ROMANS: The Necessity of a Big "Then"

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Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

As I said earlier, if you're our guest, we're preaching through the book of Romans.

And we're going to get through chapter 8 and we're going to pause and take a break for the summer and we'll do a series on the parables of Jesus.

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I want to talk to you this morning about the necessity of a big then.

The necessity of a big then.

And you say, what do you mean?

There's now, and then there's then.

And if your now is bigger than then, life's going to be hard for you.

We'll get to that in a minute.

But let me just read from the Bible.

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 944.

And if you don't have a Bible and there's one on your row, and you'd like that Bible as a gift, just take it home with you.

We'll get some more.

Amen?

Romans chapter 8, verse 18, the Bible says this for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

The necessity of a big then.

There's four points that the text makes today that I want to just point out.

One of them that it infers, and the other three it i it makes.

So I want to begin with the first one and simply tell you this that then is real.

That then is real.

When I say then, I don't I'm not talking about now.

I'm talking about then.

You say, what do you mean?

Without a real then, right now it's not very doable.

Let me say that again.

Without a real tangible then right now, it's not very doable.

But all throughout the Bible, Jesus and Paul and the apostles and the disciples, they all talk about then.

You say what do you mean?

Jesus would say things like, Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth is not corrupt and thieves don't break in and steal.

And all through, but probably one of the most vivid examples of what I'm talking about, and you don't have to turn, it'll come up on the screen, is in Matthew chapter 19, Jesus was this, it's called the rich young ruler.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

But a young guy comes up to Jesus and he says, Jesus, uh what teacher, what must what what what what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, Why do you call me good?

There's only one who is good.

He says, You know, that you know the commandments.

And the guy says, Well, what do you mean?

He says, You know the commandments, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.

And the guy says, Back, all these I've kept since I was a little kid.

And the disciples were like, No way, man.

And Jesus is going to make him president of the club.

And Jesus said, One thing you still lack, because one thing Jesus had a capacity to do, to cut through all the nonsense and get down to the get down.

Jesus says, one thing you still lack, go sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and then come follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven.

Translation, the guy, when Jesus listed off some of the commandments, one of them he said was, Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

And so the guy said, Hey, I've kept this since I was a little kid.

And Jesus said, Okay, great.

You love your neighbor as much as you love yourself?

Give him all your stuff.

What are you talking about, Willis?

And the Bible says, at this the man went away because he had great wealth.

And then we pick up the dialogue, Matthew chapter 19, you say, What do you mean, then Israel?

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

This is what I mean.

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved?

But Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

And then Peter said in reply, see, we've left everything and followed you.

I mean, let's just face it.

At some point in your life, you need to get that gut level honest with God and just kind of say, hey, see, we've left everything to follow you.

And then here's the question that we all really want to ask.

What when, what, what then will we have?

What will there be for us?

I mean, are you kidding me, Gene?

We've sacrificed a lot, Jesus, to follow you.

Jesus answered him, Truly I say to you, in the new world.

See, that's then.

Now, when I say in the new world, I know, don't think Christopher Columbus, because how can you discover a new world and you get here and people are already here?

Hello?

That's not what we're talking about.

You and I don't have a frame of reference for then because we live in the now and the Bible talks about it, and we don't think about it enough.

And you kind of like, oh well, but the older you get, you start thinking about then.

Like yesterday I went and had Turkish tea with my friend Norm West, who is who is dying of cancer.

His body's just eaten up with it, and he's sitting on his back porch and he's like, I'm so ready to go to be with Jesus in heaven.

And at one point he closed his eyes and leaned back, and I was like, is that cat still breathing?

Because this would be kind of creepy right here if he just went to be that with Jesus right here.

And he opened his eyes, and every time I walk away, I think, I love Jesus and I want to go to heaven, but I want to play some more golf before I do.

I want to date my wife some more.

I want to give my daughters away in marriage, and I want to have grandkids so I can spoil them and give them icy's at 8 o'clock at night and say, now go home to your mother and tell her Big Poppy said, scoreboard.

That's right, that's gonna be my grandparent name.

I'm gonna get tattooed on my chest, Big Poppy.

So my grandkids come, I can just snap up with my shirt and go, Whose house is this?

Big Poppy's house.

That's right.

We don't have rules here.

We do whatever we want.

It's because your moms are mean.

Can't wait for that day.

But Jesus says, don't miss it.

Jesus says, truly I say to you, in the new world, in the new world, why?

Because this world is old and it's passing away.

But in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last first.

See, then it's real.

It's so real and tangible and concrete.

Jesus Himself said, talks about it as the new world.

You say, What's the big deal?

Why is then you mean then is real?

Okay, we get it.

Here's the big deal.

Without a then, a real, tangible reality, life has no purpose.

Obedience has no consequence.

The Bible has no relevance, and salvation has no meaning.

It doesn't matter.

If there's not a then, let's all just eat, drink, and be merry, because when we die, that's the end of it.

Or we gotta come to the point and say, what the Bible says then is real.

And if then is real, you need a big then.

Why?

Second point in the talk this morning is simply this: then is bigger than now.

And that's what Paul says in verse 18.

Verse 18 is the statement that he spends from verse 19 to verse 30, kind of unpacking.

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

Now, here, not just what the Bible says, but how it says what it says.

He says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time.

Just drink that in.

The sufferings of this present time.

See, you're gonna know suffering in this lifetime.

And I'm gonna know suffering.

And suffering takes many forms.

But you're gonna know suffering in this lifetime.

We can know suffering and we will.

But then don't miss this.

But glory has to be revealed to us.

See, suffering's what we know right now.

That's what he says.

And what it means when he says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.

Future tense to us.

See, he says, right now is some suffering going on.

Some bad stuff is happening.

Missouri is being flooded right now, and earthquakes are burying people in other countries, and all this bad stuff is happening, and Iran may get a nuclear weapon, and North Korea has got a kooky dictator up there.

And you turn on the news and you just think, who's in charge of the world?

Hello?

Who fell asleep at the switch?

Nobody.

Nobody.

Like a cotton sweater.

You washed and dried.

You washed in hot water and then dried.

It is shrunk up and it doesn't fit anymore.

Then is and there's good news to that.

Because the good news is that then is bigger than now.

And unless you have a then that is bigger than now, you'll become this bitter, disillusioned, just kind of a fatalistic cynic who just goes through the motions, you kind of erode into someone who has more questions than answers, because somehow that makes you feel spiritual.

Because you gave up, you lost hope a long time ago.

And let me tell you who needs hope more than anybody in this room.

It's teenagers.

You say, What?

It's teenagers.

Why?

Because if you're between the ages of 12 and 16 and your generation, you've witnessed 9-11, two wars, Katrina, an economic collapse, Hurricane Sandy, Newtown.

A guy went into a theater in Colorado, just opened fire on people.

I mean, if you're under the age of 18, especially between maybe 14 and 18, you've grown up with that.

You've got so much jaded, jacked up, messed up now.

You need a really big then.

Otherwise, because here's what your friends do.

And by the way, somebody asked me, they said, hey, we're visiting and there's not a lot of students here.

At this hour, our student mystery buildings, that new building back there in the distance, uh, that's where they meet for that.

And we try to lock them up and keep them out of here, but they get out.

And some of them come to the 8:30 service before and then go to that, and some go to that and then come to the 11:30 service.

So we have four, if you're between fifth and twelfth grade, they're all back there in that building.

But I'm gonna get them when they get here in this next service, okay?

So I'm gonna tell you what I would tell them.

Some of you are here, and let me just say, you need a really big then if you're between the ages of, say, 12 and 21.

Why?

Because all your friends are gonna grow up and look at all this stuff and think, hey man, if there's really a God in the world, why doesn't He do something about this?

All this bad stuff keeps happening.

How can a loving God stand by and watch all this bad stuff happen?

I don't believe in a God like that.

So you need a really big then that will overshadow their now.

Otherwise, you're just gonna become a jaded Facebook hero who doesn't know how to enter in and engage in the dialogue.

You say, What do you mean?

Let me just demonstrate what I'm talking about.

This past week I got up and I had a uh uh one of our people is having surgery at at St.

Luke's in downtown.

And if you're visiting today, we love to preach to our people, but we also love to pastor our people.

We don't want to be strangers to you.

So one of our ladies having surgery said, I gotta be at the hospital at 5 45 for a 7 o'clock surgery or 7.30 surgery.

I don't want to make you get up that early.

I'm like, hey, we're your pastors, okay?

I'm gonna be there.

I'll be there, or Wade will be there, Lance will be there.

Well, we'd love it if you would come.

I'd love to.

So I went to that, got done, come driving back to Sugarland, and I stopped at HEB to get some milk, the one right up here at$59.99.

And by the way, when you go in, milk's all the way back in the right corner.

And you gotta like go through a corn maze to get back there.

They got like rotisserie chickens, they got a sushi bar, they got enough wine to float a battleship in that place.

And you're just like, I just want some milk.

Can you put that stuff up front?

No, they want to walk you through all these specialty shops they got.

And remember when you were little, all the grocery store aisles lined up one way.

No, they got them like this, and then they got some over here like this, and you're like, hey, I'm confused, milk back corner.

I know what you're doing, making me walk by all this stuff.

You ain't getting me.

So I walk back there, got two gallons of milk, walked up to the front, and I'm just walking my head down, and I glance over, and there's a foot with a tattoo on it.

And I'm kind of like, oh, and it says all across the top of the side of her foot right there, Romans 8, 18.

In big letters.

And I thought, I'm preaching that passage on Sunday.

It's a sign from God.

And there I am with two gallons of milk, and the lady she was opening up the Fit Foods, because they got Fit Foods in the H E B.

I don't know what Fit Foods is, but it's right there.

It's like healthy or something, and she's unlocking it, and I'm standing there two gallons of milk, and I said, Why'd you get that verse on your foot?

And she turns around, like, Really, dude?

I'm just showing up to work, okay?

And you're gonna drop that on me.

But she turns around and she says, Excuse me, and I said, That tattoo.

I mean, no one gets a Bible verse on their foot for that a reason.

And I said, What does that say?

Because in my mind I thought, you don't know what that says.

You just got that put on your foot because someone dared you.

And she didn't bat an eye.

She opened, unlocked the thing, and slid it up, and she turned around and she quoted verbatim, Romans 8, 18, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed to us.

And in that moment, the Holy Spirit said, You're talking to a woman who's been through some stuff.

And she wasn't old.

She was a young lady.

And I said, You've been through some suffering in your life?

I sure have.

What's the hardest thing you've endured in your life?

My dad died when I was 15.

And there I was with my two gallons of milk and nothing to say.

Did it help you get through it?

Absolutely.

And she didn't use these words, but what she was saying was, I gotta beg then that it's bigger than my now.

So my dad died when I was 15.

I didn't shake my fist at God and go, How dare you let that happen?

Am I sad because my dad died?

Absolutely.

But is now bigger than then?

Absolutely not.

And so she just kind of looked at me like.

And I looked at her like, if one of you writes a book on how to end an awkward conversation, I'll read it.

So I looked at her and I said, Okay, thanks.

And just walked off, just feeling stupid, like, don't look back.

She's staring at you.

I know she is.

Just went and got in line.

And the reason I knew she was staring at me, because I went up to the counter and put my things on there, and the wait, the checkout lady was looking back over my head, and I was like, She's staring.

Yeah, she's staring at you.

What'd you say?

You got any tattoos?

She said, No, I don't.

I said, Then none of your business.

Just ring me up.

See, then is bigger than now.

And here's here's another thing, students, this is free.

If your then is not bigger than now, every every time you don't get your way, it's the worst thing in the world.

Your boyfriend breaks up with you.

Oh yeah.

You should just post on Facebook and say, what a jerk, you cheated on me as my best friend.

Just quote, just post on Facebook, then dot dot dot.

That'll drive them crazy.

You say, what?

Hey, my then's bigger than right now?

You think you can do something to me?

I'm not saying it doesn't hurt.

Are you kidding me?

That hurts.

No one likes that.

But if all you got is right now, and by the way, we live in a world that is infatuated with now.

Pepsi says, live for now.

You go to the bookstore.

I don't care if it's a new, hey, just because something's a New York Times bestseller, doesn't mean it's the truth.

You get books that say your best life now.

If your best life is now, you're gonna be bored in heaven for a long time.

But it's like we said in the shape and word, God makes you in such a way that you can't be completely satisfied in this world.

He gives you a little sampling so you can make your mind up.

How big is your then?

Because, see, you need a big then.

It's gotta be bigger than now.

Of course, every time hardship happens, you're just gonna fall apart.

Third thing the Bible tells us is that groaning is universal.

Look at verse 19.

Groaning is universal.

What do you mean?

Let me tell you this.

I don't mean complaining.

I don't mean no.

I mean like a woman giving birth.

All the men that are married are kind of like, yeah, that's what it was like.

All you punky single guys are like, well, what?

Oh yeah, you just wait.

Your wife's gonna get veins popping out of her head.

She's gonna grab the side of that bed.

It's like a scene from alien, okay?

Something's gonna come shooting out.

And you're gonna be standing there because before you get when you get your wife pregnant, okay, and she's gonna say, I want to go to these birthing classes called Lamas, save your money and your time.

That don't help none.

Because you're out there up at the head of the bed, kind of breathe, breathe, watch me.

And your wife's gonna grab you, shut up.

Shut up, don't tell me to breathe again.

And she goes back and grabbing the bed.

And then there's a doctor in there.

I don't know if there's a doctor or not, but she's got a lab coat on, white with blue and her name embroidered on the pocket, and she's going, That's it, that's it, you're doing it, you're doing it.

Push, push, push, push, push from down below, push from down below.

And I'm like, Do I have to be in here for this?

Give me one good push, and then noise comes out of your wife.

It's like sauce, it's like the mating call of Sasquatch.

And then a baby comes out, and you forget all that other stuff.

And the doctor says to me, Now, your wife's body is there's all kinds of hormones coursing through her body.

You telling me it's been that way for nine months.

I've been living with this crazy woman.

I'm burning up.

The air's on 52, it can't go any lower.

Don't touch me.

Can you go sleep on the couch?

I need another pillow.

How many pillows do you need?

You got six?

And the doctor says, She's just in a state of bliss right now.

I'm glad one of us is.

What am I saying?

That's the kind of groaning.

When I say groaning is universal, I don't mean complaining because you didn't get your way, or your girlfriend broke up with you, or this girl you like doesn't like you, or this boy you like doesn't like you.

Just totally, totally missing the point.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 19.

Verse 19 says, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.

In hope.

Who's big enough that they can subject creation?

All everything subhuman, plants and rocks and trees and skies and seas and fish and all this stuff can subject it all to futility.

Who also does what he does in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know, verse 22, that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, and God said, Hey, here's the consequence of your sin, and here's what the consequence of the fall is for creation.

Think of the most beautiful place you've ever been.

And the Bible says it is not as beautiful as it was intended to be.

Because it's under the curse.

See, creation is groaning.

When you turn on the TV last week and they showed floods in Iowa and Missouri, don't go, oh man, why does a good God let that happen?

Think childbirth.

Think creation going.

Because see, here's the thing.

After all the birth pains and all the groaning, a baby comes out.

And you don't remember that stuff.

Matter of fact, our doctor, our OBGYN said, Now your wife probably won't remember things she said to you.

But I wrote them down.

I got a list.

Creation groans.

Secondly, we groan.

Look at verse 23.

Verse 23 says, Hey.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.

You got to ask yourself, what was the hope of your salvation?

What did you hope to get by becoming a Christian?

Because if you hope to get, like some unbiblical preachers nowadays teach, if you hope to get a better life and prosperity and a new car and a big house and well-behaved kids and a submissive wife and a loyal husband and all that stuff, you're going to be disappointed.

The Bible says, hey, very plainly, hey, for we now hope, he says in verse 24, for in this hope we were saved.

What hope?

The redemption of our bodies.

That our one day our bodies are going to be reclaimed by our God who's adopted us.

Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

Verse 25, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

See, creation groans and we groan.

That doesn't mean we complain.

That just means we have the first fruits of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is inside of us, like it's a down payment, guaranteeing that what God said he's going to do, he's going to do.

And so you're in this world and you're not home yet.

And here's a phrase my wife and I say a lot.

We're just a long way from the garden.

We're a long way from the way God intended this to be.

We just are.

That doesn't mean God's not good.

What keeps you from becoming this fatalistic, jaded person?

People ask me all the time, man, you see so much tragedy and hardship and bad stuff and marriages falling apart and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

How do you not just become depressed?

And I just smile because I'm very hopeful.

Now I want to kill some people.

And I'm going to tell you who I want to kill.

I want to kill people come to my office and go, Yeah, we've been married 17 years, and my husband just looked at me the other day and tell him what you said, honey.

Well, I just I just fell out of love with her.

I want to jump across my desk and choke you out right there.

What do you mean I just fell out of love?

What a cop out.

I did a wedding yesterday and I laid the wood to those two weasels.

Oh, I went easy on them yesterday because we had a nice poolside wedding with this beautiful palm trees in the background and everybody was there.

They had to come see me for five sessions of premarital counseling.

And my first question to them was why do you think this person is the only person you want to kiss for the rest of your life?

Well, I see what it was.

See, uh Puke, Ray, Ray, Deo, we're a say what?

Because by getting married, you're saying all my physical affection belongs to this woman.

And if you're not willing to do that, just get out of my office right now because it's one less person for me to be mad at.

Because I will wake up over your bed with a mat with a clown mask and an axe.

Because it's easy, men, to get 52 and trade your wife in for some little trophy wife who loves your money.

I mean you.

Grow up.

You just gotta groan in marriage.

It's hard work.

I told this couple and they worked hard.

I said, it's just hard work.

Finally, the guy goes, uh what do you what do you mean it's hard work?

My wife is married to an almost perfect man and she still screws it up, okay?

It's hard work.

Let's keep that to ourselves.

Creation groans.

We groan.

Thirdly, God groans.

God groans.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 26.

Likewise, the Spirit.

Is that capitalized in your Bible?

It's a reference to the Holy Spirit.

By the way, look at me.

The Holy Spirit is God.

The Holy Spirit's not some substitute teacher that God sent down to mind the class till he figured out what he was going to do.

No, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, look what he says.

Likewise, verse 26, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

That's not like he's speaking in tongues.

No, it's not inexpressible.

It's just unexpressed.

He just, he just, it's it's so deep.

It's just like sometimes when you like you have a wayward child and you get a call, oh, I got picked up for a DUI.

You go like, oh, what are you doing?

You're groaning.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit does the same thing.

He intercedes, he prays for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he searches, and he who searches the hearts, by the way, that's God.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit.

Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Now, let me just let me just drill down this a little bit.

You say, What do you mean?

Now, Jesus is in heaven, right?

Sitting at the right hand of God.

The Bible says that he intercedes for us at the right hand of God.

You have an intercessor in heaven, but the Bible also tells you right here in Romans 8, you have an intercessor in your heart.

The Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf that he who searches hearts, God, and he knows the mind of the Spirit, and the Spirit prays to God, and he prays according to God's will.

And later on, when we get to Romans chapter 12, Paul's gonna tell us that the will of God is that which is good and perfect and pleasing.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And so here's the application of that.

Some of you don't like to pray out loud.

Matter of fact, some of your greatest fears is that someone's gonna ask you to pray.

And you're gonna revert to the childhood.

God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.

Amen.

And your wife's gonna go, honey, you're 48.

That's a little, that's good.

Some of you have come up to me and said, Hey man, don't ever call me to pray, okay?

I would never call on you and embarrass you and say, hey, Brother Bill, why don't you pray?

Meet me outside.

Here's the deal.

This changed my prayer life.

When I realized I don't have to use, you don't have to use certain words.

You don't have to say certain phrases.

You don't have to, oh, I kind of forgot.

I kind of stumbled over my words, blah, blah, blah.

Somebody asked me, said, hey, sometimes when you get up and pray, I don't know what's going to come out.

Neither do I.

And I'm not trying to be goofy.

It's just here's the deal.

Because the Holy Spirit is interceding on my behalf, and He's praying the will of God to God.

He's praying in keeping with the will of God.

The pressure's off of me.

I can just be a son of the Father.

You can be a daughter of the Father.

And my kids, when they they don't worry about what they're going to say to me.

They just come right out, whatever's in their heart.

They just say it.

And they say crazy things every once in a while, like, I feel like you love medicine more than me.

I'm too old for that.

I go, what do you want?

Well, I was hoping to go to Bucky's.

Don't insult me and then think you're gonna get your way.

Because I'm awesome, okay?

And so when you understand I'm awesome, come and ask me.

Okay?

Come boldly before the throne so you can obtain mercy in your time of need.

What does that mean?

Go ask your mother.

The Bible says that the Spirit of God, that God groans.

He intercedes on your behalf, and so you don't have to start praying and go, oh God, well, you know you know my heart.

Yes, he knows your heart.

That's why you need to pray.

Fourthly and finally, God is faithful.

God is faithful.

Look at verse 28.

Now let me just say this.

Verse 28 doesn't make sense if you take it out of the context of what follows.

Verse 28, and we know that those, that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, if you what we do is we we pull that out of context and we just look around for the last unexplainable thing that we know happened, and we go, all right, God, really?

God causes all things to work together for good?

How are you gonna do this?

You have such a show, you're obsessed with now, and God sees now through the lens of men.

And so, verse 29 follows and says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

You say, Well, I don't get it.

Let me put it together for you.

Look at verse 18 again.

Look at what he says.

And notice how it says it.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing.

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

You with me so far?

I'm not very smart.

If I can get this, you can get this.

And then he goes on.

The word in the Greek for the word for, verse 18, it's the statement.

He spends verse 19 to 30, just unpacking it.

And he's the Greek word is Gar, G-A-R.

That's where we get our English word for.

If you want to understand Romans 8.28, don't say for, say because, because.

He says in verse 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, verse 29, because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

All past tense.

You're like, uh so what does that mean?

What that means is that the Bible says that those whom God foreknew.

Now, by the way, there's some people come along and say, Oh, God looked into the future and saw who was going to say yes, and he said yes to them, not what the Bible teaches.

Never says, God saw your heart, what you were gonna do.

No, it says, God knew you.

Those whom he fornew.

See, in other words, God set in motion this process that God's gonna continue all the way to glory.

So you don't have to get older and think, well, I hope I just make it.

I hope I've been good enough.

I hope God understands.

Or some guy said to me, I hope God grades on the cross, not on a curve.

I'm like, oh.

Are you serious?

Your future certainty rests on something as cheesy as that?

Well, that's kind of what I think.

When I say God is faithful, I mean this God that foreknew.

He also predestined past tense.

See, our future is past tense to him.

He knows it.

He he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

You can't be conformed to the image of Jesus without some suffering.

And so when suffering finds you, don't shake your fist at God and go, where are you, God?

Are you kidding me?

Why?

Because he says, hey, those of you they predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers, that you would be the first authentic, real life, down-to-earth Christian anybody knows.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

He called.

He called.

Remember when he called you?

And for me, it was July 5th, 1982.

I was sitting in the second row.

And he called me.

He didn't wait for me to come looking for him.

He let me hear his voice calling me.

And like a dog that hears a silent whistle, my heart just perked up.

Like, whoo, what?

I didn't have words for it.

I came forward.

This is old school.

They had a come down front invitation.

I didn't know what to say.

I knew my friends went down front because they'd come back from camp and say, I don't drink anymore.

I was like, great, more beer for me.

Why don't you drink anymore?

Well, I rededicated my life.

And God was calling me, and I didn't know what that meant.

So I came down front and the preacher said, Why'd you come?

And I said, I need to rededicate my life.

And that cat squeezed my hand.

And I was like, You want to go right here, old man?

And he smiled and he said, You can't rededicate something you don't have.

Have you ever given your life to Christ's son?

I said, How do you know?

He goes, You're a changed man.

No, I'm the same person I've always been.

And then he squeezed my hand again.

I'm gonna knock this fool out right here.

And then go to hell on a slipping slide.

You say, Why didn't you?

Because that cat smiled, big toothed to grin.

Then you don't know Jesus.

Here's how I knew God was calling me.

I opened my mouth to disagree with him, and nothing came out.

And then it started like a volcano.

Just welling up in me.

And that cat just squeezed my hand and just looked into my eyes.

Son, is God calling you to himself?

You ever seen a dam when it breaks?

I mean, I just and he just patted me.

Come here, let me get a counselor.

See, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

Set his heart upon you.

He said, You're gonna look like my son.

You're not gonna be perfect, but you're gonna be different, and you're gonna be progressively different.

You're not gonna say, hey, well, I you know I did a lot of stuff in my past.

Wasn't that enough?

No.

No, not done making you more Christ-like.

And he called you.

Those who he called, he also justified.

That's the cross.

Made you right with God.

And those he justified, guess what he did?

He also glorified.

So this glory he starts off talking about in verse 18 when he says, Oh, by the way, our this present sufferings aren't worth comparing with the glory that'll be revealed to us.

Man, I hope it's gonna be revealed to me.

It's as certain as the chair you're sitting in.

That's what I mean when I say God is faithful.

That's why Paul says in Philippians 1, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

So what do we do?

Do we just do we just sit around and groan until then?

No, nobody likes that guy.

It's like sitting on a plane next to a person who just perpetually tells you every conspiracy theory he's ever heard of.

You're just like, can Jesus come back right now, please?

You know, the Illuminati, oh, just shut up.

Just cork it, dude.

Here's why.

Because his now is all he has.

He doesn't have a then.

He doesn't have an eschatology, he doesn't have a theology, a biblical understanding of the end times, what Jesus said.

Hey, in the new world.

He's stuck in this world.

So what do we do?

Three things the passage tells us, and I'll just lift them briefly and we'll be done.

Number one, we hope.

He says, in this hope we were saved.

What hope?

That our bodies are going to be redeemed.

My hope in becoming a Christian was not that I'm gonna always get my way.

And to prove that, I got married.

Now I'm not that's not a dig at my wife.

You don't have to go out here and kind of go, boy, he was on you today.

No.

The greatest source of sanctification in your life will be your spouse.

Because she's not impressed.

I was here about a year and somebody walked out after a service and said to my wife, Oh, your husband is an anointed man.

And my wife went, Yeah, despite himself.

And the lady's like, Oh, I'm sorry, everything now, everything's okay.

I love my husband.

He just sometimes I want to kill him.

That's marriage.

I'm a better man because I'm married to a woman who loves God and doesn't take anything off of me.

And you will be too.

Women, stop holding back on your husband.

Lay the wood to that monkey.

Stop praying.

You know why your prayers aren't answered?

Because some of it you need to just tell him.

Oh, God, bring somebody in my husband's life that'll tell him he's a selfish pig.

No, that's your job.

We hope.

We hope.

What do you mean?

See, here's the thing.

Let me just say this.

We've confused hope with lust.

We don't hope, we lust.

We want stuff.

The Bible says, hey, who hopes for what you can see?

We hope for things we can't see.

Then.

You can't see then.

That's what we hope for.

So what do we do to the minute?

We hope.

Secondly, we wait.

Hope expresses itself in waiting.

And what do you mean?

We don't wait.

John Stott said this: we are to wait neither so eagerly that we lose our patience, nor so patiently that we lose our expectation.

There's a balance in there.

It's this active waiting.

And finally we pray.

You just pray.

You ain't gotta be perfect, haven't you gotta be right, had you gotta have it all together, but you pray.

Not just in your head or silently, and then squeeze your spouse's hand.

You pray out loud.

You kick the door of your kid's bedroom in and walk in and say, hey, before you go to bed, dad wants to pray with you.

That's easy with my nine-year-old.

I pray with her every night.

My 15-year-old, I walk in her bedroom, she looks like, What are you doing in here?

This is my room.

I'm gonna snoop around while I'm in here.

You pray.

Because the Holy Spirit's praying perfect prayers.

Guess what?

You're free to pray imperfect prayers.

You're not trying to impress him.

You don't have to say big words, whatever.

You can just say what's in your heart.

That's the necessity of a big then.

Because in this world, look at me, I'm done.

In this world, you're gonna have some now's that are overwhelming.

Unless you have a really big then, it's gonna tip you over and you're just gonna leave the faith.

You're just gonna go, I don't want to believe in a God that's like this.

But if you have a big then, it changes the way you see every now.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Then is so big and beautiful and real.

Now we'll never eclipse it.

Depart now and live now in light of then.

In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.