You absolutely
cannot make sense out of life
without eternity.
You cannot make sense
out of the normal range of experiences
that every human being has
without eternity.
You can't make sense out of the most joyous things
and you can't make sense out of the saddest things.
And anything between that range,
you can't make sense out of
without eternity.
And this is a passage that really goes after that.
Now let's first look
- you want to look with me in your Bibles -
at the way that Paul talks
about right here, right now.
Fasten your seat belts.
"For I consider the sufferings of this present time
are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing
for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was
- here's the first thing -
subjected to futility."
Now, I'm going to say more about what that phrase means.
But one of the dynamic ingredients of here and now
is futility.
And you experience that futility.
You have moments where you say,
"Why did I bother?"
"Why did I bother having that conversation?
It just blew up on my face."
"Why did I bother working so hard for that boss
who in the moment turned his back on me,
and I'm done?"
"Why did I bother trying to be nice to that neighbor
who I now know cares more about six inches of property
and cutting down my rose bush
than having a relationship with me?"
"Why did I bother those thousand conversations with my child
who doesn't seem to care at all about
what he or she was taught?"
All of us hit the wall of futility
where it seems like
our efforts
have gone for naught.
I love Psalm 73.
Psalm 73 is written by Asaph
and it's this wonderfully honest Psalm.
I think the Psalms are in the Bible to keep us honest
because the Psalms really do demonstrate
the messiness of faith.
And Asaph is looking around,
he's sought to be worshipful and obedient to God,
and it looks to him
like all the people who don't care,
all the people who don't believe,
all the people who couldn't care less about God,
their lives are being blessed,
and he's suffering.
And he says something that I smile at
every time I read it.
He says this:
"Surely for no reason have I kept myself pure."
It's great he's saying,
"I've obeyed for this?
This is what I get?
All that obedience,
all that worship,
all those sacrifices,
and this is what I get?"
That's that feeling of futility.
What is this about?
There's a second thing that Paul says.
Verse 21:
He says, "In hope that the creation itself
will be set free - get this -
from its bondage to decay."
He's talking about death.
He's saying one of the dynamics
of what's happening right now
is that everything dies.
It's all around us.
That beautiful bouquet
that you bought
won't be here a month from now.
It dies!
All of us expect that someday we'll die.
But it's not just physical things.
Hopes die.
Visions die.
Relationships die.
Marriages die.
Truth dies.
Promises die.
Commitments die.
We have death all around us.
And you'll never understand the significance of that
unless you understand
that death wasn't part of the original plan.
Don't let anyone ever tell you
that death is natural.
That's heresy!
Death isn't natural.
It's positively unnatural.
It wasn't meant to be that way.
That's why it hurts us so much.
That's why it seems so horrible.
That's why we try to avoid it
because somewhere inside of us
we understand this is not the way
it was meant to be.
Human beings weren't supposed to have death
as a regular part of their existence,
but we do.