Well, if you would please turn in God's word to Romans chapter 15, we are going to be looking at a message of hope from this passage. This is a passage for the discouraged person in need of encouragement. This is a passage for the weary or the worn out soul that needs strength. This is a passage for or someone here who feels like a situation in your life is hopeless. You wonder, is there hope in this situation? If you're here today and you lack peace, if you lack joy here today, this is a passage that was inspired by God, as Paul wrote it, for you and to fill you with peace and joy and also to help you to be able to help others. around you, look at Romans 15, verse four. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Look at verse 12, Romans 15, verse 12. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come. Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him, this is Jesus, the Gentiles will hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. This is the passage written so that we would have abounding hope But we lack hope, we need hope. This is why this is written. And I want you to notice verse four ends with the encouragement of the scriptures that give us hope. Verse 12 ends with the nations putting their hope in Jesus. And verse 13 starts with the God of hope. And it ends with how we can abound in hope by the Spirit. So we've got the whole Trinity, we've got God, the God of hope, God the Father, we've got the Son, Jesus, who the nation's hoping, and we've got the Spirit, it's through the Spirit that we can abound in hope by His power. The key word in this section is hope. And this is key in every season of life. Hope. In all the sections of Romans, we've been looking at truths about God. He's the God of judgment, we saw last time. He's the God of peace, Pastor Corey brought to us a couple weeks ago. He's the God of love, he's the God of righteousness, he's the God of grace, he's the God of wrath, he's the God of mercy. Today in chapter 15, we'll see he's the God of hope. The God of hope, and hope isn't so much an attribute of God that he does. This is really a truth of God that he is, he is the source of hope. All things are from him and through him and to him and all true hope is in God. But you won't find a chapter on hope in theological works about God. What you will find in Paul's theological masterwork of Romans, he's going to spend much of chapter 15 talking about hope, the God of hope, but not as a technical attribute of God, but as a practical attitude that we have of hoping in God. See, God doesn't need to hope in the way that we use the term. We need hope in God and he is the God of hope and he is all sufficient for all that we need. I think of areas where we need hope. Maybe today there's a physician's diagnosis that you have received or you're waiting to receive and you're struggling to hope in that situation, in anxiousness. Maybe there's a friend or a family member. In your relationship with them, you don't see much hope in that. Or maybe you wonder if there's much hope for their relationship with God. Maybe someone in your family who's turned away from the Lord and you wonder where is hope. Maybe it's other things in the future. You're wondering, how to hope as you see things going on in our world, in our nation, you're wondering what is the hope for the future? It could be friends, family, it could be the future, it could be finances. Maybe you're struggling to hope. We can't put our hope in those things. This passage is gonna show us how we can have hope through all of those things, but this is a hope that's not in politics. If you had hope in politics, that hope's probably gone. This is not a hope in politics. This is not the kind of hope of Placebos, you guys know how placebos work. Sometimes they'll give patients the same medication. One is just a sugar pill and one has the medications in it. And sometimes there's a significant portion of those people with certain conditions who take the placebo and they report feeling just as well as those who took the real medicine. And what that I think shows us is the power of hope. When you believe and when you have hope in something, it actually can help you, but this is not a false hope. How much more the realities, the truth of who God is, the real hope that we have. Psalm 62 says, set no vain hopes. My hope is from God and so I shall not be shaken. There's an unshakable hope that we can have through God, but this is not a hope that depends on another person changing. This is not a hope that depends on your situation turning out the way you hope it would be. This is a hope that's a change in you. This is a hope that's about changing what's going on inside of you. And we're gonna see that today. And for our outline, we're gonna see hope in God by his word. That's number one, hope in God by his word. And then number two, hope in Christ and his gospel. Hope in Christ and his gospel. And then number three, hope in the spirit for heaven. But first, hope in God. First point in our outline, hope in God. He says in verse 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. Peace has been described as hope resting. Hope resting by faith. Joy has been described here as hope dancing. Hope resting is peace. Hope dancing is joy. But notice this comes as we're believing. Romans 12, 12 says rejoice in hope. There's joy and rejoicing in this hope. And chapter five, he says, we have peace and we rejoice in hope. And so hopefulness leads to happiness, true, deep, biblical joy. And this hope's peace comes as we believe. It says joy and peace in believing. We could define hope as expectation based on revelation. It's an expectation we have based on the revelation of God, what he's revealed. It's believing in biblical truth. Biblical hope is believing in biblical truth that God has revealed. It's not a worldly hope. Sometimes worldly hope is based on what's in your bank account. This hope that he's talking about here is a hope that banks on God's promises and God's resources. That's what it banks on. See, we use this word hope. very superficially or very unlikely things. Maybe you have hope in your sports team that always does terrible, but maybe you're thinking, I really hope this is going to be the year for the Sacramento Kings. That's not going to happen. No offense. This is not going to be the year they win the finals, but a lot of us speak in those terms. We hope. There's no evidence of it, but we're going to keep hoping. This is not, in verse 13, an unknown or an unlikely wish. This is knowing God can do the unlikely and can do the impossible. In fact, this is how Paul described it in Romans 4. He talks about Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, who was 100 years old, and he describes him as as good as dead. Sarah has been barren. She's 90 now. They're somewhere in that ballpark. And God promised them offspring. which is impossible, but it says, in hope against hope, Abraham believed that he should become the father of many nations, fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. So he wasn't just hoping in himself that maybe he could have children decades after that would be normally possible. He's hoping because he's trusting in what God said and what God promised that he would do. And so Abraham and Sarah in Hebrews 11 are a model of that hope, that faith that is the assurance of things hoped for. And Sarah's even a model of, in 1 Peter 3, an example of submissive wives who, it says, hope in God. And as they hope in God, that makes them beautiful, that makes them precious in God's sight. It says, you can be her daughters by faith. If you also seek to do what is right and are not frightened by fear, you can be daughters of Abraham. And there are daughters of Abraham in this room. That's what faith is, the assurance of things hoped for, Hebrews 11. The conviction of things not seen. It's not an uncertain, wishful thinking. It's being certain of what I'm not yet seeing, but I'm believing. I'm certain of what I'm not yet seeing, but I'm believing because God said it, and that settles it, whether or not I believe it. Hebrews 6 calls it the full assurance of hope, and this hope we have as an anchor of the soul. It's both sure and steadfast or firm and secure. In other words, this is what gives us stability in life. When all the storms of life come, if we have this solid anchor, if we're rooted to this anchor, we won't be blown to and fro. We'll be rooted, we'll be secure because we have our moorings and our anchor in this hope. One Bible dictionary says, hope is what one expects but does not yet possess. It's what we expect but do not yet possess. And so 1 Timothy talks about how we're not to put our hope in uncertain riches, but to put hope in God. And it says this in 1 Timothy 5, 5, the widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. There are widows and widowers in this room. who put their hope in God and in his certain promises and have been an example to us in this room of what that hope looks like. Not hoping in uncertain future, but hoping in God. in God and continuing night and day in your prayers. Several in this room live alone, but you are not all alone because God is with you. And as you talk to him in prayer, as you pray for this church, that is a powerful and important and vital ministry. And it's a great example to us and a great model and a great ministry also to show to the world how we do not grieve like the rest of the world does who have no hope. Because as we grieve, we have hope. We hope in God. Keep hoping in God. Hope in God. But notice also in Romans 15, this first point, hope in God through his word in verse four says, whatever was written before was written for our instruction and for our endurance. so that through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. That makes me think of Lamentations 3, even some of that wording, where Jeremiah says, my soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is. So I say my endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this, listen to this, but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. He says, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will hope in him. It's a great example of someone who wasn't feeling Romans 15, 13 initially. He was thinking his soul had no peace, no joy. He was thinking his endurance and his hope was dead, and his soul, as he describes it, kept remembering and kept rehearsing past hurts. And as he looked inward, there was no hope there. There was only pain in there. Even looking outward, looking around him. This is when Jerusalem had been taken into captivity. So many of God's people had come under his judgment. And as he's looking around him, he's not seeing any reason for hope, just looking on the horizon. So looking inward, even looking outward, he didn't see reason for hope. But then he turns and he looks upward. And as he looks upward to God, he has hope. And how does he have hope? It's because he says, this is what I call to mind. What he knows in God's word about God's steadfast love. What were some things in God's word that he had available to him? Psalm 130, hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is steadfast love. Out of the depths I cry, please for mercy. In his word I hope more than the watchman waits for the morning. The watchman is waiting for the morning. He knows it's coming. Jeremiah says, or Psalm 130 says, I hope for in the Lord more than even the watchman is watching and hoping for the morning. Jeremiah's hoping in that word every morning and that the next morning that hope will be there and that God will be there. Another Psalm says the eye of the Lord is on those who hope in his steadfast love. That's his covenant love. Another Psalm 147, 11, the Lord takes pleasure in those who hope in his mercy. The Lord delights in that when he sees his people hoping in his mercy that gives him pleasure. And other Psalms say His love never ceases. His mercies never end. His faithfulness, the Psalms say, is on display every morning. It's on display to the heavens, to the clouds, to the skies around us. His faithfulness, as you drove in today, was on display in His creation, in His Son that has come up, in His mercies that have come up this morning, the mercies that we are here. The very fact that we are here is evidence of His mercy and His love has not come to an end. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That's what Jeremiah is banking on and trusting in, that mercy is surely going to keep following him all of his days. And that's what gives strength for today. That's what gives bright hope for tomorrow. What we sang from greatest life faithfulness comes right out of this passage. His compassions fail not. They're new every morning. So God's word is what Jeremiah called to mind. Therefore, he had hope. And when this happened, his life situation had not changed. The situations and the people around him had not changed, but hope changes him. He's changing. His hope is changing him. His soul had been remembering past hurts. He described his soul as being bowed down, bent over, until he remembered the attributes of God. He remembers God's character. He remembers what God's done in the past. He rises up as he looks up. His soul once said, I have no hope. But now he starts speaking to his soul. He says, soul, God is my portion, therefore I will hope in God. And I think even there he's thinking of scripture like Psalm 119 that says, the Lord is my portion, this exact phrase. I rise before the dawning of the morning, the Psalm says, and cry for help. I hope in your word. The Lord is my portion means he's enough, he's sufficient. I can be content in him, I'm gonna hope in him. And so the application here is hope in God and his word. Every morning, it's new. Pray, come to his word. If you're not in his word, if you're not seeking hope in his word, that's where it's found. That's what stirs our hope in God. You need to spend time in the morning seeking his mercies that are new. And they will meet you every morning as you meet God, but hope in God and his word. I'll take you to one place in God's word, Psalm 42. because there are gonna be times where you're downcast. There's gonna be times when you're in despair, when you're depressed. Some of you have heard Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book, Spiritual Depression. It's a very helpful diagnosis. He says, have you realized that most of your unhappiness is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You've not originated them, but they start talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday. Yourself is talking to you. You have to learn how to address yourself, how to preach to yourself, how to question yourself. You must turn on yourself. Don't just listen, exhort yourself and say to yourself, hope in God. Don't just listen to yourself and your feelings. Speak to yourself the truth of God and his word. That's what we see in Psalm 42, is the writer feels oppression and depression. He's listening to his feelings. And in verse seven, this poetic language for the depths of despair, he feels like these waves, these breakers, they just keep pounding him, pummeling him, pouring over him these waves. Look at verse three of Psalm 42. My tears have been my food day and night. In other words, my emotions have been consuming me 24-7 while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and I would lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs. His soul is saying to him, those were the good old days. Remember when everything was great, everything was good, and we don't always remember the good old days quite like they really were, but we're thinking back, like the Jews thinking back, wasn't it great, wasn't it better back in Egypt? And of course it wasn't, but there were times maybe where he was closer and he was more in fellowship, and maybe there's some reason why he's been away from worship. But he's come to the point, for whatever reason, we don't know, but he's feeling and saying, and maybe others are saying, or even his tears, his own emotions are saying, where is God now? Where is hope now? Then verse five turns the corner. And he stops just passively listening to himself. And he starts actively speaking to himself to hope in God. Verse five, why are you cast down, oh my soul? He's talking to his own soul now. He's addressing himself, grabbing himself by the collar. Why are you in despair, oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Here it is, hope in God. He's commanding himself, hope in God. For I shall again praise him. I'm gonna praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down, or your version may say it, in despair within me. Therefore, therefore, I remember you. My soul is in despair. So I'm gonna remember you. Like Jeremiah, he remembers God and his unceasing, steadfast love. He talks about that in verse eight, and now he's with him. In the night, in verse 11, though, it happens again. He's down, he goes up, and he goes down. Back in verse 11, it happens again, and he's in despair, but he tells himself again, hope in God. I shall again praise him. We gotta keep praising. We've gotta keep preaching to ourselves because those waves of emotions, those ups and downs are gonna keep coming. This is not a one-time thing. We need to learn how to keep preaching to ourselves the truth of God and to keep praising God, because even in the act of praise of God for who he is, he can change us and give us hope. Look at Psalm 43, verse five. This is another psalm, or it may have been one in the original, but let me read it in another version. He says, why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him. Or others say, my soul, why are you in despair? Why are you discouraged? Why are you so disturbed? Hope in God, I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. That's a New American Standard wording, that the help of his presence is part of what turns him from just listening to his feelings or emotions. See, he questions his soul. He questions his soul. Why are you in despair? And then he commands hope in God. And then he commits his soul. I will praise him. And then he counsels his soul. He speaks of the help of his presence. But this is a pattern where he's gotta keep correcting, keep redirecting his heart. As in Psalm 42, verse six, we saw it, his soul is down again, but he chooses to remember and to trust his God. He chooses like Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits. That's talking to his own soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Forget none of his benefits. If you want help in what that means to preach his benefits so you don't forget them, make Psalm 103 part of your mental playlist. Some of us have playlists that we just kind of listen to over and over. We need to listen over and over to the playlist of Psalm 103. He forgives, he heals, he satisfies, he redeems, he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger. Psalm 103 is all about telling your soul how to bless the Lord and to not forget his benefits because we can so easily forget all that he's done as we're focusing on this one thing that's troubling us. I've got a book that I've been reading this week. I read most of it this week. It's from Nathan Buznitz. It's called Living a Life of Hope. And if you want to study this theme of hope, this is a great book. Nathan Buznitz, Living a Life of Hope. Buznitz is B-U-S-E-N-I-T-Z, but Living a Life of Hope. There isn't a lot written on hope. Scripture says the three virtues are faith, hope, and love. These three, the greatest is love. There's a lot written on love, and there's a lot written on faith, but hope, right in the middle, and it's in those top three, seems to be the most neglected of those virtues. This book does a good job, but here's what it says. Many Christians suffer from spiritual nearsightedness. God's word, however, serves as spiritual spectacle. So it's like these spiritual eyeglasses that you can put on and you're now seeing through the lenses of God's word and God's promises. And so that hasn't actually changed what's around you. What it's done, though, is it's changed how you view what's going on around you. It didn't actually, when you put those on, change things around you, but it helps you to see rightly and see clearly. And so hope in God and his word is where it starts. But then number two, also in this passage, hope in Christ and his gospel. So back to Romans 15, and there's more hope in preaching the gospel to yourself. Ephesians 2, Paul says, remember that you were at one time without hope and without God, but God. So Ephesians 2 is another great place for when we were hopeless, where that hope came from, it's from but God. And then Ephesians 1 says the saved hope in Christ and the gospel. We sing my hope is built on nothing less than what? Jesus, blood and righteousness, that's right. And the song goes on to say, when all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. This is where it's found in Christ and his gospel truths, Romans 15 verse 12. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse, that's the Messiah in Isaiah, will come, he's the son of Jesse, David was, but this is the ultimate son of David, the root, not just the son, but the one who would come through that root, through the tribe of Judah, through the tribe of Jesse, he's gonna come, this Messiah will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, and it says this, in him will the Gentiles hope. The Gospel of Matthew also talks about this passage and it talks about Jesus calling all who are burdened, all who are heavy laden from their sin to come and take his yoke and really to take his hope upon them as well. And then it talks about him healing hopeless people. And it says this, this was to fulfill, this is Matthew 12, what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, behold my servant. And it says this, a bruised reed he will not break. And a smoldering wick he will not quench. Sometimes you've seen those wicks and they're about to go out. And then what this is saying is he's not gonna come and just snuff out hope. And there's a little bit of hope there. He doesn't come and just snuff it out. And then it says this, in his name the Gentiles will hope. Isaiah also said, the coastlands will hope in him. That's us, we're the Gentiles, we're the nations, we're the coastlands, the faraway coastlands from Israel. He was the suffering servant. But Isaiah said, the Messiah will not falter. He will not be discouraged. And the islands will put their hope in him. Jesus didn't falter. He didn't fall into discouragement. Although he was tempted in the garden, wasn't he? But he turned to the Lord. He trusted in his father's help. And we shouldn't lose discouragement either if we trust in him. We have a hope that is secure. How many of you have heard of a hope chest? A hope chest, okay, we actually have a hope chest at our place. It's a place where you put special things. The gospel is a spiritual hope chest. There's some special truths for our hope. As we think of baby Jesus in the temple, how he's lifted up as Israel's hope and consolation, or you think about how Jesus gave hope to the hopeless people in his adult ministry, the lepers and the widows and those who were deemed hopeless by their world. He showed power to change. Think of Mary Magdalene who he delivered from seven demons and then used her mightily. Or think of Peter who needed to be delivered from all kinds of stumblings and how he would speak and his pride and James and John. So many people, we see the power of Jesus to change them. Jesus specialized in the impossible. He proved that there are no hopeless cases. There were no hopeless cases. Even as Jesus, as we think of the hope we can have in him, that he was actually tempted in every way as we are, but he did not sin. And so he gives hope to overcome sin, but also hope to know that as we pray to Jesus, he knows exactly what we are talking about because he has experienced it. There's great hope in that. And Jesus died, and when he died, there was these men on the Emmaus Road, and they thought they'd lost hope. They said, we hoped he was gonna be the one who was gonna redeem Israel. They hoped in him. They thought that hope was lost on that weekend. But Sunday was coming, wasn't it? Peter talks about how we have, through the resurrection of Jesus, we have a living hope. And he says, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought you of Jesus. And then here's what Peter preached in Acts 2. I saw the Lord continually before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest in hope. My flesh will live in hope, he says, because he is continually setting the Lord before him. Like he's right here, he's at my right hand. And so there's hope in that. And the Lord Jesus resurrected and he also ascended to heaven, but he is gonna return. And when he returns, Paul calls that our blessed hope. That's our blessed hope. That's what we're looking for, that he's gonna come again. And so I need to ask you, can you say, in Christ alone, my hope is found? Can you say that? Is that where all your hope is? It's only in Christ. It's not in what you do. If you're hoping in, well, I hope to get to heaven. I hope I've done enough good to outweigh the bad. The book of Romans tells you that's not gonna happen. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Our only hope for heaven is that Jesus came and he lived the perfect life for us that we could not live. He died on the cross for the sins of all those who would turn from their sins and trust in him. He rose so that all those who are in him would also rise and would be given new life. You've gotta recognize it's not about your good works or what you do or what you hope will get you to heaven. The only hope is what Christ has done for you. And if you can't yet say in Christ alone my hope is found, I want to urge you this day to turn from your sin, turn from whatever else you're trusting in or hoping in, turn from those false hopes and trust in Christ as your hope. is dying and is rising for you. Repent and turn from your sins and there is hope. There's certain and sure hope if you come to Christ in that way. Nothing in your hand you bring, you're just, only to the cross is what you're gonna cling to. That's where the hope is found. And if you need help or hope with that or with other spiritual issues, my brother or sister up front here would love to talk with you and pray with you. We need to understand if there's no Christ, there's no hope. But if you know Christ, then you will know hope. There's no Christ, there's no hope. But if you know Christ by saving faith, you will know. this hope, and one of the reasons we hope in the middle of verse 12 is it says he rules the Gentiles or the nations. He sovereignly controls all things. He cares for all. Some of you kids have learned the New City Catechism question number one, what is our only hope in life and death? That we are not our own is the answer. That we belong, body and soul, to God and to our Savior, Jesus Christ. In fact, this is what we're gonna sing at the end of the service, a fuller answer to that. What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone. Here's the Heidelberg Catechism that that song also comes from. Adds this, he's our faithful savior, Jesus Christ. He is fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and he has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. That's our hope right there. And that hope there of the Spirit and of heaven takes us to our third and final point, which is hope in the Spirit. For heaven, look at verse 13 again. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Go to chapter 18 if you would, or chapter 8 rather. Chapter 18 will be hard to find of Romans. There's only 16. Remember, hope is this future-oriented expecting what we're not yet possessing. And we won't be disappointed in this hope of future glory. Romans 8, 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs, heirs are those who get the inheritance. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. This is future glory. Verse 24, for in this hope, we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for 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 weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself. intercedes for us, and what a hope this is. First of all, the spirit is the one who comes inside of us as believers and bears witness that we are actually children of God. And if we're children, then we're heirs, that we're actually gonna receive an inheritance with Christ. And then what a hope this is, that even when we don't have the words, God's spirit is our helper, even in our weakness and our prayers. He's the other comforter that Jesus promised. And he helps our weakness, he helps our wordless groanings when we go to pray and we don't even know what to say. He's there and he is interceding for us. Even if we can't get the words out, he knows our heart. He knows God's will and he prays for us. That's what intercedes means. The spirit is actually praying for you and me right now. And he's in a special way when you need to endure suffering. When you need that hopeful patience and the heavenly perspective, the Holy Spirit is with you all the way. And this is the hope of glory. And so Paul would say in another place, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. This should give us strength and boldness to know we're not alone. He's with us and greater is he who is with us than he who is in the world. Puritan John Bunyan. wrote in Pilgrim's Progress, how they endured, quote, against doubting castle. And they had slain giant despairs, an allegory of the Christian life. So they went forward and went on till they came to the delectable mountains, where Christian and hopeful. refresh themselves with the varieties of the place. His friend who's with him through those times is hopeful. Through those most difficult times in the story, this friend named hopeful is with him. And there is a celestial city for those who are hopeful in Christ, for those who are faithful and trusting in Christ. There is a celestial city. There is a sweet by and by. There is a paradise to come. There is a father's house with many mansions. There is that distant shore. There is that new world, that new world where there is no more sorrow, where there's no more pain, there's no more struggling. There's no more difficulties, there's no more disease, there's no more limitations, there's no more judging of one another, there's no more even motives in our hearts towards others who would be there that would be wrong in any way. No eye has seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it gone to the heart of man what the Lord has promised to those who love him. I think it was J.I. Packer who said, heaven is in some ways an unknown place, but with a very well-known inhabitant. And so what's gonna be glorious about heaven is that Christ is there and we know much about him, so we know much of what it will be like. Just imagine that, can you imagine that? None of those things I just talked about. glory to come that is coming if you are trusting in Christ and even though things seem so difficult now there is a hope of glory to come that should keep us going and to know that the Spirit is with us we are children and we have an inheritance and so Paul says in Ephesians that the Spirit is the guarantee of that inheritance and then when Paul prays this is what he prays this is what we need to pray for ourselves and others and Paul says, I pray that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened so that they will know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glorious inheritance that's in the saints. Paul prays for that because our eyes don't see the fullness of that glorious inheritance. We don't have our eyes open to the hope of his calling. We need to pray, God, open my eyes to the hope of your calling, the glorious riches of your inheritance. Help me to think on what really matters, the things of eternity where you are, where Christ is. C.S. Lewis' book, The Last Battle, has a character that sees this world to come, and he says this, I have come home at last. This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I've been looking for all my life. And it says, come further up and come further in. This is what Paul starts Colossians talking about, the hope laid up for you in heaven. And chapter three says, keep seeking those things that are above. Set your affections on things that are above, not the things of this earth. That's where we are. Our affections are set on things of this earth. They need to be set above the things of heaven. Set your heart on things above. Where is your heart at today? Where is your affections? If they're not in the right place, pray to God to set your affections on things above and ask his help to help you see the riches of that hope and that inheritance. What are you seeking today? Is your treasure in heaven? Have you been living for yourself? Are you living for yourself or are you living for God? or what matters. Jesus says, where your treasure is, there, what? Your heart will be also. God can change your heart, he can change your treasure. Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered it up, and then his joy, in his joy he goes and he sells all that he has for that field. And that's the picture of when we store up treasure in heaven, when we seek first his kingdom, and we see what really matters in joy, we're willing to trade it all, we're willing to lay down self, lay down our sin, because it's about him, and we wanna treasure him above all. That's what will make heavens so heavenly. We will be with him, and we will be like him, Paul says. What we will be, or 1 John 3 rather, says, what we will be is not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself. There's a purifying power. of looking to the Lord. I was reading in this book, and I want to just read a section from this book as we close. A radio preacher a few decades ago had shared that he was going to be preaching on heaven the next week, and he got this letter in the mail from an elderly man who knew he was about to die. Next Sunday, you are to talk about heaven. I am interested in that land because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for 55 years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price, but the donor purchased it for me at a tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable. It is not a vacant lot. Termites can never undermine the foundation because it is built on the rock of ages. Fire cannot destroy it. Bloods cannot wash it away. No locks or bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious person can ever enter that land where my dwelling stands, now almost completed and ready for me to enter and abide in peace eternally without fear of being ejected. But there is a valley of deep shadow between the place where I live in California and that to which I shall journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in the city of God without passing through the dark valley of shadows. But I am not afraid because the best friend that I ever had went through that same valley alone long, long ago and drove away all the gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin since we first became acquainted 55 years ago. And I hold his promise in printed form. I hope in that never to forsake, never to leave me alone. He will be with me as I walk through the valley of the shadows and I shall not lose my way when he is with me. I hope to hear your sermon on heaven next Sunday for my home, but I have no assurance that I will be able to do so. My ticket to heaven has no date marked for the journey, no return coupon and no permit for baggage. Yes, I am ready to go. And I may not be here while you are talking next Sunday, but I shall meet you there someday. Just picture that man, bent, shaking, his body wasted, his face wrinkled, his brow furrowed. And from an earthly perspective, maybe not much more than skin on the skeleton, the world would say that's a hopeless invalid. And yet, if you could see this man, there's something in his eye that sparkles and there's something that speaks of a hope that this world does not know. Friends, if we have that hope within us, People are gonna ask us, what is the reason for the hope that is within us? We need to be ready to give an answer, as Peter says, and to do it with gentleness and respect. So that hope purifies us, but it also, that hope evangelizes. If we're living for that hope, we're gonna look different to the world. They're gonna ask us, and we need to be ready, and we need to tell them the gospel of our hope in Christ, amen? Amen, let me pray. Our God of hope, we thank you for the hope that we have in your word and in you. We thank you for the hope that we have in Christ and his gospel. We thank you for the hope of your Holy Spirit and heaven. And Lord, there are some in this room, Lord, who are ready for heaven and you know when their day is, but Lord, I pray that you would help them when that day comes to know they need not fear. because you are with them. Your mercy and goodness are with them all the way. Lord, help us all to live in light of what matters, in light of eternity. We pray these things in the name of the hope of Israel and the savior for the world, amen.