June 23, 2012

Adopt a Heavenly Kingdom Mindset!

4th Sunday after Pentecost, 6/24/12
2 Corinthians 5:1-10


Adopt a Heavenly Kingdom Mindset!
I. Focused on the life to come
II. Living here for your Savior


We get so busy living this life that we need reminders from time to time that our focus should be on the life to come. Some of those reminders come in the unwanted form of the death of a loved one. Their passing slams us with our own mortality. Even in the prayer for comfort that we use in our worship after the death of a loved one, we ask that God would teach us to number our days on earth rightly and train our thoughts on the life to come.

Other reminders to do the same are a little more subtle. For instance, I recall last August when the Pluger family travelled to the Dayton airport so that they could fly to Zambia and begin their Bible translation work. All of their earthly possessions were packed into 8 containers each weighing 50 pounds or less. And that was for three people. It was a reminder to me that life isn’t about all the stuff we have. It’s about getting ready for the life to come which is what the Plugers were going to Zambia to do—get people prepared for heaven.

On any given day, I’m sure that every one of us, if given just a moment or two to think about it, would be able to state with certainty that this life is about getting ready for the next life. But we forget. We get distracted. We get confused. Our focus too easily shifts.

So, did you wake up this morning and say to yourself, “I hope and pray that today is the day I go to heaven”? Probably not. Like me, you have so many other things to think about. But our Lord uses his word to direct our attention to our life in heaven. In fact, he uses these words from St. Paul to encourage us to adopt that as our mindset, not just as a momentary contemplation. Adopt a heavenly kingdom mindset! May the Holy Spirit accomplish that in us today as we ponder these words of our Lord.

Part I.

Do you enjoying camping? By that I mean sleeping in a tent, not living in a home on wheels with all its creature comforts. Some of you might enjoy it, but others of you wouldn’t even consider it. You want to sleep in a bed, not a sleeping bag on the ground. You want a modern bathroom, not a discreet spot in the woods. But even if you do enjoy camping in a tent, I would assume you wouldn’t want to do it for the rest of your life. The fact that it’s only a temporary arrangement, a change of pace, is what makes it attractive to some of you.

St. Paul speaks of a tent in this morning’s text. He states, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed.” Paul is speaking not specifically about our bodies, but about our entire earthly existence, everything that makes up this life for us. And he draws on what we all know to be true. This existence is temporary. Nothing in this life lasts forever. We don’t last forever. The daily increase in our aches and pains is a pointed reminder that we are wearing out and eventually we will die. And even if our “stuff” in this life lasts longer than we do, it will eventually wear out or will finally be destroyed on the Last Day. This existence is temporary.

And that leaves us unsatisfied with this life. Tell me something. Don’t you feel a little unsettled when you purchase an item knowing that it’s only going to last a few months at best? You feel much better when an item comes with a lifetime guarantee. But almost always that’s just a marketing ploy. No one expects anything to last a lifetime.

In fact, the very word “lifetime” is a strong indicator of our own morality. It’s not eternal; it will only last as long as we do, and that varies from person to person. We all know that, if Jesus doesn’t return first, we’re going to get planted one day, and it may be sooner than we think. That leaves us feeling a bit unsettled.

Even more deeply than unsettled, that leaves us longing for something eternal. And that’s exactly the situation Paul describes, “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.” Paul speaks about putting on something eternal as if we were putting on clothing. It covers us completely, giving us the security that we’re hoping for, longing for, looking for. When we have come to the reality of an eternal life, all our disappointments with the temporal nature of everything in this life will be gone. We’ll begin enjoying eternity.

In fact, that’s our purpose. Have you ever wondered why you’re here or what you’re supposed to be doing in this life? It’s to secure eternal life. Paul states, “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose.” He has made us to live with him forever. That’s why he sent you a Savior from sin in the first place—to win your forgiveness and eternal life. If that’s what our purpose is, don’t you think we ought to live this life with that purpose in mind every day of it?

Adopt a heavenly kingdom mindset, a mindset that is focused on the life to come.

Do you realize how difficult that is? It might be somewhat easier as we sit in these church pews right now. Our thoughts our being pulled in the direction of our heavenly kingdom. But even here, we get distracted. We find our minds wandering. We think about what we have to do later today and what we want to do. And that only gets worse once we leave the premises. Then our world begins its constant assault to take control of our minds and lives, encouraging us to live for the here and now, as if that’s what life is all about. Our attention and effort are drawn, directed, diverted and driven toward everything but our life in God’s kingdom. Our lives get completely out of spiritual balance, and then we wonder why we feel so frustrated, so pointless and empty. It’s because our God made us to experience life with him in his kingdom forever. Our sinful wanderings away from him only bring frustration into our lives, not fulfillment. When our focus is properly on our spiritual lives, then we recognize our sins and we flee for forgiveness to Christ, whose life and death won not only our forgiveness, but our eternal life with our God as well. Adopt a heavenly kingdom mindset, a mindset focused on the life to come.

Part II.

I’m sure you’ve seen those calendars which feature an inspirational message for each day. Perhaps you own one. It might feature a wise or comforting phrase. Maybe it offers a famous quote. Better still, perhaps it offers a verse of Scripture.

Paul offers just such a verse. He writes, “Therefore, we are always confident.” The word for “confident” in the Greek also contains the ideas of courage and good cheer. Because our Savior has won heaven for us, we can live in daily confident courage.

First, we can live in confident courage regarding our daily struggles. Maybe those struggles concern your health or your employment. Perhaps they have to do with one of the important relationships in your life. Maybe your struggles are financial in nature. Whatever struggles you face, knowing that we’re just waiting for the life to come helps us deal with them. In fact, we know that ultimately we’ll win the battle with them. That’s confident courage.

That hope of heaven isn’t some foggy wish. It’s a reality. That’s why Paul restates, “We are confident, I say.” The promise of heaven isn’t some crutch to get weak people through this life. It’s not a pipedream devised to control the minds and lives of as many as possible. It’s a reality, a reality won for us by Christ. It’s our possession by faith in Jesus. That fills us with confident courage as we face this life.

In fact, that confident courage goes with us all the way to the judgment on the Last Day. Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” Don’t take those last words to mean that our good works will earn us a favorable judgment on the Last Day. Those words need to be understood in light of all the other passages of the Bible that tell us we can’t earn eternal life. So what do they mean? Paul here is speaking about the fruits of faith that Jesus spoke about in the familiar Parable of the Sower and the Seed. These fruits of faith are the crop that Jesus is looking for; they’re the good works we do out of love for Christ. We have no need to fear the judgment. By faith in Jesus we are innocent, forgiven, holy in God’s eyes.

“So we make it our goal to please him.” That’s our goal as Christians—living a life that is pleasing to the One who gives us our eternal life. What a different way of life that is!

Adopt a heavenly kingdom mindset, a mindset that involves living here for your Savior.

What a lofty goal in life—to live for your Savior who sacrificed himself for you! What Christian wouldn’t want to adopt that mindset? But it’s not easy. It’s not easy to maintain that mindset when you rub shoulders all day long with people who don’t share that mindset; in fact, their mindset may be the exact opposite. They live for themselves and they’ll say and do whatever helps them accomplish that goal. And it isn’t long before we find ourselves playing the same game, at least temporarily. And that’s when our heavenly mindset leads us to pray, “Lord, I know I haven’t lived for you. But that’s why you came here to me—to live perfectly for me and to die for my sins. Let the power of that forgiveness and new life with you enable me to live each day for you.” Now that’s a life worth living here! Adopt a heavenly kingdom mindset! Amen.