Do We Really See the Big Picture?

I know that all of you, at least most of you anyway, brought a book with you today. You brought a book whenever you came to church. And of course, all of us, if we've been a part of the Church of God for any period of time, and even at the very beginning, perhaps, we realize that as we came to the church service of the Church of God, that we were going to go over something in the Bible. And that we needed to be able to have our Bible with us, either to take notes or to try to at least look it up, try to follow whatever it is that's going to be covered in the services. The Bible, as we know, is an amazing book. Absolutely incredible. Incredible that God could use the dozens of individuals that he used in order to write down a book that really is unbelievably remarkable. Now, there are many people who don't want to read the Bible, who don't want to put any time into it, or who may think it's kind of confusing. And certainly, too many, and maybe, to us. At one time in the past, maybe we may have thought the Bible was kind of baffling, you know, kind of hard to understand. Certainly, you read the book of Revelation, or you read some of the prophetic books, and you find, you know, well, that's not real clear. And so, some people think the Bible is either puzzling or baffling. And I think at times, I think I've even thought, well, man, the Bible is just, I mean, there's 66 books, and so many of them in the New Testament, so many in the Old. It's almost overwhelming. See, if I know something about some of the Bible, that's good. That's certainly good. But God, I think, wants us to know something about all of it. And so, we want to, you know, we don't want it to be an overwhelming book. We want to have an idea of what it's about.

And clearly, you can get that by reading through it, but you also get it more so by studying.

And clearly to us, the Bible, we view that as God's revelation to man.

That's, you know, that's why we read it. That's why we are interested in the authority of the Bible, and how it is that God is giving us instruction.

And certainly, it's fascinating to think about the Bible, the way it's been put together, and the way that what it actually reveals. The Bible tells us a history.

It's really a history book. Some of you are good at history. I'm not very good at at least some of the more modern history. I don't know that I know a whole lot about any areas of history, but the Bible is really a history book.

And it tells about the history of the universe.

It tells about the history.

Now, you have to find this in different parts of the Bible, because there are different things stated in different places.

It tells about the history of the angelic creation.

It tells about, you know, how it is that God has created and designed an angelic realm, and there are archangels and regular angels, seraphim, carabim, they're living creatures, they're elders.

You know, a lot of different spirit beings that are described as a spirit realm.

And it tells about the history of that angelic realm. It also tells, and thankfully, and I thought this was very interesting, you know, when we think about the Bible, how marvelously God has put it together. It's somewhat of a chronological book.

You know, it starts, and you can read it from the beginning of man, Adam, and it goes through to the time of Jesus, and to about 100 years after the time of Jesus.

And of course, it talks about how it is that God has dealt with man during that expansive period of time. Over 4,000 years are easily covered, and then more is covered as you see that are revealed there in the Bible.

Shows the history of man, from Adam to Christ, and then even to all of us today.

And I think it's good for us to think through. I know sometimes whenever I don't sleep as well as I used to, and I'm laying awake and I'm thinking, I guess you could count sheep, or you could try to think of something else that might make you go to sleep, but I often try to go through different verses of the Bible, different parts of the Psalms that I want to memorize, or I try to go through the books of the Bible and think about how are they ordered, what is it that is in each one of these books, what is Peter talking about, what's Paul talking about, you can think about the Bible, and of course you can start putting it together. And if you put it all together, it clearly shows you a marvelous history that God wants us to be very familiar with.

And I think it would be safe to say that the Bible reveals the big picture.

The big picture which all of us need to keep in mind.

And I want to go cover that today and ask us, do we really see the big picture that the Bible portrays to us? Because it's important that we do that. It's important that we think about how the Bible reveals the big picture that is important for each and every one of us. Sometimes we can get bogged down.

We can get bogged down in studying the Bible. We can get bogged down in studying.

Certainly you can say I'm studying the Bible, but it might be I'm studying somewhat of a lesser scriptural concern. See, now you could I could use a few examples here, you know, where did the tribes of Israel migrate to? You know, there were 12 sons of Jacob. Each of those sons had a family. They became a tribe. Ultimately, you know, they migrated away after the captivity. Where did they go? Well, the Bible doesn't directly say everywhere they went, but we certainly see something about Ephraim and Manasseh. You see something about Judah. You can see something about some of the others, certainly prophetically. You can study about Van and Issachar and Zebulun.

But see, those in a sense are somewhat lesser concerns than what I'm really talking about when I'm talking about the big picture. What about the 12 apostles? You know, Jesus instituted his church. He appointed 12 apostles. He replaced Judas with Matthias. Where did those 12 individuals go?

We know something about Paul and Peter and John and James. Those are pretty easily figured out. But where did the others go? Well, that's not an insignificant thing to want to know.

But I'll tell you, it's not the big picture. It's not the big picture. Or, you know, we can start looking at particular words and wonder what this word actually means or what it... And again, that's not wrong. But see, does that help us keep our eyes focused on the big picture?

Or we could read the book of Revelation. And as we know, it's broken down into seals and into trumpets and into final plagues. Now, what's the third seal about?

Well, you could read it. You know, you can perhaps understand what it's talking about.

Or, you know, what's the second trumpet plague about? You know, how exactly is that going to come up on the earth? Why would God send that on the earth? Those are all, you know, fine things to study or fine things to know about. And yet, those don't tell us what the big picture is. They're a part of the picture, yes, but they don't tell us what the big picture is really about. So what is really important? What are the most important questions that the Bible reveals?

Actually, what we find when we look at the big picture that you see revealed in the Bible, that the most important questions, actually the biggest questions about human life, about your life, about my life, are revealed in the pages of the Bible. And so to be able to keep our eyes glued on the big issues, the big questions of life, and not only those questions, but those answers. Because that's what we really want to know. We want to know the answers to the really big questions of life. You know, sometimes you can see these questions even written about by others who try to answer them but don't use the Word of God as a source, and they don't really come up with the answer. But see, all of us have access. We have access to the Word of God.

And I want to go through seven different questions that each and every one of us need to answer, and they all point to the big picture. And they're far more important than any other specific questions that I've enumerated here up to this point. See, the first of these, and of course, these all tie together in a sense, and I think perhaps even writing these down is good for us to think about. And that first one is, does God exist? Does God exist? That is the greatest question of all, because that does frame everything beyond that, because there are people who don't believe that God exists. And when people don't believe that God exists, then they are haphazardly living their lives. But that first question is, does God exist? And the second is, who is God? And the third is, what is God? And the fourth is, what is God's purpose for putting man on earth?

The fifth question is, who is man? The sixth one is, what is man? And the last one that I'll cover here today is, what is man's purpose on earth? See, those seven questions, you can spend a lot of time thinking about, studying about, answering, and actually finding a purpose for your life with those incredibly big picture questions. And so I want us to cover these, at least in brief today. As I mentioned, the very first one is one that I think all of us, surely all of us, have, you know, we have answered. Or if we haven't answered it, then we should answer it.

Does God exist? Because of course, if God doesn't exist, then it doesn't make any difference what we do. It doesn't make any difference how we act. We are going to die, whether God exists or not.

Now, ultimately, in the frame and form that we're in, we will die. But the first point I want to make here is, does God exist? You see David talking about this in Psalm chapter 8. And clearly, again, we can go through the pages of the Bible and see how it is that the really big questions of life, the most important questions that we can ever think about are answered, how they're answered in the pages of the Bible. Here in Psalm chapter 8, you see David, surely, having spent a good deal of time outside at night. See now, maybe we don't have that much opportunity to get outside at night anymore, although it gets dark so early, it's night before you know it. And so, you know, you run into, you know, nighttime fairly early here in the evening, closer to five o'clock, or even before that it's starting to get dark and on a cloudy day like we have, it'll be darker even than that, earlier than that. But I know as a kid, I used to spend a lot of time outside at night. I think mostly my parents trying to just get us, my brothers, and my sister and I out of the house, you know, they'd mind us wandering around out on the farm, and I like to do that at night, and like to be able to be outside and to see, you know, the creation or to see the universe as you look up in the stars. But it's very obvious when you read Psalm chapter 8 that that's what David was very used to doing. He was a shepherd, he took care of the sheep, he was familiar with their patterns, their needs, he was familiar with caring for them, he was familiar with protecting them whenever there was bad weather or whenever there were predators. He was there, he was outside. And he says in verse 1, oh Lord, our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You know, he's really, you know, glorifying God in what he's stating here. And he says in verse 3, when I look at your heavens, so obviously not just looking at the sun, which you can do during the day, and you can see it's even beautiful to see the clouds and cloud formation and the sunrise and the sunsets, gorgeous. But he says, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established. See, clearly he was looking up at night, pondering you know, I know I'm really different than these sheep. I am really different. I've got brothers and perhaps sisters, but I know enumerated brothers are in the book of Samuel there. And of course, I've got my father and my mother, and yet I know how different I am from these sheep. I've got to take care of them. I've got to water them. I've got to feed them. I've got to nurture them when they're ailing, and yet I'm completely different. He says in verse 4, what are human beings that you are mindful of them?

Modals that you care for them. See, these are thoughts that David was thinking whenever he was outside and at night and looking up on the stars, and he had no explanation.

He could consider or think about it, maybe even learn or see the constellations and see some of the changes and maybe the patterns. I know I've tried that, but I'm not very good at it. And I can't see clearly enough to be able to identify much more than the north star or the Big Dipper. That's about it. But it's fabulous to think about how it is that the stars and the moon have been set in the sky by the creator God in order to create seasons and also in order to give us a sense of time. He says in verse 5, you have made man a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned them with glory and honor. You've given them dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under their feet, sheep and oxen and beasts and birds and fish.

Whatever passes through the sea, he says, man is above all of the other creation of God.

And he says in verse 9, O Lord, our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

See, understanding or answering the question to each of us, does God exist, is extremely, it's a big picture question. It's a very significant question that we need to answer. And in Hebrews 11, you know, we can read a lot more about God and what God reveals here in the pages of the Bible. But in Hebrews 11, you have a listing of the people of faith. And here in verse 6, of course, it talks about Abel. It talks about Enoch and Noah and Abraham and later others who followed Abraham. But in verse 6, it says, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

For whoever would approach God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. See, if we're going to be a servant of God, then we clearly have to understand the existence of God. And we have to understand how that the Bible reveals His existence.

You know, you find in the book of Revelation that God is called the One who was.

The One who was. Who always was. Who always has been. Who has continually existed from right now until however far in the past you want to go. The One who was. Now, you can see how Jesus came to the earth about 2,000 years ago. And about 6,000 years ago, Adam was put on the earth.

But see, the Father, God the Father, existed before that. The One who was. The One who is.

And the One who is to come. Whenever you see God described as being eternal, having always existed, existing right now, very aware of what is going on in our lives.

Very aware of what He has chosen to do with your life. Because in many ways we think about, you know, we're obeying God. And yes, we are. But see, God initiated that. He started that project.

And I guess we'd always have to be viewed as a project. Because we're not the finished project yet. I've thought a lot about that in the last couple of weeks. Because I've had a little bit more time to think about, I'm not feeling so good. I don't feel very well. You know, what if God doesn't allow me to live any longer? You know, and I have to think, well, I'm sure He will. Because I know I'm not the finished product. I know God has to have more for me to learn or to grow in.

But of course, that's up to Him. That's not terribly up to me. And so, you know, whenever we think about God being the self-existent One, the One who's always existed, the One who is eternal, and the One as it says here in Hebrews 11, you know, if we're going to honor God, if we're going to please God, then we clearly have to know that He exists. And know that He is able to help us. Know that He is a diligent, a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He's able to help us.

See, that is a big picture question. Does God exist? The second and third questions, I'll kind of run these together. Who is God and what is God? Those are actually two different questions. Because if you answer the question of who is God and you do that from the Bible, you find that, well, God is a Spirit.

John 8 44, you can easily go there. In 1 John 4 verse 8, it says, not only is God a Spirit, God is love. See, those are some one more definitions that we can easily say about who is God. But I want us to look in Isaiah 45 because you clearly see God revealing who He is in Isaiah 45. In Isaiah 45, in verse 12, God says, I made the earth, I created mankind upon it.

It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts. So here you see God revealing Himself as the Creator. See, He is a Spirit. He is love. But primarily, God is the Creator.

Down in verse 18, for thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is God who formed the earth and who made it and established it. It says in the last part of verse 18, He didn't make it in chaos, He formed it to be inhabited. See, He created it in such a way that it would be inhabited by man. And certainly, prior to that time, He had created it. It became chaotic because of a rebellion. But beyond that, He reshaped the earth and He was going to make it where men could be placed here on the earth and live.

So He created the earth to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other. The answer in the question of who is God and what is God? See, what is God? Well, we realize from what Jesus said that God is revealed as our Father. He is revealed as the Heavenly Father. We see that in the Lord's Prayer or the model of prayer that we often think of.

It talks about our Heavenly Father. But in John 1, John 1, you see more about what is God. Because you see revealed here in John 1, that God includes the Father, but God also includes the Son. I know that many of you were here last week and you were able to listen to a sermon about how God became flesh. It's a remarkable description of how it is and what it was that happened whenever Jesus came to the earth. And yet that reveals a lot about how it is that God describes Himself, not just who or what He does, but what God is.

We see here in John 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. So here you see a description of what God is. God involves someone named God. Someone Jesus would say He is the Father. And if God involves the Word, who was also God. In verse 2, He was in the beginning talking about the Word.

He was in the beginning with God. And all things came into being through Him. And without Him, not one thing came into being. And what has come into being in Him was life. And the life was the light of all people. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. And in verse 14, it says that Word became flesh and lived among us.

And we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father's only Son. Again, referring to God as the Father and Jesus as the Son who was sent to the earth. Both of whom are called God. And so you start to see that God reveals Himself not only as God and the Word, but as the Father and the Son. And of course, He describes Himself as a divine family. And here in Romans 8, you see more description about that. Romans 8, He says in talking about human beings. He says in verse 14, Romans 8, For all who are led by the Spirit of God.

Because God is a divine family, because He wants for us to be a part of that divine family as well. He's not going to force us to be in His family. He's not going to force us to have eternal life. He's not going to make us. He's created us in a way where we can accept what He offers.

But He tells us in verse 14 here that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. A father, a son, an elder brother, and then children. Children who are going to make up a divine family and who are going to serve other people just like God. And they are going to exemplify the love of God. See, these are big picture questions that we're talking about. Does God exist? Who is God? What is God? What is God's purpose for man? Why did God create man in Genesis 1, verse 26? As He fashioned man, He said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness.

Why did God make men Adam and Eve and then all of us? Why did He make us in His image? Why did He do that? What is His purpose for creating man in the way that He has? Well, here in Romans 8, we can back up to verse 9. And of course, Paul is talking here to people who lived in a corrupt society.

He's talking to people who were a part of the Church of God. Where? In Rome. In Rome, the central city, the capital city of the Roman Empire. And clearly, the Roman system was corrupt. Clearly, the bacary, the licentiousness, the anger, the hatred, the backbiting. Around the palace, you know, was extensive.

Many Christians, at the time Paul would be writing this in the mid-1st century. Many Christians would be people who would be imprisoned or who would be fed to the lions. You know, these are people that Paul was writing to.

He was writing to people who were a part of the Christian Church. And who were said, who lived in this terrible society. And yet, who were coming to understand what God's purpose for them was. And here in Romans 8, if we back up to verse 9, it says, You are not in the flesh, but you are in the spirit since the spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to God. See, that's a remarkable statement. It's a statement that we ought to think about and be thankful for. Of course, Paul was directing it to the people in Rome, but he's directing it to people who would become a part of the Church of God from that time until today. And to those here in the future who will become a part of the Church of God and who will be a part of a divine family.

Because that's what God is. And that's what God is doing. See, God's purpose for man was to cause man to be able to see a desire to be a part of God's family and to pursue that desire. And the way that is done is through the power of the Holy Spirit. See, actually, you'll see here in verse 9 about it saying, The spirit of God dwelling in us. And yet down in verse 14, as I read earlier, it's not a matter of just having the spirit of God.

We do need the spirit of God. Without the spirit of God, we are not going to be able to relate to God. To each one of us, and we should thank God every day, that He has seen fit to provide us the blessing of the spirit of God. Because that enables us to be empowered. That enables us to be, in a sense, fearless. Although we still are afraid at times, and we suffer at times, but we are in need of that relationship with the Father and that relationship with the Son that enables us to ultimately have eternal life.

But what it says in verse 14, it's not enough to just have the spirit of God. It says we've got to be led by the spirit of God. See, that takes conscious determination on our part to be in submission to God and to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit of God. That's what He tells us here, and of course that involves how it is that God had a purpose in creating man, making us in His image, and yet showing us, well, we're not complete.

We need the spirit of God. We need the help of God's Holy Spirit. And actually, He describes this over here in Romans chapter 8, in verse 29. He says, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. For those He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. So, if we're going to become like God, if we're going to become like God the Father and like Jesus Christ, His begotten Son, if we're going to become like them, if we're going to conform to that standard, we're going to understand the purpose and plan of God was to offer men the Spirit of God, where they would then be led by the Spirit and be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn within a large family.

The firstborn among many brethren. See, that's what God is wanting. He wants us to agree with Him. He wants us to be in complete submission to Him.

And He goes on to say in verse 30, And those whom He predestined, those He foreknew, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified. He's going to glorify us. It talks about the glory that Jesus has today, and it tells us that we can have that glory. We can have a similar type of glory. We're always going to be under Jesus Christ. He's going to be our leader and our head. But He tells us in verse 29 and verse 30 about what His purpose is. So we believe that God exists. We come to understand who and what God is and what God's purpose is, but we also see who man is. Because the Bible, of course, reveals who man is. In Genesis 2, we read about God creating and fashioning Adam out of dirt, out of dust, out of the red mud of the Middle Eastern clay that He made Adam out of.

See, He fashioned him out of dirt. He formed him into a man, a fleshly-looking man. And it says, He breathed into Adam the breath of life and He became a living soul. See, God created out of dirt and He gave life. He gave breath to that being.

But of course, that being was not a immortal soul at all. Because He later would say in Genesis 2, verse 17, You know, if you turn and you take of the tree that I've forbidden, then you will die. So it was clearly man was created out of dust. He was created with giving the breath of life.

And yet, He could die. He was subject to death. Here in 1 Corinthians 2, see this is an answer to the question, who is man? See, unfortunately, some people think man is an immortal soul. Unfortunately, some people think man is the pinnacle of the creation of God.

And so He can do whatever He wants, not be subject to the Creator. But see, that's not correct. See, here in 1 Corinthians 2, you find Paul instructing the Corinthians who were, now they were a group of Christians, people who had received the blessing and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And yet, they were in conflict. When you read 1 Corinthians, you realize this is not a healthy congregation.

This was actually somewhat of a tortured congregation. They were divided. They were upset at each other. They were trying to put one another down.

And in chapter 3, verse 3, he says, Are you still not fleshly? For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not fleshly? And have you not? Are you simply following human inclination? When one says, I belong to Paul and another a polis, are you not simply carnal? See, that's what men start out being because we've been affected by the prince of the power of the air. We're affected by that. We're affected by that individual who affects the entirety of humanity. And of course, he started that with Adam, with Adam and with Eve. And he got them to disobey God. And so, it's amazing how that has continued to perpetuate down through the last 6,000 years.

But here in 1 Corinthians 2, you see something amazing that's revealed. And again, this is why. We can understand or come to understand and answer to the truly big questions of life. And one of those is, who is man? Because here in verse 11, he says, What man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man that is in him?

See, man has been given, not only created out of the dust of the ground, but given the breath of life. But he's been given a human spirit, a spirit in man that causes him to have the ability to think and reason, and to make decisions, and to make judgment. See, far different than our pets. Far different than Mr. and Mrs. Brannon's horses. Far different.

They can learn certain things, but nothing like a human can. And see, that's what man is, or who man is. But if we answer the question, what is man? You have to say that, well, man, in a sense, has been a failure. Man is a failure because he was placed here on the earth, and he was deceived. He was deceived. And of course, in Romans 3, it talks about how it is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Maybe we should go over to that, Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, it says in verse 23, Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we need to be justified by the grace of God as a gift through the redemption that comes through Jesus Christ.

See, what we need is a relationship with God. That's going to come through Jesus Christ. That's going to come through God, inspiring us through the Holy Spirit. It's going to come through an understanding of who Jesus was and what he's doing and how he's willing to help us.

And so man needs a relationship with God. And if we go back to 1 Corinthians 2 again, you see remarkably, after he says in verse 11, that man knows the things of a man because of the spirited man that he's been given. So also, he goes ahead in verse 11, no one comprehends what is truly the things of God except through the Spirit of God. See, how important is we not only have, but that we are led by the Spirit of God. That we are striving to follow the lead. That we're sensitive to the lead of the Spirit of God, to know the things of God.

He goes on in verse 12, now we've received not the Spirit of the world, but we've received the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts that are bestowed on us by God. Then he goes ahead and talks about a spiritual mind and a natural mind. And see, we start out a natural mind, and yet God offers us, He offers us the wonderful blessing, the wonderful privilege of understanding the things of God and knowing what His purpose is, knowing what His plan is, knowing how He's working not only with us, but how He's going to work with others.

How He's going to work with people, even in the years and the centuries and the millennia that are in front of us. So we can understand from the Word of God who man is and what man is, and clearly we can understand, finally, number 7, what is man's purpose? See, in Colossians chapter 1, you find God revealing that since we needed to be redeemed, and thankfully He provided redemption through Jesus Christ.

He gives us forgiveness. He gives us the mercy that every single one of us need. But He also tells us He wants us to grow. Here in Colossians 1 verse 25, Paul, in talking about how He had been directed by God on a mission to talk to the Gentile world, he said in verse 25, I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you.

To make the Word of God fully known, to make the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations, but has now been revealed to His saints. See, this is what Paul was telling them. You have been given an understanding of something that is a mystery to the world. That is a...it's not understood. It's a mystery. It's a fabulous blessing. And he goes on to say to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.

And that mystery is Christ in you. Christ living in you, the hope of glory. If we're going to relate to God, and if we're going to do that on a day-by-day basis, and if we're going to do that in our prayers and in our study, we're going to have our eyes on the big picture of what God is really doing in causing us to grow and to take on a mind and a heart and an outlook and an attitude like Jesus Christ.

And of course, he tells us in 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1, that that involves growing in a divine nature. We don't want to continue to have the nature that we've always had, because that nature is corrupt.

That nature has been affected by the prince of the power of the air, and it's affected by our own sin. But see, we can be redeemed through Jesus Christ, and then we're set on a path, as Paul or Peter in this case is describing this, here in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3, his divine power has given us everything that we need for life and for godliness, for the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and by his own goodness.

Well, it doesn't look like he called us because of our goodness. He called us because of his goodness. And thus, he has given us through these things his precious and great promises, so that through them we may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust. That's where man went when they followed Satan's deception, that we can escape from the corruption that's in the world because of lust, and that we may become partakers of the divine nature.

See, the real big questions of life involve understanding God and understanding our limitations. And understanding even how it was that Jesus, as he came to this earth in a human form, was completely dependent on the Father. He said, I can do nothing of myself, but I'm hooked in. I'm hooked into the power source, and that power source is able to achieve all things. And of course, brethren, we can fit that same category. In Romans 8, again, we'll begin to conclude here.

Romans 8, we're told a lot of things about the blessing of the recipients of the Spirit of God here in chapter 8. And he says that whatever we go through, whatever we suffer, surely is worth it. Verse 18, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed in us. See, what God is going to do is incredible. What we are able to look forward to is incredible.

For this entire creation, verse 19, waits with equal longing for the revealing of the children of God. This whole world, Ken and I were talking about this as we drove back this morning. We look out and we can see right now kind of a dead-looking leaves have fallen off of the tree, and it's kind of a somewhat dark-looking today world. And yet we all know that there are certain parts of this globe you can go to as just gorgeous, mostly around water usually, and maybe mountains. Beautiful! Absolutely incredible! You can see pictures of just gorgeous stuff. Probably nothing. Absolutely nothing like this world is going to be whenever the children of God are revealed. Whenever Christ intervenes and returns and makes a transformation that we read about in Isaiah, not just the spiritual change that will come over the earth, but even the physical change probably is far beyond anything we've ever imagined. And yet what we want to focus on is what it tells us here in Romans 8, verse 19, that this creation awaits with eager longing the revealing of the children of God, for this creation was subject to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope. And this again is according to the purpose of God, according to His will, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom and the glory of the children of God. See, what God is doing, what God is doing in your life, what He's doing in my life is really incredible.

And we all certainly want to be extremely thankful for that. And thankful that God does reveal in His Word the answers to the really big questions of does God exist and who is God and what is God and what is His purpose for man and who is man and what is man and what is man's purpose on earth. He reveals answers. And those answers make up, as I said earlier, the big picture. They're far more important than anything else we can focus on. Far more important that we grow in the divine nature and that we keep our eyes we used to use this phrase quite a bit. I don't know that I've heard it too much recently. We keep our eyes not on the twigs, not on the little branches that are close to the leaves or the small branches or even the bigger branches, but on the trunk of the tree. That's the same thing as keeping the big picture in mind. Keeping our eyes on the trunk of the tree. And we see God revealing that even here in Matthew 6, verse 33. This is a directive that we see Jesus giving us. And of course, he's talking about, you know, if we need the physical things that we do need, clearly that's true. But see, he actually is telling us here in Matthew 6, verse 33, which most of you could recite, he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. And all these other things will be added unto us. He really said, seek the answers to the big questions in life. Seek the answers to who is God and what is he doing and what is man and how can we relate to him and how it is that we can grow in his divine nature. You know, that's, you know, the summary verse here, seek the kingdom of God in his righteousness is incredible. Because it does encapsulate exactly what God is doing and how. God has seen fit to give us the hope of the glory that he holds out before us. And so I encourage all of us not to be, say, sidetracked or distracted in any way, but to certainly keep our eyes on the big picture, the big picture of what God is doing in each of our lives.