There'll be a day when we will go to the one funeral we actually want to go to. We will attend the funeral of sin and death. Isn't that great? Because sin and death will die. And the Scripture says that He will wipe every tear from our eye. In my mind's eye, I see as I read that passage, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords arising from his throne. And he starts walking through the crowd of his children. He says, "You don't need to cry anymore. There's no more suffering. There's no more sorrow. There's no more death. You don't need to cry anymore. There's no more suffering. There's no more death." I won. I won. I won. I won. It's over. The best thing in your life is not your perfect marriage. The best thing in your life is not that you have children who on Tuesday, decided they would obey. Your best thing is not you can watch the NFL on your 75-inch TV screen. The best thing is not your promotion, your cool clothes, that steak's so big that no human being should eat it in one setting. You're crazy. Stop that. None of those things are the best thing in your life. The best thing in your life is that good that He's talking about. That you can get up in the morning, a mess that you are with chaos going around you and you can say, "I'm redeemed, I'm redeemed, I'm redeemed. God is for me. He's in me, he's with me. I'm redeemed, I'm redeemed, I'm redeemed, and nothing can take that away from me." That's the good he's talking about. It is the best life ever. Audience: Amen. Thank you. But not only preparing grace and intervening grace, and unstoppable grace, but providing grace. Verse 31, "What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him, graciously give us all things?" When you're going through the unexpected, the unwanted, the unplanned, the hard, the difficult, all of a sudden, your mind is flooded with what-ifs. How are we going to pay our bills? How am I going to break this to my family? What's going to happen to my job? Will we lose our house? How am I going to make it through? How am I going to help my family to make it through? How can I continue to do what I'm supposed to do? Just flooded with what-ifs. And I love the promise here that God will provide all things. Not everything you could dream for, not everything you desire, but everything you need. And you have to understand the logic of the argument. The logic of the argument takes you to the cross, to Jesus. And Paul is saying this, if God would harness the forces of nature and control the events of human history, so at a certain time, his son would come and live the life we could not live and die an acceptable substitutionary death, and rise again conquering sin and death. If he would do all of that, would it make any sense for God to abandon us along the way? What's the answer to that? No, it wouldn't make any sense. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is your guarantee. The most outrageous thing that's ever happened in human history is the birth of Jesus. The most tragic thing that ever happened is the death of Jesus. The best thing that ever happened was the death of Jesus, followed by his glorious resurrection and His royal priestly ascension. God knows what you need and he'll provide what you need, and Jesus is your guarantee. Now, I want to propose something that maybe you haven't thought about. Sometimes the suffering is the provision. Let me say that again. Sometimes the suffering is the provision. Let me go back to my own experience. In those days when I was so weak that I literally could not get out of a chair, I was confronted by something rather humiliating. That for all my theological expertise, all my ministry experience, that much of what I thought was faith in Christ, wasn't. It just wasn't. I was physically young for my age. I had endless energy. My friends called me the Energizer bunny. I had the ability to produce a lot, and there was a lot of pride in that. And it was in that moment of complete weakness, utter unability that I began to learn what it really means to live with faith in Christ. You see, that kind of weakness is a work room for grace. Because it's really true that God's grace is sufficient, his strength is made perfect in weakness. Listen, your weakness is not in the way of God's work, your delusions of strength is. I'm going to share a experience. Some of you may think that I'm exaggerating here, but I'm not. During that time when I was so utterly weak, I wrote a book. In fact, it's one of the books that I just recommended, is the parenting book. And when the first copy of that book was delivered, I
TRANSCRIPT: SESSION 3
GOSPEL HOPE
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