An audio file of the sermon from February 5, 2017 is available at this link.
The Scripture readings are Joshua 1:1-9 and Philippians 1:27-2:18.
A PDF file of the worship bulletin is at this link.
“John Lennon famously wrote a song that begins, “Imagine there’s no heaven….” It’s a very idealistic song, and by idealistic I mean, with all due respect to a great songwriter, it is perfect and complete nonsense. His idea seems to be that it would be a good idea for us to live as though there were no second chances, no forgiveness. He seems to think that if we did that, we could somehow create a world in which everyone is nice to each another. But experience with life gives us reasons to be gravely skeptical whether niceness would be the result of imagining that this world is all there is.
“Later on in the song, he suggests, again apparently thinking for whatever reason that it would be a good thing, that we “imagine all the people living for today.” But that is just the problem, isn’t it? “All the people living for today” is exactly what makes heaven necessary. The most dangerous people you will meet in life are the ones who are living for today. Too often you’ve been on the receiving end of the actions of people living for today. Too often, in fact, many of us have been the ones living for today ourselves, and you know from experience what a disaster that is, how many people were hurt, and how badly.
“The life of Christian integrity is a life lived for tomorrow. With God, there is always tomorrow. In God’s tomorrow, there is another day full of opportunities to forgive as you have been forgiven, to act in love as you have been loved, to put yourself second just as Jesus ‘made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.'”
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