Sing Talk—Keith Sacksteder
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Good evening.
It's umm, it's open in prayer.
Our God and our Father, we're just thankful for times like this. We think about this camp it's been.
Very enjoyable.
We're thankful for the times of fellowship.
Umm, the physical activities as well as, uh.
Opening up the scriptures and.
Speaking from them and conversations that we can have as we go on about the daily activities. What a blessing it is and we do give thanks for that. Just pray for a short word tonight of encouragement and just pray that the Lord will be glorified and everything umm.
That her eyes would be turned towards our heavenly hope. So we just give thanks in Jesus worthy and precious name. Amen.
So I have just uh.
Often it's it's good to.
Try to get the tenor of what things are going on and what things are being talked about.
Umm, I'm not gonna say that I was attempting to do that, and I don't. I don't know.
You know, this might be going off in a little bit different of a direction, but I think it, uh, fits with the tenor. But it was something that I had on my heart before we came to the camp. Umm, and it's, it's interesting. It's actually where we're reading in our, uh, evening meetings, our midweek meetings at, uh, at home that are where I'm gonna read from. We would have read there last night. Umm, so we're.
I missed that one, but uh, that's OK. Umm.
But in a way, it fits the tenor of this camp. Let's just read a few verses in Second Corinthians.
In the 5th chapter.
And uh.
Again, this has been a little bit on my heart, some reading that I've been doing previous.
Brought up some of these verses and I wanted to share just a few simple thoughts and umm.
Hopefully it commends itself to your souls, to your heart tonight. So let's read from verse one.
For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, if so be, that being clothed, we shall not be found naked.
For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that hath brought us for the self, same thing as God, who also have given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we're at home in the body.
We are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith.
Not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. We'll stop there.
I was thinking about these, these verses, you know, we've had, uh, a wonderful time.
These first few days of the camp, it's been wonderful. The fellowship, the the.
Kids and the adults going out and playing the games, the activities.
Umm.
Looking around and and watching the the children play and the the young people playing and the older ones as they're going on about the activities, I don't think I've seen, I don't think I've seen one.
Thinking really hard here, which is sometimes difficult. I don't think I've seen one squabble. I don't think I've seen anyone.
Have a fight with anybody else. No one's taking issue with other people. Not gonna say that it hasn't happened, but I haven't seen it. And if if you just sit, sit back and watch, you can get the tenor of what's going on. It's been just a wonderful time. Really enjoyed it. And I was thinking, you know, that that first night we came in and and Uncle Steve.
Put up that, uh, short slideshow talking about.
00:05:01
This other place that they're looking at, and if the Lord wills it, maybe we'll be there next year, if we're still here next year.
But he, he talked about, he went back to three meadows and I remember 3 meadows that I went to that one. And then he talked about some of the other camps. Well, during that time frame, uh, my wife and I, we missed probably two or three of them in that time frame. Umm, our kids were all being born at that time, newborns very young.
Umm and then he talked about being here for 9 years, and we've been here for quite a few of those years. I don't think everyone of them, but quite a few of them.
And, uh, so it's been a blessing, but, uh, looking back over those times, uh, what a blessing it's been. And, uh, the fellowship has been sweet and the, uh.
Opportunities to deepen those friendships and you watch the children growing up again, our children were, you know, the age of some of these younger ones or even younger some of these some of the very youngest ones here and uh, now they're.
One of them's a teenager, one of them soon to be a teenager and the other one, while she's not far behind, they're growing up in a hurry, you know, and the Lord is left here and he's, he's blessed us with this time in these times and, and conferences and, and, uh, many different activities and they've been beautiful. Umm.
But we read here something that's a reminder, and so it says we know that if our earth, earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved.
We have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. You know what the apostle's speaking about here?
If there's some of you that are younger and they don't know what he's talking about in these verses, he's talking about your body.
He's talking about your body, and it comes out clearly as we go on further in the passage.
But I really thinking about some of the, uh, passes, some of the, uh, discussion we've had for the morning reading, and we talked about covetousness. And there's a word here or a few words in the second verse that I want to look at, uh, thinking about covetousness, We've talked about covetousness. What does it have at the center of it?
It has me. Everyone of us can say it has me at the center of it, but here we grow. And earnestly desiring.
Earnestly desiring. There's a maybe a fine line between covetousness and this earnestly desiring, but it makes all the difference in the world. Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven.
There are some passages that we could look at, umm, to reference to cross reference to this passage here. And I'm just going to mention a few of them that come to mind as I was going through this. And I'm just going to make a few comments. We're not going to be very long tonight. Umm, but uh, the first one that comes to mind probably for many of us anyways, might be, uh, First Corinthians chapter 15. That's a chapter that gives us maybe a little bit more about.
Umm, God's intentions to give us.
A spiritual body is called a spiritual body in that chapter. Umm.
And so here we have it compared to a house. Notice there's two words here in this first verse. There's a Tabernacle and there's a house. The one is temporal, the other is eternal. In the heavens. You know God's intentions.
Were not centered on these mortal bodies, and here we find it said in verse 4, clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
We know about life in him was life and the life was the light of men for Jesus. When he prays in that 17th chapter of John, he says to know the Father and the Son, to know the Father and the Son, that is eternal life. And so swallowed up of life. You know, we uh, have really enjoyed this time here. And if the Lord leaves us here, Lord willing, these next few days.
Will be we trust more of the same, more of that communion, more of that?
Fellowship, more of that interaction from youngest to oldest. You know, there's bonds being built here, and these bonds, we love them, but we're reminded that this is just a few, just a little, just a littlest bit of what God has in store for us with just a few people, just a few thoughts, just a few hours.
00:10:13
That's not God's intention, but it is a foretaste, isn't it? And we enjoy it swallowed up of life.
I was thinking about that phrase swallowed up of life.
And there is a writer that I'm, I'm going to quote from and I, I had to write it down. I didn't write it down when I read it. So I'm, I'm hoping that I have this right. Umm, but he talked about, it was a writer and he was speaking about, uh, what God has in store for us. And, uh, he made a few comments that I thought were very good, uh, in regard to the eternal life that God has for us.
Umm.
It's good sometimes to make comparisons, to draw things out. And so he talked about the life that Adam had been given, and he said this about Adam. Adam had, I'm going to read this here. He had the liberty to choose not to sin. Adam had the liberty to choose not to sin. He made a choice, didn't he? And we read about that choice. He chose.
To follow Eve.
And to eat of that fruit that had been forbidden for them to eat.
He made a conscious decision. We know it says in Timothy that Eve was deceived, but not Adam. He made a choice. Well, that choice has had consequences, hasn't it?
It had disastrous consequences, but on the flip side.
This is one of the mysteries, one of the things that we may spend an eternity trying to understand about what the Lord has for us, about what God has for us. That decision opens the door to God revealing himself to us in a way that we could never have known had Adam not sinned. I don't want to go into what ifs, it's not our place to do that, but.
Adam made a decision and we read about the consequences of that decision in Romans and they were touched on in the previous meeting.
Our brother and it was some very beautiful thoughts, but the consequences of that decision, we live with it. You know, even in the enjoyment that we've had this week and in times past, we feel it. There are a number of those that are filling it in joints and knees. I saw one young lady in a sling. Trust it's not too bad.
We had one young feller taken down to the hospital to make sure that he was OK. A number of different things have happened we have had.
Just an immensely great time, but we feel the effects of sin from the youngest to the oldest in this life, and that's not what God has for us. And so there was another quote and this is what I was the second side.
Umm regarding this spiritual body.
The writer here says the new man.
Has the liberty not to choose to sin?
In that eternal state, you know, today there's an intermediate, we might say, I could say it in a manner of speaking, Adam when he chose to sin.
Took the whole race into ******* and that was one of the things that was mentioned. Hey, the salvation of God is freedom from that ******* of sin and Satan. And so we live as those that walk by faith, as it says here in verse seven, walking by faith, not by sight.
We have the ability God-given to walk a path that's pleasing to the Lord.
Umm, but the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. That battle is going to be there. And I speak as one who, who, uh, I'm now a little bit older. That battle doesn't get easier and it doesn't go away if you, uh, have a struggle with a particular weakness or, uh, a tendency in your life.
It doesn't go away. You're going to have to do battle with it, but as a Christian, the way that you do battle with it is.
Dependence, recognizing that you don't have the strength to do it.
As the previous, uh, as the previous, uh, hour that we had in the talk, umm.
Uh, I'm sorry, blanking on names. I'm not good with names, my apologies. But as he said that, umm, as he goes on and as we go on in life, we find out a little bit more about our own hearts. We find out a little bit more about our own hearts and how bad they really are. It doesn't change when you get saved, but there is a change coming.
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And that spiritual body, I'm going to say it again.
Has the liberty not to choose to sin?
That's a liberty, a liberty not to be able to choose to sin.
Might sound a little bit odd because it's kind of put in the negative, but it is an absolute positive and that also.
Umm, another reference that I would like to just make mention to you, and I appreciate again, the previous meeting, it was brought out in, uh, in, uh, that passage in judges. I'm sorry, umm.
Numbers gotta think about that. The passage where uh, Balaam was brought up about God who cannot lie. Titus says that God who cannot lie, God has limitations. God cannot lie. He cannot deny himself. We see these things. Is he all powerful? Absolutely. But he cannot lie.
He cannot deny himself.
If he could do those things, he would not be God, absolutely would not be God and the life that we have and the body, the spiritual body that we will be given.
Is much the same way. It's his creation, it's his prerogative. And we don't say this as if we are gods. Don't get me wrong, it's a dependent. It is still a life that is given of God, but it is a life that can choose.
That, let me quote it so I don't say it wrong, has the liberty not to choose to sin. And that is true liberty, true liberty. That's the spiritual body that God has for you and for me. And I wanted to touch on one more thing and then we'll close it up for this evening.
Let me think for a moment here.
MMM, it's terrible when you lose your thoughts, isn't it?
My apologies, uh, let me think about this for just a moment.
I'm sorry it escapes me.
But.
If there's weakness, it's in the vessel, not in the Lord. Let's, umm, let's just close with those thoughts. It's good to have, uh, the thought before us of what the Lord is going to bring us into, and it's good to compare it.
To be reminded that the life that we live now, we live by faith. And it is.
Given of God, and we should live in the good of that, but we live with a hope before us, and that hope is to be with the Lord and to be like the Lord, and that is a body. I would say this too.
When God created Adam, he created him body, soul and spirit, and that's what makes up the man.
And that will never cease to be when we are in our spiritual home, When we are with the Lord in glory, it will still be body, soul and spirit.
It's a new body, it's a spiritual body, but it is a body. And So what God has given us.
Is something far greater than what he gave in the creation of life, in the creation of man. And it is a beautiful thing, but it is still his intention that man should be complete. And I guess maybe that's the thought and we'll just close with it but.
He says in the there's gonna be two verses, I'll just mention them briefly and then we'll be done. Uh, in the fourth verse, uh, we that are in this Tavern Tabernacle do groan being burdened.
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And it's this phrase right here. Not for that we would be unclothed. That is not that we would die in our bodies, would go into the grave and we would go to be with the Lord. That's not what we groan for. We groan for that day when the Lord will clothe us with that eternal body, with that spiritual body and umm, clothed upon.
That mortality might be swallowed up of life.
But then he says in the eighth verse.
Something a little bit of the opposite side. We are confident, I say, and willing. We're willing rather to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord.
To die is not the end, you know, there's a number of people that are going to a funeral tomorrow, I have no doubt.
That lowest hope was to be clothed upon.
She did not want to pass through the article of death. Not a one of us does. It's not even a Christian hope, but willing rather to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. Lois is present with the Lord. She doesn't have her body. It's not a completed story yet, but when we go to that funeral tomorrow.
It's one that no doubt desire to be clothed upon, but was not unwilling, was not unwilling to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. Let's close with that.
Our God and our Father, we're just thankful.
Even as we consider death.
And were reminded of it in this funeral that comes tomorrow.
But we're just thankful that there's a day when.
Each and every one of us that walks by faith.
Lois, Barry, how many others that have recently passed?
Have passed in faith, they are present with the Lord, but there's the day coming when they will be clothed upon.
Teach us, Lord, to value that we acknowledge that it's often in suffering, and rightfully so, that we're weaned away from this world, from its cares and its joys, but were weaned away not just to be taken away from something, but to be brought to something far better. And so for this we do give thanks in Jesus worthy and precious name, Amen.
OK. Thank you for your time.