1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,940 Man, man, what a good looking bunch you guys got here. 2 00:00:06,940 --> 00:00:13,860 Somebody just shouted out, I thought they shouted out, "Grease somebody." 3 00:00:13,860 --> 00:00:17,500 I thought that must be a cowboy church thing. 4 00:00:17,500 --> 00:00:26,300 It was "Greet, greet somebody." 5 00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:30,720 Alright, I'm going to pray for us. 6 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:38,240 Lord, right now as we open up the Bible, we pray that your word would open us up and that 7 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,960 it would go down into the depths of who we are. 8 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:43,320 That's what it does. 9 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:48,440 And would bring forth some kind of change today, some kind of forward progress toward 10 00:00:48,440 --> 00:01:00,280 Jesus, toward Christ-likeness, toward seeing the world through the grid of your truth. 11 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:07,440 And so, Lord, if any of us is carrying weight in here this morning, baggage or failure or 12 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:12,640 whatever it is, Lord, we pray that we could leave it at the foot of the cross today and 13 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:13,640 be free. 14 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,440 And so speak to each and every one of us. 15 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:19,040 We pray in Jesus' name. 16 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:20,040 Amen. 17 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,920 Well, Pam and I are very, very grateful for all of you. 18 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:31,560 When I first heard about you guys, this church, Out West Bible, and what the Lord was doing 19 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,600 here, I mean, my heart was absolutely filled with joy. 20 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:44,560 And Scotty and Connie Brown, I mentioned already, they were a huge part of the early years of 21 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,880 our church, Lighthouse Church in Twin. 22 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:55,100 And their faithfulness, their, man, there's just certain people that you just know are 23 00:01:55,100 --> 00:01:59,480 going to show up and that are solid. 24 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:04,080 They're not like water, you know, just kind of, you know, splashing around. 25 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:07,160 They're not blowing around by the wind. 26 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:09,240 They're solid. 27 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:12,640 And those people are gold. 28 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:17,600 And your pastor knows that because some of you are solid like that. 29 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:23,000 And it is such a profound, and especially when you've been walking with the Lord for 30 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,840 40 years, you've seen people come and go. 31 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:31,520 You've seen people, you know, what do they call it now, deconstruct or whatever, you 32 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,880 know, bail on the Lord. 33 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:42,200 And so when you have people that are steady and faithful over time, over years, it's like, 34 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:46,360 man, you are awesome. 35 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:54,160 God is, he's made you a Psalm 92 person, you know, you're planted, you flourish because 36 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:57,280 you're planted in the house of the Lord. 37 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,640 That's who flourishes in life. 38 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:10,720 So you got to know that Scotty was a bit of a legend in our family anyway, in the Fadness 39 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:11,720 family. 40 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:13,760 My mom and I have three boys and two girls. 41 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:15,720 They're all growing up now. 42 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:24,240 But to give you an idea of the status that Scotty held, and maybe still does in our family. 43 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:31,120 So this is probably, you know, oh, 25 years ago, somewhere in there when Scotty and Connie 44 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:33,840 were still with us in twin. 45 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:38,080 And my boy Luke was about four or five at the time. 46 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:44,120 And he was in a philosophical mood as my boy Luke tends to get every now and then. 47 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:51,360 But his big brother Ian had just burnt his upper arm on a pan that was on the stove, 48 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:53,720 and which got Luke to thinking. 49 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,600 And Luke says, hey dad, you know, after Ian was taken care of, he says, hey, dad, would 50 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,520 that hurt you if you touched it? 51 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,040 Meaning the hot pan, right? 52 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,160 And I said, well, yeah, son, it would. 53 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,400 It would burn me. 54 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:13,440 And then he says, would it burn Jesus if Jesus touched it? 55 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:21,040 And I said, well, not right now it wouldn't, because Jesus, he shed his mortal body and 56 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:27,240 received his glorified body, and Jesus, his body, it's not like ours. 57 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:31,440 One day we're going to get a body like his that won't feel pain and can't get burned 58 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:32,440 and so on. 59 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,600 So no, Jesus wouldn't feel that. 60 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:41,160 And then after a long pause and some deep thought, Luke says, so dad, is Jesus stronger 61 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:42,160 than everybody? 62 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:46,040 I said, yep, you got it, he is. 63 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:55,040 And then says, is he stronger than Scottie Brown? 64 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:01,280 So there you go, that's who Scottie Brown is to my family. 65 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:07,160 So in the next few minutes, I'm going to do my best to unpack these five verses of Romans 66 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:09,960 chapter five, which are super potent, super practical. 67 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:11,120 We'll see how far we get. 68 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,560 But you know, I think Scottie, what did you get? 69 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,160 Two hours, three, what was it that you guys do here? 70 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,760 Like, oh, kidding, I'm kidding. 71 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,240 Okay, number one. 72 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:25,020 And we're just going to work our way down through the verses. 73 00:05:25,020 --> 00:05:28,360 So the first one that we want to see, and these are four or five things that are ours 74 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:29,360 through Christ. 75 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:31,760 This is the big idea, let's get the big idea out there. 76 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,160 The things that are ours through Christ. 77 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:40,500 Because you've given your life to Jesus, you've accepted him as Savior and Lord, through him 78 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:44,120 now you have, the first thing is peace with God. 79 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:51,320 Therefore, verse one, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our 80 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:52,600 Lord Jesus Christ. 81 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:56,560 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith. 82 00:05:56,560 --> 00:05:59,080 See we're going to get this song into you today. 83 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:00,080 That's our evil plan. 84 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,620 Is to get five verses of Bible in you. 85 00:06:04,620 --> 00:06:07,000 So through Jesus we have peace with God. 86 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:12,680 Not talking about the peace of God, although we get that too, but that's different. 87 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:18,920 So the picture that Paul is painting here is that God is at odds with us, with humans. 88 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:24,260 And it's because of our ungodliness, our sin, we would say. 89 00:06:24,260 --> 00:06:30,800 Way back in Romans one verse 18, Paul wrote that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 90 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:37,200 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress 91 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:38,400 the truth. 92 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:45,120 So this is the natural state of human beings apart from God is that we're at odds with 93 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:46,120 God. 94 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,000 We have unrighteousness in our life. 95 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,620 We aren't always pure. 96 00:06:52,620 --> 00:06:54,680 And so because of that God is at odds. 97 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:59,720 Romans 8 seven, the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God. 98 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,560 It does not submit to God's law. 99 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,580 Indeed it cannot. 100 00:07:03,580 --> 00:07:08,520 So God's anger at our ungodliness is a problem. 101 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,980 And God is angry at ungodliness. 102 00:07:12,980 --> 00:07:20,320 And so this I would argue is the biggest problem that humanity has. 103 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:27,120 It's bigger than the wars that we currently are seeing break out on planet earth. 104 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:32,020 It's bigger than the economic woes that the world is going through. 105 00:07:32,020 --> 00:07:40,980 It's bigger than the so-called climate change crisis that's happening out there or whatever. 106 00:07:40,980 --> 00:07:50,740 So if God is resolved to pour out his wrath on us we are in a terrifying position. 107 00:07:50,740 --> 00:07:55,820 Now I know you're not supposed to talk about this stuff anymore. 108 00:07:55,820 --> 00:07:58,460 Even in church. 109 00:07:58,460 --> 00:08:03,420 But it seems to me if you go forward in the book of Romans to chapter 11 right around 110 00:08:03,420 --> 00:08:12,880 verse 32 it says behold both the kindness and the severity of God. 111 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:15,540 Like look at them both. 112 00:08:15,540 --> 00:08:24,600 Don't you know take one away never to be looked at so you can only look at the kindness. 113 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,480 No look at them together. 114 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:32,380 Otherwise you're going to have a distorted view of who God is. 115 00:08:32,380 --> 00:08:37,740 So imagine the power of God that's behind his wrath. 116 00:08:37,740 --> 00:08:39,980 God is all powerful. 117 00:08:39,980 --> 00:08:46,780 And so when we look up into a southern Idaho sky we see lots of stars. 118 00:08:46,780 --> 00:08:54,420 But it's a tiny fraction of our galaxy our galactic neighborhood which we call the Milky 119 00:08:54,420 --> 00:08:55,420 Way. 120 00:08:55,420 --> 00:08:56,420 Why they named it after a candy bar? 121 00:08:56,420 --> 00:08:58,320 Candy bar I have no idea. 122 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:06,520 But they say the Milky Way our galaxy has 200 billion planets in it. 123 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,600 Two hundred billion. 124 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:17,840 And that we our galaxy is about a hundred thousand light years across or about six hundred 125 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:21,920 thousand trillion miles across. 126 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:27,820 And and so a light year most of you probably know it's the the distance that light travels 127 00:09:27,820 --> 00:09:34,700 in a year which is 186,000 miles per second over a year's time. 128 00:09:34,700 --> 00:09:41,540 So presuming Elon Musk could build us a ship that could do that kind of that kind of speed 129 00:09:41,540 --> 00:09:51,260 186,000 miles a second it's still going to take us about 50,000 years light years to 130 00:09:51,260 --> 00:09:56,920 get across to the edge of our galaxy. 131 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:02,320 And besides our galaxy they say there's 200 billion other galaxies that have 200 billion 132 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,100 stars in them. 133 00:10:04,100 --> 00:10:12,500 So the point is the God that we are talking about here in Romans he made this spectacularly 134 00:10:12,500 --> 00:10:20,320 vast universe from nothing by just speaking. 135 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:28,500 This God spoke and the universe came into being. 136 00:10:28,500 --> 00:10:33,280 And he holds the universe together by the word of his power. 137 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:41,500 So if this great powerful God is angry at us then this is the worst possible condition 138 00:10:41,500 --> 00:10:45,880 that anyone could be in. 139 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:54,720 God is revealing his wrath against ungodliness now and he's going to bring it to a climax 140 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:56,460 at the last day of judgment. 141 00:10:56,460 --> 00:11:04,340 Romans 5 2 or 2 5 rather says because of your hard and impenitent heart you're storing up 142 00:11:04,340 --> 00:11:12,660 wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 143 00:11:12,660 --> 00:11:20,840 Because you haven't turned from your sin and turned to Jesus Christ now wrath is just accumulating 144 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:31,100 it's just piling up for the day of wrath it's just building up over time. 145 00:11:31,100 --> 00:11:38,640 Our only hope is if God would provide a way of reconciliation. 146 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:42,600 It's the only hope for humans. 147 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:48,020 So the good news is that God has provided a way. 148 00:11:48,020 --> 00:11:49,540 He certainly has. 149 00:11:49,540 --> 00:11:59,580 When the angel in Luke chapter 2 announced glory to God in the highest and on earth peace 150 00:11:59,580 --> 00:12:04,520 and goodwill toward men. 151 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:12,080 That was an announcement that the Prince of Peace himself had just entered the planet. 152 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,800 Through the Prince of Peace we can have peace with God. 153 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:21,060 The war can be over between you and God. 154 00:12:21,060 --> 00:12:28,820 Well secondly from our passage through Christ we have God's favor so it goes beyond having 155 00:12:28,820 --> 00:12:30,340 peace with God. 156 00:12:30,340 --> 00:12:36,020 Now we get to the place where this is on the positive side through him verse 2 through 157 00:12:36,020 --> 00:12:45,940 him through Jesus we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. 158 00:12:45,940 --> 00:12:53,860 So we've gained access into another realm a realm we didn't have access to before but 159 00:12:53,860 --> 00:12:55,780 now we do. 160 00:12:55,780 --> 00:13:02,820 In fact it's an atmosphere we live in it when you come to Jesus you enter this realm of 161 00:13:02,820 --> 00:13:08,900 grace and you navigate your life in that realm. 162 00:13:08,900 --> 00:13:15,700 Physically we live in the atmosphere of earth and so we breathe its air we interact with 163 00:13:15,700 --> 00:13:23,300 its physical material the wood and all of it we walk on the ground we build stuff out 164 00:13:23,300 --> 00:13:29,740 of the raw materials that are a part of this atmosphere and unless our buddy Elon builds 165 00:13:29,740 --> 00:13:35,620 us that rocket ship this is where life is in this atmosphere physically right for us 166 00:13:35,620 --> 00:13:40,780 this is where we do everything we do we're built from the earth we're built built for 167 00:13:40,780 --> 00:13:43,820 the earth and this is our atmosphere. 168 00:13:43,820 --> 00:13:50,460 Well Paul is saying that in the spiritual realm grace is an atmosphere it's a realm 169 00:13:50,460 --> 00:13:58,020 that we enter through Christ and so why do I say that or prove that go down to verse 170 00:13:58,020 --> 00:14:01,620 21 so you know why I'm saying that. 171 00:14:01,620 --> 00:14:11,700 Romans 5 21 so that as sin reigned in death grace also might reign through righteousness 172 00:14:11,700 --> 00:14:17,220 leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 173 00:14:17,220 --> 00:14:24,100 So grace reigns that word reign basileo it means you know a king a king who rules that 174 00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:33,160 kind of thing so grace is king in the realm of Jesus and grace reigns over us the favor 175 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:41,780 of God we would say rules over us you have God's favor through Christ even though maybe 176 00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:46,580 you didn't have a great week this week maybe you didn't feel like a Christian all the time 177 00:14:46,580 --> 00:14:53,380 this week because you you failed here or there maybe some stuff came out of your mouth like 178 00:14:53,380 --> 00:15:00,740 that wasn't holy that wasn't good and so you you come in going man I don't I don't know 179 00:15:00,740 --> 00:15:07,900 that I'm worthy to be worshiping with the people of God in the house of God and you 180 00:15:07,900 --> 00:15:18,740 know and it kind of feels like maybe I I step out of the realm from time to time and and 181 00:15:18,740 --> 00:15:33,860 now I'm out of the realm it doesn't work like that you are enveloped by grace and because 182 00:15:33,860 --> 00:15:41,680 through Jesus you are enveloped by grace God is for you so that all that power that was 183 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:48,720 against you that that you know you're storing up wrath when you came to Jesus now that same 184 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:55,800 all-powerful God now he's for you and he's in favor of you so if Jesus is Savior and 185 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:04,800 Lord you have God's favor and so not only do we stand in this realm of grace we also 186 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:12,620 we will stand by this grace and favor so in other words because we live in the grace realm 187 00:16:12,620 --> 00:16:22,060 we will absolutely make it here's what it says in verse 2 again through him we have 188 00:16:22,060 --> 00:16:29,860 also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand in which we stand so the 189 00:16:29,860 --> 00:16:36,640 through Christ the same omnipotent God miracle working dead raising create everything the 190 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:43,880 whole universe out of nothing that same power of God is now working for you and not against 191 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:50,880 you and if God is for you who can be against you right so what does this mean it means 192 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:57,820 you're good you're gonna make it that if you're a born-again Christian so Romans 14 5 says 193 00:16:57,820 --> 00:17:05,020 it's before his own master that he stands or falls he will be upheld for the Lord is 194 00:17:05,020 --> 00:17:12,960 able to make him stand by grace you stand now we might be tempted to go man grace just 195 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,320 means that I can just go sin up a storm no then you have the wrong idea of what grace 196 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:27,640 is Titus 2 11 or 2 13 says that grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness so grace 197 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:39,120 actually instructs us how to live a godly life so we've entered this realm God his favor 198 00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:48,920 reigns over us and secures us thirdly through Jesus we have a new joy and a new hope a new 199 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:54,020 joy and a new hope so watch us now again verse 2 through him we have also obtained access 200 00:17:54,020 --> 00:18:02,680 by faith into this grace this realm of grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of 201 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:09,760 the glory of God now what does that mean we rejoice okay we know what that means you who 202 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:18,340 we rejoice in hope so we're we're expecting something biblical hope is it's not like the 203 00:18:18,340 --> 00:18:22,660 way we typically think of hope we hope that it might that it happens but it might not 204 00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:28,640 biblical hope in the promises of God is absolute it's an it's an expectation of what we know 205 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:38,400 is going to absolutely happen so it's a promise it's certainty so we rejoice in certainty 206 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:47,720 of the glory of God what is that I'm asking I don't know I'm cheesy we're gonna we're 207 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:58,260 gonna carve on okay so if you have an infinite number and subtract a finite number from an 208 00:18:58,260 --> 00:19:11,040 infinite number then what number do you have an infinite number right so so so infinity 209 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:22,280 minus 1 million equals infinity because that's what infinity is finite only finite numbers 210 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:28,960 become smaller when you subtract something from them so so the very meaning of infinite 211 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:34,740 is that when you take away from it there's no less than when you began that's what infinite 212 00:19:34,740 --> 00:19:41,240 means so so that wonderful verse in amazing grace that we sing have sung and you know 213 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:48,040 a million times when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun we've no less 214 00:19:48,040 --> 00:20:01,160 days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun because we have eternal infinite life 215 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:09,300 in this life in this atmosphere every day that goes by is one day less than that we 216 00:20:09,300 --> 00:20:16,940 have on this planet grandpa Scotty and I were just talking about how time has started to 217 00:20:16,940 --> 00:20:23,420 speed up on this back side of the mountain that we're currently on like we're picking 218 00:20:23,420 --> 00:20:33,480 up steam and so in the life to come however every passing day or century or millennium 219 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:39,200 will mean that the amount of future left for us is never diminished it's never diminished 220 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:46,800 now why is this important it's because Romans 5 it begins with two with two infinite realities 221 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:54,200 that need to be explained they need to explain each other and help us sense what God is what 222 00:20:54,200 --> 00:21:00,340 Paul is telling us about God's salvation his way of salvation the infinite reality at the 223 00:21:00,340 --> 00:21:07,660 end of the chapter is is eternal life but the infinite reality here is the glory of 224 00:21:07,660 --> 00:21:16,540 God eternal life is infinite life it's life of infinite duration it will never end 225 00:21:16,540 --> 00:21:23,360 so if you are Christian you have eternal life now you might not be a Christian and you're 226 00:21:23,360 --> 00:21:34,160 going I mean is that like infinite boring life like life what it is right now 227 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:41,980 to extend our lives the way they are now probably doesn't sound all that great to you might 228 00:21:41,980 --> 00:21:48,140 sound some people like man I'm I'm living large right now and yeah maybe you could go 229 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:57,520 for another thousand or whatever but for me that wouldn't be good news I don't want to 230 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:03,740 extend this life what's the best we can do in this life in this condition I mean think 231 00:22:03,740 --> 00:22:09,320 about what what is it the best day you know is it is it going to your favorite fishing 232 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:15,300 hole so that that's the that's it that's the glory most glory the most glorious day that 233 00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:19,540 you can get maybe you know if you're younger maybe it's Disneyland or or you're sitting 234 00:22:19,540 --> 00:22:27,060 on a beach somewhere or you know whatever it is what what's the best you can do what's 235 00:22:27,060 --> 00:22:38,080 the best day the greatest pleasures on earth would probably be torture after the ten thousandth 236 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:56,460 time golfing again so here instead of saying we rejoice in hope of eternal life Paul instead 237 00:22:56,460 --> 00:23:04,060 says that our hope is in the glory of God we rejoice in hope of the expectation of the 238 00:23:04,060 --> 00:23:10,940 glory of God so a lot of people think man what what would I do what what will people 239 00:23:10,940 --> 00:23:16,180 do for a quibillion years in heaven it seems like it'll be boring I think I might prefer 240 00:23:16,180 --> 00:23:21,620 hell at least down there you know Satan's lead leading some kind of a kegger party and 241 00:23:21,620 --> 00:23:28,880 you know I think I want to go there and so first of all that that line of thought is 242 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:36,760 wrong on so many levels biblically first of all we don't live forever in heaven do you 243 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:45,300 realize that I mean right now if we died yes our our immaterial us goes to be in an intermediate 244 00:23:45,300 --> 00:23:49,360 state we go to be with the Lord to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord 245 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:55,460 but then at the rapture will be will be resurrected our bodies will be resurrected and we are 246 00:23:55,460 --> 00:24:01,720 going to live on earth or at least in proximity in the city of New Jerusalem and life will 247 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:11,200 happen on earth this earth which will be renewed in an amazing way and in reality heaven is 248 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:16,520 being United to earth once again like it was way back in the day you know God was in the 249 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:23,440 garden right remember he's walking in the cool the day and God was on the planet before 250 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:33,300 Jesus was incarnate and so heaven is going to be reconciled once again to earth one day 251 00:24:33,300 --> 00:24:38,340 and every you know everything we know about the lake of fire suggests that Satan is not 252 00:24:38,340 --> 00:24:47,500 going to be the boss of it he's gonna be the chief the chief piece of wood or whatever 253 00:24:47,500 --> 00:24:53,780 and pretty sure there's not beer there either for what I can see in the Bible so so it's 254 00:24:53,780 --> 00:25:03,980 crucial that we hope in the glory of God so we need to talk about what that is because 255 00:25:03,980 --> 00:25:10,020 this is the reason that our future life must be eternal and it cannot be boring it like 256 00:25:10,020 --> 00:25:17,040 it's impossible so any amount of time short of eternity would be inadequate for a finite 257 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:26,520 creature to experience the glory of Almighty God so it'll take us forever to see all there 258 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:31,800 is to see to admire all that there is to admire to enjoy all that there is to enjoy of our 259 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:41,500 God his glory who he is therefore God ordains that there is eternal infinite life for us 260 00:25:41,500 --> 00:25:47,440 so I want us to feel the force of this maybe just a little bit more what is the glory of 261 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:55,780 God we say that and we don't often think deeply about it the glory of God is is all that God 262 00:25:55,780 --> 00:26:01,900 is it's his substance and he's spirit but when I say substance it's the reality of who 263 00:26:01,900 --> 00:26:09,220 he is his greatness his excellence and all of that so I'm gonna I'm gonna take you down 264 00:26:09,220 --> 00:26:14,860 a deep complex road to try and feel the reality of this think of it this way does anyone here 265 00:26:14,860 --> 00:26:22,420 like ice cream anybody rocky road coffee flight whatever ice cream okay if you don't like 266 00:26:22,420 --> 00:26:29,340 ice cream what is wrong with you I've never met anybody doesn't like ice cream so the 267 00:26:29,340 --> 00:26:35,700 first taste is is kind of amazing isn't it like when you you get ice cream yet maybe 268 00:26:35,700 --> 00:26:39,900 it's just a bowl of ice cream at your house in the evening or you go down to one of the 269 00:26:39,900 --> 00:26:47,420 stores that make the friend and it's just like that's so good and you just it's the 270 00:26:47,420 --> 00:27:05,300 flavors exploding and it's just wow that's the glory of God and you're not convinced 271 00:27:05,300 --> 00:27:18,940 do you enjoy hiking fishing being out in creation you get that sense of awe at times of transcendence 272 00:27:18,940 --> 00:27:29,700 that there's more than than just my little life that's the glory of God that you're sensing 273 00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:37,060 do you like beauty art human beauty it's all it's all the glory of God let me let me connect 274 00:27:37,060 --> 00:27:45,140 this for you James 1 17 every every good gift every perfect gift is from above coming down 275 00:27:45,140 --> 00:27:51,700 from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change so so 276 00:27:51,700 --> 00:28:00,460 we we experience in a shifting changing atmosphere the world is perishing we're perishing everything's 277 00:28:00,460 --> 00:28:08,720 always you know entropy and it's always breaking down but we're experiencing good gifts from 278 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:18,620 the one who does not change the one who does not shift he gives us good gifts and so we 279 00:28:18,620 --> 00:28:25,340 can enjoy them to his glory God is the very source of every good thing in your life every 280 00:28:25,340 --> 00:28:33,620 good thing that you enjoy from the biggest to the smallest he's the fountainhead of every 281 00:28:33,620 --> 00:28:45,080 pleasure and joy but this life on this side of glory we only get four takes of his glory 282 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:55,820 it's it's nibbles anybody fans of the free samples at Costco of course you are they're 283 00:28:55,820 --> 00:29:03,500 free what's not to be to be a fan about if you play your cards right do enough of those 284 00:29:03,500 --> 00:29:09,580 samples you didn't even have to buy lunch right game the system that's what I do I recommend 285 00:29:09,580 --> 00:29:17,140 it so the only reason they give away the free samples though you all know that is so that 286 00:29:17,140 --> 00:29:23,280 you'll buy the 10 pounds of whatever the thing is that you just say right it's kind of like 287 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:29,220 drug dealers right they just give you a little bit and and get you hooked so in the current 288 00:29:29,220 --> 00:29:35,180 condition that we are in we're living on a fallen planet we're dying we get samples of 289 00:29:35,180 --> 00:29:42,900 God's glory and they're everywhere and if your eyes are open to the glory of God then 290 00:29:42,900 --> 00:29:52,780 you'll start to see oh Lord thank you that's so beautiful but God is infinite and his glory 291 00:29:52,780 --> 00:30:00,580 is infinite it has no boundaries it has no limits it has no end it's not small and exhaustible 292 00:30:00,580 --> 00:30:07,540 it will not and it cannot run out this is the godness of God right this eternal being 293 00:30:07,540 --> 00:30:16,660 so you can't you can't spend down God's glory you can't run it out it's it's God's size 294 00:30:16,660 --> 00:30:23,740 it's infinite therefore it will take finite creatures and eternity to see all of it and 295 00:30:23,740 --> 00:30:33,980 taste all of it and enjoy all of it the glory of God so this will not be endless duration 296 00:30:33,980 --> 00:30:44,860 of a boring existence the God who created all things is going to be the one whom we 297 00:30:44,860 --> 00:30:54,460 enjoy directly in that day so ever new sights and wonders and experiences and pleasures 298 00:30:54,460 --> 00:31:01,340 and we'll be able to do things we can't even really dream about and because of that and 299 00:31:01,340 --> 00:31:08,220 I gotta start winding down here folks because of that we have a third experience through 300 00:31:08,220 --> 00:31:14,280 Christ or third blessing and that is we get a we get a new perspective and that's verse 301 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:20,860 three more than that so we're we're rejoicing now in hope of the glory of God so so we're 302 00:31:20,860 --> 00:31:26,680 we're rejoicing as we're making our way through this crazy period of time but we're joyful 303 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:32,940 man we're happy warriors right we're we're happy in the Lord we're making our way the 304 00:31:32,940 --> 00:31:41,420 glory of God is coming and I'm I know it's gonna happen but now we can also rejoice in 305 00:31:41,420 --> 00:31:51,720 our suffering so so I'm not just rejoicing in in what's coming I'm able to rejoice even 306 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:58,100 in the midst of my sufferings for a different reason it's a weird it's a weird thing to 307 00:31:58,100 --> 00:32:05,360 say rejoice and sufferings it kind of doesn't belong together it doesn't fit it's like yelling 308 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:11,940 in a library or a snowman in the desert it's incongruent like rejoice in suffering but 309 00:32:11,940 --> 00:32:18,860 that's exactly what Paul is saying that we get to do through Christ because of our future 310 00:32:18,860 --> 00:32:26,660 suffering is meaningful and beneficial to us so we have statements like 2 Corinthians 311 00:32:26,660 --> 00:32:35,160 4 17 our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far 312 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:45,600 outweighs our troubles so our our trials right now that we're going through our financial 313 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:53,240 situation or our marital conflict or whatever is actually achieving achieving for us some 314 00:32:53,240 --> 00:33:07,860 things God is setting you up for eternity right now he's working on that our troubles 315 00:33:07,860 --> 00:33:15,920 our suffering our afflictions they they work for us suffering even death itself is employed 316 00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:21,300 for us and some of you are going well I want to fire those employees I don't want to suffer 317 00:33:21,300 --> 00:33:30,760 in this life well reality is that they do set us up and there's three ways that Paul 318 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:36,260 points to and these are things that we gain in this life and let's go through these real 319 00:33:36,260 --> 00:33:42,040 quick suffering produces three things Paul says number one it produces endurance that's 320 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:50,940 verse three knowing that suffering produces endurance so that's what suffering does if 321 00:33:50,940 --> 00:33:57,180 you're walking with the Lord and you're you're a disciple of Jesus here's how it works something 322 00:33:57,180 --> 00:34:03,460 happens in your life that causes you frustration and pain and disappointment that by faith 323 00:34:03,460 --> 00:34:10,560 you look to Jesus and his sufficiency and his love and his wisdom to deal with the situation 324 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:15,140 and you don't give in at least you fight off the bitterness you fight off the complaining 325 00:34:15,140 --> 00:34:21,580 the nasty stuff the poison stuff right and and Jesus brings you through the trial and 326 00:34:21,580 --> 00:34:30,000 Paul says if you go through the trial you now have gained endurance endurance has been 327 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:43,100 produced in you suffering produced that suffering is a producer it helps you and so your faith 328 00:34:43,100 --> 00:34:49,660 is stronger having gone through the suffering how well the same kind of way that that tempered 329 00:34:49,660 --> 00:34:58,540 steel is stronger than steel that hasn't gone through the fire and the flame so it takes 330 00:34:58,540 --> 00:35:05,060 more to break after it's gone through the tempering process suffering is the tempering 331 00:35:05,060 --> 00:35:15,180 of our of the steel of our faith and then out of endurance comes a second thing character 332 00:35:15,180 --> 00:35:24,820 verse four endurance produces character so it's an interesting word in the in the Greek 333 00:35:24,820 --> 00:35:35,020 document and it means proven or authentic or genuine so the I the idea is that once 334 00:35:35,020 --> 00:35:42,020 once you've suffered a trial of some sort your faith is tested and it endures you then 335 00:35:42,020 --> 00:35:50,020 they then get this not only can you endure more now in the future but you get us now 336 00:35:50,020 --> 00:36:00,860 you've gained a sense of authenticity of genuineness you know knowing that there would be probably 337 00:36:00,860 --> 00:36:11,740 a pretty good amount of cowboys here at out west bible church because I know Scotty I 338 00:36:11,740 --> 00:36:21,380 considered wearing boots cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and I'm glad I didn't because 339 00:36:21,380 --> 00:36:29,540 it dawned on me I would be the biggest poser like in the history and there's a lot of posers 340 00:36:29,540 --> 00:36:35,260 right who wear the hat or the boots or you know and when I lived in Southern California 341 00:36:35,260 --> 00:36:39,700 a lot of poser surfers they didn't do any surfing but they they hung out on the beach 342 00:36:39,700 --> 00:36:47,340 and you know and had the shorts and the talk the lingo and all that just posers listen 343 00:36:47,340 --> 00:36:57,220 there's a nagging voice in all of us that says you're a poser of a Christian because 344 00:36:57,220 --> 00:37:02,060 you come to church and and like everybody sees you oh man yeah you're at church or not 345 00:37:02,060 --> 00:37:06,900 west bible and you're taking in the study and you're singing the songs but then you 346 00:37:06,900 --> 00:37:13,300 live out your week and like there's some nasty stuff going on in you in your heart and in 347 00:37:13,300 --> 00:37:25,220 your mind and you go man I don't am I for real because I don't think a godly Christian 348 00:37:25,220 --> 00:37:37,980 would have this nasty stuff going through through their mind listen when you go through 349 00:37:37,980 --> 00:37:46,760 a trial and you come out the other side you've added endurance but not only that endurance 350 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:54,480 has given you a greater sense of authenticity that you really are a Christian that the nasty 351 00:37:54,480 --> 00:38:02,000 stuff that you deal with every week that's not you that's not the genuine you that's 352 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:10,740 the old you and you begin to realize that and know that and feel that like I really 353 00:38:10,740 --> 00:38:19,620 am a Christian I really am God's son I really am going to experience the glory of God and 354 00:38:19,620 --> 00:38:28,640 out of that jet sense of genuineness as a Christian is a third blessing and that's hope 355 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:34,500 and we'll end on this one here this morning hope verse four character that sense of genuineness 356 00:38:34,500 --> 00:38:41,620 then produces hope verse five hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been 357 00:38:41,620 --> 00:38:48,500 poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us so so you suffer through 358 00:38:48,500 --> 00:38:57,180 a trial and and maybe it's a health thing or a relational thing or a loss thing or a 359 00:38:57,180 --> 00:39:02,280 you had that you lost your business and declared bankruptcy whatever I mean there's all kind 360 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:07,700 of trial this isn't any certain it's just the general difficulty we go through in life 361 00:39:07,700 --> 00:39:12,940 and you go through with your faith intact your eyes on the Lord your faith is strengthened 362 00:39:12,940 --> 00:39:19,840 like steel is tempered and can endure more and now because of that now you also have 363 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:26,660 a greater sense of your genuineness that you really are a believer like you really do walk 364 00:39:26,660 --> 00:39:36,000 with Jesus and and so now out of that that genuineness this this the sense of being for 365 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:47,120 real will come greater hope a more powerful hope hope is the expectation of coming good 366 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:53,880 so the coming good in this case we talked about it's the glory of God it's our glory 367 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:59,940 with God and this hope this expectation is vital if you don't have this hope you will 368 00:39:59,940 --> 00:40:06,960 go like this in life you will you will go side to side instead of going straight towards 369 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:12,540 the mark of the upward call you're going to be off in the weeds and the ditches quite 370 00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:22,080 a bit hope is really important for keeping us on track and so when someone gets pregnant 371 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:31,160 we say that they're expecting right our youth ministry director Jed and his wife they're 372 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:39,040 very young early 20s Eunice his wife is pregnant they're expecting and they shared the news 373 00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:45,940 with us we were at a prayer getaway a couple months ago and and they asked us not to spread 374 00:40:45,940 --> 00:40:53,200 the news because it was pretty early in the pregnancy right and so their thinking was 375 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:59,200 that if you know God forbid if Eunice would miscarry you know something like that happened 376 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:04,000 there's all that little kind of a nagging fear in those early months for for a lot of 377 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:11,440 gals and and so on so so we don't want the word to get out at this early stage yet and 378 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:16,120 because we you know if God forbid we lost the baby we would have to have so many conversations 379 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:20,060 with so many people and relive all of it again and again and again so that that's kind of 380 00:41:20,060 --> 00:41:27,560 the thinking but they still moved forward in expectation obviously they fixed up the 381 00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:35,700 bedroom for their baby the the nursery they had a shower where those who loved them gave 382 00:41:35,700 --> 00:41:42,300 them baby clothes and strollers and dimes they're preparing because they're expecting 383 00:41:42,300 --> 00:41:50,040 and so expecting this is changing the way they live it's changing what they do and what 384 00:41:50,040 --> 00:42:08,000 their focus is in life God's people we are expecting we are expecting and Paul says that 385 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:23,080 this hope that we have will not put us to shame we will not miscarry this is an absolute 386 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:32,300 and so we prepare because we're expecting we prepare our future for our future by serving 387 00:42:32,300 --> 00:42:38,920 the Lord and pursuing Christ's likeness in our life and preaching the gospel to our neighbors 388 00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:48,560 and loving our spouses well reconciling with those to whom we are in conflict discipling 389 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:55,440 our children doing a great job at the place of employment we're prepared we're expecting 390 00:42:55,440 --> 00:43:02,340 we're getting ready we're prepping because we have an expectation that we know is going 391 00:43:02,340 --> 00:43:14,020 to happen it's biblical hope not it might happen might not happen no biblical hope is 392 00:43:14,020 --> 00:43:24,800 it's gonna happen it's sure so Titus 2 11 the grace of God it's where we live people 393 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:30,480 right in the realm of grace the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all 394 00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:38,640 people and it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled 395 00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:49,500 upright godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope the appearing 396 00:43:49,500 --> 00:43:59,500 of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself to redeem us from 397 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:06,840 all wickedness and purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is 398 00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:24,600 good are you expecting let's pray Lord we praise you this morning that you pursued us 399 00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:38,840 in our rebellion you came after us in our lost condition and maybe it came through a 400 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:48,920 Christian friend that we knew maybe we showed up at out west Bible Church on a Sunday morning 401 00:44:48,920 --> 00:45:00,040 maybe it happened early in life as a kid at vacation Bible school or at home with mom 402 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:08,980 and dad but you pursued us Lord and you brought us out of the darkness and into your marvelous 403 00:45:08,980 --> 00:45:22,740 light and so Lord I suspect we were so just barraged with negative news in the world it's 404 00:45:22,740 --> 00:45:32,380 just so non-stop that maybe sometimes we're not we're not looking forward enough we're 405 00:45:32,380 --> 00:45:46,340 not expecting enough what's going to happen and because we're not expecting we're not 406 00:45:46,340 --> 00:45:52,260 just living with that certainty of what's going to happen in the near future I mean 407 00:45:52,260 --> 00:46:00,960 it's no matter how old or young it's relatively near whether the rapture comes or we live 408 00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:16,880 out our days because Lord surely you do want us rejoicing in these times you don't want 409 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:30,780 us sour and grumpy people aren't attracted to sour and grumpy but man when they see real 410 00:46:30,780 --> 00:46:43,540 joy powerful so make us a joyful people Lord a joyful people happy are the people whose 411 00:46:43,540 --> 00:46:51,960 God is the Lord Lord you it says in the Psalms there that that you look down on the earth 412 00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:58,500 you see the kings of the earth and the influential people there they're gathering together in 413 00:46:58,500 --> 00:47:06,620 secret meetings and they're just devising plans to try and cast off the chains the restraints 414 00:47:06,620 --> 00:47:18,500 of God to get free once and for all and Lord that Psalm says that you see that and you 415 00:47:18,500 --> 00:47:39,720 just laugh you just laugh oh Lord take the weight off of us we can laugh at the silliness 416 00:47:39,720 --> 00:47:54,440 of rebellious people they can they can rest the world away from you so Lord you're coming 417 00:47:54,440 --> 00:48:05,600 we're a day closer today than we were yesterday and the world seems to be crazier than it 418 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:14,740 was yesterday today but Lord if you come today hallelujah if it isn't going to be for a year 419 00:48:14,740 --> 00:48:23,700 or five may we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus may we grow in depth as disciples 420 00:48:23,700 --> 00:48:29,300 of Jesus God I pray that you would raise up in this church Lord men and women of God who 421 00:48:29,300 --> 00:48:36,840 are going to be killers who are going to be so solid so rooted that the the fruit of their 422 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:45,160 ministry and faithfulness will be felt for years to come bless out with Bible Church 423 00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:52,420 Lord for anyone that doesn't know you here this morning bring them into a saving relationship 424 00:48:52,420 --> 00:49:01,620 with Jesus Christ we pray in his name amen amen God bless you guys 425 00:49:01,620 --> 00:49:09,180 [BLANK_AUDIO]