week, I was sent to the repair shop, and some repairmen tried to patch the rip in my canvas.

It didn't help much, though, because the patch pulled away from the edges and now the tear is worse. What troubles me most, Mr. Tentmaker, is that the repairmen didn't even seem to notice that I was still in the tent. They just worked on the canvas while I shivered inside.

I cried out once, but no one heard me. I guess my first real question is, why did you give me such a flimsy tent? I can see by looking around the campground that some of the tents are much stronger and more stable than mine. Why, Mr. Tentmaker, why did you pick a tent of such poor quality for me? And even more important, what do you intend to do about it?

Now God speaks. Oh, little tent dweller, as the creator and provider of tents, I know all about you and your tent, and I love you both. I made a tent for myself once, and I lived in it on your campground. My tent was vulnerable too, and some vicious attackers ripped it to pieces while I was still inside.

It was a terrible experience, but you'll be glad to know they couldn't hurt me. In fact, the whole occurrence was a tremendous advantage because it's this very victory over my enemy that frees me to be a present help to you. Little tent dweller, I am now prepared to come and live in your tent with you, if you will invite me. You will learn as we dwell together that real security comes from my being in your tent with you. When the storms come, you can huddle in my arms and I'll hold you. When the canvas rips, we'll go to the repair shop together.

Someday, little tent dweller, your tent will collapse, for I have only designed it for temporary use. When it does, you and I will leave together. I promise not to leave before you do. And then, free of all that would hinder or restrict, we will move to our permanent home and together forever rejoice and be glad. If you don't believe that, you've taken the blue pill.

You'll just wake up and believe whatever you want. This is the red pill. This is wonderland.

This is the really real world. And Paul saw it. He visited the third heaven. No wonder he was groaning for glory. Well, we all are indeed groaning for glory. And if heaven is not your current destination, then choose to follow Christ now. You can find out more when you call us to discuss that or when you visit connectwithskip.com, where you'll be able to learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus. Just click on the Know God tab, and that's where we'll have to finish out this Connect with Skip weekend edition.

Today's teaching was titled Groaning for Glory. Now, let's go in studio to check in with Skip and his wife, Lenya, today. Okay, Lenya, well, I have the microphone first, and I'm going to ask you a question. How's that?

I'm ready. I'm going to turn the tables a little bit. Can you tell us more about your initiative called Reload Love?

Yes. We are focusing this year a little bit back into Myanmar, the Burma area, and there's been an ongoing civil war in that country for over 65 years. Most people have never heard of this.

When you told me, I said, come on. But it's true. It's true if you really do research it. And so the ethnic Burmese are persecuting the tribal people of other regions in the country, and as a result, many of them have been displaced. They're either internally displaced people or they are refugees. And so I had the privilege of visiting Thailand and Burma this last year, and while I was there, I got to meet Pastor Moses.

He was chased out of Burma and is in Thailand, and he tries to reach out and find the refugees, and they can be in different places. He would hike into the hills and look for squatters and people that were disenfranchised or wounded or hurt, and then he'd bring them down the hills to his church, and his church isn't just a church. He keeps buying property around it, so these people have a place to live. Wow.

And they're not fantastic. They're these bamboo lean-to houses where now they've made this community, literally. And so he teaches the kids, feeds the kids, the parents have an opportunity to live on site. And so I was so impressed with Pastor Moses. No matter where we went with him, he would immediately, he said that he was trained within two minutes to start sharing the gospel wherever he was. And so one day we were going through this trash heap.

There was literally a place of recycling, and people had built homes there. And as we're handing out food to the people, he is sharing the gospel, and before we left, people got saved. And so it's just such a privilege to come alongside men who have just given up everything and not become victims, not become bitter, but have used their lives to better other people.

It'd be so easy to throw your arms up and say, I'm done. Yeah, 65 years. But he keeps preaching and loving, and it's really cute.

They said that Thailand has used to be called itself 100% non-Christian. He goes, we like to say it's 99% because they're making a difference. So anyway, we're helping the kids at Pastor Moses' church and doing some building and providing a vehicle for him.

How can people get involved? Go to reloadlove.com and learn all about it. Well, thanks, Skip and Lania. Our current series, From the Edge of Eternity, helps us all understand death a bit more and what happens after we die. When you order, we'll send you an audio CD package of all 17 messages for only $39 plus shipping. Order today at connectwithskip.com, or if you want personal help, you're invited to call 1-800-922-1888. Getting a new body one day sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

So what exactly would these bodies be like? Come back next time to find out more here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.