The End In Mind | Crossland Community Church

This will freak you out. But God's ultimate goal for you and me was not that we get to heaven. It's that we be glorified, that we be like him. He's more interested in who we are and who we become than the place we're going to. Because if you're not glorified, you don't fit, you don't get in. Glorification is the ultimate purpose for which Christ died for humanity, and I'll prove it to in a second. For creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. This is so crazy. Think about this. We're worried about the planet and the planet's waiting on us. [00:21:19] (43 seconds)  #GlorifiedNotJustHeaven

Persevere, because perseverance develops character. Character develops hope, and that hope will never put you to shame, ever. And then it finally lands. It lands. It doesn't land in heaven. It lands in glorification. It doesn't land in heaven. It lands in glorification. Okay? So the question is, where are you gonna land? Glorification or damnation? Two options. And I will tell you, it won't cost you anything. You don't need billions of dollars. You don't even need a penny. We don't want your money. We don't. We don't want anything from you. We want something for you. [00:46:40] (57 seconds)  #PersevereToGlorification

The future glory listen. Glory your future glory is not the best version of you. The best version of you goes to hell. You don't wanna be the best you can be. And and there's a whole industry right there. Be the best version of yourself. Take this diet pill. Take that diet pill. Go to this. And I go to the gym four and five days a week, but I don't do it because I wanna live here forever. I do it because I wanna extend the days I have so I can preach the gospel as long as I can possibly preach it. [00:19:46] (32 seconds)  #GloryOverSelfHelp

And those he predestined, who had a path and a plan, he also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified. In the eyes of God, you already have the fullness of his glory because you already have the fullness of his presence within you. And glorification, while there's a process, glorification is a standing or glorified is a standing, you're gonna experience the fullness of this mind blowing, indescribable, never seen before experience on the face of the earth. [00:25:57] (32 seconds)  #AlreadyAndNotYetGlory

Do I want a world that's free of suffering? No. The next world, woo hoo, no suffering. Because God uses it. A like, that would be saying, well, I want a world free of crucifixion. You want that world? I don't. I want a world where there's a transformative God that's in control of everything that can take that very thing right there and deliver people who believe. [00:15:59] (30 seconds)  #SufferingShapesSalvation

Well, we've reached the last week of this series, what just happened week seven, and today, we are on the ultimate landing place. If salvation is the launch, glorification is the land. It is the ultimate purpose for which God saved you. It's the ultimate purpose for which Christ died for you. It was the eternal purposes of God that led he, the son, and the spirit to determine a plan whereby man could be made right once again with God. Ultimately, it's glorification. [00:00:04] (28 seconds)  #GlorificationIsTheLanding

I don't want people to suffer. Don't get me wrong. I didn't say that. But I don't wanna live in a world that is free of suffering. Why? Because suffering gets people's attention. Suffering becomes a tool by which God begins to the one writer once said, it's the megaphone that God speaks through to the human soul. If we're just left here and it feels like heaven, then nobody will understand you're still going straight to hell. Right? See what suffering does? [00:16:30] (30 seconds)  #SufferingSpeaks

God is going to fashion you so that you can fit with him forever. And no eye has seen, no ear has certain, no eye can know what God has in store for those who love him. He's gonna fashion you to fit forever. And that's the most important motivator for everyday living. Let's go back and join Paul in Romans chapter eight where we've been a couple of weeks. Now, if we are, which means since, since we are children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co heirs of Christ. [00:12:49] (26 seconds)  #FashionedToFitForever

But see, there's only one way to defeat darkness and that's to penetrate it with light. And so we're reflecting the Lord's glory and we're being transformed into his image. See, this is why you the the goal is not for you and me to be the best version of ourselves. You go, girl. You got this. You can do it. Come on, man. You go. Come on. I mean, to some extent, yes. To be the best that we can be, to to be given an opportunity to reflect the glory of God, get after it. [00:43:01] (45 seconds)  #ReflectHisLight

throughout the New Testament, salvation is rarely emotionally defined. Because while it is emotional, it's not an emotional experience. Okay? It's a transactional experience where God takes your sin and puts it in Jesus's bank account, and he takes Christ's glory and puts it in yours. It's called the imputation of righteousness. It's a transactional term. It's transactional. It's an accounting term. So at the end, God looks at your bank records, what's he gonna see? were Jesus. [00:47:58] (43 seconds)  #RighteousnessImputed

It's like God had the end in mind before there was a beginning. And the end isn't to make the earth like heaven. It's to make its people like Jesus. That's the plan. And should we yeah. God gives us all things for our enjoyment. Enjoy every minute of it here. Just don't allow the fears of worldviews to dictate the motivation and the choices with which you make on how to live. And you'll see this in the end of it. So we go to first Corinthians where Paul's going to do us a favor and try to the best of his ability to describe and define what a glorified human beings like. [00:26:36] (48 seconds)  #MadeLikeJesus

We we we can't we just can't let the ungodly philosophies of this world lead us and guide us and control us to create fear within us. We stick with that. We stick with God's word. And the great news is we really really do know how it's going to end and how I'm gonna end. And it's going to be pretty glorious. And the suffering in between is what's helping conform us into the likeness of the one we're gonna be like. But here's what I do know. You can't be sanctified, you can't be justified, and you can't be glorified unless you're saved. [00:44:36] (51 seconds)  #SalvationPrecedesGlory

Glory is not the best version of you. It's something that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can know. Like, it's you can't even define it accurately because nobody's ever seen it, never on the face of this earth. Right. And that's what's gonna be revealed in you. Don't be listen. Be a good person. Be nice. Be Christ like. This will freak you out. But God's ultimate goal for you and me was not that we get to heaven. It's that we be glorified, [00:20:49] (39 seconds)  #GloryNotSelf

And God that's why he like, I can say something like, don't want a world without suffering because then you have a world without crucifixion. And the reason I can say is because I know God can cause all things to work together for good. He doesn't cause all things. What he does is he causes everything to work together for good, for those who know him and have been called according to his purposes. We know that the pain of this existence will actually turn out to be the profit of our next existence. [00:23:27] (33 seconds)  #PainToEternalProfit

And so as we have to deal with these things, we begin to understand, as Romans chapter five says, I don't want any of you to suffer. But we get to redefine suffering because it's a part of the process to experience the fullness of Christ glory. we we're we get to even redefine the very thing that so many people are trying to remove, which is the very thing that God uses to reform us to be more and more like Jesus. [00:15:30] (29 seconds)  #SufferingReforms

We can't hide the glory that's already ours. And we all, we all, we all with unveiled faces, this is a terrible word, it means reflect. Reflect the Lord's glory. you it's almost a word that would be if you took a light, it's like a mirror, really, it's the root of it. Shine a light in the mirror how it reflects on something, we're not the light. We're just reflecting the light. Okay? But you can't be putting a veil over your face and thinking the world's gonna figure out you're a follower. You gotta reflect the glory. It would be great news if somebody finally came to you and said enough. [00:42:12] (45 seconds)  #UnveilAndReflect

And that is what has got to inform your worldview, inform why you vote, inform how you vote, inform what you spend, inform how you spend it, inform what you're going through, what does this suffering mean? It is the ultimate answer to everything that's going on. Period. It is the one thing that can get us through, enable us to see through all of the lies that are constantly perpetrated on the face of the earth. Glorification is the moment when believers are glorified fully. [00:12:02] (40 seconds)  #GloryInformsEverything

But in order to impress people that are around you, so that you you can lay your head down at night and say, you know what? I was the best me. I'm I'm gonna be the best me. It's so pointless and painful to even go down that road because you're being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the spirit. See, God had the end in mind before he ever began anything. And the future moment can, and I would say, must have present manifestations [00:43:46] (41 seconds)  #TransformationNotImpression