Hope in the Age to Come: Transformative Living

Colossians chapter 3 have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your mind on things that are above not on things that are on the Earth for you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory now I want to ask you do you do that do you obey that how frequently do you set your mind on things that are above and dwell there how frequently do you seek the future do you seek the age to come do you look to where your life is hid with Christ in God and anticipate the glory that will be you when you come with him and you in your true life are revealed [00:52:55]

I think exactly the opposite is the case it's the people who know their hope who know that their Destiny is Rock Solid and sure who know that their Destiny is glorious who are free to take risks of love free to let good and Kindred go this Mortal life also the body they may kill God's truth abide is still I've got a destiny I've got a future I cannot die Market it is not the people who have that hope who have that security who live in that confidence who live their lives Gathering Treasures on earth and ignore the needs of people it's people who are free who don't need money who don't need come who don't need worldly Acclaim because they've got it all in Jesus who are free to take risks for others [00:59:40]

when people ask you a reason for the hope that is in you be ready to give an answer now have you ever had anybody ask you a reason for the hope that is in you look at your behavior and say my what hope must be behind that behavior if I ask you what what kind of behavior would that be if somebody jumps out of an airplane you don't jump out behind them with no parachute two dead people aren't better than one so somebody falls out of an airplane with no parachute on you might jump out after them you have a parachute on and you try one of those bullet Dives to catch them so they're falling kind of loose and stopping a lot of air 110 miles an hour maybe and you go bullet-like 150 miles an hour maybe you might do that because the security and the hope of this parachute free you for that kind of love free you for that kind of risk taking [03:55:00]

so if somebody's in the airplane and they see you about to jump and they ask you what's the reason for the hope that you have to jump out of this airplane to try to catch somebody what's the reason for your hope you say the parachute it's called the hope of glory the parachute That's My Hope and then you jump now I want to ask you what what kind of Lifestyle will move people to ask you questions like that about your hope Gathering money no because they'll assume money is your hope Gathering Comforts Comforts are your hope spending all your time watching television no television is your hope hope frees for a radical new lifestyle so I want to call you with the Apostle Paul if you have been raised with Christ if your life is hid with Christ in God out there secure it's done absolutely you cannot die you cannot lose if it's that sure I want to invite you set your mind on things that are above seek the things that are above where Christ is seated let your mind dwell on the glories of the age to come and you know what will happen you will become a free person and Free People are dangerous people to the kingdom of Satan because they don't ask cautionary questions about what it will cost in this life they throw that to the wind and they love and they sacrifice and they go and they serve and they change the world this world of all things of all things can you imagine that people in love with Heaven are the ones that are free to change this world [05:17:59]

and I just want to unpack about four ways that your future and your life are going to be made radically new when God makes all things new verse 5 of the text says behold I will make all things new and he reinforces that promise in two ways one he who sat upon the throne said in other words this is the god of the universe talking here Throne sitter over all the universe and all the galaxies and all the trillions of light years of expanse that he flung into be with the word of his mouth he sits on the throne of the universe and he says to you I will make everything new everything and the way he reinforces it secondly is by saying write this for these words are trustworthy and true in other words on both sides of that great promise he puts a reinforcement a throne on one side and an oath on the other they're true why because he wants you right now as you hear these words coming out of my mouth he wants you to believe them he wants you to feel them he wants you to walk out of here so confident that everything is going to be made new this world is going to be new no more AIDS no more leprosy no more leukemia no more arthritis no more pain it's going to be new all things are going to be new [07:46:59]

you are going to be made spiritually morally new what is the biggest frustration in the believer's life well I'll tell you the biggest frustration in this believer's life sin the biggest frustration in the life of God's people is that we still sin it isn't sickness it is a job it isn't family it's me I'm my biggest frustration sin is my biggest frustration I want to be holy and I fall short of being holy I want to love and hurtful things come out of my mouth I want to be a man of peace and I'm agitated and anxious it's sin that's the biggest frustration and we want to be done with it doesn't your heart cry out I want to be done with it Romans 7 says I Delight in the law of God in my inmost self but I see in my members this is a big one is read about in James 3 is where it's the this is a big one right there that member is a fire that sits on fire a forest and is set on fire by hell as James 3. we read that The Breakfast Table this morning can you imagine I mean that sounds like inflammatory rhetoric this member this tongue is set on fire by hell he's talking to believers I find in my members of law At War With The Law of my mind and I sounded done with that war don't you I just want to be done with the war in this text I believe promises us that it's coming [09:42:24]

we are going to be physically and bodily made new and glorious now the Bible does not teach that the goal of our destiny and our happiness is disembodied spirits I think little children can sometimes get the impression of Heaven as a womb spooky ghosty place where there are no bodies nothing familiar just just ghosts kind of voices that is not the biblical hope Plato wanted that Plato thought the body was a dead weight ruining the spirit holding it fast keeping it down and of course it is but not the body that will be God's solution to that problem is say oh good separate spirit and body throw the body out keep the spirit we'll all go to whatever this thing is out there that has no dimensions that's just not the biblical hope the biblical hope is resurrection of the body verse 4 Points this way he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and Death Shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away no death no pain no tears well knowing my body I gotta have another one if that's going to come true because this body's going to die this body hurts this body cries and you could say well the problem is just get rid of the body well sure that's one philosophical way to get rid of it this is not the biblical way the biblical way is I make all things new including this fleshy body it's gonna come out of the grave and be made new [14:28:19]

God is going to make the creation new and glorious verse 1. then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away and the sea was no more now I don't think that means he's going to take us to a new solar system scrap this one go to a new one the reason I don't think that is because the the prophetic hope through the whole Bible is this world is our destiny and it's going to be made new and the lion is going to lie down with the lamb and babies are going to play on the holes of the snake we're to beat our swords into plowshares the whole image is this world is your home in spite of what the Negro spiritual says this world is our home now of course that just means this age but this age is going to become the age to come and this world is going to be a new Earth and those skies are going to be a new Heaven and we will dwell in righteousness and in peace right here you grow up having the image I'm going away to Heaven well right but Heaven's coming down that's the whole point of Revelation 21 the it's coming down you go away it comes down we're going to live here forever but there's a problem God has made you spiritually morally translucent pure holy perfect irreproachable and he has made your body new now like the body of Jesus but this creation according to Romans 8 is futile it is shot through with Brokenness and futility it isn't fit for people like you and therefore Romans 8 21 says the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to Decay and obtain the liberty of the glory of the children of God you set the pace for creation your Liberty is what the creation is crying out for God gives Liberty from all deformity and all malady and all pain and all futility first to you the church the people of God and then he looks at creation all creation and he says I better fix this thing because I want these people to have a perfect environment in which to live that's suitable to them forever and ever and ever and that's what he does when he makes all things new [18:56:36]

God will make our relationship with him new and glorious verse 4. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling of God is with men he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them isn't God already with us Jesus said I will be with you to the end of the age I will never leave you I will never forsake you do you not know that the spirit dwells in you so what does he mean here I will be with you I will come Paul in second Corinthians 5 said this while we are at home in this body we are away from the Lord away that true that too is true away from the Lord and the next verse says we walk by faith and not by sight how many little children have you heard say and how many times have they said but Daddy I can't see him I can't see him can't see Jesus I can't see God it's hard to believe don't ever as you're sitting on the edge of the bed say in a glib and quick way oh you get over that you'll get used to that well that doesn't matter well that's not important don't ever talk like that you know what that means it means you stop being like a child because you know what I feel like this morning I want to see him I'm not satisfied are you satisfied with an invisible God and an invisible Jesus if he said to you that's all you get you get my Holy Spirit and you get my abiding spiritual presence forever that's it I would say no it's not enough and that's why I'm willing to say to my sons I know I know me too God give you the grace he'll give you evidences of his reality we walk by faith we don't walk by sight but there's coming a day look at chapter 2 verse 22 just the next chapter over 22 verse 4. they shall see his face oh there it is there's coming a day when I'm going to look God right in the face and don't ask me how I'm going to avoid being consumed he will figure out some wonderful spiritual asbestos there that will be nice and invisible but I'm going to look him right in the face and for the rest of my life my soul will be pure my body will be perfectly whole my environment will be perfectly suited to me and I will walk with the Living God who made all things forever and ever [21:36:24]