11/19/23 - Grief and Hope - Romans 8:18-27 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Romans 8:18-27   Friends, the Scritpures are honest in describing an inescapable reality: there is pain in human existence.   For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18   Paul is honest in describing a life modeled after Jesus and guided by the Spirit includes suffering. He would know. This is his testimony…   Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:24-28   Down through the ages some believers have had it worse than this. Notice he begins verse 18 by saying, “I consider,” which means he has taken time to think things through and develop a conclusion:    Earthly hardships are temporary. The joy of heaven is eternal.   Paul suffered physically and emotionally, but one day he, like us, will have a mind and body immune to pain. He has been without food but in heaven he has a feast. He bears the scars of several beat downs but his unbreakable body awaits. Best of all, he is in the presence of the one who saved him. There’s no comparison between what our lives are like now and what they will be in eternity.    C. S. Lewis said this… “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward … promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”    In other words, consider what your heart truly desires. The best of what this earth has to offer is a mere shadow of what is to come. Wash your hands of the mud and lift your eyes toward heaven. Whatever your earthly pain or pleasure it cannot be compared with what awaits you Christian. Through grief there is hope!