If we haven't met, my name is Jordan. Get the privilege of pastoring here. And it's a joy to pastor here. It's a joy to belong to this body. And it's a joy to open up Second Corinthians. So if you have a physical Bible, go ahead, open up to 2 Corinthians 5. Whether you know it or not, this is one of the best chapters in the entire New Testament. I believe that wholeheartedly. We're going to spend five weeks in this chapter alone. And, yeah, we get started today with a big chunk, 10 verses. But before we do that, I kind of want to catch us up on where we were last week. Taylor had a really important text for us talking about suffering and that suffering is not without purpose, right? Suffering serves multiple purposes. But we saw last week specifically, number one, it makes us look more like Jesus, right? That God is working all things together for our good, ultimately to conform us into the image of His Son. As he looked back at Romans 8, you know, and unpacked that, hey, this suffering conforms us into the image of our Savior. But also it does not just do something to us. It prepares something for us. It prepares us for joy in Jesus forever in eternity. As we say, hey, this light and momentary affliction, it doesn't even compare to the eternal weight of glory that we're about to behold. And the tail end of this passage in 2 Corinthians 4:18 gives us an exhortation or a strong encouragement to do this. To look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. Or to look not to the things that are of this earth, but to the things that are eternal. And what Paul is essentially doing as he kind of turns this corner into what we know as 2nd Corinthians 5 is he's saying, hey, church in Corinth, church in Urbana. Here's what you need to do. You need to understand that eternity with God is coming. And here's what you need to do. You need to wait. You need to wait. And what we're waiting for, he told us, is something that is unseen and eternal. And so as I wrestle with that, I'm like, we're all pretty good at waiting, aren't we? Oh, wait, we're not. We're not good at waiting. I think of my own life. Ellie and I are cheap enough that we have not invested in Amazon Prime. And so we mooch off of relatives. Or we're like, is this seriously going to take four days to ship to us? Like what in the world or not that anybody in here does eat fast food. But if you've been in a fast food drive through anywhere other than Chick Fil A, you're like, what is taking so long? This is supposed to be fast food. It's taken like two minutes. And then we have like 5G Internet in our houses now. I mean, I know I'm not that old, but I still remember the day of like, dial up or even having to go to the library to log onto the Internet because we didn't yet have it at our house. And now it's like we have the Internet at high speed in our pockets, just access to information at our fingertips. And I'm reminded now that it's November, there's people that can't even wait for Christmas. So much so that they've already set up a Christmas tree. And if that's you, I'm sorry, but it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Okay, I'm all for like post Thanksgiving, put the tree up. But let's just wait and celebrate one holiday at a time, okay? The reality is we have a waiting problem. But yet, despite our impatience in almost every other area of life, when it comes to waiting for Jesus return, we don't seem to show the same level of impatience. And I think the question is, why? Like, what's up with that? Is it because it seems like it's just so far away, like we're reading pages of scripture that were written thousands of years ago and it's like, still hasn't happened yet. Well, I'm here to tell you we're the closest we've ever been to Jesus coming back. I don't know if you knew that or not, but surprise, closest we've ever been. Maybe it's because it just feels abstract. Even the idea of like, hey, look to the things that are unseen and eternal, we just. We don't have a strong enough imagination to actually wait, really. Well, so much so that as we're called to wait for the things that are unseen, our waiting often looks like it is unseen. We're not even waiting for Jesus return. We're not caught with this, like, hopeful anticipation. But before we dig into Second Corinthians 5 this morning, I just want to put one passage on the screen for you. This. This is from Hebrews 9 and it talks about Jesus return with some words that ought to make us perk up a little bit when it comes to how should we wait for Jesus return. Here's what the author of Hebrews says. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. What? It's like you have the Gospel wrapped up in this verse, right? It's like Christ died for the sins of many. Can I get an amen to that church? Come on. Like our right standing before God is not based upon our own merit, but Jesus perfect life and substitutionary death. But this text tells us he's coming back and he's coming back this next time. Not to, like, deal with sin from a salvific standpoint there, but to ransom his people back to himself once and for all. And how are Christians described in this verse, those who are eagerly waiting for him? And so the question I'd ask is, are you eagerly waiting for Jesus? And if not, why not? And I think if we're honest, the answer for so many of us is we just don't know what that looks like. Again, it seems so abstract. What does waiting for Jesus look like? So that's what I hope to answer for us today. How can we eagerly wait for Jesus return? We're going to be in second Corinthians 5. I'm going to read just the first four verses for us in this morning's text. So here's what the word of God says this morning. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked and all the kids giggled. For while we're still in this tent, we groan being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be free, further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now, before I unpack these verses, I just want to say, as someone who is an anti camper, I feel so just validated by these verses. Anybody in here, like, hate camping with me? Thank you so much. Okay, I just look at this passage and it's like talking about tents and homes. And I'm reminded of a Jim Gaffigan stand up comedy skit where he's like, hey, who wants to burn a couple days of vacation and sleep on the ground? He's like, no. Well, what if I tell you you could wake up cold and covered in a rash? And he's like, all right, I Guess I'll go. And as it turns out, his wife actually says, well, camping is a part of our. It's a family tradition. And he replies, yeah, it was a tradition in everyone's family until we came up with the house. And I'm like, amen, right? Like, why are we still sleeping in tents? This is insane. But Paul is not talking about camping here. What he's doing is he's practicing. What he's preaching is he just considers these last verses in Second Corinthians 4. He's unpacking this. Like, how do I look to that which is eternal but not that which is seen? How do I look to that which is, like, of heavenly nature, not that which is of earthly nature? So he's contrasting two things. The first is his earthly body, which he calls a tent. And his point here is that our earthly bodies are temporary. They're not made to last forever. And Paul knew this very well because he was a tentmaker by trade, right? So as he's talking about tent making, he's like, yeah, these things do not hold up super well. I could probably get another couple Amens there. We feel it in our bodies, right? As you continue to age, or maybe this time of year, you start to get the sniffles or a bad cold, and it's like, yeah, this body is not what it's supposed to be. But he contrasts that with what we would call a glorified body with this eternal experience which he calls a house not made by human hands, but by God himself. Now, not a lot of people know this, but when you think about heaven, like the new heavens, the new earth, I don't know what comes to your mind, but I read this book called Heaven by Randy alcorn back in 2016, and he said, you know, not a lot of people are motivated by heaven because all they think is, like, we're disembodied spirits. Or maybe we're like little cupids floating around on clouds, like, playing harps. And it's like, who wants to do that forever? That does not even sound enjoyable. And that's not even a biblical picture of what heaven looks like. Because what Paul is unpacking here is, hey, one day we will not be disembodied spirits. We will have new bodies. We will not be left unclothed, meaning just a spirit, but we will have these new glorified bodies, these bodies that are untouched by sin. There's no more sickness, there's no more weakness. There's no more sin or temptation. Wouldn't that Be amazing. Now, I don't know what age the glorified body is. There's a lot of debate about that. I think some people are like, when I come back, you know, my glorified body is going to be 21. And I'm like, I was hoping for, like, 28. I felt better at 28. But the reality is we have these glorified bodies that will be waiting for us in heaven that are made by God himself. No more pain, no more worry, no more stress, no more insecurities, no more gluttony. I'm like, man, we get to eat in heaven and we never have to worry about overeating or eating for the wrong purposes. That's going to be awesome. And it's no wonder then, as Paul just, like, envisions and is trying to behold what his glorified body will look like, he uses this word that he says, we groan. We groan. And that word actually means he's waiting eagerly. You know, it's kind of this, like, longing. I just can't wait to have a body that is untainted by sin in the corruption of this world. He uses this same language in Romans 8 as he talks to the people in Rome. He says, number one, creation itself, like the world outside, is groaning to be set free from the corruption of the curse of sin. But also we too, we groan because we're waiting for the redemption of our bodies. So as you just consider, like, just the broken, fallen nature of your earthly body, it's actually meant to stir up within you this, like, man, I just can't wait for heaven when my body will be as it's supposed to be, made by God himself, that I can, yes, fully enjoy God and fully enjoy life as it's intended to be. And Paul's groaning is rooted in this assured confidence in verse one, he says, for we know, we know he's not guessing about what's waiting for him. He says, we know he has absolute confidence. And the question is why? Like, how can he be so certain of what's waiting for him in heaven? Well, he tells us in verse 5, where he writes next, he, God, who has prepared us for this very thing, is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Now, we talked about this a little bit in Second Corinthians, chapter one, that God has given us a guarantee. Another word, your translation might read a down payment. And this guarantee is the presence of his Holy Spirit, John 14:16. Would love for you guys to go read that. This week, Jesus is unpacking to his disciples, hey, I'm about to go and prepare a home for you in heaven. But while I'm gone, it's actually beneficial that I would leave, because the helper, the Holy Spirit, is going to come. He will fill you. And it's like, wait a second. What? It's better that Jesus would depart, that the Holy Spirit would come. This is amazing. And the presence of the Holy Spirit here in this text and in second Corinthians 1, we see is a promise for God to complete the purchase. A promise for God to complete the purchase, that he will finish what he started, that he has ransomed us from the power of sin. But one day he will ransom us from the presence of sin itself. He will see this ransom, like, come to full completion. And the question you ought to be asking is, if you want confidence with eternity with God, is how do I know if I have the Holy Spirit? Because again, I think this is another area of our doctrine or our theology that maybe we've just missed. Because oftentimes when most people hear the word Holy Spirit, or my dad would always refer to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, which gives you a little extra. Like, this is weird, right? How do you know if you have the Holy Ghost? And maybe you're envisioning, like, Benny Hinn, like, catch the Holy Ghost and, like, convulsions. Or maybe you're thinking, like, I have never received, like, a prophetic vision from God that, like, foretold the future. Or maybe I've never spoken in tongues and I'm here to say God can do whatever he wants to do when he transformed someone's life. But just because you haven't, like, heard the audible voice of God or you haven't, you know, fallen to the ground when a pastor has prayed for you, doesn't necessarily mean you haven't received the Holy Spirit. There's a really good indicator on whether or not you have the Holy Spirit. And Paul tells us this in Ephesians 1. He says, in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. And so if you want to know if you have the Holy Spirit, all you have to do is answer this question. Have you believed in the good news of the Gospel? Have you believed that your only right standing before God, is not based upon your own merit, but Jesus? Not your perfect life, but Jesus not your ability to give an account But Jesus living the life you never could and dying in your place and rising again, victorious, to freely offer to you the gift of salvation. If you can answer yes to that, you have the Holy Spirit. That is great news. And if you haven't said yes to that, can I just plead with you this morning to believe it? It's the best news in the entire world, that you do not have to measure up to God because God came to you in the person and work of Christ. But I think again, we have to ask this question. I talked about it a couple weeks ago. What does it mean to believe, like, to trust in the Gospel? I think there are. There are fruits or there's evidences of the Holy Spirit in your life that we should examine and look for. First and foremost, faith in Jesus, right? Faith itself is a gift we see in Ephesians 2. Have you felt the comfort of God in his promises? Have you experienced renewed desires in your heart where you would say, hey, I used to always want to do this in disobedience to God, and now I desire to do this in obedience to God. Do you have the ability to understand Scripture? Right? The same Spirit that inspired the words on these pages now fills you and gives you the ability to read this living, active word of God and feel like, am I reading this or is it reading me? Because this is like showing me my sin. It's evidence that you have the Holy Spirit, a love for God, a love for his church. And as most of us know, whether it's like you learned it in Awanas or a kid's song, the fruit of the spirit, right? Galatians 5. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Are those marks of your life? If so, you have the presence of the Holy Spirit within you. And that is great news number one. Because it's like man. Jesus said, it's better that he would leave, that the Spirit would come. That's good news in this life. But as we see from this text, it's good news for the life to come. Because if the Spirit is our guarantee of eternity, we can then say, guess what? I can have confidence. I can have confidence that my glorified body, that heaven, that perfection in the presence of a loving God, is waiting for me without a doubt. Because God is true and he's good on his word. So if these things are true, it begs the question, how should life look different? And this is where I would say we're getting really to the heart of what does it really look like to wait? Because all that we've really covered so far is the promise of what's coming, right? We've looked to the things that are unseen and eternal. But now, what does it look like practically to wait for this glorified body? Here's what Paul writes next, verse six. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage. We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And so how do we wait? I think a repeated word that should pop off the page to us as we look at this text is courage. We should be a people of courage. The definition of courage is mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty. We've already seen that in Paul's life, right in the opening chapters of this book, that in the midst of extreme suffering and persecution, he's like, I'm still following Jesus. No matter what comes, I'm still following Jesus. Well, how could he do that? How could he be faithful in the midst of what should be fear? Well, because he walked by faith, not by sight. He had made it such a habit. This term walking, is used time and time again in the New Testament. Walking. Galatians 5, right after the fruit of the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. It's this idea of forming a habit. Paul has made such a habit of living in such a way that the reality of heaven is always more important than the struggles he's facing. He is so constantly thinking about what is to come as he just looks at the here and now. That is, like, less real to him because he's like, no. What's ultimately real is I have a glorified body in heaven waiting for me in the perfect presence of a loving God. And so he says, I have all that I need. Like right now, I have all that I need in the presence of the Holy Spirit what's yet to come. I have all that I need in the promises of God. And even if the worst thing were to happen to me in this life, nothing that actually matters can be taken away from me. I mean, his deepest desire. In these verses, he talks about being at home or away, and he's contrasting, like, living on this Earth or being with God in heaven. And he actually makes clear that his deepest desire is actually to be in heaven with God. Right? He's like man, this life is not what it's supposed to be. It's preparing me for real life, eternal life, the life that is yet to come. And he knows that what's waiting for him is better. So he's not found complaining in the midst of hardship. Ouch. That one hurts. And he's not quitting in the midst of persecution. Yet these come easy for us, sometimes just complaining or quitting. It's easy for our groan not to be one of man longing in anticipation, but one of just discontentment, complaint against God and not persevering, but just stopping. Not a continued faithfulness. But maybe if I just be quiet now, life will get easier and I can keep my comfort. That's not what we're called to. Why is that? Because Paul says here he has one aim, One aim or one goal or one purpose in life. In verse nine, it is to please God, to please God that is his one goal in all of life. So whether I'm here or whether I'm at home in heaven with God, I have one ultimate aim. It is to please God, to glorify him. And ultimately, I want you to know that your only hope pleasing God is because of Jesus Christ. Right? The only way that you could stand before a holy and just God and that he would say, I am pleased with you is because when God would look at you, he would first and foremost see the person and work of Jesus. And we're going to get there. So I'm not going to preach it, but oftentimes when we talk about Jesus coming to save us from our sins, we're only thinking about him canceling the debt of our sins. But verse 21 of this chapter tells us that Jesus is not only canceling the debt of our sin, he is crediting us with his righteousness. He is giving us his very right standing so that one day when we stand before God, he doesn't first and foremost see Jordan Howell. Praise God for that. He sees Jesus Christ. That is how I stand before God. And he would say, I am pleased with you. But as we look at this, as we look at Paul's words here, specifically as he leans into verse 10, we know that this is not a matter of salvation. He's not talking about being pleasing before God from like an eternal life, like life or condemnation standpoint. What is he talking about if not salvation? The answer is stewardship. He's not talking about pleasing God from a salvific standpoint, but from a stewardship standpoint, because he says, we, including himself, must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And I love the way that John Piper, pastor and author from the Twin Cities, has said this. We will not be condemned, but that doesn't mean we won't go to court. And so I think it just kind of pulls into, like, tension. This, like, so what does it mean, like, when I one day stand before God, what will that look like? And I don't claim to, like, Let me tell you guys exactly how it's going to happen. All right? I've heard one author say it's kind of. It's kind of a twofold test. And every good teacher, every actual good teacher gives their students kind of the, like, study guide ahead of the test so they know what to prepare for. And here's the two question test. Question number one. What did you do with Jesus? Did you accept or reject him? That is the salvific line right there. What did you do with Jesus? But question number two is, what did you do with all that God entrusted to you? What did you do? And I love in First Corinthians 10, as Paul writes to the same exact church, he tells them this. First Corinthians 10:31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. He is, you know, he couldn't find a better word. So he was just like, whatever, Whatever you do, like, in literally everything you do, you have a question to answer. How are you stewarding what God has entrusted to your care in your eating and your drinking, in your time management, in your scheduling, in your relationships, in your conversations and the words you use, both in person and online, in your work, in your school, in your resting, in your hobbying? How are you stewarding the life God has given to you? And what Paul is trying to just bring to a funnel here is, all of life is to be lived. All for Jesus. All of life, all for Jesus. And I know one day I will stand before God and I will give an account. And it's like, wait a second. So is there still condemnation here? No, there's not. Romans 8:1 is still true. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so what does this look like? What is this? Like, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus and you come before the judgment seat of Christ, what will that look like? Paul actually tells us in First Corinthians 3, he's writing to these believers who are divided, and he's addressing divisions in the church. They're kind of like trying to one up each other. And he kind of creates this level ground, right? He says, hey, the foundation of everything is Jesus Christ. We all have the same foundation, but what we build on that foundation will prove in the last day. Here's what he writes in First Corinthians 3. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day the coming of Jesus will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as though through fire. And so what we see in 1 Corinthians 3 is, hey, there will be eternal reward for how you stewarded your life, how obedient you were with what God entrusted to your care. And God is a God who will reward the faithfulness of his children. That's incredible. I'm like, man, salvation alone, that's the only reward I need. And God is like, no, I want to, like, lavish my grace upon you. I want to reward your faithfulness back to me. But here's what God will not do. He will not reward disobedience. He will not reward poor stewardship. It says that, you know, poor stewardship or this, you know, false faithfulness, it's not going to be rewarded. The work will be burned up. Now, you'll still be saved and you won't be complaining, right? Let's remember, in heaven, there's no sin, there's no pride, there's no entitlement, and there's no envy. So you won't be like, really, God? I thought you said you'd give me. No, you're just going to be like, thank God you had mercy on me. And you're not gonna be looking at your brothers and sisters in Christ who have bigger crowns than you and be like, but why do they get a bigger crown than me? You're gonna be like, wow, praise God. I want to know what they did in their life, right? I can't wait to show up and, like, see Paul and Peter and just be like, dude, your crown is huge. Right? And then there's gonna be little ol us, right? Just dropping our tiny little crowns at the feet of Jesus. That's where every crown is gonna land anyways. But again, as John Piper unpacks First Corinthians 3, he says, Everybody's cup is going to be full. Like, there will be no one in heaven that doesn't have a full cup. But you will know people have different sized cups, right? Everyone's going to be happy, but there's going to be different sized cups in heaven. Luke 19. Jesus teaches about this. I'm not going to teach it for the sake of time, but the parable of the Minas. You know, Jesus tells this parable about how, you know, a master distributes minas to his servants. And one of his servants comes back, everybody's given 10, everybody gets 10 Minas. One servant comes back and he says, hey, I made you 10 minas. And in the parable, the master or the king says, then I will set you over 10 cities. And then the second comes and he says, I made you five Minas. And he said, then I will set you over five cities. It's this picture of like, hey, God is going to reward faithfulness and to be faithful in this life. He's like, hey, I'm going to entrust you with more reward in heaven. And so the question I would ask you is, what has God entrusted to you in this life? How much time has he entrusted to you? What relationships has he entrusted to you? What resources has he entrusted to you? What giftings has he entrusted to you? What responsibilities has God entrusted to you? And because you have the promise of the life to come, are you being faithful? Are you hoarding those for yourself? Are you pushing them to the side? Or are you saying, God, I want to be a good sewer? These are ultimately from you, and for you. And I know that what ultimately lasts is what heaven is going to look like. Paul is saying in this passage that this is what waiting for heaven ultimately looks like. A life that looks forward to heaven someday lives to please God today. A life that looks forward to heaven someday lives to please God today. And I can't help but think of Acts 2, right? Or Acts 1. Excuse me, Acts 1, Jesus post resurrection, talking to his disciples. He says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, and you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And then what happens next? It's like in the flash of a light, Jesus ascends into heaven. And what are the disciples doing? They're just staring up into the sky, right? And the voice of an angel shows up to the disciples, and he's like, what are you doing? Stop looking up into heaven. It's like, go right like this commission. And so when you think about waiting for heaven, like, take note from the disciples that it's not just like, all right, Lord, I'm ready for you. It's like, yeah, okay. If you're ready for Jesus to return, he has entrusted so much to your care right now. Be faithful, be found, faithful, and do it with courage again. I feel like we keep coming back to this, like, suffering and persecution. And by God's grace, we have lived a pretty comfortable life as Christians in America thus far. It is not going to get easier. And so when it comes to courageous obedience, the question is, will we obey with courage? Another way you could paraphrase these 10 verses is confidence in eternity leads to courageous obedience. Confidence in eternity leads to courageous obedience. Because you're not caught up with trying to fit in or to protect your comfort, you say, no, the place that I really fit in is in heaven. That's where I'm waiting for my full adoption as a son or daughter of King Jesus. That's where I'm waiting for fullness of comfort in my glorified body, where there will be no more sin or sickness or weakness or temptation. And so, in the face of suffering, persecution, ridicule, will you be faithful with what God entrusted to you? I want to just give us three quick application points this morning, and they do go in order. Okay? So the first is an appropriate application point before we do anything. Because if you're anything like me, you're like, let's get to work. Come on. Let me be a good steward. Start by praising. Praise, right? The good news of the gospel is not what we can do for God, but what God has done for us in Christ. Start there. Praise Jesus. And I do mean with your voice. Be a singing person. Christians are a singing people. The psalms command us to sing. I've heard one pastor say, we sing to God because he is too good to simply talk about. Let's praise God. Secondly, meditate. Meditate. This idea of thinking about the new heavens and the new earth. Like, when was the last time you just stopped and were like, man, I wonder what pizza is going to taste like in heaven. You probably haven't done that. I have. I'm like, man, if it can be this good on earth tainted by sin, I cannot wait to eat pizza in heaven, right? Or when you have serious illness, chronic illness, it's not hard to flip that complaining to a groaning and be like, man, what would it be like to never have pain again? Wouldn't that be awesome? Just to begin to think about what heaven is going to be like? And then lastly, aim. Aim. I love that word. We make it our aim to please him. The definition of aim is to have the intention of achieving. I love that word, intention. Like, are you intentional with what God has entrusted to you? Have you taken inventory for the sake of your stewardship? To say, God, what all have you entrusted to me? What are the relationships? What are the resources like? What are the giftings? How have you uniquely wired and equipped me? Where have you specifically placed me to be faithful? And then once you've taken a stewardship inventory, to answer this question, okay, with everything he's entrusted to you, what does it look like to please Jesus in each of those areas? What does it look like to please Jesus as a parent, as a spouse, as a co worker, as a neighbor? Like, actually ask and answer that question. What does it look like to please Christ as a good steward of what he's entrusted to you? And I want to end and wrap up just by telling a quick story of a guy who I think embodied this incredibly well. And it's maybe to no coincidence. His last name is Student Connecticut Studd. Charles Thomas Studd. He was born in the UK in 1860 into a family of wealth and privilege. And during his college years, he climbed the ranks to become known as one of the greatest cricket players ever. I mean, we would probably look back and kids today would call him the Goat, right, the Goat of cricket. But yet, in 1883, he's 23 years old. His younger brother gets sick nearly to the point of death, and his brother has a miraculous recovery. And it's at this moment that CT Studd wakes up to the brevity of life and says, I cannot keep living for the here and now. Life is more than sports. It changes the trajectory of his life. Two years later, he's pursuing a career not in professional athletics, but as a missionary to China. He then goes on to spend the rest of his life preaching the Gospel, writing more than 200 hymns, mobilizing other missionaries, translating the Bible into other people's native languages, and ultimately dies at 70. But as we know today, he's more alive now than he ever was then. And I just want to end with words from one of his poems that I hope can just cut us to the heart and can maybe cast a vision for us, for what it looks like to be good stewards, not only today, tomorrow, this week, but for the rest of our lives. Here's what Charles Thomas Stud wrote. Only one life Twill soon be past Only what's done for Christ will last Only one life yes, only one soon will its fleeting hours be done Then in that day my Lord to meet and stand before his judgment seat Only one life Twill soon be past Only what's done for Christ will last Only one life the still small voice Gently pleads For a better choice Bidding me selfish aims to leave and 2 God's holy will to cleave Only one life Twill soon be past Only what's done for Christ will last Only one life A few brief years each with its burdens, hopes and fears each with its days I must fulfill Living for self or in his will Only one life Twill soon be past Only what's done for Christ will last let's pray. Father. Yeah, we just have to say thank you. As we look at a text like this, God, it's not hard to see the areas that we have sinned and fallen short of your glory, the ways that we have not lived to please Christ, but have lived to please ourselves. And we just. We are sorry. But God, we say thank you for the finished work of Jesus, that ultimately our ability to please you is not first and foremost about our stewardship, but Christ's sacrifice. Jesus, that you lived perfectly so we don't have to, and you died in our place to not only cancel our sin, but to credit us with your righteousness. But God, we know that that warrants a response. So thank you for your faithfulness to us. And God, I pray that you would help us to be faithful to you. Show us what you have entrusted to our care and by the power of your spirit at work within us, help us to be faithful, to make it our aim, God, to please you in every area of life. We love you, Jesus. We can only pray this because you've loved us first. It's in your name we pray. Amen.