Well, good morning.
We are studying our way through Romans chapter 8 in the month of January.
Week one, we learn that the Holy Spirit lives in us and bonds us to Christ.
Last week we talked about and we learned how the Holy Spirit in us reorders our life, shaping us to be more like Jesus.
And then this week, Romans 8, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit?
Paul transitioned us to be future thinking.
Where is the Holy Spirit pointing us?
As we walk with the Holy Spirit, where is our hope?
So Romans 8, let's start in verse 18.
For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, 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 that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Point number one is this the Holy Spirit helps us become honest about life, and that is that life is full of groaning.
A few weeks ago it was early in the morning, and the whole house was up, but I was still uh I was still asleep.
And uh one of my daughters runs down the hallway to the living room where Christy was in the living room and she says, Mom, Mama, Mom, Dad is throwing up, dad is throwing up.
And so Christy hops up, they run back down the hallway where I am in the bed, peacefully asleep.
And it's then I learned that me peacefully sleeping sounds like a grown man violently ill.
So I'm now seeing a doctor.
Uh here's what's clear that I've learned I can't even sleep correctly at this point.
Uh the thing that should doing, I can't do nothing correctly is what it comes down to.
I'm gasping for air.
Like even in my sleep, my most peaceful moment, I'm groaning.
I can't even do this correctly.
Paul says the whole world is groaning, the whole world is gasping for air, for something more.
Yes, our lives are filled with joy, but our lives also have hurt and disappointment.
We can be honest about that.
And we and all of Christians are groaning, we're gasping for something more.
Our hearts long for the restored world, for restoration.
Verse 21, Paul uses the word futility to say that this world in sin was subjected to frustration.
The word futility means frustration and emptiness.
We're going to experience that in the broken world.
But our hearts are longing for something more because we were created for heaven and the restored world.
Verse 21, Paul writes that creation will be liberated from this frustration.
That's what the restoration to come will be.
It's why we have these feelings.
This shouldn't be this way.
This shouldn't be that hard.
Will this ever get any better?
This week I saw this meme.
This too shall pass, this one just happens to weigh a ton and walks very slowly.
Now there's other ones that are more inappropriate, and you can Google them, but they're inappropriate for church.
But they're also really entertaining.
But this can feel like life.
Life can feel like a big grizzly bear walking through your life, taking its time, disrupting your family, destroying stuff.
Relationships are hard, health, finances, career.
It can be paralyzing, wrecking your life, taking its time.
Anybody felt like that?
We were like, I just wish this grizzly bear would get on out of my life.
Verse 23.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved.
Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?
See, see, this is saying that the Holy Spirit active in us is giving us hope for the restored world.
When you have a heart that is hoping for restoration of a relationship, of something in your life, that is the Holy Spirit at work in you.
Verse 25.
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Point number two is this the Holy Spirit reminds us of coming glory for a fullness of peace and joy.
Just two days ago, I sat with a very dear church member who is in his last days.
Sat with the family as they began to think about the dad passing away.
And there's only one thing to pray for at that point.
Restoration.
The restoration of this man's body to be restored and not sick anymore.
For the family to begin to just have, just in the middle of their grief, just to have a little bit of hope for the restoration.
And some of you have lost people.
You've lost a child or a spouse or a friend.
And as soon as you lose that person, you begin to think about heaven in a different way because it becomes real.
See, we're caught between two worlds.
We're caught in a world where we're living and there's frustration and difficulty, and our hearts are longing for more.
And then the world that we will one day live in in eternity, where we will be restored.
Paul uses a key phrase in verse 23 that with the Holy Spirit we have the first fruits of the Spirit.
That word firstfruits, it means the beginning of the harvest and the guarantee of the full harvest to come.
So the Holy Spirit in us, it gives us just the beginning, the taste of what's to come while we are guaranteed that it will come in time.
So we groan.
We're longing for our bodies to be restored.
Anybody else?
Right hip, left shoulder, I got a funky foot, I can barely read these words without glasses on.
Is anybody else?
I mean, you're like, it would be, I can't wait for the restored body.
And we also hope for our sinful nature to be destroyed.
Anybody else hoping for that old Adam, that old flesh that keeps causing temptation, keeps causing problems, just to be gone.
That's the hope of restoration.
Verse 23, we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.
I love the phrase in verse 24: in this hope we were saved.
And that's in the heirist tense, which means that we have decisive past freedom from guilt, sin, and shame.
Meaning, from the cross, this hope of salvation is secured.
And it's not your commitment or your love for Jesus, it's that the cross has already occurred.
Jesus is on the cross, and that it's objective, it's decisive for us.
So the Holy Spirit's reminding us of the decisiveness of the cross while the Holy Spirit's also pointing us forward in hope.
Listen to that verse 24.
Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
We're always waiting.
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about proper cloth Oxford shirts.
I wore one for you today.
This is a proper cloth Oxford shirt.
He told me about these shirts.
He said, Oh, yeah, they get your measurements and they're pretty well priced, and they'll make the shirt just for you, for your body.
And I love that because you don't realize it, but sometimes when I'm over here preaching, I raise my hands.
When I raise my hands, my shirts come up and I get very self-conscious that my shirt's gonna come untucked, and then I'm thinking about my shirt being untucked while I'm preaching.
I mean, this is all going on, and I get very self-conscious, so I can order a shirt with a longer tail.
Anyway, long way to say, I'll order a few of these shirts, and I love the Sundays where I get to wear my proper cloth, Oxford shirt.
You don't realize it, but I love it so much, and the other Sundays I can't stand, horrible sermons those Sundays.
But I love the Sundays I get to wear these shirts.
So for Christmas, I ordered a couple more shirts, but they make them in Taiwan.
So you have to wait.
And I get emails.
Your shirts are ordered.
I get another email.
Second email.
Your shirts are being cut.
Your shirts are being made.
Your shirts are shipped.
Your shirts have left Taiwan.
Your shirts are in Cincinnati.
Your shirts are in Smyrna.
Like just all this waiting with hope, right?
Hope of these better shirts is going to solve every anxiety in my heart and all my longings are go away with these new shirts, right?
All the waiting, just waiting.
We're constantly waiting, aren't we?
We're waiting on the Amazon package.
Waiting on the coffee to kick in.
Waiting when you text somebody, and I text you and I see the little dots, but you're not replying, and then like, oh, you don't like me, or I reread the text a few times.
Did I say that?
I should have added a little smiley face.
Like, why aren't they replying?
We wait for the GPS to recalculate.
We're just always waiting.
We're waiting on a test result, we're waiting to get into college, we're waiting for the next job, we're waiting on a relationship to get better, we're waiting to feel better, we're waiting for healing, waiting for growth, waiting for comfort, we're waiting.
And waiting means that we're unable in some way.
We're unable to handle this, we're unable to complete this.
We have a need, we have a weakness.
So, how does the Holy Spirit help us?
Verse 26.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
So we don't even know what to pray.
I used to go to a church and the pastor would always say, like, how's your prayer life?
Like, how's your how's your prayer life?
And it was like, you know, like, well, now I feel like feel horrible.
Like, okay, I don't pray as much as you.
I always felt horrible.
How's your prayer life?
How much are you praying?
And it just felt horrible.
And then like you read Romans and you're like, well, Paul says, I don't even know what to pray, right?
I mean, there's a little bit of freedom here of like, hey, you don't even know what to pray.
Like, you don't even know all the dynamics of the situation.
How could you?
You don't even know what to pray.
As I've moved along in faith, my prayers are getting more and more simple.
Not like, let me show you how spiritually mature I am and tell you how long I pray.
It's just much more like, like, help me with that, God, help me with that, help me with that, help me with that.
Like, I don't even know what to pray, but just will you help me?
Will you help me with this?
Will you help me with that?
We help them with this, we help them with that.
The Holy Spirit knows you.
There should be a great freedom in there.
Like, if you don't know the right words or the right phrase or even what to pray, that's okay.
It's just like that thing, that concern, that burden, that you can calm yourself before the Lord and say, God, help me with that.
Help me with this, help me with that.
That the Holy Spirit is in you, knows you, knows your heart.
Verse 28.
And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
Point number three is this the Holy Spirit gives us hope.
We are fully loved now.
Always have been.
And we're waiting for restoration.
At this point, Romans, Paul has given us five blessings as a Christian.
And Romans 5, peace with God.
Romans 5 into 6, union with Christ.
Romans 7, freedom from the law.
Romans 8, life in the Spirit.
And then at the end of 8, this fifth blessing, that we are loved by God with steadfast love.
And verse 28 is a great promise for us.
Not that life will be pain free, but it means that God is with us in our pain, in our loss.
And that something of that pain will be of use.
We don't know what.
And so we're groaning.
We groan in the pain.
We groan in the loss.
We groan in the broken world.
But we have a promise that God is still at work, the story's not over, and that that too will be restored either here in this world or the next.
Verse 29 uses that word forenew.
That God foreknew us.
It means a personal relationship of care and affection.
God has set his affection on you even before you cared for him.
He decided to choose you and love you even before you decided to choose him and love him.
I don't have that fully worked out theologically of what that means for somebody who does not choose him or love him, but what I do know is that if you choose him and you love him, you are not secure with him because of your choices or your love.
You are secure with him because of his choice of you and his love for you.
That's steadfast love.
While we groan, while life can be difficult, while we are difficult, while we go through valleys.
Do you remember our study of Psalm 23 a couple of years ago?
There's that great verse even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there's that image of a sheep starting in a green pasture, and he's going to go through a valley, but that valley he's going through is going to move him up for the summer heat to another green pasture, to cooler weather.
He needs to go through the valley.
But the valley is hard.
As we journey through the valley, the shepherd leads us to another green pasture.
Listen to Psalm 23, 1 through 4.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
See, in the valley we groan.
In this world we're going to groan because it's a broken world, broken bodies, an imperfect self.
But we are comforted with steadfast love.
I love these four images of Psalm 23.
Starting in that top left is just the image of the green pasture that we love.
We love that when we get that in life.
And that image right below it is just the feeling of us walking through a valley and we feel like we're alone.
But we're not.
So we have that third image that the shepherd is walking with us.
He is with us through the valley, and it's to get us to another green pasture.
The great shepherd is with us with steadfast love.
Walking with the Holy Spirit is walking through these valleys, walking through these groanings.
And the Holy Spirit is reminding us the sufficiency of Jesus and the hope we have to come.
So if you are reminded and you remember God loves me with steadfast love, that's the Holy Spirit in you.
If you are reminded that Jesus is enough, that's the Holy Spirit in you.
If you are reminded, oh, I have a hope of a restoration, this heart longing of mine that this shouldn't be this way or this should be better or this should be this, that is our hearts longing for restoration.
It's the Holy Spirit in us.
And that this Holy Spirit, walking in the Holy Spirit, it has a past tense of remembering the decisiveness of Jesus on the cross for us.
And it has a future orientation where we're looking forward to the restored world.
If you have any questions about the sermon, I'll be down front afterward.
Love to talk to you, pray with you.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you know us and love us, that you bond us to Jesus by your spirit, not our commitment or passion or love.
We thank you that you are conforming us to your Son by your Holy Spirit, that you are reordering the inside of our hearts and our minds.
And we thank you as we look into the future, that there is a hope of a restored world.
Many of us have loved ones there now, where they are enjoying, they are enjoying a restored body, a restored soul.
And we look forward to the day where we join them, where we are no longer in this weary body and weary soul.
Help us to calm our hearts before you enough to hear and be reminded of the hope that we have.
That there is a restoration coming.
Some in this world as a foretaste, but more in the next world.
Where the sinful self will be destroyed, and we will enjoy the redemption of our bodies.
Help us to trust in Jesus more, to enjoy the forgiveness and the righteousness we have in the cross.
And walk with you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.