So church family, I’m gonna ask you to stand to your feet if you would and turn to the book of Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and, um, you’re probably thinking we’ve been in Romans 8 for a long time, it seems like.
And it seems like that because we have been Uh, and we’re going to be.
Uh, it’s just one of the greatest hallmarks of not only biblical theology, but it is certainly the high watermark of New Testament theology.
Uh, the book of Romans, there’s more passages in this one chapter.
Or verses in this one chapter as we get deeper into it that you, uh, will recognize.
Uh, I’m not joking when I tell you.
You’ll recognize them because you maybe saw them first at, uh, a hallmark store on cards.
Or maybe you saw them in Hobby Lobby on framed quotations of scripture or t shirts.
Very powerful portion of scripture, Romans chapter 8, and we’re reading together in our responsive reading verses 18 to 23.
Even though the study itself goes from 18 to verse 30, we’re looking at this specific section of 18 to 23.
I’ll begin in verse 18, if you’ll read along on the screens starting in verse 19.
Puls says to the church at Rome, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, love that, to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For the creation, That’s all of it, by the way.
Not just earth. All of the created physical universe was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now.
And father, we pray for the movement of your holy spirit.
We’ve gathered in your name, to exalt the lord Jesus Christ through the word of god.
And so father, we expect you to transform our lives. This is not an issue of chance.
It’s not we hope so. This is a matter of fact. You said it.
Wherever your word is opened up, they’re the spirit of god will be. So we have our bibles open.
We pray that our hearts will be open.
And god that we would receive from you now that we might walk the walk in these days.
We pray in Jesus name and all god’s people said, Amen church. You may be seated. Romans chapter 8.
We’re in the 3rd installment of a title that we have put forth.
And that is, what are you waiting for?
And I think if god were to speak to us today, he might say to us in this 21st century, this year, this month, right now, Jack, what are you waiting for?
Or Mike or Karen or Susie or Bill? What are you waiting for?
Uh, because god has given us his truth. And we are armed with the truth of god.
It’s amazing to me. We Uh, I I know that there are bibles.
You can go to bookstores, and you can buy different bibles. There’s the military bible. There’s the law enforcement bible.
The firefighter’s Bible. There’s the the women’s Bible. There’s the teen Bible. You get my drift.
There’s the all kinds of the Bibles, uh, but what really is most accurate about the Bible is that if this thing looked like, uh, the warriors bible in the sense that you and I are in this world that is hurting This world is dying because of sin and creation is groaning, and we are groaning.
And our world is groaning right now.
And all of that is because we are alienated, uh, naturally by god.
We are born into this world without god. The Bible tells us this.
And, um, it’s also interesting to note that this portion of scripture shatters the professional religionist, uh, back from the 1st century and all the way through to now, and it always does because it’s true.
And what I mean by that is this, the gospel of god simply preached is threatening to the legalist church.
Are you listening? The gospel of god’s grace to the sinner threatens the legalist.
It threatens the person who is the moralist. It’s the person that says, I’m okay. I’m good.
That’s nice for you. How many times have you and I heard people tell us Oh, you believe in God?
Well, that’s nice for you as though it’s some sort of an option that there’s some other way to heaven.
There’s no other way to heaven. Jesus Christ made it very clear. I am.
That means there’s no other. I am the way the truth and the life And no man.
That’s pretty exclusive. Right? No man. That means there’s no other way.
No man comes to the father, but through me, Jesus said. Very exclusive, very narrow, very expensive.
But it listen.
The grace of god puts to shame the best of our human efforts to try to religionize ourselves.
And listen, every single honest human being in the room today are those that are watching.
If you’re honest with yourself, you know that there’s a part about you, even if you don’t believe in god, that you know that something’s missing and that you try to do better every January 1st.
Right? Oh, I’m gonna do better this year. I’m not gonna eat as much chocolate this year.
Whatever your thing is, why do you even think that way?
Because you know down deep inside, you are not where you’re supposed to be.
And so that when we proclaim the gospel truth, It’s the Holy Spirit that takes that truth and grabs hold of the heart of that person listening, and it’s not up to us.
Listen. We do not make converts. The Holy Spirit makes converts.
We’re supposed to take those converts and make disciples out of them. Okay.
The spirit of god saves people.
He wakes them up to their great need of Christ, and the greatest offense to the gospel is, in fact, our thought that we can somehow be good enough to get into the, uh, god’s heaven.
And, uh, the book of Romans shatters that.
That’s why we as believers love the book is because the Holy Spirit within us recognizes the word that he gave and rejoices in our innermost being.
Does that make sense? Yeah. I’m gonna give you a string of verses.
You guys are ready ready to write them down. Write small. There’s a bunch of them.
Here we go, uh, habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4.
If you wanna have a starting point for the book of Romans and Paul’s argument, And, uh, I’m gonna make mention of something in a moment.
Um, but after we look at Quebec at 2 4, Quebec at 2 4, Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith.
That is a humbling statement.
If you’re gonna be right with god, it means that you need to have faith in god.
It’s not faith in faith. It’s faith in god.
See, the proud man does his religious work, and at the end of the day, takes out his little pen, or his little happy face or star and puts it on the the board to keep a score.
God knows nothing of that regarding his children. You know that today?
If you’re a born again child of god, god is no longer keeping score.
The book of tells us the Bible tells us in the book of colossians, that god no longer keeps records of our sin and of our failures.
We are to confess our sins, and he is what?
Faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and the cleanses from all unrighteousness.
You and I will never be judged for our sins. That’s what happened to Christ at the cross.
You and I will be judged for our faithfulness to what he’s called us to do.
It’s a big difference. The just shall live by faith.
Now I heard interestingly enough just this last week back on the East Coast, that someone had said, uh, regarding the Bible regarding Jesus, this person was a a Jewish practicing Jew, they said, listen.
We don’t have any problem with Jesus. What Jesus said, we have no problem with that because he was crazy.
And they mean it. It’s Paul we hate. Why is that?
Because Paul knew better. How was that? He was who he said he was.
All those things he achieved, all those things he was like us, but ten times better than us.
And he turned ended as god had given it in the beginning and said, you’re gonna break it.
The moment you wake up to the realization of the law, you’ll you’ll wind up breaking number 1 and the the 10 commandments.
And so you’re gonna need blood. You’re gonna need the blood of innocent animal blood to cover over your sin.
God gave that to Moses right at the beginning, but listen, legalism overlooks that stuff and says, I can keep it.
I can do it. And you can’t. And Paul knew that. Technically, listen.
Paul, the apostle, is technically the Jew of Old Jews.
And let’s be honest, how many of us are Gentiles in here, raise your hand?
What’s the irony with that is, if you’re not a Jew, you’re a gentile. Here’s the deal.
What’s awesome about this too is Romans chapter 2 verses 2829, I believe it is, says that he is not a Jew who is one sir comsized in the outwardness of his flesh whose circumcision is of man, in other words, scalpel, But he is a Jew who is one who has been circumcised of the heart.
Not in the flesh, but in the heart. Whose circumcision is not of man, but of god?
What are we talking about? Has god circumcised your heart so that you feel now the things of god.
There’s no dead skin. It’s all feeling. It’s all faith. It’s all about god.
The just shall live by faith. Romans chapter 1 verse 16.
Romans 116 begins there by saying Paul is speaking for I am not ashamed of the goth full of Christ.
That’s it. For it is the power of god to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew First and also for the Greek or the gentile.
For in it, that is the gospel of god, the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith.
That means we grow, oh, Christian, listen to this.
The moment you become a Christian, that’s not the beginning and the end of your walk. It’s the beginning.
Well, I gave my heart to lord 20 years ago. Good for you. What’s happened since then?
Well, I went I went forward at the crusade 2 years ago, and what’s happened now?
That’s where you start. Once you’re saved listen. In that moment, you’re saved. You’re going to heaven.
But in that moment onward, you grow from faith to faith.
The Bible says again, in Romans chapter 10 verse 17, the, uh, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god.
Think about that. Today, we’re gonna have a lot of verses, and your faith is gonna grow.
You won’t feel it. Wouldn’t it be great though if you could? It’d be like, oh, wow.
I just heard another verse. That’s awesome. Oh, and another verse.
But you but that’s true spiritually.
You’re building up yourselves in your most or the most holy faith.
And that comes by knowing the gospel of god, but I was reading somewhere, and I interrupted myself.
Um, it says in verse, uh, Romans 1 16, right about just near the end for the Jew First, also for the Greek verse 17, form the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.
Here you go. Habakkuk 2 4, the just shall live by faith. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16.
Galatians 2 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law.
Let that settle in. For those of you who think you’re good enough to get into heaven.
But by faith in Jesus Christ, Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ.
That’s the key. Justified by faith in Christ, not faith in your works, not faith in your wealth, or not faith in your poverty, not faith in your station or status of life, are you hearing me, faith in Christ?
Is Jesus Christ to you who the Bible says he is?
And not by the works of the law or by the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified?
Wow. Romans, or Galatians 311. Galatians chapter 3 verse 11.
No man The Bible says this justified by the law before god is evident for the just shall live by say it?
Faith. Hebrews 10 verse 38. But my righteous 1 or ones, it could be plural to us.
But my righteous ones, god’s children, shall live by faith. Here’s a warning.
But if he shrinks back, My soul hath no pleasure in him. Yeah.
You wanna make sure that your faith is growing. Christian, listen.
This is a very sobering thing I’m gonna say to you.
Your value and your actual wealth is not what your, uh, stock manager or your wealth investment manager or who are those companies?
Uh, Morgan Stanley, uh, uh, Chase Morgan. I who what what whatever they are.
That’s not your value. Jack, you’re worth a dollar of 49.
That’s not true. That’s not true. That stuff can come and go.
Oh, and by the way, it will come and go. Yes.
The Bible promises What you and I possess physically in this world, it will come and it will go.
Okay? And here’s what doesn’t come and go, if you’re careful. And that is your faith. Yeah. Yeah.
It is a terrifying moment. One of the worst trials, I mean, in a trial, It was a trial.
I don’t think it was a temptation from Satan. I think it was a just a trial from god.
I remember it about 8 years ago. I don’t know what happened.
I woke up one morning, and I had the thought of my mind that I didn’t I didn’t believe like I used to believe.
I it wasn’t that I w I I didn’t wake up one morning and say, I’m a non believer now.
I woke up one morning having this thought in my mind. I think my faith is shrinking.
I don’t know if it was true or false, but I could tell you this. It terrified me.
Faith is the greatest possession you have. In fact, listen.
People have said when you lose faith, you lose hope. And when you lose hope, you’re dead. Amen. Great.
That’s one of the greatest issues of today’s pandemic.
Of suicide is hopelessness. When somebody loses hope, they put a gun to their head.
When somebody loses hope, they jump out of the window. When somebody loses hope, they give up.
The believer should never lose hope. Why?
Because our hope is built on Christ, and that’s where our faith is assigned. Yes.
And he will never leave us or forsake us. He’ll never fail us. Yes. Hebrews 11 verse 6.
It’s all introduction. Haven’t even gotten to Romans yet. He hebrews 11 verse 6.
Without faith is impossible to please him, that is god for he who comes to god must believe that he is.
That is that God is god. And that is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
That is awesome. Can I be personal with you guys? Yes.
I know I’m you love it, but it comes at my expense, but that’s okay. It works.
So the last few months, I’ve been having a very difficult time getting up like I always have all my life.
If I slept past 4 AM on any given day, something’s where something’s wrong.
And in the last few months, I don’t know if it’s age.
Is that what is that what it that what happens? Well, forget that then.
I refuse to hear that. I just can’t buy that.
And so I told Matt And I’m telling 3 good friends that I’m accountable to.
So four people total. My assistant, I’m telling Charlie Kirk today, or is he watching right now?
So, Charlie, I’m telling you. Frank Turic, I’m telling him.
And my my battle buddy in this Christian life is Tony Perkins. Yes.
So I’m going to be telling them today because I wrote it all down to hold me accountable to the schedule that I used to keep for 40 years, 40 5 years as a believer.
And, uh, it’s getting up at this hour, except on Sundays, And that’s it.
Why do I share that with you? Because now I’m accountable to you.
I just look I just set myself up deliberately in front of you so that you, when you stop me somewhere, yeah, listen, I need you to say, Jack, remember what you shared?
Are you getting up at 4 to seek the lord? Do it. I need that.
Now I’ll tell you if it is in fact age or not when you ask me.
But right now, I refuse to believe that it’s age. Why?
Because from 4 to 7, the world is still pretty much sleepy, and god is moving.
The greatest, most precious moments of my spiritual life is those early morning hours.
He’s and maybe I ought to ask you, Why don’t you join me with that and see what happened?
Did you see what if I do that? I have to go to bed early. Yes.
Try it. Although young people are going, you’re crazy.
So church, this is what we looked at last time, and it’s been a while.
So we’ll just glaze over this, but dive in and pick it up where we left off.
What are you waiting for? Was this the fact that we’re waiting seemingly when time is running out verse 18.
The Bible there says for I consider that the sufferings of this present time And we learned this that we’re to be looking at this age that you and I live in as believers by practicing expectation.
He says for when I three things, consider sufferings, present time. 4 words, 3 considerations.
I need to consider. That means I need to think about, and the moment I’m living in as a believer, What am I waiting for?
Well, what’s going on right now?
The same god who brought Moses and the children of Israel across the Red Sea is the same god that you woke up to this morning.
He’s the same? Oh, holy spirit. Come. Oh, where are you? Come? He shouts back.
I’ve never left. I’m the same spirit of god that came on the day of Pentecost.
He’s probably shouting out to us, church. Where are you?
He wants to move, and we need to have the expectation considering that the sufferings of this present time, for the believer, we touched on the fact that our sufferings ought to encourage us.
If you’re not a Christian, freak out.
But if you’re a Christian, our suffering has a great purpose.
God’s moving in 2nd Corinthians 318.
I repeat this first from last time, but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as it were in the mirror, the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the lord.
How does that happen? Mark it down, suffering.
There’s no greater way to grow and to see the power of the Bible than suffering.
And the Bible tells us that it’s in this present time today, in the moment in real time, I love the Bible.
I love the Bible. People make fun of it. Poor things.
When people attack the Bible, you just need to burp them, hold them. They don’t understand.
God’s word says today, in 21st century, on this Sunday, I’m with you, and I’m going through this whole thing with you and all that you’re going through.
The world writes it off and the world is in a panic, and they take pills and they do drugs, or they’ll just drink their sorrows away for 12 hours.
But god says, what I’m doing in your life, I take that stuff.
And I transform you more and more into the image of my son, and that is part of the sanctification of god’s work in your life.
And he does that to his born again children. Amen. And you ought to get excited about that.
The next thing we saw in verse 18 is the perspective.
We’re to be looking through the lens as it were of the word of god and what we experienced with the right perspective.
The Bible says that all these things we’re going through are not worthy to be compared.
Oh, we’re going to heaven. That’s why these things are not worthy to be compared.
You and I, we we we have no idea what we’re about to inherit.
Oh, the economy is going every which way, isn’t it? Yes.
I paid $17 for a breakfast burrito. Yeah.
I was so upset I couldn’t hardly delete the thing. Add add a few other words.
They weren’t curse words. I just said it out loud. I wanted people to hear.
I just mentioned a certain political leader’s name, and I just made sure everybody heard it.
And a couple of people nodded and went seventeen bucks for a burrito.
That’s suffering. No. I’m kidding. Um no. My perspective needs to be right.
Where we’re going, nothing that we suffer in this world is worthy to be compared.
We keep our eyes on the target up ahead. It’s all about up ahead. It’s all about the future.
Young people today, they need hope, they need a target in life.
So many young people today are aimless because they don’t have a target. Heaven needs to be their target. Yeah.
Yeah. We need to not play and and beat around the bush.
We need to tell our kids from the youngest of ages. We’re living for heaven.
That word worthy is exos. Remember that?
And the word means appearing here in the negative sense, as in not weighty.
The sufferings of this world, they’re not weighty. They’re not substantial. They’re not even detectable.
They’re not even a blip on the radar compared to the glory that we are going to inherit.
And that word compare means that you put them side by side, and there’s nothing there.
So church, we pick it up now. Here’s where we left off.
Verse 18, ladder end, were to be looking forward to the beginning.
Be looking forward to the beginning.
The Bible here says in verse 18 at the letter end of that that our sufferings are not worthy to be compared.
Here it comes with the glory, which shall be revealed in us.
That is a pregnant statement of hope with the glory. The glory, heaven, the glory of God.
Now watch, in the gospels, where did Jesus say the kingdom of god was? In us?
Then he said the kingdom of god is around you. It’s come. It’s near you.
And then he said the kingdom of god is coming. Is that interesting?
To the believer the kingdom of god is in them, why?
Because wherever the Holy Spirit lives is the kingdom of god.
And we need to stop trying to do our Christianity like we’re rolling a brick up a mountain.
The spirit of god does it through us as we are commanded to simply do one thing in just the word of god.
Amen. Please, please. You hear this every week, and you’re gonna hear it every week until I’m dead, is eat more of the Bible.
Eat more of the Bible. Because the more the Bible you eat, the more of it comes out.
And that’s what you wanna do. With the glory which shall be revealed in us.
What do you do with that? Uh, it’s it’s going to happen with the glory with shall be?
Not like maybe It’s absolutely going to happen as the meaning of the word, and it’s going to be revealed.
We’ll talk about this more in a moment, but notice in us. In us.
So you look at, uh, news stands have these inspirational sections, the inspirational sections, and they have book titles such as how to be the best you.
That’s nice. Um, find the champion within, Oh, sounds okay.
I guess if you’re, you know, in the Olympics or something, But it’s all of this, you know, positive confession stuff.
And they all have this in common. You need to believe in you.
That’s your problem. You need to believe in you, the power of you.
And how wonderful you are.
It’s just the problem is is that people around you, they don’t recognize how wonderful you are.
See, silly me, I grew up in a world where the people around you are the real they’re really the only ones who know who you are because they have to live with you.
See, we have we have We’re saying that we have a self esteem problem.
Well, you just need greater self esteem. It’s I think Eve had self esteem.
And what did that do for us?
Self as she wanted it her way, not god’s way, and so she ate of the of the fruit.
Listen, the the fact is this. I don’t need more self esteem. The Bible says I’m proud.
You’re so are you? We’re proud. We’re proud by nature.
We need to become unproud And how does that happen by being dethroned?
Yes. And how does that happen? Christ in you? More and more, but also this.
That the beauty of it is that god says, I love and I save and I glorify and I take into heaven sinners.
And, Jack, you can’t save yourself.
And just like any precious brand new little family, that little baby, the joy that mom and dad have when that little baby on that fur remember that day, that first time.
I don’t know if they walk or not when this happens.
Maybe I think they’re still crawling, but there’s that one day when they go like this to mom and dad, they reach up and mom and dad are just beside themselves.
You know how that is when the little kid says their first word, mom mom and dad’s calling people, texting people.
Oh, baby just said the first word. Nobody else cares. We just act like we do. Because it’s very personal.
It’s your kid, not ours. It’s, like, good for you. That’s great.
But it doesn’t matter until it happens to us personally. Our god is personal.
And when you lift your hands up to him and say, lord, help me. He goes, oh, look.
Holy spirit angels. Look. He just called out my name.
And god says he pities us like a father pities his children. And that’s a beautiful thing.
That’s a wonderful thing. But listen, when you look forward to the real beginning, and the Bible calls that glory, when we will experience glory, And remember, the word is Daksa, where we get the word Doxology, to the praise of, to the honor of, to the glory of, to the brightness, and beauty of god’s glory and majesty, be all glory to the eternal pleasure.
The word means and glory of being in his presence.
Uh, I I I pray I speak for all of us that our desire in this life is to be in his presence.
When you and I have a little bit of a rift, it’s when we have our families.
We don’t wanna say goodbye to our families.
We don’t want them to miss us, or we don’t wanna miss out on something in their life, but let’s be honest.
We’re like Paul the Apostle who said, I’m torn between 2 worlds. Are you not?
Don’t you feel the pool between 2 worlds?
There’s a there’s a part where I wanna stay, and here’s the good thing about getting old.
Young people to snap. As you get older as a Christian, it get the the end gets sweeter.
Because you begin to understand the end better. And the end is better because it’s just the beginning.
So if you don’t have Christ, you grab all the toys and all the gusto and whatever the those stupid sayings are.
That he who dies are the most toys wins, really? Yeah.
Who thought that went up? I mean, don’t even blame that on Satan.
That is so dumb Satan didn’t even think that went I think Mattel thought that one up.
What’s our next marketing scheme? Hey, how about he who dies with most toys wins? That’s good. Let’s do it.
Yeah. No. Listen. You can dive with all the toys in the universe. Without Christ that’s hell.
You’re not gonna be driving your humvee around the the pit of hell, not taking it with you, but the Christian life is altogether different.
You say, well, you don’t take it with you either.
That’s not exactly we don’t take anything with us, but we send it on ahead.
Do you know that? Yes. Yeah.
The Bible says that when we get to heaven, we’re gonna see our prayers that we prayed when we were on earth rising before god off the altar.
Yeah. The Bible says that we, right now, can lay up for ourselves treasure is in heaven. It’s true.
We’re not taking anything with us. Christians are smart.
They send it on ahead, pack it up, ship it off, why carry it. Send it.
Ship it right to god.
But what a beautiful thing when you and I know, boy, you guys are really doing it.
I tell you, ever since, uh, our friend Barry Maguire did that Wednesday night, I just got an earful before service.
You guys have turned into evangelistic maniacs.
I mean, I and everywhere you go, you’re sharing Jesus with people, and people are people I’m hearing I heard it this morning.
Somebody mentioned who can I pray for you? The person started crying. And, yeah, so my goodness.
No one’s asking me to ever And this guy said that two people accepted Christ when when he when he was doing that.
And you’re doing that. What’s going on? Listen, in a sense, we’re sending them up ahead.
The Bible says when one center repents, and their name is written down in the lamb’s book of life.
The Bible tells us that the angels rejoice in heaven. How cool is that? How how amazing is that?
No. I look forward to the beginning.
And the word revealed It’s where we ultimately get the word that you’re very familiar with, the ultimate word or the root word for this uh, comes out of apocalypse or apocalyptic.
And this word is a slight variant from that, but this means almost the same, to uncover, reveal, to make visible.
Think about that now. With the glory which shall be made visible, revealed, physically experienced, meaning that that very thing that we’ve long waited for is gonna happen.
It’s great. In Titus chapter 2 verse 11, the Bible says for the grace of god, that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that deny ungodliness and worldly lust We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.
Now you can’t do that on your own. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit doing that.
You guys all know that? Young believer, new believer, uninformed believer. You need to know that.
I say, I wanna be sober. I wanna be righteous. I wanna be godly. Yes. We all do.
But just know this. You have to say, Holy Spirit make me these things. Yes.
See, would you have a class for this? No. Is there an app? Nope.
This is just you and god.
Look, Sundays, we are did you know that we’re supposed to get together just like we are in Sundays?
Did you know we’re supposed to be doing this? This is not only in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25.
It’s the it’s the bulk of the new testament. That were together on the 1st day of the week.
Did you know that? Today, Sunday is the 1st day of the week. Monday is the 2nd day.
And the 1st day of the week from New Testament era is god gets the 1st day of the week.
He gets it first. That’s why when you and I grew up in a different America, you had to get gas on Saturday, you had to buy groceries on Saturday.
Remember you had to do whatever you needed to do on Friday or Saturday. Why?
Because the nation was closed on Sunday. What was that for? To honor god and to sabbath with family.
Imagine today on the national platform, if I were to say, I propose imagine if I was the, uh, congressman from California.
I I would like to submit my bill that We close all businesses on Sunday, like Chick Fil A.
And then we just shut down, and we sat at that day as a nation, like our founding fathers had us do for a couple of centuries, and, um, and peep people would freak.
You know you know that. There’d be pandemonium in the capital. Over that.
Uh but if you didn’t like that, I would also insert the second part.
And that is and families can sabbath together take a day off together as a family, turn off everything, be a family, play games, go take a hike, Go surfing, go fishing, go skiing, you live in California, do whatever you wanna do, you can do it all.
If the rams are losing, go across the street. The chargers might win.
If they all lose, go see the angels lose or win.
And if that’s not working, then cross the street and go watch the ducks play.
If that doesn’t work, go surf. If that doesn’t work, go skiing for crying out loud. Think about it.
Do something as a family. And did you know that that would even be shot down in our modern day culture?
Family, Are you insinuating that a family can take time off and be together?
Uh, yes. America was better off when America honored the family. Amen.
And, listen, the church was better off when the church honored the family. God loves the family.
And, uh, god’s family is what I call the forever family. That’s all of us together.
I met some sweet people in Washington, DC last week, and they, um, they’re older. They’re older.
I may not see them again in this life, and I told them.
I said, they said, oh, we we we don’t know if we’ll ever make it out to to Chino Hills.
And I said, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because soon, will be together.
And both of them said, oh, we know we’re old.
And I said, that’s actually I mean, you are It’s true. You are old.
I mean, they’re, like, twenty years older than me. But that has nothing to do with it.
I said, it is not bad. It’s it’s the fact that the indicators are all around the world.
Everything is falling right into right into order according to god’s end time plan.
See, if you don’t know god’s end time plan, you think everything’s falling apart. Oh, no. No. No.
It’s all fallen into order, which tells me the beginning is about to begin soon. Wow.
And the beginning starts with us seeing the lord face to face. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully now.
But I was reading Titus earlier today. Verse 13.
Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious period of our great god and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that we he might redeem us And when he redeems, he does it by his blood, my friend, not by your good works.
But because he did it by his blood that transforms our lives, We have good works following behind us.
Isn’t that great? They’re not ahead of us. We’re not trying to push them up ahead. Hey, god.
Look at this. Oh, no. No.
Wherever you and I go by the power of god with the word of god active in our lives behind us is a wake of good works.
Good works according to god’s evaluation, not according to Facebook’s evaluation.
Right, or the government’s evaluation or anybody else’s evaluation? Friends, listen. That includes people in our lives.
Paul told, again, the colossians, those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise people.
We play to an audience of 1. Yes? Yeah.
The second thing is in verses 19 to 21, and it’s this.
What are we waiting for when hope is increasing? I hope you get this. Hope is increasing.
I have a little quote here that I hope god gave me.
If it’s a blessing to you, then it’s from him.
But hope is one of, if not, the most important ingredients that makes up the health and welfare of the human soul.
Hope. Hope. And look what god is saying to us right here in this portion between 1920 one in these verses is that hope is to increase in the believer’s life.
What are we waiting for? Oh, you know, I I need such a change. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good.
Let’s let’s change. Let’s change now. See, we’ve been conditioned in life. Okay.
I’m gonna I’m gonna go through a change. I’m gonna do this change. I’m gonna get these shoes.
I’m gonna get this jogging suit. I’m gonna get them here, whatever it is.
Understand all that, but here’s the deal. We’re talking about spiritual issues that listen.
Whatever your whatever course you’ve been on as a believer, If you wanna go up to the next level with Christ or the next chapter with Christ or if you wanna get back to walking with Christ, It’s absolutely awesome because it can happen in an instant.
By the way, I’m trying to think when I saw you last, it have I seen you since just church?
Oh, yes. That was a Friday night, wasn’t it?
So the the news that are we that we are currently getting from people, still from that event.
Of people recommitting is absolutely amazing. We’re gonna share some of those with you.
Well, blow your mind. But listen, some people had somehow gotten derailed years ago in their walk with Jesus, We all understand that.
Somebody hurt their feelings. Somebody stepped on their toe, or somebody really, really hurt them bad.
And they came on that night. It was safe. It was the Honda Center.
It was dark. They didn’t know anybody. They can hide in the crowd.
And in that moment, so many people who were believers, but wayward.
Remember, I told you it wasn’t a crusade. It was just church.
But we specifically invited those who were not going to come. They stopped. They gave up.
And in one instant of time, by the changing of the mind, the Greek word is paranoia their mind was changed, and they said, I’m getting right with god.
And there’s listen. There’s there was no obstacle course out in the parking lot that they had to go through and get a medal or a tag or beat a certain time.
Go. And the clock goes. Oh, sorry. You’re uh 200 to no. You just return. Amen.
You just return to him. He’s precious.
By the way, back in Romans 8 versus 1415, the Bible says for as many as are led by the spirit of god.
These are the sons of god. There you go.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba father.
Wow. We’re led by the spirit of god. We are the sons of god.
We’re no longer in bondage. We’ve been set free, and we’ve been adopted by god.
So we learned this in verse 19 that when hope is increasing, we know that even nature itself is waiting.
This is an amazing statement. For the earnest expectation of the creation, eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of god.
Mark it down if you would. We have one word earnest expectation.
In the Greek, it’s it’s we have 2 words and it’s one word in the Greek.
And the Greek language of the original Bible means this.
It means a strained or anxious just tiptoe peering over the fence as it were type of expectancy.
That earnest expectation is one word, and it means to go up on your tiptoes and do peek over.
And that kind of describes the believer’s life when hope increases Listen, when you don’t have hope, you sit down in the corner of the room in the fetal position.
When you’re excited about something or someone, you are tiptoeing up over the fence or looking over the crowd to see.
Are they coming? Can you see them? That describes the believer’s life.
Christian, god is calling you today to get your head up out of the what’s the word?
Marras? Is that the right word?
The the dark foggy mist, the confusion and look up above it.
Some people go through life using a snorkel, and that’s all you see of them is a snorkel go by.
And god says, no. No. No snorkels.
You feel today that you’ve been living like you’ve been using a snorkel. You’re breathing. You’re a Christian.
You’re going to heaven. But in you’re in real life, it’s not been, uh, expectant. It’s not been thrilling.
I wanna suggest to you today that waiting for what God wants to do next or waiting for the lord to return or waiting for to move in your life ought to cause you spiritually.
The Bible says to get up on your tiptoes, and to get excited about what he’s gonna do.
Nobody should leave here today. Like, well, Chuck up another Sunday. You and E or.
See you next week. Follow us, work Christians. No.
We should be You know, I mean, think about think about the, uh, a horn honking or something.
It’s like, what was that? Just a horn calm down. It wasn’t Jesus. It was just a horn.
Got me going there for a minute. I say that in Jess, but not really.
We should be excited and expecting as our hope increases.
And one of those things is to realize that nature itself Nature, isn’t it amazing?
The creation itself eagerly waits. What an amazing thing.
Listen to what Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones had to say about this the great pastor of yesteryear, West Mister Chapel, London, England.
He says, the pains of childbirth are real pains.
By the way, he was a medical by the way, did you know there was a woman who just said that?
No guy in here said, oh, yeah. That’s right.
I had to throw that in. Just to upset the woke crowd.
The pains of childbirth oh, I was gonna tell you, Doctor Martin, Lloyd Jones, uh, he was before he was the great expositor in England, uh, he was a medical doctor.
So I think this is very cool.
The pains of childbirth are real pain, severe pains, but they are not endless pains.
Think of that. I never thought about that.
Such pain only endures for a time, nor are they hopeless pains on the contrary?
They are filled with joyful expectations.
Since under normal circumstances, these pains produce the birth of a brand new child.
You’re pregnant for 9 months. You start going into pain. The pain announces to the mother. Oh, wow.
Uh, a lot of stuff happening now.
Get the car ready, get the bags ready, you know, that kind of a thing. But she knows this.
The pain is gonna increase and then it’s gonna decrease.
And when it when it’s over, she’s gonna have great joy.
Jesus said that, a woman has great pain and labor. Until the child is brought forth. And then she rejoices.
And god is saying in the believer’s life, you’re going through pain right now?
It’s not a hopeless pain, and it’s not an endless pain.
For the believer, just like in life, there’s a day when it will all be over.
And it will have its great purpose, and it will be all part of a new life.
What a glorious statement that is. Beautiful.
Eagerly waiting. For what? For the revealing?
2nd thing is this. Know that a plan is unfolding. There’s a plan unfolding right in front of us.
Verse 20 says for the creation was subjected to futility.
Listen, even though Eve and Adam sinned, god had a plan. Are y’all are y’all awake? Yeah.
God had a plan. So what how did this all go like? Look at this horrible outside.
Well, that’s not exactly true.
There’s a lot of beauty outside, but there is horrible stuff outside.
Just know all the horrible stuff came from man. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what about the lion eating the little gazelle?
Yeah. Man did that. Think about it. People wanna argue about god.
You call your god a loving god when this eagle comes down and and eats the goat off the mountain top whatever thing so god god didn’t do that.
Read your bible carefully. Men did that.
God’s got a plan. It’s unfolding.
Do you guys remember years ago? I had to look it up to make sure.
I thought it was Bill Clinton, but it was James Carville.
In 1992, James Carville said, it’s the economy stupid. Remember that? He told that to his staff.
Clinton was running for president, and they were gonna capitalize on the issue.
And the issue was the economy was terrible. And he made that famous statement.
You can look it up later, and he said, it’s the economy stupid.
And that became a campaign slogan And it turned out to be very, very successful.
Well, I’m gonna put it this way. It’s the creation, smarty pants. It’s the creation.
God’s plan is unfolding.
I may approach this a little different than what you might think.
Number 1, just quickly this is god and his mercy subjected creation to futility.
Meaning that when Adam and Eve sinned, they crashed nature. Yeah. Okay?
And god planned, and he had a plan, to let that continue out because he is a redemptive god.
Oh, Pastor Jack, I gave to this child, like you just said on the screen a moment ago, that that kid not only caused me pain, caused me pain all my life, and that kid is a disaster, grown up adult, accident site.
Listen. God is most glorified in the most redemptive stories and events.
And issues. You know when we write people off, that’s it.
How many times have I had to tell you?
We’ve been warning you, I’ve had enough. That’s because we’re humans.
We’re limited. God’s not.
Some of you have written off your parents or your children because they just gone too far.
God hasn’t written the muff yet. Are they still breathing? Yeah. Somebody will say to me after service.
They’re still breathing, but they’re in a coma. Hey. There’s hope. They can’t talk to anybody.
They can’t fight. All they can do is listen.
Because people have been in comas, and they’ve come out of comas.
And they said, I heard everything you nurses were saying about me.
God’s got a plan, and it deals with nature.
In life, whatever is good in life, the Bible says comes from god, but we can look around at this world and see enough fingerprint evidence that there’s should be no atheist ever in this planet.
We’re not impressed by your atheism, Well, I believe in science. No. You don’t. Don’t.
You’re just hiding behind that. Our god invented science. What do you think of that?
Our god in science? It has so many how silly is this?
Oh, I I I believe in science. I can’t believe in god. I believe in science.
He’s the one that made it. His fingerprints are all over it.
And why is it that scientist way greater than you?
Once they came to the end of their pursuit wound up coming to the knowledge of god because their pursuit of science led them to the face of god, asks sir Isaac Newton.
Genesis chapter 2 verse 15.
We’re gonna finish this We’re just gonna ask god to stop the clock, have people’s cars coming this way.
Stop. Yeah. Genesis 215 says, then the lord god took man and put him in garden in a garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Isn’t that precious? That was supposed to be a very cool, awesome thing for Adam and Eve, to pick flowers and make babies, I guess, some in the garden.
And the lord god commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
For the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. That’s what god said.
Don’t don’t eat that tree. Now it’s all that Adam had to hear in Eve.
You want a kid to get in trouble?
Tell them that they cannot go in that room down the hallway. Why?
There’s a tendency within us to try to think somehow that we can either get away with it or somehow that’s gonna make life better for me.
But you have to have a tree in the garden, so to speak, to have true worship.
You must have choice involved. Then comes along Genesis 3 17.
Then to Adam, god said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat of it.
Curst is the ground for your sake. In toil, you’ll eat of it. All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.
For out of it, you were taken for dust you are and dust you shall return.
And the day that Adam and Eve ate. 930 years later, they died.
But they died the day that they ate. How? Spiritually died.
But their body, unplugged from god, took 9 30 years to die.
And the Bible tells us, in Romans 5 verse 12, therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus deaths spread to all men because all sinned.
So Adam brought his sin, but Jesus brought his righteousness.
The Bible tells us that this in environment is now futile.
So church family, listen up carefully.
This is a very serious thing I’m about to say.
Based on funny, you might wanna laugh it off, but it’s not a funny thing, uh, for those that are blind.
And that is everything we hear and you’re about to hear so much more of it regarding, uh, the the election season.
We’ve gotta save the planet. You know that?
Are we ins well, I already know the answer. I was gonna say, are we insane?
The answer is yes. We are. We’re gonna save the planet. How does that really?
We have to recycle. Yeah. Knock yourself out. That’s great. No more carbon footprint? Yes.
Well, if there’s no carbon, we have a big problem. I just want you to know that.
All the trees die. All the grass goes dead. Just want you to know that. Guess what?
Who do we think we are that we’ve come?
We’re a speck on the timeline where a grain of sand, denying the existence of god, here’s what we’re really saying.
We gotta save the planet because there is no god.
Or what’s worse, we gotta save the planet because the god that we know can’t save it.
He’s lost control of what he made. We’ve got to save it. Yeah.
And how are you gonna do that? Get an electric car. No. What what are they saying?
No more no more gasoline. Solar panels, windmills.
The same listen. The same humanity that says that?
Literally contradicts itself and creates catastrophic situations in the world.
The answer is nature’s groaning. The Bible says. We’ll see this next time.
It’s groaning. But the Bible says, even nature is peeking over the fence.
When are those poor humans gonna get redeemed? When does this thing up?
Think about every little squirrel trying to run across the highway. Sneaking.
He’s groaning his nature. His humans send plunged creation into the decay that it in, and we’re so arrogant without god that we think we’re gonna save the planet.
How dumb have we become? We are actually denying the existence of god if we think we can save plan, and how can that happen when you can’t even save yourself?
It’s remarkable. And I wanna end with this. You guys can stand.
I wanna end with this. This is very, very fun. Romans chapter 1. You can read it later.
I’ll paraphrase it. In Romans chapter 1, the Bible tells us that regarding humanity without god, What man does is that he winds up worshiping the creature and and things that creep upon the earth and fly through the air and things with four legs When he rejects god, he worships animals in nature rather than god himself.
And the sad thing is we’ve replaced him with a worldly view of thinking.
Out with god and in with us saving the world that he created.
And god in Romans chapter 1 says no way, but I wanna leave you something beautiful on a high note.
God says, and I’ll read it to you. And Isaiah 35, listen to this.
When Christ comes back in the second coming, the wilderness and the way and the wasteland shall be glad for them.
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose the California desert when Christ returns?
Every cactus needle, every rose needle is an underdeveloped blossom.
It’s a mystery why it doesn’t bloom.
Imagine when Christ comes back, he says I’m gonna have the desert bloom when I come back.
The deserts the deserts are avoided