Book of Romans: Is It Worth It?

[00:00:00] Do you ever remember a time in, like, high school or college, there's this beautiful young lady that starts dating this guy that looks so. So. [00:00:13] And you say to yourself, why is she dating him? [00:00:21] And the reason I bring that up is I'm that guy. [00:00:30] And as I look across this room, some of you are that guy. [00:00:41] So I know about love a bit. [00:00:43] And you know what I was saying, love is blind, but only for so long. [00:00:50] And nine months after I met Kim, we got married, because I knew I had to seal the deal quickly. [00:00:59] So when we got married, we stood in front of each other to church and we exchanged vows and promised to have and to hold each other for better, for worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. [00:01:16] So what happened after our marriage is we did not live happily ever after, but we did have better and worse times. [00:01:29] We've been richer and poorer, and there's been sickness and health. [00:01:34] And when you enter into the covenant of marriage, you go into it knowing that there's good and bad involved with this, and there's some hardships. [00:01:42] And in a similar fashion, when you enter into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ through faith in the finished work of Jesus, you become a child of God and you enter into a covenant relationship with him. [00:01:56] And in that relationship, you're also gonna go through some times that are hard as well, that you will experience challenges and hardships. [00:02:07] So in this covenant love, you'll face good times and bad. [00:02:11] And the vernacular of Romans chapter 8 is you'll experience suffering and glory, Suffering and glory. [00:02:22] So as we look at this text together, here's the question I want you to be able to answer when you walk out these doors today. [00:02:32] When it comes to the suffering we experience in following Christ, is it worth it? [00:02:40] Is it worth it? [00:02:42] Is it worth following Jesus? So this is what Paul does in this short section. He begins first of all by explaining our present status as children of God. [00:02:54] Then he gives two reasons why our suffering is worth it. [00:03:00] So last week, Brian Priebe, he preached from Romans chapter 8, verses 14 through 17. [00:03:06] That is one of my favorite passages in all scripture. It. It is the key text on the doctrine of adoption. [00:03:12] I love this passage. [00:03:15] And Bob gave it to Brian. [00:03:21] And in his excellent message, he talked about, in our adoption, we have an identity that's received, not achieved. [00:03:31] And in this, that section of right prior to this, it is so beautiful because it says that the Holy Spirit gives is the spirit of adoption, and we can cry out to God the Father, Abba Father. [00:03:46] And the Holy Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. [00:03:52] Oh, this status of adoption is a privilege. [00:03:58] So then what Paul does next, after talking about the glories of adoption, he puts it in perspective and says, what adoption doesn't mean is you escape suffering. [00:04:13] Entering into the relationship as a child of God still means you'll experience better and worse, richer, poorer, sickness and health. [00:04:25] So understanding that's what the text is doing here. In verse 17, he's showing us that it's normal for children of God to experience suffering as well as glory. So verse 17 reads, now if we are children, then we are heirs. [00:04:39] The word heirs is at the heart of our word inheritance. [00:04:46] So if you're a child of God, you receive an inheritance, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. [00:04:54] But then he adds this caveat. [00:04:56] If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. [00:05:07] Now, there's a way to misread this text. [00:05:11] I think one way to misread is this, that our adoption is contingent upon us suffering. [00:05:21] Our suffering doesn't save us. Jesus suffering on the cross saves us. [00:05:27] But what it does mean, if you're a child of God, the Spirit's come into you, he bears witness with your spirit, that a result of being in a relationship with God, you'll enter in sufferings with Jesus. [00:05:42] These sufferings are a result of being a Christian, not a condition of becoming a Christian. It's a result of adoption. So let me give you a marital example. [00:05:53] Recently, my wife Kim went through a knee replacement surgery. [00:05:59] And the first two weeks of the recovery are the worst. [00:06:03] And I took two weeks of vacation to focus wholly on her. [00:06:09] And so during that time of her recovery, I was her primary caregiver. [00:06:18] And it was a joy. [00:06:21] Because here's a principle. [00:06:24] If you love someone, you'll suffer with them. [00:06:29] I remember sometimes, you know, I get a little tired of waiting on her, and I just kind of look at her. I would say, is this part of this sickness and health clause? [00:06:41] She goes, yes, it is. I go, okay. [00:06:44] And then I keep going. [00:06:47] But here's the truth. [00:06:49] If we enter into a love relationship with Jesus Christ, we want to suffer with Him. [00:06:58] We want to hurt in the ways that he hurts. [00:07:01] Because we're part of this family of God. [00:07:04] We are brought into this relationship. [00:07:08] And so what he's telling us is that when we enter his suffering, we also share in his glory. [00:07:13] And here's the reality. In life, quite frequently suffering precedes glory. [00:07:23] And a tragic thing for so many people is they keep Running away from suffering and hard things, and they'll never experience that glory. [00:07:34] The glory of our current marriage is a result of many years of going through suffering and hardship because we've stuck together. [00:07:43] So we come back to my question, when we suffer, is it worth it? [00:07:48] And he answers our questions and he gives us two reasons why it's worth it. So the first is found in Romans 8:18, that if we're adopted, our present sufferings are worth it because we will become a perfected people. [00:08:07] Look at the text. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. [00:08:17] I've preached for like 40 something years. [00:08:22] I teach preaching. [00:08:24] And I know what you're thinking, I should be better. [00:08:32] But when I first looked at this text, there's just kind of this concern, you know, what am I going to say? What am I going to say? And when I looked at this verse, I go, oh, this is the whole sermon right here. [00:08:44] Because while he says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that we revealed in us, you know what that implies? [00:08:51] You can consider it's not worth it. [00:08:57] And here's a human dilemma is we can consider the sufferings of following Jesus not worth it. [00:09:06] This is written for us in our human condition where we question, is the sufferings I'm experiencing because I follow Jesus worth it? And he goes, oh, it is. [00:09:19] And here's why. [00:09:20] There's a glory. [00:09:23] There's a glory following the suffering. [00:09:27] I want to tell you a very personal time. [00:09:30] There was a time in my pastorate when I was tempted to quit everything. [00:09:37] It is so personal. I remember I asked Kim, I said, kim, can I tell this story? [00:09:41] And she goes, yeah, you can tell this story. [00:09:44] So I was pastoring a church in Arkansas. I pastored there for 13 years. [00:09:48] We were parenting. We have a large family. We had a single income. [00:09:54] We were poorer and poorer. [00:09:57] There were struggles at work, at church, and challenges there. [00:10:02] Just the hardships of life was in general just began to weigh down upon me. And then I began to slip into a moderate depression. [00:10:12] It was one of the dark times of our life. And I remember so distinctly. I was in our bedroom. [00:10:18] I opened the door, I walked out into the living room, closed the door, and I just kind of put my head against the door jamb and I just said to myself in my brain, I just want to run to California. [00:10:36] I wanted to leave everything, everyone, and run to California. [00:10:43] But as soon as I said that, another thought came to mind. [00:10:47] But I can't and so I just kept going. [00:10:54] The one was the flesh and the other was the spirit. [00:10:59] The flesh says, I just want to cut and run. [00:11:02] And the spirit says, you can't. [00:11:05] There are times where in a marriage, I simply remembered why I vowed a vow, and I need to stay with it. [00:11:13] In a similar situation with our relationship to God. If you said yes to Jesus, say yes to him now. [00:11:20] Say yes to these in the moments you're going through right now. So I was going through all of these things at that life at that moment. [00:11:28] And what I was experiencing was a form of a deconstruction of my faith, which would have led to a destruction of my life. [00:11:39] So during that time, there is a story that came up in John chapter six that was really helpful to me. [00:11:47] In John chapter six, there's this story of Jesus speaking to a large group of his disciples. Not just the 12 they were there, but followers. And it was a harsh sermon. Read it. I mean, you're going, whoa, this is heavy. [00:12:06] So after Jesus finished his messages, a lot of the crowd just began to leave Jesus. [00:12:12] So now he's with the 12 disciples at this time. [00:12:15] And this is how it reads in John 6:66. From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. [00:12:24] What did they say? It's not worth it. [00:12:27] It's not worth it. [00:12:30] So he turns to the 12 disciples. You do not want to leave too, do you? [00:12:35] Jesus asked the 12, and Simon Peter answered him, lord, to whom shall we go? [00:12:42] You have the words of eternal life. [00:12:46] We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. [00:12:51] And that passage was helpful for me because I know in my desire to run, where would I go? [00:12:59] Because he has the words of eternal life. [00:13:02] And that stabilized me. [00:13:06] You know, one of the things you hear, especially like in commencement addresses, this mantra that's just, like, repeated all over. It's this advice to the graduates. And they just say this all the time, Follow your heart. [00:13:23] Just follow your heart. Whatever's in your heart, follow your heart. Follow your heart. You know what? If I'd followed my heart, I would have been in California. [00:13:33] You know what's wrong with California? [00:13:41] Men in the Midwest having midlife crisis think they can go to California and everything is going to be all right. [00:13:52] And then Covid hits and they move to Bozeman. [00:14:00] There's this old saying, I hold to wherever you go, you're there. [00:14:08] And the problem I had in Arkansas would have been a problem in California and is a problem in Montana. [00:14:17] If I Followed my heart, it would have been destructive and I wouldn't have found myself there. [00:14:29] It's foolish to follow your heart. [00:14:31] This is what you need to do when you're suffering. [00:14:34] You need to follow Jesus. [00:14:38] And in that dark moment, what I decided to do is, is I'm just gonna keep following Jesus. [00:14:46] And I'm so thankful I did. [00:14:51] Because if I had followed my heart to California, I wouldn't have the privilege of opening God's word to you this morning. [00:15:03] God has plans. [00:15:05] God has plans for us. [00:15:08] And so this idea of following your heart is foolish. Don't follow your heart, follow Jesus. Because every thought you think isn't true, every feeling you feel is not wise, and every desire you have is not worth pursuing. [00:15:24] You take those and put them in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and who he is. [00:15:30] This whole Jesus movement started when Jesus went to some fishermen by the Sea of Galilee and said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. [00:15:43] And they did, and they changed the world. [00:15:47] And Jesus is calling us to follow him. And I love what Andy Stanley says. [00:15:53] Following Jesus will make your life better and make you better at life. [00:15:58] So we see the wisdom of these words. So I want to reread Romans 8:18 and say, there's these two parts. There's suffering, glory. [00:16:07] And he said, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. [00:16:18] What is this talking about? When you see the word glory, there's a theological term called glorification, and glorification. And we'll see it later on in this fabulous text at the later part of Romans chapter 8. Read the whole chapter. [00:16:35] There's this promise of glorification for the believers. And so here's a theological definition of what glorification is. [00:16:46] In glorification, believers attain complete conformity to the image and likeness of the glorified Christ and are freed from both physical and spiritual defect. [00:16:58] Glorification ensures that believers will never again experience bodily decay, death or illness, and they will never again struggle with sin in heaven. [00:17:12] I'll never want to go to California because I'll be home. [00:17:23] That's a beautiful promise. [00:17:25] Those foibles you struggle with, all of your life will be gone. [00:17:31] We'll be a perfected people experiencing the glory and the goodness of God. [00:17:38] And what we need to do, he says, is I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing. [00:17:47] And I want to tell you a story about a woman in the church in Arkansas where I pastored. Her name is Viola Whitmore she's passed away now, Viola. When I was her pastor, she was really old, my age, and she was a gifted musician. [00:18:12] And she graduated from the college there in town with a music degree. [00:18:17] And then in life she began to have rheumatoid arthritis. [00:18:23] And her fingers were at an angle like this, and her dexterity was almost gone. [00:18:30] And I thought, how tragic to be a pianist stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. [00:18:38] But she would still play the piano in church by just pushing her pinky or forefinger or thumb, and she would just play like this. [00:18:48] And the beautiful thing about Viola, and she wasn't always easy to get along with. [00:18:54] She spoke her mind. But we loved each other so much, and she never complained about it. [00:19:03] She wasn't all sad or anything. She used what she did have for the glory of God and was the light of the gospel. [00:19:11] So one night I received a phone call and Viola had fallen and it broke her hip. [00:19:21] And she was in the emergency room. [00:19:24] The hospital was just a few blocks from our house. [00:19:28] And so I went down to the hospital and she was still in the emergency room before being transferred. [00:19:34] And I went in and saw her and we looked at each other and this really isn't like the best pastoral advice, but I could do it with her because we loved each other so much, is she was laying there and I just kind of leaned into her and I did a paraphrase of 2nd Corinthians 4:17. [00:19:53] I looked at Viola and I said, this momentary light affliction is not worth comparing the eternal weight of glory. [00:20:02] And she smiled. [00:20:04] The reason this is not great pastoral advice. When someone's suffering you to go, ah, this is momentary light. [00:20:12] You need to enter into their suffering first. [00:20:15] But because we loved each other so much, I knew I could say it, and she received it. [00:20:21] When we understand that these afflictions we are, we compare them. They are momentary light afflictions, and they're not worth comparing to the eternal weight of glory. [00:20:36] She, in her pain, had learned a patience with it. [00:20:40] She had understood how to handle this. [00:20:44] First John 3:2 says, Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Here's the promise. We will be for all eternity perfected, and we will look and act like Jesus. [00:21:11] That's our gospel hope in whatever we're going through at our time. So in response to the question, is it worth it? Paul's first answer is, that our present sufferings are worth it because we will become a perfected people. [00:21:27] Here's the second reason. [00:21:31] It's that we will be living in a perfect place. [00:21:35] He describes this perfect place then. Now, if you're like me, I grew up watching cartoons. [00:21:42] And one of the things in cartoons, like if a cartoon character would die, you know, they would go up into this heaven and then they would have a picture of heaven. And here I am like 10, 12 years old, whatever. [00:21:55] And what does heaven look like? [00:21:57] You're wearing white robes, in clouds, playing a harp. [00:22:06] I'm just telling you, a 10 year old boy, that's not a compelling vision. [00:22:14] And if we can all be honest for a moment, if that's heaven, I don't know if I want to wear white skirt and I don't want to play a harp. [00:22:29] I do want to play the electric guitar. [00:22:35] And I think what we can do is draw a vision of heaven that is not very compelling. [00:22:40] What scripture does is draw a picture for us that is compelling, that we will be in a glorified place. [00:22:49] Now, at first glance, the text I'm going to read can be confusing, but it's really worth digging into and understanding. And it helps us realize that Paul uses a literary device with these verses. It's called the personification of nature. [00:23:05] What that simply means is you give human personal attributes to inanimate creation. [00:23:14] I mean we do this like, boy, this morning Mother Nature was showing her glory, shouting her glory with the sunrise today, if you saw it. [00:23:26] And this is done a lot in scripture where they give these human attributes to inanimate creation. Jesus did this and says the rocks will cry out, the heavens declare the glory of God. Day after day they pour forth speech. So heaven talks to us. [00:23:44] The, the trees will clap their hands. [00:23:47] So this is common. So he does this very thing. [00:23:50] And this is what he says. He's saying creation is even messed up in the fall. [00:23:57] For creation waits in eager sits waiting and eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed us. [00:24:03] For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who's subjected in hope. [00:24:13] When Adam and Eve fell, they were cursed and the ground was cursed. [00:24:20] Creation was cursed as well. [00:24:23] They as perfect people were in a perfect place. And these imperfect people are now placed in an imperfect place. This creation that the creation itself be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of, of the children of God. [00:24:40] When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cursed, so was creation. But in the Gospel. There's a promise of a new heaven and a new earth. And you can read about it. In Revelation 21:1 4. It says, John says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth. This one has passed away, and there will be no longer, no longer any sea. [00:25:04] I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. [00:25:11] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. [00:25:21] They will be his people, and God himself will be with their God. Eli, love this. [00:25:26] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. [00:25:30] There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things is passed away in the new heaven and in the new earth. [00:25:42] Believers will joyfully worship, serve, work, create, eat, play, reign, and resurrection. Bodies in perfect harmony with God and others throughout all of eternity. [00:25:57] And every activity will be worship, and every moment will be joy. [00:26:03] And every day will be a discovery of God's goodness. [00:26:08] What will we be like? And what will the new heavens and new earth, a lot like we are right now with physical bodies that eat and enjoy and create. [00:26:35] We won't be playing the harp. [00:26:38] We will be building creation, building buildings, creating plans, and living in harmony forever. [00:26:48] So what he's saying is, it's worth it if you compare your present sufferings with your future glory. [00:26:59] Let's return to the key verse. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. [00:27:09] See, I think one reason he wrote this text is for those who may think for a moment it's not worth it. Now, will you play along with me? [00:27:20] It's real simple. You're not gonna do it. So I have in my pocket here a three by five card. [00:27:27] So this isn't a trick question. Just answer the question. How big is this card? [00:27:32] 3 by 5. [00:27:35] Second surface will do better than that. [00:27:38] You wanna try again? [00:27:40] How big is this card? [00:27:42] Yeah, it's three by five. [00:27:44] Let's say this card represents your suffering. [00:27:50] So if you can't see it, I've written the word suffering on here. [00:27:54] This is what you're going through, this hardship you're going through right now, and this is what you can do with your suffering, is that you can focus on it and it alone, and it begins to consume you. And it is the only thing that you can see. [00:28:17] You're not putting it in proportion. [00:28:21] How big is this card. [00:28:25] But what you can do is you can put it in comparison to what you're going through. [00:28:33] How big is that card? [00:28:37] The suffering doesn't change. [00:28:39] It's your perspective. [00:28:43] And some of us in this room right now are consumed by your suffering. [00:28:49] So this is what. Don't hear what I'm not saying. [00:28:54] I'm not saying to enter into denialism. [00:28:58] It is there and it is real. [00:29:01] Don't enter into escapism and go to California because it'll be in California. [00:29:10] But what you do is you put your present sufferings in comparison with the eternal weight of glory that we have in Jesus Christ. [00:29:21] Second thing, don't hear what I'm not saying. [00:29:24] There are times you're stuck in a suffering situation. [00:29:28] This doesn't mean that you have to stay in it. [00:29:31] Let me just draw a worst case scenario, okay? [00:29:35] One of the worst things can happen is a woman be in an abusive marriage. [00:29:41] What? This isn't teaching that you necessarily have to stay in that. [00:29:46] And there are times I've said to women in my office who are experiencing abuse, you need to go to Haven. [00:29:55] You need to get out of this situation. [00:29:59] So if there are things in your life, it doesn't need necessarily that you have to stay in it. We got that. [00:30:05] But that's still going to be a part of your life. [00:30:08] And what he's telling us to do is to put it in perspective, to put it in the right framework. So. So what you do is you take your present suffering and you place them into an eternal framework. [00:30:26] And it helps make sense of what we're going through. [00:30:32] And it doesn't consume us as much. And we come from a place that we can discover and how to handle it more. [00:30:39] So let me wrap things up here. [00:30:44] This past weekend I went back to see my mom. [00:30:48] She's 91. [00:30:50] I kept saying she was 93. And she got really ticked off. [00:30:56] I don't know what's going on. [00:30:58] But my mom, man, she was born in 1933 in the Great Depression. [00:31:05] She went through World War II, she went through the 50s, it wasn't too bad. And then the 60s rolled around and all the hippies were messing everything up in culture and society. They were going wild. [00:31:17] And then she started raising her family. And then she lived through the 70s and that was a fashion nightmare decade. [00:31:26] And all through the 80s, she's seen stuff. [00:31:30] And one of the things that she's also seen as well is my father died from dementia after three years of suffering. And it was just brutal. [00:31:39] So a couple things that I was back home. And I said, mom, what do you want to do? She goes, I want to go see your cousin Marcia. So we drove over to Dexter, to Missouri, and we met at McDonald's, Marcia, mom and I, and we started talking and we started cracking up. And so I told a story to Marcia. [00:32:02] I said, my mom sometimes, you know, when I would whine and complain too much, she would go all Tammy Wynette on me. [00:32:15] And the old people laugh. [00:32:18] Tammy Wynette was this country western singer as popular as 60s and 70s. [00:32:23] And so she'd go, Tammy Wynette. When I complained too much. And she would start quoting one of her songs. [00:32:29] And she would look at me and she'd say, I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden along with the sunshine. A little rain's gonna have to come sometime. [00:32:42] And I had to shush my complaining at that time. [00:32:47] And I watched my mom go through the horrific suffering to enter into the suffering of the love of her life in that long moment of suffering that she experienced. [00:32:59] And so dad's condition declined so much that he was bedfast and had to be fed with tube. [00:33:09] And of all things to happen. And there was no way that she was going to let him go to a nursing home. [00:33:15] So he was in the house. [00:33:17] And of all things that happened in February, the house caught on fire. [00:33:25] So my brother, who lives on the same property, ran over and had to take my dad, pick him up and lay him on the pavement waiting for the emergency thing for people to come. [00:33:40] And so they took him to a nursing home, and the house was completely a total loss. [00:33:46] When I heard about the fire, I got on the airplane and I flew down to see if there was anything I can do. [00:33:51] And this is just one more reason to be a Christ follower and have Christian community. This is no exaggeration. The Christian community, in 24 hours had a house furnished for mom to move into. [00:34:09] And so they rallied around. [00:34:11] They rallied around and they helped her. [00:34:14] And I remember I was now at the house. And so he had left the nursing home, was back in this new rental house by the time I'd gotten there. [00:34:22] He was in the living room. And there's this knock on the door, and there's this good old country boy. [00:34:30] He was old too, like my age. And he was there in his overalls, and he gives mom one of those green handshakes. [00:34:43] It was like a $20 bill in the handshake, you know. [00:34:47] And so he kind of reached his pocket, he hands it to it, and the doors open a crack and he sees my dad laying there on the bed and everything happened. [00:34:56] And he said, I don't know, Sister Louetta. [00:35:03] Why would God allow that to happen to a man as good as Melvin Keena? [00:35:12] And my mom said, well, if our Lord died on the cross for us, maybe we can go through some suffering, too. [00:35:27] She put her suffering in perspective of the eternal weight of glory. [00:35:33] So here's the point I think I have for this sermon. [00:35:37] If you're not following Jesus, you need to follow him. [00:35:43] I don't know for sure, but this is what I think. [00:35:47] If you're not following Jesus, you're lost because you've been following your heart and you don't know where you're going. [00:35:56] Second thing is this. For those of you who are Christ followers, you're going through this. [00:36:02] And if you're not, you will be. [00:36:06] And I want you in those moments to not quit, because this is not worth comparing. The eternal weight of glory. Because we're going to be a perfect person in a perfected place for all of eternity. [00:36:31] And if you keep walking to Jesus in heaven, you're going to walk up and thank me for this sermon. [00:36:40] Let's pray. [00:36:42] Father, we thank you for your grace and goodness, how you love us. [00:36:46] Thank you that you are with us in the midst of our sufferings, that you're in the midst of our sorrows. [00:36:55] So I pray in particular for people who are here online that are going through an extraordinarily hard time in their lives. [00:37:04] May you give them a Holy Spirit vision of who they are in you and the reality of the suffering, but also the reality of your future glory. [00:37:16] I pray for those who may not be following you. Would you please clearly speak to them and may they say yes to your voice and become a Jesus follower today so that they too, can be a perfected person in a perfect place for all of eternity. [00:37:34] We pray this in the powerful name of your son, Jesus. Amen.