<p style="text-align: left;"><b>Summary:</b><br>Paul explains that if the earthly body is destroyed, believers have an eternal dwelling from God in heaven. While living in this earthly body, believers groan, longing to be clothed with their heavenly dwelling so that mortality will be swallowed up by life.<br><br>God has prepared believers for this very purpose and has given the Holy Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, believers are always confident, knowing that while they are at home in the body they are absent from the Lord. They live by faith, not by sight.<br><br> <br><b>Teaching</b>:<br>“since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked.”<br><br>Later, we will be clothed with the dwelling that comes from heaven. The people of the New Jerusalem will all wear the white garments that God Himself provides, and they will live forever clothed in them. Because of this, those who are taken up to the heavenly dwelling will not be put to shame. In Scripture, shame is often portrayed as being stripped of garments of righteousness. What covers us is the robe of righteousness.<br><br>Paul proclaims the gospel amid suffering because he longs to be clothed with the heavenly dwelling. Therefore, to enter the kingdom of God, while we live in the body, we must live out God’s story that we are called to embody.<br><br>To live in the body means to live while doing the Lord’s work in the body, and in this way we enter the kingdom of God.<br><br><br><i>Excerpt from the sermon by Pastor Lee, Dec 26, 2025</i><i><br></i><i>2 Corinthians 5:1-7</i></p>
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