Clouds With Silver Linings

There are economics problems that are impacting the world simply because societies are getting older. And as societies and cultures, especially nations, grow and mature, they get top-heavy, and they all come down, they all have to come down in time. Simply, they cannot be sustained. There are church issues that come up from time to time that pain and grieve us all and disturb us. There are family issues that are simply built into the family. Just as Jesus Christ said, built into this physical church of His would be challenges and problems along the way. And in fact, there must be, one of the apostles said. So within families, there are growths, there are plateaus, there are pressures that come along with the aging process, the maturing process, the independence process. There are political issues that rise and sort of disturb and bring an angst to societies. And when we go through any or all of these, our response can be, help me, save me, save me from my pain, save me from my disease, save me from this family trial, save me from this economic meltdown, save me from my aging process, help me God. You might even fast about it. Let's ask a serious question. Do you think help will come for those things? That's a real serious question. Do you think that help will be coming for your increasing aches and pains as you age? Do you think help will be coming for the economic problems of this present evil age and the governments of this world? Do you think that help will be coming and solving the church problems that are prophesied and said that they need to exist? Do you think that help and a solving will come to family challenges from children and parents and male and female all dwelling together in a very active, close environment? Do you think the politics and the political issues that are threatening even life on this planet are going to be solved? Do you think God is going to send the fountain of youth? I mean, let's be serious. Do you think he's going to fix the problems in Satan's evil world and skip the millennium? Just sort of, well, we'll just turn this into the millennium? Do you think he's going to turn back your age to when you were 18?

I mean, let's be real. Is the end time not going to come after all because we're begging God for relief? Make this the millennium instead? When we cry out, oh, help me, save me from this problem, save me from what I've gotten myself into or the world's gotten himself into, or from just the natural course of things at time, we are in an unthankful, glass-half-empty mindset, which is really ungodly if you think about it. It's not why you and I are here. We're not here to cry out to the genie to suddenly make everything right for us and put us back on the magic carpet right.

We need to be serious about our calling and to separate fantasy from the purpose which you and I have been called to participate in. We need to know what that purpose is. We can find it very simply in Matthew 6, verse 33, where Jesus himself taught, seek you therefore the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these other things will be added to you. They'll be, in other words, they will be taken care of. They will be a diminished, secondary thing in your life, and I won't let you starve to death or go around naked, just like I don't let the animals and the flowers of the field go around naked or unable to function. Now, when we do that, when we actually get our minds onto the serious, spiritually mature things that are needing to happen in our lives, that are going to happen in the church, that are going to happen in the world, we actually are then focused on the kingdom of God, and we're praying about that as he says every day, pray, your kingdom come, not as some gasp, help me, bring your kingdom tomorrow and deliver me from this life. Guess what? The kingdom ain't coming tomorrow, folks. It's prophesied not to come tomorrow. It won't be here tomorrow. But the kingdom can be here today. If you pray, God, bring your kingdom to my life now, you be my ruler. Let me live your laws. Let me live within the confines of you and your church. Then, as Jesus said, the kingdom is very near. In fact, it's actually inside you, isn't it? God the Father and Jesus Christ. It's shed abroad in our hearts, as the Bible tells us. And let your will be done, not in the future today, doing God's will, as Jesus did God's will on this earth. When we do that, our mindset flips from glass half empty, oh, save me, oh, I can't believe all the problems in my life, somebody's got to bail me out, to something that is spiritually mature. The glass is indeed half full. And I would say it's only half full. But it's filling up. You know, we started out at one point with the glass empty, and now it's half full. This is progress. This is good. When we do have this mindset, we get our minds off of our own personal health and wealth and prosperity, our youth, and seeking God's righteousness and His kingdom, then we begin to be appreciative, we begin to be thankful, we begin to live in the real world, and we need to go about the work and fight the battle that ends up with us in the kingdom of God.

When we are seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness, we find that the kingdom, in fact, is near. Because the Lord of that kingdom on earth, and eventually the head, the Father of that kingdom, for all eternity, dwell inside those who have God's Holy Spirit. And they are being led by the leaders of the kingdom of God. Not that the kingdom is here, it hasn't come to earth yet, it hasn't come in the spiritual sense. It's not the kingdom of God that is ultimately coming, but for those who are ambassadors of that kingdom, for those who have God the Father and Jesus Christ living in them, and are living by the laws of that kingdom and coming under the governance of that kingdom, in a very real sense, we can pray every day, we can pray every day, your kingdom come into my life and affect me today, in a very positive and real way. In doing so, we're not weaker as we go older, we're spiritually stronger. We are maturing, growing, destined for divinity, or destined for that divine state soon. I was talking with a lady on the phone this morning who said, I'm in the hospital and I may be dying, this may be it for me. You know, when you hear those words, you realize that kingdom of a person who is being led by God's Spirit faithfully trying to follow and imitate God, the kingdom could be tomorrow morning, her time, you know what I'm saying? The next thing she knows, she could be a Spirit being. It's near, it's exciting how soon it can be.

Becoming more godly-minded, if that's our challenge, and we're being challenged of it, we can see we are becoming more godly-minded. We can look back and see how selfish, self-centered, carnally-minded, shallow I used to be, but I'm growing, I'm maturing, I'm more godly-minded than I used to be, my glass is looking half full now. That's exciting.

A child of our Father in heaven, instead of the old God that we used to imitate so well. A brother of Jesus Christ in the sense that you and I are looking more like him, we're reflecting a little more light to other people than we used to, we're acting a little more like him, we're fighting the good fight. In fact, we're fighting, finally, instead of just going along with the flow. You know what it says there in Philippians, you who once walked according to the course of this world, you know, they're kind of going along, we're fine, we're salmon swimming upstream. Yep, a few of those rapids are hard to climb up and get through, but once you do, you say, you know what, I'm making progress here. I'm halfway home, maybe. Fighting the good fight against self and against Satan. We're readying the bride, our individual part of the bride, to get ready for the marriage of the Lamb. What an exciting thing that is. It says in Revelation chapter 19 that the bride has made herself ready because Christ is cleaning us up, washing us with the water of the Word from Ephesians chapter 4, 5. And so, it's exciting, isn't it? That glass is looking half full as we move forward. Instead of wanting our bodies to somehow live forever and remain, and I hate these wrinkles and gray hairs kind of thing, Paul says, we desire to be rid of this tent.

Sorry. And be with the Lord.

Wouldn't that be nice? What a focus that is to have kind of a glass half full mentality. I'll try to make this glass half full in time. But you see where the mental intent is, it's not in some self-preservation in a shallow, carnal, selfish way, but rather in something that is real. It's solid. It's not fantasy. It's fulfilling its calling and its purpose. In that mindset, we can be rejoicing in trials, being tempered by them, appreciating them, and growing in perseverance. Perseverance in fulfilling God's will of becoming children of His and becoming more like Him. Now, it would be nice if every day were sunny, and the weather was always perfect, and your body always just was fine, and there was always money to do whatever you wanted to. But the fact of life is there are clouds, and there are storm clouds, and there are winds, and there's rain, and there's hail, and there's problems, weather-wise, or you can use that symbolically for life. You can have a wonderful marriage, but there will always be interruptions, there will always be storms, and there will always be clouds. How do you view those things? Do you see them as, my glass is half empty?

Or do you see it, my glass is half full? They say that every cloud has a silver lining. That was first said in the United States back in the mid-1800s, but it actually came from Milton, John Milton, back in the year 1634, writing in England. It's come to mean that every cloud, you see a cloud, it's kind of a negative thing, has a light behind it, maybe the sun shining, and it has a little silver lining on it. It's kind of a neat thing. You tend to think of the worst clouds as perhaps being the great storm clouds that bring hail and rain, those big convective, cumulonimbus clouds that go up to 50,000-60,000 feet and then send things down. Very dramatic. In fact, if that's not bad enough, as that storm passes over at the back of the storm, where the high-pressure system comes swirling in in reverse, it's where tornadoes are spawned, right on the back edge of those violent storms. So you might say in the deepest, darkest, worst part of a storm with tornadoes, right behind that is the sun and clear skies, and there's going to be a silver lining, as it were. That's the concept. Milton, in fact, didn't say that every cloud has a silver lining. He brought out the silver lining more in this context. He said, a very, very dark cloud will turn her silver lining on or in the night. We're talking about a very dark cloud.

He called it a sable cloud, in which in Old English meant something very, very dark. And that was at night. And yet he could see that even in those dark, deep, depressing times, the moon could shine on the back side of that cloud and could shine her light. That sometimes is what it's like to have challenges and problems in the physical life. Today I'd like to examine the trials and challenges that are part of this life, and that beface any and all of us from time to time. Let's see what our response to them can be, and even what it should be, and how we can look at, confront, and actually profit from these events. The title of the sermon today is Clouds with Silver Linings. There was a song that came out in a musical called Carousel in 1945. About the end of World War II, Rogers and Hammerstein wrote the song. It was called, You'll Never Walk Alone.

The lyrics of the song says, When you walk through a storm, keep your head up high, and don't be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark. Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone. Those words have been very inspiring to people, in general, around the world ever since. There were words that resound because we all have trials, and they talk about something bright coming along, and that you'll never walk alone. Actually, in the original context of that musical, these words had no value or really redeeming feature whatsoever, and because they were very misconstrued and about something very mythical. And yet, the words themselves, coming out in lyrics that people hear, have resounded so well that over a hundred different artists around the world, in all different genres, have re-recorded this music and put it out, including some pretty off-the-wall rock types. And the point is that we tend to have this as part of our life, these dark times, and we need silver linings. We need gold and skies, something good to come along afterward.

The concept of enduring severe trials intrigues people of all cultures, but at the same time, it also escapes those same people. Because in reality, when the dark storm clouds come to civilization, there aren't golden skies and there aren't silver linings very often afterward. A lot of it's just a bunch of fantasy rhetoric that we wish and would hope for. However, far from just empty platitudes for those in God's Church, these should be part of the reality that you and I live from every trial, and every cloud, and every storm that we go through in life. Turning triumphs into, or turning tragedies into triumphs, really can only come from one source. It doesn't come for you and me. It doesn't come from luck. It doesn't come because with every catastrophe there has to be something good. We need to understand seriously where the triumph out of challenge comes. It comes by interlacing God with every aspect of your life, and I'll prove that to you in Scripture today. It's something you can rely on, both positively and negative. If you don't have God interlaced into those events of your life, don't count on any silver linings. But if God is part of and stitched into your life, not as an afterthought, but really we being stitched into God's will and doing His purpose while we're here, with Him as our leader, our guide, being led by Him and His Son through the Holy Spirit, then there is good that comes through all the adversities that we experience.

Let's see this exemplified in Deuteronomy 16. We begin in verse 12 and see the trial, the trial concept or the trial aspect. Deuteronomy 16, verse 12. God says here to the Israelites, You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt.

It's not something God wanted them to just skip over and forget. You and I need to remember that we were slaves to sin. We were slaves to the wiles of the devil and the deeds or things that we wanted to do, and we couldn't get out of that. We couldn't get away from that. Next, He said, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. So that was then, but now you see slave, bad, horrible, no identity, everything's falling apart, nothing good, no hope, black clouds with no silver linings. Now He says, you shall be careful, careful to observe these statutes. He goes on to verse 13. You shall observe and keep the feast of tabernacles for seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your wine press. You will tithe, you will save the festival tithe, you will keep my festivals, and you shall rejoice. Oh wow, we're beginning to see here the positive side. We're hearing, we're seeing the triumph, you see. These are going to be good things. You'll rejoice in the feast. Verse 11, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant. These relationships are working well from people who were terrible slaves.

We need to have God involved, not just involved in a secondary way, but we need to be, in a sense, under the direction of God and our lives being fully committed to doing His will every day, fulfilling our role in His Kingdom as He is the King. This is His body. In a sense, it is representative of the Kingdom, and we have a relationship that later, when Christ returns and we assist Him, others will have that opportunity as well. Now, you and I go through difficult trials as a church. We always have. We always will. It's prophesied to get a lot worse.

When you think about the challenges that we've come through now, we think, wow, that's pretty big, depending on how long you've been around the church. Then you read what Jesus said in Matthew 24, and begin to realize, hey, there's some really tough stuff coming on. Then you go a little bit further, and you find, wow, there's really some trials coming on. It says that Jesus won't return or put it this way, the end will not happen unless the falling away comes first. Wow! Whatever that is, it sounds ominous. So we realize that. We're mature enough to realize that Jesus prophesied sheep and goats, wheat and tares, false teachers, Satan's going to come in, you know, all these problems. We realize that. Okay, fine. That's part of our battle, isn't it? That's part of what we are being matured for and being developed with more perseverance in godliness. But after each trial, what do we find as a church? Well, we find that a higher, better plateau is reached. You know, when you climb that mountain, it's tough going uphill.

Recently, I climbed a difficult trail, and I thought, why am I doing this? The trail was dusty. When you put your foot down, you got a cloud of dust. I was following where horses had been, and they had left some little nuggets there, fresh ones. And sometimes it was almost impossible not to step in them, especially if you were trying to look at scenery. And the trees were so enclosing, I couldn't really see much. I kept asking myself, is this steep trail really something I want to do? Nobody's here. I might just want to turn around and go back there, go back by the river. And I broke out at some point in a gap in the trees and looked across a distant valley to the, the picture spot for Yosemite Falls in the whole national park of Yosemite. It is amazing. It's not on the tourist map. There's no sign. You can't drive there. It is the most amazing sight. Now, if I hadn't climbed up there, hadn't gone through that, wouldn't have had that shot. I sat there and did video and still and just couldn't drink it in enough. I was even telling people on the trail, don't forget around that next corner down there to stop and look. You'll miss it. That's what it's like, you see, as we go through life. You, you get to some places that are better. A new plateau. Now, the river was kind of cute down below. That's nice and some splashy stuff in it, you know. But this, would I have wanted to miss that? And so it continued up the mountain. You get into the flower fields where, where the melting glacier would send down enough water that saturated the ground and kept it wet to a certain variety of flowers, a mini variety, but in a certain spot. Beyond them was another waterfall right behind. Now, get down kind of in the dirt to take a picture of that, some video of that, because it just took your breath away. I thought, would I want to just stay down there at that nice view of Yosemite Falls? No! Who would want to miss this? I wanted to carry my wife up there and show her. It just kept getting more and more exciting the higher one went. Eventually, climbing all the way to the top of what's called Half Dome and a very precarious steel cable that, you know, you're going up at a very stream angle. People fall off and die. I said, why am I doing this? This is dumb. This is the dumbest thing I've probably ever done in my life. One, one slip, and I not only take myself out, but half the people down below, as people sometimes do on that cable. But you know when you're on the top of what's called Half Dome, and you're out on the little peak, standing, looking down thousands of feet over Yosemite Valley, it is the most awesome place, scary place, to view that part of the world from. And you think, you know, if I hadn't climbed all the way up here, I wouldn't have this.

You and I are filling a glass in our life, and it's challenging. But when we look back, we can see places we've come as individuals, as a church, in our spiritual growth, our physical growth, often in our own physical growth, that of our career, that of our marriage, our family. And we can say, you know, the view is a lot better from here than it was before, when I thought it was where I wanted to stay, where I wanted to keep it.

We have more productivity, along with new opportunities, new opportunities to turn around, new opportunities to be carnal. You know, it seems that the more God's people grow in His type of love and concern, the less careful they are, the less they tend to lock things, the less they tend to hoard things, the less they tend to protect themselves. And so, therefore, in a sense, they provide opportunity for those who might take advantage of them. That happened to Jesus, that happened to the apostles, that happens to you and me. And that's just part of experiencing the fact that this present evil age is not the one we want to live in, and yet we go on, we go forward. But there's always that opportunity to say, hey, I see gaps that I could jump into. I could promote myself, I could insert me right here, I could take advantage right there, because of perhaps the honor, the respect, or the admiration that you have of others, or just the opportunity. You could turn that into a preying-on mode, which can be a temptation. Trials separate opportunists from the genuine children of God. You know, when we come up and we say, oh, my glass is half empty, I'm just having a terrible time in life, I didn't sign on for this. You know what I signed on for? I read this booklet that says, if you join this church, you'll be in the kingdom of God, and you'll live happily ever after, and God will bless you. And this ain't working! You know, that's an opportunist. And I think we all started there. We all started, we were all kind of lured, and we thought, well, this is going to work out better for me if I make this step. But if we don't mature from that point and actually live and walk the walk, then we're just the opportunists. We're just the tares. We're just the goats. You know, I heard there's going to be some food here. I'm going to come and munch on it. I heard there's a quick, quick, get-me-salvation, so I'm here to snatch that. Let's go to Psalm chapter 50, verses 14 through 17. Psalm chapter 50 and verse 14. We find here in Psalm chapter 50 that there is no reward without cost. There is no silver lining without spiritual development during our storms. There's a realistic experience that God has us participate in during our lifetime. In Psalm chapter 50 and verse 14, it said, offer to God thanksgiving. That's when we say or we sing to God, thank you, God, for all the wonderful things in life, or all the things in life, if you're mature enough to say that and mean it, because remember, life is full of all kinds of things. But that's what God wants us to be. Offer to God thanksgiving, not some kind of cry for help. Help me! Make me younger! You know, take away all these penalties, fix the world. No, offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. You made a vow to God. You also made a vow to your spouse. We're supposed to keep those vows. I will keep repenting and overcoming. I will keep obeying your laws better and better. I will develop and imitate you more and more. That's my half of the vow, and I will keep doing that. Offer to God thanksgiving as you pay those vows to God. See how God is interlaced in all those events in your life? It says, I believe in Romans 8, 16, that all things work together for good to the call, those who are called according to God's purpose and who love Him.

Verse 15, call upon Me in the day of trouble. Oh, hey, that's when we call upon Him, because we're paying our vows. We are genuine members of the family. So call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. That's positive. You won't get the glory. God will get the glory. Verse 16, but to the wicked. Now, who are the wicked? Well, that's you and me when we're not paying our vows to God the most high. Wicked just means not doers of God's laws, not loving as we should, not obeying what He teaches us. The wicked, God says, what right have you to declare My statutes? What right have you to take My Bible, declare yourself some religious individual, say you're a light to the world, etc., etc. What right do you have to declare My statutes or take My covenant in your mouth? You're not a doer. You're just a hearer. You're just a preacher, a teacher, a stator, or whatever, but you're not doing it, in other words. Verse 17, seeing you hate instruction and you cast My words behind you. Oh, well, I'll tell you about it, but I ain't going to do it. You know, we'll talk about it, and this can be any of us, but we don't actually do it. And we cast God's word behind us, put ourself forward, and it becomes all about Me. Romans 2 says, not the hearers of the word, but the doers of the word that are justified. So for all things to work together, for these dark clouds to have silver linings, to turn tragedy into triumph, we must be genuine, godly children of God entwining every part of our life with Him, walking with God, being led by that Holy Spirit. Then it all works well. It all works for God. It all works for good. And God not only will save us, but we give thanks. Give thanks! Like, what is it? James said, count it all joy when you fall into various trials and tests. We give thanks to God for that. Think, well, this is not something I really enjoy. Let me tell you something. My wife and I were observing the feast this year, and little things sometimes just happen that are unexpected. And they can feel pretty big, especially when you're far from home. And we received this blessing, and we received that upgrade, and we received this blessing, and that one seemed like whatever happened to us, it was, you know, we had this little room, but they gave us the big suite. And we were like, wow, that was interesting. And this happened, and that happened, and this happened. And at the end, my wife was saying, we had this discussion, and she said, you know, this is just incredible how much God has blessed us. And we were serving in a different, difficult part of the world for the feast, but look how He's just blessed us. This is great! And I said to her, yes, dear. And be ready now for the other side of life, which also comes. The dark clouds and the storms barely got the words out of my mouth, and she came down with what's called the norovirus and started vomiting, and she said, you made this happen!

Which she was just joking with me, but, you know, that is what real life is about, isn't it? And yet we do, we don't just look for the fluffy, nice stuff. We can appreciate that and give God the credit for it, but we also learn right along from the trials and the challenges that we have, and that's all good, too.

Don't take your calling for granted. It's very special. Very few people are called right now. Just imagine that if there are 10,000 people right now that are being led by God's Holy Spirit on earth in a world of seven billion, that means for every person who is, has God's Holy Spirit, you would have to go through 700,000 more people to get to the next one. 700,000! Just tossing some numbers out.

That's a pretty precious calling. There's something to be thankful about right there, even though it comes with a lot of trials and challenges. So the reward is also huge. We need to eat and crave this way. Let's look at John chapter 6 in verse 44. John chapter 6, beginning in verse 44. Here's what Jesus says. No one can come to me, nobody, unless the Father draws him. Unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

That's how special your calling and mine is. You can't just go out there and grab somebody. The Father has to call and draw. There's resistance to that drawing. But hopefully we will all become less resistant, and we will come along and be more like God. We have to eat it. We have to crave it. Going on down in verse 48. I am the bread of life. You can't live by bread alone. You need Him. Your Father's ate the man and the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. We have to crave that bread. We have to crave this calling in other words. We have to really get into it. We really have to love God, love His personality, love His ways, humble ourselves, get rid of the old self, die to it daily, and move forward. We have to respect and appreciate this calling. And then we say, wow, my glass is half full. Remember the Apostle Paul? He said, Philippians 2, verse 12, I'm not perfect. I don't consider myself to have apprehended perfection.

My glass isn't full. But this one thing I do, I forget those things which are behind and I press forward to the high calling. My glass is half full. I'm fighting the good fight here. It's kind of exciting. It's where we need to be. Hopefully that's where we are. Now the caveat, of course, is Satan hates and will oppose anyone that is growing to be more like our Lord and Savior is, that is heading for a destiny higher than his.

He will want to suppress and cut you down. So we've got to fight the good fight. But as we fight the good fight, like Paul said, I have fought the good fight. And for all of us who are doing that, there's laid up a crown of the crown being the wreath of the one who won, the victor of the race. Now, let's see how all this works together. The calling, the persecution, the thankfulness, and the ultimate success. In 1 Peter 4, you could take the time to read all of this chapter. We'll just see a few verses of it.

Verse 1, sorry, 1 Peter 4. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. We're going to suffer in the flesh, too. Okay. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ceased from that pattern. He is no longer living the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God to become more like our Lord and Savior, who said, become you like your Father in heaven. Here in Matthew 5, verse 48.

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing what the will of the Gentiles was when we walked in these various things. But we're moving forward now. Verse 7, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious, watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

Above all things, put that right in there as your basis of obeying God and all of his laws. You build on that, your love, the agape mindset of the God family, and you push forward with that in all circumstances. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. And as each one is received a gift, minister it to one another. Verse 12, Beloved, don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though something strange had happened to you. Don't go crying out to God, hey, deliver me from this. There's something weird happening here. I'm receiving opposition. I'm having some challenges, some problems. Knuckle up a bit. Be like Paul was back in around Acts 22, I think it was, when the brethren said, please, with tears, don't go to Jerusalem, you're liable to die. He says, what's with all the tears? So what if I die? I'm excited to go and do the work of God. Who cares if I die? You know, we knuckle down, deal with it. With God, as part of our life, we have the confidence that all things work together for good, for those who love God and those who are doing his will, being led by his Spirit. Because God is there, remember? Intertwined. Take God away? Uh-oh. Those things would not be good to go through. In all those storms and clouds and trials and everything, you do that on your own. Eh. That would not be, that would not have a good ending. Verse 14, if you are reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are you! For the Spirit of glory and God rests upon you. This is working here together for good.

Verse 15, don't suffer as a murderer or thief. Don't go in there and say, oh, I'm being persecuted. You know, I spend money on my credit card like crazy and chump up all this. You know, the credit card company is persecuting me. I take away my house. That's not what we're talking about. Don't be, you know, such an obnoxious person in your neighborhood that nobody likes you and say, oh, it's because of the Sabbath keeping. That's what he's saying here. But, verse 16, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. But let him glorify God in this matter. Glorify God that you're suffering because you're part of that family. You represent that kingdom. You're taking it on the way. Just like Jesus Christ, the apostles, and all your other brothers and sisters do.

For time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

In verse 19, therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their lives to him in doing good as to a faithful creator. And we move forward knowing that God loves us, knowing that God's will is greater than ours, some of the things we just don't understand in life. We'll get later on. And sometimes you have to get a little bit higher on the mountain to realize that what you went through that was so disillusioning actually has benefit in the long run.

Remember that we're brothers and sisters with each other in the family of God, in the family of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. 1 Thessalonians 2, verses 13-20. It says, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing.

How can you do that? Here's the apostle. You remember that's getting beat up, stoned, left for dead, tossed to and fro. And he's got a death sentence on him that he knows about because the Holy Spirit told him he was going to die. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing. Because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. It's so exciting to have fellow brothers and sisters going through these challenges and encouraging one another. And he goes on here, and he's really excited about this. Verse 15, Who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. Verse 17, But we brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoring more eagerly to see your face with great desire. Verse 19, For what is our hope, or our joy, or our crown, or our rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? Isn't that what we want? See, as we mature, it's not about me getting saved anymore, is it? We kind of take on that mind that Paul had. If others can get in by me not getting in, take them. It's not about me. It's not about me jumping to the head of the line or sitting on the right hand of Christ or just getting myself saved at any cost. It's about us. And that is the joy that we all have as brothers and sisters. And our elder brother Jesus Christ, by the way, very heavily involved, gave His life so that we can all make it. We need to join our hands and our arms and be encouraging to one another. So, we walk through the storms with our head up high. And we're not afraid of the darkness of this evil age because God is with us. We're not alone simply because our life is entwined with God and He lives in us.

We are not afraid of the darkness associated with this evil age. It says in 1 Peter 1, verse 3. So we wrap this up. 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 9. Blessed, blessed! Oh, now we're thanking God and we're blessing His name. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. Has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The glass is not only half full. It is going to be brimming over. It's going to be flowing over. And we're so excited about that. We're blessing God. And we're coming to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefileable, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. You who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. It's part of it. That the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your lives. The ultimate storm isn't the one you've been through. It's yet ahead. The ultimate storm is the darkest. It's the gloomiest. The ultimate storm ahead for humanity and for the Church is real. Before you start thinking the glass is half empty, realize that the ultimate blessing is right behind it. It is the silveriest of linings. The darkest end that Jesus said he will have to intervene so that mankind doesn't kill himself off is followed by the most dramatic change and biggest blessing for those who will become the firstfruits that can be imagined. Let's see this as we close from Jesus' words in Mark 13. We'll read verses 22 through 27. Mark 13.

First, the storm. This is the reality that you and I will be prepared for if we are growing. We'll be just fine.

Because God is with us and He will never leave or forsake those who are genuinely His children. Mark 13 verse 22. For false Christs and false prophets, false teachers, they're going to rise up and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible the elect.

Some of the most tempting things that could draw you and me away and get us to think selfishly are coming. But take heed. See, I have told you all things beforehand. Oh, see? Glass is half full. We know about it. We're going to be fine if we continue on and persevere in doing what we should and what we're committed to, paying our vows to God. Verse 24. But in those days after that tribulation, I think that's bad enough, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers and the heavens will be shaken. This will be a terrible, terrible time for mankind. What will those signs tell you? I think if suddenly during this great tribulation, the sun darkened, the moon didn't give its light, the stars of heaven failed, and the powers of the heavens are shaken, it's a good indication that we're well into the day of the Lord. And if you go back and look at the timeline in Revelation of the seven bowls or the bowl judgments, the seven last plagues of God, you'll find that you're already resurrected when that happens, according to the timeline there in Revelation 11 and 14. Those will be exciting times for the firstfruits. Look in verse 26. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Now you talk about clouds with a silver lining. When you see the glory, the brightness of God, many times brighter than the sun, to you and me, and really for all mankind, though they won't realize it at the time, that is the ultimate silver lining.

And then he will send his angels and gather together his elect from the four winds, perhaps referring to the fact that already spirit beings have been for a short time already, because of the seventh trumpet. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, the dead will rise in Christ. And this is past the seventh trumpet.

From the farthest part of the earth, the farthest part of heaven.

That's pretty exciting, as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, 7, 10. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we will always be with the Lord. Wow! You see, there are trials in your life now. There are tests, there are upheavals, there are clouds, there's storms, there's gloominess. But when God is part of it, there is also rejoicing, there's tempering, there's spiritual growth. And in the deepest, darkest, prophesied times, when they pass, are the greatest, glorified, brightest times for the children of God. So if you are led by God's Holy Spirit, your glass is indeed half full. Be thankful for this once in all time calling that God has given to you. Be thankful to God for the opportunity to be one of the first fruits at Christ's return. Let's be thankful, let's be serious, and let's move forward to the kingdom of God.