Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of June 17, 2018

Personally I’m not a TENT camper.  St. Paul knew a thing or two about tents; he was a manufacture of them.  Whether or not you like sleeping in them, according to him, figuratively speaking, we all live in one...The tent of our body.

THIS

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Is the best way to understand this text from 2 Corinthians 5: 7-21.

Though Ephemeral Nobel Task:  (Ephemeral means short lived, time bound)

Someday we will be immortal and eternal but now we are mortal, time bound, passing away.  Our tent will not hold out for ever!  Though Ephemeral…ours is a Noble Task.  We are called to be a part of the only thing that is truly lasting…Our Lord, His Kingdom and His mission.

               

To Envision Neighbor Theologically. 

Not easy!   I’ve viewed neighbors judgmentally, suspiciously and selfishly; but I’m called to see them as God does, a beloved child of the Father for whom God’s Son came to die.

Toward Eternity Nearly There: 

My TENT is feeling its age.  And though this means there are plenty of aches and pains, there is something I can rejoice; won’t be too long and I’ll be away from this tent and at home with the Lord!

               

When our days grow long and the hours of sleep too short, when life bogs down and one wonders, “What’s the use?”  Remember you have an eternal home in heaven.  You don’t need to sigh and say, “Oh well, God is on the throne and who am I to argue with Him?”  No!  The God on the throne is the Lamb of the tree, the one who loved you enough to die for you!  He is loving and kind and His purpose is good, not just in general, but in a personal way for you; not just for creation and the church, but also for you.  If right now you can’t see it or you don’t feel it, trust the deposit of it, His Spirit which took up residence in you at your baptism.

When life is good and you wonder if it could possibly get any better.  It’s not time to say, “Well it’s about time something good came my way, or think it the results of clean living and hard work that’s paid off.”  No!  The Lamb who was slain has been raised, He is on His throne, and in Him you are a new creation, created not simply to enjoy His blessing, but to laud Him and share them!

Whether your life right now is like camping with the perfect vista, the view is glorious, the setting idyllic, the majesty and tranquility only bettered by Eden itself; or yours is more like a trek you’d like to forget, walking on shale, three steps forward and two back, you got a rock for a pillow, the heat is beating you and the bugs are biting ya……behind all the joyful and painful stuff of life, behind all the good days and bad days, behind all prosperity and adversity there is a throne, and on that throne a King, who is the Lamb, Your Savior and Lord and Friend Jesus Christ, who has built that throne in the center of house, built not by human hands, in which you one day shall dwell, and until that day He has called you to

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-Pastor Kevin Kritzer