Gratification or Glorification: You Chose

Intro. God made certain promises according to the covenant God established with Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3.

national - I will make you a great nation

personal - I will bless you and make your name great

universal - ..... in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And in verse 7 God promised Abraham land, the land of the Canaanites. God told Abraham in chapter 13 of Genesis look north south east and west, all the land that you could possibly see I’m givng it to you.

And in chapter 15 God promised that Abraham and his barren old wife Sarah would have a child born to them and that child would become the chiild of the promise.

This is what I want you to see family. In verse 8 of Genesis 15 Abraham asked God a specific question. He said “oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? “

Now this is coming from a man who literally, audibly spoke to God face to face. The promises that God made to Abraham were so outstanding that Abraham needed proof that these things would take place.

So God told Abraham in verse 9 “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. This ritual was common according to ancient text back, performed by two people walking between the pieces promising to one another that if I break this promise may what has happened to these animal pieces also happen to me. It was an ancient blood covenant performed between two parties in agreemant over a business deal.

But a strange thing happened in verse 12. God put Abraham to sleep, and walked between the pieces of animal by himself making a blood promise to himself that Abraham will possess what was promised to him. So anytime a question arised in Abrahams heart as he waited for the blessing, he had the blood covenant to look back on to give him confidence that God would come through.

Transitional Sentence

In the New Testament also, God made some promises to you as well. Promises that are so outstanding that it would take the work of God alone to come to fruition.

In our reading in Romans 8 God makes certain promises to those who are the children of God. His promise according to Paul, the author of this book, are that the child of God is an heir, who willingly suffers, for the purpose of glorification. We are an heir, we suffer, but we are also glorified. Lets unpack these promises.

or rank of another on that person's death.

a. He died- Because Jesus died for you Paul tells us in Ephesians that you are “ blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

b. That blessing raises us up with Christ and “seated us with him in the heavenlies … so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

c. The Bible gives us hints to what these blessings may look like in the future. One thing that God promises to us is

(1) rulership - all of us look forward to the day when the Christ says to us ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. (ruler over many Mtth 25:23)

(2) 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? (1 Cor. 6:2-3)

Transitional Sentence.

So ruling brothers and sisters is in our future. Being fellow heirs with Christ consist of ruling. The Bible say’s in Rev. 20:6 that we will reign with Christ for a thousand years. But check out 2 Tim. 2:12 “if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;” In other words our rulership has everything to do with how we handle this faith on this side of eternity. Romans 8:17 continues to say “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him ....”

II. Suffer (v17b)

Suffering in the bible doesn’t always mean the same thing when mentioned in Scripture. It carries different meanings based on the context of which it is found. Too many times the church, especially the black church, equate everything to material things. That’s not necessarily what this is talking about.

(a) Sobriety - From what I understand, when a person who is addicted to alcohol begans the process of becoming sober, their brain has an imbalanced level of dopamine which causes that person to either be overly agitated or depressed. Other experiences of the process of sobering includes muscle cramps, sudden weight change, mood swings, low sex drive, etc. etc. In other words doing the right thing, sobering up from an addiction can simply make a person sick. But they have to endure the sickness temporarily in order to reach a level of sobriety. They have to suffer through it in order to live the life of victory over the stronghold of addiction.

(b) Strongholds - Strongholds brothers and sisters come in many forms and sin is a major stronghold. Even among believers. When a person is suffering from a stronghold that is offensive to God, even though that person knows he/she is in the act of such an offense, it’s not easy to just stop cold turkey. Instant gratification over obedience to God is sin brothers and sisters. And even though it may not feel natural to separate yourself from such gratification, we are to suffer it anyway.

1. 1 Peter 4:1-2

1 Peter 4:1–2 ESV

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

In other words brothers and sisters suffering for the sake of Christ Jesus is defined biblically as taming the passions within ourselves, passions that are not pleasing to God. Sobriety is the order of the day all day every day of the week. If you are addicted to adultery, suffer through the craving until such strongholds pass. Taming the body into submission.

Example: Fasting - a way to humble the cravings of the body into submission.

One of the purposes of fast is practicing self control over the desires of the flesh. The last time I fasted I suffered brothers and sisters. Headaches backaches. But when I completed the fast I learned the whole purpose behind it, to learn how to suffer for the sake of Christ.

(read the text v17)

Now here is the part of the passage that’ll preach.

III Glorification

The whole purpose for suffering for Christ is to reach glorification in the end. Glorification is the goal of everyone who claim to be a child of God.

Paul says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

John says “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And here in our passage Paul says in verse in verse 18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

So as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ my job is to teach the congregation how to look past the and look into the future with a dire sense of hope, no matter what your present situation may be. The child of God looks forward to the coming of Christ. Why? Because we know that when he comes, we will be made to be just like him, glorified in the body.

(read vv 19-25 as extra)

Closing

So a child of God is an heir, a sufferer, for the purpose of future glorification. And just like Abraham many may want to ask the question how can I know that I will possess glorification in the end?

(Elaborate and close)