I heard last night one of the most powerful and mind altering sermons by John Piper. Some of you may be aware that I listen to about 1-2 sermons every day if I can. At the present season in my life I've been listening to John Piper's series through Romans every night as I lay in bed waiting to be tired.
He was preaching from Romans 8:14-18--(see below)
(Rom 8:14) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
(Rom 8:15) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
(Rom 8:16) The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
(Rom 8:17) and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
(Rom 8:18) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
One of the main points that he made had to do with the fact that pleasures and pursuits in this life are just not worth as much as we put into them. That if we are truly saved then we should expect nothing less than suffering in this life and that every pleasure we seek here on this rotten earth is infintessimally small compared with the pleasures in the life to come. The principle being; what life do you want to devote your time energy and whole self to living for?---this one or the next?
That principle has implications that reach far and wide in my own life and I wanted to share a few. The first has to do with my desire to travel. I have been to 5 countries and 40 of the United States of America. That is more travel than a lot of people do in their lifetime, and I'm only 27 years old. But I would love to go on cruises and visit Alaska and go back to Israel and tour Europe and enjoy Australia and New Zealand and Hawaii and Fiji.
But Helen and I made an important choice. When we got married we decided against birth control and thus already have 3 of the 8 children we would like to parent. That makes for difficult or non-existent travel ability. We have accepted the fact, however, that our life is not our own. We have been bought at a price and though it is difficult to live with needy, grubby, greasy, dirty, noisy, sensitive, easily-offended, difficult little people (i.e. our children)---its far more important than my desire for a lot of "fun" things in this life that I may never enjoy on this side of eternity. I've had to give up skiing along with many other things I might enjoy simply because its too expensive. Helen has had to give up sleeping all the way through the night every night. We've both had to give up our (what now seems) odd adult-like desire for peace and quiet. We've had to give up on our desire to avoid the unpleasant aroma of stinky diapers and staying up late at night or going out with friends. These and many many other things have had to change in our lives and pursuits as a result of having children.
The same would be true if God chose to bring any debilitating disease into our lives (which He may). The same would be true if and when we have to care for our aging parents. Life is just simply full of futility in every way, shape, and form. The pursuit of happiness in a futile world is simply NOT worth it.
So what if I never make it to Europe! So what if I never get to ride the world's fastest roller coaster at Cedar Point! So what if I never own a home! So what if I never get to go on a Cruise with Alistair Begg! So what if I never own a fancy car or take my wife back to Mexico for a second honeymoon! so what! Are those things really that important in light of living my life as a living sacrifice in worship to the almighty King of kings? Not in the least!
AND---Romans 4:13 declares that Abraham was to be heir of "the world". Then Romans 8 tells me that I'm a fellow heir with Abraham if I am in Christ---which I am. That means that I'll get it all eventually and it will be soooooo much better. I will be able to ski and not get hurt. Eternity has much better things than roller coasters and intercontinental travel. So do I pursue such pleasures now or wait until later to recieve them?
What a ridiculous question!
Why would I bother rushing to the front of the line at a new car giveaway when I have inherited 1000 dealerships? Is there even a point in thinking about that for more than 1 second?
So the suffering IS not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed? YOU BET!!!
We embrace the sufferings and the joy of having children in our 20s. We LOVE the life God has given us and we look forward to more suffering and refinement that is on its way. All for the purpose of killing our sinful flesh and glorifying a great and wondrous Savior. And the irony is that I think I'm as happy as I've ever been in my life. To the praise of His glorious Grace!
To listen to this profound sermon go to www.desiringgod.org and click on "sermons". The one I reference here is called "Children, Heirs, and Sufferers". You can download it, listen, or order it there.
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