SPEAKER_00: Good morning everyone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put this over here.
SPEAKER_00: Is my mic on?
SPEAKER_00: Can you guys hear me okay?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you don't know where Canal Winchester is, uh you cross West Virginia and you go down to the valley and it's right on the other side of the river.
SPEAKER_00: Uh actually, no, it's actually 35 minutes from here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a quaint, beautiful little town.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I'm just so humbled and grateful to be here today.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good to see you all, some familiar faces.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Can we give it up for Michael and uh Eric?
SPEAKER_00: The great job they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And all on just like two hours of sleep.
SPEAKER_00: So they're, you know, running a church, they got new newborns here, and just be praying for your pastors, please.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you can think back many years ago if you've had children, uh, it's exhausting, and you function like on no gas at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so just be praying for your pastors, and I know uh it's just been an honor to be here with you all today.
SPEAKER_00: And uh obviously something's in the water, you guys keep having kids, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Um but let's begin.
SPEAKER_00: Um, speaking of kids, uh, several years ago, a journalist uh was given a very unique assignment.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was invited to a hospital maternity ward and was asked just to simply sit back and just observe people's behavior.
SPEAKER_00: After spending hours watching families, he he noticed something very fascinating that no one likes waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: The fathers would just pace up and down the hallways, the grandparents would would get their phones out and be texting or playing Candy Crush.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the nurses were constantly being asked, is it is there any updates?
SPEAKER_00: Has anything changed?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone was anxious for the moment the baby would arrive.
SPEAKER_00: But what struck him the most was that nobody complained about the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody complained.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody said, you know what, this is pointless.
SPEAKER_00: This is dumb.
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would say that.
SPEAKER_00: And I would ask you why.
SPEAKER_00: Because they knew something was coming.
SPEAKER_00: They knew the pain had a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that waiting actually had meaning.
SPEAKER_00: The anticipation was connected to a promise.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact, the closer they got to delivery, the more intense the labor pains would come.
SPEAKER_00: The pain wasn't a sign that something was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the pain was something glorious was getting ready to be born.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the image that Paul gives us as you guys have been going through Romans.
SPEAKER_00: That's the image he gives us today in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, creation is groaning like a woman in childbirth.
SPEAKER_00: The world is hurting.
SPEAKER_00: Creation is broken.
SPEAKER_00: Believers are groaning, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Spirit intercedes with groans too deep for our own words.
SPEAKER_00: But these groans are not sounds of hopelessness, they are sounds of expectation.
SPEAKER_00: They're actually a reminder that God is not finished yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so the pain we feel today is not proof that God has abandoned us.
SPEAKER_00: It may be evidence that God is preparing something greater than we can presently see.
SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to learn how to live in the tension between suffering and glory, between groaning and hope, between what God has already done and what He has not yet completed.
SPEAKER_00: So I've titled my message today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be talking about freedom from discouragement.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray before we dive into the text.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me and bow your heads?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, I welcome you here.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that you can renew our faith, that you can renew us when we're tired.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you give us hope when we feel hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just pray an outpouring of your Spirit here today on your children.
SPEAKER_00: God, that they would walk away feeling a renewed sense of hope in you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I lift up Michael and Hannah to you and Eric and Erica, Lord, that you would give them supernatural strength in this season.
SPEAKER_00: God, give them strength to care for their children well.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you would bless their homes, protect them, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Protect them physically, protect them spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Protect this church in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to be dropping anchor in Romans 8, uh, 18 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible, you can open it up there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh or I did submit some uh scriptures that'll be on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what it says, starting in verse 18, Romans 8, 18, it says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: For creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, and hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
SPEAKER_00: Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for an adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: For in this hope we were saved.
SPEAKER_00: But hope that is seen is hope, no hope at all.
SPEAKER_00: Who hopes for what they already have?
SPEAKER_00: But if we hope for what we what we do not yet have, we wait patiently.
SPEAKER_00: We wait for it patiently.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing that Paul reminds us in verses 18 through 22 is that creation groans.
SPEAKER_00: Creation groans.
SPEAKER_00: That's my first point.
SPEAKER_00: When God finished his creation back in Genesis 1.31, he said that it was good.
SPEAKER_00: But today the creation is groaning.
SPEAKER_00: There is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There is death.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've noticed, if you ever turn on the news, there's natural disasters everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: There's famines, there's violence, there's wars breaking out, there's hurricanes.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's suffering and pain unimaginable happening all over the world simultaneously.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like it continues to get more and more intense.
SPEAKER_00: And all of which is a result of the sin of Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the fault of creation because God made creation good.
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses the word groan to describe the dilemma that creation is in.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word is stenoza, which means to sigh deeply, to feel the weight of burden.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the groan of hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: It's the groan of longing.
SPEAKER_00: And so the ache of someone who knows things aren't going as they should is waiting for God to make them right.
SPEAKER_00: However, this groaning is not useless, according to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul compared it to a woman in childbirth.
SPEAKER_00: There is pain, but the pain will end when the child is delivered.
SPEAKER_00: And that is just like creation.
SPEAKER_00: That one day creation will be delivered.
SPEAKER_00: The groaning will become a new, glorious creation.
SPEAKER_00: One day creation will turn anew.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul, what Paul does mean by creation is what he's talking about is he's talking about the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the animals.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about nature.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about everything physical around us, all-encompassing the physical universe.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the people, but the creation.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that creation waits eagerly.
SPEAKER_00: The word eagerly is a vivid word that describes standing on your tiptoes in anticipation.
SPEAKER_00: I like to think of a young child at a parade as they're waiting on their tiptoes to see what's next coming around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is illustrating that creation is doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Why is creation doing that?
SPEAKER_00: Because creation was damaged by humanity's fall into sin.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 3:17, God told Adam, Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it.
SPEAKER_00: Cursed is the ground because of you.
SPEAKER_00: The ground is cursed because of the sin that Adam and Eve had.
SPEAKER_00: When that curse came into it into the earth, it was dramatic effect of, it had a dramatic effect on God's creation.
SPEAKER_00: That's when death entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's when decay entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's when disease came into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Nature itself came under the curse because of Adam and Eve's rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: And since this day, creation has not functioned the way that God had originally designed it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why in verse 20, Paul says, for the creation was subjected to the frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.
SPEAKER_00: Creation didn't choose sin, we did.
SPEAKER_00: Then Paul goes on to talk about the children of God will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is looking ahead to Christ's return and final resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, believers are already God's children.
SPEAKER_00: When you say yes to Jesus, you're adopted into the family, but the world doesn't fully see who we are yet.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ returns, believers will be resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: We will receive glorified bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sin will be removed.
SPEAKER_00: God's kingdom will be fully established here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: The revealing that Paul is talking about is a public unveiling of God's redeemed people in glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But why is creation waiting for that?
SPEAKER_00: When you wrestle with the text, you need to understand that.
SPEAKER_00: Because when God's children are fully redeemed, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God's creation will be too.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the curse that came through humanity will be removed through redeemed humanity.
SPEAKER_00: As humanity goes, so goes creation.
SPEAKER_00: When God's people are finally restored, the entire created order will share in that restoration.
SPEAKER_00: When you guys think about the world, do you think of it like that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that, you know, most of the time when I die, I just imagine I'm just going to go far away from this place.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be restored up to heaven, and I'm just leaving everything behind.
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians today, I would argue, have a belief that they're just going to abandon this world.
SPEAKER_00: That they just get to leave it all behind.
SPEAKER_00: But in fact, what Paul is saying is really true here in Scripture that God isn't just for staking it.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just leave it.
SPEAKER_00: God is in the business of redeeming.
SPEAKER_00: God is actually going to come down here and make this place new.
SPEAKER_00: That means the things we do, the things we make, the things we create have purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That means the things you do in your life, your vocation, the way you tend your garden, the way you maintenance things.
SPEAKER_00: God has intentionality for that.
SPEAKER_00: Every day needs to be lived with that kind of worldview.
SPEAKER_00: That we're not just leaving the things that we tend to.
SPEAKER_00: That indeed God is in the business of restoring.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul is trying to teach us here.
SPEAKER_00: That the Bible teaches that God will be coming down here on earth to redeem his creation, to make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: Michael Byrd put it this way: he said, God's plan is not to abandon creation, but to redeem it.
SPEAKER_00: The final destination of believers is not a disembodied existence in heaven, but life and God's renewed creation.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't tossing away the earth and starting from scratch.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually going to come back and restore it.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of, I don't know if you guys ever watched the show Fixer Upper.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody a fan of that show?
SPEAKER_00: HGTV.
SPEAKER_00: Chip and Joanna Gaines go into these houses that are just absolute dumps.
SPEAKER_00: And they're train wrecks.
SPEAKER_00: And these people sometimes have the imagination for it, sometimes don't.
SPEAKER_00: But you walk into the house and there's dust everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: The drywall's ripped off.
SPEAKER_00: There's wires that are exposed.
SPEAKER_00: The floorboards are torn up and you're walking on joist.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a mess.
SPEAKER_00: Most people are thinking, you know what, you should just tear this down, but they're looking at the potential and saying, oh no.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to fix this up.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to add a new tile backsplash.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to knock down this wall, open it up, and then at the end of the show, they do this huge reveal where they put a photo of the old picture of the house in front of the couple, and then they pull it back the curtain and allow them to see their brand new renovated edition.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I anticipate Christ doing when he comes back.
SPEAKER_00: He's not throwing out this world.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to come back and redeem it.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to build something new.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says creation is groaning because guess what?
SPEAKER_00: It's under construction.
SPEAKER_00: The brokenness we see around us is not evidence that God has abandoned the world.
SPEAKER_00: And God's plan is never to destroy and start over, it's always to redeem and to restore.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we see this pattern throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: When people accept Jesus, their life changes.
SPEAKER_00: They become redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: They become restored.
SPEAKER_00: Something happens that transforms in them the renewing of their mind and their heart.
SPEAKER_00: They become a new person.
SPEAKER_00: God does a new thing with that same vessel.
SPEAKER_00: He takes broken marriages and redeems them.
SPEAKER_00: He takes broken people and redeems them.
SPEAKER_00: God is in the business of redeeming.
SPEAKER_00: He's a redemptive God.
SPEAKER_00: And one day he will return to his creation and renew everything around us by creating a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: I love the way N.
SPEAKER_00: T.
SPEAKER_00: Wright puts it.
SPEAKER_00: He says it more eloquently than I do.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What God did for Jesus on Easter, he will do with the whole creation.
SPEAKER_00: The groaning isn't because he has forsaken us, it's evidence that his work is not yet finished.
SPEAKER_00: In the next few verses, Paul does something interesting.
SPEAKER_00: He shifts the focus.
SPEAKER_00: He shifts the camera and he moves the moves it from the world around us to the struggle within us.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to my second point that we groan as believers.
SPEAKER_00: We believers groan.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in verse 23 through 25.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Not only, not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly, as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: For in the hope we were saved.
SPEAKER_00: But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
SPEAKER_00: Who hopes for what they already have?
SPEAKER_00: But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
SPEAKER_00: The reason we groan as believers is because we've tasted the first fruits.
SPEAKER_00: We've experienced the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We have a taste of the glory to come.
SPEAKER_00: And we will be resurrected and glorified into our glorified bodies when Christ comes back.
SPEAKER_00: And we have these first few first fruits, in other words, we have an initial down payment of what the kingdom of God is actually going to be like.
SPEAKER_00: We have the first payment by having the Holy Spirit in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul addresses something deeper within us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: He says that the tension of living in this world is we're living in this already yet inauguration of the kingdom, but that it hasn't fully came and what Christ is going to do when he comes back.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is essentially saying you have it, but you don't have it all.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of y'all love eating, but if you get a taste of something, you usually want the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it feels like.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is here, but it is not fully here.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that look like for me and you?
SPEAKER_00: That looks like as a Christian, your sins can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: That looks like as a Christian you can be saved and know that God will redeem you on the day of your death.
SPEAKER_00: And you can know that we have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That in Christ that we have victory over sin.
SPEAKER_00: And because of Christ, we are adopted into his family.
SPEAKER_00: These are the first fruits that Paul's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: But while we wait, we groan.
SPEAKER_00: Our bodies, they still break down.
SPEAKER_00: We still face temptation.
SPEAKER_00: That's a groaning.
SPEAKER_00: We still attend funerals.
SPEAKER_00: We still battle sicknesses.
SPEAKER_00: We still live in a fallen world of violence and death and racism.
SPEAKER_00: We still live in a world with corrupt governments and policies and people.
SPEAKER_00: And can I just be honest for a minute?
SPEAKER_00: That some of you came in here today and nobody else can hear it.
SPEAKER_00: You smile, you're happy, you serve, you go to church, you show up, but inside, you're actually groaning.
SPEAKER_00: You're wondering if your marriage will ever heal.
SPEAKER_00: You're wondering if your child will ever come back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're wondering if the diagnosis will ever change.
SPEAKER_00: You're wondering if the loneliness that you're experiencing will ever end.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, I know.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do I know, but God knows.
SPEAKER_00: So we live in between these two realities.
SPEAKER_00: That we have been redeemed, we are being continuously redeemed, and one day we will be fully redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this tension isn't just a theological issue, it's actually a deeply personal one.
SPEAKER_00: It affects how we live out our faith in the world today.
SPEAKER_00: That we live in a fallen world where God sometimes heals and sometimes he doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with a friend.
SPEAKER_00: He was a firefighter and a guy at his firehouse who was a staunch atheist, rejected the Lord, not even that, but he would mock Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He would make fun of their faith, he would make fun of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And my friend would share his faith.
SPEAKER_00: And this person, let's just call him Andy, would just laugh at him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, one day, Andy was having some health complications.
SPEAKER_00: He's in his late 30s, being a firefighter, he's pretty physically fit, happily married, two young kids.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the doctor expecting a routine catch-up, and instead he hears the f this words come out of the doctor's mouth, stage four cancer.
SPEAKER_00: The doctor only gave him a few months to live.
SPEAKER_00: One night, my friend, I'm sitting across from his friend's at the hospital on his deathbed, and he's talking to me about Zach, I don't know how to pray for him.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, what if I pray and God doesn't heal him?
SPEAKER_00: What if I ask God to radically cure his cancer and he doesn't?
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't end up believing.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the tension we all live in?
SPEAKER_00: Like, should we pray for something?
SPEAKER_00: What if it doesn't happen?
SPEAKER_00: We believe God can heal.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen him heal.
SPEAKER_00: But we've always prayed prayers that sometimes go unanswered.
SPEAKER_00: So I asked him, well, what is the ultimate goal of sharing your faith?
SPEAKER_00: Is it for your friend to be healed now, physically, or is it so your friend knows Jesus as Lord and Savior?
SPEAKER_00: You see, healing is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: But every healing in this life is temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Even Lazarus had to die a second time.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate miracle isn't a healed body, the ultimate miracle is a redeemed soul.
SPEAKER_00: So I encourage them, pray for your friend.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that God would heal them, but more than that, pray that God would supernaturally open his eyes and his heart to see him as Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: That there is no way to escape this life than to know Christ as Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The bonus is if he gets physically healed.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate goal is that he has true salvation, true healing, and that he gets redeemed upon death.
SPEAKER_00: And so on one night, one of the other firefighters who's a Christian was praying for him.
SPEAKER_00: And in a moment of weakness, which actually is physically weakness, but spiritually strength, said yes to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He died two days later.
SPEAKER_00: Fully redeemed, fully healed, fully restored.
SPEAKER_00: Because someone had the boldness to live in that now and not yet attention.
SPEAKER_00: The already and the not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Received a new heart and his resurrected body.
SPEAKER_00: That's the hope that Paul's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian hope is not merely that God will make my life better.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian hope is that one day God will make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: That's the tension of Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom has already broken into the world.
SPEAKER_00: People are healed.
SPEAKER_00: Lives are changed.
SPEAKER_00: Miracles still happen today.
SPEAKER_00: But the kingdom has not yet fully arrived.
SPEAKER_00: People still get sick.
SPEAKER_00: People still suffer.
SPEAKER_00: People still die.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer isn't stop believing God can heal.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is to trust that God is still good when He doesn't heal the way you expect.
SPEAKER_00: Because our hope is ultimately not merely in temporary healing.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in complete healing.
SPEAKER_00: One day every disease will be gone.
SPEAKER_00: One day death will no longer exist.
SPEAKER_00: One day we can be restored with our bodies and our new bodies.
SPEAKER_00: One day every groan will be silenced.
SPEAKER_00: That's the redemption of our bodies that Paul is talking about here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the process of buying a house.
SPEAKER_00: The moment you go into contract and sign the house, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: It's legally yours.
SPEAKER_00: But you may not have moved in yet.
SPEAKER_00: You still have to pack boxes and sign papers and you still have to wait a few days.
SPEAKER_00: The house is already yours, but you're not fully enjoying it yet.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: The contract has been signed with Jesus' blood.
SPEAKER_00: The earnest money is the down payment of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But we're still waiting for the moving day.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we groan.
SPEAKER_00: Because of now, this now and not yet tension we live in.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's a way for us as Christians to fall in into pits or ditches.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to explain two ditches that are usually Christians fall into when they think about the now and the not yet.
SPEAKER_00: The first ditch is that if God is all-powerful, then he must not be all-loving.
SPEAKER_00: After all, if he has the power to stop my pain but doesn't, maybe he doesn't really care.
SPEAKER_00: They believe if God truly loved me and this world, then he wouldn't let me suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Any of y'all ever heard that one before?
SPEAKER_00: The second ditch that people can fall into is if God is all-loving, then he must not be all-powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God wants to help, but he simply can't stop what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: He cares, but he isn't in control of this world.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't truly sovereign over all things.
SPEAKER_00: But Romans 8 refuses both of these ditches.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says God is both all-loving and all-powerful.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us enough to save us, and he is powerful enough to redeem us.
SPEAKER_00: But we are living in the tension of the already and the not yet.
SPEAKER_00: That God has already defeated sin, death, and the grave through Jesus Christ and his resurrection on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's already paid the debt.
SPEAKER_00: He's already freed us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he has not fully removed sin, death, and suffering from this world.
SPEAKER_00: When I think of this, I think of an illustration of a child.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever had a child break an arm or have to go through a surgery, it's pretty hard to watch them.
SPEAKER_00: The child is terrified.
SPEAKER_00: They're crying.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused.
SPEAKER_00: They're asking, Mommy, why are you letting them do this to me?
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine the two possibilities.
SPEAKER_00: If the parent had the power to stop the pain but didn't love the child, they would be cruel.
SPEAKER_00: But if the parent loved the child deeply and had no power to help, they would be helpless.
SPEAKER_00: A good parent is both.
SPEAKER_00: They have enough love to stay in the room and enough wisdom and authority to allow the procedure that leads to healing.
SPEAKER_00: From the child's perspective, all they see is the pain.
SPEAKER_00: But from the parent's perspective, they can see what the child cannot.
SPEAKER_00: That pain is not the goal.
SPEAKER_00: The healing is.
SPEAKER_00: The surgery is not evidence that the parent has stopped loving.
SPEAKER_00: The surgery may actually be the evidence of how much they love them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's often our struggle with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why creation groans.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we as believers groan.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we wait with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Our suffering is not proof that God lacks love, and our suffering is not proof that God lacks power.
SPEAKER_00: Our suffering is proof that God's redemption story is not yet finished.
SPEAKER_00: And if God were not loving, he wouldn't have sent his son.
SPEAKER_00: John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he sent his son into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Not to condemn the world, but that they may be saved through him.
SPEAKER_00: If God were not powerful, he couldn't guarantee our future.
SPEAKER_00: The cross proves his love.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection proves his power.
SPEAKER_00: And when we can't understand the surgery, when we can't see the outcome, when we don't even know how to pray, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit begins praying for us according to the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Creation groans because it's broken.
SPEAKER_00: Believers groan because they are waiting.
SPEAKER_00: But if I told you that heaven is not silent, why are you still suffering?
SPEAKER_00: What if I told you that while you were sighing, while you were groaning, while you had tears coming down on your face, like God is not looking at you, wondering, why isn't your faith stronger?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit Himself actually intercedes and says, I will be with you groaning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in verses 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_00: It says, in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
SPEAKER_00: And when he searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: My final point is this: that the Holy Spirit groans.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say this when it comes to the Holy Spirit groaning that I don't want you to miss.
SPEAKER_00: God is not concerned, or God is concerned about the groans of his people.
SPEAKER_00: He is concerned about the trials that you go through.
SPEAKER_00: When he was ministering here on earth, Jesus often groaned when he saw people suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He often groaned when he saw what sin was doing to mankind.
SPEAKER_00: He saw death and he would actually weep.
SPEAKER_00: God felt emotions the same way we do.
SPEAKER_00: He felt pain the same way we do.
SPEAKER_00: And today the Holy Spirit groans with us and feels the burdens of our weakness and our suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit does more than just groan.
SPEAKER_00: He prays for us in his groaning so that we may be led into the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: We do not always know the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: We do not always know how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit intercedes so that we might live in the will of God in spite of our sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: What I imagine the Spirit doing when it's groaning inside of us is he's actually sharing the burdens with us.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you didn't know what to say?
SPEAKER_00: Like, have you ever been left speechless?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this isn't just what we do, but God He knows our heart.
SPEAKER_00: You sat down to pray, and you didn't even know what to pray.
SPEAKER_00: You have a friend tell you something hard that's going on in their life, and you feel like you have no words that could comfort them.
SPEAKER_00: You sit there with questions.
SPEAKER_00: You sit in silence.
SPEAKER_00: You wonder how things are going to play out.
SPEAKER_00: You sigh, you groan.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says that's not a problem.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly where the Holy Spirit actually goes to work.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly where the Holy Spirit will actually meet you, is when you come to the end of yourself and you don't know how things can work out.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit says, I will actually meet you in your burden and groan for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because only the Spirit of God knows your will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: It was never dependent on finding the perfect words in your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: It was never dependent on having all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit meets us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit intercedes in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't find the words to pray, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't see the way, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He can.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't carry the burden, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit helps.
SPEAKER_00: Creation groans.
SPEAKER_00: Believers groan.
SPEAKER_00: But thank God the Spirit also groans, too.
SPEAKER_00: And unlike us, his groans are never confused.
SPEAKER_00: They're never misguided.
SPEAKER_00: They're never selfish.
SPEAKER_00: He always prays according to the perfect will of the Father, which means even when I don't know what I need, God does.
SPEAKER_00: Even when I don't know what to pray, God does.
SPEAKER_00: So take heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be discouraged as a believer.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayers may be weak.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith may feel small.
SPEAKER_00: Your words may run out, but your advocate never stops praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: And because the Spirit is interceding and the Father is listening, you can trust that God is working even when all you can do is groan.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I often feel like a professional groaner.
SPEAKER_00: I sit in my silence, I sit in my pity parties.
SPEAKER_00: When I lay my head at night, I think of all the things wrong in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Any anybody else do that?
SPEAKER_00: And you just like, I don't know how to fix this.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the moments where we step outside of ourselves and we say, Holy Spirit, I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to remind me who you are.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to remind me, God, that you can redeem any of these things that I can't figure out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the outcome.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the perfect place to end your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And ask the Holy Spirit to speak and guide you.
SPEAKER_00: And often this is the time where we struggle with a lot of our personal emotions.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: I can't let go of this.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle with forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've done all I can do.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit cares more about you forgiving others than you care about forgiving others.
SPEAKER_00: God takes forgiveness so seriously that he sent his son to a cross.
SPEAKER_00: And from the cross, he asked the people who pierced his hands and his feet to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is not a light measure in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is the only thing that really matters to God is that he can forgive our sins and restore us and redeem us.
SPEAKER_00: And we often have to get to a place where we get to vulnerability enough to say, like, I can't fix this, but I'm still hurting.
SPEAKER_00: I need the Holy Spirit to work in me.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Holy Spirit continues to groan.
SPEAKER_00: Because after Paul tells us the creation groaned, believers groan, and even the Spirit groans, he gives us the reasons that we can keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And I know Rich will dive more into this text next week, but I feel like it's important that we end with at least verse 28 to talk about how the Spirit helps us.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in verse 28, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice what Paul doesn't say.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that all things are good.
SPEAKER_00: I actually find comfort in that.
SPEAKER_00: What he says is, you know, cancer isn't good.
SPEAKER_00: Loss isn't good.
SPEAKER_00: Heartbreak isn't good.
SPEAKER_00: But he does say that God is working in all things.
SPEAKER_00: While we're groaning, God is working.
SPEAKER_00: While we're waiting, God is working.
SPEAKER_00: While we're wondering, God is working.
SPEAKER_00: You may not see it today, you may not understand it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: But because God is all-loving and all-powerful, because the Spirit is interceding, and because Jesus has secured our future, we can trust that no pain is wasted and no tears will be ignored.
SPEAKER_00: The groaning is real.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: When God says that I am working all of this groaning for your good, what we're trusting is that the end of the story is true.
SPEAKER_00: That Christ does come back, that God does heal, that he does redeem.
SPEAKER_00: When we put our hope in Jesus, we're not focusing our eyes on the present day and our loss of expectation and our loss of what we thought would happen here.
SPEAKER_00: God is actually saying, regardless of what happens with all this mess, regardless of what happens in the groanings, regardless of the struggles you're going through, you can have victory in me because of what Christ did on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You can have victory in me because one day I am coming back and I will make all things right, all things new, all things will be redeemed for my purpose because I'm a good and loving God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that today?
SPEAKER_00: Do you live with a world life view perspective as a Christian that God is actually in the business of doing good for you?
SPEAKER_00: If you are in your heart thinking that God is not in the good business of doing with you, I would ask that you repent and shift your heart back to God and saying, you know what, Lord, regardless of what I feel, regardless of the pain that I'm experiencing, regardless of what I'm going through, I'm going to hold on to the truth of your word that all things are for good because you are good.
SPEAKER_00: The bookends of the Bible are good.
SPEAKER_00: God created in Genesis 1, it is good.
SPEAKER_00: When He comes back and fully redeems all humanity, He will make all things right, all things good.
SPEAKER_00: What we're living on is this in-between moment where it is messy and it is hard, and we have to walk faithfully knowing that God is truly good.
SPEAKER_00: He is truly good.
SPEAKER_00: And if you struggle to believe that, I can just promise you, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: You're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's when we confess our hearts to the Lord and say, I need you now.
SPEAKER_00: I need you the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the body of Christ is such a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because people have peaks and valleys.
SPEAKER_00: And when you're in the valley, you think the world's against me.
SPEAKER_00: But then you hang around with people that are in their peaks and they're like, oh no.
SPEAKER_00: God is good.
SPEAKER_00: He'll get you through this season.
SPEAKER_00: He'll get you through this moment.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing something.
SPEAKER_00: He's up to something.
SPEAKER_00: I find, I don't know about you, but the most encouraging people for me to be around are people in the later stages of life.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I come to them with my 40-year-old problems, they look at me and say, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's normal.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not what I want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear this is unjust.
SPEAKER_00: This is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: This should be fixed.
SPEAKER_00: But they've lived through it.
SPEAKER_00: And people that end with true faithfulness can say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God has been faithful throughout the string of my life.
SPEAKER_00: The best tool you have for your faith is your memory.
SPEAKER_00: That's why journaling is so important.
SPEAKER_00: If you write down what God has done for you throughout every season, you can go back to previous journals.
SPEAKER_00: I do that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Man, God, I'm really struggling, but I read this journal from 12 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I I forgot.
SPEAKER_00: You came through in a way I'd never imagined.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being single and struggling, being alone, and and wow, I met someone, and God, you're so faithful and good.
SPEAKER_00: I remember not having a job and praying and wondering how this is going to turn out.
SPEAKER_00: And God, you provided a job.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is always redeeming, He's always working in good, and He has good for your life.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of the Word of God is that you believe that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you hold on to securely.
SPEAKER_00: Regarding the trail, regardless of the trials, regardless of the frustration, you hold on to the hope that God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Even the broken parts that happen to you, He finds purpose for them.
SPEAKER_00: He finds a way to minister to other people through the things that you've gone through.
SPEAKER_00: He finds a way to build his kingdom regardless of your outcome.
SPEAKER_00: Because he cares about his church more than you do.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about his creation more than you do.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about you more than you do.
SPEAKER_00: And he has all things working together for your good.