Ron Dunn Podcast - Long For Home

Episode Date: March 6, 2019

From the sermon series "In Praise Of Weakness"

Well, I want you to open your Bibles this morning to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and I want to read the first eight verses. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 1 through 8. Actually, we ought to start with the 18th verse of chapter 4. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened because we did not want to be unclothed but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. A few weeks ago, Kay and I took a few days of vacation. I have a pastor friend who has a cabin on top of a mountain in Tryon, North Carolina. We go up there every Memorial Day, spend about a week. Way up on top of the mountain. You can't hear anything except the rain as it falls through the trees. There's a little lake out in front of it.

It's so quiet and such a great place of peace and solitude. My brother and his wife always go with us. And we have a great time of relaxing and enjoying. We sit around and eat a lot and sleep a lot and read a lot and play games a lot. And it's just a great time. Inevitably, Barry and I, who is my older brother and my only sibling, we will begin to talk about when we were children. For some, it always comes up. And we talk about our childhood and about our mom and dad.

And both of us have great memories of growing up. And in our talking about that, I always grow somewhat nostalgic and more than a little homesick. I think as we grow older, we remember particularly maybe a certain house in which we grew up. That was our home. Now, I know a lot of bad things happened there, but my memory is very kind to me. And I just remember the good things. And I find myself longing for that home because it was a place where I felt and knew that I was loved and cared for. My dad worked eight hours a day, six days a week. My mom, we just had one car. My mom stayed at home and cleaned house and cooked and ironed and crocheted and worked in her flower garden and made the home a good place

to come to after school. My memories there are happy memories. It was a time when I felt secure, without responsibility, without burdens. And I find myself at times longing for that home. And then when Kay and I got married and we established our own home, I think we hoped that we might make the same kind of home for our children that our parents did for us. I hope that my children, as they grow older and maybe after Kay and I are gone, that they'll sit around and talk about the good things, how happy they were and how secure they felt. And I often measure the home that we've made with the home that I grew up in. And I long for that. But I think there is another home that we long for.

As we heard earlier from Ecclesiastes, God has put eternity in the hearts of men. And Paul says in this passage in verse 4, for indeed we, while we are in this tent, we groan. And he says again in verse 2, for indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed by our dwelling from heaven. And the word groan is a is a is a sigh a longing for something and you remember in Romans 8 28 Paul talks about the whole creation groans together

waiting for the redemption and I remember and somebody quoted first Peter where he says we have an inheritance in heaven that can't be destroyed, can't be tainted by sin, and will never pass away. And it does not fade. That strikes a note in the heart of all of us. We long for a place that is imperishable and incorruptible, and the beauty of it will never fade like a dead flower. I believe there is a longing in every person's heart

for what has been called our long home for heaven. And Paul is saying in this passage that he has a longing, a longing to be clothed with our home from heaven. We sigh while we're in this tent. And he comes at the end and he says, we prefer to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Our longing for home.

And I believe that that longing, and no matter how great we make our home, there's always something seems to be missing. And I believe that that longing that is in our heart for some place where there'll be no more burdens and tears

and things won't fade away and perish, I believe that will only be fulfilled when we step into the presence of our Lord. Now, Paul, you know, I ask myself, Paul, why in light of all of your suffering and hardships that you've been detailing to us, why do you keep on preaching? Why do you fasten on the unseen? He says, this is the reason for, for we know, others may speculate,

but we know that if the earthly tent which is our building is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with heaven, hands eternal in the heavens. Now, I want us to examine this tremendous passage this morning, and let me just point out several things about it. Paul said, we know no uncertainty, no doubt. We live in a day when people say there can be no certainty about religious beliefs, and a lot of people are wondering what will happen when we die.

Is there a life after death? But Paul and the believer doesn't have to engage in speculation or live in doubt. He said, we know with an absolute certainty. We know. We know. And there are several things. First of all, Paul says we have a certainty that death will be followed by resurrection and transformation.

He says we know that if the earthly tent, and the word tent there is important. He uses that several times. He says we know if this earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, literally dismantled, like you would dismantle a tent, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. Paul said we have this assurance. We have this assurance. And as I said earlier, why does Paul keep on preaching, and why does he keep on doing what

he's doing in the light of all the suffering and he says in verse 14 of the fourth chapter knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you he said I have this assurance sure I go on I risk my life and I would like to be alive when the Lord returns. I think that's what he's talking about in verse 4. But he's saying, if this earthly tent, if this body in which I live, if it should be torn down or dismantled, why? He said, that's all right because we have a building in heaven, an eternity made with God.

There is a resurrection and there is a transformation that is going to take place. And we're going to move into a heavenly home. Now notice how Paul contrasts this with a tent and with a building. He says if this earthly tent is dismantled, we have a building. Now, anybody who's ever pitched a tent and spent any time in a tent know that a tent is not the most stable thing in the world. Yes, I remember on a number of occasions as the tent has collapsed around me I said I must have forgotten something and sure enough I did and then when the wind blows it creeps in in the cold and a tent is very unstable my brother and I camped out in a big old tent for about 10 days all this was years ago

and we had to keep propping it up and the bugs got in and it turned cold and everything. I was so glad to get home and enter a building. Our life here is unstable, insecure. We may think we have all the pigs in the right place, but sometimes the winds of disaster and tragedy whip under the flaps of that tent and we freeze and shiver because of the burdens that we have. But he said, one day, if this tent, and it will be, of course, will be dismantled, we'll fold up our tents, lay it down, and then we'll enter into a building, a solid,

stable thing. And isn't that what most of us are looking for? Something stable and solid and secure in our lives. That's the longing that we have. And that longing will be satisfied when we step into the presence of the Lord. And notice he talks about this is made by, not with human hands, but made by God. It is God who has fashioned this. And as a matter of fact, in verse 5 he says, Now he who prepared us for this very purpose. You see, what is so beautiful in this passage is that God is preparing us for this place. If you go back into chapter 4 and verse 16, I think that that makes it very plain. Therefore,

we do not lose heart. Why? But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day, day by day. It's going on simultaneously, correspondingly. The outer man is decaying, the outer man is decaying, but all the time, the newer man, the inner man is being renewed and renewed. And when those two things come together and the outer man has decayed, all it's going to decay. And that's the end of it. While then the inner man is so renewed that we enter into that place. You see, he has prepared us for that place. Jesus said in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you. Well, that's wonderful. There is a place prepared for you, for me, but I'm also prepared

for that. You see, it's like having a reservation at a restaurant. Now, I know I have an inheritance reserved in heaven, but I want to make sure that I also arrive to take that reservation. You may have a reservation in the motel next week but that doesn't mean you're going to arrive there. See you need that reservation to be kept for you

and you need to be kept for that reservation. And God works on both ends not only as he preserved a place for us in heaven but he's also preserved us for that place. We will reach there. We will be there.

And they'll never have to say, well, he didn't show up to take his room. It's eternal. The tent is temporary, but the building is permanent. Permanent. I like that. I'm going to be honest with you folks, I don't care much for change.

Well, to tell you the truth, I just hate it. I don't like change. But I know there has to be change. I don't go to school reunions, my college reunions or anything. You know why? They all look so old. It's discouraging. It's distressing. You see, I keep thinking of them as they were when they were teenagers in high school. And then when you meet up with one of them,

every once in a while, everywhere I go, I'll meet up with somebody and they'll say, I went to high school with you. And I want to say, what happened to you in the meantime? Of course, they're probably saying that about me too, you know, but I want to remember people as they were actually. I like to remember things as they were before all the changes that have taken place in our culture and our society, changes, I think, many of them for the bad, and I don't like those changes. I want something permanent. Isn't bad, and I don't like those changes. I want something permanent. Isn't there anything permanent that you can hang on today? Isn't there anything in our lives that we can say, this, it will always be, this is true, and this will always be? No,

one of the longings of our heart is to get rid of this transitory situation and have something that is permanent. Permanent. It's eternal in the heavens. So Paul says, our home is this. We have the certainty that death will be followed by resurrection and transformation. But he says in the second place, and oh, I love this, he says we have the confidence that death begins a journey into the realm of sight. Death begins a journey

into the realm of sight. He says in verses 6 through 8, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are of good courage I say and are preferring rather to be absent from the body and to be home in the Lord with the Lord our our faith is going to turn to sight, and death is simply a beginning of that journey into the realm of sight.

I've been living by faith for many a year, and like Charles said, or somebody said, it's not just a matter of, you know, your finances, but you live by faith, faith in that which cannot be proved in a matter of, you know, your finances, but you live by faith. Faith in that which cannot be proved in a test tube. Faith in the unseen. Faith in the promises of God. And like the people in Hebrews, they all died without seeing those promises fulfilled, but yet they still died believing. And maybe some of us will never see the promises fulfilled in our lives, but we have faith.

We have faith. We believe. I believe there is a God out there, and I believe that he is the creator of the universe. I believe the Lord Jesus is his son, and I believe the Holy Spirit has been given to us, and I believe that God is in control, sovereign control of everything in this life, and I believe that my destiny in control, sovereign control of everything in this life.

And I believe that my destiny and the destiny of this universe is held in the hands of a sovereign God. And I believe that God will withhold no good thing from those who walk with him. I live by faith. I have for many years. But I must say something to you.

There have been times when that faith has been strained, when that faith has been tested. You know, sometimes it's easy to believe things, other times it's not. Sometimes we believe because of, and other times we believe in spite of. And when we go through burdens and trials and tribulations and tragedies, that puts a strain on our faith. Do you still believe?

And I tell myself in the face of tragedy, and I've made too many trips to the cemetery, and I tell myself in the face of that, yeah, it doesn't look like God's anywhere around. It doesn't look like these things are true. Looks like the atheists have a pretty good argument.

But I believe, and sometimes it's hard to believe i want to tell you something one of these days my faith will turn to sight to see our lord in all of his glory oh i believed in you in you, Lord, and I felt your presence, but Lord, I've never seen you. And now at last, I take off these glasses. I don't need to look through a glass, Barclay,

and I can see. Death begins a journey into the realm of sight. And all those glories we read about in Revelation of that heavenly place, I tell you, we will see them with our eyes. That's the reward of faith. You know, Paul says, there are these three great things,

faith, hope, and love. And the one thing that abides is love. You know why that is? Because our faith will turn to sight and our hope will turn to reality. But there's nothing for love to turn into. It's the eternal thing, you see. There'll be some one day when I will not any longer need faith.

I'll no longer need hope. Why? I've got the reality. I've got the sight. I can see Jesus. I can see that heavenly city. I can see the glory of God. You see.

Paul says, no wonder we keep on preaching. No wonder we keep on. We don't worry about dying. Why? Because we know that right now, if death should overtake us, we would simply walk into the sights of glory. And the sight of Jesus, which will be so traumatic, it will transform us immediately into his likeness.

Begins a journey into the realm of light. But it also, we have a covenant that death places us in the presence of Christ. Death places us in the presence of Christ. Now, I know we have the presence of Christ. We never have to ask Christ to be present in our meetings. He's here where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. And I've felt the presence of Christ, haven't you? I've felt the presence of Christ.

But there's always a little hindrance there, isn't there? And then you may feel the presence, as you were saying earlier, you may feel the presence right now, but then when you walk out, you may not feel that presence. And we kind of move in and out of that presence sometimes because of the limitations of our flesh, because of the limitations of our body. But he says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To be at home actually says to be at home with the Lord. And that word home, it's only used here in this chapter.

Only time it's used in the Greek New Testament. You know what it means? It literally means hometown. Hometown. That we will come from abroad and settle in our hometown and will be in the presence of jesus and we'll look at him not by faith but by sight can you imagine friends seeing the unveiled jesus we've tried to conjure up images of him and artists have their renderings of him, but no brush, no imagination could capture the glory and the beauty

of our blessed Lord. And oh, one day, we'll be lifted above these burdens of the flesh and the tears of this world and we'll see Jesus face to face. I was watching television. No, I didn't watch television. I got this over the internet.

It was a transcription of a certain television evangelist. And this television evangelist who's well known said, he said, now the Spirit has showed me this. Of course, the Spirit also showed him earlier that there were nine members of the Trinity and that women were supposed to give birth through their side. So I don't put a lot of stock in that. But he said, this is what I see. And he was talking about a certain TV network, religious network.

And he said, I see in the future where when the hands of dead people are placed on the TV screen, when that particular program is on, they'll be raised to life. He said, I can see it now. I can see it now. It's the Spirit. The Spirit's showing me this now. That people will say to the undertakers, not so quick. And they'll wheel that coffin in the living room in front of the television set.

And when that program comes on, they'll lift the dead hand of that person and place it on the television set. And when that program comes on, they'll lift the dead hand of that person and place it on the television set and they'll be resurrected. Now, I want to tell you something. That's about the most unbiblical view you'll find anywhere. That boy doesn't know the Word of God. And he is more enamored with miracles than with Jesus.

Now, I just want to give you folks fair warning. If I die and they lay me out in a coffin, woe betide the person that rolls me in front of that television set and puts my hand on that screen and brings me back to this burdensome, infirmity-filled life. I tell you what, if you do that, I'm going to shoot you and then I'm going to shoot you and then I'm going to shoot myself so I can get back there as quickly as possible. Folks, if I die, leave me alone.

Leave me be. Boy, once I get loose now maybe some of you young people well I'm ready to come back well okay I've got news for you though once you see Jesus you'll never want to leave his

presence nobody ever having once been in the presence of Jesus wants to leave it. So, raising me from the dead doesn't interest me whatsoever. Man, that's what I've been longing for. That's what God has planted in my heart. That's what I've been longing for. That's what God has planted in my heart.

That's what I've been prepared for, is to be lifted out of this unstable tent and to have the building that is permanent and stable and to be in the very presence of our Lord. I'll be home. I'll be home. And then in the fourth place, anybody keeping count?

This is the fourth place. We have a confirmation of this by the pledge of the Spirit. Look at verse 5. Now, He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. And you know what the word pledge, it's an earnest, it's a down payment, it's a foretaste of what is to come. The confirmation. Now listen, there is a longing in every person's heart that

proves to me there is a heaven. If I have a longing for heaven that God has placed there, then that proves there is a heaven. God would never have placed eternity in a man's heart if there was no eternity. See, the reason I know there's water somewhere is because I thirst. The reason I know there's food somewhere is because I hunger. The reason I know there's sleep somewhere

is because I get sleepy. You see, God would not have put those basic desires in his creation if he did not intend those desires to be fulfilled in some way. You see? So the very fact that you thirst means there's water somewhere. The very fact that you're hungry means there's food somewhere. And the very fact that I long, I long for that place where there'll be no tears and no burdens and no goodbyes and nothing will change and everything will be the same and we'll dwell in the presence of the Lamb forever.

I long for that. God has put it in my heart. That proves to me that it's there. And if I need additional confirmation, the Holy Spirit has been given to me as a pledge, as a foretaste. I remember around Christmas time especially and other times Thanksgiving. My wife's a good cook, she really is. She's really a good cook. And when she cooks.

But it's hard to cook for two, you know. And boy, she swings a mean can opener. But if she wants to, and if I want her to, she'll cook. Boy, she's a good cook. And around Thanksgiving, she'll prepare a ham. And she'll cover it up and put it in the refrigerator

saying now don't touch but I'm a late night person and Katie sleeps soundly and I'll get up in the middle of the night and go in the refrigerator Kay sleeps soundly. And I'll get up in the middle of the night and go in the refrigerator. Of course, she always knows I do it

because I can never get that stuff wrapped up like it once was. How do these women, why do women know how to take that saran wrap and get it just right? And men don't. But I'll just peel that bag. I'll slip out a piece of that ham.

Oh, that's so good. Oh, I wish Thanksgiving would hurry up and get here. Why are you so anxious for Thanksgiving? I've had a foretaste. I've had a taste of it. And you know, you and I have a taste of heaven here on earth, don't we?

The Holy Spirit, as He works in us and blesses us and makes Jesus real. See, I think it's our hometown. And I think when we get to heaven, we won't be in a strange place. I think we'll walk around in glory and say, this looks familiar. I feel like I've been here before.

You know, this is just like my hometown. I'm going to find the rest of that ham. Folks, God has given us a foretaste of what's to come. And that makes us that more hungry to sit down has given us a foretaste of what's to come. And that makes us that more hungry to sit down at the table

and eat it all. Because there's more than a ham in that refrigerator, you understand. My wife makes wonderful, what do you call it? Those potatoes, collard potatoes with butter and garlic. I don't eat that because it's pretty hard to disguise a gap. There's more. I tell you, my heart longs for that home.

Well, what should our reaction be about this? There are two that Paul mentions. He says, therefore, being always of good cheer. Knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. But verse 8 again, he says, we are of good cheer, I say. Paul, when he looked upon the circumstances of his life he had a cheerful attitude towards present circumstances why because he knew they were temporary and not permanent

and he knew that whatever he was suffering the more he suffered it was producing a greater weight of glory and there's a play on words there in the Greek text. He's earning for us a greater, an eternal weight of weights. Eternal weight of weights, but we translate it glory, which is good. Eternal weight of glory. And so Paul says, therefore, I'm of good courage. I'm cheerful.

I face the present circumstances of my life courageously with a cheerful attitude. And he says, the second reaction is that verse 8, and prefer prefer and the tense of the verb means continually preferring that's the state that we live in preferring to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord the matter is folks there are worse things that can happen to the Christian than dying. And going into the presence of the Lord. I do long to see him. I feel guilty saying that because I have some special loved ones up there in heaven too

that I'm going to see one day. And I know my heart must not be right. I think I long to see my son more than I long to see Jesus. Am I the only one that feels that way? Do you long to see your husband more than you long to see Jesus? I must confess to you that I feel that way so much. And that's why I need to read the Word and the fellowship with Him. because I want it to be my heart's

desire to be able to say with Paul I prefer to be at home not with mom and dad not with my son and I prefer to be at home with the Lord. I trust that before he starts dismantling my tent, that I will have arrived at that point. May the Lord bless you. bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.