Church family, let’s stand if you would. Open our our bibles, and, uh, we are
in a new section of the word of god together, Romans chapter eight verses eight eighteen, we’ll read the verse twenty three.
Even though the whole section in its totality is verses eighteen to thirty, we’re gonna read eighteen to twenty three today.
Uh, because this is a thought.
And we’ll get a little bit into this thought as we break open this new section.
We’re looking at a title that is called, what are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for as a believer?
Paul is now getting the Roman believers so excited He’s writing from corinth, and he looks around and he sees all the paganism of corinth Greece, and he’s writing, uh, to the churches at Rome, and he’s telling them about their awesome position in Christ and all of what god has done for them with adoption.
God adopted us. Which is beautiful means he picked you.
He went he walked down the he walked down the corridor as it were of time and said, I
want you. I want you. I love that. I hope you
I hope you today discover perhaps you if you have it that you’re wanted by god.
That’s a sweet thing
to know that god picked you.
See, well, what if god didn’t pick me? If god didn’t pick you, you don’t care.
Because he knew in advance that when the gospel would be presented to you, you wouldn’t care.
He knows all things.
Wouldn’t it be thrilling for
you today to find out? Oh my gosh. She picked me. Yeah. I’d be thrilling forever.
Forever thrilling, for sure.
I’ll start out in verse eighteen.
If you pick it up church nice and loud verse nineteen, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For the creation was subject to futility.
Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.
I know.
Verse twenty two, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pings together until now.
Father, open up our eyes and our hearts.
To receive from your Holy Spirit.
Father, we pray today that as we’ve gathered as your church, the beauty about all of that, we happen to be in this building right now.
It’s irrelevant. Just as Chad showed us on the screen, uh, on September eighth, the church is gonna be at the Honda Center.
If we met on the side of a hill, it’s the church last night with the youth down at the beach.
It’s the church. Wherever we gather, there you are in the midst.
And lord, I pray that today.
There would be such a revelation of liberty and freedom and excitement that lord, we will wait until you come for us.
But lord, may we not wait in living out our true Christian identity.
May we not wait for heaven to arrive may we live now in our hearts, our minds, our spirit, in the realm of heaven?
We pray in Jesus name and all god’s people said, Hey, man. You may be seated.
Church family, if you’re taking notes, and I hope you are, it’s very important, very important at this juncture of the book of Romans that you write down four key things at the top of your notes, or if you write in the margins of your Bible, which I highly amend.
I really believe. I really believe that bibles were given to us to mark up and circle words and highlight and put your name next to a passage or a verse of scripture.
And when that Bible of yours gets all marked up, put a rubber band around it, and put it on the shelf, and buy a new
one and start all over again. It’s a great way to live.
Four things that you need to write down, which are very applicable to where we’re going right now.
Number one is, you know, uh, the doctrine of redemption.
If you’ve been with us, the doctrine of redemption, is that you being saved was god’s idea.
God did that. Redemption. It’s called redemption.
Look, when I was a little kid growing up and, uh, we moved to Orange County.
They had something called blue chip stamps doors. And then there was a competitor, the green stamp. Green. Right? Green?
And the young people are going, what?
And it was so cool because when your parents went grocery shopping, uh, the store always threw these stamps at the bottom of your bag, And so when my mom would come home from the grocery store, I would die for the bag.
They had bags back then.
They were they were paper. And you didn’t have to pay for them. Uh, and
and no whales were choking on paper bags
in those days. Like they
do today. Right? Um, but there were there were paper bags.
And I would dive in
and I would get these blue or green, uh, stamps, and I would put them in a book.
And they let me do that. I think they my mom sit here just get lost. Do that.
Uh, and and once you get the so many books filled up.
You could go down to the redemption store, the redemption center.
And there was one off of Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. And it was amazing.
I thought, what a world we live in? What a country? You walked in. I had a little guy.
I walked in. I had this bag of books with all the stamps
and you got to pick. And that was my number one source of tonka trucks in those days was the redemption store.
When you go to the redemption store, you get stuff that somebody else pays for. Okay?
Listen. Somebody paid the price, but I walked out with the with the benefit.
Redemption, mark it down, is provided by by the father. Redemption is provided by god the father.
Okay? Justification. Justification is a legal transaction where someone who is guilty needs to be justified And the word justified is a very, very exhaustive Greek word, but we can make it real simple in English, and it does it no damage whatsoever.
The word justified means just if I’d never sinned. Remember that?
It means that whatever was against you has been lifted from you.
And you’ve been declared justified. Now how does that happen? By the son.
The father issues the plan of redemption.
The son executes that plan And he derives for you and I justification.
That’s why he went to the cross. That’s why he left an empty tomb.
And then what happens is to the believer, the Holy Spirit moves inside in a lifetime of work commences by the Holy Spirit.
That’s why he lives in you. Uh, he’s got think about it.
The Holy Spirit got his construction hat on, He’s got his apron, so to speak, or his tools every day in your life, from the inside out, the Holy Spirit, going to work, to do what, to take from god’s redemptive plan, and the justification provided by Christ Jesus The Holy Spirit is the one that goes to work sanctifying you until the day that you meet Jesus.
He does the sanctifying work Man, I love that because religion says you gotta do it yourself.
And the Bible says, no, you don’t.
The Bible says Christ has done it all by the issuance of the father’s plan, and it’s done by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that’s how you are sanctified.
It is the Holy Spirit who’s the one that is leading you and guiding you.
He’s the one that’s correcting you. He’s the one, you know, he’d listen.
I I say this affectionately. He puts up with so much.
Uh, but we also put up with so much. What do you mean?
He’s the one that’s always telling you and I. Don’t do that. Come on, lord. Don’t do that.
I don’t know if you saw this. It was it doesn’t matter. There was a broadcast.
It was kinda cut me
off guard. I was in the studio and the cameras were ready.
The guys were saying, okay, lights ready. Okay.
And there’s two interviewers. And, um, they go, okay. Here we go.
And they start asking questions. And the first thing that the guy says is, Uh, will you accept a push up challenge?
Immediately on my thought was push up. Remember the ice cream’s push up?
And I
I’m I’m on I’m caught off guard. If you watch it, I’m like, What?
Pushups right here right now. On on on TV, right here.
I’m thinking, what is this? Oh, okay.
So this young guy gets down there and he’s he’s I’m I’m supposed to lose to this young guy.
And, um, long story short is, uh, I beat the young guy, but but but
but wait, wait. Wait.
But here’s the thing. See, watch
out, carnal Repent. Every one of you. That’s that’s what the spirit of god told me. Repent.
So we’re going and the and the young guy, he’s he’s pooping out and I’m going, and I know what I can do.
And so I’m going, and then, I come to the point of beating him and my and my thought was.
Exactly. See, you, carnal, carnal Christian
That’s exactly.
I’m going and I and I so he’d he died at twenty seven, and I know that I I’ll take a break at fifty
I know that. I can do that. So I’m going, and I I
I I just get to like thirty, thirty three, and and
the lord, and I said to myself, I’m gonna do. They asked for it.
I’m gonna bring it. And then, you know what?
The Lord said, stop it. Don’t gloat. You beat the guy. Now stop.
You see, Jack said, keep going, rub it in make him hurt. Make them never think of that
of that again. So listen, not only does the spirit of god put
up with us. We put up with
him because he’s the one that says, no, that’s not good. Stop. Right? It’s a relationship.
And that’s the sanctifying work.
As you walk with Jesus notice, you and I will never be sinless, but the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is that we begin to sin less in our life.
We’re not sinless. We start to sin less.
Things that once had a grip on us, begin to lose its grip. It’s beautiful.
And you wake up one day and you realize, wait a minute.
I haven’t had that craving or that issue or that temper or that thing for now weeks.
To god be the glory, right church? You can say amen to that. To god be the glory.
It’s absolutely awesome. And then, and it’s much of now all the way through this portion of Romans is glorification.
You got redemption, you got justification, sanctification, and then you’ve got what concerns you, glorification.
It’s it’s it’s amazing.
The father, the son, the holy spirit, all at work to bring you and I to this area of glorification.
And we’re gonna have a really good time over the course of these next few weeks talking about what that means.
So when you ask me, what are you waiting for? I can tell you I’m waiting for glorification.
God saved me. He’s made that sure at my heart.
It’s not me. He’s done it. I’ve been redeemed. I know this. God keeps his word, so I’m justified.
That’s that’s the work of god through Christ Jesus. And god honors his word, and he honors his son.
And Jesus justifies, I’m good. Sanctification. I bear witness of that.
One thought out of place or if god wants me to share with somebody and I say, I’m tired.
And he says, go tell them I love them.
Then I like you, march on over and obey him. That’s the work of sanctification among other things.
Why to lead us ultimately to our future?
Which is both listen, our future is both happening now and will go on forever, and that is glorification.
So today’s message is gonna challenge you and I.
Because we live in the here and now, but we’re not supposed to be limited
to the here and now.
It’s very important to mark it down.
Point number one, it’s as far as we’re gonna get today, but there’s no surprise in that. Is there?
What what are we waiting for?
Number one, is this when time is running out, that’s what the believers wait waiting for, uh, for time to run out.
Uh, it depends on the sport, but if your football teams ahead and your your head just enough, there is the danger that if you fumble the ball or somehow give it up, the other team could could score at the last moment.
So when you’re ahead and the clock is ticking, What do you do, guys? What do you do?
Ladies, what do you do? Football is an odd shaped ball.
You run out the clock. Listen, why? Because you won’t insure victory.
For the believer, we don’t run out the clock by waiting We run out the clock by waiting for what he wants to do next in our lives.
That’s how god wants to use your life in mind. And so it’s very, very important, very, very powerful.
Look at verse eighteen. It it says this. It announces this.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.
Listen in us. And I think you’re gonna be quite blown away with what all of that means.
Mark this down, please. There’s no doubt about it that the Ministry Temple of Jesus while he was on earth was always one of urgency, urgency.
Even when he got away alone with his father, He prayed urgently. Did he not?
When he was alone with his father away from everybody, he prayed urgently for his father to speak to him about the disciples, who who to pick, who to call to be his twelve.
When he got away, he renewed his strength urgently. There’s an urgency.
And so we live like that in life and I I want you to think about this.
That’s very, very important. The encounters that I see Jesus having in the four gosse over and over again, from the scribes and
the pharisees, uh, to those that were being brought into the kingdom of god.
There was always this sense of urgency. Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning at verse one.
Second Corinthians six one, listen to this, sense of urgency.
And I pray that we have it today if we don’t have it already.
We then says Paul the apostle as workers together. That’s all of us. As workers together with him. That’s Christ.
Also plead with you, not to receive the grace of god in vain.
So in other words, as believers, in fact, think about what you’re being challenged to do now You’ve got two opportunities before you, which I pray.
We pray that you take up and run with it.
Number one is to invite people to church at the Honda Center. Run with that.
What what are we talking about, Jack? Verse one, We together.
We say to our friends or strangers or whoever they may be.
We together as workers, we plead with you, one who has gone wayward.
One who stopped attending church for a thousand justifiable reasons. Give those things away.
We want you to meet up with Jesus again.
Make the Honda Center, for example, church that day where you as it were raises your right in and and make a pledge to god.
Turn it into an altar. Right? We plead with you. So that could be verse one.
The other thing is what we’re talking about in sharing Christ with those cards and seeking god.
But whatever we do, we’re urgent about it. Why? Because you and I are heading off to glory.
It it it’s as though the flight’s leaving and there’s still open seats.
Imagine, what if you’re on a
what if you’re on a flight and and it’s it’s heading to um heading to the island of Kauai.
Okay.
You don’t ever want to go
to the island Kauai. Go to the other islands. Don’t go to the island of Kauai. You it’s terrible.
It’s horrible.
What if you became aware that they were given away not only seats, but they were given away American Airlines was given away first class seats.
Okay? Right. Ben’s correct. That’s urgent. That is urgent.
Wouldn’t you grab as many people that you know possible that you love and you wanna be on that flight with, come on, we got free first class flights to Hawaii.
Let’s go. You wouldn’t say you you you would not ignore that.
For a lot of reasons. One of them is you wanna know who’s sitting with you.
Bring them. It is within the heart of every believer.
I do believe that you wanna bring as many men and women and boys
and girls with you into the kingdom of god. Why?
Because it’s not a theory. Heaven’s a reality. It’s for real. It’s not a dream.
It’s a real experience. But he goes on in verse two.
For he says in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation, I have helped you.
Behold now is the accepted time. Behold. Now is the day of salvation. Do you hear Paul’s urgency?
Now is the time. Tell somebody. Love them. Share with them.
Well, I’d like to keep my
religion personal and private Well, if you have religion, please, by all means, do keep it personal and keep it private.
But if you have a relationship with Jesus, Go public.
Go public with it. Launch it.
And listen, when he gives, by the way, clarification regarding these things and the urgency that you and I should be experiencing as Christians, Second Corinthians six also says in verse three leading up to that.
Watch this. Second Corinthians six three encompasses the whole thing from verses three to ten watch. You’ll see it.
It says, we give no offense in anything.
In other words, Uh, what we say is truth and what we live is truth, and we
are not out uh, to offend anyone with anything other than truth.
I mean, I gotta tell you, you know, this truth does offend, but it’s like it’s like your surgeon Um, none of us like this, but when they come in to the office and they’ve got needles and blades, don’t you get a little because you’re the only one in the room.
It’s not for the doctor.
You know where those things
are gonna be pointing real quick.
But if used properly,
the result is very good. Okay? Truth is like that.
Truth sometimes cuts in a way that it hurts but it brings about great healing.
When truth is rejected, it hurts, but it’s not received. If the doctor came in with
the medicine that could make me well, but I run out of the room and down the hallway and jump into my car and leave.
That’s not smart.
So we give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed.
But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of god. That’s who the Christian is.
In much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses.
Am I describing your life yet or mine?
And stripes. Now, we don’t get beat
yet. Um, but it’s increasing around the world.
In prisonments, in two molts, in laborers, in sleeplessness, in fast themes, by purity, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love verse seven, by the word of truth, by the power of god, by the armor of righteousness, on the right hand, and on the left.
What a great word? By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report as deceivers.
Listen, these are all the accusations that come against believers.
As deceivers yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and yet not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
Notice this mindset. As poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
That actually sums up the life of the Christian. So sign up today, please.
But it’s real. It’s truth.
And so there’s a sense of urgency, which I love about the Bible because it just speaks truth to every moment of life’s situations.
The Bible speaks truth and you look at the world around us and the Bible answers the problems.
Look at all the things right now that the United Nations are debating and arguing about.
And as I listen to that, and sometimes just for torture, I turn on c span and see what’s going on in our nation’s capital.
And every time the answer is the same, but they can’t hear me. It’s Jesus.
It’s Jesus United Nations. It’s never gonna work.
You know, in Israel, the UN is called the United Nothing.
Or the unnecessary. Isn’t that great? They talk, they talk, they talk, but nothing comes of it.
Listen, politicians talk and talk and talk, but nothing comes of it. And then god forbid.
If people take action for what is right, everybody freaks out. Right?
When you take a stand for what is good, people are going to resist.
But listen, people as it were, uh, would have us be dead, but we live.
They would have us be beaten, but we’re comforted.
People would have us be made fun of, but Christ encourages us. Friends we’re not over this world.
We’re heading to glory. That flight, that train, that bus is leaving.
But in the meantime, we’re supposed to act like it. We are supposed to be dressed like it
so to speak, spiritually speaking. So very important. Indeed.
So mark this, we’re to be really waiting and excited because time is running out.
That’s a good thing for the believer.
And we’re to be looking to practice expectation. Expectation. I love that word.
Expectancy. Normally, when we think of, uh, expectation, expectancy, start you you think of pregnancy.
Where it went? Oh, when are you expecting?
Well, there are indicators that causes you to walk up to somebody and say, When are you expecting?
By, by the way, you better be right or keep your mouth shut. Right?
Don’t Make sure they’re expecting before you say, when are you expecting?
And they’re gonna give you a date ish Right? Oh, you know, March fourth or some of that week.
All the indicators are there. And correlate this with our world. These things are in play.
There’s
a little development going on. Right?
You don’t feel so good in
the morning. So you wanna have, uh, you know, spaghetti with talk with taco with with with
uh it’s just crazy stuff.
I want milkshakes and and uh spaghetti sauce. What’s wrong with you? I’m pregnant.
Look, don’t talk to her
about it. Just get it.
Or whatever it might be. Things are going on. She’s multiplying her blood supply.
She’s growing a human. And there’s a time frame to that and as time goes along, there’s more and more indicators that tells us that we’re running out of time.
Don’t think that running out of time is a bad thing. For the believer, it’s a good thing.
The world is running out of time. They should panic.
But the believer is never running out of time. Our god, listen. He won’t be early,
and he won’t be late.
God is always on time. Well, how come he’s not doing this?
I don’t know, but he’s never late and he’s never early. He’s right on time.
Take take a deep bit of comfort in that truth.
Expectation means that something is coming and you know it’s coming.
You’re not guessing the Bible when it speaks about expectation You can practice it before it shows up.
What does that mean? Get your clothes on. We grew up like that. Right? The bus is coming.
Mom gets you out of bed, you get the food going, you got your shoes on.
And in the good old days, I don’t know how it is now, but you your mom or dad would walk you out to the curb before the bus even arrived because they knew that the bus was gonna arrive at seven forty nine.
You can set a stopwatch to it. How much more accurate is god?
He wants you and I to be living today with the mindset of glory.
We should be expecting about that. I’m gonna be doing a a funeral.
One of our young people graduated this weekend. We prayed for him up here.
United States army went into US army intelligence and without any reason. We don’t know yet. Suddenly died.
Twenty one years of age. Listen, he loved the lord Jesus.
Godly family wanted to serve our country. And today, he’s in heaven.
Listen, that’s a good thing. We sorrow with mom and dad, but not without hope. Why?
Because we are expectant to meet that young man and so many others. I’m gonna meet my sister.
My mom and my dad in heaven, and you’re gonna meet many of your loved ones.
And we can have that expectation for real. It’s not a dream.
We don’t take a drug to mitigate the problems of life. We don’t need that stuff.
I’m not listen, I’m not condemning anybody who’s who’s gotta, uh, take a drug.
You gotta I just can’t take it. I have to take a drug.
Listen, I understand. I understand, but listen, there’s gonna be there’s gonna be a time. Just know this.
As Jesus gets ahold of you more and more, you’re not gonna need it anymore. Yeah.
You’re just gonna realize, oh my goodness. I forgot to take my drug. For the last three days. Yeah.
What’s going on? Listen. Your heart has been opening up more and more to his control and his presence.
And he calms you. And then he causes you to be excited without anxiety. How about that?
Excited without anxiety. What a beautiful thing?
It says therefore, I consider, says the apostle remarkable word, that the sufferings of this present time will stop there.
It’s an unusual place to stop, but it’s necessary.
We need to practice expectation because of this very important thing.
Human suffering plagues every human being on the planet.
Human suffering, how you look at it, and what you know about it determines the disposition of your heart of your mind and maybe even your eternal destination.
There are those who look at human suffering and then they somehow come to the conclusion.
There cannot be a god in the face of all this evil.
You think about this for a moment. There are by the way, there
are famous people who have written famous books over the ages that that’s the premise of their entire argument.
Churchill, you’re listening right now. They conclude there’s evil in the world thus there must not be god, and so we’re on our own.
And it always goes back to how do you know
that there’s evil in the world?
How do you know? What if that’s normal? Oh, it’s not normal.
Do you believe in god? No.
But you do believe that evil is abnormal. That shouldn’t happen.
Where did you get that value system?
How do you know that evil is not good? If evil is just somehow benign?
It’s neutral. How do you
know this? Here’s how you know it, but you have failed to recognize it.
Down deep inside of you is a stamp of god
and it speaks of glory. It speaks of life. It speaks of goodness.
It speaks of what is loving and what is beautiful.
And when you don’t realize that, you will look around at the world around you and you’ll be angry and bitter and you’ll take it out on the god that you don’t even think exists because you think it should be better.
Guess what? We agree with you. It should be better.
But the human race crashed itself when it departed from god.
Listen, America used to be a great place to be. America’s gonna crash. It will crash. Why?
Because we told God to get out of here. And so we’re gonna reap of that. That’s small scale.
Think about humanity when Adam and Eve said, god, get out of here.
And the world has fallen under that grip, but the reason why you know good and you long for good is because that is the fact stamped within you that you’ve been created in the image of god and you want what’s good.
You want what’s love. You want what’s peace. Listen, you want acceptance. You want joy. You want peace?
Who wouldn’t sign up for that? Everybody wants that. But it’s only through god.
It’s only through the originator. The great thing about being a believer is that we can be pregnant with hope.
It’s gonna happen. That day is coming. By the way, that word consider means.
It’s an amazing word. Write it down. It’s a it’s a mathematical term. In the Greek language.
Some of you even recognize this Greek word, and it means to reckon to count we would say today, run the numbers or let’s see if it’s all worth it.
Let’s work this out. Let’s let’s let’s do the math and come to the conclusion.
Let’s see if this is profitable. Let’s see if this is a good deal.
And the Bible says reckon this. Consider this. Use your mind. Think dive in. Think God is asking.
Isn’t it beautiful? God is asking you. Maybe you’re not
a believer today and god is saying to you. I want
you to use your mind. I want you to use your head. Think.
Do some math as it were of the soul and figure this out.
In second Corinthians three verse eighteen, the Bible says, but we all with unveiled face.
He’s speaking to the believers. Beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the lord are being transformed.
That’s a act of sanctification. Into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the lord.
Church, that’s an incredible verse. The Bible tells us who are believers that we are being changed.
Right now, we’re looking through a mirror.
We see ourselves right now, but as time goes on, as time goes on, we see less of ourselves and we see more of
the glory of god coming through.
Uh, I I don’t know.
Any other offering in the universe where where by growing older is a great benefit than being a Christian.
Now if you’re concerned about wrinkles and and and and arthritis and stuff. Well, you have a problem
that you have a problem.
If that’s all you can think about. Oh, no. I got wrinkles.
Oh, there’s this more of those are coming.
They’re coming.
But that’s okay.
Every time you see a wrinkle, it should announce to you that you’ve lived a long time which is good thing.
You should be wiser. Okay. And you’re closer to heaven.
But then when you look in the mirror, the closer you get to heaven, you don’t see the wrinkles.
You see more of Christ.
Now I could say you don’t see the wrinkles because your eyes are going back.
Look, I get up every day. I’m looking better.
I’m like,
it’s scary. Lisa, Lisa will say, you’re
not going outside like that, are you? What’s wrong? Go go look again. Go look.
But god’s merciful though. You think about it.
As we age, in our eyes go bad, so we don’t we don’t see what we look like.
And then I don’t know about you, but I was a very picky eater growing up.
And, um, but as you get older, you notice everything tastes good.
It doesn’t matter what it is. I’ll eat it.
As you get older, and then because
of that, we we have a tendency to put on weight. But god is so good.
Our teeth start falling out.
So we can’t eat as much, so then we start to lose weight.
And, uh, we start to sleep less, not by choice, but
You can get a lot accomplished when you’re up at two o’clock in the morning and painting the house, vacuuming, whatever doing the windows.
But in Christ, growing older is a great thing.
And the Bible, by the way, honors the elderly.
But a strange thought in our world today.
I kind of feel the undertow of the current speaking in our world that maybe to help the economies of the world, we need to maybe put an expiration date on the elderly.
Have you noticed that? They’ve already started with some state sanctioning, uh, what’s it called?
Where you can
assist it suicide, but they have a nicer name for it. Some of their lie, some lie.
Yeah, euthanize. That sounds pretty tough though still. They have, but they have a better name.
Like guns and roses or something. I don’t know. There’s some
they they have a nice they have
a nicer name about it.
But the Bible says that the the gray hair or the older person should be somebody you should consult with.
And that should be very true for the Christian.
But listen, one of the reasons is this, It’s not only that we’re getting closer to glory.
Mark this important word down, it is the word sufferings, sufferings, remarkable.
Pefema, that which befalls one, by the way, it befalls all of us.
Everyone in this world suffers. No one will escape it.
In whatever shape, whatever form, whatever kind or type, suffering comes to humanity. This is amazing.
Please get this. Are we awake, everybody? Yes. You and I don’t like suffering.
You and I do not like death were not supposed to.
It was never part of god’s design plan when he created Adam and Eve.
Do you understand that? Suffering and death, pain, and sorrow, we don’t know how to cope with it apart from Christ.
And even with Christ, we’ve gotta leave it with him, and that’s not easy to do.
We have to trust them. But we have some big news coming Christian to what Paul is saying here, that which befalls one or everyone in this world, hard passions.
The word hard passions means that you are passionate, you are emotionally being affected by what is hitting you in the face.
It’s not soft. This would be soft. A pillow fight.
It’s not that. This is So to speak, instead of pillows, there’s bricks in the pillowcases.
Think of that. That’s more like it. Crushing emotions. You ever feel like that? Crushing emotions.
Have you ever been short of breath, not because you’re having a heart attack?
But because of the news that came to you, and then you wake up and realize you’ve got a headache in your temples, and you realize that you’ve been almost hyperventilating because you’ve just got this news or a family just lost their daughter and they’re on the phone crying, pastor.
What do we do? And you’re like, oh my gosh lord, I
can’t I don’t have the strength for this, but he does.
Crushing emotions, where there’s nowhere to go, but up, crushing emotions.
Layered, this is tough, layered pressures of life. You ever feel like that?
We’re going through a world that’s going through this right now.
Where there’s seemingly one pressure layered upon the next.
By the way, that is the Greek meaning to the word in first Timothy in the last days, perilous times will come.
Times of layered pressure will be laid upon the Christian.
And the danger for the Christian is to just retreat. Oh, don’t do that. I’m watching it.
I’m watching it happen with people. It looks like this. Oh, man, can you believe that anything’s going on?
I can’t take it anymore. I’m just I’m just, oh, it’s just gonna shut the curtains.
I’m turn out the TV, which is not a bad idea, except real life network. It’s fantastic.
But do you
know what I’m saying?
You you feel the pressure, you sense all this intensity and you wanna just close the blinds and hide from the world.
As a Christian, we cannot do that.
Though we feel it, we cannot do it.
We have to engage evil. We have to stand up against the darkness.
We have no option. We’re under orders by our commander. We must obey him, not our feelings.
We’re all I’m serious. I’m not trying to be funny or cute with you.
Every single one
of us struggle from time to time about just shutting down.
To just I’m just gonna unplug, you know, it’s kinda like drowning.
I don’t know if you ever drown before.
I’ve come close to drowning, but I gotta tell you, when you’re close to drowning, here’s the, here’s the horrible thing about drowning, is that But the time you come to that point, you’re okay with it.
That’s how you know you’re at the point. It’s okay. I’d rather drown now.
You’re so tired of treading water.
You’re so lost or you’re so far from any direction of anchoring onto something that your chest is burning.
You it feels like there’s needles between your lungs and your ribcage, and you actually say It’s better not to do this anymore.
Life can feel like that. I don’t think I can do this anymore.
Yesterday, we were with the junior hires at the beach camp yesterday at Huntington Beach, and the kids were having a great time, and then Bible afterwards That’s a great thing, by the way.
You have them play all day in the sun, big waves knocking them under.
It was great seeing all these kids. They’re upside down. Coming up with sand in their face.
And it’s like, yes. Why? Because by the time, uh, the Bible study starts, uh, they’re so tired.
They just listen. It’s great.
But
Tell me forgot why I brought that up. I was going somewhere with that.
It was gonna be really profound too.
I was drowning, needles, sand,
I don’t know. It’s gone.
It’s all gone. Oh, but we’re still finishing the definition of that word.
I know that. Oh, this is it.
When I when I looked at layered pressures of life, This little guy came up to me.
I’m gonna guess he’s about nine.
And he came up to me and he said, Pastor Jack, And I said, yes, I thought he said, I wanna pray for you.
That’s what I thought he said. And I said, okay.
And so, um, anything on your heart and mind? Because I thought he was gonna pray for me.
That’s what I thought he said. And he said, divorce. And I said, I’m sorry. What?
He goes, I want you to pray for me and my family My dad told us that he wants a divorce.
All the kids are playing, all the kids are having a great time.
He’s on the shore, trying to cope, You know, let’s let’s be honest.
He’s trying to cope with whatever’s going on at home.
That’s impossible for a little kid to deal with.
Mom and Dad are supposed to be there to protect them. And I know everybody’s got there.
Well, you know, this, and I got hurt, and he’s a jerk, and she’s a jerk, and and all this stuff.
Listen. I understand all that stuff, but, you know, when you say this, you’re negating god’s power from intervening.
The reason why people go down this path is because they’ve given up on god The reason why the d word comes up is because somebody in the somebody, one or the other on the team gave up on god.
And so what I do, I didn’t do it in this setting.
It wasn’t appropriate. This is just this little young man with me and we pray, but, uh, listen.
If you said, well, you know, pastor, we need marriage counseling. We have great people here to do that.
You don’t wanna, you don’t wanna have it with me, and I’ll tell you why.
Husband and wife will walk into my office, and they’ll say, we’re in a divorce.
Well, what’s going on? What what’s the deal?
And then you know, they give their everybody’s got their justifiable excuses.
And some people have justifiable reasons,
and those hurt the most.
But none of that stuff negates the power of the
Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
This is a grueling world
and we’re all under pressure.
But what’s happening is we’re getting our eyes off of god and we’re choosing to devour one another instead of build one another up.
And, um, so here’s here’s my tactic.
He might be saying to me.
He might say my wife is horrible. She’s cheating on me, this and that, and maybe all that’s true.
How long have you been married? Ten years? Now, you’re gonna hate me. Listen.
I’m gonna need bodyguards after this comment.
Clearly from the Bible, god has given the man The anointing and the authority
to create his wife And by the
way, it’s a model in creation in the book of Genesis.
Who gave birth to Eve so to speak? Can men give birth?
Well, not not the way that
not the way that CNN thinks.
Did not god create Adam and then put him
to sleep and yank from his rib and brought forth Eve.
Okay? There’s an anointing upon a man that is ordained by god. This is not much a wisdom.
This is biblical masculinity. Listen up.
Adam was to serve his wife. Now when Satan came to talk
to Eve, my question will be in eternity.
One of the first things I do when I get up there,
I think.
Yes. You in the corner. Adam, where were you?
Why don’t you knock the snake in the face? He should have took out his fangs.
There’s no evidence that Adam was anywhere around when Satan was talking to Eve.
God established the man to be the covering. That’s not that it doesn’t mean man’s better than the wife.
It means that the man is over in the area of sacrifice.
The man’s supposed to sacrifice first just as Christ sacrificed himself for the church.
So maybe been all of these things
that you’re complaining about, but I know this, how I treat my wife creates my wife.
If I mean bitter ugly rude and and and and short with her, she’s gonna withdraw and she’s gonna get bitter.
She’s gonna get hurt and she’s gonna coil up. Have you ever poked a snail in the eye?
You know what
I’m talking about? Look, I didn’t know it started such a thing here.
I’m do you know what a snail is? Snail.
And you poke what happens when you poke him in the eye? He could he withdraws.
He withdraws. And listen, you can see a woman who’s talked it down to by her husband because she’s withdrawn.
We’re trained in it. We see it everywhere.
But let me tell you something.
Before you go give an attorney twenty five thousand bucks or whatever they extract out of you, it’s real cheaper to get on your face and talk to god, and it doesn’t take both
of you. It just takes one of you.
And then god will go to work.
And what happens is God is gonna say to the man automatically.
I want you to speak tender tenderness to her. Well, she moved across town.
What time does she go to work? Eight o’clock? But what what’s her favorite drink?
Americano with I don’t know.
Then go then go to her apartment ten minutes early, stand out there with her favorite drink.
Tell her, Hey, I know this looks weird, but I wanna do this.
And if she presses you and says, Where’d you get this idea from? See, I’ve got it from church.
No. I got it from church, but here’s the deal. I’m supposed to treat you like Jesus.
And, uh, if you if you still choose to leave me, it’s not gonna change the way that I’m treating you from here on out.
But I hope that you’ll reconsider because from this moment forward, I’m gonna act like Jesus.
This is the way I should have been for the last ten years.
And so if you might find grace in your heart, maybe we can try again.
If not, I get it. You’d be surprised how many people go through divorce and wind up getting remarried again because he did exactly what I’m telling you.
She winds up dating. She’s out there. Now she’s single. And everybody’s a jerk.
She finds out he wasn’t the only jerk.
Turns out there’s a whole bunch of jerks. They’re all loose everywhere.
And, This this really happens.
How did a young man come up to me?
And he said, Pastor Jack, I’m gonna miss pastor Lynn very much. I said, aren’t we all?
And he said, uh, I was married. I got my marriage messed up.
My wife left me, divorced me, and she was correct. Seven years, we were divorced.
Pester Lynn started working on my life.
I started reaching out to my wife of being separated for seven years.
And he said, we got married again. And he goes, it’s been great ever since.
That’s what Jesus does.
You listed pressures of life. Preasures of life are not greater than god. I don’t care what they are.
Give god a chance. Maybe you’ve come here today and you say, that’s it.
We’ll go to church one time. That’s it. Tomorrow,
we go to the attorney. I just want you to know that
the attorney right now is praying to the god of attorneys, hoping that you don’t get better.
Because he needs to make a payment on the sailboat.
What if god wants to intervene and finish what you guys started?
It’s absolutely remarkable. None of that was in my notes.
I’m gonna trust that that was
for somebody here today, by the way.
The pressures and the sufferings, Jesus and John sixteen thirty who says, indeed, the hour is coming.
Yes. And now is, come that you will be scattered each to his own. And will leave me alone.
And yet, I’m not alone. These are the words of Christ because the father is with me.
These things I have spoken to you that in me, you may have peace.
In the world, you will have tribulation or difficulties. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
You gotta hang on to that. And then he talks about these sufferings in the present time.
We’ll have to end right here. In the present time. Now now present time. Listen.
If you are a Christian today,
You are living through this life.
It’s the it’s the hardest, toughest, the worst you’ll ever experience in all of your existence.
And you know the time that you’ve lived here now, how old are you? Are you thirty, forty, fifty?
Are you eighty? Are you ninety? Just a vapor?
Are you kidding me? The Bible says that it’s just a little blip,
but I’m eighty five years old.
Listen, not in heaven, you’re not.
Listen, put on the lord Jesus Christ, put on expectancy, put on the fact that what are you waiting for?
Man, I’m going to glory. That affects everything. Yeah.
We may be getting older on the outside, but we’re getting younger on the inside.
I find that incredibly alien. Everybody’s talking about, you know, we gotta find the fountain
of youth. We got some doctor in Hollywood, he invented a pill.
And if you take this pill, you’ll get younger.
You know what? Let’s be honest.
If somebody invented some shot or some pill that allowed you to live to a hundred and fifty.
Don’t give it to me.
Do you hear what I’m saying? Now, the the the non Christian
is saying, what are you nuts Of course, I’d live to be a hundred and fifty.
Are you sure about that? Look how the world has changed in the last ten years.
You sure you wanna hang on to this ball?
I don’t want
to live a hundred and fifty years here.
The moment you and I enter eternity and
are into glory, it’s the forever moment. It’s forever. No more suffering.
We’ll talk a we’ll talk a lot about this next time. No more pain.
No more sorrow, but present time,
nun. It means this, in the now, our actual life being lived at present. Right now.
And then time. It’s one it’s a compound word. Kyros. You guys all know this word Kyros.
This time, this season, this period, it’s it’s the now.
Yes, but it’s the period or the season, or it’s wherever you’re at in life at this moment.
It’s this, the night, the day, wherever the challenge is, it is the now to god with you.
The god of the Bible is with you right now in that thing.
And for you to say, no, I I I think he’s abandoned me. You’re listen. You’re listening to a lie.
I don’t think he loves me. You’re listening to the lie.
God is with us in this present suffering, whatever it might be.
And so we’ll end here, but I’ll give you a
little bonus. The bonus is, well, uh, you know, this it’s it’s thrilling glory and all this.
And so you’re saying that there’s a purpose to suffering. There is a fantastic purpose to suffering.
Number one, the suffering tells us clearly that something’s wrong.
The suffering is something that you want to get away from, but the worst thing in this world is to suffer without a purpose.
One of the most heartbreaking things in my universe is to walk down the hallways of children’s middle of Orange County, where parents have no faith in god.
They have no knowledge of god, and their baby there seven months old has leukemia and the baby’s gonna die.
To them, there’s no purpose to the suffering.
But for the believer, there’s purpose. The Bible tells us there’s a purpose.
How is it that in god’s word in Isaiah chapter fifty seven, begin in verse one, the Bible tells us that a man perishes from off the earth and no one considers it, and someone dies and no one realizes it.
That the lord has removed them from evil, and that he has brought them into glory.
We understand the pain and the sorrow. We get it. That’s love. That’s what love does.
Love pays the price. But love must have a purpose.
Suffering must have a purpose.
If you don’t get a rudder on your boat, of life. You’re you’ll be aimless.
And the sufferings that will come, the issues that will hit your life, They’ll just bow you over.
Your feet will be upended, and you’ll you’ll have you’ll have sand all over your face and
in your eyes. And you’ll
be knocked about But even in the face of suffering for the believer, it hurts just as much as it hurts anybody else, but we do not without purpose.
We do not have a burden without a meaning.
What a horrible thought to think that for the unbeliever, the suffering without Christ and death that follows leads to and for the Christian, the suffering that we endure now makes us closer and more like
Jesus. That’s why he suffers.
He he didn’t have to. We have to. He didn’t have to.
He did to leave you and I hope. And that is hope assured.
So whatever comes this week to you, if you’re a believer, say lord, didn’t see that coming.
You knew you knew it would arrive on my doorstep in my mailbox or at this intersection.
You knew all about it. Help me to see this whole thing through your eyes.
God I’m waiting right now for you to show me that I might be expectant to see the purpose for what I’m going through.
And then at that, let’s stand. Let’s stand.
At that, my friend, you can fold your arms and you can wait for him to answer you.
You can wait for him to come through. He will come through. Be patient.
And why