"Something to Live For"

First, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. Today is Father’s Day and so I want to make some remarks that are appropriate to the day. The celebration of Father's Day goes back to a Sunday morning in May of 1909, when a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd was sitting in church in Spokane, Washington, listening to a Mother's Day sermon. She thought of her father who had raised her and her siblings after her mother died in childbirth, and she thought that fathers should get recognition, too. So she asked the pastor if he would give a sermon honoring fathers on her father's birthday, which was coming up in June, and the minister did. And the tradition of Father's Day caught on, though rather slowly. Mother's Day became an official holiday in 1914; Father's Day, not until 1972. Mother's Day is still the busiest day of the year for florists, restaurants and long distance phone companies. But it is on Father's Day when the most collect phone calls are made. - - - I leave it to you to decide on the meaning of that fact.

I’ve entitled the sermon this morning “Something to Live For” because I believe that that expresses the great question that many people are asking today. “What is there to live for?” Ours is a time when “Hope” has become a political campaign slogan. Yet when we see the world today, there seems little to hope for. The financial crisis, violence and terrorism have left some people badly shaken, wondering where hope is to be found—wondering what there is to live for.

The first century was every bit as bleak in its outlook as is ours. There were diseases and famines and war, corruption in high places. And yet, in spite of the bleak outlook of the first century, there is no sense of despair in the NT. Read through it and you see only a cry of hope.

We saw it last week: Paul says in 4:1, “Since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart” and in 4:16 “Therefore, we do not lose heart.” Paul continues that thought into today’s passage. Notice what he says in v. 6 “Therefore, we are always confident . . .” and again in v. 8 “We are confident.”

Now that’s quite a statement. How many of you are “always confident”? How about “almost always confident”? “Sometimes confident”? Frankly, it’s easier for me to say “almost always insecure.”

God wants us to live confidently as Christians, but how can we do that in a world where the future seems so bleak?

Paul gives us a very helpful answer today in our passage. In it he sees three results of our Christian hope.

The first one we’ve already mentioned:

I.      We are always confident (6-8)

    A.     Because we are in touch with the Lord by faith now (6-7)

⁶Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷We live by faith, not by sight.

            “I will not leave you or forsake you” (Jn. 14)

B.     Because we anticipate something even better (8)

⁸We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

        “at home in the body—at home with the Lord” Whichever it is we are “at home.”

II.     We live to please God (9-13)

        A.     In our hidden motives (9-10)

                1.     An eternal principle (9)

⁹So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

2.     In view of Christ's judgment seat (10)

¹⁰For 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.

A time of Evaluation – Man is interested in results, God is interested in motives. A lot of good things are done for poor motives. At the judgment seat of Christ, all this will be seen and known.

A time of Disclosure – This is the event Jesus was referring to when he said that the things done in secret will be declared in the street and the things done in the closet will be shouted from the rooftops. If you are threatened by that, there is something you can do about it. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 11:31 “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” So, if we judge ourselves now we will be spared judgment later.

A time of Encouragement – All those things that you have done to serve Him or to serve others—things which may not have been noticed or acknowledged—will be seen and rewarded

        B.     In our continual activity (11-13)

                1.     Persuading men (11)

¹¹Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.

                2.     Answering critics (12-13)

¹²We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. ¹³If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

III.   We live to help others (14-17)

A.     Compelled by love (14)

¹⁴For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

B.     Freed from living for self (15)

¹⁵And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

C.     Centering our lives on others (16-17)

1.     Seeing them differently (16)

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

2.     Treating them differently (17)

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

What does he mean by that in this context? Well, he means simply there is always hope for everyone. No matter who it is, it is possible that they may be born again. No matter how violent they are in opposition to the gospel, they can be changed. A creative God can reach the most hopeless, the darkest, the lowliest, the worst, the farthest away. And, when they are reached, you never need to give up hope for them because they are part of a new creation. God has started a work that he is going to finish. I oftentimes write people off. Do you do that?

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. He that has begun a good work in you will not fail to perform it until the day of Christ. So there is always hope, even for me and even for you. Therefore, we are to treat everybody differently because we no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and was raised again. Well, what a change that makes. What a reason to go on and live today. This is the hour to bear a Christian witness above all other hours in history. What a privilege it will be at the judgment seat of Christ to know that we stood for his name and loved in his name in the midst of the emptiness and death and darkness of a dying world. Thank you, Lord, for that privilege.