Destined for the BEst, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

C.S. Lewis said, If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. There are longings within all human hearts that can only be filled by the one we were made for.

2 Corinthians 5, 1-8 reminds us that we groan in these earthly bodies, longing for the eternity with God we were made for. Let's listen in to this message titled, Destined for the Best. Albert Einstein was traveling from Princeton on a train one time and it was that time on the trip where the conductor was coming through and he was asking people for their tickets and punching it, canceling the ticket and Albert Einstein realized what was coming and so he was looking for his ticket and his pocket and his book and his portfolio and he was frantically looking for his ticket and the conductor came to him and he says, Dr. Einstein, we know who you are and I'm very, very sure that you bought a ticket so please don't concern yourself, we know who you are. And the conductor went on and punching more tickets and he was about to leave that car and to go on to the next and he looked back and there was Dr. Einstein down on all fours looking underneath the seat and frantically looking for the ticket and so the conductor goes back to the seat and he says, Dr. Einstein, really, we know who you are, please don't be concerned with this. And Dr. Einstein looked up at the young man and he says, young man, I too know who I am, what I don't know is where I'm going.

That is not the message of the Apostle Paul in this text here this morning, 2 Corinthians 5, 1-8, the Apostle Paul exudes very high confidence, he uses words like knowing, we know this, we are confident of this, we have this confidence and a phrase like we have, it's not a possibility, it's not an I hope so, it's we have, we know this, we are confident of this. He knows that we are destined for the best. He knows what his destination is.

He knows where he's going. Paul speaking as an Apostle, as a minister of the Gospel in the context of great affliction. Meanwhile, he exudes this great confidence, knowing of his destiny and he uses a contrast here that we'll find in verse 1, he uses a contrast between a tent and a building. A tent is a temporary shelter. A tent is intended to be erected and folded up rather rapidly and it's just a temporary thing and when you're done with it, you fold it up and you move on versus a house or a building which is a permanent residence and he understands that where we are right now, Paul says where I am right now in this earthly tent, speaking of his physical body, it is simply a temporary thing that soon will and must be folded up and we move on. But he says that's not a problem because we know that we have a permanent residence in eternity and of course, Paul speaking of the glorified physical body that we will have in eternity that is designed to last all of eternity. And so when he says it is not a building that is made with hands, what he's saying that what that means is that building is not of this creation because everything that is of this creation is corruptible.

It must pass away. Probably many of you have been camping, all different levels of camping. For some of you, camping is a Hampton Inn without a microwave and you consider that camping. For others of us like my family, when we go camping, we like to rough it pretty much as much as we can. We actually cook over the open fire and we sleep in tents, sometimes outside the tent, sometimes we'll string a hammock up or sleep right on the ground. Ben one time slept right on the ground underneath the stars, raccoons eating the dog food right near his head because our dog Nugget was there.

Thankfully, they didn't eat Nugget. But that's, you know, a camping trip is fun and you look forward to it and you plan for it. But you know, after a while, you're glad that that's not your permanent dwelling place, aren't you? You know where home is, you know home is coming. That's one reason why the camping is so bearable because you know home is coming. You know where home is and that's where you're going. I've been on some really bad camping trips where it rained the whole time and we got home and everything was soaking wet, part of the benefits of growing up a missionary kit, right?

Everything was absolutely soaking and we carried everything home and we were just drenched. Oh, are we glad to get home, you know, and when you get home, there's comfort, there's security, there's a warm shower and all that stuff, you know, and you're just so looking forward to get home and that's the sense that Paul has here. Now you look back at chapter 4 and verse 18, he says, we don't look at the things that are seen, we look at the things that are not seen and that word look is the word scopeo, like a hunter's scope.

You are focused on the objective and you're so focused on the objective that you are not distracted by anything that's going on around. That's the word scopeo and so it is with Paul. As he ministered in his adversity and a great adversity it was, but even in the context of his adversity, he was not distracted by his surroundings. He was able to invest himself with abandon and death to the apostle as it is for the child of God walking with God, death is not a dreaded catastrophe. Death is walking through the door of home, that's how he saw it.

How is it that we can have such confidence in this? Because the one who promised it not only gave a verbal promise, but he gave the guarantee even with his own body, his own life and his own body. He is the one who walked out of the grave in history. He is the one who appeared to the apostle John and said, I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. He is the same one who said to his followers because I live, you shall live also.

He is the one who said, I am the resurrection in life, he who believes in me will never die. That is the confidence of our hope. And so as Paul exudes this confidence here, even in the context of great hardship, he says, we know it, we have this confidence, but not only do we know it, but we groan for it. We groan for it. What is it that we're groaning for? We're not groaning for death, we're groaning for home. But to get home, you have to walk through that door, don't you?

You have to fold up the tent and go home. So verse two, for in this we groan earnestly designed to be clothed with our heavenly habitation, which is from heaven. He's speaking there of a glorified physical body. He says, but meanwhile, we groan. In this tent, we groan because one day we know it's got to be folded up and put away and we move on and we go home.

But he said, I think one of the translations says, meanwhile, we groan. That means we long for it. We're longing for home. The apostle says, I'm longing for home because I know it's there. As I said earlier, I'm a missionary kid and I spent many years of my life in boarding school.

And while you're at boarding school, you're away from home, a long ways from home, and you are counting the days to when you get to go home. This picture was taken in 1976. I know well everyone in this picture. Three people in that picture were here last Sunday. One of them is here today. That would be me.

Thank you very much. I was in sixth grade when this picture was taken. Look what I'm doing. I'm the little guy with his back to you.

During the middle of the day at school, there would be a break and there's an 18 inch brick wall there in the center of the campus. And all of us fellow Sam missionary kids would get together. I and my brothers and these other two girls were fellow Sam MKs, and we would get together and just have a great time of fellowship with each other. Can you see what I'm doing? I'm holding my brother's hands. He's my oldest brother.

You know why I'm doing that? Because we were a long way from home. And he was my connection to home.

I longed for the days when mom and dad would show up to take us back home, because I knew that's where I belong. That's a natural human longing. And it's true in every one of us. You know, there is a universal testimony of the human heart throughout history in the belief of life after death, that there is more to this life than just what we have here and now. And in fact, anthropological evidence suggests that every culture, every religion, every culture in history has had a God-given innate sense of the eternal, something beyond the grave.

Let me give you a few examples. The Australian aborigines pictured heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. The early Finns, that's people from Finland, by the way, thought it was a distant island in a far away east. Mexicans, Peruvians, Polynesians believed that they went to the sun or the moon after death. Native Americans believed that in the afterlife, their spirits would hunt the spirits of Buffalo.

The Gilgamesh epic, an ancient Babylonian legend, refers to a resting place of heroes. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.