Future Glory

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm one of the pastors here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.

And it's my joy to bring God's word to you this morning.

We're continuing together our series in the book of Romans.

And you'll remember that Romans is a letter written by the Apostle Paul in the 50s AD.

And it's called Romans because it is written to the churches in the city of Rome.

And it is about the gospel. It's about the good news of Jesus' life and death and resurrection.

And we're continuing along in chapter 8, which is about life in the Spirit.

That is the Holy Spirit.

Last week, verses 14 through 17, we began to look at all the benefits that come to us from the Holy Spirit.

And we saw that we are adopted as God's children, God's heirs.

But then we ended with a little bit of a catch.

Verse 17 said this.

So that's great that we experience glory, but first, suffering.

So our question this week, and this is what Paul sets out to answer in verse 18.

Okay, there is glory coming.

How do we make it through the suffering in the meantime?

We do have glory to look forward to.

How do we walk through suffering now?

So with that, I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 8, verse 18.

Romans 8:18

And you can find that on page 7 of your worship guide.

Remember as we come to this that this is God's word.

Proverbs chapter 30 tells us every word of God proves true.

Proverbs 30 · chapter mention

It's a shield to those who take refuge in him.

So that's why we read now Romans chapter 8, verse 18.

Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Our Father in heaven, we do again thank you and praise you for gathering us together as your people.

We thank you for giving us your word that you instruct us and guide us.

And we ask for your help, the help of your Holy Spirit this morning, that we would be able to understand and believe your words.

I am certainly not powerful enough to fix our eyes on heaven.

And so I ask that you would do that by your Holy Spirit.

I ask that you would give ordinary words that provide us with extraordinary vision.

A vision of the future that you were preparing for us, your people.

We ask all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I, as some of you know, bought the house that I'm in back in 2019.

And when I walked into the house with my realtor for the first time,

what she really wanted to point out to me right away is how terrible the kitchen floors were.

It's kind of this laminate thing and some of the corners on the different laminate strips are peeling up a little bit.

And she said, well, that's because the current homeowners have used too much water to clean the kitchen floor.

Later had a handyman who came in and said, no, actually the problem is these are the wrong kind of floors for a kitchen.

They're actually not supposed to have contact with water.

But the flooring worked, right?

It's functional.

It's not urgent.

No one's going to die.

And so it took me six years.

Last year, I finally replaced the flooring with LVP.

So I have this nice vinyl in there.

And every time I make an investment like that in my house, I think, well, I guess I'm not selling anytime soon.

I actually replaced a couple toilets last year.

Not that I had to.

Again, it wasn't urgent.

They had not failed.

They were just really annoying me and I wanted to get rid of them.

I thought, well, I guess I'm not moving.

If I want to get my money out of these toilets, I got to stick around.

I got to hang on.

The previous owner of my house actually made a mistake in that area less than a year before he sold it to me.

He said yes to a door-to-door salesman and installed solar panels.

And I did not pay anything extra for the house because of the solar panels.

I got them basically for free.

Thank you, seller.

The point that I'm driving home here is this.

Whatever we believe about the future determines our actions in the present.

Whatever we believe about the future, that is almost the most important thing.

That is what Paul is banking on here in verse 18.

I've already pointed out we're coming off of verse 17 where he says suffering, then glory.

Okay, that's great.

The glory is coming, but the suffering is first.

How do we make it?

How do we hang on?

How do we hold on till the glory comes?

And Paul is simply telling us we hang on, we hold on by remembering the greatness of the future glory.

It is what we believe about the future that allows us to persevere in the present.

That's what he's saying here in verse 18.

The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

So this morning we're going to look at two questions very simply to structure our time together.

Question one, what is the glory?

Question two, why is it so much better?

What is the glory?

Why is it so much better?

First, what is the glory?

What in the world is Paul talking about?

Paul here is referring to the end of the story of this world.

When Paul talks about glory, he is telling us what the last chapter of life on this earth will be.

This is something the Bible explains for us in places like Matthew chapter 25, John chapter 5, Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention John 5 · chapter mention Revelation 21 · chapter mention

It says, hey, here's the last chapter, here's what it's going to look like.

And I'm going to tell you kind of very briefly what that story is.

In the last chapter, Jesus, in his physical body, returns to the earth.

So we refer to it as Jesus' second coming.

His first coming, we celebrate at Christmas.

His second coming, we look forward to now.

So Jesus is going to return to the earth in his second coming.

At that time, there will be a resurrection from the dead.

Everyone who has ever died will be raised to life.

John chapter 5, Jesus tells this to us explicitly.

John 5 · chapter mention

He says there's actually going to be two resurrections.

There will be the resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment.

Okay?

Resurrection of life is for those who have followed Jesus in faith.

They're going to have life with God forever.

Those who have not followed Jesus are going to experience the resurrection of judgment.

They will live forever apart from God in hell.

So there will be eternal separation and everlasting torment.

That's the end of the story.

Jesus returns, second coming, resurrection of life, resurrection of judgment.

Those are the events.

However, we also want to know, we need to know about the place.

What is heaven?

What exactly are we talking about?

Many people, of course, think about angels playing harps.

Whether they will or will not is probably neither here nor there.

Some people refer to it as heaven.

Revelation chapter 21 calls it a new heaven and a new earth.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

Very briefly, the new heaven and the new earth is a real physical place.

It is like this earth, but surprise, new and better, even better than Eden.

So whatever good thing you have loved, experienced here on earth in heaven, it will be greater and better.

All sin, sickness, disease, pain, sorrow, suffering will be done away with.

Most importantly, we will finally be in God's presence.

By the way, that's how some people define heaven.

What is heaven?

Heaven is when we are fully in God's presence.

That's why we read from Psalm 16 this morning.

This is on page three of your worship guide.

Near the end of the psalm, the psalmist says,

In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

It's the psalmist's way of saying, the greatest things are with God.

So two questions.

What is the glory?

The glory is the physical world made new with all who have followed Christ in God's presence.

There's no more sin.

There's no more suffering.

There's no more suffering.

And there is full joy.

That's our first question.

Second question.

Why is it so much better?

We might ask it a different way.

What does that full joy actually look like?

Now, I slowed us down for an entire sermon on one verse so we would not be rushed as we're talking about heaven.

And I can still only say something, not everything.

In fact, coming up against heaven, even with a full sermon, I feel inadequate.

We're just going to scratch the surface a little bit.

I'm going to give you a few things to meditate on about our heavenly future.

Why it is that this is a future that allows us to persevere in the present.

Okay.

First, we've talked about this many, many times.

The heavenly future includes a new body.

So much of our trouble in this life, so much of our pain and suffering comes from the problems of our physical bodies.

Right?

Bodies aren't working right.

As we get old, they start to fall apart on us.

We're told that in heaven, and Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, by the way, if you want to read more about it.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

We are going to have a new body that has no disease, no sickness, no decay, no pain, no suffering.

So the future glory that you're looking forward to will include no cancer, no allergies.

You will not have a deviated septum.

You will not break your hips.

Your body will not fall apart.

And by the way, it better not, because forever is a really long time.

So I'm hoping the body works.

I know it will.

So that's the new body.

I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about that,

because we have discussed that many times over the last number of years.

The other thing we're going to have is what I would call perfect connection.

You might call this perfect love, and I'll explain what I mean by that.

In fact, we're going to spend the most amount of time this morning talking about this aspect of it,

and there's a reason that I'll explain to you.

So there's a famous quote by a man named Bruce Marshall,

and he says this,

The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.

And when I heard that quote as a much younger person, I thought,

you know, that doesn't really make sense.

That sounds to me like we're really over-spiritualizing things.

You know, someone's knocking on the door of a brothel.

What are they looking for?

They're looking for sex.

They're not looking for God.

As I've gotten older, a bit older, I kind of understand what he means by this quote.

And what he means is this.

That young man is looking for deep and intense connection.

He's looking for love.

He's looking for belonging.

He's looking to know and to be known.

He's looking to be accepted.

He's looking for the end of shame.

He's looking for true joy.

In other words, that man at the door is looking for things that he can only fully have in God's presence.

He is looking for what only God can provide.

Remember Psalm 16.

In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

When we talk about heaven, people often like to think about the things or the experiences that they will get in heaven.

And that is good and right.

But if we only think about things and experiences, we have lost the plot.

The most important thing about heaven is that God is there.

The most glorious thing about heaven is God's presence fully and finally.

Remember the covenant in the Old Testament, God's promise.

He says, I will be your God.

You will be mine.

The fact that we're heirs of God, and that includes, it means God himself is part of our inheritance.

Being with him is what it is that we look forward to.

In the Old Testament, as God's people were traveling around, they had the tabernacle,

and the placement of the tabernacle was extremely important.

It was in the middle.

And all the tribes were camped out on the sides of it, which is God's way of teaching his people in the Old Testament

that he and his presence would be in the midst of them.

That was the greatest thing he could give them.

The giver is the source of all the gifts.

The giver is greater than all the gifts.

Heaven, glory, is great because God, the giver of all the gifts, is there.

Whatever beauty you love, God is the one who made it.

And so whatever beauty you long for and chase after, God's beauty is greater still.

Whatever love and acceptance and connection and belonging that you long for,

it will never be as great as the acceptance and belonging and connection that you have with God.

In heaven.

Whatever healing it is that you are looking for and working towards,

it will never be complete in this life.

You will not be fully healed in your body, your heart, or your mind

until you are in God's presence in heaven.

We will be like him, the Bible tells us, because we will see him as he is.

It is God's presence that makes heaven heaven.

And so that's why I spend the most time on this as we think about the future glory,

because this is the biggest piece of the plot.

This is the most important thing that we're going to be with God himself.

We said earlier, what we believe about the future determines how we live in the present,

and it is our future experience of God and his love,

what theologians would say is unmediated love,

that gives us hope in the midst of our suffering now.

You can have hope in the face of devastating loss.

If you experience divorce or the death of a spouse,

and I don't mean to minimize that in any way.

Those are the sorts of things that in the wake of them,

it can feel hard even to breathe, right?

The grief is so great.

But the connection, the intimacy, and the relationship

that you will experience with God in heaven

is not even worth comparing.

If you are following God in obedience,

living out the Christian sexual ethic,

you might think, oh man, I'm missing out.

No, you're not missing out.

You will experience something far better in the world to come.

Something so much better that it is not even worth experiencing,

comparing.

Something that no one in this world has yet to know.

All those other things in life,

all the good pleasures and gifts that come from God,

those are all appetizers of what is to come.

There is something better than anything

that you have given up in this world

to follow after Jesus Christ.

If you give something up,

you are saying no to a tiny, tiny appetizer.

You will not miss the meal.

You will not miss the feast that it points forward to.

If you remain single,

because you are committed only to marrying another Christian,

you have a greater and larger hope than marriage.

There is something bigger than marriage to look forward to.

Something far greater to replace it.

Something that it is not worth comparing anything on this earth with.

It's not just relational loss that will be eclipsed in the world to come,

but also relational problems of this life done away with.

I want you to think of whoever it is in this church

that you get along with the least.

And if you're honest, right,

we all have different personalities.

Some of us get on each other's nerves.

Maybe you're in a conflict with them right now.

When you are in heaven,

the two of you will be little buddies.

All the problems that get in our way now,

those things will be swept away, right?

All our sin will be removed.

If your friend is a Christian,

you will have a future with them without friction.

By the way, we can say the same thing about your marriage.

If you're a Christian and your spouse is a Christian,

when will every conflict end?

It will end in glory.

You will enjoy one another without sin,

every relational problem removed.

Whatever happens in this life,

that's the future you're headed towards.

Heaven will be perfect connection.

It will be perfect love.

And it will be that way

because God himself will be there.

So we talked briefly about the new body.

Talked extensively about perfect connection

or perfect love.

I'm gonna talk for a little bit about one more thing,

which is real treasure.

Remember, Paul in verse 17

is focusing in on suffering

that comes because you are a follower of Jesus.

Last week, we looked at 2 Timothy 3,

which says,

all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted.

And as you follow Christ in this life,

you will lose all sorts of things.

Maybe you'll lose money.

You'll almost certainly lose social status or connections.

Might be a hit to your reputation.

You might miss out on opportunities

that you would have if you weren't a Christian.

And you know what?

You know what?

In heaven,

none of that will matter.

Not a single bit of it.

And

you can't take it with you anyway.

None of those things

are things you can drag with you

into the next world.

And all of those things

are susceptible

to theft

and loss

and decay.

That's why Jesus says,

you know,

don't store up treasure

on earth

where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves

break in

and steal.

But there is a place

where moth and rust

do not destroy

and where thieves

do not break in

and steal.

And that place

is called

heaven.

Peter,

in his letter,

1 Peter,

tells us

that we have an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled,

and unfading.

Kept

in heaven

for you.

In other words,

no matter

what losses

you experience

on this earth

or in this life,

it has no effect

on your inheritance

in heaven.

There are things

that no lawsuit,

no breakup,

no surprise,

no health crisis

can touch.

There are things

in heaven

for you

that are secure

no matter what.

No matter what

happens now,

your inheritance,

what is waiting

for you in heaven,

cannot be touched.

No matter what

is shaken

in this world,

it cannot be reduced.

Whatever you lose

now

pales

in comparison

to what you

cannot

lose.

In fact,

we could say,

as Paul does,

it's not

even worth

comparing.

It's often said

that a regular

person

living today

in 2026

is better off

than the most

powerful person

in the world

500 years ago.

Most powerful

person in the world

500 years ago

had no running

water.

They did not

have antibiotics.

They had no

indoor plumbing.

That person

cannot imagine

the life

you live now.

They cannot

imagine the

benefits

that we

experience.

We might say

it's not even

worth comparing.

Heaven

will be

like that.

it will

blow away

the experience

of the

greatest,

most powerful

person in

this world.

Some people

think that

Elon Musk

is going to

be the

world's

first

trillionaire

within the

next number

of years.

The things

that are

waiting for

you in

heaven

are greater

than anything

Elon Musk

can imagine.

it's like

comparing

someone

500 years

ago

to someone

today

except

even more

stark,

even greater,

even more

exponential.

Being in

heaven is like

that.

There are

things about

it that we

cannot right

now imagine.

I've given

you these

tasty samples

of what

heaven includes.

You'll notice

though that

Paul actually

doesn't do

that.

Verse 18,

he just

says,

look,

it's going

to be so

great it

won't even

be worth

comparing.

There's

things right

now that

your mind

can't

comprehend,

that your

head would

explode if

you heard

about how

glorious

heaven will

be.

That's

what it

is,

Christian,

that you

have to look

forward to.

No matter

the sufferings

you experience

in this

world,

don't trade

anything for

it.

No matter

what trouble

you come

up against,

do not

give up

your faith

in Christ

because

nothing is

worth trading

for that.

A few

years ago,

I was

meeting with

a Christian

counselor and

I had made

a breakthrough

about how

to manage

some of the

suffering that

I had

experienced in

my own

life and I

said to

him,

man,

I wish

that I

had discovered

this 10

to 15

years ago.

I could

have skipped

the last

10 to 15

years of

pain over

this issue

if I had

known this

so much

earlier.

And he

looked at

me and

he said,

Matthew,

you're still

young.

Which is

his way of

saying,

yeah,

that's great.

You would

have loved

to know

this 10

or 15

years ago.

And you

know what?

You now

know it

for the

rest of

your life.

And you

have hopefully

more than

10 to 15

years ahead

of you,

right?

You have

so much

time to

now put

this to

work in

your life.

If you

are a

Christian,

no matter

your age,

you are

still

young.

The life

that is

ahead of

you,

with God

forever in

heaven,

is so

much

greater

and longer

and farther

than anything

you've

experienced

now.

every loss

in this

life

pales in

comparison

and it

is a

small

dot.

It's a

small dot

on the

page

of

everything

that's

ahead.

No matter

what suffering

you have

walked through,

if you're

95 years

old,

you are

still

young.

if you're

in Christ.

You might

think of

this or

that loss

or mistake

and think,

man,

it's all

over.

Don't

lose heart.

Don't

give up.

Your

inheritance

is coming.

It

cannot

be

touched.

It's

undefiled,

imperishable,

unfading,

kept

in

heaven

for you.

There's

an important

prepositional

phrase here,

verse 18.

Paul says,

the glory

that is to

be revealed

to us.

Paul's

telling us

there's a

limit,

right?

He's not

saying the

glory that

will be

revealed to

everyone in

the world.

No,

he's saying

the glory

that's going

to be

revealed to

those who

have faith

in Jesus

Christ.

In other

words,

I'll state

it negatively.

If you

are not

a Christian,

if you

are not

following

after Jesus

in faith,

this promise

is not

for you.

Remember,

resurrection

of life,

resurrection

of judgment.

Last week,

we talked

about how

we're adopted,

we're heirs

of Christ,

heirs of

God,

co-heirs

of Christ,

because of

what Jesus

did for

us.

Of course,

if you're

not following

after Jesus

in faith,

you're still

alive.

It's not

too late.

It's not

too late

to repent

of your

sins,

to admit,

hey,

I actually

live a

life that

has separated

me from

God,

that I

deserve his

punishment

and his

judgment,

and it's

not too

late to

turn to

Christ,

to accept

the perfect

life that

he lived

on your

behalf,

to trust

in the

death he

took that

you deserved.

Heaven can

also be your

inheritance.

You can be

adopted,

you can be

a son and

heir of

God,

because of

what Jesus

did,

what Jesus

did in

his life,

and his

death,

and his

resurrection.

You know,

sometimes when

you read a

movie review,

and especially

if it's a

recent release,

there will be

a warning at

the top,

and what

does it

say?

spoiler alert,

right?

Which is to

say, we're

going to give

away some

really important

plot points.

So if you

don't want to

know how the

movie ends,

if you want

to be

surprised,

do not

read this

article.

Now, some

people would,

you know,

close the

review immediately,

right?

Other people

would say,

yes, this is

what I want.

I've told you

before, my

mom likes to

know spoilers,

in fact, so

much so that

there's times

when she cannot

enjoy a book

unless she has

already read

the last

chapter.

Like, so

know what's

happening in

the last chapter

so she can

enjoy the rest

of the book,

right?

She knows how

it ends,

and so all

stress and

tension is

dissolved,

and she can

just kind of

follow along

and know

that it's all

going to be

okay.

When I was

growing up,

sometimes we'd

be watching a

movie, my

mom would run

over to the

computer while

we're watching

it to look up

how the movie

ends, okay?

that's the

Christian life.

God has told

us the last

chapter.

He has given

us the spoiler.

He has

explained to

us how it

all ends so

that we can

follow him in

faith,

persevering no

matter what

comes.

all the

tension has

been removed,

right?

You can enjoy

the story.

You know how

it ends.

Come ye

disconsolate,

where ye

languish.

Come to the

mercy seat,

fervently

kneel.

Here bring

your wounded

hearts,

here tell

your anguish.

Earth has

no sorrows

that heaven

cannot

heal.

Let's pray.

Our Father

in heaven,

we do

praise you

and thank you

again for the

hope of glory,

the hope of

heaven.

We ask that

you would

keep our

eyes fixed

on the right

horizon line,

that you

would pull

us away

from the

many

distractions

and trinkets

that tempt

us,

and instead

you would

set our

eyes on

Jesus Christ,

that we

would live

our life

looking forward

to our future

with him.

We ask all

of these things

in his mighty

name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.