Dr. Mark Turman: Good morning, everybody. Hope you're having a toasty weekend out here at the lake. It is the dog days of summer in every way, but it won't be this way for long, all right? You may know that the average last 100 degree temperature day in this part of the world is the 27th, so it's going to be 75 degrees on the 28th, okay? We don't know, but we're hoping. We're glad that you're here and and glad that you've come to be a part of worship today uh many of you hopefully all of you received my email newsletter uh to you this week about the finances of the chapel we don't take an offering during worship but that doesn't mean that we don't need offerings all right the chapel doesn't just drop out of the sky and maintain itself uh takes about 230 240 000 a year to just keep up with everything here at the chapel and we would love you to partner with us that three different ways that you can give there's an offering box at the back door you can mail in a gift if you'd like you can also do that electronically at our website PKL M PKL m.org you can find all the information there you got any questions about all of that talk to me Mike Sheila any of the board here we'd be glad to help you with any of that if you're wondering about our budget or a direction any of those kinds of things thank you for the way you've partnered in the past I know you'll do that in the future because this ministry is so beautiful and vital to all of us Judy and I just are absolutely overflowing with gratitude every weekend we get to come out and spend with you and this weekend is no different we had a great time just being here over the weekend and glad to be here this morning I wonder how many of you are only children okay we got a couple all right my mom was an only child she was adopted adopted uh born on the 23rd of december adopted and brought home uh the day after christmas and she must have sensed that there was something not exactly right for her because she went on to have eight children and she lived in a crowded environment for the rest of her life um but i wonder uh because a few years ago judy and i were visiting our daughter in the houston area we were were down there for Palm Sunday and we went to church with her and the pastor's message that day has stayed with me for the last three or four years his his sermon was about Jesus's family and particularly about Jesus' siblings now we know from indications in scripture that Jesus had at least five or six siblings and we get some snapshots of those siblings and they are not particularly complimentary when we see them in Scripture and history records tradition records that it was only later that they began to trust in him as the Son of God and Savior of the world and I love the way the preacher at my daughter's church talked about this if one of your siblings stood up one day and said he was God how quick would you be to follow him well since I have seven siblings I understood exactly what he was talking about it's no surprise really that at some point Jesus's own mother and his siblings came down to try to basically collect him at one moment and take him home because they were concerned that well as we would say today they thought maybe his cheese had slid off his cracker if you have siblings you can understand but this morning i want to talk about our life together as siblings in the faith because that's the way the bible loves to describe us primarily in the new testament words sometimes we're called disciples of jesus that really has the idea of being learners and followers that's what a disciple is sometimes we We are called saints because we are to take on the moral qualities of Jesus and his Father, and we're to make decisions and live our lives in holy kind of ways, even though you probably don't like referring to yourself as a saint. We have the enormous privilege of being ambassadors, the Bible says, that we get to be diplomats on behalf of Jesus and the kingdom of God. We get to speak and live and represent him in any place and every place that we ever go, any part of our influence. But it loves to talk about us primarily as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dr. Mark Turman: When we come to Christ, we become a part of a forever massive family that we will spend eternity getting to know and enjoy along with Jesus.
Dr. Mark Turman: Jesus I want to turn your attention this morning in that spirit to Romans chapter 8 somewhat providential when you think about the things we're praying about and those that we're praying for this morning that it was several months ago that I felt led that God wanted me to just help you walk through this chapter of Romans chapter eight in a fresh way and that it's providentia that we are in this portion of the chapter for today as we're We're praying and walking with people through some pretty hard times. Now, remember the first part of the chapter, if you will, that it begins with this incredible declaration. There is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus, who have accepted Jesus' grace and mercy and forgiveness.
Dr. Mark Turman: Instead of condemning us, Jesus condemned death and sin when he went to the cross. And instead of condemnation, we get to experience transformation. He gives us a brand new heart, but not only a heart for God, he gives us a brand-new mind that can think differently.
Dr. Mark Turman: It can think God's thoughts after him, and we can then live differently, as he says, the adopted children of God. What an incredible, incredible privilege to get to live this life that only Jesus can give.
Dr. Mark Turman: but we also in this time until we see jesus face to face we live in attention don't we in some ways folks every single day for a christian is easter weekend you know how on good friday kind of irony that we call it good frurday we only call it good because we can see it in hindsight that jesus died on the cross for our sin in but then there was three days of just total confusion and bewilderment until finally the sun broke on easter sunday morning i was recently talking to a guy a theologian he said you know jesus didn't have to be raised the first thing in the morning he could have done it at nine o'clock or 12 o' clock or three o'lock he chose to do it at the very first light of day he and his father as a way of reminding us every morning of the resurrection when we get up and we see the sunrise he didn't have to do it that way he chose to do that so that we would kind of reenact the resurrection every morning but our lives right now are lived in that tension between good friday and easter sunday morning as theologians like to describe it that we're living in the right now but but also the not yet. There's a lot of this wonderful life of faith still in front of us, and so we are in what you can simply call the meantime, the time between Jesus' first coming and the time of his second coming and the consummation of all things. And would you agree with me, the meantime is sometimes pretty mean? Well, with that idea in mind, turn your attention to Romans 8, verse 16, and out of reverence for jesus and his word would you stand as i just read about four verses to get us started this morning as we talk about how do we navigate our way home to jesus through this meantime verse 16 of this chapter says something beautiful the spirit himself the holy spirit that we've been singing about the spirit itself testifies together with our spirit that That we are God's children.
Dr. Mark Turman: And if children also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
Dr. Mark Turman: Let's pray. pray jesus come and help us understand what you're trying to teach us here for some of us these this is this is really familiar and wonderful territory in your word for others it may be brand new but god we pray that you bring clear and fresh and powerful insight that lord we would be able to understand what your saying to our hearts in this moment to our minds in this in this space and that god you would help us to hold on to you as we walk with you and as you help us navigate our way home to be with you in jesus name we pray amen wow what an incredible dichotomy you ever find yourself reading a verse out of the bible and you're like i'll take the first part but but I want to leave the second part behind. That's really the way this feels to me when he says in the 16th verse, you get to know, as Gerald said a moment ago in his prayer, who you are. You are in Christ the children of God forever and ever and ever, a part of his beloved family, and that when he looks at you, the Bible says he is looking at the apple of his eye. And then he goes further to say you're not just God's child. you don't just belong to him you are enormously blessed because what's ahead of you is that you are a co-heir with jesus and all the rest of the family and you don'T have to worry about being shortchanged in this inheritance it is beyond belief and beyond understanding in its magnitude you DON'T have TO worry that you're going to be a minor recipient of this of this inheritance inheritance, you're incredibly clear here about who you belong to, and that you not only are claimed by God, but you're blessed by God. But notice he also says in the second half that you were burdened, that if we're part of his family, we have a lot to look forward to, but we also have have a lot to deal with that we are sharing in his suffering but we have the promise of a beautiful ending i want you to think about that with me for a little bit this this journey of being people who belong and are blessed but are also burdened and looking forward to beauty how do you navigate the realities and the tension of being a child of god with an inheritance in front of us but but navigating the current suffering that comes on this side of heaven. If I could boil this down to you for three words this morning, I'd be a good Baptist preacher and give them all the same letter to start with. So let's just boil it down to this. It's a matter of groaning. It's an act of love.
Dr. Mark Turman: It's matter of glory. And it's a manner of gifting. Those things will help us to set our expectations right, to set our heart toward a celebration but also to set our heart towards a collaboration that we need every day. So let's think together about that. We have to see about the groans, the burdens that come on this side of heaven so that we have the right expectations for how life will go until we see Jesus.
Dr. Mark Turman: Notice in the 18th verse that he starts with an incredible calculation. He says this, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed in us and to us now when you read that statement you could easily feel like that Paul is being dismissive of what you're going through that he just doesn't get it that he doesn't understand how hard life really is if you're tempted to go down that thought process let me just turn your attention to some of the biographical information of the author who was inspired by god to write these words i went back and listened to it again this morning second corinthians chapter 11 paul describes what happened to his life when he gave it to christ in many ways it became more beautiful in many ways it became more effective in many ways it become more fruitful for the kingdom of God but he describes a lot of what he went through that he nearly drowned several times in the Mediterranean Sea because he was trying to get from one place to another to tell other people about Christ or he had been arrested and he was in transit going to Rome for a trial that he had be beaten multiple Multiple times for no other reason that he believed in Jesus and was trying to tell other people about Jesus. That he bobbed like a cork in the ocean for an entire night wondering if he would drown or not.
Dr. Mark Turman: Multiple times in prison, multiple times pummeled with stones because people were so angry. This was a man who knew what suffering and burden and pain was all about and yet he is still in his most significant letter in the entire bible saying you know what you put all of that together it doesn't get anywhere close to what jesus has promised ahead of us that's an incredible way of looking at at the pain that sometimes comes in our life and he he says you know what it even happens to us who have the holy spirit and he gives us an insight some important insight into the reality of suffering and pain and groaning that happens in our lives he says that it's global in nature it is normal on this side of heaven that life will not be all that we hoped that it could be he uses a number of terms in this passage let me just read read a couple of more verses from verse 19 on down he says i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us now listen and listen for the negative words about how life is right now verse 19 says this for the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for god's sons to be unveiled for the recreation was subjected to futility there's one of those words not willingly but because of him who subjected it in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from bondage there's another word a bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of god's children for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together as in labor pains until now not only that but we ourselves who have the spirit as the first fruits also grown within ourselves eagerly waiting for adoption the redemption of our bodies. I don't know what you've been going through. We know some of our friends as mentioned earlier some pretty tough stuff but our world is broken on so many levels. This time of year the news is overcome with wildfires in various parts of North America and around the world. Europe has been suffering under one of the strongest heat waves. If you thought you might escape to that part of the world at this time you'd likely find that it's almost as uncomfortable in spain or france or anywhere else in europe as it is right now we've seen in the last couple of months massive earthquakes in places like south america that have claimed hundreds if not thousands of lives we see this almost every single day in one way way or another, whether it's something like COVID or cancer, disaster, fire, we see our world enslaved, as it says here, and subjected to bondage. Now notice this theological insight, that the creation didn't ask for any of this. This is not the way it was before sin entered the world. but he tells us that this happened to the creation all of the brokenness of disease and decay and death that didn't happen until that fateful story of genesis chapter 3 now think with me a minute why do you think the holy spirit put that in here is it because the holy Spirit wanted to be clear about assigning blame to all of us for how messed up and broken the world is there might be some sense in which that's true but it actually is perhaps a better insight this way that when you read that story of creation in genesis chapter 1 genesis 2 what is the capstone of the creation after god separates light from dark and land from sea after god puts all the animals and all the plants everything that you you and i enjoy and are mystified by after all of that what's the crowning thing that god does he creates man and woman in his own image and he gives them authority what sometimes is called dominion over all of creation it is his capstone work and so when man decides to rebel against god he's not just impacting himself he's bringing all of the beauty of god's creation into that that brokenness and I don't think that Paul is inspired to write that word here to assign blame as it is to teach us just how significant we are not only to God but to all that God has created it's a call for us to steward the world in a good way it's called for us understand just the the magnitude of how serious sin is and how much it has pervaded every part of life for a season so paul goes on here to not only say that it's global he says it's personal even though we have the spirit of god with us now in our souls and around us always ways we ourselves experience this brokenness now you can understand in a way why it has to be that way what would happen to our role as ambassadors and diplomats and witnesses for christ if as soon as you came to christ you were visibly and immediately transported into the clouds don't you think everybody would just immediately sign up without seriously considering what jesus asked of them what if it was that when you came to christ at 8 or 18 or 38 you never ever had another problem that'd be great but how much do you think you'd be able to identify with those people who who have not yet believed, and whose lives are still broken.
Dr. Mark Turman: How compelling would it be? Everybody would sign up. Probably not for the right reasons at that point. The reason it has to be this way is because God, while he is moving us toward our full adoption and the complete restoration of our lives and of the world, he's using this season as an opportunity to invite people into a relationship of faith and grace.
Dr. Mark Turman: and the only way he can do it is the way he's doing it now and you and i have the privilege as well as the reality of not only sharing in jesus's grace and love and goodness but we also share in his ongoing suffering and pain for a world that he's working to restore have a really good friend who spoils me to be honest with you one of the ways he spoils me is he brings my family pie every thanksgiving and christmas i am absolutely certain that this is heavenly apple pie dropped out of heaven but he loves to tell me his favorite saying saying nobody gets the whole pie that's my friend's will's way of saying as good as some people's lives are as good is your life might be at a certain season nobody's life is pain-free everybody goes through stuff and that's true today and it'll be true tomorrow tomorrow. Sometimes it's earthquake, fire, tornado. Sometimes it's cancer, like it is for Campbell and the Owens family. Sometimes it is about saying goodbye to your oldest born child, as it is to Carrie or your dad. Even in my own life this week it was something as minor as our five-year-old not getting to go to the first day of kindergarten because he had a case of the flu or it could be as severe as when I sat down on Friday with an old friend that I hadn't talked to in a long time as soon as he sat down we started to pick up the conversation about family because you know when you see an old friend that's kind of where you start right but he brought it up and then he he said, oh, we'll get to that later. He didn't, he didn't want to go there at that moment.
Dr. Mark Turman: And so we went on, had a conversation about what I wanted to talk about, which is why I invited him to breakfast. We talked for an hour and toward the end of that hour, his phone rang and he started talking and it was clear he was talking to one of his kids. And I could sense the rise of pain in his life after he finished his phone call we talked a little bit longer and we talked about the disaster that was unfolding in his family we know what that's like but i think the reason that this is here is so that you and i will set our expectations because one of the biggest dangers to our faith is disappointment we thought life would go like this and when it takes a hard left or a hard right or it nose dives we are tempted to become so disappointed that we might give up on god understand this is the way it needs to be for a season the second thing he says is glory the counterweight to all that groaning is found in the 23rd verse and the next couple of verses after that he says not only that we ourselves who have the spirit we grown within ourselves eagerly waiting for adoption I ask you to listen to the negative words decay enslavement all of those words minute ago listen to positive words now we grown in ourselves eagerly for our adoption the redemption of our bodies could we just like camp out right here we could be like those men in those those commercials who start comparing their scars that's kind of what he's doing right here the redemption of our bodies now in this hope we were saved but hope that is seen is not hope because who hopes for what he sees now if we hope for what we do not see that is what we do not yet have we eagerly wait for it with patience this is our promise promise that we are groaning in many ways now but there is glory coming so all we have to do is the thing we love to do wait right you love to wait don't you you have all the patience that you've ever needed right nobody's going to confess to this but you do understand that along with the a creation that is eagerly looking forward you and i get to look forward to not only a world that doesn't have disease and it doesn't Have Death and it Doesn't Have Decay and it Doesn't have rebellion we get to wait eagerly along with that but we also get to see and wait for how that's going to be for us personally that we were no longer be threatened by the things of this world disease and death we will no longer be threatened by deception by the devil or by disappointment in god we will as he says here have the full experience of our adoption but something we have to get under our belt is clear the very definition of hope is anticipation you don't hope for stuff that you already have you hope for the things that are ahead it's just the very nature of hope but when you're hoping in the things That God has promised don't you have the highest level of confidence there is because he's never going to break those promises that's why he can describe it in this way that only women fully appreciate he describes it as labor pains that the world and even our own soul knows that there's something beautiful about to show up but there is struggle and there is discomfort and downright pain for a season i've met a new friend and reconnected with another old friend this week we had some conversations one of those friends is a a youth specialty minister or a youth minister who specializes in teenagers my friend mark matlock makes his home in irving and he has been doing youth ministry and consulting on ministry for 30 years he's written a number of books especially on youth issues he founded a ministry called wisdom works that's pointed at young people teenagers in their senior year or senior adult years not senior adult years their senior years in high school and in college he is a world traveler and has incredible insight we got to talking today he at times hosts conferences where thousands of students will come and learn about the plans of god for their lives he said a couple years ago he hosted some conferences and he got a little bit disturbed because he started receiving feedback back letters from some of these teenagers and when he got one he didn't think too much about it but then there was a second one and then there were five and then ten and then he lost count and the theme of these letters all had the same thread teenagers were writing to him saying mark do I have to go to heaven when I die and he thought that's the most bizarre question that I've ever been asked why why would a teenager be asking do i have to go some of them even went so far as to say could god just like annihilate me so that i don't have to go to heaven it can just be done and what he started to discern in the in the comments of these students was they didn't see heaven in a positive light what it looked like to many of them was just one long continuous church service now you would never feel that way especially while i'm trying to land this sermon would you but what he found out was is people didn't have especially these students didn'thave a really well-rounded view of what's ahead of us that then tumbled into a conversation with a new friend by the name of randy alcorn you may have have seen some of randy alcorn's work he's written a very popular book on how to handle your finances called the treasure principle a number of other uh books of various topics his newest book comes out in about a month six weeks from now or so it is a book targeted toward children and the theme of the book is what is heaven like it's called heaven on earth what god is doing to restore all all things. We had a ball talking about that children's book. You can find it on my podcast if you're interested, but it's a really important attempt to help people understand that heaven is not as far and it is not even as different from this world as you might think. Do you enjoy a good cup of coffee? I think you'll have one in heaven. Do enjoy a Good Nap? I Think You'll Get One in heaven do you want a world where where your health say stay strong do you want a word where your fellowship and your friendship gets deeper and wider and bigger and more beautiful every day do you hope to see another sunset so strong so beautiful so outstanding that you will literally take your breath away i think all those things are waiting for us in heaven and even more there's a lot to say about suffering a lot that the bible teaches us so that that we set our expectations right. The Bible tells us that suffering is expected, it's normal on this side of heaven. It even says that it is helpful and sometimes random. But the best thing that we can say about suffering is it's temporary.
Dr. Mark Turman: And that's where the gift comes in. That for all that we must deal with for a season, we don't deal with it alone. Because this whole chapter in many ways is pointing us to the promise of god's help in the person of his holy spirit one of the most beautiful statements he says in the latter part of this chapter verse 26 the spirit helps us in our weaknesses let me read that to you very quickly and we'll be done verse 26 says in the same way the spirit also helps us because we do not know what to pray for as we should but the spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings and he who searches that is god he who churches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because he intercedes for us for the saints according to the will of god for we know verse 28 says that all things work together for the good of those who love god who are called according to his purpose for those he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters there's that sibling again and those he predestine he also called and those who called he also justified and those he justified he also glorified god gives us a spirit the holy spirit of god jesus talked about this at length in the passage that gerald referred to in john 14 and then again john 16 that jesus is going away would usher in the fullness of his spirit coming to live in our hearts and to be in our midst or us in his so that he might guard and guide us safely home by two primary means that he lays out here the first one is he is always interceding for you even in this moment do you realize that right now the holy spirit of god and even the 34th verse of this chapter jesus himself they are talking about you and me right now so if your mind has drifted off or you're thinking about your to-do list for the week do you know that jesus is praying that you would listen right now jesus and the father and the spirit they're always talking about us and i gotta tell you we don't really have a good understanding of all that that means he says here that when they talk they have a special language that they use literally the best translation that you can give to this part of the chapter is they are talking with words beyond words in some kind of a unique communication medium that is unique to father son and holy spirit in in eternity they are talking about what they most care about which is us and they are praying that you would walk with them every single breath of your life and that through good and bad hard and wonderful you would be leaning hard and further into them every single moment and if you get that God will bring you comfort and strength beyond what you can imagine enough to carry you through this moment but not only thus does he intercede he gives perspective that 28th verse is something that some of us have staked our lives on him when I was 17 years old I didn't know much of anything about Jesus except that I had no interest in him until God started stirring in my life and people started speaking into my life on behalf of God one of them being my friend Bob who was my boss at Brookshire grocery store where my mom bought her groceries in the center of Tyler in what was called Bergfeld Center Bergfeld center looked a lot like one of the modern shopping centers that you'd find in dallas or in fort worth if you've ever been to highland park village it was built by the same architect most of my life growing up happened in and around burkeville center that's because luby's was there and we went to luby'S at least once a week and the bakery was there where you could get matter of fact it's still there called the village bakery it was the place where you went to buy a suit at at Joyner Fry, and it was the place of my first real job because Brookshire's anchored that shopping center. Today, I could take you to the square foot of that building where I heard and learned this verse for the first time. It has become the anchor point of my life and of Judy and I's life together. It's inscribed on the inside of my wedding ring. It is the promise that in god's wonderful mysterious way he is taking all of the pieces broken and beautiful and he is assembling in a them in a way that will be for his glory for our good and for my good that is his promise god has a lot of tools the holy spirit being the captain of all of them scripture creation fellowship and mission but his best gift well it might be illustrated this way if you like to go to the theater you might know the play called the fool was created by a writer by the name of channing pollock one scene in that in that play illustrates what i'm trying to talk to you about this morning this is a wealthy couple and the rich woman in the play is wearing her fur fur coat but she is complaining about how her husband's gift the her fur coat the house the jewels everything about their lives she's complaining about it and she says you know these gifts are the substitute for my husband's love and companionship well her father-in-law is listening to her complaint and he just cannot stand it anymore until he finally says i don't know what you women want a man works his heart and soul out to give you good things and you still are not satisfied to which the wife without missing a beat immediately says maybe we would like a little heart and sole you see that's that's the fulfillment of what the poet emerson wrote when he said the true gift the truest of all gifts is the gift of yourself and that's exactly what god gave us first in the person of jesus and every day in the person of the holy spirit to help us through the meantime until we're home let's pray pray. Jesus, we're grateful. Grateful for your grace, grateful for your mercy, grateful for your presence in our hearts and in this room right now. Lord, even today, here, this week, a lot of sadness, a little bit of sadness. A lot of pain, a lot of groaning. Lord it comes in so many different ways, so many any different sizes and shapes. Lord, we pray for the Whitlocks. We pray for the Owens. We've prayed for others gathered with us today and others that we know as they go through deep valleys of heartache and hardship. God, we pray for your help, for your hope, for your joy, for your strength to be in them and with them through every breath. Lord we look look forward to the promises that you have made, to our full adoption, to our full redemption, to the remaking not only of our lives, of our bodies, of our health, but of our world. God, we look forward to that. Lord, we don't know the timetable, but we know you do. And so, Father, we pray that your spirit would move among us and that we would trust him and hear him and follow him every single day and every breath until we see you face to face in jesus name we pray and everyone said together amen god bless you hope you have a great sunday