Living A Life That Pleases God

Well, if you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to the Book of Second Corinthians tonight and we're going to be jumping in to Second Corinthians chapter number five, verses nine and ten, nine and ten. I was so encouraged studying through the passage last week. I really enjoyed preaching through those eight verses and so we're going to be jumping into the next two tonight, verse nine and ten. So if you can stand in honor of the Word of God tonight. Let's go ahead and read verse one down to verse number ten, all right?

I like to always upset our people back there that I give verses to and then they're like, change it on me. See, they'll change it real quick. See how fast they are? They're like pros.

Yeah, they're using it. Thank you. Thank you.

It's my winter weather friend over there. The Bible says, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so, being that being if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked for what for we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, not that we should be unclothed, but clothes upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And he's talking about putting off the body of the flesh so you could have the new eternal body that God will one day give us at the resurrection.

Verse five. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given us the earnest of the spirit. Therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are home in the body, we're absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight. If you read verse eight with me, we are confident, I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. He says, Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. And if you'd read verse 10 with me, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Father again, we thank you for your word. Blessed as we read and study through these passages, may your Holy Spirit grant us understanding and application of these truths in Christ's name. We pray in God's people again said, man, you may be seated this evening. Paul so in chapter five has been discussing the temporary nature of our life on earth. And he talks about the body as being like a tent that is just dwelt in for a brief amount of time. And he's seeking to give the church at Corinth, a proper perspective on life, to get a biblical view of time and reality so that you can focus on what is really important. You know, sometimes it's when you step back and look at the grand scheme of things that you begin to see what are the vital priorities of life, what really matters.

It's in the macro views. And so Paul's doing that here. Paul had graced face great persecution for the sake of the gospel. And if you were examined Paul's life in terms of the flesh, there was nothing in his physical life that was really desirable.

I mean, when you looked at him just in a physical sense, you really wouldn't want to be Paul. In terms of physical comfort, he didn't have it. He traveled in a day when traveling was not easy to get around. He spent many, many months at sea at times. He endured shipwrecks. One of them, he said, left him a night in the deep.

Can you imagine swimming around for a whole night lost at sea? He faced imprisonments being cold and hungry. He was no stranger to the pain of discomfort. In terms of physical acceptance, he faced people who could not tolerate his message.

They sought to kill him. Really, wherever he went, he faced that. He faced being rejected even at times by those that he loved and poured his life into. He told the church at Corinth in second Corinthians 12 15. He said, I will gladly spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you.

He says, the less I be loved. He summarizes much of the challenges that he went through in second Corinthians 11 verses 25 through 33. He says thrice or three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned thrice. I face suffered shipwreck a night and a day. I have been in the deep and journeys off in perils of water perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen, and perils by the heat and perils in the city. And he just goes on for several verses talking about the incredible physical challenges that he went through.

He ends that section by talking about how he escaped being killed by being lowered down out of a window from a in a basket to escape the city. I mean, I mean, in terms of his physical life, there was nothing that you would desire to be Paul in. So here in Chapter five, Paul is really putting things into perspective. He's giving us ultimate reality. He's telling us what really matters and what we should really be focused upon and what we should aim our lives at. Colossians three summarizes this well. He says, If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. And what he's saying, if you be risen with Christ, if you're walking in the new man, if you are born again, if you're a child of God, your aim in life should be different than what it was before your conversion. He says, Set your affection on things above.

Because again, what you set your affection on, you're going to set your aim to isn't it? Not own things on the earth for you are dead and your life is hit with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in glory. Now at the end of Chapter four, Paul gives us some of the greatest verses to keep our hearts in check as we journey through some different challenges in life, where we live in a world where sin runs rampant, righteousness is persecuted, lies are promoted, truth is silenced and censored, perversions accepted, purity is not.

I mean, every week I just I'm just saddened. I think more than anything when I when I see the news reports, I see the the deception that's going on the evil that's being promoted. We have a current president that is the most progressive president we've ever had in the United States history.

There's never been a president who has pushed what I would quite frankly call sinful things, just sinful things. That's not that's not being political. That's being very truthful.

You'd have to close your eyes to not see that when you're when you're taking a pride flag and putting it above the American flag and promoting these things constantly. Transgenderism is a lie. It is evil. It is it is terrible.

It is. And what they do to people, what they're doing to these children and in some of these surgeries that they're doing to little children, chemical castrations that they're in, the president thinks it's wrong if you don't allow little children like young people to have these. This is what we give to pedophiles who go to prison.

We're giving the children now and you're going to call us evil to try to protect children from it. I mean, it's insane. The rabbit trails are all over the place right now.

They're like little bunnies running. But I tell you, friends, it is a it is a it is a terrible thing. You know, the same people who say they want us to accept them can't even accept themselves. They can't accept themselves. And it's it is becoming the most intolerant voice I've ever seen in a culture just that the absolute disdain for the truth of God.

There are there is a kid in our church who wore a shirt to school that just said there's only two genders and had a verse on it. And he was threatened to be kicked out, like to be suspended from school if he didn't take it off. Is that tolerance? Is that tolerance?

This is this is the world we live in, though, isn't it? They can tolerate everything but except the Christians. And we like are kind of folks that have different views from us, right? We love them. We pray for them. We share the Christ with them.

And and it's just it's a tragic thing. And so we stand for the truth. We stand for righteousness. We stand stand on the word of God. We do so with boldness, but we do so with grace. And in this world, Paul says in verse 16 of Chapter 40 says, For which cause we faint not, but there were outward man perished at the inward man is renewed day by day. And then he talks about all the things that you can go through on this earth for the cause of Christ.

He says it's like a light affliction, which is but for a moment, who works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Should we expect everything on earth to be just? I mean, if Jesus was dealt the most unjust judgment, do we as his followers think we should have perfect justice?

Should we demand that? The Bible says we're rewarded eternally if we take persecution patiently and not seek our own revenge. Verse 18. He says, Why we look not at things which are seen, but things that are not seen. We have to have that view for the things which are seen or temporal.

The things that are not seen are eternal. If the world wants to fight over the tent life on sand, they can have that life. But we're seeking for an eternal home, aren't we? I mean, this is this is we're we're citizens of heaven, as Paul says in Philippians, and we stand for the truth. We defend the truth.

We do all of those things on the earth, but we don't lose our testimony in doing so. And so today I want to call us to align our hearts and our lives to that of Scripture into that of Paul. This is this is really how Paul was able to get through. Like when you when you look at him and you're like, physically, there's nothing I would want to be Paul. There's nothing that I would desire to be him. But if I had his perspective in his aim, boy, he's on the top of the list. I would love to be like the apostle Paul.

I'd love to have lived his life. And so let me just give you three thoughts out of verse nine and 10 tonight and just to focus our life in a way that pleases God. And how do we do that? How do we please God? Now, first of all, is aiming your lives to please the Lord. Aim your life to please the Lord. Paul's one focus in life was to be pleasing to the Lord.

Look at verse nine. He says, Wherefore we labor. That word means we make it our aim. We like set our focus on this, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him or pleasing to him. The word labor there is from two Greek words, phileo and Timi. It's phileo to my is a Greek word, and it's and it means to strive earnestly to set your aim upon. And later Greek, it denoted a restless eagerness in any pursuit to strive to be zealous.

It gives the picture of one who has a strong ambition to finish the goal or the task at hand. It is in the present tense in the Greek verb. It means that something Paul was constantly aiming to do, and it's also in the plural in Greek, which means it's not just for him, but it's also for us. Now, what was Paul striving for?

What was he laboring and earnestly pursuing as the aim of his life? And it says that we may be accepted of him. The word accepted there is for your rest stars in the Greek.

It's EU is a compound word again. It means good and arrest. The rest of the word arrest us means pleasing. You arrest us that I would be well pleasing or or very well pleasing to God that I want my life to be very much accepted, well pleasing, very much pleasing to the Lord. Spurgeon once described his ambition. He said, I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death.

Now, now Paul uses this Greek word. You arrest us nine times in the New Testament, constantly seeking to aim believers at this pursuit of seeking to please the Lord like like your goal. My goal in life should should be to I want to please God. I want to I want God to be well pleased with the way I live, with what I do, with what I spend my time, energy and resources on, how I raise my children, what I do for a living. Do I seek to live in a world among the lost in a way that pleases the Lord? When's the last time you stopped and said is what I'm doing pleasing to God?

Is my life focused on that? Now, let's take a moment. Look at those things that Paul says does please the Lord.

And and let me just give you at least six things. The Bible says specifically the same word that uses that is well pleasing to God. Now, Romans twelve, verse one and two says this very well known verses. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. In other words, what God has done for you.

I am beseeching you. I'm pleading with you, brethren, based on all the sacrifice of Christ, what God did for you, that you would present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and arrest us or well pleasing, very well pleasing and acceptable unto God is the idea. And it says, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and and arrest us or very good and acceptable and well pleasing and perfect will of God. He wants you to prove what's very pleasing to God.

He wants you to live that way. So Romans one through eleven is all like doctrine. Romans twelve gets into application.

So before you know what to apply, you have to lay down the truth. And that's why he gives all these passages of a doctrinal exhortation through eleven chapters in the first two verses of application of all of those eleven chapters. Both verses have the word. Do it to be pleasing to God. Do it to be pleasing to God.

You think sometimes people can seek to do doctrinal things or biblical things to be seen of men, to be pleasing to mom, dad, husband, wife, pastor, teacher, someone else. Now, Romans twelve one, when it says present your bodies, it literally means this. Make yourself available to God. Present your life as available to God.

Lord, here am I. It's what Isaiah said. It's what Paul said on the road to Damascus.

He said, Here are my Lord. Uh, and then it says to be a living sacrifice. This is the fulfill Luke nine 23 when Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. And then he says, you need to present your life is available to God, uh, is, is willing to give your all, willing to die for God as a living sacrifice. And you do so with, with as it a holy offering that your life would be holy, set apart under God from the filthiness of the world. So what he's saying here is if you want to please the Lord, present your life to God, offer it fully without reservation, died to yourself, repent of your sins that you might present a holy life to God and that will please him.

God will be pleased with that. Secondly, another way you can please the Lord is, is a, what? Romans 14 verse 15 through 18.

If you have your Bibles, you can flip over there as well. Uh, you can, and here Paul is speaking of the kind of behavior that pleases God and it's, and it's a behavior that seeks to edify other believers, edify other believers, a life that is void of offending our brothers and sisters in Christ, one that builds up the body of Christ, removes offenses. And in Romans 14 he's dealing with gray areas, things that could be wrong at times, things that could be right at times, depending upon how it affects people around you. He says in verse 15, but if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, eating meat offered to idols, now walkest thou not in love or in charity, destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Ghost. You ever, you ever known those people that just, they always wanted to bait over things.

You know, let me ask you, what do you think about this? And then they want to argue with you and that that's not well pleasing to God that that will detract from people. So it's okay to, to seek questions, but it's not good to be contentious, right? So, so he's saying, he's saying, seek that which produces righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Verse 18 for he that in these things serve with Christ is arrest us to God or well pleasing and acceptable to God and approved of men. God is pleased when you based on this passage in context will make personal sacrifices of personal liberties that could be stumbling blocks to other people.

You remove those things from your life. So to avoid offending other believers that is pleasing to God. So if there was, there was like a cultural issue today that was causes people to be stumbled up and offended. You know, for, for example, I don't drink alcohol, but if, if I think that it's a gray area in many ways, you could, there's some people who could, you know, Bible, you could, you could, you could give some defense on both sides.

Um, I do believe drinking hard liquor and even a lot of the beaters today, the Bible would condemn that and I could give biblical support for that. But, but I think there's some gray area there and I think that, um, the, the, but, but at the end of the day, if that would cause people to stumble, if I was a Christian leader and that caused people to stumble, I could, I could argue for myself that I feel like I have the right to do this that it, uh, and um, but if that caused them to stumble, then who am I loving more them or me myself? Now I knowledge puffs me up, but wisdom will seek to build them up. And that's what love does. It's willing to give that up. So I would say this, if you have anything in your life that you find that causes other people to stumble, get rid of it.

Just give it up. That's well pleasing to God. If it doesn't cause people to stumble, then you have freedom to do certain things in life and that's between you and the Lord and I'm not your Holy Spirit and you can have freedom there and join the Holy Spirit and there's no problem with that. Again, every time you ever talk about gray areas in life, there's going to be people who feel like they're white or black, aren't there? You mentioned a gray air and they're like, what do you mean? That's a gray area. You know that people get all stirred up, calm down, get all worked up over things that that may be a gray area or black area to you and then then keep that out of your life. And if it's a white area to a person and they have freedom to do that. I do know Jesus said there's nothing in and of itself that it is into the mouth that is defiling, right?

It's what comes out of the mouth. So number three, living and walking in the light and not in darkness or sin pleases God. Ephesians five eight says for you were sometimes darkness of an hour. You lied in the Lord, walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is arrest us or what is well pleasing and acceptable unto the Lord.

How do you do that? How do you prove that you prove it when you walk in the light? It says and have no fellowship with the unfruitful work of darkness, but rather reprove them. When you live in the light of purity, you will begin to know what God's pleased with and what he's not pleased with because the light reveals what's right and wrong.

You're not walking in the dark. You'll be able to tell what's you'll. He'll give you discernment. You'll be like, you know, that's not a good idea for me to do that anymore. I've had people in church who used to have things that they would do or you know, maybe somewhat of a gray area in their life. Maybe it was not a good thing in their life.

And then they'll they'll come to me and say, you know what? I ended up realizing this is not healthy for me. I need to get rid of this. And and why did you do that? Because the light was turned on and you begin to see that that's not something that's healthy. And ultimately it wasn't pleasing to God and you had that sense of restlessness in your soul. Let me say this. You will never give up something for God that you will not be more eternally rewarded for.

You will be so much better off. So it doesn't mean you give up everything that's good in life. It means that you give up everything that's bad in life, right? Number four, Paul told the Macedonian church at Philippi, here's a fourth thing that their missionaries support their financial giving and supporting him was pleasing to God. Philippians 4 18 he says, but I have all in a bound. I am full having received of a path for Didis the things which were sent from you an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well pleasing arrest us to God. This is your giving to support Paul. He's saying was well pleasing to God.

So you know, as we give and we support missionaries and and support ministries around the world that is pleasing to God. Number five, children obeying your parents is pleased in God and all the parents said, get them all in here. Get them kids in Colossians 3 20.

Let's all read this together. Children obey your parents in all things. Well pleasing unto the Lord, right? So obedience to the Lord pleases God.

Disobedience displeases the Lord. So what should parent what should children do? To be obedient. Well, what if my parents asked me to do something sinful? Well, that's why the Bible says in the other parallel passage that in the book of Ephesians obey your parents in the Lord.

What things they do that are lined up with truth, not sinful things. Obviously you always obey the highest authority. You don't disobey the Lord to obey your parents. So but also parents, you're involved in this.

You're involved in this as parents. We need to make sure our children understand the importance of obedience. And let me give you some things I think that are important to raise children to be faithful and to love the Lord. Number one is be a good testimony to them. They're going to follow your life, not just your lips.

So live it out. You know, my children have heard me preach for all these years of their life growing up. I'm not only their dad, but I'm their pastor.

Some of you probably may have ever thought about that. I'm not only a husband to my wife, but I'm the pastor of my wife. So it's, you know, so, um, so they get to see my preaching lived out at home.

Is that good? That's important, isn't it? And I can tell you, uh, that's the most important kind of preaching you can really do because if you can't live out the preaching, then that's hypocritical, isn't it? So, so be a good testimony.

Now, um, we all as parents fail, right? We all realize how much better we could do, but be a good testimony. Live out the truth and then use the Bible to teach as well as to correct. What can really damage children is when we use the Bible as law and not as not with grace. You know, we only bring verses up in the Bible when they disobey us.

Don't do that. I, that, that is such a small fraction of what the Bible conversations are in our home. Yeah, I don't even, it would be probably like 95% of the time in talking about the word of God and maybe 5% I don't know. It's been a, it used to be a lot more than it used to be.

More people said the teenage years are the hardest. It has been to eat. Praise God. I don't knock on wood or nothing. I don't believe in that. I just praise God for that.

That's been the easiest for us. And uh, it was stressful when they were little ornery things, you know, running around the house and sticking forks and outlets and everything. Yeah. You look back, they're holding the cord to you on one end and then they're hoarding at the end.

That's not good. So, um, my light daddy up. So use the Bible to teach as well as to correct. You know, it's, um, and I can't tell you how many times of the years I would hear my wife sit down with my kids and I would do the same. But you know, the reason that you need to do your homework is because this is pleasing the Lord. You need to do this because it honors God and you point them to a vertical motive instead of a horizontal motive. Uh, so, so, so children obeying their parents, but we need to, we need to make that a big deal and we need to let our kids know early on if you're a young parent, if you got children at home, let them know that, Hey, if you want to please the Lord, just know your obedience to me is pleasing to God. I know I'm not going to be perfect parent and uh, and if you see errors in my life, feel free to come to me and talk to me about that child.

And sometimes we have to apologize to our children. And then number six, doing God's will as well pleasing to God. Hebrews 13 verse 20 says this. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect. That word just means complete and prepared and every good work to do his will working in you that which is arrest us are well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory. Now, where do we find the will of God? And the answer is in the word of God and, and, and, and it's pleasing to God when we do the will of God. And, and you know, the Bible says his word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. We are a wise man when we build on the word of God. Matthew seven, we want to be like Joshua was commanded in Joshua one, eight through nine to meditate on the word of God.

We know it makes you like a bountiful tree planted by a river of water. As Psalms one talks about, let the word of Christ dwell in you. Richly Colossians three 16. So, so doing the will of God is pleasing to God. He is pleased when you read the word and live that out.

God will be pleased with your life. So those are just some, some, there's many other things that please the Lord, but I just want you to know that those were, those were times that Paul would use the same phrase and speaking about this is pleasing God and you need to seek to please God in these areas. Now, some things that will hinder us from aiming our life to please the Lord is love of money, wealth or possessions. Jesus tells us clearly in Matthew six 24, either you serve money or you serve God.

Ma'am in there just means possessions, money. Proverbs 23 four to says, labor not to be rich. Money and possessions can really hinder our life aiming at God.

Secondly, to be accepted and pleasing to people like when we're, when we're seeking to please people. Galatians one 10 Paul said, for do I now persuade men or God or I seek to please men for if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. First Corinthians four, Paul says to the church at Corinth back in the previous book, he says, but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment.

Yeah, I judge not my own self. He says, for I know nothing by myself, yet I am I not hereby justified, but he that judges me as a Lord. And he begins to say that we're not, don't be so concerned what men think of you be concerned what God thinks about you. Another thing that can hinder people from being used by God is, is seeking a position or personal goals, ambitions that are not the goals and plans that God has for you.

You can miss aiming at God's will because you're aiming at some personal ambition, some position. And sometimes I worry when kids graduate from high school and, and sometimes they they're concerned about having a direction in life that sounds really good to people. There's a lot of people that can get themselves into a self focused idea of what they think they want in life, but it's not really what God would want for them in life. You know, I never want my kids to grow up and be what they want to be, and I never want them to grow up and be what I want them to be. I want them to grow up and be what God wants them to be. That makes sense. There's some kids who go off to college and go off to some thing in life, some career choice, and they've never really seriously contemplated what God would want for them to do and really pray over that and really spend time.

I can tell you there's some miserable people in life who got on the wrong path. And so the great Old Testament prophet Jeremiah had a scribe who wrote down his words and his name was Baruch. If I had a son, I would have named him Caleb. My second choice would have been Baruch.

I love, you know, we need some little brooks running around. Isn't that a manly name? Hey, Baruch. It's like, you know, the guy's going to be a linebacker or something. Baruch's coming out here. I love that name. I had a guy in a church. He was almost persuaded, and then he named his son Joshua. And I'm like, well, I can't reject that.

That's a great name. But Jeremiah 36, 4 says, Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Nariah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken upon a roll, a scroll, a roll of a book. So Baruch, if you were to read through Jeremiah, it speaks about him as coming from a noble family.

He very likely would have risen up to a high position, but God suppressed that wrong worldly ambition in him in Jeremiah 45, 5. This is what the Bible says to Baruch. It says, Seekest thou great things for thyself?

Seek them not. For behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord. But thy life will I give thee for a pray in all places, whether thou goes, I'm going to bring judgment upon this nation, but I'm going to reward you for your faithfulness.

Don't seek great things for yourself. God calls Baruch's life to do something more than pursue earthly, physical, temporary positions to seek the work of God as the scribe to the great prophet Jeremiah. God called Baruch away from the sand castles to the rock of God's word from elevating the temporary to elevating the eternal to seek to please God, not earthly flesh. Jeremiah at the time of this was shut up in a prison. He was limited in what he could do, but Baruch was able to write down on a scroll all the words of Jeremiah. He presented it to the king in that time.

If you've never read Jeremiah 36 and are familiar with that story, I would really encourage you to do that. The king ends up burning the scroll, burns the word of God. He didn't like it, so he burned it up.

You didn't have copies, right? So everybody's like, well, what was written on the scroll? So is the word of God lost? You know what Jeremiah 36, 32 says after the king burned it up? Then took Jeremiah another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah had burned in the fire and there were added beside unto them many like words.

Isn't that interesting? You can't destroy the word of God, amen? You have the word of God in your hand preserved because man can't destroy the living word of God. Interestingly, in 1975, a collection of nearly 250 clay seals were found 44 miles southwest of Jerusalem. These small lumps of clay are impressed with a seal. They're called a bulla, which is an ancient time served as an official signature for the individual and on one of them was a picture.

I don't know if we have that back there, but a picture of one of these clay bullas that had the name Baruch, which was the scribe of Jeremiah, they found that in 1975. So I would ask you, what is your desire in life to seek physical things or spiritual things, a temporary or the eternal, some earthly possession or an eternal position from what God would want you to do? Have you made it your one ambition and goal in life to please the Lord?

That's what Paul did. And secondly, to aim your life to make eternal reality your present perspective. Verse number nine, look back at second Corinthians five verse nine.

He says this, wherefore we labor again, this is our aim. Wherefore we, we aim our life this way that whether present or absent, we may be accepted, arrest us or well pleasing to God. Now what does present or absent mean in verse nine? Well, Paul had just discussed in verse one through eight being home in the body was to be absent from the Lord. To be absent from the body was to be home with the Lord. And in verse number six, he says, therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord.

Now he's not, that doesn't mean that God's not with us because we're in our physical body. It just means we're not in the fullness of God's presence. In verse eight, he says we are confident, willing to be absent from the body so we can be present with the Lord. Paul is saying that whether we are here on earth or one day in heaven with the Lord, our aim, our focus, our goal will not change. It is always to be pleasing to the Lord. What he is teaching in both chapter four and five is this friends is to live your life in such a way that matters for eternity. Live now as though you were living before the Lord there.

Does that make sense? Whether we're absent or present, whether we're present here in the body or we're in heaven with the Lord, we just want to please God. So what in your life will matter a hundred years from now? What, what in your life would you say this is really going to matter a hundred years from now?

What's going to matter a thousand years from now? That's what he's calling us to here in verse nine. Live with that end in mind. Well, I would, I would really just want to make sure I please the Lord.

Yeah, that's what you want to live for. So if you're Paul and if you're like, I just want to please God. Well, Paul, Paul, I want you to go preach to the heat and I want you to preach to the Jews.

I want you to preach to the Gentiles. Then no matter what the physical persecution came in Paul's life, that didn't matter to him because that wasn't his aim. He wasn't looking for comfort and since his aim was on something higher than that, the physical would never deter him.

Does that make sense? That's why he could keep going. He wasn't in it for comfort.

He's not like us so often. I mean, I mean if it's a, it's a cold rainy day, church attendance can be down. If the, if the air conditioner went out in the car, I got 30 minute drive without air conditioning.

I'll never forget. We had an 80 some year old lady one time and chill at God. We had like a couple of inches of snow sheet and her door was frozen. She drove like 30 minutes holding her door shut while it was not latched the whole way.

At the same time, there's full grown men that are like, well, some couple inches of snow on the ground. Well, that's between them and the Lord. But I'm like, you know, I would have told this dear lady, you've been better if you could have stayed at home probably that morning.

Kill me knowing that. I'm like, somebody get out there and fix this lady's door. But, but we need to think about in our life, what are we living for? Make the eternal reality your present perspective. Live as Paul says in verse seven, he said, we walk by what we that's future, isn't it? That's, that's spiritual.

That's not temporary. One of the greatest examples of one who missed it is in Luke 12. I will never get over this story. I mean, this is the, this is the most foolish guy that I think I could ever read about in the Bible outside of probably Judas. I mean, Judas, as they say, kiss the door of heaven and went to hell, right? But if you have your Bibles, look over to Luke 12.

I just flip over the Luke chapter 12. Look at verse number five. Jesus is preaching to what the Bible calls a innumerable multitude of people, massive crowds.

The word there for innumerable is the Greek word morias, which is like 10,000 but it's, it's just the highest designation. They had to use massive numbers of people and he's teaching them. Like let me give you just a glimpse of what he taught them. Look at verse five. He said, I will forewarn you who you shall fear. Fear him, which after he had killed has power to cast into hell.

Yeah, I say fear him. Verse eight, nine. He says, whosoever shall confess me before men, him will the son of confessed for the angels of God and he that denied me before men will be denied for the angels of God. Verse number 10 through 11. He talks about the unpardonable sentiment. He's talking about eternal, massively important truths.

Don't fear man. Feel the fear of the one who can kill you and cast you into hell. You need to confess me so that you would be confessed before the father. There's an impartable sin. I mean, he's going over some important things, persecution that will come. And then verse 13 at the end of his sermon, one of the company said in him, master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. So Jesus just gets done preaching on eternity and a guy stands up and says, tell my brother to divide the money with me. I mean the crew, did you just hear what Jesus said? You know what that guy was worried about? He was worried about what happened in the next 10 minutes than 10,000 years.

He didn't care about where he was at in a hundred years. And he said in him, man, who made me a judge or divider over you? And don't you love that? Jesus like, I'm not getting tied up with your stuff. Yes. That gives me a lot of Liberty as a pastor.

I like that. People try to pull me into things. I'm like, I'm not getting involved in that. No. Well, you're, I'm not everything.

I won't even tell you the kind of calls I get through the week. Pastor, do you, do you, I, I'll bend over. I'll help all these things. I'll do all this stuff to bend over backwards to help folks, but I'm not, I, you know, I preach and teach and, uh, but there's other things that I'm not an, I'm not an expert in all things. I think you guys all know that verse 15, but look what he says. And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consists if not in the abundance of things which he possesses.

Is that good news? Are you glad today that your life isn't based upon what you possess physically? There's a lot more that you have in what you have. And he, and, and, and this, this is so important that he launches a parable into it.

Verse 16 and he spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plenifully. He thought within himself saying, what shall I do? I mean, I, my bank accounts are full.

There's nowhere else to put all my stuff. He said, this is what I do. I'll pull down my barns.

I'll build greater. I bestow all my goods and fruits and goods and I will say to my soul, look how much you have retirement forever as good laid out for many years. Take that knees, eat, drink, and be married. You'll never see God telling Christians to do that. Like just, there's nothing wrong with, with cutting back the order you get doing that. But to quit living as a Christian, to quit living and serving, I tell you what sounds like hell to me is to retire and sit at home and watch TV.

I'd rather die over any, that'd be misery. You know, retirement, it just means you, you get to stop doing what you don't want to do to start doing what you do want to do, right? Verse 19, I will say to my soul, sold out how much goods laid up for years, take that easy drink and be married. He had his plans in place, didn't he?

But he didn't know his time ran out. Verse 20, but God said in him, thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee and then who shall those things be which thou has provided. So is he that, look at this verse 21, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward who? So you can be earthly poor and heavenly rich.

You hear that? You can be earthly rich and heavenly poor. So you better start thinking about where you're investing your life. And that's what Paul's calling us to. And that's why he says in verse 22, the next verse he says, and he said to his disciples, therefore I say to you, take no thought for your life, what you eat, your body, what you put on. Don't worry about all that external stuff. Verse 31, he says, seek the kingdom of God.

All these things will be added to you. Get busy about serving the Lord. Do something for God. Invest in eternity. Time's wasting. Do now what matters 100 years from now.

Live that way. And so when you look at that, you're like, well, that's how Paul lived. Paul was living like if he were living before Jesus. That's why he didn't care what happened physically.

It wasn't his concern. When they said, Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, you'll be killed. He's like, yeah, I'm not only ready to be persecuted, I'm ready to give my life as an offering to God. What do I, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I mean, you're going to threaten me with heaven. That's how he lived. That's why he could shed off all that external pressure. Isn't it amazing how much if physical things can cause a person to quit serving Jesus, they were serving for the physical things. Right? That's why if I quit preaching because some person kept attacking me, then I'm actually serving God to please people because whatever could make me stop or make you stop serving God becomes your God because it's controlling you.

Right? Whatever controls you becomes your master. We're all serving something. And if you serve the Lord, then you become free from men.

You become free from things. And I tell you, we have to guard our hearts from all of that. But then the number three, and then we'll wrap this sermon up verse 10. He says this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he has done, whether it be good or bad. So thirdly, aim your life to be prepared for the future judgment. Paul speaks of what's known as the judgment seat of Christ.

Romans 14 10 says, why does I'll judge thy brother? Says we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The word appear.

Phanero is the Greek word which I'll all appear. It literally means to make manifest to make clear, visible to reveal. Philip Hughes comments on this word it says to be made manifest means not just to appear but to be laid bare, stripped of every outward facade and respectability and openly revealed in the full and true reality of one's character. You are totally and I am totally going to be exposed in the inner person to who we are, why we did what we did, all of it laid before God bare. Arthur Way writes for we have all to stand stripped of all disguise before Messiah's bar that each may receive the recompense for deeds where of the body was the instrument.

You're living in a tent that God is going to bring and before him one day and in judgment will be based upon what you did in that body. We shall all appear it says before the judgment seat of Christ, the word judgment their judgment seat of Christ is the is the word beam a seat judgment. That's a Greek word in the word beam. I just spoke about an elevated chair where a judge would sit and they had these during athletic games in those days the president or umpire of the arena would said upon that seat they would observe the games rewards will be given to the winners.

If an athlete ran fairly and won he received an olive wreath or crown and the focus of that time in those athletic games the beam a seat was those who would receive rewards and those who would lose rewards. I like what David Jeremiah said. He said at the beam a seat of Christ earthly wreaths in trophies and newspaper clippings and Super Bowl rings will be long forgotten. They'll be no more important than brushing your teeth or buying a newspaper at a corner store. But what we do now for eternity even the smallest of deeds will count forever. Is that should we think about that? It's why you're here isn't it?

So good to hear these things in our hearts. And he says that everyone may receive or be recompensed or to be paid to them what is due the things done in their body according to that which is done whether it be good or chaos or bad. Bad here can be translated as worthless.

Something that doesn't have any value. God will separate the believers worthless works from their worthy works. Believers will not be judged for their salvation at the beam a seat judgment because all of our sins have been cast as far as the east is from the west songs one of three says and Hebrews 10 17 says our sins and iniquities he does not remember anymore. So the believers sins will not be judged here but our service to God will be judged. And are you ready for that? Are you living in a way that is preparing you to stand before God and be judged in your service before him? Now that day's coming like we will all stand before God totally open to what we've done for him. The Bible tells us all believers will be there specifically those from the church age and on just to get a little technical Old Testament saints will be resurrected at the end of the seven year tribulation with the tribulation saints. That's what the Bible says. He'll separate the sheep from the goats.

Sometimes we'll get confusion of have confusion. They have confusion about the like the rapture in the in one of these there's there's multiple resurrections that will happen to the rapture. The resurrection will be for church age saints. So up to that time, then that's who this judgment seat of Christ will be for at the end of this. And that's going to be this judgment seat of Christ will happen during the seven year tribulation. So the rapture happens. We're caught up to heaven, the judgment seat of Christ, then you have the marriage, supper, the lamb, all of that goes on at that time.

I don't have time to explain all of that. I have other sermons that I've preached on that. If you Google search my name with probably the judgment seat of Christ, you'll be able to find one of those sermons. Now this judgment will take place in heaven. Jesus Christ will be the judge.

John five twenty five twenty two says for the father judges no man but have committed all judgment unto the son. Another passage you can look at is first Corinthians three verse ten through fifteen and and and actually just read those versus times almost gone. But here Paul describes what what it will be like, like what's going to happen here. He says, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I laid the foundation. The foundation is Jesus Christ, the gospel and another builds there on. But let every man take heed how he builds there on for other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, he gives six different elements that you can build upon. He says every man's work shall be made manifest. The day shall declare it. It shall be revealed by fire.

So the difference between wood, hay, stubble and gold, silver, precious stones is if you set fire to those, three of them would be burned up and three of them would be left standing. And so our works will be made manifest by the fire of God. His consuming glory will burn up the worthless works and validate what is worthy. It says, if any man work abide, which he hath built there on, he shall receive a what?

Receive a reward. We have that verse fourteen reward verse fifteen. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss.

There will be a loss of reward, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire because the fire will manifest also that they had true saving faith. So listen, some of the things that make something a worthy work versus a worthless work is our motive. Am I doing it for the glory of God or to be seen by men? Remember when Jesus said, uh, they pray so that they could be seen of men. Behold, I say to you, they have their reward. What was their reward?

The applause of men. So when we serve God, when we do things and needs to be done, that God would be honored and not that we would be seen. Pentecost writes, the gold, silver, costly stones are indestructible materials. These are the work of God, which man only appropriates and uses.

On the other hand, the wood, hay and stubble are destructible materials, either the work of men, which man has produced by his own effort. The apostle was revealing the fact that the examination at the beam of Christ is to determine that which was done by God through the individual and that which the individual did in his own strength, that which was done for the glory of God and that which was done for the glory of the flesh. And so examine our life as we live for God. Do that which matters for eternity. There will be those who receive rewards at this time.

There will be those who lose rewards. There's much I could say about the judgment seat of Christ. That's really a whole nother sermon at another time.

But in conclusion, I would just say this. You have one life to live in this temporary tent. We get just a flash of a life.

It's so quick. Aim our life to please the Lord every day. Lord, what would be pleasing in your eyes? Aim your life to make the eternal reality your present perspective. Live with the end in mind. Live now for what would matter 100 years or 1000 years from now, and then aim your life in such a way that you will be prepared to meet God and stand before him at that judgment, knowing that you have pleased the Lord. Our goal should be this, that when we stand before God, he would say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Amen.