Heaven & Hell – Week 3

Hear from Pastor Karen as she talks about how our bodies are just a tent, a temporary dwelling on earth. But in Heaven, we will have a permanent dwelling, a house.

2 Corinthians 5:1 says our earthly body is like a tent and a tent has some key features.

• A tent is limited.
• A tent is a temporary dwelling.
• A tent is not your home.

Therefore, if relate our bodies to a tent we can see that:

• Your tent (body) is limited.
• Your tent (body) is a temporary dwelling.
• Your tent (body) is not your home.

Heaven & Hell Week 3 Teaching Text

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are^[a] 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. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.^[b] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. ⁵ God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. ⁷ For we live by believing and not by seeing. ⁸ Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. ⁹ So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. ¹⁰ For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

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Did you like this message, Heaven & Hell Week 3? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.