If you have your Bibles, I'd love to invite you to join me in Romans chapter 8. In a moment, I'm going to arrive at Romans 8, where the Apostle Paul pens an incredibly articulate reality concerning the resurrection hope that we have. In fact, if I had to settle on one word that summed up the sentiment of the resurrection, I believe that it would be hope. Hope is an emotion that we can sense. Hope is also a driving force for much of what we do. The fact is, it's pervasive in every age and nationality, does not matter. Hope is vital. Alexander Pope expresses what I think is the sentiment of every discouraged heart. Everyone who has endured crisis or a season of suffering when he wrote, hope springs eternal within the human breast. Or at least we hope that it does. Dante declared the utter hopelessness that is hell when he wrote, as you near the gate of Hades, abandon every hope, ye who enter here. Truly the pit of despair, true hopelessness, true life for eternity without Christ. One wrote, without hope we have no friendship. Without hope, we have no achievement. Without hope, life is meaningless and absurd. Without hope, there is no true love. There's no family. Because even marriage is based on hope. Peter makes the scriptural connection for us. Between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope, when he writes in his letter 1 Peter 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Begotten us again. Maybe you've heard the phrase, a Christian is born again. It is the idea of being born once in this life and being born again into the second life in Christ. And Peter makes it clear that when we are born again, when we are saved, when we are believers, we have a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter was an eyewitness. A lot of times, the authenticity of Scripture to us is lost in its antiquity. Never get past the point that these are Spirit-inspired words and that Peter himself was an eyewitness. In fact, Luke said, the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon. Peter is speaking from experience when he tells us about the hope that the resurrection of Jesus offers us. Paul also explains in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 5 that Jesus was seen of Cephas. Peter knew first hand that hope changes everything. Paul knew the same thing. The Apostle Paul told believers at Thessalonica who had real life questions concerning other believers who had already died. Many of them even within persecution. They were mourning and they were grieving those who had gone on and they had questions concerning them and Paul responds in 1 Thessalonians 4, I would not have you to be ignorant brethren. concerning them which are asleep, them that have died, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." You are different. There's a distinguishing characteristic for a believer versus a non-believer, and it is that of hope. He says, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. It's fact. Paul is pointing to the rapture. Paul is pointing to the second coming of Jesus Christ because of the resurrection. He's offering hope. Peter does the same thing in his letter in 1 Peter 1, as I read earlier in verse 4, he speaks of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away. Get this, reserved in heaven for you. A lot of us fret. have confusion, have questions, have lingering doubts. A lot of us have scars and guilt from the past. We fret about where we've been and we're concerned about where we are and no doubt we have questions and concerns for the future. And the Bible steps in and points to this reality. No matter what you have endured, no matter what you are enduring at this moment, that which is to come is good. We have a living hope. We can look forward to heaven, we can look to the day when Jesus Christ returns. I want you to see the connection between the resurrection and hope. I want you to grasp the scriptural foundation, the emphasis that the Bible gives us on that which is to come, based on that which has already happened. Be aware of that. It's that that I want to focus on this morning, and I now join you in Romans 8. And if you'll bear with me, I'm going to read just a little bit of a prolonged passage of Scripture. It's church, I checked. It's okay to read it. Now I warn you at the onset, within this, there are going to be words, I call them Bible words. They're Bible words, you're gonna hear me read this and you're gonna think to yourself, I have no earthly idea what the Apostle Paul's talking about. Bear with me for a second. He's articulating some beautiful truth. Romans chapter eight, I'll begin reading in verse 16. He says, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." Now, how many of you understand the Bible words I was talking about? There's some big stuff in there. There's some big theological ideas that the Apostle Paul is communicating. He's articulating them beautifully, inspired by the Holy Spirit to pass along a message of encouragement to us, and he does so. He's telling us at the conclusion of that, no matter what life throws at you, you can endure with patience. That is the idea of joyously hoping as I endure. I can do so with patience and hope. Why? Well, he said this, we have hope in an inheritance that is coming to us. How many of you would love to receive a large inheritance? Right? You ever fantasized about getting that letter and it says you have a long lost relative somewhere that you did not know about, they were exceedingly wealthy, they have passed and they've left everything to you? How many of you would go to work tomorrow? You think my hand's up because I'm saying I'd go to work tomorrow. Listen, there would be a letter of resignation read on Wednesday night. Hope in an inheritance, it seems like some fantastical idea. And here in Scripture, the Apostle Paul is saying, take it out of the fantasy realm and bring it into reality. As a believer, this is your reality. Two witnesses, he says. The Old Testament, you had to have two witnesses to establish something as a truth. He said, the Spirit and we ourselves within ourselves bear witness that we are the children of God. This is for believers. And then he says something, it's stunning. It's awe-inspiring. If children, then heirs. Joint heirs with Christ. And then he says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Imagine what he has just said. We're the recipients of the inheritance of God through Jesus Christ. Christ died, then He rose again, able now to deliver unto us the benefits of the family inheritance to all who believe. We not only inherit the inheritance of Jesus Christ with Him, the fact is, with our inheritance, we inherit God Himself as believers. At the end of the Bible, John, in exile, is writing his vision of that which is to come. In Revelation chapter 21, he articulates part of our inheritance very clearly in verses 3 and 4. He says, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. God is now down with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them. What does the presence of God gift us? He will be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. God and His presence will be our inheritance. And we will be joint heirs with Christ. Can you imagine a day with no sorrow, no death, no crying, and no more pain? That awaits every believer. That's why the Apostle Paul says, get this, this is business language for I reckon. I've studied it out, and I have weighed the evidence, and I have deemed this to be truth. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be received in us." I make a business decision, Paul's saying. that the glory that is to come will so supersede all of the misery that I endure that I will, in the presence of that glory, forget all of this misery. And that's stunning that the Apostle Paul said that. Because if the Apostle Paul wasn't in shipwreck, then he was in prison. If he wasn't in prison, he was being flogged. If he wasn't flogged, he was having believers turn their backs on him and leave him alone. He knew what it was to endure hardship. He knew what it was to struggle. He knew what it was genuinely to suffer. And He says, no matter how deep the well of despair I am in in this temporal life, I know the glory that I will inherit will so far surpass the deepest well of despair that I will forget this. He's offering hope. No matter what we have gone through, no matter what we are presently going through, no matter what we will go through, the sum total of all of it is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us. You say, tell me about it. I want to know more about my inheritance. Please articulate clearly. Here's as clear as I can articulate it. Paul said this, as it is written, I hath not seen. nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." In other words, you can't even comprehend it. It's impossible for me to put into words what awaits us as one wrote, no matter the injury, No matter the trial, no matter the abandonment, no matter the loss, the betrayal, the abuse, the ridicule, the illness, the suffering, the pain, glory is just around the corner. This is not a fantastical idea, this is fact. You have hope because Jesus rose again in your inheritance, but not only in your inheritance, in deliverance. Hope and deliverance. You ever been in a miserable conversation? and you're looking over their shoulder for someone to help you out, or is that simply the plight of a pastor? You are waiting to catch the eye of your spouse to come rescue you from a conversation that you no longer want to be in. You're desperate to get out. You long for deliverance. You ever been in a situation that you just desperately want to end? That's how vividly Paul is articulating this. He said in verse 19, the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. Earnest expectation. Big Bible words. It's compounded. What He is communicating to us is, it's craning the neck, it's standing on the tiptoes, longing for a moment when all of this ends and something better arrives on the scene. You see, when God finished His creation in Genesis 1 and verse 31, He looked at it and He said, it's very good. But in these verses we read that creation is now groaning. Under the curse of sin, creation, which once was very good, has been perverted and twisted by sin. And now creation itself groans for deliverance. In fact, when you put together the verbiage in these verses about this creation, in verse 18 he said suffering, in verse 20 he called it vanity, in verse 21 it was bondage and corruption, and in verse 22 he spoke of pain. One wrote everywhere, our eyes meet the images of death and decay. The scourge of barrenness, the fury of the elements, the destructive instincts of beasts, the very laws which govern vegetation, everything in nature gives a somber hue. And so Paul writes of this earnest expectation that we have. Creation itself longs for the day when Creator God sets everything right. When Creator God delivers from the curse of sin fully and completely. Three times in Romans 8, we read the word groaning and it's a very rare New Testament word. It's an internal sigh, it's a longing for something better. Creation is groaning in here. The believer is groaning in here, and the Spirit Himself is groaning. Creation is groaning for that time when Christ returns. for the manifestation of the sons of God, for Jesus Christ to come back again on the tiptoes, craning the neck, desperate for deliverance, the believers longing for the day when we will dwell in the new heaven and the new earth. When this life of inner sighing and groaning is over and our life consists of groans, a great deal of groaning, anxiety and pain, Guilt and scars as I've already referenced. And the spirit is groaning. Think for just a minute that Paul is pointing out an encouraging truth. One day creation, which was very good, will be returned as God intended, and it groans for deliverance. The believer who is trapped in this body of sin, the limitations that we endure, longing in a sin-sick world to be delivered, it will happen. And as we exist now, the Spirit is groaning on our behalf. That's an interesting phrase. There are times in life where you don't even know what to pray. You don't have words. And in those moments, the Spirit is groaning on our behalf. Someday we will be delivered. All of this points forward because of what was done in the past. We have hope in our inheritance. We have hope in deliverance. And then he says beautifully in verse 24, we are saved by hope. We have hope in our salvation. Now, I wanna be careful. When Paul writes that, he does not mean we hope that we are saved. He means because we are saved, we have hope. It's not a hope that says, I hope I get into heaven. It's a hope that asks, I wonder how long it will take for me to actually get there. What hope is it that is instilled in us? What hope do we have? Titus calls it a blessed hope, and here it is. Looking for that blessed hope. And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Here's what I can tell you without being fantastical. Without being a huckster, without trying to sell you something, I can tell you the best is yet to come. And I know you, like me, hope that's true. How many of you hope the best is yet to come, right? Yeah, I had a birthday this week. Wednesday, I turned 47 years old. And there are some people who will say to me, well, the best is yet to come. I look at their life and I think, I hope it's not that. I have some people look at me and they say, 47, well, the best is behind you. And I think, well, that stinks because that wasn't that great. And I have studied this out. I have been looking at this actually for a couple of years. Statistics say that the bottom of the valley for a man in life, in happiness and fulfillment is 47 years of age. I am set for the most miserable year of my life. I'm five days in, I have found it up to the standard. Listen, here's the reality. It does not matter where you've been, what status you have in life, what is going on in this moment, or what lies around the corner. I can assure you, if you are a believer, the best is actually yet to come. So the believer does not get frustrated as he sees and experiences suffering and pain in this world. He knows one day it will give way to eternity. We hope, Paul says, because we cannot see it. Not because we don't believe it exists. We're fueled by that hope. Our groaning will be exchanged. We have an expectant eagerness as believers, our heart and our mindset should be tiptoe standing, neck craning, waiting for that moment when He returns. When we get out of this place, out of this condition, we have hope. That's what the resurrection grants me. I have a coming inheritance, and I assure you, it's not fantasy, it's not fantastical. If a child of God, then heirs. Joint heirs with Christ, which enables us to make the business decision to reckon, no matter how deep the despair is here, one day we'll arrive where we see glory far supersedes anything that we endured and we'll forget about it. We have that inheritance. The deliverance is true. When Jesus stood on the mountain, He ascended. And the angels came to the disciples and said, why are you standing here and staring? He will come again. He told you that He would. Jesus is good on His word. Creation will be restored as God intended it. Renewed. We will be delivered from this body of sin because of our salvation. And I can say this as plain as I stand before you. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are indeed hopeless. And the only hope that you have and that I have exists here and now in this life. It is in Jesus Christ and Dante unknowingly spiritually is correct. At hell, abandon all hope, ye who enter here. At that moment, it's hopelessness. God loves you. That's what this day is. That's, in effect, what we celebrate. God's love, paying the ultimate price, the great sacrifice, conquering death on our behalf. God loves you, in spite of the fact that you're a sinner. So you don't know me, I looked close enough to know you're a sinner. And I've read the scripture which says, all have sinned and there's none righteous, no not one. And sin has to be paid for. You don't have to like that, but sin has a price tag. Sin has to be paid for. And the beauty of scripture and the good news of the gospel is that Jesus paid that price. And we can pray and we can receive Jesus Christ as our savior. And when we are born again, we have a living hope. The mindset that we have as we exit this place is we have hope. I know life's hard, certainly it's hard. I know there's confusion, I know there's wickedness and darkness, yes, but hope is our outlook because of that which is to come. Can I invite you just for a moment to bow your heads with me, just for a moment. Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church Podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.