So Romans 8 18 says for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory of which shall be revealed in us. And with the usual disclaimers of as Andy gets to this, if he does it different than follow him, he's probably right. But I also will say it's always good when me and Breyer or Andy or whoever is preaching, we we see that we're not coordinating our efforts and yet they come together. The scriptures are very unique in that way as to how they fold the same thoughts together and over and over. And so what we want to look at tonight for a few minutes is this. To contrast what we think are momentous events, to all of eternity with God. And that's what we see in Romans 8, 18. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We often, as humans, we often focus on ourselves instead of our creator and our Lord. And then because we've done that, we stumble, we grope in darkness instead of walking in the marvelous light of Jesus Christ. And I think we need reminders at times to stop and to think about that and to read a verse like Romans 8, 18 and remind ourselves of the context in which we should be living. We're in the silly season of the political stuff right now. And a lot of times it can get you depressed, especially if you think you're losing. and that the world's gonna end and things are gonna stop and things may change dramatically, but that's not where we should focus as Christians. Spiritual priorities should be our focus. Matthew 10, 27 and 28 says, whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And so spiritual priorities should be our focus. I had not thought of this until I was reading an article the other day, and it made this point, and it's one that kind of always grated on my nerves during the recent COVID silliness, but the recent example of COVID lockdowns. And I kept saying to myself, what do Christians have to fear? Christians are acting just like the world. We're going to die. We're all going to die. We're all going to die. Well, what do Christians have to fear? And of course, I was reading this article and this author said this, he says, it makes no sense to impose policies to protect a religious person from illness when most religions are rooted in the concept of preparing the practitioner for death. Yeah, if we are preparing ourselves for death as Christians, or even as practitioners of other religions, does it make sense to then go crazy when something happens like a virus that scared us all? We weren't sure what was going on. We weren't sure what was going to happen. And looking back, it's easier to second guess ourselves than it was in the midst of it. But the point is we should focus on spiritual priorities and that will keep us and help direct us in times and areas like that. And so tonight, especially as we come to a time of prayer meeting, I wanna look at how we are directed to pray and live in light of this reality. Now, the final thing that caused me to decide to do this was Sam Renahan, who is the son of Jim Renahan, I got that right, right? And I went to school with Jim Renahan a long time ago. Sam Renahan has just written a book, it's available, you can order it on Amazon, Kindle, or printed, called Life in the In-Between. And it caught my eye for some reason that he had put it out, and I think I follow them all as authors when they put something out. And I haven't read the book yet, so I'm not, necessarily recommending it. However, seeing the stock that it's coming from, I'm pretty sure it's a pretty good book. But the book is basically about this. Life between the time when we become a Christian and are publicly awakened and acknowledge it, and glorification when we die and we go to heaven. And so I'm looking forward to reading it. I suspect it's a variation on Francis Schaeffer's book many, many years ago, How Shall We Then Live? And that one's a little harder to work through, perhaps, so I got an idea this is going to be a little more straightforward in that line. It's one, if you want to explore it, feel free to, or you can wait and I'll read it, and then maybe at some point you'll hear it anyway, because it might make a good 10 o'clock study. But I want to look at three things tonight, then, based on this idea of focusing on life in the in-between, if you will. How should we live and pray in light of this reality? So first of all, and I'm going to give you the three points just so I don't cheat and you'll have them. Suffering is real. Secondly, glory is real. And thirdly, the guarantee of these things. So those are the three things I want to just quickly look at tonight. And I realized as I was finishing up my notes this week that I had too much, but we'll make do and I'll try not to talk too fast. But first of all, I wanted to recognize that suffering is real. I'm not trying to minimize suffering. And I don't think we should take an approach to suffering, especially a stoic approach of, well, there's nothing we can do, so just... buckle up and go. And we need to be careful of that. We're not minimizing suffering. Especially as Christians, we will suffer just like Jesus Christ did. Matthew 16.21 says, And Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. So you see, if Christ suffered, there is no hope that Christians are not going to suffer, too. In order to be a partaker in Christ, we are going to have to experience similar things to what Christ did. And Christ suffered, in particular, in the flesh, even. And he explained this to the disciples, because the disciples all had the idea that, oh, things are going to get better and better and better until the kingdom is ushered in. Sound familiar? And Jesus was like, that's not how it works. That's not what's going on. And instead, I'm going to suffer, going to be abused and be killed. But that will lead to the glorification of being raised on the third day. So suffering is real. And there are three basic types of suffering. I just want to mention each of these again so that we're looking at them as we go on through this lesson. First of all, physical suffering. There's nothing wrong with recognizing that we suffer physically and therefore praying for our physical needs. Mark 5 and verse 25 says, now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but as I was reading that going, huh, nothing's changed. We all suffer many things from many physicians and they charge us. And so things haven't changed a lot. And she had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. And then verse 34, and Jesus said to her, and by the way, if you don't remember what's happening, this is the woman who then reaches out and touches the cloak that Jesus is wearing and is healed. And Jesus says, who touched me? And they're all like, there's a whole throng around us. And he says, no, somebody touched me for a specific particular purpose. And Jesus said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. And so I took this as an example that maybe wasn't one of the most obvious examples of Jesus being concerned about the physical suffering of this particular woman, one who exhibited faith And by that faith in Christ, knowing that Christ was the answer, was healed by faith. And Christ tells her to go in peace and be healed of that affliction. So physical suffering is real. Don't downplay it. Don't say, oh, that shouldn't be a big focus. Yes, it is real. And yes, it is something that very much can affect us. I've talked to different people for different reasons recently where, if you're suffering in the body, whether it's a headache or a pain in your foot or something, it can affect your ability to have spiritual devotions. It can affect your ability to come to church and to fellowship with others. So we certainly should recognize the physical suffering that we all endure being fallen creatures in Adam. And then secondly, the suffering that is also real is also what we would call mental or emotional suffering. Matthew 27, 19, I'm gonna stick with the verses and not talk in between, I promise. Matthew 27, 19, while he, Herod, was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. Now, you might say, why did you pick that one as an example? Well, it seemed to be a rather unique example of the kind of mental and emotional suffering that all men experience. This is not a saved woman. This is a woman who simply is the wife of Herod. And yet, she's tormented, she suffers many things in a dream. How many times do we wake up from a dream that is so real we wake up heart pounding? And at times, especially it seems like with kids, it's like, I need to call and check on my kid that I just dreamed some terrible thing happened to. And I look at the clock and it's like 4 a.m. and I'm like, nah, they wouldn't appreciate that. I'd have heard from them if there was really a problem. But we can have that. And we can suffer like that. We do it during the waking hours. And we can work ourselves up. We talked about this recently. When the phone rings, and it's from somebody you don't expect. My mother-in-law called me unexpectedly yesterday. Unexpectedly and accidentally, but anyway. And I saw the phone ring with her name on it in the middle of the afternoon. And my first thought was, I better answer that, because boy, something must be wrong. No, turned out she had accidentally picked the phone up and punched the button, the dial, I don't know how she did it. And we ended up talking about the fact she had a roofer coming to look at her roof. And so right away though, you see how we do that? We tend to look right away at what's the worst that can happen. And so a lot of our mental and emotional suffering is brought on by ourselves and should be dealt with by spending time in the word of God and being directed in the word of God. But don't, again, don't negate that. There's an entire mental health industry in our country that has grown up that is very wrong in their presuppositions, in their treatment, in their whole approach to mental health. But that doesn't mean we don't have mental health. And I think I've made this point before. Our brains are physical things just like our heart is. So just like you can have heart disease, you can have things that affect your mind and that affect the way you think. And yes, a lot of it has to do with what are you looking at? What are you thinking about? What are you dwelling on? And we can help shape our minds and our emotions, but we still have to rely on God in order to do those things. And to rely on him in order to properly approach mental and emotional issues. And then the third type of suffering is that which is spiritual. And this is especially true that we can suffer spiritually. Acts 5 and verse 29 says, and this was after Peter and the other apostles had been dragged in before the Sanhedrin. Acts 5, 29 says, but Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. "'The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, "'whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. "'Him God has exalted to his right hand "'to be Prince and Savior, "'to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, "'and we are his witnesses to those things, "'and so also is the Holy Spirit, "'whom God has given to those who obey him.'" Now, this is a good verse for all of us to look at and say, how often am I speaking the truth of God and bringing spiritual suffering on myself? I've said before that Christianity isn't just being rude, and we know that. But Christianity is speaking the truth when we have opportunity. And I wrestled with this. I grew up in a home where I was told, you're paid to work, not to evangelize. And I still wrestle with that as to how many times do I not say something to somebody about Christ when I should be, because I kind of had that mentality of you're here to work and that's what they're paying you for. So I think we should all wrestle with that. But notice that Peter, when dragged before the Sanhedrin here, Peter says, you're the guys that murdered Christ. He didn't kind of try to tone that down a little bit. You know, I know you misunderstood, and he didn't do that. He says, you murdered Christ, but God has exalted him to the right hand. So read the word of God, be in the word of God, and from it, draw some courage from the examples of men like Peter and the other apostles. and see him here speaking. And so what happened? Well, they were beaten again, and they were told, don't speak this word anymore. And of course, in verse 41, so they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And so we are going to suffer for what we believe spiritually. We are going to suffer for what we say to others when we're talking about truth to them and when we're speaking things to them that oftentimes are construed as, well, you're not loving. Not speaking the truth is not loving. Not, to use a twisted version of the example that's going on right now, not yelling fire in a theater that's on fire is not loving. Why didn't anyone want to interrupt the movie, right? No, don't be silly. If the place is on fire, you should be yelling fire at the top of your lungs. And so there are times we need to speak the truth in love gently, but it's still the truth and it's still not gonna be received well. And this led me also to the thought as far as the way that Peter and the apostles responded here to ask this question. Are we strong in the armor that God has provided us? We've done study here several times now since I've been here about the armor of God. There's a reason the scriptures present the armor of God and how we're to prepare ourselves. There's a reason that the scriptures use over and over and over the analogy of going to war and winning a race. and winning a contest as the Christian life, why? Because it's not just I got my ticket and I can sit down on the train and watch the scenery go by. It is a war, it is a race, it is a contest. And so are we strong in the armor that God has provided us? Or are we suffering needless wounds and injuries, especially in our spiritual life, because we're not prepared? We haven't put on the armor that God has given to us. We're not using the breastplate. We're not having the shield. We're not wielding the sword. The sword is not primarily a defensive weapon. It's an offensive weapon. And we don't have on the helmet. We don't have these pieces. And so Luke 11 20, I think gives us an example of this, where Jesus says in response to the Pharisees saying to him that he cast out demons because he was of Satan. And he says to them, he says, that's ridiculous. Luke 11 20, but if I cast out demons with the finger of God, as opposed to with the finger of Satan, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils. I have some friends, you can probably guess who some of them are, they love to quote this, why? Because they're armed all the time. And that's fine, it's good, it means that. It says that, if you're a strong man, fully armed, guarding your own palace, you're gonna be in peace, your goods are gonna be in peace. So there's something to that. And men, we have a responsibility to guard ourselves, guard our wives, guard our children, guard our families, are those that we're responsible for. But that's not the primary purpose of this verse. The primary purpose of this verse is to say, this is a spiritual lesson. Are you putting on the armor of God? Are you fully armed? Are you a strong man? How do you get to be a strong man? By exercising, by working out, by being strong. How do you get to be one who is fully armed and guards his own belt? By practice. And now your goods are at peace. But when somebody stronger comes upon you, they'll overcome you. So when we fail spiritually or when we have suffering spiritually, oftentimes we'll find it's because we failed to prepare and we're not ready for the adversary. Remember the adversary that goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Again, that's a clear representation of Satan's intent for us. He's not just trying to distract us, he's trying to eat us. and to stop us from following Christ. So suffering is real, but also, and this is an encouragement, glory is real. First of all, glory is real in Jesus Christ alone. John 17, verse one says, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life. that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." How do we know that there is glory to come? How do we know that heaven is real? Because Jesus Christ did the work that God the Father sent Him to do. He finished the work. And God then glorified him with the glory which he had before the world was. Because in fact, Christ alone was the forerunner of these things. John 14 and verse one says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. "'In my Father's house are many mansions. "'If it were not so, I would have told you. "'I go to prepare a place for you, "'and if I go and prepare a place for you, "'I will come again and receive you to myself, "'that where I am, there you may be also.'" And there have been a lot of people argue about the mansions and what's it mean and this and that and the other. Stop it, all right? These are spiritual truths. What it means is we are going to live with Jesus Christ and God the Father forever in some circumstance that is beyond our belief. None of us live in mansions. Some of us live in nice houses, don't get me wrong, and we're very thankful for those things. But this is a spiritual truth, that what Christ did was he was the forerunner. He is going to prepare a place for us, and he is gonna come back and receive us. So Christ alone, who is the forerunner, who is the firstborn, and I think there's a slight difference here between forerunner and firstborn. Colossians 1.18 puts it this way, and he, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. So again, what is the guarantee of our glory of being with Christ? He is the firstborn. He is the promise. God said, I will do this. And Christ came and was put on the cross and raised from the dead as the firstborn to guarantee that. And so that's the final thought here. And this is just very short to sum it up, is the guarantee. We have a guarantee that these things are true, and we'll wrestle with this. There are times that I think each one of us, as a true Christian, wrestles with, are these things really real? And Satan wants to say, you know, that doesn't make sense, really, I mean, if you think about it. And we need to go back to the Word of God and say, no, they're real because it's right here in black and white, testified to by men and women who saw these things, by the works that Christ did for the miracles that happened. All of these things are guaranteed. And so Romans 8, 28, a very familiar verse, and especially if you're a Stonewall Jackson fan, that's Stonewall Jackson's verse. Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. I mentioned him, by the way, for a reason. He died. He didn't die the way he expected to. He didn't die the way a whole lot of people were hoping he would die in old age. He died on the battlefield, and he changed the course of the war. So you see, don't think that it's always gonna work out for you, because right, go back to our first lesson, our first point. Be afraid of him who can cast body and soul into hell, not men. What's the worst that men can do? Let's say it just turns out the election's a fiasco, and the country is done and over with, and we're all rounded up and put in camps, and so what? I mean, I don't want that, but so what? We'll testify of Christ wherever we're put until they kill us, and then we'll be with Christ in glory. That's the spiritual perspective we should have. And this is the guarantee that we're given. For whom he foreknew, He also predestined, what, to be conformed to the image of his son, the forerunner, the firstborn, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. It's all right there. You want one or two verses that sums up the progression of the Christian life, or the theology of the Christian life, if you will. God foreknew us. God predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many. He called us, He justified us, and He will glorify us. And yes, sanctification's in there between justification and glorification, and I don't know why it's not specifically mentioned, but it doesn't matter, it's there. The scriptures are full of that, that between justification and glorification is the living life in between. So don't get upset, some people have tried to make a deal of that, that it's not specifically mentioned in that verse. That's why we read all of the scriptures. But this is the guarantee that we have as the followers after the firstborn of Christ. Romans 8, 19 says, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Andy's touched on this a little bit. I've been hearing some other things about it recently, as far as the creation and it groaning under the sin that it is under, and it waiting, what? For the revealing of the sons of God, when there will be no doubt who the children of God are. And second Corinthians 121 says this, now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us in God, I'm sorry, let me try that again. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. The scriptures talk over and over about being filled with the Spirit. Why? It's not some kind of optional thing. It's certainly not some kind of, ooh, hocus pocus, wavy, raise people, you know, from sickness that's kind of not really sickness. It's not that kind of nonsense. It's not mysticism. The Spirit in our hearts is a guarantee of what's coming in Christ. And so we should seek after the filling of the spirit. We should seek not to grieve the spirit because it is the guarantee of what's coming. So we should live for Christ in this time between our calling and our glorification, the in between. And we should seek to do that by being much in the word of God and looking at the things of God. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do pray that as we look into your word this evening, that you would bless us in it, that you would remind us of how blessed we are to be living in the time between our salvation and our glorification and to be given this opportunity to live for you and to testify of you and to do that which you have set before us. We are weak, we are sinful, we stumble, we fall. but we pray that we would always seek to carry on even if we're just crawling along the ground at times. Father, may we be strengthened by you and lifted up to do your work. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name, amen.