We should quit our efforts to know God through our works and religion and instead focus on knowing God through Christ.

Let’s stand if you would and turn in your Bibles. Very simple easy reading today as we end this.
We’re ending this this um really In my opinion, powerful part of Romans, and that is Romans chapter eight verses sixteen and seventeen.
Let’s read that together if you would. Romans chapter eight verses sixteen and seventeen.
We’ve been talking about it’s time you quit.
And by now, you all know that that title means it’s time that you quit being a moralist, it time it’s time that you quit being good in your own eyes.
It’s time that you quit being religious. It’s time that you quit being churchy about life.
It’s time to be real with god.
And Paul has been standing so firm And so beautifully, uh, throughout these eight chapters, uh, but now we come to this part as we close this section out, uh, with I hope is a very exciting and beautiful, uh, challenge to us.
I’ll read verse sixteen if you together would read verse seventeen.
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god.
Before we pray, check it out, the spirit himself, holy spirit.
Notice that spirit down to verse seventeen, Christ. Notice verse sixteen at the end.
God, the trinity is in those two verses.
Watch this, it’s the spirit himself, the Holy Spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god.
We touched on
that last week regarding the assurance of
the believer. Verse seventeen is where we’re at.
And if or some of your bibles rightly say the words since, means the same.
Or because we are children of god, that being true, watch this. Notice the progression of your inheritance.
You’re a child. You’ve been born again into the family. Okay?
Romans tells us that that born again experience is via adoption by god. We are now heirs.
We’re not only heirs. We’re heirs of god and joint heirs with Christ. Remarkable statement.
We’ll find out more about this today.
If or since indeed we suffer with him, we’re gonna find out what suffering and what type of suffering he’s speaking about that we may also be glorified together and that’s the punchline for today.
Being glorified together. What does it mean?
It’s gonna happen to every single one of us as believers in this room.
You are gonna be glorified together with one another, with Christ, with god, the father, the Holy Spirit, it is gonna be an absolute epic entrance into eternity forever and it will be the ultimate consummation of your redemption.
It’s called glory. And right now our bodies are not in glory.
Our spirit and souls, they reside in glory. We’ve been born again. We can’t wait to get the glory.
In fact, the big battle with us is that this body, which has not been glorified yet, is the problem.
My body is my problem. It’s always causing me problems. Why?
Because it has not yet been redeemed. It’s gotta die or get raptured, rapture or rupture.
It’s good news for us. And that time of entering into glory is gonna be fantastic.
Father, give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church today, we pray now in Jesus name and all god’s people said, Amen.
You may be seated at church.
It’s time that you and I quit in our efforts and to frankly know god.
From the opening moments of the very Ministry of Jesus Christ, it’s all about notice all of his actions is to draw people into knowing him.
And when you open up the first chapters of all four gospels, you see Jesus in his his ministry being commenced after his wilderness, temptation, uh, battle with Satan for forty days.
Jesus commissions by the power of the spirit his earthly ministry and immediately you see him assembling together people to know him.
That’s what god wants in your life.
He wants you to know him and, uh, he wants you to know also that he knows you.
Which is a very encouraging thing. And, uh, it’s the heart of god.
It’s the eternal message of of Christ. Is that you can know god. Jesus exists. Jesus came.
The revelation of the gospel is that we might know god.
And, um, that should be our quest in life.
In the book of Exodus, I think it’s probably I’m guessing because
I don’t know the mind of god. But I
don’t think I’m far off when I read the Bible and then come to this conclusion that when Moses and I’m gonna read it to you in a moment, when Moses asks god for something.
It had to
put a smile on god’s face.
When Moses requested, in fact, you wouldn’t let it go.
When Moses made a certain request, it had it had to warm the heart of god.
And it’s this. In Exodus
is thirty three verse eighteen. Moses says to god, please show me your glory.
If you read chapter thirty three, you hear Moses and God talking back and forth with each other.
They’re on Mount Sinai are speaking one to another. God is giving Moses instruction.
God is saying I’m gonna have you lead these people and Moses is saying that’s just great.
But I I wanna see your glory and god god keeps talking.
And God says, I’m gonna be with you. And Moses says, but I wanna see your glory.
And god’s telling Moses is how he’s gonna them and and Moses says, but I wanna see your glory.
I think that warms the heart of god If today, imagine if somebody came up to you today and said, listen, I just love you because I love you.
You it’s like your sixteen year old coming up and saying, dad, I love you so much.
You start reaching for your wallet. You start hiding the car keys. What’s up?
Moses just says, God, I wanna see your glory. That’s all I want.
Wasn’t that the cry of David?
Oh, that I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life.
That puts a smile in the face of almighty god because our god is relational.
And to be wanted just because of who you are is the way a relationship should be built.
And Moses says, I don’t want riches remember Solomon was commended. Do you remember all that?
Right when David died, Solomon, all he wants from god is wisdom on how to lead his people.
And god says solomon, you’ve asked for all of these things And I’m gonna give you all of that and wisdom that no man has ever or will ever have.
I’m gonna bestow that upon you. As well, but I’m gonna favor you Solomon, and it’s for this reason.
You could have asked anything for yourself and you didn’t do it.
You asked regarding a relational situation between me and my people. And for that, you blessed my heart Solomon.
And that’s what we want to be careful about as Christians that we realize everybody and that glory is the ultimate end for all of us.
You need to remember that.
And and by the way, I think you’re going to be reminded of that a lot in the future that’s coming in our world around us.
Things may come and go. Listen, the Bible says, don’t trust in riches because it can sprout wings and fly away.
Our world may shake. There are so many factors in move in play right now.
We’re gonna be talking about some of those on Wednesday night.
Amira Saratiya and I are gonna sit down and talk about what’s going on in Russia, what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on in Israel, and the world around Iran, and all of that stuff, And what’s going on, by the way, we’re gonna talk quite a bit on the issue of those congressional hearings this last week in Washington DC.
As one US military official after another gives testimony of their encounters with UFOs.
Have you been watching this on C span?
And naval aviators, air force pilots, satellite control and command officers, um, all kinds of stuff. Footage, video.
What’s going on? Well, come Wednesday night. We’ll tell you. We can answer that. It’s in the Bible.
But god’s glory is the focal point, and nothing should pull you off of that.
The job that you and I have to put food on the table so that our kids can eat and a roof over our head.
Outside of that everybody, our target is set on the glory of god. Where we’re going.
You want a good retirement program? Oh, yes. I’ve worked really hard. No. No. I’m not talking about that one.
I’m talking about the retirement program that’s in Christ. Glory.
And when Moses said show me your glory, that word in Hebrew is Kabad.
And it means this show me your essence. The word means your matter as in weighty. Isn’t that interesting?
You who are behind the veil. That’s what he’s asking. Show me the one who’s behind the veil.
Show me the one who is behind it all. Moses understood that. Show me the one who is abounding.
The one that is honored. By the way, the word means show me the one who’s fierce.
Wow. The one who’s not immovable. He cannot be moved.
The unmovable god. And this is probably I think one of the greatest requests of the
Old Testament, but it’s certainly the request of the new testament heart.
That I pray is in your chest and is in mine. The Bible says
in first John chapter two verse two. First John two verse two. Beloved. Now we are children of god.
And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
There’s in other words, we don’t know what we’re gonna look like. Doesn’t the Bible doesn’t tell us.
But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
The anticipated desire of glory. Few more introductory arguments to this. Colossians two verse nine.
Are you guys okay? Yes. Colossians two nine. I love this.
For in Christ lives all the fullness of god in human or in a human body.
In bodily form that is. Think about that. The glory of god is revealed in Jesus Christ to mankind.
And we’re gonna see him someday.
The Bible says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall
see god. How’s that gonna work out everybody? It’s gonna happen. The Bible says so.
How is that gonna happen? There’s god, the father, god, the son, god, the Holy Spirit, one.
But the Bible says there’s gonna be a day coming in glory when the pure in heart, which is all of you who are believers.
God is making your heart pure every day.
And your desire to see Christ drives you, motivates you to live a life that is pure before god.
There’s gonna be a day when the Bible says Jesus said it himself, you’re gonna see god.
To say that means you’re gonna see the totality of god.
You’re not just there’s oh look, there’s Jesus and there’s the father, but nobody can see the spirit.
Nope. It’s not gonna be that way. You will see God. How’s that gonna work?
That should keep you up all night tonight trying to figure that one out.
I wanna steal a quote from our good friend Eric Pataxas who introduced me to this great statement and you heard it here that night he was speaking to us.
There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ who is sovereign overall does not cry mine.
What a great statement that is? And Psalm twenty four verse one backs that up.
Psalm twenty four verse one says, the earth is the lord’s, and all, uh, all its fullness the world and those who dwell in it.
Do you guys believe that verse?
I have to tell you, I read that verse and I I I put it on
my notes, and I had
to really think on that for a moment.
Because if you don’t believe that verse, you’re gonna get caught up in all kinds of things that are gonna give you,
tension or pressure. So what do you mean? Well, first
of all, the earth is the lourdes.
I mean, that’s kind of easy to conclude. What what are we gonna do about that?
God owns the earth, and all of its fullness. Alright. No problem. Sure.
That’s so big. The world and those who dwell in it. Now you’re getting a little personal.
Are you with me? Because what
about that person that troubles you? What about that person that’s threatening you?
What about that person who is attacking, or whatever it might be.
The Bible says that the world and those who dwell in it It’s under god’s control.
Leave it with him. And that’s quite an awesome thing. We’re almost there.
We’re almost into this study, acts chapter four verse eleven to twelve.
I’m gonna give you two passages
of scripture. They dove tailed together beautifully. It’s Philippians two seven. An x four eleven.
X four eleven says, this is the stone which the builders or which the king James’s builders rejected.
You builders which has become the chief cornerstone speaking about Jesus verse twelve nor is there salvation in any other.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
It’s Jesus. Say, how
do you know? Philippians two verse seven, who coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore god has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven of those on earth.
Get a load of this and those under the earth,
the spirit realm and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god the father.
Same into that. That is absolutely awesome. That’s who we’re talking about. All about glory.
You’re gonna be in heaven forever with Jesus.
And if you really believe that, you’ve got to wanna tell others about that. Now,
I had not too long ago I don’t know where to get it.
If you know, let me know.
Lisa and I were at this little restaurant, and they served a little scoop one scoop of what looked like ice cream.
It it looked just like vanilla ice cream until you put your spoon in it and put it to your mouth.
And it was almost like a religious experience.
It was coconutty It was Penapally.
It was vanilla like. It was you could almost close your eyes and see tropical paradise.
And you know what I did? I started telling people about it.
He said, that’s ridiculous. I know, isn’t it?
That I would say, Hey, you know, you should try this dessert. Why?
Because it was wonderful. If Jesus is wonderful and if you’ve tasted that the lord is good, Will you not tell others, will you not want to tell them?
Nobody will have to grab you and and and make you because Christ is in you and you’re sampling the glory to come, you’ve got to tell other people.
Oh, pastor, there you go. Again, no, then then
listen, I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about those who know Jesus. No, let’s be honest.
Come on, let’s be honest. If you know him, you can’t stop talking about him.
If you know him, how can you take that and be ashamed of it?
Seriously, this is a dividing rod.
There is no hope of glory for their religious individual who just has religion, they don’t even think about glory.
They just think about getting through day in, day out.
And I’ll go to church on Sunday. And if not Sunday, I’ll go
to church at Christmas. And if not Christmas, then Easter.
Versus I trust you, who Christ is in you. You’re excited about that.
The Bible is absolutely eating you up from the inside out and you’ve gotta tell other people about them which leads us to our third and final closing argument, and it’s this in verse seventeen.
Don’t just look at it. That is salvation. That is our future. Enjoy it.
Did you know that? The the shorter Westminster Catechism, I’ll I’m not gonna quote it exactly.
I should have written it down. But it it says something to this effect.
What is what is man’s chief purpose?
Man’s chief purpose is to know god or to love god and to enjoy him forever.
Isn’t that awesome?
What we wanna do as a church as a brother as a sister is start enjoying god.
And when you look at what he has in store for
us and when you look at
what he’s done for us, yachts enjoy him. Sincerely.
By the way, in in a darkening world, this is gonna be lifesaving.
Look, uh, if we knew that the greatest fallout from COVID would be suicide.
We would have prepared people regarding hope and day and in in dangerous times.
Are you with me? So the next thing that comes, we’re smarter now. You’re smarter now.
The the next whatever it is. We’re gonna dial down and focus more on hope than whatever is coming.
Everybody ran around talking about this thing or that thing put on a mask put get the vaccine.
Don’t get the vaccine. Don’t wear a mask. Put a helmet on. Just stay indoors. Get outdoors. Breathe. Breathe.
Don’t breathe. All this stuff, you know what? We don’t need to go down that road ever again.
There’s one road we know for sure, and that that is if if it’s a virus or if it’s a nuclear bomb falling from the sky.
Put your trust in Christ. Put your hope in him. There’s glory that is awaiting.
God takes his people to heaven. And we’ve got an eternal life ahead of us.
I can’t wait. It’s gonna be incredible. Number one, this way. Enjoy it. He has taken you in.
That’s what we’ve been learning. Adapt. We were we’re learning this in this chapter eight. He’s adopted us.
He’s called us his children. He tells us to call us his father, not only just father.
He he has to say, Abba, papa, father.
All of these beautiful things, why that we might enjoy the fact that he has taken us in.
There’s not one of us that ought to be exempt from the family of god. Oh my goodness.
Why would you do that? Why would you keep yourself out of the family when god is saying, please come to me.
But I speak to the believer. Paul is writing to the believers in Rome verse seventeen.
And if or since children, if we’re the children of god, as I said earlier, some of your Bible say, since we are the
children of god, watch what happens? Then heirs. Wow.
Look, if you are a child of Elon Musk, You don’t even know.
You don’t have a clue
what you are an air of. Are you tracking with me?
You think those little kids of his nose, they know?
Oh my goodness. I got at least a couple billion coming to me.
Could you imagine? All the money in the world is zero in god’s economy though.
I don’t know anything about Elon Musk personally. But I can tell
you this, I’m richer than he is if he doesn’t know Jesus because at at the
at his at his death, his riches expire. That’s not true. It goes to his heirs.
That is true for the heirs, but he
ain’t taking nothing into eternity.
Nothing. Neither will you neither will buy unless unless right now as believers, we’ve laid up for ourselves, treasures where?
In heaven, all based on god’s economy.
Not gonna be silver or gold or anything else like that.
It’s gonna be all of these things of this grand life that God has given you and I to live out.
For his glory, whatever you and I do, like Malachi three, Gus says he writes it
in his book of remembrance.
If you help the little old lady from Pasadena across the street, god writes that down.
If you give a drink to somebody, god writes that down.
If you express love and share the are you with me? God writes that down.
And that’s gonna bring him glory in the end, but he takes us in.
And he has taken a sin. That word error
is this, to be a recipient of, to be a recipient of what is another is obviously.
And inheritance, we would say. Uh, what is gifted to us
or bequeathed by position or wealth, what is given to us that is the benefit that flows forth from another.
We are air. Something is left to you.
And it’s quite amazing. But that’s not
an that’s that’s not all of it.
He takes you in and the Bible says he makes us joint heirs This is really heavy duty people, joint heirs with Christ.
This is I’m gonna tell you the the biblical truth. I gotta tell you it it I need more faith.
To take this in. Joint heirs means this to be co inheritor.
Co you mean all of us are coke? Nope. That’s not what it means.
It means not only a fellow heir, one who receives what is of another as shared inheritance.
It’s not watch everybody. You you you
you ought to get excited for this. It’s not like
a hundred dollars is left and we share it all among each other. You go, what what fun is that?
I’ll get like a quarter of a penny and a crowd this big. Well, that’s not what it means.
It means whatever has been given to Jesus, each individual receives the exact same thing that’s been given to Jesus.
The inheritance that Christ receives from the father as being the resurrected savior of the world And you and I, the Bible tells us becoming the bride of Christ,
we share in the same. I don’t
understand it. I can tell you all about it. I just don’t understand it.
As we read, the earth is the lord’s and all the fulness thereof.
And somehow in eternity, that’s gonna matter to you. And I don’t know what that means.
I kinda don’t wanna know what it means, but I bet you
it’s part of heaven. I bet you it’s part of us taking forever to figure
it out. I bet it’s so amazing. It’s just gonna freak you out, blow your mind every day.
Glory heaven. Why? Because he’s taken a sin Galatians chapter four verse five.
Galatians four five says, and to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adopt as sons.
In god’s family, the adopted children are appointed. Remember this, everybody.
Your for now in the law of Roman adoption.
Roman adoption is more powerful than as a than somebody giving birth to their own blood.
Roman adoption can trump someone’s bloodline. Isn’t that amazing?
I may listen, if I lived in first century Rome, I could have five kids that are of my bloodline.
And I I may not like either one of them, or I may love all of them, but
none of them have got
the wherewithal, to handle my wealth and my power and my seat of authority in Rome, but I have this guy, this young man, and he can.
And he’s the one I marched down to the forum in Rome and say, this is my only son.
So people would say, wait a minute.
He’s got four kids at home. No. Everybody understood.
This is his only son because he’s leaving it all to him. That’s the word that god says to you.
I have adopted you by making a declaration. You are my son. You are my daughter.
And I leave it all to
you. Yeah.
What an amazing god. He’s taken us in and that’s by that powerful act of adoption.
Uh, John chapter ten. I’m gonna read John ten beginning at verse two. Jesus is speaking.
But he who enters, uh, by the door is the shepherd of the sheep speaking of himself, to him, the doorkeeper opens.
And the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own by name and leads them out.
Ask yourself is this your life. Is Jesus describing your life.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them. I love that.
Jesus never sends me anywhere where he hasn’t first gone.
I love that
and the sheep follow him for they know his voice verse five, yet they will, by no means, follow a stranger,
but will flee from him. For they do not know the voice of strangers. What does this mean?
Those who belong to Jesus will not follow a false teacher or a false prophet.
They will not get involved in a false religion I mean, I don’t mean to upset anybody when I say this, but I’m a big fan of Walter Martin when he says this.
Yeah. Walter Martin way back. Anybody remember? You and I do?
Way way back in the seventies and eighties. Doctor. Walter Martin, uh, said numerous times.
He said, you should thank god. For the cult that’s down the street from your church.
And everybody went, what?
And he said, those cult buildings are filled with people who have a hunger for religion, but they don’t want anything to do with Jesus.
And so they’re in the cult.
He said, here’s the punch line. If that cult wasn’t open to
hold those people, they would be sitting in your church.
Think of that.
Jesus said when I speak, my sheep hear my voice, they follow me.
When a stranger speaks, they don’t listen to strangers.
But someone who’s lost will heap up strangers to themselves that tickle and
You know, excite their ears. Oh, did you hear what was said?
They they got the conference is amazing. They they just told us how awesome we are.
That Jesus is awesome. I’m awesome. You are awesome. We’re all awesome.
And, uh, we can we can just, you know, we don’t have to There’s no repentance in that message.
There’s no there’s none of that stuff. There’s no following Christ. Follow yourself. Follow what follow what makes you happy.
And they throw a cross up on it, and people flock to that.
Jesus says, watch out for that.
Verse six, Jesus used this illustration, but they didn’t understand the things which he spoke to them.
Then Jesus said
to them again, most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and I am known by my own or by my sheep.
Some of your translations say. His own kids know him. His own flock knows him. Verse fifteen.
As the father knows me, even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Here it comes. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, I believe he
was speaking about the believers that were Jews.
Because that’s what was before him at that moment.
I have other sheep which are not of this fold.
Them also, I must bring and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd
Jesus said. I love that.
So I wanna give you these things about enjoying him. Why should we and how should we enjoy him?
Number one, enjoy this. Enjoy this. His desire to both know you and to be known by you.
You ought to celebrate that. You ought to, uh, enjoy that that’s gonna be part of our glory, uh, with him in heaven.
God’s desire church found in the Bible is that he desires to know you and for you to know him.
Secondly, his willingness to pursue you until the end of your life.
That’s true in the believer’s life.
And maybe you’re here today and you’re not a Christian, but god is still pursuing you and pursuing you.
My dear friend. Uh, don’t put him off.
Don’t come to the end of your life, not having accepted Christ.
That would be a tragedy on your part.
His mission to rescue you from out of this world. Enjoy that.
Am I I I know I know I
cannot be alone on this.
The more I look at the news, the more I drive around, the more I see this world, the less I feel at home here.
Why? Because he’s got a mission going on, and it’s a rescue mission to get you and I out of this world.
And it’s happening every day by the way in our lives as we draw closer to him.
We get closer to him. Less of
the world is influencing us and in us. Enjoy this. His power to seal you because you belong to him.
We’ve talked about this before. His power to seal you
is a very powerful truth. By the way, song of Solomon chapter eight verse six.
We’ve sang this song before. It’s a beautiful song. This is regarding depends on who you’re studying.
This is obviously Solomon and his fiancee in the song
of Solomon, but the Jews view it as of the father, god, and Israel.
Uh, some say it’s a picture of Christ and the church. Some say
it’s a picture between a husband and a wife. Look, I
don’t care what you say. It’s beautiful. And here it is.
You set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm. For love
is as strong as death, Jealousy. This is a holy jealousy. This is a good jealousy. This is
a jealousy whereby I love you so much. I cannot share you with others. That’s a beautiful thing.
As demanding as the grave, its flashes are flashes of fire The very flame of the lord, many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
That’s god’s love for you. And he has sealed you. The Bible tells us.
He’s he’s as it were written to your name. The next is this.
Enjoy this fact that his love for you, his love to secure you every single hour of the day.
To secure you. At all times,
did you fly here? Are you flying somewhere? Tomorrow’s Monday? You head into work some place?
Heading out of town, getting on the freeway, uh, whatever it might be. Just know this.
The fact of the matter is the love of god will secure you. Always securing you.
Speaking to you as a child, making sure that you’re comforted in the family of god And it’s all a prerequisite to the glory that you and I
are gonna inherit in heaven. Friends, I
don’t know how to say this, but to just say it in a clumsy manner.
Jesus said the kingdom of god dwells within you. Did he not say that?
The kingdom of god is inside of the true believer and the true believer knows that they’re here on earth for god’s purposes now, but If given the choice, we would go home.
If given the choice,
We wanna see glory. Now, we are patient because we don’t have to hurry.
We want to, but we don’t have to.
If god wants to have me here for another twenty years, that’s god’s business.
If it’s twenty minutes, that’s god’s business.
But what I do with my life for his glory now matters
in heaven’s glory.
The life that you live and how you live it as a believer will translate into future glory.
You can Google this later if you’d like, but I’m not
it’s coming from memory, which is always dangerous. But Jonathan Edwards
Still to this day,
the greatest considered the greatest intellect America has ever produced.
Jonathan Edwards said something to this effect.
I am living my life now for Christ
so that I may obtain the greatest amount of happiness in heaven.
You say, well, that sounds kind of selfish. That sounds kind of self centered.
You need to know a little bit about Jonathan Edward’s life.
But if you do, it’s a perfect desire.
What a wonderful thought. Does does the thought of glory excites you?
And again, if it does, you’re gonna wanna bring others with you. Enjoy this, his ability to keep you.
I love this one perhaps the most.
It seems like it’s always an effect in my life his ability to keep you so that you’ll never be lost.
Church family, that’s a beautiful thing because of this reason you and I may be quick to condemn ourselves, but the Bible says in first John, if we condemn ourselves, god is greater than our heart and knows all things.
Is that a great passage? According to the Bible, Once I accepted Christ as lord and savior by his grace, he sealed me with his holy spirit as he did you the believer and the scripture says that he’s committed to seeing you and I all the way through to get
us into glory. And I lean on him for that. I trust him for that.
Enjoy this. It’s his passion to include you in the grand display of his eternity.
This is gonna be amazing. You know, we live this out in a small way.
Have you ever been to somebody’s house
and they’ve achieved something? They got a trophy have a trophy on the shelf, whatever it is.
It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s on display. And you might even ask, what’s that for?
Yeah. Um,
awards, notoriety, whatever it might be. It happens in this world.
I would submit to you today that that’s just a little cute, little freckle.
Of what’s got of what god is gonna do regarding your glory with him in heaven forever.
You start thinking about the things that we do see in this fallen world, but are enough displayed whereby we can see the correlation.
The life that we live, as I said earlier, will translate into eternity.
Faithful the bible says it’s
the number one thing, by the way. Number one thing for the Christian life.
So, well, I’m trying my hard to be like Billy Graham. You’re not be like Billy Graham.
I’m trying my hard to be like Charles Stanley. You’re not gonna be like Charles Stanley.
You’re not supposed to be.
God is thank god, right?
Thank god god’s not gonna say, okay, Jack, next, on the day of judgment. Jack. Alright.
So I I had you written down to be just like Charles Stanley.
You didn’t do
that. Okay.
He will not do that.
Next. Hey, Jack. I see
you made it. Awesome. Holy Spirit. Good job. I know he didn’t always make it easy.
So
so You were spared, um,
in life, uh, so that you might live it and you, and so you were to do these things to my glory.
Um, and so were you faithful were you faithful to the things that I tailor made for your life to be lived out.
My dear friend, whatever your name is, insert your name.
He’s not gonna say, did you do what Fred did or did you do what Fred did or did
you do what Barney or Wilma or Betty did?
He’s gonna he’s gonna say, I gave you I gave you certain things to do.
The believer finds out what those things are. Every every Christian.
Listen, I’m telling you right now, a Christian will will do anything and everything to find out.
What is it? You’ll fast. You’ll pray. You’ll get alone. You’ll seek god.
Whatever it might be, you’ll cry out them to find out what is it, oh, lord.
And he’s gonna remind you, or he’s gonna tell you that this is your life.
And listen, at the end, you and I are gonna be judged on one thing our faithfulness to what he called you to do.
That’s exciting. Even if it’s scary, it’s exciting.
Because if it’s scary than it’s motivating. Right?
Oh my.
The second thing is this church is that enjoy it.
He has made you rich. I just I paused for a moment to see.
I’m sure there’d be those that would take a clip and put that on some blab it and grab it.
Prosperity thing. No. I’m talking about rich.
In things that cannot be bought.
It says, if indeed we suffer with him, say, Jack, okay, what is it?
What do you mean rich? Suff, suffer rich. How can this how
can these two come together? I got news for you.
My dear Christian brother and sister. You can’t have riches without suffering, and you can’t listen.
You can’t go through biblical suffering without getting rich.
I’m talking about spiritual wealth that only are you hearing me? Yes.
Only suffering with Jesus can produce that kind of result of wealth.
We’re not talking gold silver here. We’re not talking money.
You got me? We’re talking about the wealth that comes through the believer that’s only through suffering.
And now nobody wants to sign up for suffering.
But listen, if I explain this correct, we’re gonna wanna get in line for it.
So how can you possibly mean that?
Because when it says if indeed we suffer with him, it means this the day to day challenges of your Christian life walking with Jesus in this world.
Is difficult, nonstop always happening Why?
Because you know him and he knows you.
Because you know him and he knows you, you and I are outliers. We are anomalies.
We are, um, oddballs. Where Jesus freaks.
And the world the world doesn’t they don’t understand us.
They don’t under what we’re doing. They don’t understand what we care for and what we love.
They don’t get it. Of course, they don’t get it.
Be nice to the world because listen, when we were in the
world, we didn’t understand the Christian either. Let’s be honest.
But they were look, I grew up.
There were in the in the seventies, in the late sixties and seventies, at the beach in the summer.
The only thing you worried about was being interrupted by Christians. How do you
know that Orange County? No, seriously. Nobody was gonna bother you except. Oh, here they come.
Here they come.
Am I right? Do you remember them? It’s like an invasion, and they’re handing out tracts.
Here, man. You wanna know Jesus?
Well, friends,
family of god. The rich, the wealth, the estate that god wants to live, leave with us comes through this association with Jesus.
Circle the word suffering, and it’s the suffering that you and I experience, listen, when we
get in trouble for knowing Jesus. It’s not talking about cancer. It’s not talking about getting beat up.
It’s not talking about anything else specifically.
It’s talking about the believer being in trouble in this world because the believer knows Jesus.
Now when you put it that way,
sign me up. I wanna go to the front of the line if that’s what it means.
If I’m gonna get yelled at for being a Christian, then yell at me.
Are you with me? If I’m gonna be hated by this world because the world hates Jesus and I’m a Jesus person that hate me.
You understand? There’s total glory in this that only gets better.
Jesus said it this way, if you reject me in this world, then I must reject it before my father, which is an heaven.
But if you proclaim me, acknowledge me in this world, I will acknowledge you before my father, which is in heaven.
Do you see? This is hard, but again, I stress it’s the words of Jesus.
If you’re ashamed of me saying then you’re forcing me to be a shamed of you in the day of judgment.
You don’t wanna be ashamed of how can you be ashamed of them?
So pretty soon, the
NFL practices have begun. And it happens every year.
As the season gets closer, pregame, then, uh, or pre season, I should say, even even during pre season, do you know what happens to this congregation?
There’s Charger jerseys, Rams jerseys,
forty nine or Jersey. There’s somebody that sits up front every Sunday with
a forty nine or Jersey during football season. We need to have a special service for this person.
I’ll be wearing my Washington redskins Jersey, Sam Howell, pray for our brothers, Sam Howell.
He’s gonna he’s gonna tear it up by god’s grace. I’ll I’ll have number fourteen on there.
But, um, see, what’s
the deal? Hey, we wear that stuff because, you know, oh, right. I I heard you.
I said redskins, didn’t I? That’s because of the Washington Redskins.
Don’t let somebody rob you of that great name, man.
If I were the if I were if I were the Indians in the in New England, I’d be upset.
They took away they took away their
standard and the the commanders.
Well, my point is this. Rams chargers. And then listen.
And then and then Jesus. Right.
We go to
the games. Yay. And then we go to church.
And say, praise the line.
We should reverse it. Go Rams.
Praise God.
Yeah.
Listen, he’s made us rich. He’s made us rich in Christ Jesus. Philipp three verse seven tells us.
Philipp three seven but what things regain to me says, Paul, these things I’ve counted lost for Christ.
Yet indeed, I count all things lost for
the excellence of the knowledge Christ Jesus, my lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ.
Most of us do not appreciate that statement, and we have no idea how much lost Paul went through.
But what we do know if we’ve studied church history is Paul was once a pharisee, which means he had to be married.
Farisees made a lot of money. They had
unlimited power.
And it’s believed in church history that when Paul came to Christ, his wife left him.
He was kicked out of Judaism for his faith in Jesus lost everything
and you find him in the book of acts needing handouts from churches just to eat.
And Paul said, it’s all good. It’s all good.
Everything worth living for, I’ve laid up in heaven. I talk about heaven.
I talk about Christ. I talk about forgiveness. I talk about love, Paul would say.
I talk about the incredible authority of god and the sovereignty of god and the work of the Holy Spirit.
What else is there to talk about?
But whatever we do comes under all of that.
He said, I I suffered the loss of all things. Psalm seventy three verse twenty five.
Psalm seventy three twenty five says whom I have whom whom have I in heaven but you I desire you more than anything on earth.
My health may fail. My spirit may grow weak. But god remains the strength of my heart.
He is mine forever. Wow. Beautiful. Lamentations three twenty four. I say to myself,
this is by the way, Christian. Always always remember this. We should always preach what we learn to ourselves.
Our tendency is to preach what we learn to other people. No.
What what is preached to us, we are to preach it to ourselves, and then other people will see it, not hear it.
Okay? I say
to myself, the lord is my inheritance. Therefore, I will hope in him.
The lord is good to those who depend on him. To those who search for him.
So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the lord, and it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline.
My what an awesome verse for
a family to have like painted on their wall. Isn’t that beautiful?
And then we end here. Enjoy this fact that he made you whole.
This is this is thrilling for me. He made us whole. Can I be specific?
When he saved us,
he put the pieces back together. And he’s putting them back together.
And ultimately, on that final moment, when we are totally redeemed, that is when our bodies are resurrected, that will be the final piece of the puzzle.
Is my body will no longer need Advil like it did this morning, stretching my my back was hurting this morning.
I’m stretching my back I’m trying to stretch it, then I hurt my back stretching it.
No one’s gonna be in heaven like this.
Can you guys wait?
Can you guys just wait up? And that gonna be glorious. It’s gonna be perfect.
It’s gonna be wonderful, but it’s listen, it starts now.
By him doing what he wants to do with you on the inside.
First Corinthians chapter two verse nine and ten.
Never read first Corinthians chapter two verse nine alone.
You have to read verse ten with it. A lot
of people make a mistake here.
But as it is written, eye is not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which god has prepared for those who love him.
Don’t stop there. Don’t stop there? Because if
you stop there, you’ll be thinking, well, we just don’t know nothing.
But god verse ten has revealed them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches all things just the deep things of god.
Do you know what that means?
It means the things that cannot be known in the natural mind, the Holy Spirit will speak to the believer when you talk to him about eternal things.
God will tell you secrets as it were. Beautiful things.
Colossians three verse forces when Christ who as our life appears, then we also will appear with him in what?
Glory. We’re almost done. We’re coming quickly now to the end. Philipp three verse twenty one.
He who transformed our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body.
Oh, we’ve got a future church. I’m gonna give you three steps and we’re done.
Number one, step one, Isaiah forty three verse ten.
You are my witnesses says the lord
and my servant whom I’ve chosen.
Grab that verse and make it your own. God says you’re my witness. I’ve chosen you.
You say Jack, that’s an old testament verse. Excuse me. Yes, it is.
But has he not chosen you the believer? Yeah.
Didn’t he tell you to go out and witness to the ends of the world? Yeah. There you go.
Step two, Matthew twenty eight eighteen, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying all authorities given to me in heaven and on earth go there for and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the father and of the son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I’ve commanded you.
And lo or behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age or the end
of the world. Church, you can’t lose.
He’s chosen you. He’s called you to go out and be his witness.
He’s empowered you to the end. And then thirdly, finally, it’s this. Step three, Daniel twelve three.
You wanna set up a great forever in heaven?
Daniel twelve three says those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament,
and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
So church family, We’re gonna literally do this. This is this was the teaching.
Now is the lab. Those cards are in the courtyard.
You grab them.
But only grab them if you intend to use them. In fact, don’t worry.
We’ll grab maybe five of them, ten of them at the most. We’ll get more of them.
But as you go to breakfast this morning, maybe all of you are gonna go to flows, right?
They need your help again. Uh, when you go to flows, look around and say, Hey, in fact, blame me.
I’m in so much trouble now. It’s okay. Say, Hey, you know what?
Our pastor said that we should hand this over.
Maybe you ought to check it out and put on their table.
Why?
Because I if I’m in heaven and my grandkids aren’t in heaven, If I’m in heaven and my wife’s not in heaven, if I’m in heaven and my kids aren’t there,
If I’m in heaven and you’re not there, or if you’re in heaven and I’m not there, that are really stink.
But if something’s beautiful, if if something is wonderful, you must tell others.
And so our desire is his desire to bring with us as many men and women boys and girls as we possibly can, because Satan hates us, hell is for real, and that’s why Jesus came So none of us would have to go there.
He died on the cross for all of our sins.
That’s why it’s so so silly for us to say, I don’t need him. Yes, you do.
You had a bad thought, didn’t you? You selfish, grumpy, lustful.
You need them, like us. He died in the cross for your sins.
The Bible says so, but then that’s not all. He rose again from the dead to guarantee your resurrection.
Eternal life. It’s free. It cost them everything,
but it’s free. But it cost them everything. Which means we love him back.
Father, we praise you for your word.
We thank you so much for your goodness, almighty God, If there’s any religion hanging around us, if we’ve got some self made man made system that’s rivaling somewhere in our heart, a place for you to sit.
If you’ve got to walk around our soul and try to
hunt for a place to find home, then we’re in deep trouble.
If our little house inside of our chest is full of us, then there’s no place for you.
But if
we say Lord, come into my life, scoot me over, move me out, push me out, come on in Jesus, take my life, do with it as you wish because
I know it’s gonna be amazing. So lord, I give you my life.
We commit our lives to you father, and we thank you that glory, a way waits.
We praise you now in Jesus name and all god’s people said? Amen.