Heavenly Perspective

Have you hope you have your bibles if you'll turn with me the Second Corinthians

chapter five this morning. Second Corinthians chapter five this morning, I'm going to

step away for um this morning and to be and first Corinthians. I just

felt the Lord leading us to this passage and special pastors for me. I

want to just say, as a point of privilege, U as I start

this morning, most of you have heard this week, but if you haven't,

my dad passed away Monday, and I just want to say, UM,

as your pastor, thank you for loving on me UM and this last

week, the cards that I've gotten, the text messages, just the time

that you allowed me to be away to be with my family. UM,

the support of people showing up to the visitation and showing up to the funeral

has meant so much to me. So thank you for loving on me.

UM. It has You'll never know just what you have meant to me,

what you've meant to my family, UM and and these this last week,

but just in the last month. So thank you so much Church for for

being a loving church and loving on me and caring for me, allowing me

to have time. And so I want to share a passage of scripture with

you this one, and it's Sacrinthians chapter five, and we'll go read verses

one through ten. Now, if you were at the funeral, this may

sound very familiar. This is a passage I actually shared at my dad's service.

And so I will probably say to you today, be gracious to your

pastor now you just probably won't be a normal day for just be like a

normal Sunday for you, because you know, like my tear ducks are attached

to my heart right and if I um, it's something pulls out my heart,

it will pull in my eyes and I will cry. So if I

cry today, just it's probably part for the course. It's pretty normal,

but maybe a little bit more sensitive this morning. But it's just you know,

this week, as I was preparing for that service, God let me

to this passage of scripture and the church You've been great about just letting me

just be with my family, and I've not really had a whole lot of

correspondence with anything going on but as to this week. But we were thinking

about what we're going to do for today, and Devin's like, Devin,

and the Elder's like, you're not going to preach and I'm like, yes,

I'm going to preach, and they're like, you're not going to preach.

You need a Sunday off. I said, no, no, no,

I'm going to preach. And so but immediately, like Wednesday, this

passage came to my heart for the funeral, and I said, you know,

if I can preach it for the funeral, I'm going to preach it

for Sunday. And so I believe the Lord just led me to it,

and I pray that it will speak to you as it's spoken to me,

and I pray God to use it this morning in a great way. At

the title of my sermon is a heavenly perspective. A heavenly perspective. You

know you always heard that maybe statement or saying it's all about perspective, and

it's kind of the idea that's all about how you look at things, right.

You know, if you're a North Carolina or a State fan and you

watch a North Carolina State game, if you're a State fan and State win

ends you're cheering, right, this is great. But from your perspective as

a State fan, this is great. To beat those tar Hills up,

that's wonderful. If you're a tar Hill watching the state game and you lose

the sy State, it is not so pleasant, right. You don't like

those wolf Pack and you don't want to see that red team win. Right.

So it's all about perspective. It's all about how you see things right.

Well, this morning, as we come to this passage scripture, Paul

is talking about us having a heavenly perspective, and I want us to look

at that this morning. And now I'm gonna share a lot of Dad's stories

today, so just bear with me. Hopefully I don't cry all the way

through them, but I just think there's several things that us just seeing in

his life and just stories that I think will that you relate to this message

this morning. But I grew up in Monroe and North Carolina right out so

Unionville area, and we actually across the house that we grew up in,

across the street basically from our house was a chicken farm. Now in Union

County, chicken farming it's huge, it's a big part of the farming industry.

My dad actually worked for Tyson Um, so many of you for me

were Tyson Chicken. My dad worked for them, and the processing plant was

in a little town called Marshfall just down the road, so it's probably like

thirty minutes from my house. So you imagine all there's many people, many

farmers who were in chicken farming, and there was a chicken farm literally across

the street my house growing up, and so you know, every I forgot

how many months would go by. You know, they get the chicken houses.

I'm not sure if you're familiar, so how much familiar you are with

chicken farming. But you get chickens and they don't stay but in your houses

for maybe a few months, and then their process well, you know there's

a little bit of like I guess um downsizes to living so close to a

chicken farm when is the smell? And the second thing is by a living

close to a chicken farm is when they would come and get the chickens.

They would they would come and get them in chicken trucks, which is like

an eighteen wheeler, and it's just got you know, cages where they catch

I mean it's like thirty thousand birds, a massive amount, and they have

them in their cages and then when they drive by your house, well you

can imagine chicken on the back of a truck when you know, well,

it's just all the feathers from those chickens for that chicken truck were all over

our yard. I mean all over. And I would say the worst job

my dad ever gave me was a placid bag and said that Jonathan go into

the yard and get up all the feathers. I hated that job. That

was the worst job. It's picking up all the feathers that came across the

front of our yard. And I remember I would go outside and I would

just seeing all those feathers, and I was so frustrated that I had to

pick up all the feathers. And I felt like I'd start on one side

of the yard and as I would go, and you know, I would

pick up like twenty thirty, one hundred, whatever it may be. And

you know, as a kid, you know, my back hurts, daddy,

my hands are hurting, daddy. You know I'm making up all these

excuses. And I would get so frustrated because I pick up about one hundred

feathers, only look up and there to be another hundred more that you had

to go. And so but for me, the problem with my pain or

problem with my frustration is I lost sight of the end goal. For me,

it was all about how many feathers were left, and how much by

back hurt at the time, or how much I was tired of doing this,

or how hot it was. I was so focused on the things that

were happening around me. I didn't look. I didn't see the beauty of

the end goal. Well, Paul, and this passage of scripture this morning

is talking about us setting our minds to something. So look at with me

just before so first Christians fives of the passage. I really wanted to kind

of set down home, but I want you to see what he says before

that. Look at what it says, first Christians four or sixteen. So

we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our

inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction

is preparing for us an internal way of glory beyond all comparison. As we

look not to the things that are seen. I think about that, as

we look not to the things that are seen, but the things that are

unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that

are unseen or eternal. Paul is saying, right, now, Paul was

talking about going through an affliction. He describes that affliction as light. He

describes that affliction as momentary, meaning temporarily. Um he says, and this

light, temporary affliction was preparing an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

And then he talks about looking as we look not on the things seen.

What are the things that he saw? The things that he saw was the

afflictions are around him, the trouble that was around, the problems that were

around him. And he says, listen, I'm not looking to those things.

I'm looking through the things that are not seen. The things that are

seen or what they're temporary, they're only glass. That day, when I

was picking up the feathers, right, as much as I thought my back

hurt, it wasn't going to hurt forever. As much as I thought that

this chicken feathers would be there, there really wouldn't be there forever. Right,

There was all temporary things, right, And so but he says,

here we need to set our eyes on the unseen. That is the idea

for the word. Here is the gaze. It's setting one's mind pondering on

one things, keep thinking on something, fixing on something. So Paul wants

us to fix our minds to something this morning. Now it's what we see,

but what we don't see. And so this morning I want to see

what Paul tells us. That we need to fix our minds too. So

let's read God's word together. It's a stand together and read Second Cristians five.

We'll read one through ten. It says, for we know that if

this tent, our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from

God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For

in this temp we grown longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, and if

indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For

while we're still in this temp we grown being burdened, now that we'd be

unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal

may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very

thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So

we are always of good courage. We know that while we're at home and

the body, we're away from the Lord. And we walk by listen to

this by faith, not by what sight. Yes, we're a good courage.

We'd rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please

him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so

each one may receive what is for what he has done in the body,

whether good or evil. Just pray together, Father, I pray today as

we just think about this passage of scripture, I pray that we consider the

things that we've set our eyes on today. Maybe this is trouble in our

world. Maybe it's trouble in our family. Maybe it's trouble in our workplace.

Maybe it's financial trouble. Maybe circumstances are around us. And Lord,

our eyes are focused on those things today. Lord, today you ask us,

you're leading us. You're speaking to us about not setting our eyes on

the temporary things that there are afflictions that around us, but setting our eyes

in a different way to things that we cannot see. And so Lord,

I pray that you would speak to us. Lord, I pray you speak

to me. Lord. You know today I need you, Father, I

need your strength, I need your power, I need your peace. I

need your words today. So Father, feel me that you might speak through

me, and Lord, I pray today that we would hear Lord your voice,

and we would cherish the speaking of your voice in our heart and our

spirit today. So speak Father, that we long to listen. In your

name, we pray Amen, he may be seated. What does Paul want

you and I to fix our minds on to today? The unseen that he

wants us to fix our minds too. First, he wants to fix our

minds to the unseen heavenly body verse heavenly body. Look at the passage scripture,

he says in verse one, for we know that if this tent that

is our earthly home is destroyed. So first he describes an earthly home that

we live in as a tent. So if you think about earthly home here,

listen to say our bodies right, So Paul would say that we live

we have an earthly home here. And then it's not the how also address

that you live in and whatever type of house you may have. The home

that he's talking about here is the body that you do o land. He

calls that your earthly home, and he describes your earthly home. This is

so important listen to me. He describes your earthly home, the body in

which you live in today, as a tenth in a New Testament. At

times Paul was a tent maker, by the way, and then a New

Testament. At times, you would build a tent on your property before there

when you buy the land. When you purchase the land, the first thing

you would do is you would build a temporary tent on that piece of property.

In Africa, when we go and visit there, in Tanzania, they

don't finance homes. You don't go to a bank and finance you're going to

your house, build a house that's gonna cost you two hundred thousand. You

don't go to the bank and finance two hundred thousand and and then just go

to the land and just build a house and be done in a few months.

In Tanzania, you buy the land and then you build the house according

to the money that you have. So you may have a little bit of

money to build the tent, and then you maybe get a few more a

little bit more money down the road and you build the foundation, and it

may be a year goes by, you build some walls, and then the

new year ago you maybe build the wall, I mean the roof, and

you just do it as you get money. Well, New Testament times it

was the same way. You didn't finance and build a house all at one

time. You bought the land and then the first thing you do is put

a temporary tent on the property that you would live in as you gathered money

to build your permanent house. Paul describes. Listen to this. Paul describes

the body that you live in as a temporary home. It was never Your

body, as Paul would describes, was never to be your permanent dwelling.

Listen, it was never. You can imagine when New Testament times, or

even in tencent, the end of the day, when they put a tent

on the property, they know that tent's not in the last thirty years.

They know it may not even last ten years. Right, it's temporary.

It's only supposed to get them through a period of time until what permanent house

is ready. Paul understands that the body that you lie live in was never

supposed to be your permanent home. There's a home that He has for you

prepared in glory in heaven that is your permanent home. The body that you

live in now is just the temporary home until you go to your eternal home.

And so Paul is saying that, and he's saying, listen, as

you are thinking about the things and the afflications that you're going through right now,

and you're set in your mind on those things you're facing those things,

he says, understands the things that you're going through right now are just temporary.

Why because you're living in a temporary body. This is your temporary home.

You've got another home, eternal home, a permanent home that Lord is

preparing you in heaven. And Paul says this, He describes this by the

way, just Paul talks talking about, well, we'll got a good time

this morning. I'll tell you I've already enjoyed this. Paul says in Second

Crintians just turned with me the chapter of four and Second Crintians four eight through

nine. Listen what he says. Paul talks about just the struggle that he

has failures in his life living in this temporary home. He talks about the

things, these afflictions that he has faced and he's endured in this life.

And this always says we are afflicted in every way, but not Crush We're

perplexed, but not driven to despair. We're persecuted, but not forsaken,

struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

so that life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. Paul talked

about listen, He's he's been afflicted in every way you can imagine. Physically,

he's been afflicted and emotionally, he's been afflicted. But in all those

affliction he was never a crush. He was perplexed thing facing in his life.

He just didn't understand, couldn't figure out, God, why why did

you do this? Why is this happening? I don't know how to do

this God, I don't know how to make it through this problem out how

we're going to get through it. You ever felt that way? Paul said

that was part of the afflictions that he had faced. He talked about not

only was he afflicted, but he was crushed, but he was never not

driven to despair, been persecuted. You've been persecuted for your faith. I

tell you if Paul said he had, I tell you, by the way,

if you're a believer, or you will be persecuted. Some of that

may be income to form of your family push you away for trying to live

for the Lord. Maybe it's friends who push you away from trying to live

for the Lord. May be classmates who push you away from trying to stand

for the Lord. If you live for Jesus, you're not of this world.

In this world will hate you like he hated Jesus. You will face

persecution. So he talks about all the different ways that he was afflicted.

But Paul says, all those afflictions, listen, all the struggles that you're

facing right now. Whether it's you're perplexed with what's happening in your life.

Maybe you're afflicted with some health issues. Maybe you're affliction with financial issues.

Maybe you're afflicted with some stress that you have in your life. Maybe it's

depression, maybe it's anxiety. I don't know what the different things it's coming

and gets you today. But Paul says, listen to me today. It's

temporary. Why because right now you're in your temporary home, he says,

But listen, he says, look at the passage. He says, I

don't want you to think about the temporary body, the temporary I want you

to think about the heavenly home. This is what he says. So if

this earthly home will go worth verse once where we know that that if this

tent, our earthly home is destroyed. So if the tent fails, if

it dies, if you're using the immagery here at Paul's giving, we have

a building from God, a house not made with hands, but a house

what that eas eternal in the heavens. So Paul says, if this body

that we live in dies, we have a heavenly home, a heavenly body

that God has made for you. And how would Paul describes that? Who's

the builder of this heavenly body? I love this, God's the builder.

He describes this kind of mortal versus immortal. Here it says, we have

a building from God, a house not made with hands, that is kind

of like a mortal body, but it is what it's dead. It's an

internal body that's internal into heavens. Can I tell you he has this imagery

of building. This body we live in is was temporarily. It's never meant

to last forever. It's fragile, it's destructible. God's preparing us for a

greater body, a permanent that's immortal. You know, my dad was a

builder. He built a lot of different things. He was a pilot.

Hearing me talk about that. He was a private pilot from since all the

time I was a little boy, and he built many different things. He

actually built the plane he is u. He had. It was called an

RV Van's Aircraft RV six. It's a kid plane. You buy the kid

and you build it. And he had a bunch of his pilot buddies and

him winning together Jars if you're her, Jars, Bible translators, jars some

of them. Some of the men who worked for Jars helped Dad build his

plane. Took him like six years and he built it. He was a

builder. He was really good with doing different things. He also owned his

own construction business where he built chicken and turkey houses, and he did a

lot of things. Daddy was a fixer. Dad was always really good and

um, I would call Dad and I would have a problem with something,

whether it's a car or something, and Dad would always be good about fixing

it or having a solution to how to fix it. But you know,

one thing, Dad, as good as he was at fixing a plane or

a good as he was at building, fixing a house or maybe even cars.

At times, there's one thing that Dad couldn't fix, and that was

his body. Now I'll tell you my daddy tried. My dad was a

natural. I wouldn't say my dad was a natural way of trying to fix

things. He would try any natural means necessary. He didn't really was had

speculation about doctors, to be honest with you, So he tried natural means.

Jogging into juice, jogging into jug ever heard of that? It's about

it in the eighties nineties, cherry juice, airberry juice, vitamins V eight

He ate he found for harm or one time that sold quail eggs and if

you ate two quail eggs a day, that it would help all your curious

And he ate two quail eggs a day for like a year. Just no,

that was gonna be it. That was going to be the end all

balance of nature. He had some cousin that had was a chiropractor and he

had some kind of venus fire trap vitamins or juice or syrup or something whatever

it was. And Dad heard about that. Surely that was gonna fix it

all U. And one time he called my step brother, and and he

said, up, Bobby, come come to the house. I'm not feeling

good. And Bobby Jervis to the house and he said, he said,

Bobby, I'm just not feeling good. He said, I got into pain

in my temples. And he said, I kind of feel like I'm getting

hot. And he said, well, Mike, he put checked his hand.

He says, you got a temperature. He feel fine, you little

fine your colors, he said, but I got this pain in my temples

and I feel like I'm hot. Well, Bobby looking it up and that

being his fly trap stuff that he was taken somehow. One of the side

effects was hot flashes, and Daddy was just having a little hot flash.

But it wouldn't stop him. He would get into essential ols. One time

we went to a restaurant and we came out of the restaurant and my daddy

was a man's man. He just he really was. And next thing I

know, a song reach in his pocket. He was doing something. I

said, Daddy, what are you doing? He said, well, I

got got my haircut the other day and the lady was telling me about Central

on on. I got me a little bit of peppermint hawks said, Daddy,

Oh, Daddy, I didn't think. There's one thing I thought I'd

never see you do, but you rubbing Central ols on your wrist. I

didn't think I'd ever see my daddy do that. Man, if he thought,

if he if he heard somebody who said it worked for them, he

would sure try ites central or super beats. He tried him, prune juice,

Dad's best friend. He tried at all. But as hard as he

tried, and as hard as the best doctors and Charlotte tried, nothing could

fix Dad's temporary body. It's not made to last forever. And Parkinson's and

Louis Bodi's dementia and cancer destroyed his earthly tent. And I wonder for you

today. Maybe you're here today and you're getting frustrated. Man, Why does

it seem like and do you feel this way? Why does it seem like

I get over one thing and something else comes. I get over one affliction

and another affliction comes. I get over a financial problem and then the health

problem comes. I give over relationship problems and a financial problem comes. It

just seems like there's always an affliction around the corner. As Prechageria used to

say, you're either in a storm, about to come out of a storm,

or about to go in a storm. And then does it not feel

that way in your life? Lord? Why I am I always afflicted?

You know why? Because this is our temporary home, and there should be

a what Paul is going to describe in a second, there should be a

longing for us to leave this temporary home and go to our permanent home.

This is what Paul says. He says that next in this passage, it

is a good segue right into my next point verse two. It says,

for in this tent, we've grown longing to put off, to put on

our heavenly dwelling, and if indeed, by putting it on, we may

not be found naked. For while we're still in this tent, we've grown

being burdened. Not that we'd be further be unclosed, but that we be

further closed. So what be what is mortal, may be swallowed up by

light, ummy by life. Paul says, I want you to fix your

eyes on the unseen, the unseen heavenly body, Paul says, on which,

just fix your eyes on the unseen and heavily listen to this heavenly groaning.

Groaning here is the idea of It's not a despair or agony or you

know, when we think of groaning, we think of someone who's in pain,

right and they grown. Oh, that's what we think of groaning.

That's not the that's not the imagery here. The imagery of a groaning here

is someone who has a longing for something right. You know, like now

you're probably thinking, in thirty minutes, preacher, if you're not finished,

I'm going to groan for some French fries, right, or some sweet tea

or something to eat. That's this longing for something right. That's the idea

of this passage is there's this groaning, this longing, and what Paul's describing

here is a longing for a heavenly body, a heavenly home. Listen what

he says for in this tent, in this temporary body we're living in,

we have a longing for a heavenly dwelling. We have a longing for an

eternal body. So you see this imagery. By the way, can I

tell you Scripture says Paul says that he had this groaning or this longing and

this heavenly dwelling that God had prepared for him, that believers had this groaning

for this heavenly home, that God had prepared for them. But can I

tell you looking with me, if you turn with me to Romans eight,

it was a beautiful passage of scripture. Paul talks about enrollmans that not only

that believers, and you're going to see this in this passage, not only

does believers groan for heavenly dwelling, but listen, creation groans. Do you

know when Adam and Eve took of them that that fruit that day and sin

entered into humanity, there was a curse that came upon all humanity. It

came upon man. They were cursed. They were separated from the garden of

Eden. They were cursed with um hard work. Right, there was thorns

in their work, they were sweat on their brow. There was pains and

childbirth. There's pain that came upon men, and that was part of the

curse. They always would suffer what affliction? Why because sin entered into the

world. They would suffer the pains of death. Why because of the curses

of sin? Therefore we all what grown? Why because we're grown, because

we're tired of the afflictions of this temporary home. But the Bible says,

not only was the curse put upon man, but creation itself. Think about

that our world, the atmosphere, the storms, hurricanes, tsunamis all those

things. How the world earth itself was curse from sin. And Paul would

say in Romans at that creation, listen to this creation's groans for a heavenly

home. This is what it says. Read with me, this is for

our consider the suffering because of this present time not worthy compared to the glory

that is revealed to us. Very similar imagery from the past were just that

we're reading today. For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the

sons of God. For creation was subjected to futility. That's with the imagery

I just described to you, not willingly, but because of him who's subjected

it. In hope that creation itself listen to this, will be free from

its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of

God. And we know that whole creation listen to this, has been groaning

together and the pains of childbirth until now. Not only creation, but we

ourselves, who at the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait

that eagerly for the adoptions as sons the redemption. Listen to this of our

bodies, and in this hope we were saved. Now that is seen is

not hope, but for who hopes and what he sees. But if we

hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Scripture says, Paul would say, creation groans. Listen those passage groaning to

be what free from bondage, free from corruption. But not only does the

creation grown to be free, we grown to be free, free from the

curses of sin, free from the pain of the infliction of our bodies.

But listen, Scripture says, here we grown for the redemptions of our bodies.

Paul would go on to describe something I think is really important, and

we'll go through this quickly. But Paul says, here and in verse two,

and this tent we've grown long to put on, heavenly do all in

verse three. And this probably brings up a little confusion if you're reading it.

If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked.

So who's understanding? In New Testament times, it was this philosophy among

the Greeks that what was evil about man and about humanity was the body.

That the soul inherently was good, but it was the body that was evil.

And so there was a desire from Roman thinking thinkers that the ultimate desire

would be to be freed from your body. Barclay, who's a writer about

the Letter Corinthians, talked about Greek philosopher thinking who said the body, this

body is a tomb m One writer would say, thou art poor soul,

burden with a corpse um Seneca, which was a writer at the time and

Greek, was a Greek philosopher. I am, I am a higher being

being born of higher things, than to be a slave of my body,

which I look upon as a shackle upon my freedom. And so detestable habitation

dwells the free soul. So that the idea was for them, and this

was a false teaching in the New Testament times is that for people, the

best thing for you do to be free from your body. If you're just

free, if your soul was free from this this evil body of yours,

then you'd be okay. And so Paul is explaining this passage of scripture here,

this is not narcissism. This is not this idea that ideally will be

okay if we're just free from the body. Paul is saying, here,

if we're growing long to put on a heavenly dwelling and so being found naked

was there was the idea of um and that's what Paul's combatting, not that

your your body, you would just be a spirit and that you would not

have a So the idea of naked is a spirit, a soul without a

body. And Paul saying, listen, this is not what we're longing for.

No, there is a heavenly body that Christ will have for us,

and it is an actual body. We're not We're not going to be a

spirit. We're not just going to be a soul. No, God has

a heavenly dwelling prepared for us, and that's why he describes usum. He's

a Verse three says anybody putting it on, we may not be found naked.

For Verse for said, while we're still in this tent, we've grown

being burdened. Not we'd be unclosed, that's unclothed. That means a spirit

without a body. That but that we would be further closed. What may

be morantal may be swallowed up by life, and so he talks about this

idea of God's preparing a literal body. It's not immortal body that's corruptible or

afflicted, but it's an eternal body and immortal body, it's somebody that's not

corruptible, you know. For my dad, Um, I think once he

realized that his body was failing, I think God gave him my dad as

spirit that the time was coming and his tent was was failing. As hard

as he tried, and we tried, and the best doctors triede it was

it was dying. One day. I was really in this last year.

I was traveling back and forth a good bit to be with Dad and spend

as much time as I could with him. And UM, I'm a foodie.

Must of y'all know that I'd love to eat and UM, I got

that from my dad, and we would always go eat somewhere a lot of

times. KFC. I've ate more KFC Chicken in the last year than I've

eaten in twenty years. UM. So he loved KFC. So we I

think we're on the way to KFC and um, and we stopped by a

light on the way there, and Dad reached over, and this was when

Dad's mom was really clear, and he put his arm on me, his

hand on my shoulder, and he said, Jonathan, he says, I'm

ready. He said, I'm ready to go home. And I said,

well, I think I looked to him and I put my hand on his

shoulder, and I said, well, I'm glad you're ready to go home,

but I'm not ready for you to go home. I said, I

want, I said, I said, the Lord hadn't told me yet,

not that the Lord would tell me, but you know, I was trying

to use some of that preacher you know, you know, maybe on me.

I said, Daddy, I'm not ready for you. But Dad was

saying then, and I saw something that I didn't think i'd ever see in

my Daddy. I saw a longing for heaven, a longing for a heavenly

body. He was tired of the flictions of this world. He was tired

of the flictions of this body, and he knew God had something for him

far better in this world. And this last week or last two weeks,

he began telling me and my sisters, I'm ready. I'm ready to go

home. I'm ready to go home. There was a longing for heavenly body.

I really believe that had set his eyes, because what he saw here

was what he saw, nothing but affliction. No more walking, no more

flying, no more driving, no more things that he enjoyed, enjoyed.

They were all fading away, and so if he focused on the things that

were here, he would just live in a state of discouragement. Instead,

he focused his eyes on the unseen, and the unseen was a heavenly body

that God had prepared for him. Would you see him, y'all? I

hope y'all brought a bag lunch. Maybe here for a while. Can I

ask you today, and I want you to think about this is what do

you long for in this world? Do you long for peace? For comfor

for happiness, for that four one K, for retirement, for a relationship?

What's longing you? What's longing in you? What are you trying to

find happiness in this world? Can I tell you? If you put your

happiness in things that are temporary, to listen to this, they will net

us never satisfy. Why because they were never meant to satisfy. There's only

one thing that we should set our eyes on. We just set our eyes

on a heavenly body, and we should have a groaning for our heavenly home.

Listen, lastly here it's third is there's a heavenly aim. And I

love how Paul ends this passage of scripture verse six through ten. He says,

so we are all of good courage, and so he's told them a

lot about this affliction. He's taught being perplexed, being driven to, not

driven despair, struck down, not destroyed, always carrying the the body of

death. He ever felt like, Man, I just feel like I'm carrying

a body of death. It just seems like things are just getting worse and

worse and worse. Paul talks about it's kind of like Debbie Downer here,

and he talks about all this negative stuff, bad stuff that's happening. His

body's being destroyed. Verse six, he says, but we're courage, man,

things getting worse. Hey, we're excited, We're encouraged. And why

does Paul say this? So we're always of courage because we know that while

we're at home and the body we're away from the Lord. He says,

we know that we're we're in this tent right now we're away from the Lord.

But listen to what he says. We went home at the body,

away from from the Lord. But verse seven says, and we walked by

faith, not by sight. You know. Um, My dad was a

pilot, and one day he came and got me and and he was taking

me on a mission trip. I was actually was flying me to an airport

where I would fly out of there on a mission trip, my first mission

trip. So I was in green Sea, Myrtle bea Cheriat. He was

flying me to Green South Carolina, and his little two seat or plane,

and we got into plane. He says, Man, it was really worried

about to day. I went sure if it was going to happen, And

he says, but whether it's clear, he says, But if the weather

was bad at all, he says, I just we'd had to do something

else. He had his instruments. He has all kinds of instruments inside of

his plane, and one of his instruments was out, wasn't working. And

it was called and I think this is a name of it. Some polots,

if you're here, you can help correct me, but I think it

was called the artificial horizon. And basically what that instrument does. It basically

tells you whether the plane's upside down or not, where the horizon is.

And you said, well that, I mean, that's kind of obvious.

I mean you look at outside and see what's up and what's down. Right.

But Dad explained to me he had that one wasn't working. He did

have his GPS, as GPS had it built into it as well, so

it was he had kind of a backup. But he said, the artificial

horizon is really important. And I said, well why. I mean again,

like you're probably thinking, I can look outside, I can tell you

what's up and what's down. He says, well, really you you think

that, But he says when you get into the clouds and you're flying through

a cloud, he says, you will never believe what your mind will do

to you. And he says, so many pilots have gotten in a lot

of trouble many times and have crashed because they've gotten in a cloud, especially

on landing, and they're coming down and a lot of times if there's low

lying clouds, they're coming down, they're sending and then they get into cloud

and I can't figure out what's up and down. And he says, one

wrong move real quick, you're in trouble. And John Kennedy Junior, by

the way, many of you know, died an airplane crashs and that's what

happened. He was flying over a body of water. And as you look

over water or water, if it's still, it looks like a mirror,

and it looks just like the sky above. And he couldn't tell what was

the sky and what was the water, and he went the wrong way and

he crashed it and killed himself accidentally. So that says you need the artificial

rising, because your mom and your eyes will tell you one thing. He

says, you need the artificial rising to make sure you don't you don't trust

in what you see. You trust in the instruments that you have. And

Dad had his instrument rating. That means he could fly the entire plane without

looking out the windows. And so you know, you think about that.

But that's a lot like a life of a believer. If you focus on

the things that you see around you, Sometimes you don't know what's up or

down. You don't know if you're about to crash or things are about to

rise up. You feel like everything's crumbling around you. You don't know what

direction to go. And Paul is saying that here in this pastor's scripture.

Listen to what he says. So we walk by what We walk by faith,

not by what sight. Dad, I think for for for him,

he was walking by faith? And what was he walking by faith? Because

what was he seeing? He's seeing a that was falling. You see,

no more flying and no more working, no more guarding, no more driving.

So what did he fix his eyes on? Faith? And what the

word of God's soul says, faith in Jesus. And that's what he set

his eyes on, was faith. You know, as you look at this

passage, I want you to think for you today, what's what problems are

surrounding you? Is the problems at work, because the problems at homes,

the problems in your health is the problems with sin. Financial trouble is anxiety

of depression. Are you walking by faith? Are you walking by sight?

Are you living trying to put out the fires around your life? Are you

saying, God, I can't focus on those things around me. God,

I need to set my eyes on you, and I allow these afflictions to

have whelmed me, but keep my eyes on you. Okay, I've got

to keep going. I got a lot to cover. I want you to

see what else he says in verse this as he ends, because again he

talks about this, and then verse eight he says, we're good courage.

Again, Yes, we're a good courage, and we'd rather be away from

the body and at home with the Lord. So he says, listen to

the beginning, he says, we know that while we're at home and the

body, we're away from the Lord. We walk by faith and then this

body we walk by faith, not by sight. We cannot live by by

looking at all the things that are coming, yet, says we'll live in

just depression and despair. We've got to walk by faith in Jesus. And

then verse eight he says, we're a good courage. Why because we'd rather

be away from this mass right and be at home with the Lord. But

listen in a way, he says. But verse nine says, but whether

we're at home or away, whether we're home and this body or we're it

away and that's in home and heaven. We make it our aim to please

him. This word aim, and I'm going to quickly go through this word

aim is also found in other passage of scripture. The most famous to me

is Revelation twenty one six, and it says that he said to me,

it is done. I'm the Alpha and the mega, the beginning and the

end to the Thursday, I will give from the spring of water and life

without payment. In this passage, he said it is done. He's quoting

the Lord, the Lord saying it is done. This is the end of

all things. And then he declares who he is. He says, I

am the Alpha and the Omega. Alpha is the first letter in the alphabet,

Omega is the last. He says, I had the first words,

and one day I'll have the last words when I say it is finished.

And then he says, and I was the beginning and the end. I

was the first thing in the earth, and then the very end, I

will be the only thing that's left. You see that Paul uses that word

end is the same word in verse nine when we use we make it our

what aim? You know what Paul is saying, We make it our end

goal to please Jesus. You know, dad Um would have his plane and

one thing that he would do when we get up in the plane, and

he'd take off and or even when we're taxing, he would we would talk

about where we were going, if it was Greenville or if it's Raleigh.

Raleigh has a number I don't know if you know that, and you put

that in and it's literally r DU and that's the side of an RDU airport.

If you go to Orlando's MCO. I think I used to know a

bunch of different ones, but there's the ones I've flown to the most.

But you put that in and his GPS, and he put it into all

his little things, his instruments, and then when he got up into the

air, he would set his he follows instruments, and he set his navigation

toward that direction. He even had autopilot, and he could hit in the

GPS and he'd hit the autopilot and the autopalot would turn a plane to go

towards the goal. Now we're sitting in the plane over Munroe and you look

out and all you see is trees. You can't see down the road like

I see are to you down the road? No, No, you're you're

so far away from it you can't see the goal. But you're set on

the goal. You do the same thing, right, You get in your

car. You're headed to You're headed to a restaurant. Maybe it's the Q

Shack, which a great barbecue place. You go to your your car,

you search Q Shack, find out the address, and you hit go right,

and your car tells you where to turn right. When you're sitting in

your driveway, you don't see q Shack right. You know it's down the

road, but you can't see it from your house. But the car navigates

you to get you to that destination. He's seeing in this passage scripture that

you and I in our life, listen to me, we should set our

aim or our end goal of what is our final destination? What is our

final goal? And Paul says, we're a good courage Listen, we'd rather

be away from this afflictions of this world, and we'd rather be at home

with a lord. But Paul says, whether we're here or whether in heaven,

he says, let's set our aim, let's set our goal. Listen

to this to please Jesus, To please Jesus. So matter what afflictions may

come against us, no matter what sorrow comes against us, what laws,

what suffering, what confusion, what things that we don't understand what persecutions may

come again it against us. Set our aim Lord, with my life.

I want to focus my eyes on the unseen. Lord. You have a

heavenly body prepared for me. Lord, I want to have a heavenly groaning

that Lord, for what you have prepared for me. But lastly, Lord,

I want to have a heavenly aim to the goal of my life.

When my tape, my last breath is Lord, I want to please you,

Jesus. I want to please you. That's what I want to do.

That's how I want to end. Is I want to please you?

Jesus. I want to ask you today, what is your end? What

is the goal of your life? Is it your career, your four oh

one K, your retirement plan and those are all good things, but it

don't need to be the end. Is it your pickleball career? Played pickleball

for the first time the other day. Maybe it's another hobby. Maybe it's

a car, maybe it's a plane, maybe it's a house. Is you

for our teenagers? Is having a boyfriend or girlfriend? If I just had

that ought to be happy? Is it to please people? Where is the

goal of your life? To please Jesus? You pray with me. Father.

I thank you Lord for this morning. I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the words that you've led us to. I pray,

Lord, Father, and now always have a time of invitation, come

to this altar and pray. I pray you lead them do that. If

I could pray for some I pray you to lead them to come. Allow

me to pray with them. Father, I pray that we would think about,

Lord, what are we setting our eyes to? Are we focusing on

the unseen this morning? May we fix our minds Lord, to a heavenly

body. May we fix our minds to a heavenly groaning Lord. May we

fix our minds to a heavily visioned Lord that we want to end our life?

Please you, Lord, Jesus you will be the thing that the only

thing left in the end. Lord. And may we set our lives with

the goal Lord, wanting to please you. Lord. We thank you Lord

for this morning. I pray you lead us to this invitation. I pray

there's someone here today doesn't know you as Lord and Savior and God. Right

now they're facing all kinds of afflictions and there's no hope. They're facing all

kinds of issues, and Lord, there's nothing longing in their life but for

temporary things that don't last. And the goal of their life is their happiness,

the happiness they can't find in this world. Lord, I pray they'd

be those today, said Jesus, you are my only hope. Lord.

Lord, today I ask you to forgive me and my sins, cleanse me

of my sins. Lord, I believe that you died on a cross from

my sins, or today I can fasten. I'm a sinner that needs forgiveness.

Lord, I give you my heart, I give you my life,

or I put my faith in you for salvation. I pray there'd be some

today that would pray a prayer like that today, or they would surrender their

life to you, Lord, Jesus, Lord, lead us now in this

time of invitation. I pray Amen.