In his sermon titled 'Christian Life, Absent from the Lord,' Ethan Wollbrink explores the Apostle Paul's teachings from 2 Corinthians 5:1-9. The sermon emphasizes the transient nature of our earthly bodies, described as tents, and the eternal dwelling promised by God. Paul speaks of the assurance and courage derived from faith, not sight, highlighting the confidence believers have in the resurrection and eternal life. Wollbrink discusses the concept of being 'absent from the Lord' while in the body, clarifying that it refers to the absence of Christ's physical presence rather than His spiritual presence, which remains with believers through the Holy Spirit. The sermon encourages Christians to live lives that are pleasing to God by evangelizing, fulfilling daily duties with a godly motive, observing the Sabbath, and fostering godly homes. Wollbrink underscores the importance of faith as the foundation of hope and assurance, urging believers to focus on eternal truths rather than temporary earthly concerns.

Good morning. I didn't hear Greg say it. Did he say it? Beautiful house, beautiful day to be at House of Lord, amen? Well, It's my pleasure to be here preparing, I've been in the kitchen for a little while preparing some food for you.

It is bread, bleh. Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So I joke because I'm a lover of food and culinary, but that's how I reduce the felt pressure or fear to handle God's Word rightly because ultimately that is what we're here to do to feed on the war. Malachi, let me know is that good? I'll raise my keep going Malachi.

You say when? Give me a thumbs up. Is that better? Yeah. You bet.

I was thinking off of a book in the back, but you got a soft point. Well, if I raise it, and you're in the middle, you're going to just give him the cue right there in the back. Alright, this morning our text is from the second letter to the Corinthians. We'll be in chapter 5. We're really going to take a closer look at verses 6 through 9, but I'm going to begin reading in verse 1.

We'll read 1 through 9. Let's read this here and then go to the Lord. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 says, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent grown being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now, He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, Yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. Let's pray. Father, we come to you after we read your word as is custom. I ask you, Lord, to speak to us today of fresh, other cleansing minds and hearts of busyness. Father, considering these things are of grave importance.

We speak of life and death and activity. These are forces we have no control over. Lord, we come to You knowing You have all authority over these things. Lord, you have all authority over this place, over this world. Lord, we acknowledge you have all authority over us.

We also acknowledge that we are so tainted with sin that we don't see ourselves this way. We don't see our world this way. Father would you enlighten us? Would you give us eyes that can see eternity that we may consider more rightly the things that are unseen, not looking to the things that are seen. Lord, we ask you to give us clarity, speak to us, to change us, for your son's sake and for his glory.

I pray. Amen. So We'll breeze through this again starting in verse 1. And I'll just lightly explain the context here. In chapter 4, Paul is speaking much of being challenged, being faced with death, being faced with trials, being faced with trouble.

And so he's speaking to the Corinthians and he's telling them from which his courage comes as he faces those trials, as he faces those troubles, and he wants them to understand a bit from where he gets that courage. And so he speaks of our assurance, and the Corinthian church's assurance, of the resurrection. And in verse 1 and chapter 5 He says, for we know that if our earthly house, this body, right? He calls it a tent. He said this tent is destroyed.

We have a building. So we'd be moving from a tent to a building. This building is from God. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That's just a point to say that that dwelling place or that heavenly body that we would move to as we leave this one, if we're in Christ, is not of these things.

It's not of material things. It's not made with hands. This is an eternal place. This is an eternal thing. Verse 2, for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.

That's a little different than we would say it. So we desire to be in that heavenly habitation so much that while we're here in this one, we're groaning, we're yearning, we're longing. We're in this decaying sinful body. Verse 3, if indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked, meaning we wouldn't be without a vessel. The Bible speaks of this body as a vessel.

It's a habitation. Paul calls it a tent. Verse 4, for we who are in this tent groan being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. I won't make this the message here, but do you hear what he's saying here? We're groaning, being burdened.

How many of you have at some point this week went, ah? We can resonate with this. We're groaning because this body has an end and it's decaying and it's falling apart. Amen? And in verse 4 he says, We who are in this tent, we groan being burdened, not because we want to be without a body, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothe that mortality.

That means that which will die would be swallowed up with life. Life. Who said He was life? Jesus did. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

The life that we seek, the life that we come to this text to learn, to engage, and to receive. We speak about this a lot, right? There's those who are born once, that's of flesh and blood. And there's those who are born twice, who have been born by the Spirit. That's life.

That's spiritual life. Our flesh and blood does not contain any more life than the years that God has set. So we're in this body, we're in this tent, and we groan because we want to be clothed, and we want this mortal thing to be swallowed up by life. This is some of the influence, this is some of the motivation that Paul is sharing with the Corinthians, and he's saying this is where his hope and his courage comes as he faces these challenges. And this is where his assurance comes.

So verse five, now he who has prepared us for this very thing, who also is God. So He who has prepared us for everything we just spoke about and prepared us for this heavenly habitation is God, who also has given us a spirit as a guarantee. Now I'll throw this in here before we get into the text. He also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. That word also means earnest down payment And we hear that used mostly in real estate, right?

You purchase a house, you put earnest money down, and that means you're serious, right? God says, I put my spirit as a guarantee, as a down payment, because I'm dead serious. I like that. I like that language. So starting in verse 6, this will be our text for today.

Verses 6 through 9. He says, so. And when I read the Scripture, and you follow the verses, if you start at verse 9, if you look, and You may have different translations, so it might look different. It's incredibly challenging when you seek to find a text to unpack because verse 9 begins with the word therefore. Well, that means it's tied to the verse before.

And verse 8 starts with, we are confident, yes. Verse 7 starts with four, six starts with so, and five starts with now, and four starts with four. And so they're all referring to a prior verse. And so you keep going, I've got to read you the whole chapter, really. That's what I'm going to have to do to have a complete thought.

So I wanted to walk through verses 1-6 So you get the context, you get the sentiment that's behind Paul here. And so beginning in verse 6, he says, So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Those of you that are familiar with teaching and the Word of God, When are we absent from the Lord? Never, right? God is omnipresent.

Yeah, He's everywhere. He examines the hearts. Correct. So Paul says we're confident that as long as we're living in this world, we're actually away from the Lord. And it says it very certainly here in verse 6.

We are always confident, knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. Paul is quite sure. But we might say, Paul, Christ said in Matthew 28, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of this world. Is there contradictory here? In Hebrews 13, he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So I'll ask again, and this is a trick question. So is there never a time when we are not present in His presence? His presence is a great promise to us that provides us confidence that even in the end, Psalm 23 tells us that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for... I want it with me. This fundamental truth is rooted in His attributes.

Since Christ is the triune God, He must be omnipresent. So we are not away from God for a single moment. So what does Paul mean here? That while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. So consider that our Lord in His resurrection, we hold that this was a bodily resurrection.

That God, the God-man, was fully man. Right? That means He has a body. That means today He has a body. And this bodily resurrection means that a body ascended to heaven, and a body can only be in one place at one time.

Right? So God, Jesus, the Son of God, has a resurrected body that was seen, And it is not here. Right? So this is something of what Paul is saying about being absent from the Lord. We're absent from His physical presence.

He's no longer in the world. He was in the world. And one day, He'll be returning to the world. But now He's ascended to heaven. He made that clear in John 16.

He says, Now I'm leaving the world and going back to the Father. In the book of Acts, God sent two messengers to the church as they stood perplexed on the hill of ascension. And they said, This same Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, so we know where the Lord is today." Right? He has sat down at the right hand of the Father in heaven now to intercede for us in God's presence. So Paul is right that we who remain in the world have to live without Christ's physical presence.

Because He has a body and that body has to be in one place. We would be denying the physical bodily resurrection if we entertained that the Lord would make occasionally bodily visits to this planet. The church will always while here on earth be absent from the Lord, but of course, We hold to the fact that the Spirit of God is always with us. That He indwells us by His Spirit. That He teaches us with His Word.

That He directs us by His providence and that He protects us as our shepherd. He's the head of the church and He's the head of everything to serve the church. He sympathizes with our grief and to the sufferer He sends relief, says the hymnist. We do not hold with others that our bread becomes His body, or that He bodily reveals Himself to anyone. No.

We hold fast with the Apostle Peter when he said at Pentecost in Acts 2.32, Peter says, This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out that which you see now and hear." So Peter doesn't say, Jesus is here. He says, he is there and has poured forth that which you see here. And that's what the Lord Jesus has been doing for the last 2000 years. And that's what he's doing today. And that's what he will be doing until his return.

This pouring out of the Spirit, This pouring out that he sends down that Peter spoke of. That's how you've been made a Christian. That he poured out his spirit upon you. Indwelt you, we'll sanctify you and I. And as we're sanctified more and more, we will groan with Paul, and say as he says in verse 8, Yes, we are away from the Lord, but would rather be absent from the body and at home with the Lord.

So how do we live away from the Lord? How do we live while He are there, and we are here. Paul tells us here in verse 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Let's look into this word faith a little bit. Faith is an objective thing, not a subjective thing.

And what do I mean by this? I mean faith is not an end. Faith is a means to an end. Right? Faith has to be in something.

There has to be a substance of your faith. Some may say, I have faith, or I am a person of faith. But faith isn't a thing in and of itself. It must have substance. What is the substance of your faith?

Turn with me to Hebrews 11.1, please. Hebrews 11.1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This word substance in the Greek is hypostasis. It literally means a standing under, That which lies under what is apparent. My favorite way that is expressed.

Hypostasis is the unseen support of that which is standing in clear view. So we get this idea of a foundation, right? There are some buildings, there are some constructs that you can't see the foundation, but you see the building and the sight of the building and its confidence in the way that it stands makes it apparent it has a foundation. Right? Particularly when there's a storm.

Particularly when we're in the midst of a storm and we see the wind doing its work and we see a building standing opposed to the storm, we say it must have been built well. So this word, hypostasis, means that which underlies what is standing in clear view. That's the substance. Those of you who attended the event in Quincy where Ken Ham gave a talk about our foundation being on the Word of God and not on the Word of man, He gave examples where we can know for certain the origin and purpose of the world and mankind. Because the One who was there in the origin and the purpose told us.

Ken told us and reminded us that in Genesis we have as our foundation by faith, not by sight because which one of you were here at the beginning? And who can you seek counsel that was? Only God. So by faith, not by sight, we have as our foundation that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, so we need not look no further. We have as our foundation that God said, let us make man in our own image, so We know why men and women have intrinsic worth.

We know why they're valuable. We know why we protect them. Not because there was some parade that said that they shouldn't be a minority any longer, that we shouldn't be a minority any longer. We don't have to stand up for our own rights. God endowed them.

Because we were made in God's image, where is where our worth comes? Is where our value comes. We don't need to see the way that others are confused about these things. We have as our foundation that male and female, He created them so we know the truth about gender. Whether or not we see the world confused on the matter.

We know that man sinned against God, and that is why our world is full of brokenness, death, and grief. And we know that by faith, not by sight. Many claim to believe God, But what influence does this belief have on their behavior? I've said it a few times before as an illustration, but if I told you that I loved my wife, that I desired her above all things, that I believed the vows that I made when we were married, And you lived near me and I was never there. I never played with my children.

I never cooked dinner with my wife. I never did any. I wasn't home. I was always absent. And you said, what's going on, Ethan?

I said, I love my wife. You'd say, you're a liar. You're a liar. Because what you say that you believe influences your behavior, yes? We call people out about what they say because their behavior doesn't match.

And unusually, we think that there's a void in that reality when it has to do with faith. That we can claim faith, that We can claim a belief, we can claim an affection and a love for God and for things of eternity that are not here and sinful and worldly. But does it affect our behavior? If they believe God and it wields little to no influence, they are only unconvinced people. People without conviction, who are seeking only an intellectual righteousness.

Such belief is without certainty. That kind of belief that has no impact on our behavior lacks this word hypostasis. Lacks the confidence that Paul is speaking of that is his motivation and his driving force. If we are unconvinced, we will not, it won't motivate. Then that faith, unconvinced, unmotivated, laxadaisically, gradually retreats instead of going forward in growth.

I think the best translations of Hebrews 11.1 is that faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Paul is convinced that these things that he cannot see regarding God are real. And so from that perspective, he will act in fullness of hope. That's why he says in v. 8, We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Do you know what He's saying here? Rather to be absent from the body and be present with the Lord. We would say, dude's got a death wish. Right? Only not in the masochistic way, right?

Not in the false way. Yes, yes. So, I'll skip the funny part. Paul desires to die rather than to be in the body because when he thinks about this earthly tent being folded up and moving to a heavenly building not made with hands, he sees that as more real than this. And so he desires that.

He desires mortality to be swallowed up with life. And this really strikes at a place for us. This strikes at a place where we aren't often challenged, but as we are sanctified, how does the hymn go? Then the things on earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. That's kind of like what Paul is saying here.

His glory and grace has become so bright that I have to hide my face. And the things of this earth are so damn, I don't know why you want to keep them. This is a man who was on the brink of death. There were Jews that wanted him dead. There were Gentiles that wanted him dead.

In 2 Corinthians 4-10, maybe just on the other page in your Bible, He says He's always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 11, He says we are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake. Verse 12, so then death is working in us. There was the treachery and difficulties of his journey, threat of illness and disease. Paul was facing death every day, and he wants the Corinthians to know how he deals with this.

The key is what he says here in verse 8. We are confident. We are of good cheer. To have joy, happiness, confident, content. And that's how he faced death.

Patiently, peacefully. In fact, as he says, he preferred it to life. That's an amazing way to live. Is it not? People write songs about living like you were dying.

That's what Paul's Yeah. But, people write songs today. Sorry, I thought you were being rhetorical. So, he preferred. In Philippians 1.21 He said, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Far better, He said, for me to depart and be with Christ. Here's a man who lives absent from the Lord's wealth. Faith has its greatest work to do at the very last. The reality of faith is most clearly expressed in the face of death, is it not? The Bible says in Job 18 that death is called the king of terrors.

God is pleased when believers die triumphantly. He's honored when they are confident in the face of death. Even cheerful. And certainly over lost. Certainly, our last and best expression of our Lord is how we die.

In fact, if we don't long for heaven, like a prisoner longs for freedom, if we don't long for heaven like a sick man longs for health, if we don't long for heaven like a hungry man longs for food, like a thirsty man longs for water, and like a poor man longs for a payday, then something is wrong. If we don't look forward to death with some expectation of what God has in store for us, something is wrong. Not the painful part. Not the ugly part. But the promise is that that is when life will swallow up mortality if we be found in Christ.

And you say to yourself in your heart, yeah, I don't know how to do this. That's my response. But death itself are transferring to life in its fullness. Look what he says at the end of verse 4. Mortality may be swallowed up by life.

If we don't see that with anticipation, then we've begun to idolize the passing world. We have come to settle for fading joys. We've learned to be content with sinful surroundings and to overestimate earthly relationships. We've set our affection not on things above, but on things that are on earth. To wish to avoid death is disloyalty to God.

To wish to avoid death means we are not weary of sin. You think about what that means in contrast? We think it may be a noble thing to deny death, to cover it up, to flee from it. But if our body is this temporal, sin-stained thing, and we're not going down the road of dualism, right? This isn't all evil.

But our surroundings are. And our ability to glorify and to worship God is minimized significantly by this. This is what Paul is saying. This is Paul faced death with good courage, confidence, eagerness, and he tells us why. Because death would take him where He would rather be and make Him what He would rather become.

Verse 8 says, We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. He wanted to be present with the Lord. At the end of his life, Paul says, I've finished the course. I've fought the good fight. I've kept the faith.

And now I'm ready to go. What He wanted was life. Full life. Eternal life. The perfect life.

Paul is sure of what he hoped for. So verse 9 says, So verse 9 says, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. So let me balance this last thought and few statements. Paul's saying in verse 9, Therefore we make it our aim whether we're present or whether we're absent. And just prior, he was using present meaning in the body and he was using absent I'm sorry that's backwards he was using absent as in the body we were absent from the Lord and present meant that we were present with the Lord right So that tense is coming from God's position.

We are either absent from Him or we are present with Him. Now know this. Our aim, our ambition, even though this is something that He desires is to no longer be in the body and be here. He says, I'd rather be with the Lord, but if I'm here, my goal is not self-seeking. My goal is not to go attain to that which I'd prefer, which was to be with the Lord, right?

He wasn't just, he wasn't looking, he was running out in front of traffic. Right? How we hold this in balance is when he says here in verse 9, therefore, whether I'm here or whether I'm there, we make it our aim, we make it our motivation to be pleasing to Him. So if I'm here, I'll be pleasing to Him. I'll stay here because He's ordained that I be here.

So how do we please the Lord? We could go on for days with this. I'm going to give you four ways. And it could easily be 24. The first way is through evangelism.

Who here knows who Hudson Taylor is? A couple people. He was what we would call the founder of the inland evangelical movement in China. Hudson Taylor, the father of evangelism in China. He found his heart moved with compassion in 1853.

He was 23 years old and he was assisting a doctor in London. He was going around the patients and was ministering to them like nurses do. There was a man that had senile gangrene with no hope of recovery. Every day he went to the man's home to dress his wounds. The man was an atheist.

He wouldn't let anyone speak to him about his soul. When the local vicar had gone to see this man, he spat on him. He was a very violent man. Now here's Hudson Taylor's words, Upon commencing to attend him, I prayed much about it, but for two or three days said nothing of religious nature. By special care and dressing his diseased limbs, I was able considerably to lessen his sufferings.

He soon began to manifest appreciation of my services. One day with a trembling heart, I took advantage of his grateful acknowledgement to tell him of the spring of my action and to speak of his solemn condition before God and his need of mercy through Jesus Christ. It was evident that only a powerful effort of self-restraint kept his lips closed. He turned over in bed and put his back to me and uttered not a word. I couldn't get the poor man off my mind.

Very often each day I pleaded with God by His Spirit to save him. After dressing the wound and relieving the pain, I never failed to say a few words to him, which I hoped the Lord would bless. Each time he would turn his back and never made a reply. After continuing this for some time, my heart sunk. It seemed that I was doing him no good and perhaps merely hardening him and increasing his guilt.

One day, after dressing his limb and washing my hands, Instead of returning to the bedside, I went to the door and I stood hesitating for a moment with a thought in my mind. Ephraim has joined to idols, leave him alone. Looking at my patient, I saw his surprise, as it was the first time I'd attempted to leave the room without speaking a few words for my master." Note what he says here. This was the first time I'd attempted to leave the room without speaking a few words for my master. This confidence, this foundation that was underlying that which was visible in Hudson Taylor was certainly present.

That his activities in these maybe benign scenarios, maybe gross scenarios, dressing gay green limbs. He was doing this for his master. So he says, I saw the surprise in his eyes because it was the first time I'd attempted to leave the room without speaking a few words for my master. I could bear it no longer. After bursting into tears, I crossed the room and I said, My friend, whether you will hear it or whether you will forbear, I must deliver my soul and went on to speak very earnestly, telling how much I wished he would let me pray with him.

To my unspeakable joy, he didn't turn away, and then he replied, If it will be a relief to you, do. I need scarcely say that, falling on my knees, I poured out my soul to God on His behalf. Then and there, I believed the Lord wrought a change in His soul. Never afterward unwilling to be spoken to, then prayed with. And after a few days, He definitely accepted Christ as His Savior.

And oh, what a joy it was to see that man rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. He told me that for 40 years he'd never darken the door of a church or chapel and even when and even then he had only entered the place of worship to be married. He couldn't even be persuaded to enter again when his wife was buried. Now thank God I had every reason to believe that his sin-stained soul was washed, was sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Often in my early work in China, when circumstances left me almost certain of unsuccessful, I thought of this man's conversion and was encouraged to persevere, to speak the word, whether men would hear or would forbear.

Thinking about how that now happy sufferer lived for some time after the change. I never tired of bearing testimony to the grace of God in Jesus Christ." How pleasing, I'm saying, was Hudson Taylor's dedication to his master in witness and in serving and knowing that that was for his King, right? How pleasing. That's one way we can please our Lord. If you're not still there, let's take a moment to look at Hebrews 11.1 in light of what we just read here.

Now, think about this story with Hudson Taylor when we read this. And he says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony, speaking of the saints that have gone before us. Verse 3, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that The things which are seen are not made of the things which are visible. The author of Hebrews here is telling us the same thing Ken Hamill is telling us, which is that the fact that God framed creation out of nothing that was seen, this is what undergirds our courage.

This is what undergirds our motivation. A couple of examples in this chapter is called the Hall of Fame, but we'll just read a couple. Verse 4, By faith Abel, you know this story, offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. How did he offer what was more acceptable to God? Because he listened to God.

Because he knew that God only accepted an animal sacrifice. So by faith, not by sight, maybe a little bit of sight, because he maybe saw that happen. His parents taught him. Let's go on to the second way that we please Him. The second way that we please Him is by doing our daily work to His glory.

Not just evangelism, but in our vocation. Whether our vocation is a housewife, a mother, a student, if we are retired, we want to please our Lord in all our duties every day. Remember what Paul says when he's writing to the slaves, and you're not slaves, but in Ephesians 6, 5-8, he says, Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, in fear and trembling and sincerity of heart as to Christ. Not with eye service, not as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever anyone does, he'll receive the same from the Lord, whether slave or free." What we just heard about in 1 Peter in Sunday school, is Peter is exhorting us to submit to government, to submit to masters, bosses, not just good ones, right? To submit to husbands.

Husbands submit to Christ. And all of that, there's no qualifier of how well that which we're to serve is doing. Right? So if I have a boss, and he's a terrible boss, I'm not supposed to roll my eyes at him because I'm not serving him. Does that make sense?

If I have a husband and he's a terrible husband, I don't roll my eyes at him because I'm working and motivated to be pleasing to Him, to God, that constructed me to serve. This has influence in every part of our life. This has influence while we're here. This has influence when we leave. Everything we do, when we take care of our kids, the way we respond or we don't respond, or the way that we respond in anger or with sarcasm.

You know if that's pleasing or not. If you're Christ's slave, if you're serving him, right? And we know this, what we read this morning is that wives were being called to the unbelievable task of submitting to a terrible husband. And this was so that they would be one without a word, but through their conduct, the terrible one would be one. Right?

So we can use Hudson as a bit of an example, is that he's dressing this wound, and he's caring for this sick man that hates the God that Hudson loves. And he's just working and gentle, And it was through His activity that He was won. And so we see God's promises being worked out in stories like that. And that's why we're called to do that. And we know this for sure, that they won't be won by the opposite.

Scoffing, rude, arrogant, unpleasant, not working diligently. We won't win anyone like that. Because that's human nature. That's what we do without trying, right? It's not unusual for you to do that.

It's not unusual for me to do that because that is just like the rest of the world. But when the Scripture says that we're called to give an account for the hope that is found in us, somebody's got to see it. So the second way we please Him is by doing our daily work to His glory, not just in evangelism. Remember what Paul says? I already read that.

I'm sticking to my notes, because I was way over time. To know this, you're serving God as you do your daily work. As you do the dishes, as you mow your lawn, as you bathe your children. Colossians 3.17 says, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Can you imagine doing that while you're mowing?

Thank you, God, you've given me this task and I can do it. And I feel my flesh griping. That's when, that's our reminder. If we take a note, like the string tied around our finger, that's our reminder, that's something of the mechanics in fasting, right? Some of the mechanical features of fasting is that when you feel hungry you pray, and your body says pray, pray, pray, And it's that constant reminder.

We do this, we consider this, that when we are prone to gripe and be sarcastic and rebel. Return with grace. Return with thanksgiving, knowing this is my moment. This is my moment to serve the one that I only want to please. Do you see how that could help if we employ?

For me, it would be a constant reminder. The third way we please the Lord is by keeping Sunday special. Luke 416 tells us the Lord had a custom while he was here. It was to attend the synagogue one day in seven. Now we please the Lord by having a pattern in keeping the Lord's day holy.

We keep Sunday's holy. Or Separate, different is the point. To hear from Him. To be with His people. To share each other's burdens.

To exhort one another. To leave all the other weekly things behind. Let the weeds grow in the garden. Let the clothes go unwashed. They'll be there tomorrow.

Amen? We shut the door of our workplace. We keep the computer off. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. And on the seventh you shall have an holy day." We won't get into which day, but you should do this receiving the gift that it is and give thanks to Him who gave it.

This is pleasing to Him. If we talk about our aim and our motive is to be pleasing to Him, when we take a day that could be separate and for Him, and we use it for ourself, could that be the opposite anymore? The fourth way. We please Him, and this is the end. The fourth way we please the Lord is by having a godly home.

God ordained the family. He ordained marriage. He saw that Adam was alone and he said it wasn't good. And if Adam had said, well, I like my space, this is all just conjecture. God would have said, too bad, it's not good for you.

When we endeavor to have a godly home, we seek the design that was given for man. Not only was it just a design given for man for us to be fruitful and multiply and produce godly offspring, but it is such a tool of sanctification that God uses for us. Because when you're in isolation, you do whatever pleases you. When you're in community with your family, with your spouse, and with your children, you're serving. If it's cohesive, you're serving.

And that's where the beauty lies. You're serving and you're not serving to please yourself, You're serving to please others. I can tell you, man, at the end of the day, I want to be in that recliner. I need to lay on my back because I've got some knots in my trap and my kids need me. And my wife needs me.

It's not serving me. I don't want to do that. I'm serving the Lord when I do that. If my motivation wasn't enough for my children and for my kids, it should be for my God. Amen?

And you can tell them when they're being little devils, I'm not doing this for you. It's okay. Teach them what sin is, young. God ordained marriage. He built this to be a picture of Christ in the church.

He calls men to sacrifice themselves for their wives, as Christ gave Himself for the church, for the wife to do likewise, to die to self and submit to the man as the church submits to Christ, and to raise their children that He gives them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Our pleasing Him is always found when we seek the Word of God and we find how He calls us to obedience. That's pleasing to Him. The point I think is this, that in all of our doing, we are mindful of our motive. Our motive is where this key is.

There's good things to be done. There's completely benign and idle things. Like golf. I'm kidding. But Let me give you an example and I'll use golf.

Golf, there is no problem with a refreshment, right? So you do all that you do as unto the Lord. Does that mean you have to work your fingers to the bone? Is the Lord not giving you a day just to rest? And He said it was for you?

The Lord wants you to rest. You can't work hard if you're not rested. So a time of refreshment is okay. There was a pastor that I loved a long time ago. I'll leave him nameless for now.

But He spoke a message called the problem with pleasure. And the problem with pleasure, ultimately, if we just reduced it to one small thing, was that when you have an aim, when you have a motive and you have a destination and let's just something we can all resonate with, let's call it finances, and we want to hurry up and we want to pay our car off or whatever the objective is, you have an objective and anything you do that Refreshes you but doesn't deviate from the objective that's valid pleasure Anything you do that takes you off course of the objective and makes you take steps backwards from getting to that goal, that's an illegitimate pleasure. That's an illegitimate, it's not just refreshment. So that was just one way and I've carried that with me all my life to kind of help me qualify some, you know, when you're running finances or you're running just quite frankly decisions with our children, the way we should be training them and when we should start and how we should apply and Courtney and I often say, what is our chief objective with these kids? We can't get all spun out of control with everything in between.

We have to know if we're on course with that objective, we're good. Just take care of that. Keep it simple. Pay attention to the main things. The main thing I submit to you here is that in all of our doing, that we're mindful of our motive, Paul's motive was clear, was it not?

Paul's passion and his desire was clear, and I don't know about you, but I was pricked in my heart when I considered how much he was just okay with translating to the other life. And I still have a lot of bottled up fear in that area. And think, I would have before more seriously considering these things, I would have saw those thoughts as pure or relative, not as having affections too strong with this place. But we can't escape that. That is true.

That is true. If you search your own mind, your own heart, the quietness of your own heart, and just think, how am I fearful of death? Ray Comfort says this to people a lot. He'll walk up to somebody on the street And he'll say, is fear good or bad? And many will say, oh, fear is bad.

And he'll say, okay, so imagine you walk up to a cliff and there's a 10, 000 foot drop. And as you realize and you see over that drop, fear makes you step back. In that moment, fear is your friend, right? Fear is telling you, get back, get back, do what is best for you. Right?

So fear, this fear of death, when we see it, our culture and our society has gotten to a point where we cover it up and we cover it up good. And we run from it. But not so many years ago, grandparents lived it with you. Two, three generations lived and we saw death. And look, you go back a couple hundred years and people had like 19 kids and they raised four.

Death was a regular thing. Children saw it. We saw it. And it can be a gift from God that says your tent is going to fold up. And if you don't believe me, just start counting the angst and pains, and as they increase, you'll know, you'll see.

The statistics are 10 people out of 10. Right? This fear is your friend because it's saying, pay attention, this is happening. When we see someone like Paul face death as courageously and without fear as probably we've ever seen, wouldn't we say, Paul, give us an account for the hope that you have. Tell us about that.

That's why He's writing here. He's not writing this suicide letter. That's not at all what this is. He says clearly, whether I'm here or whether I'm there, you know what, I'd prefer it there, but God's got me here. So I'm going to just serve Him and please Him, And that's going to come.

There's no ushering that in. But that hope that's in Him, that courage, that word we saw, hypostasis, that good cheer that He faces that, That is what primarily compels him in his daily activity to watch his motives, and it informs his motives about how they ought to be. And I would suggest that we could take that with us, if nothing else. We could take a note from Paul's courage. We could understand as we see and we think about our mortality, that that fear is driving us to the God who can sustain and provide and produce courage that Paul has.

And as a church, we encourage one another. Don't you dare let the devil take a message like this and call you inadequate. And have you walk away from here going, oh, my motives are wrong and I'm only self-serving and woe is me, I'm terrible, I'm wretched. Those all things may be true, but the mercy of God will be new in the morning. And what you need to be doing is you need to be considering your own motives and maybe the way you fail, hey look, we all have this skill set which is seeing each other's problems more clearly than our own.

Encourage me. Tell me that my motive should be to be pleasing to Him. I'll encourage you. If someone is facing the end of their life, encourage them with these words. Encourage them with the hope that we have.

This should be uplifting and this should be informing your life and then you should be bearing with and edifying and encouraging one another with them. With that, we draw to a close. We'll pray and thank the Lord for His Word. Father God, we thank You Father, we thank you for being the provider of all things to us. Us, the provider of trust, that we're not hopeless in this body.

Lord, would you enlighten our minds and our hearts that we can look to that which is unseen and not what is seen, that we can walk by faith and not by sight. That our faith would have substance, our faith would be, our faith's substance would be substantiated with you. Lord, would you do this work and these people in my heart and in theirs that we could walk about this life and we could have as our aim and our motive to be pleasing to you, Father, in whatever we do. We love you. We thank you.

Christ name.