1 Corinthians 15

So 1 Corinthians 15 starting at verse 29. Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day.

Yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ, Jesus, our lord. If I fought wild beasts in ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow, we die. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character.

Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning. But there are some of you who are ignorant of god. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?

How foolish? What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be But just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else, but god gives it a body as he has determined. And to each kind of seed, he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same.

People have 1 kind of flesh, animals have another, birds, another, and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is 1 kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has 1 kind of splendor the moon another and the stars another and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead?

The body that is sown in Perishable, Perishable is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written. The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam a life giving spirit.

The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that, the spiritual, The first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

And just as we have born the image of the earthly man, So shall we bear the image of the heavenly man? I declare to you brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen. I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.

In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, For the Trump it will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where o death is your victory?

Where o death is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. But thanks, be to god, he gives us the victory through our lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm.

Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the lord because you know that your labor in the lord is not in vain. Father, we, we thank you, that you have indeed brought us all here tonight. We thank you that when your word has been opened and read that you are speaking to each and each and every 1 of us. And so we pray that, you will help us tonight.

We we know, that our hearts aren't naturally inclined. To want to listen to your words, especially at a night, like tonight. And so we pray father that you will keep us listening, give us hearts that want to receive your words, help us to stay awake, help us to wanna hear from you tonight. We pray that as we listen to your words that you will apply it to us, that you will make us excited to be people of you, and, and you will help us to, live for you as a result of what we hear. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, our Okay.

I wanna begin by talking to you, about the body. About your body. I guess you're all feeling your bodies right now, probably quite sweaty and hot and bothered. But I wanna talk about the body. I wanna talk about your boy.

How is your body? How is it? When so I just got a little like that from Phil, like mine's great. When you when you get up in the morning, you look in the mirror, And you look at and you look at the look at the reflection, do you do you are you I like this. This is a good body.

But you're happy with your body. Or are you someone who who let's face it, thinks probably could make a few changes to this. A wish I could change that feature. A wish that I didn't have hairs sprouting out my shoulders, or out my nose. And, what can I do about it?

And then and then what what do you think is gonna happen to your body? And what do people think is gonna happen to the body? See, I think I think you would agree with me that we live in a culture that is completely obsessed with the body. And they're completely obsessed with body image. You you just have to look around and look in in in the paper.

Like, if you go into the supermarket or w h smith, if people still go in there, I don't know. I sometimes frequent there. I'm not sure why maybe to buy a drink. Can you look at them at the top shelf. And there's just, or the shelves there, and you see men's health, and you see these people with amazing bodies and I mean, I mean, they've all been airbrushed and they all got these perfect smiles.

I've never seen teeth on someone like that that are real. And and and, you know, a beautiful tan and completely hairless and, you know, its beautiful bodies, our our our culture pushes it. Right? But then out of that, we get all sorts of issues, don't we? You would get eating disorders.

I I was reading the article today. I'm from from from the the Guardian just in just the last year, that male dis easing disorders have gone up by 70 percent. And the, you know, female eating disorders are are rife as well. As people really, really wanna make change the body. They kind of wanna a new body, a different body.

You and and you get the opposite extreme. You get these the gym freaks, the body builders. I don't know if you know any of these. I don't have a couple. You get them on me, and they it's just wait and wait and wait and and you sort of come across these people, and they're basically a a walking muscle.

Like, like, you don't know where the neck starts in the head on the head, you're like, what's going on with you? And and the shoulders are about out here, and they kinda can't move because they're walking like this. And and but again, they're abusing the bodies. They they pump anabolic steroids into their body so they can look I mean, in my opinion, ridiculous, but maybe you like that, I don't know. And and it goes further.

You've you've got all this beauty and makeup and and even plastic surgery in that Botox you know, with when you make your your face like a fish like that, and hello, and I look lovely now because my you've got their wrinkles. You got you've got older people wanting to look like they were young. Oh, I wish I had a new body and that I looked like a younger person. And we've got younger people wanting to look older. I wish I was older, so then I'm I could probably buy some an alcohol.

Or maybe with a body, it's it's just the frustrations. The frustrations as as people are riddled with disease. And there's there's cancers Or there's just those general aches and pains. I I mean, I'm not an expert in this. I don't think I've ever felt the most pain in the world, but, you know, Now, and then I have a bit I had to have an operation.

I had a torn meniscus in my knee. Get that out. General aches and pains, sore back. I guess when you get older, you get a bit more creaky and a bit even more painful and you can't walk and your your legs ballooned up. The body saw.

And the fact is actually that no matter what we do, and no matter what we try and do to make it different, or you only pour energy and money into into medicine or pour it into going to the gym or pour it into a vegan diet with avocado and celery. No matter what you do, you're stuck with this body for now. We're all going to the same destination All of our bodies are all going to the same destination and that is the grave. So all our hopes and all our aspirations for this body and all that effort in trying to make it a new body It's kind of for nothing because let's face it. Death is coming.

And and with the light that death of of that with the light that death is coming with that fact, people don't like that. They want something to happen after. They want something to happen with the body afterwards, don't they? I mean, I I in my in 1 of my history lessons in with my year tens, obviously, we should have been in history, but we ended up talking about something like this. And this is the question that even bothers them at young age.

What happens after death? What happens to the body? There's gotta be something that can't just be the end. The problem is is that the ideas that people come up with are actually always less than what we have now. So for instance, they talked about reincarnation, you know, that silly It's Buddhist, isn't it?

Doctor. That you die, and then you come back in a different body. But I don't think you ever come back as a better body. You sort of you you come back as a lesser body, usually. Like, you come back as a slug.

It's not that's not as good. Or or or people's view of what heaven might be is kind of like this. We're we're like these spirits and we're just sort of floating around not recognizing each other. Oh, did I know you want to know? And, where's the Philadelphia cheese?

It's just rubbish. It's less than what we have now. Unless you're a Christian, and the body that is to come is much better. The body to come is so much more than what we have now. And and that's what Paul wants to say in this passage.

He wants to say that there is a hope for a new body There is a body that is worth investing in. And it's not this earthly body. It's the body that is to come. It's the the resurrection body. See, last week, we we talked about, and if you look at verse 12 to 34, you'll see that he's talking about the resurrection of the dead.

He's saying that there will be a resurrection. People will rise from the dead. And so then he preempts this question, and this is the first thing that I wanna see. All my points today begin with look. I've got 7 of them.

I apologize, but they are quite short. Okay? So don't worry too much. We will get through them in good time. So your first 1, look the mocking questionnaire.

Look with me at verse 35. But someone will ask how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? See, this is the question. It's it's kind of a a mocking of the idea of a resurrected body.

The the the kind of saying, how is that possible? You might have come I don't know if you've ever talked about the resurrection with people, but you might have come across people like this if you have. What god could raise a dead body? Well, Well, what would that look like? Would we just be like zombies?

You know, because you've been in the the grave for a bit, so you probably decayed a a a certain amount And, you know, you've got a patch of face missing here and a finger missing there. What am I just walking around a bit holy? Not holy like that, but holy with No. No pun intended. I did not have that written down.

But what about those who have no remains? You know, the person that that got burnt to life, burnt to death, sorry, not burnt to life, burnt to death, or or the person who got blown up or the person that has been so long dead that there's nothing left of them. What's gonna happen then? This is kind of the the mocking question that's going on. You know, for that person who who's had no remains, are they just gonna be a weird mix of different parts of body?

Is that what god's gonna do? He's gonna sort of just go, oh, well, we'll try and put an arm here and you kind of got 1 arm that's really long and 1 that's really short and legs and you're missing an eye. I don't know. Some sort of weird body. Is it and and which version of me will it be in the resurrection?

Will it be will it be Rory Kanared off of of peak physical fitness? Probably aged 18, playing many games of sport a week, or will it be Rory canard in 20 years time, probably on crutches? Because I've wrecked my body. That's the sort of mocking question that's going on here. And Paul says, how foolish?

See that in verse 36. How foolish? You don't understand god. And so secondly, he says look at nature. Look at nature.

Read verse 36 to 41 with me. How foolish? What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just to see perhaps of wheat or of something else. But god gives it a body as he is determined and determined.

And to each kind of seed, he gives its own body Not all flesh is the same. People have a have 1 kind of flesh. Animals have another bird, another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies the splendor of the heavenly bodies is 1 kind and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The son has 1 kind of splendor.

The moon another, and the star's another, and star differs from star in splendor. So in Invest 36 38. This is what Paul's arguing. He's saying, listen, you can know that there is a resurrection body just by looking at creation. If we all looked out at the window or out the door, we can see that there is a resurrection body.

And all you have to do is look in look at the planting system. Look at the planting. See, when you I don't know if you planted when you were in primary school. I remember planting. It was 1 of the greatest lessons in year 2.

You had a little bit of seed and you planted it. It was I think it was watercress we made, and you put 1 in the cupboard without light, and you put 1 in the light. And look, oh, 1 flourishes, 1 doesn't. But you have a tiny little seed. This is what you're having when you pack a tiny little seed.

You don't get a full massive crop of wheat and just go. There we go planted it. No. You get a tiny, unimpressive little pathetic looking seed. And you get that and you plant it into the ground.

And then it dies, the plant the the seed doesn't stay the seed. Does it? It dies. It is no more. And then it becomes a plant.

So you put the seed into the ground and god grows it After the death, he grows it and he makes it into the plant. He's transformed it into something new. It's still got the DNA of the seeds. It's still come from that seed, but now it's it's different. It it's bigger.

It's it's grander. It's actually when it was that seed, all it was all it was when it was a seed, really. Was something full of potential. Right? It it hadn't fulfilled its potential.

But it it was full of it. Now you plant an acorn, it grows that it's a massive tree. It's fulfilling its potential. Fulfilling its purpose. And that that's where he goes on.

Then he goes on in verse 39 to 41. And he talks about giving bodies and a fish a bird a human. And really what he's saying here is, I I give god gives bodies that are fit. For their environment that are fit for the purpose. So, I mean, this this so when he takes the fish, a fish, You know, the the fish, that that thing in the water, does that got gills?

Yeah. Those things? A fish perfect for its environment underwater. If you take it out of water, it's not gonna do too well. It but then soon soon gonna be Yeah.

And so you put it back in and then it's going again. The bird, it's suitable for the air flying in the 8. I mean, if didn't couldn't fly, it would be in a bit of trouble up there, wouldn't it? It'd be coming down pretty soon. We have these bodies that are fit a purpose, they're fit for the environment that we find ourselves in.

But he he goes on, doesn't he? He talks about the we've all been feeling the effects the sun, we're all probably still feeling it right now. Keep on talking about it. But he's talking about the sun and the moon and the stars, and he's saying, they're different bodies. But they're serving a purpose.

What sort of purpose does it say? A heavenly purpose. I think this is what he's saying because because people are saying, I think people are saying that they're earthly. So how can they live in heaven? If you're an earthly body, how can you live in heaven?

And this is what Paul's saying. God can create the earthly body. God can create the fish God could create the bird. He can create the human to live on the earth. He can create the the splendor and the greatness of the sun and the moon and the stars.

And so if god can create that, he can take the earthly body, then the weak earthly body and it can make it a heavenly body fit for the purpose of heaven. We're gonna see a little bit more of that as we go on. So we've looked at nature Now that we've looked at nature, this is the third thing. Look at the resurrection of the body. Verse 42 to 44.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead? The body that is sown is perishable. It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.

It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. The the this is wonderful stuff.

Okay? Just like the seed. Remember the seed that tiny little thing, the little seed. Remember the seed? Planted, dies, becomes a plant or tree.

It's the same with the earthly body. The perishable body. All of us gonna die. We said at the start. It will die, but it will be raised imperishable.

We are gonna die. We are gonna be buried But there is a resurrection. And when you have that resurrection body, that body can no longer die. And and you you get more, don't you? It was sown in dishonor.

I don't know if you've ever seen a dead body. Not the most honorable thing, I don't think. When you die, you know, it's bit of a mess from what I understand about death. And and you're no longer fulfilling what you're meant to be as a human being. Reflecting the image of god, the life giver, the the 1 who breathes life.

You're dead, but it doesn't last like that because you're raised in glory. Fulfilling your purpose as a god, bearing god bearing the image of god. Sewn in weakness. I don't I I remember, My grand dad had a stroke. My grand dad before he had a stroke was 1 of the fittest men in the world.

I think he was like, I thought he was a superhero. As many many grandchildren probably do, he he would do everyone's gardens. He would be faffing around, like, driving around, going around, doing all these sort of things. He has a stroke and a few years later I see him, and the change was unbelievable. A weak man a gaunt man, a man who couldn't say anything.

And when we die, we are weak. But then there's resurrection, and you're raising power, strong. Reflecting god vibrant, powerful, sown a natural body, just this earthly body, just like the seed. Raise a spiritual body. Not not a spirit notice.

Not a spirit. We're not spirits. We're not floating around. Not knowing who you are. I know you.

Where spiritual bodies is a physical body as well as spiritual. And so he says if there's a natural body, there must be a spiritual. And the way that we know that, well, fourthly, look at the Adams. Look at the Adams family. Not the program, but the Adams family here.

Look with me at verse 44 to 50. It's so natural body it's raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written. The first man Adam became a living being The last Adam a life giving spirit, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural and after that, the spiritual.

The first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man is of heaven. As was the earthy man, so are those who are of the earth, And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have born the image of the earthly man, So shall we bear the image of the heavenly man? I declare to you brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god.

Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable? So this is what the Bible says. We have 2 atoms in the Bible. And you are gonna be represented by 1 of the 2 atoms. The first Adam is the 1 in Genesis.

He's the 1 who is the father of all that have proceeded. He is the 1 who was created out of this dust you'll see. He's made out of the dust of the earth. He's formed his breed life into him, the first Adam. It all goes wrong.

Adam Adam, the first 1 says, god, I don't want you. I'm gonna sin. I'm gonna rebel against you. I'm gonna walk out. Every single 1 of us since, done the same thing.

Send. And so the consequences are the same for each and every 1 of us. Death. Death. And so if he is our representative, then it's the the the truth.

It's the same for us that we too will die. But then there's a second item. Look at the second item. The first item in verse, 45, a living being, but the second adam, the last Adam, a life giving spirit This is the lord Jesus. The lord Jesus is the life giver.

It's the lord Jesus. Through his death and resurrection that can give us life. He's the seed. Remember the seed. Coming back to the seed again.

I keep on coming back to it. Remember the seed the natural body Christ comes and he's a he's he's got a natural body and he dies. He's dying for the sins of Oz. He's taken that punishment for Oz He dies and he's buried the natural body sown, but he rises again. And what does he have?

Does he have the same natural body? No. He's got a glorious resurrection body, a body that we've sang about that really is free from pain and sickness and those frustrations that we talked about at the starts. This second Adam is the Adam of heaven. And so if he's our representative, That means that we will follow him to heaven, that we will be imperishable, that we will bear his image.

At the moment, this is what the passage is saying. We bear the image of Adam, the first, Adam the first, and Adam the second. We're gonna After death and when we rise again bear his image. So which Adam are you in? Which Adam is your representative?

Who's representing you? See if it's the first Adam. If it's the first Adam. The 1 of a perishable bot who has a perishable body, the perishable body of blood and flesh Then this is the issue. You cannot inherit the kingdom of god.

See that in verse 50? If you're represented by the first Adam, you're not getting into the kingdom of god. But not only that you're not gonna get this resurrected body. The body that actually I think all crave for. That's what I think all these They're striving for a new body shows us that people want a new body, but you're not gonna get it unless you're represented by the lord Jesus Christ.

So be represented by him because the kingdom of god will be yours. The resurrected body will be yours. The 1 that is fit for the purpose that it was designed to be. So which item are you in? If I've asked you that question, you think, no, I'm not I'm not represented by the second, then turn to him.

Turn to him, trust in him, trust in his death, trust in his resurrection so that you may have the resurrected body too. So let's look at the Adams fifthly. Look at the coming. Look to the coming of the lord. Look to the coming of the lord.

Read with me verse 51 to 53. Listen. There you go. Listen. I tell you a mystery.

We will not all sleep. But we will all be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable and the mortal with immortality. This is good news that everyone who is in the lord Jesus will be changed We're gonna be transformed. We're gonna resemble the lord Jesus.

You see that the trumpet will sound? Now you might be thinking, what are we talking about the trumpet sounding? Well, when the trumpet sounds, that's showing that the kings come in. That's all over the back. I I don't know if you've ever seen any Disney films, but aladdin great film.

Probably the best Disney 1, and maybe you hate it, that's fine. Aladdin's coming into the town. Right? He's coming into the city. Why to get the hand of Jasmine, the beautiful girl, and they do what they blow the trumpets, and then he comes in.

The king is here. That's what the trumpet's doing. The trumpet sounds the lord Jesus returns. It's all over the bible. You can look in Isaiah Zechariah Matthew, and look what happens in an instant.

In a flash in the twinkling of an eye. What happens? Well, first, you get the dead or raised? What? The dead are all raised, and they're changed.

But even more than that, those who are alive still So if the lord Jesus comes now and we're here, we're alive, we're all gonna be changed straight away. And it's not us doing the changing. We we talked about that at the start. People trying the best to just look better and change and get a new body. Nah, not you.

That's not gonna happen. Sorry. The lord Jesus is the 1 who does the changing. And a habit straight away. And look at the clothes.

Clowed with imperishable, clothed with immortality. Having bodies that no longer die. We must be dressed fit for the occasion. We must be dressed fit for the place we're going to. Right?

I mean, you see this see this all over the place. If you go to a wedding, I guess you shouldn't dress. I mean, if someone came in tracksuit bottoms yesterday, and we might have let them off, but it would be in a bit of a bit of bit of disrespectful. There's there's establishments that you have to wear certain things to get in. If you're gonna see the queen, I imagine Carl can testify to this.

If you see the queen, will I have to dress up? I have to dress pretty smartly. Yeah. There was a a gentleman remember last year at Wimbledon. The famous Formula 1 driver, Lewis Hamilton.

He went into Wimbledon wearing like a cap and jeans and stuff. He got kicked out straight away. You gotta dress for the occasion, mate. What are you doing? What are what I sorry to harp on about Disney.

It's becoming a Disney fest. This is 1 of the best illustrations I could think about this. Cinderella. What a story. Okay?

I know you all love it. Cinderella, what's she like? She's completely in rags. She looks awful. She's probably got dirt in her hair.

It's tangled. She looks clothes are disgusting. Very godmother comes in. How long does it take to change her? Like that?

She's dressed fit for a for a banquet, fit for a ball, fit for dancing with the the prince. Lovely. What's the same for us? The lord Jesus is not the fairy godmother get her out of here. The lord Jesus is coming back and in an incense will be changed.

No longer with these rags of mortality, but with robes of immortality. No longer with this body of death, but with a body of eternal life. And so when that happens, we can do our sixth thing. Look at death defeated. Read with me.

54 to 57. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true, death has been swallowed up in victory. Where o death is your victory? Where o death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is in the law, but thanks be to god.

He gives us the victory through our lord Jesus Christ. See, on that day? We'll be able to truly look death in the face, and we can say to it. You can't win. You can't win.

You can't touch this. You can't hurt me death. You can no longer take my loved ones. You can no longer wreak havoc on families. You can't win.

See, I'm imperishable. I'm immortal. I I I'm no longer got a body of sin. So your law can no longer condemn me. You cannot have the victory death.

And why is that? It was verse 57, but thanks, Peter God. He gives us the victory through our lord, Jesus Christ. It's the lord Jesus Christ is the 1 who wins. It's death nil.

It's the lord Jesus Christ 1. That's final. He gets the victory. It's his death and resurrection that makes this possible. Remember in verse 20, we said he's the first fruits.

He's the first 1 to die and rise again, and so that all those people that are with him will walk out that grave with him, and the death cannot keep cannot keep hold of them. And what a glorious resurrected body he had. 1 that doesn't hurt. 1 that doesn't get affected by disease. 1 that doesn't tire.

We were at the wedding yesterday. I don't know a lot of you enjoyed the Kayley. Right? With a resurrected body, I reckon you could probably Kayley for years. And not get bored?

A baby you would. I don't know. And so we should sing this song of praise. Thanks be to our gods. Thanks be to our gods.

We've been singing us praises. Thank you god, but don't stop there. You don't stop there. Here's my seventh point. You've looked now live.

You've looked now live. Look at verse 58. Therefore. Whenever you see it therefore, you ask what it's there for. It's usually in the light of what we've just seen.

My dear brothers and sisters stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the lord because you know that your labor in the lord is not in vain. See, he could have left it at verse 57 singing a great song, and we'd have a rock Christian rock concert. Fantastic.

But he doesn't. He wants to see action from this. He wants to stir up a reaction. And so he gives, therefore, and he gives us 3 things that he wants us to do. First 1.

Stand firm. Stand firm. That's how he starts the chapter. He finishes it. Stand firm.

Stand firm in the gospel. Stand firm in the truths that the lord Jesus died and rose again to achieve what, to achieve the resurrection body. Stan firm. Don't move. It's like going into into war when you're defending.

You don't move. You don't take a backwards step. I'm standing firm. And so then secondly, it's kind of the opposite or or sort the other side of it. Let nothing move you Let nothing moves.

You're standing firm. Got them standing firm. Nothing's gonna move me. See, In this world, there are all sorts of things trying to tug you away and take your attention and take you away from the gospel. And to attempt you not to believe in the resurrection, maybe it's those things we said at the start.

You want a better body, and I'm letting that take me away from the gospel. Or maybe it's just things that that, you know, that you just think are more important. Remember what is our first importance. Stand firm in it and don't let anyone move you from it. Do not move away from the hope of the resurrection And then lastly, always give yourselves fully to the work of the lord.

This is what Paul wants you to do. See, I was talking to It's a bit funny that in this in this book that Paul puts this resurrection chapter in. It doesn't seem to connect to anything. But actually, I think what Paul's trying to do, he's trying to get the Corinthians church to serve 1 another in love and to see the gospel go forth. And the way that he does that is to remind them and to fix their eyes on the resurrection future that it's to come.

And so fix your eyes. You've looked at it now. And keep keep looking at it at the resurrection future and live devoted to the lord. Not just a little bit. Don't just give your sundays to the lord.

Don't just give Wednesday prem in our home group to lord. Give every single part of your life. To building up this church, serve 1 another, love 1 another. Things that the corinthian church wasn't doing. We wanna do those things.

It's not futile. It's not in vain. So don't be worried about this body. Don't try and get this body to become new. Don't worry.

There's there's no point. It's gonna die. Right? It's gonna die. I mean, the very thing that you're breathing in, I believe kills you.

So there you go, you're gonna die. Right? So get on using this body now. Get on with using this body now. With a view that there is a better body to come.

There is an imperishable body to come. Use this 1 now to serve god. How do you do that? Well, we love 1 another by first and foremost praying for 1 another. By simple things as setting down chairs.

Simple things do refreshments. We love people by sharing the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ that he died and that he rose again with people around them. Surely, we want people to have this. Do we want people to have this? Use this body now to do the work of the lord knowing that 1 day you're gonna be rewarded with a glorious resurrected body like the lord Jesus Christ.

Are you excited about that? We were excited about your new body. It's great. When people say to me, Rory, you should have got your root canal done ages ago. I said, don't worry about it.

I'll get new gums and tea. Maybe I should get it sorted. But are you excited about the new body? It was not it was great yesterday in in the wedding. The vows really struck me because we because the vow say, I'm gonna do all this till death do his part or what, or until Jesus returns.

Be excited about that. And can we say with you with the apostle John at the end of Revelation, come lord Jesus come. Come lord Jesus, give us this new resurrected body. Let's pray. Father, We thank you so much for the hope of the gospel.

We thank you so much that you do promise a resurrected body And that that is definitely gonna happen because the lord Jesus went before us. And so far that we pray that you'll get us excited for this that you'll get us excited for the day when you come back and that you give us new resurrected bodies where we won't feel pain and and then and then then you wipe away the tears of everyone and we'll be with you in glory forever. How was to be excited about it? How was to have our eyes fixed on it? But not just so that we can stare and do nothing about it, but act so that we may go forth and live for you and serve you and serve the church and go out and tell people about the lord Jesus Christ.

Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.