Our Heavenly Home (Main Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 Support Scripture: John 14:1-4; Luke 12:35-40)

llustration/Story: (Play video of the Marshmallow Experiment.)

In 1972, Stanford University psychologists conducted a study called

“The Marshmallow Experiment.” A child was offered a marshmallow, which he could

eat immediately. If the child chose to wait 15 minutes while the facilitator left the

room, the child would receive two marshmallows instead of one.

• How many of you wouldn’t wait to eat the marshmallow? How many would? Many of

us have a hard time waiting for the promise of a future reward when we could just

have something right now. Spiritually, God promises us a future hope and reward.

Still, we have a hard time waiting, so we choose to consume what’s around us instead

of living as God intended for us to live.

Context of the book 2 Corinthians 

Remember Corinthians. This is a letter to a church where the town is like Las Vegas, Miami, and New York all in one, and the world is influencing the church. 

2 Corinthians is one of Paul’s most intimate letters to the church. Here, we see him express his heart and passion because of what the false teachers are preaching to them. 

In this book as well, people question Paul as an apostle of Jesus. So we see in this book that Paul defends his ministry because the gospel was being undermined by the Jewish teachers. 

The overall book is Paul appealed to the Corinthians' hearts and minds, showing them that truth without love is damaging, while love without truth is deceptive. 

In our main scripture, Paul is about to show us his heavenly vision and what that means for us, 

Context of our Main Scripture 

All the apostles, and even Paul, as he expresses here in verse 1, tell of the physical difficulties that he faced in ministry and the increasing possibility of death as well. 

Remember last week we talked about how the house is our physical body. We are going to continue to use this metaphor. 

Give a quick explanation of weeks 1 and 3. That our foundation is built on Jesus. 

So Paul already understood that physical death (the house is torn down when we die) believers would have the certainty of a resurrection body that comes from God and lasts forever. 

So we see Paul reflected 3 human states in this section we are talking about today. 

1. The physical state of present existence. (Meaning an earthly tent, it is a metaphor for the human body, a temporary home for the eternal souls of those whose real home is in heaven.)

2. The intermediate state between death and the second coming is when a believer is present with the Lord without a resurrection body. (This state is referred to as nakedness. Paul uses this work as a metaphor for spiritual vulnerability; he is arguing that believers should desire to be clothed in Christ rather than be exposed.) 

3. The resurrection state that begins at the rapture of the Church when believers receive their resurrection body. 

So, how does all of this relate to us? We will talk about this today! How will this relate to our series, as we talked about in the first one, when we are talking about our earthly home or tents? Remember, this is a temporary home for the eternal soul, where our real home is in heaven. 

So as we continue reading in verse 2-5, this explains that we will be facing suffering on this earth, but us as believers, we are excited for our future bodies in heaven. Paul was longing to be in heaven with His Lord and His new body, His new home. 

This is the meaning for us as believers, we get to skip 2 to experience death because when we pass here we will go to heaven with our heavenly Father because of what Jesus has done on the cross and that He is our Firm Foundation. 

So as of right now when we are on this earth, God has given us the Spirit to His believers at conversion. The Holy Spirit is guarantee that God will work through your suffering and will prepare you as followers of Jesus for your resurrection body. 

This is the key as for us as believers, we are experiencing heaven now and I want everyone to get a taste of heaven. 

People get this confused. People think if you become a Christian, the goal is to get to heaven, but that is not what it is. When we are Christians, we get to experience heaven now and get a taste of it in this body! God is preparing your heavenly body now of who you are to be. 

So this mean, when you are a new believer, and your foundation is now on the gospel of Jesus,. It is time for you to remodel, destroy, and clean up your old house to now God’s house! The things that you use to believe in, now take out and put in what God has placed in His Word! 

1. Your Life Must Look Like Heaven. 

• Tension Question: Does your life look more like heaven or like earth? When we live

with a heavenly perspective, we live in full expectation of God’s promise. However,

many of us settle and choose to live worldly lives instead. Tonight, I believe God will

remind us of our future home and challenge us to live accordingly.

Scripture: John 14:1-4 — Jesus promises us a future home with Him!

Jesus here compassionately sought to calm his disciples' fears. 

First, he tells them to place their full trust in Him, just like they do with the Father! You share the same divine nature and purpose! 

Second, He literally tells them that you have heavenly real estate waiting for you. At the Father’s House, there are many rooms, and Jesus would prepare a place just for them! 

To add even more context, in Jewish wedding custom, the father would add rooms to his house for his newly married son. Jesus was not abandoning them but actually heading out to prepare their eternal home. Our heavenly home will be prepared for you, and you even get a little taste of that right now! 

Jesus is coming back, and He is getting His people. My question is, are you one of them? Is your foundation built on the cross? If that's the case, your lives should look like heaven and the amazing fruits of the Spirit. 

People should know you are a Christian, not just by your words but especially by your actions and choices! 

So if our lives must look like Heaven that means we believe that the promise of Jesus that He will give us a heavenly home! Which lead to point number 2

2. Jesus Promises Us a Heavenly Home!

• Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 — The earth is just a tent compared to the home God

is preparing for us in heaven!

I am about to give you some theology right here about our earthly bodies. 

So remember, when this life on earth is over, our bodies return to dust. We get this because when we read in Genesis 2:7

7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature

So our old bodies return to dust, but our life is only starting baby! Because eternity awaits!

Remember, to even explain more, the book of Ecclesiates explains this one of my favorite books. 

All this on this side of heaven is worthless. This show the Bible is true as well. 

He finds out the meaning of life and that is the only thing is to chase God because when you die, all of us go back to the dirt. What is one thing the wise and the fool have in common, they die and return to the dirt. 

But the difference is this, when we die on this side of heaven, ETERNITY AWAITS! It awaits to those who trust in Christ, God has eternal dwelling prepared for our new bodies. Which Paul told this to the Corinthians in 15:35-57. 

When you continue reading in verse 2-5, it can point back to Ecclesiastes again in chapter 3:11.

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end

This mean, even though we operate in time now, we should be doing what is everlasting because God has created us to last forever! He place eternity into our hearts as believers and He created us for a purpose! 

Paul is explainging that we should not be clothed in the worldly things, but be clothed in the Holy Spirit! This mean I do feel new, rich because of I am clothed with God! He clothed me because of His scriptures, and what He has done for me! 

So, how do we know God will follow through on His promise to grant believers eternal life? We read this in verse 5: God has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment, guaranteeing what is to come! 

• So my question for you is, how often do we get so obsessed with what is happening in our lives that we lose

sight of the future? We get caught up in our relationships, grades, hobbies, and

activities. We forget the promise God makes to us as His children — we will live

forever with Jesus in heaven!

• It is normal to grow weary because we were created for something in the future that nothing on earth could compare to.

• Don’t get so focused on today’s problems that you forget the bright promise of our

future home in Jesus Christ! 

This is why when we see people who is going through life, but you can’t tell because it look like they have peace, and that peace is with Jesus! 

He gave us this promise to have hope for the future!

Bottom Line: Jesus promises us a heavenly home.

3. You Are The Church, Be the Church

• Scripture: Luke 12:35-40 — Is your life reflecting the promise of your future hope?

This passage of Scripture implores us to stay ready! We don’t know when Jesus will

return, and we need to live like He was coming back today! Don’t wait! If that is Jesus returning to earth, or if it is our time to die, we must be ready as followers of Jesus.

That means we must live lives ready for Jesus, and that means we are to be the church everywhere we go!

This was a saying my old church said. That the church is us and we must be living our lives on the earth as the church, not just in the four walls. 

As followers of Jesus wait for Christ to return, we are ready for service. Followers of Jesus are alert and ready to receive Him. 

Followers of Jesus must be ready at all time, stay ready so you won’t have to be ready! For His return is coming at any time. 

Where we live in a earth that darkness is all around us, followers of Jesus are to be ready and be active! 

Meaning are you not just ready and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, but are you working and building your home? Our you obeying the scripture? Are you planting seeds and loving people with the truth, espically to people who think differently then you? 

In varsity we are learning how to share our faith with differnt people, so is your words hateful to others or with love, kindness, and show the fruit of the spirits while be anchored with the truth of the gospel!

That does not mean composmising the message, like I said before, showing truth without love is damaging, while love without truth is deceptive.I think that is one of the hardest thing as a believer but we must do it because the person next to me is just as important to go to heaven then I am. 

It said to love your neighbor as yourself, not love the person who thinks just like you do. So, if you were lost in the world and wanted the gospel, would you want someone to share that with you? That is why we do it! We are going to practice what we preach, put it into action, and live lives that are ready for Jesus to come! 

 But sometimes We think exactly like the wicked servant: “He’s taking a long time, so I’ll live how I want. I have plenty of time to get

my life right!”

But my friend, that is not true! Our witness must be visible and clear! We must live with a sense of expectantion as we wait for our master to appear and that is our Lord and Savior! 

Bring it to the cross (Call on the prayer team)

So, we are ending this series by understanding that the way we live our lives now is important. We are growing here in Decatur, and we will have new people here and some new people in this room. We want everyone to experience Jesus, and that means not just with our words or actions. 

One thing is this, the same person you see on stage, on Wednesday night, is the same person you see at home, with my family, even with people who think differently. I have an eyewitness and that is my wife. She showed me how I speak to other people who think differently in person and also stand on truth while showing love so they have a chance to receive Jesus. I want us to be 2 different people. One who lives how the world wants us to be out there, then be all holy when we walk in these doors. We should always be on Kingdom motives everywhere we go! 

That means, when we fully start the student-led ministry, anyone who comes in that door will see the fruit of Jesus through His people! We may have someone who was hurt in church, someone who showed the wrong Jesus, but we are able to show the true and real Jesus, that this is a free gift to ANYONE! The gift that Jesus lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died, and rose from the grave, FOR YOU! FOR THE free 99. 

So my question for you is this. Where in my life do I need to be better to show and glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? If that means I need to read my Bible more to understand the truth, do it. If that mean I need to watch my mouth because I be cussing a storm, get an acctounatibility partner and get better, if that mean I should not be watching something I shouldn’t be watching, then find a plan and get that clear, if that I need to learn how to talk to people that think differntly than me, have a different world view than me, or a different religion than me and give them the truth, while still showing love and kindness to them and be lead by the Holy Spirit. 

Because our job at RISE Youth is to equip you and anchor you to God’s truth and then go out and make disciples of all nations! (Matt 28:19) You will interact with other people who think differently, but that is why we try to prepare you, and what better way than to do it here at RISE youth when we see someone new or someone for the first time. Because our goal as believers is that everyone gets to see and accept the free gift of the gospel, and I hope my life reflects the gospel and His Glory ALONE! 

You Are the Church, Be the Church. 

We are not promised tomorrow, and the Lord will return when we don’t expect Him.

Does your life look ready to receive Him? Is your life characterized by the love and

message of Jesus?

Application: Live ready for Jesus!

Call: How do we respond to the message?

• Altar moment: Tonight, remember the hope of our future as believers. Jesus has

gone to prepare a home for us. Let us represent it well on this side of heaven. Let’s live according to the reality of the life we will live with Jesus for eternity!