January 14, 2009
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2 Corinthians 5 Part 2 by Pastor Don
Part one is here.
2 Corinthians 5:3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
Stay humble, we are not all that. We will be exposed. We are responsible for what we design in our heads and for our wrong thoughts. We are responsible for what comes out of our mouths. The devil can put thoughts into our minds, but we do not have to entertain them. A computer has a delete button. We need to delete these thoughts. Take our thoughts captive to Christ. Make them obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
When rebellious thoughts get into our head, we need to take them captive, begin to think the way Jesus showed us to think. Wrong thinking can bring us back into our old ways of dealing with situations. If we don’t protect our minds, our inner physical spirit can come up and we can feel insecurity, fear, and lose control over our thoughts. Our spirit (physical spirit) can be put under obedience to Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:4 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.
It is a mystery (mortality swallowed up by life). Life is life, not the physical. We want the physical to begin to look more like the spiritual.
2 Corinthians 5:5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
We were given the Spirit as a guarantee. Pastor Don gave us an example. One day he was driving and his tire was flat, he took his wife’s car. They were going to get the tires replaced and Pastor Don knew that that bill would be $400-$500. But they had bought their tires at Mavis. The man checked the computer and found out that Pastor Don did not have a guarantee, but his wife did. Because his wife had a guarantee and he was her husband, he got a brand new tire that cost nothing to replace the flat one.
We have to know that we have a guarantee from God, and act like we have that guarantee. What is the guarantee? No matter how messed up we are in our mind, will, spirit, if we yield to the Cross, lay our life on the Cross, we are not righteous, but the Holy Spirit guarantees that we have life everlasting. We can run, fall, fail, get back up, and know that we still have the guarantee of eternal life.
The problem for the Body of Christ is: do we believe it or not? Do we believe it as we face our every day struggles? We can face them more powerful, greater, stronger, when we believe God. Yes, we may have to struggle with the flesh until Jesus cracks the sky. We can win in the Spirit every day. We have a guarantee, an assurance that God has said the truth.
Now we could go to another tire place, but we would not have the guarantee there. The other tire place would cost us something. When we go to the wrong place for our guarantee we stay sick longer, stay poor longer. We may not know that we have a guarantee. We need to change our life if we know who we are in Christ. We bring our minds under control and obedient to Christ.
Here is the key to the whole thing.
2 Corinthians 5:5-7 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.
God gives us the Spirit as a guarantee. When we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord. The Spirit is with us. Our hope in our Spirit body is greater than our hope in the physical body, but we do not act that way.
When we sincerely praise God we are never depressed. Depression lifts when we praise God. Praise makes our faith come alive and we feel good. Things can be as bad as they possibly can get, but Heaven is still a happy thought. Thinking about God and Heaven makes the depressed person feel better. When we remember Christ’s great love for us that He would sacrifice Himself for us on the cross we feel better. I need to get my eyes off of me and onto Jesus, then I will feel lifted up.
Remind ourselves that the Lord loves us. When we have an annoying person in our lives think of them as a Child of God and they are not quite as annoying. It can help us to be more patient. We also need more patience with the unsaved, for they don’t know any better.
Pastor Don told us that sometimes when he wakes up and doesn’t feel so good or is emotionally down, he walks outside and looks at the clouds and stars and that helps him to put things back into perspective.
Since it is true that the Spirit has been guaranteed to us, and is inside of us, we know what our Spirit man looks like no matter what the physical circumstances looks like. When our physical life is facing difficulties we can keep our eye on the prize.
Romans 8:14-25 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
We have a super service contract paid in full by Christ and it pays dividends to us. But we don’t want to fall into self-righteousness. We can’t earn this. But we do the job that God wants us to do from gratitude. The jobs we do are based on relationship with the one who hired us, not because of our job. We are not responsible to carry the weight of it all, just show up and obey.
2 Corinthians 5:7-8 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
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When we die we know that our physical dies, but our spirit immediately occupies our Spirit body, present with the Lord. The reality of the Spirit is greater. Our moments with God, visitations, praise and worship, is when our physical is present with the Lord here on earth, gives us glimpses of what our spirit will experience. When the Glory of the Lord falls, it is weighty, heavy.
Some of us are so spiritually minded we are no earthly good. We think that the Spirit is beyond what we can think, but it isn’t . We do have snippets of information about the Spirit. We see glimpses that keep us going until we too gain our resurrection and get a Spiritual body.
FAITH IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD. It is the blessed hope. And it keeps us doing Kingdom work and helps us to deal with the persecution that comes from that.
This was a powerful Bible study for me. I love the illustrations and the examples that help to clarify passages for me. To be honest it is a good reminder and I am glad I typed this today to remind me of these truths. I am having to spend more time in praise and worship today, to combat some negative emotions. Bible studies are important for they give us tools to work with if we will apply them to our lives.
Praying your day is blessed.
Heather
