Our Future Glory
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Block leave is coming up
How many of us are going on leave?
I know I am
Believe it or not
I haven’t taken leave in almost 2 years
I have 15 days of use or lose
I have to burn
So my wife and I have been saving
Lets just say we are going to do this one right
Spend a few days in France
Spend a week at a resort in Malaga Spain
Then spend a few days in Portugal
Then back to Madrid
Back to France
Maybe travel through Switzerland
But needless to say we are excited
Anyone in here have anything planned?
Anyone going anywhere?
So I mention this because I want to ask you a simple question
What do you truly look forward to?
Is it retirement?
Maybe going to see family
Maybe for some of you its a PCS
Maybe an ETS
What do you truly look forward to?
How many of you honestly
Would have said,
The day I meet Jesus
How many of you honestly
Would have said,
I look forward to the rapture
I look forward to eternity
In all reality
Not many of us have that on top of the list
Lets just be real with ourselves
No need to lie
Sometimes our relationship with Christ
Isn’t where its supposed to be
And that maybe the issue,
I once heard a line in a movie
The reason Americans don’t believe in God
There life is so good
They can’t picture an eternity any better
We don’t need God
It’s interesting because its true
Church attendance is in decline
Church membership is in decline
Christian believes are disappearing
Christian values are considered irrelevant.
And yet for some of us,
We hit that point in our lives
When the reality of this world hits
And sometimes it hits hard
As a chaplain
I have the benefit of helping some of you
Through life issues
What do you do when your mom catches cancer
What do you do when your brother dies in his mid 20s
What do you do, when your child is diagnosed with a brain tumor
At the age of 5
What do you do, when you lose all your friends,
All your contacts
Anyone close to you,
Because you stood up for whats right?
How do you deal with stuff like that?
What about the rest of the world?
What do you do when ISIS comes into your town
Beheads anyone that claims Christ as their Lord and Savior?
Maybe kidnaps your daughter and sells her as a sex slave
What do you do when war has ravaged your country
Nearly 500,000 people have died
Lets face it the World isn’t so friendly for many of us
The world isn’t all sun shine and rainbows for the majority of the world
As Americans we are incredibly privileged.
The rest of the world,
Not so much.
I entitled this sermon,
The future glory
Because I want you to see what most Christians have seen
What most Christians have used as their motivation
What most Christians have banked on
invested in
trust in
had faith in
I want you to see why the apostles thought
The message they carried to the world
Was worth losing their life over.
Turn with me to
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
Say a quick prayer
What do you look forward to…
What is your motivation focused
What do you put most of your time and effort in?
If you really think about it
I think so many of us
Put so much determination
Focus
Reliance
On the things of this world
That when something goes wrong
when something is off
When someone catches cancer
When your child suffers from leukemia
When we lose a loved one
Maybe go bankrupt
That we don’t know what to do
Ask yourself
Do you have the mindset
The lord gives and the lord takes away
Or do you lose it
Whenever anything goes wrong
Because here in this passage Paul is making it super clear
Where his motivation
Where his focus is
Look at verse 18 here and I like how the NKJV puts it...
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Sufferings are not even worthy to be compared with the glory of eternity
Do you realize that
Did you hear what he is saying?
HE IS TALKING TO A LOT OF US TODAY
I WOULD IMAGINE IF HE WAS HERE
HE WOULD BE EYE BALLING SOME OF US
He’s not downplaying your pain
He’s not saying you’re not going to suffer
He’s not even saying that you’re aren't’ going to have a few rough patches
But what he is saying is that your motivation
Ought to come from the promises of God
That promise is your eternal state
The hope that all of us have
The goal of getting to heaven
I used to love what David hocking used to say
Do any of us truly understand what we believe.
Because if we did,
We wouldn’t be so determined to make everything
So absolutely comfortable here.
To even stay here
No we would be absolutely determined
Absolutely focused
Absolutely narrow minded
In ensuring our eternal state
Our eternal destination
Thats what Paul is truly referring to here.
What is your faith in
What is the goal of your life
Are you more determined towards things that will perish?
Or are you focused
on eternity
I’ve said it over and over again
Each one of the disciples, minus one
Died a martyrs death.
What motivates someone to give up everything they have
To give up all the comforts of life
To give up all the promises of rest in this life
To sacrifice it all.
Its a determined outlook on eternal promises
that far exceed anything you could possibly imagine
Thats why I love this passage
Our sufferings are nothing when compared with the glory to come!
That ought to make you jump for joy!
Thats what you have to look forward to!
But then why don’t we have that joy?
Why don’t we see what Paul is telling us here?
I don’t know maybe i’m off
But i feel we have truly lost our understanding of the Bible
What’s unique here is that Paul is literally laying out the Gospel
He is laying out exactly what we have to look forward to
But its hard for some of us to see it.
But Why?
Because what Paul is dealing with here is the problem of sin
Sin is a massive issue in the Bible
I would argue to say it is THE ISSUE
It is THE REASON
For everything wrong
Every hurt
Every pain
Every heart ache
All because of sin
Its fascinating because Paul spends nearly 8 chapters explaining
The problem of sin
telling us why we need a savior
Then in verse 19
For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Its the reality of sin,
Its the cause of sin
Its why Jesus had to die
Its why God’s only son was sent
God cannot be in the presence of sin
without consequences
Meaning when Adam and Eve sinned
God’s perfect nature
God’s perfect blessing
Was not only taken from mankind
But it was taken from all of creation as well
Do you see what is happening here.
The Bible is telling us that because of
One single act
One moment in time
One sin
Death entered the scene
Decay entered the scene
God’s blessing of eternal life
God’s blessing of health
God’s blessing on everything
was removed from all of creation
Subjected to God’s curse
God’s wrath
God’s righteous judgment
I know thats not comfortable to hear
But what is the opposite of love
of God’s love
It’s God’s wrath
Because of sin we are subjected to this curse
God’s blessing is removed
Look at Israel as a prime example
Every time they followed other God’s
God’s blessing was removed
They were conquered
Wiped out
Annihilated
Same goes with us
We chose sin
We chose God’s wrath over His love
Starting to get the picture?
You starting to see how serious sin actually is?
Because of sin
You will die
Because of sin
War will happen
Because of sin
Divorces will happen
Adultery will happen
Child abuse will happen
Starvation
disease
Famine
Everything and anything negative
That you or I
Can ever think of
experience
witness
All because of sin
Because of sin
Adolf Hitler started a war that killed 75 million people
Because of sin
Stalin was able to kill 20 million people
Because of sin
an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked
Annually
Grossing an estimated 9.5 billion dollars
Because of sin
Cancer has killed many of our family members
Because of sin natural disasters take the lives of thousands every year
Are you getting the picture
Do you understand the significance of the cross?!?!
Do you see why Adams sin was such a huge deal
But look at us
We name our cities after the very thing that separates us from God
that is killing us
That is causing all of our issues
and we laugh at the idiotic behavior we enjoy.
But the hope we have in Christ
The faith we have and the reason we call Him savior
Is that one day all that is wrong
Will be made right
Thats the Gospel
Thats why He died on that cross
Thats why sin is such a big deal
Because once that curse is removed
Once the fulfillment of God’s word is complete
Everything will be new
Everything will be perfect
Death and decay will be a distant memory
War
Famine
Disease
Drugs
Sexual abuse
Rape
Murder
You name it
GONE
thats the contrast
Thats the promise
That what we look forward to
Thats what motivates
Thats what Paul was so desperately looking forward to
The promises of eternal life
Of eternal bliss
Of being with our Lord and Savior for eternity
Let me read a few passages
Give you an idea of how these disciples viewed eternity
Look at what Paul says in
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 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! 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.
Look what Peter says
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
The source of our joy,
The hope that one day everything will come true as promised
That one day
We will be together
With God in all of His perfection
Look Real quick finally at
And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
We long to be released from sin and suffering
To gain full rights as adopted children of God
Look guys there is more than a metaphor here
There is more than a promise
There is love
There is acceptance
There is hope
Full rights as adopted children
Let me ask
What benefits do children get from their parents?
Everything their parents want them to
But if you’re not apart of that family
You get nothing
But its calling us adopted children
Full rights and privileges to everything
To all the blessings of the creator
On the right side of His love
God wants us to be with him in perfection
He promised a release from the curse of sin
He promised us new bodies
He promised to take us away from the death
To take us away from the decay
To bring us into a new existence.
An existence that is full of hope
love
kindness
happiness
health
Look guys why do you think its so important to look at Christs resurrection
Not just because it proves Christ to be God
But it shows you exactly what will happen one day to us
This is why we call Him the first fruits
We also will have that new body
As Children of God
Everything is made new
All those things you want now,
Those are Gods promises for you in eternity.
Look real quick with me
He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
You want to know what the promises of God are
You want to know what we have to look forward to
You want to know what the good news is?
Thats just it,
The Good News is that Jesus Christ
Came to not only forgive your sin through the cross
He came to take away sin from all of creation
To make all things new.
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
What happened in the Garden
The separation that occured
The curse the dominated all of creation
Will be gone
Nothing but Goodness and Jesus will remain.
Thats what you look forward to
That’s where your motivation kicks in
That’s what your hope is in
And thats the promise of our future
Last but not least
I want to read a bit of Isaiah 11
It describes what the new creation will be like
I’ll be honest
It seems to good to be true
This is a promise that not only identifies Christ through prophecy
But also gives us a fantastic idea
About how He will be
How He will rule
And what the world
looks
and behaves like
without sin
Its beautiful
Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—
yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
He will delight in obeying the Lord.
He will not judge by appearance
nor make a decision based on hearsay.
He will give justice to the poor
and make fair decisions for the exploited.
The earth will shake at the force of his word,
and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.
He will wear righteousness like a belt
and truth like an undergarment.
In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;
the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.
The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,
and a little child will lead them all.
The cow will graze near the bear.
The cub and the calf will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
Lets close in prayer.