Tim Timberlake - There Will Be Glory After This
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Summary:
In this encouraging message from 1 Peter 5:5-11, the preacher declares prophetically that «There Will Be Glory After This,» assuring believers enduring pain and trials that their current season is not the end but has divine purpose. He emphasizes stewarding pain wisely, as it draws us closer to Jesus, builds resilience, and positions us for God’s glory—His manifested presence that supersedes earthly struggles. The key takeaway is to cast cares on God who cares, stay connected in community, and anticipate waves of authentic, weighty glory from the Holy Spirit’s enduring wind, trusting that after suffering «a little while,» God will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us.
Opening and Scripture
How many got your Bibles? Amen. Thirteen people. Alright, okay, that’s a little bit better. First Peter, chapter 5, verse 5 is where we’re going to land, and my assignment today is prophetic in nature. I want to declare to you what I feel the Holy Spirit stirring in His bride. I feel the Holy Spirit stirring in His children, and for us to really set and fix our hope in the fact that God has more for us than what we currently see.
How many of you believe that? Y’all talk to me this morning. How many believe that? If you’re watching online, you can talk to me too. I may not be able to hear you, but your screen does, so shout as loud as you can. First Peter, chapter 5, verse 5. I’m going to read it to you, then we’ll unpack it and then we’ll shout a little bit. Is that alright? First Peter, chapter 5, verse 5 says, «Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Ye all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is roaring like a lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a little while, makes you perfect, establishes you, strengthens you, and settles you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.»
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your word. We thank You, God, for all that You have done, God, and all that You are. We give You the glory, we give You the honor, we give You the praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
There Will Be Glory After This
I want to talk to you from the subject matter, «There Will Be Glory After This.» Everybody say «after this.» I love that language because that language is anticipating that there is something better after this. The enemy would have you believe that the season you are in is finality, but God desires for you to know that there is something after this. In First Peter, Peter is talking to a church that is enduring pain, but Peter has a way of giving the church a message that looks beyond the pain they are dealing with and deals directly with the purpose of the pain.
How many of you know and understand that pain has a purpose? One of the things that I’ve learned in 16 years of pastoring and 18 years of serving God is that oftentimes we understand how to steward money. We talk about stewarding money, and oftentimes we come to church and we hear about stewarding relationships. We have conversations about how to be good stewards over our kids and being good stewards over our time. But I very rarely hear how to be a good steward of pain. I very rarely hear how pain can profit me. But I am a firm believer that no pain should enter my life without that pain profiting me. No pain should come into my life without me learning from that pain.
Peter is telling the church to understand the significance of the pain they are going through, but also the purpose that the pain serves. See, pain has a sneaky way of pushing us back to the feet of Jesus. Pain has a sneaky way of pushing us back into the presence of God. Pain creates a resilience in us that can only come through struggle. If you’re listening to me right now and you say, «Pastor, I am struggling with pain; I am struggling with trials; I am struggling with hurdles, ” my answer to you would be that you should be grateful to God because struggle is the proof that you have not been overtaken by your enemy. Struggle is the proof that your adversary has not conquered you. Struggle is the proof that the enemy is not bigger than your God because the fact that you are still struggling and the fact that you’re still fighting is an indicator that there’s something more after this.
When you bring yourself to the place where you’re too weak to fight, when you bring yourself to the place where you’re too weak to struggle, then you should be cautious and worried that the enemy has the upper hand. But if you’re in here, or you’re listening to me online right now, and you say, „I’m still struggling; I’m still going through this thing; I’m still battling; I’m still fighting, ” then that’s where you can apply praise because pain should always push us back to understanding that in myself, I don’t have the strength enough to overcome what I may be fighting against. In myself, I am weak, but when I acknowledge my weakness, that’s when He is strong.
Pain has a sneaky way of bringing us to the place where we identify our need for a Savior.
Submission and Casting Cares
Peter in this scripture is identifying some things that he desires for the church to understand. He’s telling them, „Listen, I want you to be submitted one to another.“ This is important because when one of you goes through pain and you submit to one another, the other can pray for you and cover you in your time of need. But it’s important that you stay connected to God’s house and to God’s church so you don’t feel alone in this fight.
When you’re going through pain, the reality is each and every one of us will encounter pain. But when we’re connected to our brothers and our sisters, it helps to distribute the weight across the board. Alone, you can’t carry the pain, but together, you can carry a lot more than you expected to. Don’t find yourself by yourself in seasons like this because the pain will try to overwhelm you. Peter is telling the church to be accountable to one another. He’s also telling them, „Listen, with what you are carrying, cast it at the feet of Jesus because He cares for you.“
What are you carrying that Jesus desires for you to cast? What are you carrying that Jesus desires for you to throw at His feet? What are you carrying that He no longer desires for you to carry but is equipped to carry for you? I’ve come to learn it’s impossible to cast what you hide. A lot of us try to hide pain because we want to look the part; we want to play the part, but we’re not equipped to be the part when we hide what it is that God desires for us to cast.
If you can’t take your mask down in church, you need to find a new church. If you can’t feel at home and safe in the house of God and cast your cares at His feet because He cares, then you have to find a place that will allow you to take off the churchy masquerade. No longer using the churchy clichés, be who God has called you to be. It’s impossible for the light to get through to something that’s not transparent. What I’ve come to find out is there’s a culture of people who have all the churchy clichés—who have all the sayings when you ask them how they’re doing, who have the look, who even have the hallelujah down pat—but they’re broken inside because they’re hiding what God is asking for them to cast.
It’s impossible to get rid of a demon you enjoy playing with. I’m going to get to my notes in a minute, but I just feel like it’s important to stay here for a second. You’ve been asking God to deliver something you’ve been hiding, and God won’t remove what you won’t release. My dad used to tell me, „Son, God is not going to change what you can change,“ which means God desires to set you up for a win, but you have to posture and position yourself in the place that He desires for you to be so you can experience the win He sets you up for. We’re asking Him for things that we have not released, and therefore we have not experienced the freedom that He desires for us to walk into, therefore some of the pain that we experience is not brought by the enemy; it’s brought by a decision.
So, you’re born looking like your parents, but you die looking like your decisions. If you don’t bring yourself to the place where you make the right decisions, you can sing His praise until your face turns blue and still hide the pain in your heart that He desires for you to release. Peter is telling the church, „Cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.“ It’s impossible to cast what you care about to someone you don’t think cares for you.
Some of you have been hurt and have walked away from your relationship with God because He didn’t do what you expected Him to do, bringing you to the place where you have serious doubts that He cares for you the way He says He does. Am I talking good to anybody in here right now? God desires to heal what has been broken if you can expose it.
I remember breaking my finger, and when I went to the hospital, I was holding it; I was hunched over it. The doctor was saying, „You have to let me see it. You have to let me see where it’s broken.“ My mentality was that I have to keep this covered so that it doesn’t hurt any more than what it does, and the doctor couldn’t do what he needed to do because I was covering what was broken. It wasn’t until I revealed where the break was that he was able to mend it. And I’m telling you, if you don’t reveal the areas in your life that are broken, it’s impossible for God to mend them the way He desires to. Something that was meant to injure you one time can injure you a lifetime if you keep it covered.
Peter is telling the church, „Uncover the areas that are broken, and after this, there will be glory. After this, there will be glory.“
Glory After This
Listen, I came to tell you today that no matter where your „this“ is, after this, God will get glory. Somehow, someway, He will get glory out of your tests. He will get glory out of your trials. He’ll get glory out of your tribulations. He’ll even get glory out of your pain if you uncover where it is broken. God said, „After this, I will get glory.“ Is there anybody that’s grateful that there is an „after this“? Is there anybody that’s grateful that God says this isn’t the end of your story? I didn’t place a period here; I put a comma there. And if you keep on living, and if you go through what you’ve been through for a little while, after this, there will be glory.
See, glory comes in waves. Glory comes in waves. Some might ask, „What is glory?“ I’m glad you asked. Glory is the revealed, manifested presence of God. Glory happens when heaven supersedes the realm that you live in. So you may be in a real test and in a real season of tribulation, torment, frustration, and worry, but what happens when glory interferes is that heaven supersedes what you’re dealing with. Heaven supersedes the pain that you may be encountering. Heaven supersedes the thing that you may be going through, and heaven allows you to overcome what is trying to overcome you. Is there anybody grateful that waves of glory are coming to hit you and your household?
If that’s you, raise your hand. Glory comes in waves. And if glory comes in waves, then I need to be prepared for when the wave of glory comes. I cannot be wooed to sleep by the season of life that I’ve been in. See, what life tends to do is steal your anticipation and expectation because we get in a routine. We get set in our ways; we’re creatures of habit. We like to do the same thing over and over and over again. If it were up to me, I would eat the same thing every single day, every single week on that same day. But thank God I got a wife who is not a creature of habit, and she likes something more than chicken. I can eat chicken all day in a variety of different ways: grill it, bake it, fry it, stir-fry it, sauté it, tender it, wing it, leg it, dye it, breast it—you name it. I’m a creature of habit, and I get stuck in my ways.
But when the wave of glory comes, it moves me beyond my routine. See, God is not a God of routine, but God is a God of cycles. There’s a difference between a routine and a cycle. A routine does the same thing every single day the same way that it was done the day before. A cycle does things the same way in a set time. God is a God of cycles, not a routine. That’s why He says, „I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.“ He is a generational God based on cycles, not routine. He does not want to expose us to the same level of glory that He’s exposed us to before. He says, „I go from faith to faith and glory to glory.“ I am a God of cycles and not a God of routine. I don’t just desire for you to go through the normal routine of life. I don’t desire for you to go through the normal routine of church. I don’t desire for you to go through the normal, mundane routine of what it is that you have an expectation of. I want to break the cycle and introduce you to something new: faith to faith, glory to glory.
He’s a God of cycles. And in Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 14, it says that God’s knowledge of glory is like the waves of the sea, which means that there are seasons of the wave, and then there are seasons of receding. And I came to declare and decree to you that the season of receding is coming to an end. There’s a wave of glory about to hit your life. There’s a wave of glory about to hit your circumstance. There’s a wave of glory about to hit this house that we have not seen before. And if you’re still stuck in a season where you’re not looking for it, you’re missing the wave. But I believe I’m talking to a group of people who have their eyes set on Jesus, and you’ve got your antennas set to the anticipation frequency of God, and you are expecting a wave of glory. If that’s you, shout yes!
Anticipating the Wave
Waves of glory come in seasons where it doesn’t look like it’s possible. And I remember the time I was watching ten guys out in the middle of the ocean on their surfboards just chilling. I thought to myself, „They’re out there a long way to be doing nothing.“ Fifteen minutes went by; they tread water. Twenty minutes went by; by this time, I’m getting tired of looking at them. I’ve got no idea what they’re doing, but they’re looking out deeper than where they are because they’re anticipating a wave to come. See, if you get caught looking where you are, you’ll miss what’s coming. God has not brought us to this season for us to keep our eyes fixed on where we are. He always takes us into a new season and calls us to fix our eyes on what is to come.
These surfers are sitting out there in the middle of nowhere, not looking at their surfboard, but they’re looking out further into the ocean because they are anticipating and expecting a wave to come. And I wonder, am I talking to a group of people that are sitting out in the middle of nowhere, not looking at your spiritual surfboard, but you’re looking out deeper and saying, „God, I believe You’re sending a wave. God, I’m expecting a wave to come. God, I’m anticipating a wave of glory to hit my life, and I won’t get caught looking in the opposite direction than where You’re sending the wave.“
And I noticed some things about these surfers. The first thing that I noticed, number one, is they were proactive. They anticipated the wave that was coming, and if we are a church that is not proactive, we won’t see what God is doing. If we are a church that is not proactive, we’ll hear about the wave of glory; we’ll see the wave hit other movements in other churches, and we’ll wonder, „God, how come You passed us by?“ But I believe I’m talking to a group of people who have their eyes fixed on what God desires to do, and they will be proactive to see and experience the wave that God is sending.
In order for us to experience the wave that God is sending, we have to be proactive. Amen? Somebody say, „I must be proactive.“ Proactive is different than comfortable. It looked like these surfers were chilling, but the surfers were being proactive. They were preparing themselves for what was coming. And if you’re not in this season preparing for what is coming, when it comes, you’ll find yourself preparing for what has left. You won’t have time to get ready when God called you to be ready. You have to get ready now so you don’t find yourself preparing in a season of release.
You’ve got to be proactive. In order to be proactive, you’ve got to really be in your word to hear what God says about you because the word of God says that there’s an enemy roaming, seeking whom he may devour. And if you’re not proactive, the enemy will no longer be far off; you could begin to pet him. Sometimes we can’t see the enemy because we’ve invited him in so close. Sometimes the enemy is no longer roaring because he’s close enough to whisper.
In order to be proactive, you not only have to be a reader of the Word of God, but you have to be a doer of the Word of God. In order to be proactive, you’ve got to have a prayer life that’s rooted in something deeper than yourself. In order to be proactive, you have to believe that God is who He said He is. Is your joy rooted solely in what God can do for you, or is your joy rooted solely in who God is? If your joy is rooted in what God can do for you, when He doesn’t do it the way you expected and anticipated Him to, you lose your joy.
But when it’s rooted in who He is, no matter what happens to you, you can be like David and say, „I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I will bless the Lord on my mountaintop, and I will bless the Lord in my valley low. I will bless the Lord in my good seasons, and I will bless the Lord in my bad seasons. I’m not thanking God for what He can do for me, but I’m thanking God for who He is to me, and He’s good all by Himself.“ Is there anybody that can release a praise and thank God just for who He is?
I wonder, can I find a group of people that said, „God, if You don’t do anything else for me, You’ve done enough. God, if You don’t provide anything else for me, You’ve been faithful. God, if I don’t experience another blessing or breakthrough, You have been good to me.“ We can’t be proactive when we limit God to our expectations, and if God meets our expectations, He can’t exceed them.
Exceeding Expectations
Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20 says, „Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask or think according to the power that works in us.“ The wave of glory is not going to happen on the outside of you. The wave of glory is going to happen on the inside of you, and God can’t meet your expectations; He can’t exceed your expectations if He settles for just what you’re expecting Him to do.
Can you imagine if you actually got only what it was that you prayed for? Some of you wouldn’t be with the spouse you want. I know you can’t say amen, just keep looking for it. Some of you wouldn’t have the kids you have; some of you wouldn’t be in the career paths that you’re in if God would have met your expectations. But thank God He exceeded your expectations! Thank God He didn’t give you your reward, but He gave you His reward! Thank God He didn’t give you what you deserved, but He gave you more than what you deserved because He is a God of more. He says, „I can’t swear into anything higher than Me, so I swear to Myself that I will exceed what I’ve done in my past and do greater.“
You have to be proactive. The second thing that you have to be as you’re waiting for this wave is you have to be patient. We live in a society and in a culture that’s not patient for anything. We pay extra so that we don’t have to be patient. It’s not good enough just to have regular Amazon; we want Amazon Prime so that what we order can be where we need it the next day. It’s not good enough just to have any type of chicken and cook it yourself; you go to the store and pick it up so you don’t have to prepare it anymore. We don’t wait for anything; we’re not patient for anything. And so when we actually have to wait on the Lord, we get frustrated because He’s not fitting what it is that we need.
God says, „Wait on the Lord; again, I say wait.“ When you can wait on the Lord, He exceeds your expectations. When you can wait on the Lord, He prepares something bigger and better for you than what you had anticipated or expected. When you wait on the Lord, you experience a wave of glory bigger than what you thought you could experience.
See, surfers are not looking for just any type of wave; they’re looking for the perfect wave. They are both proactive and they are patient. They’re not looking for just anything; they’re looking for what God has for them. See, when you understand that God has something for you, you don’t settle just for anything. When you know that God has something perfect for you, you can’t settle for the counterfeit.
And what the church has been doing for so long is settling for a counterfeit glory. If it doesn’t make me feel a certain kind of way, I didn’t have church. If they didn’t sing my song, it wasn’t good. If this person don’t speak, we didn’t go to the throne room. And you’re limiting God based on your expectations and your preferences.
A counterfeit glory is not the glory God wants for you. He desires for you to feel an authentic, tangible, weighty presence—something that you can explain, something that you can’t deny, something that you can’t work up in your own power. He wants you to understand the difference between what’s real and what’s counterfeit.
In a particular city, a large city on a particular street, I walked into a store. A guy stopped me and said, „Hey man, I got this bag for sale. It’s a real Louis Vuitton bag.“ I looked at the bag; the outside looked real. I said, „Let me feel it.“ I felt it; that felt real on the outside. I said, „But let me see the inside.“ He opened it up, and I said, „Um, that doesn’t look quite right.“ He said, „No, I’m telling you it’s real.“ The outside looked real; leather felt real on the outside. But when you opened up the inside, it was different.
So, let me feel it; he put it in my hand and said, „Man, this thing feels real light. It doesn’t have any weight to it.“ You can always tell the counterfeit from the authentic by the weight of it and by the inside. You can always tell the authenticity of the wave of glory based upon the weight of it and what God does on the inside.
See, if the wave you experience and encounter only impacts and affects you on the outside, it is, in fact, not an authentic wave of glory. Because the wave of glory God is about to send is going to change and transform you from the inside out, and it’s going to be weighty, tangible, and present. And it’s not just any type of wave; it’s a wave sent by God.
The Anatomy of a Wave
In order for us to understand the significance of what God desires to do, I have to take a moment to teach you about the anatomy of a wave. Because a wave is created by wind. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament is referenced as wind. In the natural, large waves are composed of two things concerning wind: number one, the strength of the wind, and number two, the endurance of the wind. Waves are formed by how strong the wind is and by how long the wind endures.
I want to declare and decree over everybody that’s listening to me right now that the wave you are about to encounter is because the wind of the Holy Spirit will be stronger than it’s ever been before, and it will endure longer than it’s ever endured before. What we are about to encounter is not by happenstance or coincidence; it is set up divinely by God, and it will come after this!
Someone say „after this!“ I love what Peter says. Peter says, „After you have suffered for a little while.“ Is there anyone that can testify that you’ve suffered more than a little while? Is there anybody that can agree what you’ve been through has lasted more than just a few days, more than just a few hours, more than just a few moments? But the good news is: after this! Somebody shout „after this!“ After this, God is going to get glory! Somebody say, „after this!“ After this, God is going to get praise! Somebody shout „after this!“ After this, God is to be magnified!
Is there anybody that’s listening to me that can take a moment and declare, „God, You’re going to get praised after this. God, You’re going to get glory after this. God, You’re going to be magnified after this.“ Come on, somebody! Let the praise in this place! Come on, whether you are watching me at home or whether you’re in this place, I declare and decree over you: after this, God will get glory; somehow, someway!