Into His Presents

Sermon Title: Into His presents.

Scripture Text: 2 Corinthians 4:13- 5:1

We have plenty of troubles, personal and national , to keep us busy with worry and no sleep at night. These troubles even cause us medical problems. Things seem to be getting worse as time passes. Everything is monitored one way or the other and used to bombard us with all kinds of junk. Here is a story from what is happening in Chicago where the mayor only gives interviews to people of color; no white people can interview her.

I want to share a verse from our Scripture Text: Verse 17.

17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

Illustration:

Chicago Police stopped by to visit Mr. McDanials. When they came to visit him there were not only Police but a psychologist and a man working with police that lived in his building. There were a couple of others that he didn't know. He invited them into his home where his grandparents lived along with a couple of his adult children.

McDaniel was both a potential victim and a potential perpetrator according to his visitors, and the visitors in his house treated him as such. A social worker told him that he could help him if he was interested in finding assistance to secure a job, for example, or mental health services. And police were there, too, with a warning: from here on out, the Chicago Police Department would be watching him. The algorithm indicated Robert McDaniel was more likely than 99.9 percent of Chicago’s population to either be shot or to have a shooting connected to him. These man made algorithms made him dangerous to this specialized team, and top brass at the Chicago PD. So McDaniel had better be on his best behavior he was told.

Algorithms made by humans are being used, not for good, but seems to be used to monitor, predict, and discriminate. What happens when algorithms are wrong? Or even if they are right can they change the future by their predictions.

I don't want algorithms used on me for sure. We live in a data collection time where they collect everything on us and then this data is use in algorithms to do all kinds of things to us.

Now hear the reading of God’s Word:

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 NLT

13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

New Bodies

5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

The Word of God

For the people of God.

I like verse 13 “I believed in God, so I spoke.”. We should speak about Salvation more than anything else. Salvation brings about God’s way of thinking. Speak against prejudices no matter which way it seems to be pointing. Speak up for our earthly Church. Speak up against the Government when it’s doing things that God would not approve.

It seems that the Apostle Paul changes gears in verse 14 and heads into something that can be confusing to some that don't understand our God. God in the Hebrew/Old Testament was a plural word. The Hebrew had a singular, plural and 3 or more plural. The word “God” in the Hebrew Scriptures uses the plural of 3 or more. To us that is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

We are raised from the dead just like Jesus was raised to life. That is why it can be said Jesus will present us to himself. Praise the Lord we will know the Triune God face to face; see them with our eyes.