Well, we're going to heaven again this morning. I was thinking as you were praying for these people that were in need. Every morning when I pray, I think every morning, I go to heaven. And I go to this city we're going to talk about. And I go to the holiest place in this city, and it is the temple in the New Jerusalem where the Lord God Almighty dwells. And I think of that when I pray. And when I pray, you know, there are some things we don't forget to pray about. We don't forget to pray about things we want. but we forget when we pray to thank God. And every morning when I pray, one of the things I do is thank God. And I go to this most holy place and there talk to God. Well, we are looking at the topic of heaven and sometimes we need to get our eyes off of this world and focus on glory. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says this, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now what helped Jesus to endure the cross? looking to what was coming on the other side, what carried him through. It helped him endure. It helped him to endure the shame and humiliation of hanging on the cross and having passers-by look him in the face and spit in his face. It helped him endure all of this, looking to the other side. So looking at what happens after this life for believers is one of those things that helps us to endure, even despise the pain we must endure from time to time while we walk this pilgrim pathway. In these last two messages, we're looking in particular at what lies in the future for the believer, the believer who endures suffering by faith. That is, not by grumbling and complaining, but by faith. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, that was read for us earlier. We had verses 8 through 18. Verse 17 says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. In the context of this verse, Paul is looking to the time when this life is over. In light of eternity, Paul considers all of our trials and sufferings in this life as our, what was it? light affliction. When you look at what Paul went through, it seems like anything but light. But when you consider eternity, the worst possible trials here on earth could only be considered as light. In view of eternity, our trials in this life are, as Paul expresses it here, but for a moment. Now notice in the verse what the troubles and trials we endure in this life are doing for us. What are they doing? They are working for us. Our light affliction here is said to be working for us. And what are they working for us? They are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. No, that's not quite right. These light afflictions are working a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What do these afflictions, these trials, these rough life circumstances do for us? They are building an exceeding and eternal weight of glory for us. What does that mean? If we gain the victory in our trials here, each victory is laying up a weight of glory for us. What does that mean? I believe that means that for all eternity, every trial we have overcome by faith in this life will be on display in heaven forever. Other people will know what we went through and how we trusted God in those trials. And they will say, wow, all things truly did work together for good to those who love God. And we will see what others have come through victoriously and say, wow, if only we had been able to see this when we were going through these trials. Well, that is what Jesus did. He looked ahead to the joy and the glory that was set before him. Now, let me add this. We can lay up many things in glory. We can do it now and lay them up in glory. Jesus said we are not to lay up for ourselves treasures here on earth, but we are to lay them up in heaven. But through overcoming trials and troubles by faith, we can lay up an exceeding weight of glory. Look at the face of any true Christian. Look at their face. And that Christian is going through many things you and I have no idea about. But I believe in this city, we will have millions of stories. Now listen, it will be for what? Our glory. Think of that. Notice this verse says, our light affliction works for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. This, our glory, will be eternal. I am of the opinion that this city is not only for God's glory, it is for our glory as well. In this life, we are here to live for God's glory. We are to show others what God is like. On the other side, God has ordained things for our glory. Ponder that. What does that mean? It means, as I see it, God will display for others the good qualities He has accomplished in us when we overcome our trials by faith. What we truly have become in Jesus Christ in this life will be on display for all others in heaven, and it will never fade away. And let me just add this, that all grumbling, complaining, fretting, fussing, fighting our difficult circumstances in this life, these reveal a lack of genuine faith and will not show up as glory for us. In these three messages, I have simply tried to cause us to shift our focus of our eyes from the here and now to eternity. These last two messages, which I have dedicated to my wife, I have sought to show us what our sufferings will do for us for all eternity if we overcome by faith. We have seen that there will be no more tears, and that signifies the end of all trials. We saw that there are vast amounts of gold in this city. And I think that according to 1 Peter 1, 7, this gold will speak for eternity of that which we have come through in this life by faith. We want to now look at the 12 foundations of this city and the gates of Pearl. Back in Revelation chapter 21 you might want to turn to it. It says in Matthew or in Revelation 21 verses 19 through 20, the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper. The second, sapphire. The third, chalcedony. The fourth, emerald. The fifth, sardonyx. The sixth, sardius. The seventh, chrysolite. The eighth, beryl. The ninth, topaz. The 10th, chrysopras. The 11th, jacinth. And the 12th, amethyst. Let me encourage you to read through Revelation 21 and 22 and try to think what the new heavens and the new earth will be like as revealed in these chapters. I want to draw our attention now in particular to the kinds of stones that are used for the foundation. You know, one night I was pondering this city and I thought, we put so much value on diamonds, why are they not in this foundation? Do you ever think at night? There are a lot of things you can ponder. But let us now ask, what might be the significance of these stones which are used in the foundations of the New Jerusalem? As I pondered this, I remembered that someone had sent me a clip by David Pawson, a pastor from the UK who has now passed on, and he spoke of these stones. Listen to what he said. The New Jerusalem, it is said, is made up of 12 stones that we would turn into jewelry now. Now here is the final proof that the Bible is the Word of God, that it must be inspired. In the last generation only, we have discovered now how to make purer light than we had before. Most light just bounces around like waves crashing against each other in all directions so that the light coming from there still lights up my face on this side and reflecting off that thing up there and we're used to light coming at us from all directions. That's why from this little light we can see all the rest of this because it bounces around. Then he said, but we've now discovered how to turn light in one direction. Anybody know what it's called? What's that? Laser light. It's laser light. It's the most common kind. You've seen laser and it goes straight as a die. But we've also got what is called cross-polarized light. A polarized filter, as you can imagine, allows light like that. But if you put another polarized filter so that the light goes through this filter crossed over at right angles to that, you've really got a very fine filter. So he explained all of this in a diagram, and I can't do that here. But then he said, if you take sunglasses and take another set and put it at right angles to the other, it goes even darker and it only lets very straight light through. Now, people have taken jewels and precious stones and cut a very thin slice for microscopic purposes. then shone cross-polarized light through them to see what happens. To put it very crudely, what happens to these stones in pure light? What happens to them? And one of two entirely different things happens to every jewel. The technical scientific term you have are anastropic jewels and isotropic jewels. Now, what happens is this. Some jewels in pure light, whatever their color to begin with, they may be red, blue or green, turn all the colors of the rainbow and turn into a most fantastic, and I couldn't get the word, but a most fantastic display. So we could have a picture there, James, if you don't mind, if you look on the pictures I handed out. That's the top ones. Then he says, other precious stones in pure light lose all their color. They just go black, look like a lump of coal. And it's only in the last generation that people have discovered this unusual property. For example, diamonds in pure light are nothing. I couldn't understand everything that was said here. But he said that some precious stones, like rubies, for instance, and diamonds, they lose everything. They just don't look like anything much. So I continue the quote, and you can look on your pictures at those kind of stones. Then he said, there are other stones that are anastrophic and go into beautiful colors. Now here is the fascinating thing. The 12 precious stones that God uses to build the New Jerusalem are all anastrophic stones. In pure light, they are all far more beautiful, and God doesn't touch the diamonds or the rubies. He doesn't build with it." So let me ask you, who knew this about these stones 2,000 years ago? Tell me, who knew about it? Who knew about it? Nobody. Nobody but God. No scientist knew about it. John the Apostle didn't know about it. It was only the Lord that gave him this picture that knew about it. Pothin then said, to me, that alone, that is the isotropic qualities of these stones, would prove that the Bible is the word of God. But nobody knew it but God himself. They didn't know it until our generation. Now there are other isotropic stones than the ones mentioned in the foundation of the New Jerusalem, but these twelve are all isotropic. You know what, I'm always afraid of becoming fanciful, but I have no doubt that each of these twelve stones are used for some reason and mean something. And I cannot yet even suggest what that might be. Study the promises made to the seven churches in chapters two through three. Like that of the white stone which is given to every believer. Do you think it's just a white stone? I have no doubt it means something. What I am saying is that only now have we learned this beautiful truth of these 12 stones because of science. Who knows how much there is to learn about the properties of gold and stones and pearls. Let me add that without light these stones lose all their beauty. You can't even see them. Now, we're not going to study light. I'll mention a few things. But this city has light that is radiated by God himself and by Jesus Christ. Look at verses 10 through 11. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Well, what could that be? Verse 23, the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light. Then verse 24, And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. Then verse 20, chapter 22, verse 5, There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. We have looked at one kind of light and how it makes certain rocks give off all the colors of the rainbow. What might the radiated light by God and Jesus Christ do to this city? Have you ever wondered about that? This light, what will it do? What might this light do when it shines on the foundation or the walls of Jasper or the gates of Pearl or the gold? I expect it will be beautiful, maybe beyond description. What will it do when it shines on people? Well, we have to wait and see. Now, I've tried to study light. You want to study something? Light is difficult to study. Darkness is a natural thing, but light is unnatural. It was created. God said, let there be light, and light came into existence. As we have seen today, scientists are able to do amazing things with light, like a laser light. But who knows what other kinds of light there may be? The internet said a laser generates a beam of very intense light. The major difference between laser light and light generated by white light sources, such as a light bulb, is that the laser light is monochromatic, directional, and coherent. And quote, monochromatic means that all of the light produced by the laser is of a single wavelength, which is different than all the light we have here. Now the outstanding thing about light is that it reveals. I suppose that God could have made us with eyes that see in the dark, don't you? But all of creation is the way it is for a purpose. And light is spoken of in a spiritual sense. So Ephesians says that whatever reveals is light. One of the things light reveals in a spiritual sense is sin. We get to see sin in spiritual light. All of us, no matter who we are, when we sin, we want to keep it hidden. Turn to John chapter 3 for a moment. Our weaknesses, oh, how we want to keep them. Have you ever noticed how we want to hide things when we sin? When it comes to confessing a need in an area of weakness, every window in our lives is closed up tight. We do not want to confess a need. Would you pray for me because of such and such? We don't want to do it. Oh, how we hate confession. or repentance. Jesus said that men love darkness rather than light. The word men means all of us, mankind. We begin in verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is condemnation. that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. When we get to glory, when all the dross is gone, listen, we will love exposure. I believe that in heaven, the exposure of the light there will bring glory to us, not shame, which is what it does now. We will want others to see what it reveals. Oh, the glory of the believer in this city. Now, let me ask, how are gemstones like these foundations stones formed? How are they formed? I asked omniscient Google how gemstones are formed. One article said there are five requirements for crystals to form. Number one, ingredients. Number two, want to guess? Temperature. Number three, pressure. Number four, time. Number five, space. The ingredients we're talking about here is the Christian. To make this beauty we have seen in these stones, it takes very high temperature. Let me ask you what you're going through. To become what God wants us will take very high temperature. We have looked at that in the gold as well. But a new thing is needed to produce these stones. You know what it is? Pressure. Do you remember that Jesus said we should enter through the narrow gate? That is because this narrow path leads to the city we're talking about. But Jesus said, difficult is the way. The word translated difficult here, you know what it is? Pressure. Pressure. In this narrow road, we will be put under pressure, sometimes great pressure. The online Bible says this pressure speaks metaphorically of trouble, affliction, and distress. Are you familiar with these? The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8 and on, We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So he said we are hard-pressed, there's our word, hard-pressed, crushed, perplexed, persecuted, forsaken, struck down. Here are words familiar to the Christian on the narrow way. I can speak of times without number of experiencing these things, and it has only gotten worse. Many times it was due to my own failures, and I submit to you that if we will deal with our own failures by faith, doing that will create tremendous pressure. I know of little more that creates more pressure than repenting to somebody else. When we need to repent and confess, you know what? I think maybe most of the time we don't do it. Would I be right? But that is what it takes to make transparent Christians. I think that's what it takes to make the rainbow colors. But there's another ingredient important to the formation of gemstones, and that is time. That is if omniscient Google is right. God cannot rush the Christian into becoming like Christ. It takes time. We cannot be conformed to the image of Christ in a moment. Some mature faster than others, but to learn to live by faith in life's circumstances takes time, and time, like light, is almost, if not entirely, impossible to define. Now let me ask you, what makes gemstones valuable? Anybody can tell me. What makes them valuable? The rarity, okay. That would be, that's an interesting thing to pursue, I didn't think of that. But I don't know of any intrinsic value in gemstones, anything, except their beauty. You might correct me. This is a major difference between them and gold. Think about this. What is a gemstone good for? What can you make except something beautiful? You can't build with it. You can't form it, mold it. You can cut it. It's only its beauty that makes it valuable. What is a pearl good for? I think only its beauty. I may be wrong. But gold is useful for many purposes. And to be able to appreciate gemstones, one must have light. And it is amazing what light does to the kinds of stones that are used in the foundation of this city. One of the first things we are told about this city is its light source. Listen to verses 10 through 11 again. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. It is a certain kind of light used on these gemstones that brings out the vast array of color. What might the light of the New Jerusalem do to these stones? May I raise this question? What might this light do to the believer? What might it do to the believer when it shines on them? Our verse said that the light of the New Testament was like a precious stone, like a jasper stone, and it was clear as crystal. I wonder what this will look like. Scientists are learning today, one can imagine a little of what it might be like. And could it be that these stones speak of the pressure and heat that believers have to experience in this life? And could it be that the light of this city shines on them, that the glory of man's suffering and the beauty that comes out of it might be magnified? I think we will always be reminded of that and see that through all of life, God knew what he was doing. I wonder, do you have circumstances now and you wonder if God really knows what he's doing? and that all things do truly work together for good to those who love God, even into all eternity. I recommend that may be the significance of these things. Surely, surely there must be a divine purpose. In another message, I mentioned Psalm 56, verse 8. David was in one of the times when he was experiencing deep trials. Saul was pursuing him, trying to kill him. Every day, his life was in jeopardy. And in verse 8, he says this, you number my wanderings, put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book? Now, why would God number David's wanderings? Is it because God might forget? Do you ever wish people you know could know some of the pain you go through? We have a woman in our community. I hope I tell this story correctly. I understand she and her husband were friends with another couple. The man of the other couple got sick and the husband of the first couple was very caring to the other man. And then he started to sympathize with the wife of the other man. And after the sick man passed away, a connection had grown between the man who had cared for the other man and the other man's wife. The long and the short of it was that he ended up leaving his wife who was expecting their eighth child. Then he had to go to Germany for back surgery and the other man's wife went with him while his own wife stayed at home with their eighth child to be. This man ended up rejecting his own children in a court of law and is still living together with the other woman who has six children. Can you imagine this? No, we can't. Now, how often must this woman with the eight children left to fend for herself not have wished to speak to her husband. But her mouth is shut. There's one thing endured. There's nothing she can do but bear it in some way. She professes to be a Christian, and I wonder how often would she wish there were those who truly understood what she was going through that she could pour out her heart and find comfort. We visited with her. I don't know how many Kleenexes it took for her to tell us some of this. Day by day, sorrowful day by sorrowful day goes by and her husband lives with the other woman and she and her children are totally rejected. Every person who experiences life's trials has an opportunity to trust God in those trials and build up beauty for eternity. Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. I've told you very briefly one of billions of stories. Stories of sad things Christians have experienced. Consider this. These 12 foundations are how long? How long? Do you know how long? Almost 6,000 miles. How many stones do you think? How many stories do you think they could tell? This lady I told you about, could she not say with David, you number my wanderings? Put my tears into your bottle. I wonder how many bottles of tears she has spent. And David said, are they not in your book? God knows. God knows. There is one who knows. I want to propose a possibility to you that here, in these precious stones in the New Jerusalem, is God's bottle and his book. Now, I don't know, but I think it may be. I can imagine someday in the future, if this woman walks faithfully with God and arrives in this city, she might say to a friend, come, I want to show you my story. Well, you'd probably say, well, you know, you're just speculating. I am. Do you know what? I may be wrong, and it would only be because it will be much better than what I'm telling you. I spent some hours studying geology. Since I really don't know much, I started with kids' videos. They start at the beginning. The study of rocks is most fascinating. There are basically three kinds of rocks and there are really only two. The other one is made up of the other two. These stones in the foundations of the New Jerusalem are called precious stones. They are one of those two kinds. 20 times the Bible talks about precious stones. You know, when I was young, we walked to school. Some people say they walked to school uphill both ways. Well, we didn't. We walked three miles every day, one way, six miles a day. And so walking to school and back, we knew nothing about rocks, but we picked up agates. And we had a collection of agates. There was something about the rock. You can recognize this difference. Years later, some good friends took us to the Queen Charlotte Islands. They took us on a long trip along the coast of the island. Now, I had learned from the New Jerusalem about Jasper, and as we walked along, I picked up rocks and I thought, this must be Jasper. His red. So we picked up jasper and just beautiful white quartz and agates, and I polished many of them. And from that time, our interest in rocks grew. I now have a number of those red jasper stones polished. Now, our chapter calls the stones of the foundation of this city precious stones. The way quality stones become most precious is when they are polished or cut. Everything about gemstones speaks of pain, from their formation to their cutting and polishing. There are many precious stones that do not look precious at all until they are polished or cut. I'm inclined to think that here, in these stones may be God's bottle and book to remember our tears. For those who learn to live by faith and who learn to trust God in the midst of being conformed to the image of Christ, their sorrows will be turned into beauty, I believe for eternity, from the verse we had earlier. Isaiah speaking to Israel about the Millennium says this, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. to console those, here we come to the millennium, those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Verses two through three speak of the millennium. And if that is the millennium, what then of the new Jerusalem? The trials and troubles of this time, like many of the precious stones that come out of stress and heat and pressure in the earth, they are metamorphized. Now you know that word metamorphized comes out of Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. And we could spend a lot of time right here. We have to be metamorphized too. You know, the reason I go overtime sometimes is because Sunday morning I do my final writing. It is simply an amazing thing that it is in our times of sorrow that God is able to bring about that which is of greatest value to Him. and it will bring glory to us. If we learn to trust God in our sorrows, what God receives when we trust Him right there is of inestimable value to Him and it will be glory for us. The way God gives us an idea of how much it is worth to Him, He tells us it is much more precious than gold that perishes. And I tend to think that the beauty that comes out of these, those who learn to trust God in their trials, is on display in the New Jerusalem. Could this be the book and the bottle where God remembers our tears and He displays in language we understand best what all the saved are to Him? Now I've taken a little more time. There's no Sunday school class afterward. You don't have to make lunch yet. I might go over time just a little bit. But I want to talk for a moment about pearls. Listen to verse 21 of our chapter. The 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. I mentioned that I am zeroing in on the matter of suffering only. Just to mention that it is the names of the apostles that are on the foundation stones. Now when you can't sleep at night, you can go to the city, ponder the city. Then notice that it is the names of the 12 tribes of Israel that are on the gates. So you tell me, what do you think God laid first, the foundation or the gates? The foundation. So why are the apostles first and these others last? Well, see, that's what you can do when you're trying to sleep sometimes. Pearls are called gemstones by some. If so, they are the only gem material formed and found in living creatures. One article said, pearl is one of the oldest, most desired, and most spectacular gemstones in the world. Formed differently to most gems, pearl is an organic creation found in the sea and natural phenomena that actually occurs as a part of a defense mechanism of a mollusc shell." End quote. Now, they are extremely unique. But unlike all other gemstones, they require no cutting and no polishing before their stunning beauty is displayed. Let me ask. What do pearls, precious stones, and gold have in common? Well, it's stress, and trouble, and trials. Verse 21, the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. There are some things stated about the New Jerusalem I have struggled with. You know what I struggle with? One of the things? 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles. I've put it on a globe and said, look at how huge this thing is. But now look at these gates. How big do you think these gates are? Well, watch the old Jerusalem sometime and look at those gates. We don't know how big they will be. But do you think there could be real pearls that are the size of a big gate? Yes or no? Is the gold real, do you think, in the city? Do you think it's real? Are the precious stones real, do you think? What do you think about these pearls? Do you think they are real? All right. As we have seen, pure gold and precious stones and pearls all have some of the same things in common. For gold, it is heat and purification. For precious stones, it's heat and pressure, and later maybe polishing and cutting. Let me ask, what about pearls? I have told you this before, but does anyone remember? How does a pearl begin? Anybody remember? Piece of grit. Every pearl begins with a problem for the mollusk. And this problem, guess what? It lasts for the rest of their life. A lifetime. A clam or shell gets a parasite or some piece of grit, sand, or anything into its mantle, and if it can't get rid of it, It tries to. And when it tries to, it's like your eye watering. It just keeps watering and this stuff builds up on this irritant and it keeps building up and it keeps building up until you have a pearl. And when a mollusk shell dies and gives up the pearl, the finder has something of exquisite beauty. You just can't find this anywhere else in its natural state. Now, there's a very huge pearl. Let me see. Am I ahead of myself? There's a pearl called the Geiger pearl. And it was found by a Filipino fisherman who had no idea of its value. It was later discovered. And it is worth, anybody want to guess how much it's worth today? Well, here we go. $100 million. One pearl. $100 million. Is it big enough to make a gate? Yes, you can show the picture. I think it's coming up here, but you can put the picture up. You can look at your pictures that I gave you. Jesus told the parable of a man who found a pearl of great price. By the way, the word for pearl in the Greek is margaritas, and we get our name Margaret from the word for pearl. Jesus tells a story about a pearl that a man found, and he sold everything he had to get this one pearl. That tells you something about the value. There's another pearl called Lao Tse, and it is valued at $35 million. But the one that you see there is $100 million. And it is 61 pounds, and it is about 15 inches long. Wouldn't make much of a door, huh? Now the clam that carried this pearl could have carried this irritant for over 100 years. Sometimes we carry things that we try to get rid of for a long time. All we want to do is get rid of it. But I believe that if we live by faith and trust God in the midst of whatever that thing may be, think of someone born a cripple. Think of this lady who wrote all these hymns. What was her name? Wrote all these hymns and she was blind. Fanny Crosby, that's right. We may try all our life to get rid of something, and God is building up something very valuable. You see, when we enter this city, we are always reminded of this in life. Every gate is a pearl. And it will remind us of this. You see, there are some things some people bear for a lifetime. Some may be born blind or crippled, as I mentioned, or some are like the lady I told you about whose husband left her. They carry things, there is nothing you will ever do to get rid of it. It's there. But if there is a trust in Almighty God, That may be the formation of a $100 million pearl in glory. In conclusion. Let me ask, what do gold and precious stones and pearl have in common? First, they all go through very painful processes to make them of value. That is how life is in this fallen world. By the way, gold, I understand they use some gold inside those big spaceships they send into orbit to protect the people from certain things. So life is, in many ways, there are many things that are very, very painful to bear. I was thinking this morning when we were praying for this four-year-old child. I don't know what all is there, but think of this now. Think of this now. An unsaved couple goes through all of this for nothing. Think of that. And think of this. Whatever you go through, Whatever it may be, if you trust Him, can lay up this for eternity. This trial provided us, it is an opportunity for eternal beauty, and we may waste it by grumbling and complaining and fretting and fussing. Let me read 1 Peter 1, 6 through 9 once more. In this you greatly rejoice, Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold at parishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So here we get a picture from the Lord of how much our faith is worth to Him. It is much more precious than gold that perishes is to us. A second thing gold and pearls and gemstones have in common is that they are all used for jewelry. This they all have in common. It is for beauty. Here the desires of the eyes can feast to the full. And it is all good. What this beauty does to us gives us some idea of what our faith does to God Almighty. Isaiah 66, one and two, one of my favorite passages. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build for me? And where is the place of my rest? You can't impress me with anything. There is nothing you can do that impresses me, but listen. For all those things has mine hand made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look. Now you can impress me. With what? This what makes him look. On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit. It's not money poor. You can be rich and be poor. Poor in spirit. on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word." I'm afraid today we do not tremble at God's word. May I ask you, do you have any trial or difficulty that is giving you an opportunity to trust God right now? How are you doing with it? Will your problem turn black when the light is turned on it? Or will it display every color of the rainbow? What does gold not have in common with gemstones and pearl? Well, gold is useful for other purposes than just jewelry. Well, here I have this, what I mentioned earlier. I understand it is used on the inside of spacecrafts to protect astronauts from infrared radiation and heat. And there are other uses as well. The only value in gemstones and pearl, as far as I know, is their beauty. And it may be because they are rare, as was mentioned here. And in the here and now, a pearl can become worth $100 million. Well, it might not be worth that much when somebody pays, I guess it is, right? 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us. a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Every once in a while, let us take our eyes off the things of this world, and look up at the joy that is set before us.