Overcoming Me Part 4

Preached by Max Plager on 1/26/25

Transcript

0:44

Good morning everybody. Hopefully that's how that works. Maybe. Oh, the other side? Yeah, come on now. Didn't get here on accident, you know. All right, well for those of you who don't know me, like Jaron said, my name is Max Plager and I grew up a little bit all over the place, coast to coast to coast. I was born in New York City and then moved to San Diego, California and then to Tampa, Florida. And so, you know, me and my wife moved here a little over two years ago. February will be year two, so this is winter number two. Much worse than number one is my current grading scale. I don't have enough to really have like a good pulse. Apparently last year was mild, but everyone says that every year apparently is what I'm learning. So, you know, it was a great first year. This last one, polar vortex, didn't know that was a thing. I had to cling to God for my sanity, for warmth and other things of that nature. But I'm gonna give you a little bit of my background so I'm not just some dude who shows up on a Sunday, talks to you and disappears. You know, so my mom, she became a Christian in 1997 in New York City. It was awesome. There were some really strong women who would ride the subway into New York City with her and study the Bible with her on the subway or on the train. And then they would say goodbye and then ride back out and then go get their kids up and wake them up for school and stuff. And they did that for a year. So really incredible stuff. There was a girl that worked in the city who would ride the train home with my mom and study the Bible with her as well. And they're just amazing women of God. We are so grateful for their impact on my family's life. But growing up, you know, my mom became a Christian. My dad was not really about that. His God was money and status. They were both portfolio managers. They were for Citibank. They met in New York City and that was kind of what my dad did. He was very successful. He was managing like a billion dollars in 1995 and making a cut on that, which is a lot of money, I think. And, you know, we moved to San Diego and he stopped working to help be more present with me and my sister. She's two and a half years older than me. Tried a little business venture. His business partner fled to Mexico with a lot of money and so that was really exciting. So he went to Florida and then we moved there in 06 and we're in a nice house. And then in 08, housing market crashed, recession. He's like, I'll just manage our money until it lets up. Didn't let up for a while until we filed for bankruptcy in 2014. So we went from very high highs to very low lows. I was about a sophomore or junior in high school and we lost our house, kind of lost everything. And, you know, through that whole ebb and flow, my sister started studying the Bible when she was in high school. And she became a Christian. I remember kind of being like, what's all that about? Like, I had kind of like a split family. My mom was really weaving in Christian morals as best she could, but my dad was, you know, he's 6'4", like 260, very gregarious, outgoing personality. So he dominated most of the things that he was engaged in. His dad is a federal Supreme, not Supreme Court, Federal Circuit of Appeals or whatever. It's one under Supreme Court. That was like his big regret is he was never a Supreme Court guy. But he was in the Oval Office, like, consulting presidents for about a decade. And so it was always like, excellence is accepted, everything else is rejected. You're the best or you're the worst. Like, that's kind of how it was growing up. And that worked for my dad. It worked for his brother, who's like a world-renowned eye surgeon. And so he was like, I'll just do that for my family. So growing up, my sister and I, we were kind of like, all right, the plaguer way is to be really good at everything. And if you're not good at it, just don't do it. Just, like, pretend you don't know what it is, shy away from it. And so my sister was student body president. She was homecoming queen. She went to state in basketball and track. And we went to the same high school. And I was like, can you chill out? Like, I still have to come through here, you know. And so I ended up doing, like, a lot of the same things. I was student body president, homecoming king, made the Allstate baseball team. I threw a no-hitter in my junior year. That was cool. I hit a batter with two outs, so it wasn't a perfect game. If you know baseball, that broke my heart. But, you know, at the end of the day, that was just kind of, like, what you were supposed to do. Like, if you wake up in the morning and you brush your teeth, your spouse isn't like, hey man, like, nice. Like, good job. So that was kind of, like, what it was for us. It's like, we'd get home and it was like, that's what you're supposed to do. Do you want, like, a good job from this? And so I had a very weird performance-oriented mindset. Even coming into Christianity, I had to redo a lot of that. But I ended up studying the Bible and I got baptized May the 4th, 2014. And shockingly enough, in August of 2014, after the bankruptcy, my dad studied the Bible and he also became a Christian. So through a huge roller coaster in addictions and coping with all of the shame and stress, my whole family is disciples now. And it's amazing. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But today, you know, my wife is here, Sabrina. Shout out. And if you're observant, I'm not wearing a wedding ring. I broke my finger two weeks ago and it still doesn't fit. So in case you're like, are they okay? We're good. We're still hanging in there. We're happy, I think. But, you know, we're here and we met at teen camp in Florida, which was awesome. And we were worshiping and she was worshiping and I was too cool to sing, so I was standing there. And we were on the same team and she was like, hey, if you're not gonna sing, like, why are you here? If you're not gonna worship God, why did you come? And I was like, I've been a Christian for like a month and I was like, I want to date this girl. Like, this is awesome. Like, this is really cool. I like that. So I told my best friend, hey bro, I'm gonna date this girl. The next day she's like, yeah, my boyfriend leads the gold team. And I was like, cool. Nice. That's really cool. That's awesome. But God is merciful and he is good. And I ran into her a few years later at our all-college retreat and she was single. And now we're married. So we celebrated five years in November, so God is good. But now, now for the lesson. Alright, so enough about me. I've heard you guys are going through a series called Overcoming Me, looking for head nods. Okay, okay. I wouldn't put it past Jaron to be like, yeah, we're doing a series. Come preach and just have me look a fool up here. So, you know, today, if you're taking notes, the title of the lesson is One Day You'll Be Complete. And, you know, we're going through three of the really big, pivotal moments in a Christian life. And you can turn to Romans chapter 8. That's gonna be where we're camping out today. And it really describes these three moments. You know, you have justification, sanctification, and glorification. Right? And justification, as it says in like verse 1 through 4, you know, now there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And then the past few weeks, you've been talking about sanctification, right? The process of submitting your body to the will of the Spirit, setting your mind on the things of God, the obligation that we have, because we have been justified, to reciprocate through our life. And today I'm going to be talking about glorification. And this is what happens in the future. This is the hope that we have in heaven, the hope that we have of what will become of us. And each phase kind of describes a little bit of overcoming ourselves, right? That's kind of the whole theme. And so the whole idea here is, you know, if you're in Romans 8.18, you can go there. It's kind of where we're starting today. If you fall asleep right now, the tagline that I want you to understand and remember is that understanding our present suffering in our future glorification is the key to living a life that is full and fueled with hope and perseverance. And in Romans 8.18, you know, we see this idea that Paul says, I consider that our present sufferings, our present moment, he describes as suffering. I hope you don't feel that way right now, but if you do, you know, feel free to talk to Jaron when I leave. But I'm hoping that this won't be more suffering for you, but maybe less. But the idea is that we all overcome, well, experience and hopefully overcome suffering. Suffering from our everyday lives because of sin we commit, because of crucifying ourselves to our nature and trying to overcome sin, it produces suffering. Trying to live a renewed life is suffering. Change is hard, right? And we also experience the suffering that the world produces. Sometimes it's your own sin. You lie to someone and there is less trust in that relationship. That is suffering from your own sin. Sometimes, you can flip it, when you're lied to, that hurts. That is suffering because of someone else's sin. And then also there's just the result of a fallen creation and a fallen world that produces fallen people, circumstances and environments that affect us, right? You know, if you woke up this morning and your knees hurt, that was sin, you know? That is the result of a fallen world. If you look in the mirror and you say, I don't look like I did 10 years ago, that is a fallen world as the consequence of sin. Life is suffering, decay and destruction because it has been tainted with the nature of sin. Life is to suffer. Have a good day, thanks, right? Like no, like this is terrible. Like come on, Paul, there's got to be more than this, right? So if you keep reading that verse 18, it says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. You know, so what Paul is saying is like, let's do a quick experiment. Let's set up a scale. And on one side, let's take everything that is suffering, right? You can think about your problems, your hurts, denying yourself, struggling to overcome sin, wrestling with pain and loss, a polar vortex, the lion's losing. You put that on one side of suffering. And he says, it's not even worth comparing to a fraction of the glory that will be revealed in us. That's powerful. But it also prompts the question, like what is glory? Because I don't, it's kind of like a churchy word sometimes. And so if this glory thing is not even worth comparing, then what's glory? And we'll get there in a little bit. He doesn't just flat-out tell you. Paul kind of takes us on a little bit of a journey here. But he says it's not even worth comparing. It's like, who's the best basketball player? Is it Michael Jordan or is it me? Like you thought I was going to say LeBron. No, no, it's like not even worth comparing. You think of that and you're like, okay, I don't even know you, but I know it's not close, right? You know, and so we go to verse 19 to continue on this thought. It says, for the creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. And so what we see here is that he's building a parallel. It's our suffering. And then he goes and he talks about creation. And it's waiting for the same thing we're waiting for. Like the glory that the children of God are going to experience, creation waits for as well. And why does creation wait in the same way that we wait? Well, it's because glory in creation will receive the same thing that we receive, which is reprieve from sin. You know, you keep reading in verse 20 and you see it says, for the creation was subjected to frustration. You know, and part of suffering is frustration. I'm sure, I am subject to suffering. I'm typically not super pumped about it. I'm frustrated. Why would they say that? Why would they do that? Why can't the Sun come out? It's been three weeks. I'm sad, right? You know, these are all things I think people feel, maybe just me. But it says that the creation was subjected to frustration, which is equivalent to our present age being subjected to suffering. And so the sin issue that we see here doesn't just affect you, but affects everything. Death is here because of sin. Earthquakes because of sin. Violent winds, hurricanes, abusers and overusers of Earth's resources. The water is dirty because of sin. Animals kill each other because of sin. Cockroaches and mosquitoes exist because of sin, I think. Polar vortexes, maybe. These have asterisks, those last two, they weren't in the original manuscripts. But, you know, sin touches everything, not just your life. In Genesis 3, 17, God said to Adam, cursed is the ground because of you. The whole of the world has been fighting sin since like day five. It's not just you and me. You know, so when we look at verse 20 and 21, it says that, you know, the earth was subjected to frustration in the hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. So creation waits for glory to be revealed because what sin does is it decays, it is death, everything tends towards chaos. And so we wait, and creation waits for glory to be revealed. And how does it wait? In verse 22, keep reading, it says, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And so how does it groan? Does it groan as someone who has just played too much basketball and their body hurts? No. Does it groan as someone on their deathbed? No. Someone who is sick? No. Someone about to experience death? No. It groans as a mother about to give birth. You know, childbirth, I imagine, is pretty painful. I have not experienced this. I cannot speak personally to this, but that's what I've heard. But it has one thing going for it that no other suffering does, and that it is groaning unto life, not unto death. It groans because life is coming, not because death is coming. This is the opposite of the suffering of sin that we think about, is suffering towards decay, destruction, and decline. But here, it says suffering as in childbirth, because life is on the way. So everything is frustrated, terrible, everyone is suffering, everyone is groaning, but we groan not as those about to die, but as those who are about to come into life. You know, in verse 23, it says, not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly. You know, so this is the idea, like, we groan inwardly. This kind of, this idea of groaning is linked with suffering to mean just like the production of something. And so you are here because inwardly you groaned at one point to sacrifice your comfort, your leisure, your relationships, and to come to church, at a church here in Kalamazoo, at some random high school, because there was a promise for community. There was a promise to be fulfilled, to be with God's people, to bring Him glory. So you sacrificed, you groaned inwardly, and you see it has produced something that is real and tangible and beneficial. This is the firstfruits of the Spirit. It is a sign of what is to come. A little picture of the eternal harvest. When you sacrifice for God and you see Him come through, you have experienced part of the promise. You have been testified to by the Spirit that you are groaning to life, not to death. You don't experience frustration as the world does. You don't groan against sin as everyone else does. As disciples, our frustration and groaning should lead us to life. To life as God intended. We die to ourself. We put up our cross every day. We no longer go to the things that we used to cope with, the things that used to satisfy us, and we choose something else. And the process is groaning. No one wakes up like, you know what? I don't want to be entertained the same way I have in the past 30 years. That's an intentional choice, to go to a different well, in a different source. You know, we suffer because something good is on the other side, just like childbirth. You know, the promise of glorification. And so here we are, and we still don't know what glory is. Let's keep going. Verse 23. For our adoption to Sonship, the redemption of our bodies. So, I don't know if you're like me, but when I read this and I saw that glory was the redemption of our bodies, I was like, is that it? Like, I don't, I, I must be missing something, surely. Because he's talking about the earth groans, sin destroys, everything is frustrated and suffering, but you get a new body. And I was like, I feel like that's great, but maybe my lack of maturity in life doesn't understand. And it's true, I didn't understand. I had to dig a little more. And so, stay with me. Like, this is good. This is a good thing. You know, the body, our flesh, since the beginning has been decaying, wasting away and struggling. A timer starts, and every day we experience it in our body. There is no place the stain of sin is felt more, or experienced more, than in our body. You know, in college, I idolized grades and achievement, which I'm sure is very shocking based on how I grew up. You know, and I would treat my body terribly. I would drink, like, the equivalent of eight to ten espresso shots a day. I'd study for, like, ten hours for this one class, and I was taking, like, four other classes. And I would just pound energy drinks and stay up super late. And it was all just to get, like, a number on a grade that would define me, or open doors, and all that stuff. And, you know, I ended up going into ministry. Thank you, University of Florida. But, you know, I ended up developing a peptic ulcer, which is, like, from stress, and the acidity of coffee ate away at my stomach. And it still fights me today, you know. And my body is stained because of sin. My idolization produced a literal, physical, tangible consequence that might go away maybe one day. And maybe that one day is when the redemption of my body and glory happens. You know, but we feel anxious, depressed, weak, tired. And every morning we drink some coffee and hope we can shake it off. And at the end of the day, we are beat up, exhausted, and ready to go to sleep. And we do so, oftentimes, with groans and grumbles, right? We go from spry, beautiful, 22 to something else. Something happens along the way. It's decay. We look in the mirror, like, how did this happen to me? I was just doing what I've always done, and somehow this has produced this. You know, I was 18. I was playing basketball for four hours. Now I'm 26. I play basketball for two hours. I need two days off. I couldn't imagine being as old as Jared. I don't get it, you know. Eventually, you transition to golf. And then you go from golf on to glory, right? You know, and this illustration of the pain and destruction of sin is our body. We were given our bodies to understand the destructive nature of sin, the decaying nature of the DNA of sin. It doesn't bring things together. It tears things apart. So you go to your doctor and your dentist, and you don't sleep well. You have cavities. Things are horrible in the body. And maybe you're super fit right now and healthy in your life. Those are pretty good. Amen. God bless you. I'm so pumped for you, you know. But what is redemption? It is the redeeming of our body. You are free from the bondage of sin. You will be fixed. There will be no more pain, suffering, no more war, no laziness, selfishness, retaliation, gossip, road rage, polar vortexes. There will be no more sin. And all of creation will rejoice in the same way that we do. Because sin will be gone. There will be a new order of things. You know, in Isaiah 65, you see, Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered. Not will they come to mind. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more. Your worst memories in life, gone. The things that keep you up, the things that you wish you could change, gone. No more pain, tears, sorrow. God is working on you now. And one day His work will be complete. You know, and this idea is, it's perfectly ironed out in Romans 8 28. As we kind of wind down to land this plane, you know, it says, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. What is the good He's working for? It's the coming good. It is glory. It is the removal of the struggle with sin. This is such good news. You know, and this should be an encouragement for you. And the idea of God's commitment to you. It's like you heard weeks ago, like He has called you perfect before you have learned to live that way. And He is working on you now knowing that one day it will be finished. And the only obligation, expectation that we have is just to not give up. To persevere through the suffering because we know that the suffering is work that God is doing in our hearts, right? And in verse 24 and 25 you see, For in this hope, the hope of glorification, we were saved. The hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. You know, God is still fighting for you. He has saved us and redeemed us. And so in turn we continue to fight for righteousness. And the key word is what in verse 25? It is wait. You do not have your new body yet. So what do we do? We wait. And you know, wait here does not mean to twiddle your thumbs or to sit on your hands. It means to continue going in the way you're going. To continue striving. Live with an expectation that whatever the world throws your way, you can push through. You can fight and you can groan and you don't groan in vain. Waiting is that we fight because we are expecting. Just like a pregnant mother is expecting, she knows through pregnancy will come challenges. My sister is pregnant right now. They're having her a baby shower down in Atlanta and she talks about how she just feels like so full all the time. Her feet hurt. She can't sleep the way she wants to sleep. But these are expected pains for the coming glory of bringing a child. You know, of course in the moment we can complain and wish things are different, but you wouldn't trade a few months without morning sickness for your child. In the moment maybe you feel that way, but not when they are there. You would never say that's their face, right? You know, so we wait. We suffer. We keep believing. We keep coming to church, confessing our sin, obeying, reading our Bibles, praying, doing the things that we do not want to do because we know God wants us to do it. Or not doing the things we want to do because we know God does not want us to do it, right? Kind of goes both ways there. You know, and this is hard. This is challenging. And in verse 26 there is a promise from God. It says, in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searched our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. Amen. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. And I am so grateful for that because I am often weak. In this world of help, it translates to bear our burdens, right? You know, there's a lot of different kinds of help. There's sometimes where help just means a word of encouragement. Sometimes where help means, hey, you get to this side of the desk and I'll grab the other. And help is sometimes, hey, you sit down and I'll take it from here. And this is the Spirit saying like, hey, I'll take it from here. Like, I know you've done everything you can. You've groaned enough. I will come and groan on your behalf. Which is an interesting thing to think about, but I love it. But what is the, what is the conclusion that we find in Romans 8? That we live in a fallen world under the curse of sin. It brings pain so much that our current and present moment is described as suffering. But you can persevere through that pain because you have hope. Hope of a new creation to come. A new resurrected body. A body that is decayed and broken that will be renewed. And because our suffering is so challenging, God has given us the Spirit to help. Hope means that you don't have to just wait and one day die. Hope means that you fight today so that you can receive glory. When you come across things this week, know this is your present suffering. This is your fight. This is part of your body removing a little bit of itself and letting the Spirit take its place. The slow transformation and glorification that takes time. God looks at the stack of marble. He sees you inside and is slowly chipping away. And time doesn't pass the same for everybody. And what I mean by that is not all time is good. You can spend time poorly and you can spend time well. You will have a finite amount of opportunities to deny yourself and pursue glorification this week. Don't miss the opportunities. The suffering is not in vain. You are not suffering because one day you will die. You are suffering because one day you will live. Thank you for your time guys. I'm going to pray and close out. God, thank you so much for today. Just for this church God here in Kalamazoo. It's so encouraging to come out here and to see all of the faces, God, who are suffering, God, and who are fighting to bring your name here to Kalamazoo. God, God, please continue to just work in our hearts. Give us the strength to give everything we have. And when we are spent and weak, help us to rest knowing that the Spirit is interceding on our behalf. God, we are so ready for glory. We are ready to be redeemed and I pray that that creates an earnestness and an eagerness in us to just seize the opportunities to make you known, God, and continue to make you Lord of our life. We love you. In your son's holy name we pray. Amen. Oh yeah, and you guys are dismissed. There's a potluck after this.