Why Is Life So Hard? | Theocast

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Part of the human experience is disappointment. And the reason we have disappointments is because of expectation.

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We believe that life should be different. We should have no struggle, no trials. And we even forget that we're gonna die and that everyone's gonna die.

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And today's podcast is talking about where this perspective comes from. Really a utopian view of life where ultimately

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God wants us to just live without struggle, without problems. And then when they come, man, they crush our faith.

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They cause us to question God and the reason in existence. That's what Justin and I wanna talk about today and really the hope and solution to it.

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The world's groaning and the solution to it is always Jesus. Stay tuned. If you're new to Theocast, you may not have heard of this word.

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It's called pietism. Have you ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy?

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That you wake up worrying about how well you're gonna perform instead of thinking about what Christ has done for you.

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It's dread versus joy, really. That's pietism. Pietism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope, not in what

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Christ has done, but what they're doing. And we have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it.

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And we're gonna explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reform theology, really.

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How it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ, and when Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest, what does that look like?

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You can download it on our website. Just go to theocast .org. Welcome to Theocast.

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Encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ. We have conversations here about the Christian life from a confessional reformed and pastoral perspective.

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And effectively, what we're trying to do is remove the clutter off of the gospel. And in doing that, reclaim the purpose of the kingdom of Christ.

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Your hosts today are John Moffitt, who is pastor of Grace Reform Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. And I am

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Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. I would say happy new year to you, but you're listening to this in the end of the month of January.

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Though for John and myself, we are getting back in the saddle. And that's gonna be related. That's gonna be related to our podcast topic for today.

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2025, first episode of 2025. How John and I feel about getting back in the saddle. And just kind of our frailties and weaknesses.

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So stay tuned for that. I don't know if you can resonate at all or not. Just a few announcements to make. We know that you love these.

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Three of them, actually, to be precise, for the triune God we serve. Amen, all right. First of all, this is,

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I don't know, about a couple of months out from, two and a half months out from the first Theocast conference.

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This is gonna be held in Asheville in April. April 11 and 12 in the year of our Lord 2025.

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Limited spaces are available. I don't know if there will still be seats and tickets to purchase by the time you're listening to this.

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But because there are limited spaces available, we would encourage you to register. If you have not yet done so, you can do that at our website, theocast .org.

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We look forward to seeing many of you in April for a good time. Law and gospel with our friends, Chad Bird and Ken Jones.

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And a lot of time to hang out and get to know each other. Should be great. The next thing is the Theocast community.

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You can also find information about this on our website, theocast .org. It's a place where you can go and connect with like -minded people who are trying to wrestle with and think through and learn to rest in Christ just like you.

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And it's a lot like social media, just without all the ads and all the craziness and the flame throwing. So we hope that encourages you.

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And we leave that to you. Lastly, God willing, next month, we're gonna release a book that I have written.

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It's effectively a treatment of Romans chapter six, one of the, I think, most significant chapters in the scriptures when it comes to our life in Christ.

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And the title of that book is More Than Forgiven, How Being in Christ Changes Everything. And so we hope that encourages you.

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And we may have already determined a specific release date, but we're looking at early to mid February. So probably a week or two from when you're listening to this.

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You'll be able to buy that at our website or on Amazon, I believe. So just anywhere that you wanna buy. Yeah, if you wanna be notified, go to our website and down at the bottom, it says sign up for book recommendations and we will email you when that book comes out.

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There you go. All right. Or follow us on social media. We'll put it out there too. Yeah, follow us on social media, by all means.

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Some good things happen on social media. Or if you just join the community, you don't have to worry about joining social media.

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Hey, there you go. Look at that. We have solved all of your problems. We have literally figured it all out.

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All the world's problems are solved. Therefore, we should be able to live the rest of our life in peace and harmony. Oh, John, look at you, professional segue.

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We're off to a good start in 2025. So why don't you tell the listener out there what we're gonna talk about today? This podcast is gonna start off really bad.

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It's gonna be really hard. It's like going to the doctor and getting a bad diagnosis. And only the Lord knows if it's gonna get better from there.

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We'll see. And the Lord does know that it gets better from there because what we're gonna say afterwards, well, there's some hope.

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So Justin, one of the things you and I were talking about was how for, listen, pastors, we are so sympathetic.

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The beginning of the year for pastors is ridiculously hard. And Justin and I were just talking about how hard it can be.

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Or at least for the two of us it is. I mean, I don't know. I might say more about you and me, John. Maybe it's just you and me. I don't want to indict pastors everywhere.

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Yeah, you get back in the saddle and all of a sudden it's like, you know, the cinch isn't there, where's the reins, the horse is cranky, you know, he's not fed.

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It's just kind of like, what is going on, man? Like, it's a new year, you know, we're excited to get going.

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Really the topic of today is how easily we can forget that we live in a cursed world.

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And when you do forget this, the comment I made to you, Justin, was, you know, there's two ways of experiencing a cup of cold water in the face.

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One, if you know it's coming, it's like, all right, well, I'm gonna be cold and wet today. And so here we go. And it's less shocking and less frustrating when you knew it was coming, versus you're walking out the door, you got your outfit on, you're looking great, you got your cup of coffee and bam, not what you expected.

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And now you're thinking, do I change? You know, how do I handle this? What do I do? And that's really,

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I think a lot of times what happens, I know in my personal life and a lot of Christians' life is that we expect life to go well.

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And when it doesn't go well, it can crush your faith. It can crush your experience.

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It can crush your soul. It can lead to depression and anger. I know that's how

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I respond. I get really frustrated. I get angry. I get upset. I know that there are people who, myself included, who have been frustrated and angry with God.

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Like, why did you let this happen? Why did, you know, God is powerful. He's good. He's loving. He's kind of gracious. If that is true about Him, then why did this happen?

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And it's an important conversation to have, Justin, because people will say, well, you guys are just pessimistic, man.

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Like, your view of life is horrible. Like, if you had a better view of life, your life would probably go better. And that's the prosperity gospel, by the way.

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Your outlook on life isn't necessarily a guarantee that you're gonna have a good life, and that's the problem.

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It's prosperity gospel. It's Eastern religion. It's modern -day positive thinking stuff, too. Like, there's nothing unique about that perspective.

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No, and I'm not against having a positive outlook on life because of Christ and the gospel, and that we'll be able to endure all suffering and pain because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

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I can endure this suffering. I can endure, you know, this, because I know what the hope of I have of God in Christ. That is not what

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I'm saying. It's more of, no, I know you're not. I'm talking to the listener, man. Remember, it's people on the other side of this mic.

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My bad, man. I had someone comment the other day, which I didn't know if it was a comment, just about, like, we don't ever edit this.

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It's just whatever conversation you and I have, we have, and he appreciated that it wasn't cleaned up, and I'm like, I don't know if that was a compliment or a criticism, but I'll take it as that.

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I don't know. Back to the conversation. Yeah. Justin, I know we say this a lot, but I think it's a good, you know, as we have

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New Year's resolutions, I'm all for them. You know, it's good to reevaluate your life and go, you know, maybe that was a bad habit.

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Maybe it was a bad decision. Maybe that was a bad way of doing things, and I need to think differently. That's not anti -Jesus, so I'm not against.

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It's a wisdom call. Yeah, New Year's resolutions are a wisdom call. Totally, but I was listening to a comedian, and he was talking about, like, you know, we all know that by the third week of January, those are all gonna be failed.

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Oh, sure, yeah. Right, and it's true. Like, whatever, but this conversation is more about when you have a proper perspective of the world, then it actually puts the call of your life into perspective.

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So, for instance, if you understand the world is cursed, controlled by the evil one, and our responsibility and our aim and focus is to live for the

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King, to liberate others, then when you're faced with adversity, you can see that adversity, as James says, as something to remind you of the power of Christ and remind you that there's more to come that is better.

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Like, there's so much better than this, but if your perspective of life is, because I'm a

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Christian, because I love God, my life will be easier, better, and more successful, and when you are faced with cancer and you're faced with opposition and you're faced with the attacks of Satan, your faith comes into question, and that's part of the conversation that I wanna have is that there is a negative view that Christians do have about this world, and it's a proper perspective, because what is

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Peter and Paul and John warn us constantly about is that our hope is beyond the grave. Our hope is in a new heavens and a new earth, and that we have what

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I would say tastes of heaven. Of course. Yeah, we have tastes of them and tastes of the new heavens and the new earth, and of course, we already have eternal life in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus is our Emmanuel. God is with us. God's spirit has taken up residence in us, and all of that is true, and it is also true that things are not now what they will be.

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The already and the not yet is a way that that is often described, and that is undeniably true, and so whenever we start trying to turn this life and this world into the new heavens and the new earth, we're gonna be frustrated.

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We're gonna be crashing up against things left and right for sure. I mean, I think the way I would wanna lead into this episode,

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I mean, I realize we're already kind of off and running, and you've set us up well. Partly from my vantage point, what

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I would wanna say to the listener is that if you're struggling, or even if this time of year is hard for you, or if you cyclically find yourself in patterns where you're not well, or life seems hard, or it's like, man,

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I'm trudging through mud. I'm always going uphill and into the wind. It's like you're not crazy.

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You're not alone either. I mean, my own personal experience, even of late, you know,

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I don't know how the holidays are for you. I mean, the holidays are a time that are supposed to be filled with light and hope, and they are because of Jesus.

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Because of Jesus and what the Lord has done for us and the hope that we have, but then for many people, because they've lost loved ones, or because of the busyness of the season, or maybe because of anxiety or depression or any number of things that you battle, the holiday season is taxing for you, and then you are hoping for some rest and refreshment, and my goodness,

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I mean, everything was just like at a fever pitch, and we had people in and out of town and in and out of the house, and then

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I'm back to the grind. I'm back to trying to reestablish regular rhythms here in the new year, and I'm already tired, and man,

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I just, I'm not doing great. I'm not really happy about anything that's on my calendar, and yeah,

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I just don't know that I love early January. I mean, if that's you, I feel very similarly.

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I mean, John and I were talking about that this morning, that it can be difficult this time of year because of all of the weird circumstances around the holidays and then what it is to reengage.

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And I think for myself, man, and the way that I would frame this conversation too is that the scriptures are not silent on these things.

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The Psalms shot through with this stuff. Job, of course, is shot through with this. Ecclesiastes is shot through with this, and then in the

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New Testament even. I mean, the apostles are very clear that suffering will be our reality, that sometimes we despair of life itself.

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Second Corinthians one, that God in his providence and in his sovereignty, of course, you've already mentioned

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Satan and everything, but all of this is under the sovereignty and providence of God. I mean, even Satan is a servant of God. And so we will go through trials of various kinds in this life, and we will face things that are hard.

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And the Lord is faithful. He's working steadfastness in us. And at the same time, our experience is not always like, man, yeah, this is great.

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Things are really good. And I remember, I know we've recommended it in the past.

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There's a really good book by Zach Eswine called Recovering Eden that is in the

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Gospel According to, the Gospel in the Old Testament series or something, but it's the Gospel According to Ecclesiastes.

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Really good, but he tees up that whole book with a quote from C .S. Lewis out of his book called A Grief Observed, which

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Lewis wrote in the aftermath of his wife's death. And Lewis says effectively, come talking to me about the truth of religion,

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I'll listen submissively. Come talk to me about the duties of religion and I'll listen happily. But do not come talk to me about the consolation of religion, or I will know that you don't understand.

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And what he means is, don't come giving me platitudes. Don't come telling me that everything is fine, when in reality, it's not.

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He is not in any way denying that we have hope, like you said, John, that lies beyond the grave.

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But do not come and tell me that in Jesus' name, my life is just gonna go swell, because that is not reality.

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And this world is not as it should be, because of sin, because of the evil one.

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And so we encounter difficulty and disappointment and frustration and futility at every turn.

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And God and truth remain. Yep, and what we're trying to get at is having a proper understanding of a biblical worldview, a biblical mindset, being able to assess the situation appropriately.

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At times, we want Eden now. We want the new heavens and the new earth now.

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And there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, God's written a story in our hearts. That's right.

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Romans 8 probably is the most helpful for me, because he explains the situation and the longing, and then the solution, right?

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No, amen. But I wanna talk about the situation first. He says, for creation was subjected futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it.

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And so, you know, this isn't a, like, this was, to me, this is confirmation of biblical history.

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Like, there are times where, as a Christian, man, it's good as an apologetic to be reminded that God prophesied, hey, this is how the world fell into mess.

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And then you look at the world in the mess and you go, well, now I know how I got here. Because the world keeps trying to fix it. Like, listen, there's a lot of optimism right now with our current president that's coming in.

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There's a lot of optimism about, like, what could be. I think there are gonna be some suppression of evil.

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I think there's gonna be some adjustments of things that could help people, but it can't fix the problem. The curse, the futility that was put upon us, the changing of the structure of God's original design can't be fixed by politics or by moral suppression of a government.

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As thankful as I am for that stuff, super thankful. Because the problem lies at the core of two things.

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One, human beings are corrupt. We're born this way. And secondly, you have a powerful army called the

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Domain of Darkness, Colossians, that is further corrupting the world.

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And then lastly, not only humans are corrupt, you got a corrupting force, but creation itself.

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This is why we have things like cancer and storms and all these things that afflict us.

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And the Bible does not promise that there is something that can be done that will take that away, other than the king and his kingdom, who is building his kingdom now and is bringing his citizens into the kingdom, so that it goes on to say in Romans 8 .21,

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that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God, for we know.

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So he's saying that is there, but what's our current circumstance? For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in childbirth until now.

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So from that moment of the fall till now. And the reason why this is so helpful for me is that when

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I look at life, it helps me wake up every day going, I should probably expect struggle and pain and suffering.

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I mean, I found out potentially that I've got another friend that might be having a struggle with cancer. And you look at that, and we both cried.

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We cried. And then we thought, man, one day, we will have our tears wiped away.

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But until then, until then, we're gonna suffer together. And Justin, I have found that when we lose this part of our theology and we start gaining,

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I think, a worldly, I think, satanic ideology that we can have even now, it actually crushes people and crushes their faith.

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Hey guys, real quick, some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go?

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How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources? We have started something called the

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Theocast Community. We're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like -minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there, and you can share it and ask questions.

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You can go check it out. The link is in the description below. You know, the Romans 8 thing is really good because Paul is very clear that when the creation is gonna be set free and what the creation is groaning for is actually our bodily resurrection.

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That's right. So when we are resurrected bodily, that is when the Lord Jesus returns, that is when all of this is made right.

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That is when the creation is set free from its bondage that it was subjected to. And that like at our glorification.

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And so like you said, between now and then, we should expect the creation to groan.

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We will groan along with the creation or the creation groans with us. We do take great comfort that God is with us in the groaning, that the

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Holy Spirit is with us. I mean, that's where he goes. Sympathetic. Sympathetic high priest, Hebrews 4, but in Romans 8, that the

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Holy Spirit actually is getting up underneath the burden with us and is with us in the groaning.

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And when we don't even know how to pray or what to say, the Spirit intercedes. I mean, it's beautiful.

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And as Christ intercedes in heaven at the right hand of the Father, the Spirit prays from within us.

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And that's of great comfort to me. And maybe it is to some listener out there, but we are waiting for joy to the world.

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We sing it at Christmas. I know this isn't the point of this episode, but that song is actually about the second coming.

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It's about the second advent, not the first one. It's appropriate to sing it at Christmas because ever since the first advent occurred, we're waiting for the second one.

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And so when he comes, that third verse of that song is beautiful. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

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That's gonna happen, right? And like, no more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.

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He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. May it be. May it be today. Like you said, there's gonna come a time when our tears are wiped away and suffering and pain will be no more.

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But that day is not now. And so we need to have a godly perspective. May he give us wisdom.

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I'm thinking about James again. Like if we ask him for it, he'll give it to us. And part of wisdom is we suffer now.

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There's weakness now. And then there is glory coming that Jesus will bring.

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Like we're not gonna usher it in. He's gonna bring it. And he's promised to do it. You know, and we can trust him.

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We can look for his return. And in the meantime, in the church, we love each other. And we weep together.

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We enjoy each other. There's four tastes in the new heavens and the new earth. We laugh together. We cry together too.

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And we hug each other. We're shoulders to cry on. We're empathetic listeners. That's what we do. That's right.

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Yeah. Amen. Hey, well, to keep quoting Christmas songs, I wanna quote one as well. Go ahead, John. Yeah, come on now.

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You know the song, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen? Say it, John. I like to pull on strings. I'm a curious person by nature.

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And one of the phrases in there, it says, to save us all from Satan's power when we have gone astray. Well, so I just like, man, that's a fascinating phrase.

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I wanna learn more about the author, which we have no idea. We don't know who the author is. It's a great song. It's an old hymn.

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But what's fascinating is that we don't understand the opening phrase. When he says, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, there's all these articles, and it's fun.

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And if you wanna go back, I preached my Christmas sermon on this, so you can go back and listen to it. But there's a debate over the grammar.

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God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. Or is it God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen? And it's technically

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God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. Because the way we use the word rest and merry is different than how the original author was intending it.

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Merry, don't think of happy. Think of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Those weren't a bunch of happy dudes.

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They were fighters, man. That's what they were known as, right? It's more of the way in which that phrase to be understood is,

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God keep you in his strength, gentlemen. Let nothing you dismay.

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That's how it should be understood. The Lord keeps you in his strength. Don't let anything cause you to be of worry.

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Why would the song say that? Because we have reasons to be worried. Well, in a way, it's almost like be of good courage.

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That's right. Gentlemen. That's right. May the Lord keep you in his strength. Let nothing you dismay. Like tidings of comfort and joy.

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That's right. Why is it that we can be of good courage? It's because God the Son came. And he took our flesh.

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Right. And he came to save us all from Satan's power. Well, that's what I love about the song is that there's a dualistic understanding.

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It is the destruction of our world and the attacks of Satan. So he says, you know, why are we celebrating?

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I'm about to quote another Christmas song in a minute. That's right. Why are we celebrating? We're celebrating because Christ came to free us from the power of our dismay and the power of Satan.

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And it's healthy to wake up every day realizing those two, we have the already not yet.

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We have an inward hope, but not an outward reality. I just preached 2

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Peter and Peter is writing to the church because they are dismayed thinking that Jesus isn't going to come back.

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And so it's because of false teachers. And at the end of it, he goes, you would do well to look to the prophecies.

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And he's talking about the prophecies of Christ's resurrection. Yeah. And his return. And he says, until the dawn of the day and the morning star rises in your hearts.

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Beautiful picture. But the point of it being when Jesus becomes, because what happens in our hearts, our hearts wander, they're hurt.

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They have faith. They have faith. But we often struggle with our faith.

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And he says, one day, Jesus will reside perfectly in your heart and there will be no doubt.

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There will be no fear and there will be no sin. He goes, keep looking to the gospel until that day.

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And that is a great, I think, example of what you and I are trying to get at is that in the midst of our struggles and our hurts,

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I'm gonna throw it over to you for your song and then we can kind of shift it to the positive side. But in the midst. Yeah, in the midst of your struggles and hurt, we don't just complain.

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Now, listen, it's okay. Go read the Psalms, you can complain. But we moan and we groan and we go, thanks be to Christ and his fulfillment of his promises and his grace and his mercy that this is not our end.

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Really quick, Psalm 62, eight. I read it this morning. Talking about how you can talk to God.

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I mean, so that verse, trust in him at all times, O peoples, pour your heart out before him because God is our refuge, right?

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It's like, that's good there now. That's a good word. Trust in him always.

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Pour your heart out to him because he's a refuge. That's right. Yeah, so Christmas in January.

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Let's keep this party going. Let's keep this train going. Another one that is, it's about the first coming of the

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Messiah, but it looks forward to the second one and one of my favorite songs, I love songs in the minor key, just full disclosure, is

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O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. And my favorite verse in that song, and one of my favorite verses of a hymn period is the verse,

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O come thou rod of Jesse free, thine own from Satan's tyranny, from depths of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave, right?

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A lot, a lot packaged into that verse. And he did come the first time to accomplish that, to free us from Satan's tyranny, to save us from the depths of hell and to give us victory over the grave.

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And he's coming back a second time to consummate that, when that will be not just something that we hope in and that we have faith in, that we trust him and we're looking for, but it will be the reality.

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When Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire, we will be forever saved from the depths of hell and we will have been given victory over the grave when we're bodily resurrected.

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And we will see Jesus in the eyes, we'll be embraced by him, we'll live with him forever. Like you said, man, you were talking to your friend who may have cancer.

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We'll never have those experiences again. That's right. Never. It's amazing. One of the hardest things for me,

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I'm sure everybody out there has a hard time conceiving of the new heavens and the new earth for a whole host of reasons. One of the things that is most difficult for me to wrap my mind and heart around as an anxious soul, is that there is never going to be, in the new heavens and the new earth, there's never going to be the possibility of anything getting worse.

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Like nothing will ever turn for the worse. That's right. There will never be bad news. Decay. Right?

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We will never get bad news. We will never receive that phone call, right? And like there will never be a situation in which the other shoe will drop.

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Like so we're not having to wait for that to happen. I cannot imagine an existence like that, but it's coming.

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But right now, we've got all this, we've got burdens and anxieties and fears. And some of this, we're fallen, we got bends in our frames, and we don't often think and feel the way we should.

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That is true. And at the same time, as has been said, anxiety, depression, discouragement, frustration is actually logical in a fallen world.

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It just is. And it just continues to remind us, bro, that we're not made for this life.

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No. We're actually living for the one to come. And Christ is bringing it, like we've said.

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And so that's the kind of hope piece in the midst of the hard. Yeah.

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Yeah, and I think that when you embrace this, when you finally give up on, it's a beautiful, it's a wonderful life.

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You know, like there's gonna be a good end to the story. I'm sorry. You know, I was preaching on Sunday.

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Peter is trying to, the end of chapter one of 2 Peter, he's trying to give evidences of why you need to trust in the words of Jesus.

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And one of the apologetics that we should use as Christians is that, you know, none of the apostles abandoned, after the resurrection of Jesus, none of the apostles abandoned the story.

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They didn't change their tune all the way to gruesome death, right?

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And told all their followers, hey, look, man, following Jesus here, first of all, you don't even need Jesus to suffer.

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You're gonna suffer already. So on top of that, you're gonna suffer even more. But we don't suffer and we don't groan and we don't grieve like the unbeliever because we have a hope that rests within us.

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It gives us our energy. And Justin, what I have found is that people who have the most struggle in life, they're the ones who get the most clarity and purpose because they've been stripped away of the fantasy that they're going to live this luxurious, happy life without problems.

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And this is where the passages become very sweet to them, where Paul talks about, in my greatest weaknesses, that's where I find the greatest joy and power because I'm resting in the power of Christ.

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We go from building our kingdom of happiness and self and fleshly gratification to building

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Christ's kingdom, which is rescuing people by the means of the gospel out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

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And all of a sudden, church and the gospel become the most, I mean, let's put it this way, the gospel and church become the most important message to you.

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This is why I love, to a church that's really struggling, Peter writes this, it's 2 Peter 1 .19, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

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And he's talking about the fulfillment of Jesus as means of the gospel for us, good news, to which you would do well to pay attention.

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Why? What does it become for us in a dark, hard world? He's writing to people who are on the outskirts of Rome.

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It is hard. What's going on with these people is hard. He says this, Justin, as a lamp shining in a dark place.

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I love how the Net Bible describes it. It says, as a light shining in a murky world.

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Murky, what a great word. It's a great description. Murky, there's nothing good about murky. It's so bad.

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So I would describe the world that you and I were complaining about as a murky, dark, frustrating world.

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And what does Peter say? You would do well to go to the Old Testament, let's just say the

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Bible now since we have it all, and look at who Jesus is, and it will give you a light to make sense.

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Because what does light do, Justin? It removes fear, and it removes danger, and it keeps us from stumbling.

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So as we keep our eyes on Jesus and focused on who he is and what he's doing and what he promises us, he says it'll serve as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

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It's a beautiful verse. I encourage you to go back and read the end of chapter one of 1 Peter. You would be encouraged.

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Maybe a final thought from me is thinking of,

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I'm in John, John's gospel, and so you're talking in terms of 1 and 2

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Peter, because that's where you've been as a preacher. So the listeners who have tracked with us over the years have probably tracked through the various books of scripture that we've been preaching, because it's on the front of your mind.

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So I'm thinking about Jesus. I'm not actually to this portion of the gospel yet, like the upper room, like John 13 to 17 kind of stuff.

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Looking forward to getting there. But what is it that Jesus is concerned with?

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As he's about to die, and he's about to accomplish redemption, and then soon thereafter, he's gonna ascend to heaven.

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I mean, what's he concerned with in those final moments, those final hours with his disciples? He's concerned for,

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I mean, he washes their feet, right? Which has a lot of redemptive pieces to it.

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Like he needs to cleanse them, and he has come to serve them and lay his life down for them, and there's a lot wrapped up there.

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But then he talks to them about a lot of different things, but his main objective is to comfort them and to give them hope.

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But he's very realistic about what they're gonna encounter. You know, he speaks to the fact that in the world, they'll have tribulation, but for them to take heart because he's overcome the world, that he gives them peace, not as the world gives peace.

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And then he prays for them, that not that we would be taken out of the world, but that the Father would protect us and keep us from the evil one.

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So I think even that framework is really helpful. And to remember that Jesus, just as John 13 1, those that had been given to him, having loved them in the world, he loved them to the end.

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His posture that he had on earth is the same posture he has now as he sits at the right hand of the Father. He loves us, and he desires that we be with us, and he intercedes for us, and he is compassionate toward us.

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And when we struggle, when we suffer, when we hurt, when we sin even, that does not provoke him to anger, but it evokes his compassion.

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And I think that's a great comfort in the midst of all of this, to think in these terms. It's like Jesus prepared his disciples for what they would encounter, and he comforted their hearts in light of himself, and he gave them a hope as to what was coming.

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And that's how we live now, is that, all right, this is reality, this side of the resurrection.

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The Lord has spoken to these things. We shouldn't, you know, 1 Peter 4 12, don't be surprised when the fiery trials come upon you as there's something strange happening to you.

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That's right. This is very normal. And I shouldn't be shocked, and I can be comforted to know that the

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Lord is not distant. This isn't some deistic thing where he just kind of, he wound this whole thing up and got it started, and now he just sits up in the heavens and kind of watches.

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No, he's personally involved, and he is very near to his people, and Jesus is sympathetic to all that we go through.

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He's been tempted as we are. He knows what it is to suffer. That's a comfort. And then we know that we can trust him, that as Christ was raised from the dead, so will we, and that there's glory that awaits, that is beyond our comprehension.

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You know, the end of 1 Corinthians, like, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, right? I mean, what the

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Lord has done for those who love him, I mean, can't conceive of it, John, you can't either, but we take the

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Lord at his word that it is going to be beyond our comprehension in terms of its wonder, its extravagance, its beauty, it's the peacefulness of it, the joy, and that will be our resting heart rate.

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We're not gonna fight for it anymore. Yeah, and may it be, man, because this life is a struggle often.

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I know it is for me. I enjoy life, I enjoy people, I enjoy experiences, and there is also this kind of dark side to it all.

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You know, there's this gray cloud, there's this whole thing that just kind of hangs over it all, and I long for that to be gone.

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Well, and I'll close with this thought and turn it over to you to close it down, but when James says, Kennella, joy, brothers, when you fall into various trials, why?

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Because it says it tests the thing that matters, which is our faith. And another way of rethinking about that is when a trial comes, it reminds you that trials exist in this world and trials don't exist, as you were talking about in the next world.

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So what is your faith in? The next world. So it's testing that theory. Hey, remember, this world's not right.

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And what does it force you to do? Go back to Jesus. No, amen. That's good.

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Well, we hope this has encouraged you. Obviously, this is coming at the end of January for you. It's the new year for John and myself, but we assume and we trust that it's applicable to you because it's not just in the new year.

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I mean, we're still in the doldrums of winter in the Northern hemisphere anyway, and it's cold outside, it might be dreary.

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You're like, yeah, maybe those new year's resolutions haven't gone, but so well. And you're like, well, new year, new you, that didn't really work for me.

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Not sure how 2025 is gonna go. Know that Christ loves you, that you're dear to him, that he's near to you, that he sees you, and that he is bringing the new heavens and the new earth.

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And we're gonna be with him and with each other forever. Yeah. And if you're not struggling, and nothing's going wrong for you at the moment, then be compassionate towards those who are, and you have a reason to encourage them.

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That's right. Yeah, be thankful and be an empathetic listener. Amen. All right, until next time, peace.

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Hey everyone, before you go, Justin and I first wanted to say thank you. And if this has been encouraging to you in any way, please feel free to share it.

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But we also need your support. And it's when you give that it really helps us financially reach more people.

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So the next time you consider giving to a ministry, we hope that you would pray about Theocast and partner with us as we share the gospel around the world.