6.5.16-How Do We Stand on Tiptoe as We Wait.Long

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East Cooper Baptist Church June 5, 2016 How Do We Stand on Tiptoe as We Wait/Long for the Coming Day of the Lord? 2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 14 

“While other world views lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” Timothy Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering, p. 31 “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about…I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into a drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.” “Red”, Shawshank Redemption 1. God’s good gifts are all foretastes of the glory that is coming. “The hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as a substitute is to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal.” C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer, p. 84 “I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 137 2. As Christ-followers, we diminish our joy by not mediating on the glory of the heaven and the new earth. 3. Without an understanding of heaven, we can easily demand too much from one another in a fallen world. How do we await for heaven with a sense of expectation? 1. Be biblically informed. “20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this

hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:20-25 “22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” Luke 6:22-23 2. We wait for heaven when we live with expectation by saying: “The best is yet to be.” “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p. 115 3. We live with expectation when we groan with anticipation as we think about the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. 4. We display a waiting spirit when we live with a biblically-saturated grief. “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” Thessalonians 4:13 “Can you not see death as a friend and deliver?...What is there to be afraid of?....Your sins are confessed…Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind…Our Lord says to you: “Peace, child, peace. Relax, let go. I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?” Of course, this may not be the end. Then make it a good rehearsal…Yours (and like you, a tired traveler, near the journey’s end).” C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, p. 117 5. Glory in the uniqueness and majesty of Christ. “Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden, in one. Put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness, in one. Oh, what a fair and excellent thing would that be! And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest Well-beloved, Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths.” The Letters of Samuel Rutherford Implications: 1. The door to eternal joy is the reality of Christ. 2. Christians should choose to live with joyful anticipation. 3. Believers live with a sense of purpose, dignity, and significance. 4. We live with biblical expectations. How to we anticipate the new heavens and the new earth? 1. Form a prayer pattern that has “H” in it. 2. Ask these questions: • Do I daily reflect on my mortality? • Do I daily realize there are two destinations – heaven and hell and I and every person I know will go to one or the other?

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Do I daily remind myself that this world is not my home and that I will be part of the new heavens and the new earth? Do I daily realize that my choices and actions have a direct influence on the world to come (i.e. hastening the day of the Lord)?