SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We come to you humbled and just with the desire that we don't want to take the cross out of the center of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, right now, would you please for all the marriages that are in this room, would you please facilitate gospel-centered marriages that are never over the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: For all the parents that are room with, would you please make them obsessed with a gospel legacy?
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that we can never we'd never get over the simplicity of the fact that you came to save sinners.
SPEAKER_02: Of whom I was the foremost.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, now I, as we open up the scriptures, I ask for in dire help, I ask for your help.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I ask now that you can open up our hearts and our minds for your word and for these glorious truths that we're about to digest in this room.
SPEAKER_02: God, with the words in my mouth and let the words in my mouth and the meditations in my heart be holy and acceptable to you because you're you're my rock.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, fill this place like only you can help us to walk out of here with a little more Jesus, a little less us.
SPEAKER_02: Get our hopes up right now, God.
SPEAKER_02: In these next 30 minutes, get our hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: In your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, How are we good?
unknown: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, if you have your Bibles, would you grab those?
SPEAKER_02: Go to Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible, just relax.
SPEAKER_02: The text is gonna appear here on your screen.
SPEAKER_02: But I would love for all of us to follow along with me, whether it's on the screen, on your book, or on your phone.
SPEAKER_02: I would love you to follow along with me in Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Leo Almeida.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the pastors here at Graham Parkway.
SPEAKER_02: And we're exploring one of the mountaintops of the entire Bible, which is Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: And this series, as you can see, is called Filled.
SPEAKER_02: And we're talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And right now we're at the halfway mark of our series.
SPEAKER_02: And since we're at the halfway point, I'm gonna give you a little halftime pep talk, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So this is a 30-second halftime pep talk.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an extracurricular activity.
SPEAKER_02: This is not reserved for pastors or ministry leaders or prophets or priests.
SPEAKER_02: This is something that everyone is invited to.
SPEAKER_02: Again, this is not about how much Holy Spirit you have, but about how much the Holy Spirit has you.
SPEAKER_02: Let's make the drive this point home.
SPEAKER_02: I have a proverb that I want to expose you to right here.
SPEAKER_02: This is Proverbs 27, verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: It says this one who is full loaths honey.
SPEAKER_02: But to the one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet.
SPEAKER_02: One who is full loathes honey, but to the one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, this is a food analogy, but listen, whenever you are full, even the most delicious things offered aren't worth it.
SPEAKER_02: And this is a food analogy, but how how are you how you are filled determines how you act and react to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Are you filled with the spirit of fear?
SPEAKER_02: Are you filled with the spirit of slavery?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you currently filled with the spirit of the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Again, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it becomes easier to reject the desserts being offered by the world.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're not filled with him, small trinkets and toys become attractive and even addicting to you.
SPEAKER_02: Are you currently filled with the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is not the extra stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, being filled is not the extra side stuff.
SPEAKER_02: In verses 1 through 17, we've seen the ministry of the Holy Spirit, how he fills us and gives us freedom, he gives us power, he gives us kingdom focus.
SPEAKER_02: And last week we saw that the Holy Spirit is the great reminder, consistently reminding us to truths that we already know, reminding us to remember who we are, that we are dependent children, that we're made for intimacy and we're scheduled for an inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna keep going here in verses 16 through 25.
SPEAKER_02: It says this.
SPEAKER_02: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we also may be glorified with him.
SPEAKER_02: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_02: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_02: And 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.
SPEAKER_02: We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
SPEAKER_02: Not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we await eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_02: For in this hope we are saved.
SPEAKER_02: Now, hope that is seen is not hope.
SPEAKER_02: For who hopes what he sees?
SPEAKER_02: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
SPEAKER_02: That's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Now, friends, this passage shows us that people who are filled with the Spirit, they hold two big truths intention.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, they're sitting and holding two big truths intention.
SPEAKER_02: And truth number one is this the struggle is real.
SPEAKER_02: The struggle is real.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, the Bible does not, uh I love the one of the reasons I love the Bible is its honesty about the condition of the world.
SPEAKER_02: It is not sugarcoated, it is not overly somber, but it's very clear and it's sober about the crew, the status of the world, and that the struggle is real.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 17 again.
SPEAKER_02: If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we also be glorified with him.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, before you inherit what is coming later, you suffer with him and like him now.
SPEAKER_02: Before you get what's coming later, you suffer with him and like him right now.
SPEAKER_02: So, fall of my senior year, okay, my team was scheduled to win the state championship.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I played for Seven Legs High School, and we made this plan back in 2005.
SPEAKER_02: We made this plan as seventh graders, we're gonna get, we're gonna team up together, we're gonna win state for Seven Lakes High School once and for all.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we were so excited about this, and it was extremely competitive at the time.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Houston was remarkably competitive when it comes to basketball.
SPEAKER_02: So, our coach, to take us over the top, hired a strength and conditioning coach just for us.
SPEAKER_02: Coach Lance.
SPEAKER_02: Now, pre-Coach Lance, I thought a squat is you get under the bar and you do this.
SPEAKER_02: And then you're done.
SPEAKER_02: Because the thing was, okay, you work out, and then after you work out, you get to go play basketball.
SPEAKER_02: So I get underneath the bar and I do about one, two, nine, ten.
SPEAKER_02: And I got out of there and I would leave.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, but then Coach Lance would come, and I remember him being like, if your butt's not touching the floor, it's not a squat.
SPEAKER_02: I can still hear him in my head.
SPEAKER_02: And he talked about how if your thighs are not parallel to the ground, it doesn't count.
SPEAKER_02: I can't even do that without weight.
SPEAKER_02: It's extremely difficult.
SPEAKER_02: Now, he came and he and he worked this out for the first time.
SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, I don't remember our first workout with Coach Lance.
SPEAKER_02: I remember that next day.
SPEAKER_02: And in a basketball practice, I remember watching our coach crack up as we're warming up because he yells out, side lunges! And our whole team does one lunge, and we all collectively go, Oh.
SPEAKER_02: That's how the Bible is describing the state of the world right now.
SPEAKER_02: There's this perpetual and there's this loud and there's this palpable groaning that's going on.
SPEAKER_02: Oh and this passage actually gives us some insights about this groaning.
SPEAKER_02: So the first thing we learn about this groaning is that this groaning is universal.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_02: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
SPEAKER_02: So nothing is immune to this groaning.
SPEAKER_02: This brokenness has affected and infecting everything and everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this word right here, um, groaning together.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this it's the it's the Greek word cystonato, which literally means to moan to moan in unison, to moan jointly.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you another example.
SPEAKER_02: I went to a big school, okay, Oklahoma State University.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, it's a very, very big campus.
SPEAKER_02: So oftentimes our professors would be late to class because they'd be teaching over there and have to make it all the way to the other side to come to our class.
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes we'd get to class, and if you're nerd, you get like me, I get to class early, and there's no professor there.
SPEAKER_02: And time would go by and time would go by and time would go by, and it never failed.
SPEAKER_02: Eventually, some goofball would stand up and be like, if he's not here in 10 minutes, let's all leave.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And I would be like, yes and amen.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and everyone would start their clocks, but okay, we got six minutes left, five minutes left, four, and we would sit there daydreaming about what it would be like if our afternoon just opened up.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, and we'd be excited about these things, and it never failed again.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, at about the nine-minute mark, the professor would burst again.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I'm late, and all of us in unison would go, oh friends, that's the picture here.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Paul is not being pantheistic, saying, hey, the floor is talking, let's listen to it.
SPEAKER_02: But what's happening is Paul is using personification to describe that all of creation, he's painting this picture of all of creation looking at one another, going, This is not how it's meant to be.
SPEAKER_02: This is off.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so there's a deep fatigue about this world.
SPEAKER_02: There is a deep sigh about this world, even though it's beautiful sunset, should be seen with an asterisk next to it.
SPEAKER_02: This is not how it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_02: So we learn in this passage that the groaning is universal.
SPEAKER_02: Furthermore, that the groaning, we learned that this groaning is a consequence.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 20, verse 20A.
SPEAKER_02: For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, creation was given over to endless frustration.
SPEAKER_02: Creation can't be what it actually wants to be.
SPEAKER_02: So listen, Christian, care for the environment.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, go create, care for the environment.
SPEAKER_02: But as you see the brokenness of this world, know that it's not just pollution and lack of recycling.
SPEAKER_02: We broke the universe on page three.
SPEAKER_02: We the the the decay of this universe is tied to man's sin.
SPEAKER_02: God has cursed this world as a response to our sin.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, whenever Leo makes his pasta, it is good.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, it is good.
SPEAKER_02: But whenever I make my signature pasta with my with my shrimp, it is very good.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we see in Genesis chapter 1, verse 31.
SPEAKER_02: God makes this world and he says, it is good, it is good, it is very good.
SPEAKER_02: And he takes a step back, he takes a step back to enjoy it, not not out of exhaustion, but out of excitement.
SPEAKER_02: He's like he takes a step back just to take pleasure in his work.
SPEAKER_02: And we go from that to Genesis chapter 3, where he curses the ground with thorns and thistles.
SPEAKER_02: He tells Adam, by the sweat of your brow, you will eat bread.
SPEAKER_02: By the sweat of your brow, you will eat bread.
SPEAKER_02: That's the most Houston, Texas in July passage in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I used to be scared that someone was hiding in my back seat.
SPEAKER_02: Not with this weather.
SPEAKER_02: They wouldn't survive back there.
SPEAKER_02: It'd be over for.
SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, God has cursed this world.
SPEAKER_02: Um I wonder how many people are dealing with endless frustration because they're trying to find ultimate meaning in a place that God has cursed.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, you're defined ultimate meaning above the sun, not under it.
SPEAKER_02: Because we see that this groaning is a consequence.
SPEAKER_02: This groaning is universal.
SPEAKER_02: Lastly, this groaning is personal.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: Not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_02: Most Jesus paintings paint him as chill.
SPEAKER_02: But what Jesus was doing down here was actually very violent.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, that was what he was doing, was he was punching.
SPEAKER_02: Punching a hole between the real world and the ideal world.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm here to tell you, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, one of the side effects is that of that is you're gonna start salivating for that world.
SPEAKER_02: We talk a lot about the things that come from the Holy Spirit, the power that comes from the Spirit, the gifts that come from the Spirit, the fruits that come from the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, part of having the Holy Spirit is being homesick, knowing that you do not belong here.
SPEAKER_02: Part of having the Holy Spirit is struggling with your sin and feeling the gnawing in your soul, going, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_02: Hearing about a school shooting and engaging in debates about what we should do, but also getting in your car afterwards or getting in your bed afterwards and going, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_02: Again, part of the Holy Spirit may even be um feeling joy, feeling pleasure, but then feeling you kind of hit a ceiling, kind of like, man, that didn't last like I thought it would last.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't feel like I thought it would feel like I advertised it in my mind.
SPEAKER_02: Are we there yet?
SPEAKER_02: A part of having the Holy Spirit dwell in you is he makes us yearn for our supernatural resting place.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we are adopted, we have been adopted.
SPEAKER_02: But right now we are groaning, waiting for our adoption papers to go through.
SPEAKER_02: This isn't just non-believers that are groaning, we are all groaning.
SPEAKER_02: So this groaning is universal, this groaning is a consequence, this groaning is personal.
SPEAKER_02: Now there is good news, but I want to get an off-ramp of this point by showing you something.
SPEAKER_02: Um, there is a man named Alvin Plantaga.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Alvin Plantaga, who read the Bible cover to cover and said something that was very interesting.
SPEAKER_02: He said, The Bible is not, the Bible is not the greatest story ever told.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is the greatest story that could ever be told.
SPEAKER_02: What did he mean?
SPEAKER_02: What he meant was if you get the greatest storytellers in human history, you lock them in this room for 10 years, they wouldn't come up with a story better than the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: This quote sent shock waves and it was controversial.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because Alvin Plantica is not a sweaty teaching pastor saying that.
SPEAKER_02: Alvin Plantica is renowned as one of the best philosophers in the world right now.
SPEAKER_02: He's one of the brightest minds on the planet.
SPEAKER_02: He's the head of philosophy at Notre Dame.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why would he say that?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible is the best story that could ever be told.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read the full quote.
SPEAKER_02: It says this according to the Christian story, God, the Almighty first being of the universe, and the creator of everything else, was willing to undergo enormous suffering in order to redeem creatures who had turned their backs on him.
SPEAKER_02: He created human beings, they rebelled against him constantly.
SPEAKER_02: They were constantly and go and they constantly go astray to his will.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of treating them as some oriental monarch would, he sent his son, the word, second person of the Trinity, into the world.
SPEAKER_02: The word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_02: He was subjected to ridicule, rejection, and finally the cruel and humiliating death of a cross.
SPEAKER_02: Horrifying as that is, Jesus, the word, the son of God, suffered something vastly more horrifying: abandonment from God, exclusion from his love and affection.
SPEAKER_02: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_02: All this to enable human beings to be reconciled to God and to achieve eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: This overwhelming display of love and mercy is not merely the greatest story ever told.
SPEAKER_02: It is the greatest story that could be told.
SPEAKER_02: This is a world-famous philosopher saying this.
SPEAKER_02: And did you hear his reasoning?
SPEAKER_02: It was in that first sentence right there.
SPEAKER_02: It's God was willing to undergo enormous suffering in order to redeem creatures who had turned their backs on him.
SPEAKER_02: I bring this up to tell you this, friends, your groaning is not only visible by Jesus, it's understandable by Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Provided we suffer with him.
SPEAKER_02: We're sharing with him in his sufferings.
SPEAKER_02: We have a high priest who's able to sympathize with our groaning.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, God has cursed the world.
SPEAKER_02: But Galatians 3 tells us that Jesus on a cross became the curse, so he can lift us out of the curse.
SPEAKER_02: He went through the ultimate groan of praying, Abba Father, and hearing nothing.
SPEAKER_02: All that to buy you access, to give you the right to call him Abba Father.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, the struggle is real.
SPEAKER_02: But our Savior knows it well.
SPEAKER_02: Not as a CEO who studied the company real well, but as a fellow sufferer sufferer here on earth.
SPEAKER_02: So people who are filled with the Holy Spirit hold two truths and tension.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, that the struggle is real.
SPEAKER_02: And number two, and finally, that the glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: That the glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_02: Now, friends, the Bible does not call you and I to be absent-minded about your pain.
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of religions and ideologies and theologies that are coaching people into delusion.
SPEAKER_02: You don't really feel pain, you're fine.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible does not call us to stuff our emotions like that.
SPEAKER_02: That is unhealthy.
SPEAKER_02: That is not scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Rather, what's happening here is Paul is doing what you and I should do.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, think about it.
SPEAKER_02: Really think about what you're going through right now.
SPEAKER_02: For I consider.
SPEAKER_02: That word consider is an accounting term.
SPEAKER_02: It literally means I compute.
SPEAKER_02: It means to compute, to count, to calculate, to weigh.
SPEAKER_02: I consider.
SPEAKER_02: He's considered what he's going through.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, it is not worth comparing with the glory that is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Everything I'm going through is a paper cut compared to the billions of dollars coming my way.
SPEAKER_02: There is no comparison.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, you know you are filled when you have the courage to continually calculate your suffering in light of what's coming.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're filled when you have the courage to continually calculate your sufferings in light Of what's coming.
SPEAKER_02: Now I don't say it to be trite.
SPEAKER_02: In a room this big, there has to be a lot of pain going on.
SPEAKER_02: I am sure there is so much pain in the lives of our people right now.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: In a room this size, there's probably difficult, difficult things that people are daydreaming about right now as I'm talking.
SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't matter how upbeat the music gets or how nice the weather gets outside.
SPEAKER_02: I've been doing this long enough to know that there's people who've walked in here today completely limping.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely limping.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to encourage you in this way.
SPEAKER_02: Paul didn't write this from Destin, Florida.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't write this from an air-conditioned resort.
SPEAKER_02: This is a man who was well acquainted with suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at how Paul suffered.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 11 says this.
SPEAKER_02: Five times I received at the hand of the Jews the 40 lashes minus one.
SPEAKER_02: Three times I was beaten with rods.
SPEAKER_02: Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.
SPEAKER_02: A night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure.
SPEAKER_02: And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not all.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on to list greater laborments, great, greater labor and imprisonment and countless beatings and near-death experiences.
SPEAKER_02: And after all of this, Paul has the audacity to call all of this light and temporary.
SPEAKER_02: Light and temporary.
SPEAKER_02: Are you filled in a situation where you can start thinking about the finish line whenever you go through hard times here and now?
SPEAKER_02: There it's not a secret.
SPEAKER_02: It is not a secret that being hungry changes your mood.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: In the same way that hunger changes, makes you uh makes us less patient, I believe pain makes us bad hopers.
SPEAKER_02: John Newton had this quote about being a bad hoper.
SPEAKER_02: He says this suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his carriage should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way.
SPEAKER_02: What a fool we should think of him.
SPEAKER_02: If we saw him wringing his hands and blubbering all that remaining mile, my carriage is broken, my carriage is broken.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we, you and I, tend to believe behave.
SPEAKER_02: But the glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what is this glory?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'll land the plane here.
SPEAKER_02: We're short on time.
SPEAKER_02: I'll land the plane here these next seven minutes.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Two things.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, the text mentions A, bodies without badness.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 23 again.
SPEAKER_02: Not only creation is groaning, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly and wait eagerly for our adoption as sons with the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, those words, first fruits.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, right now you and I have the first fruits of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is being filled with the Holy Spirit is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: Being filled is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: There is more coming.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is a down payment for what's actually coming next.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, our story, my story, your story does not end with us wearing diapers on clouds, playing the harp.
SPEAKER_02: That's not our final destination.
SPEAKER_02: We get brand new bodies.
SPEAKER_02: We get redeemed bodies.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't have time to dissect it like I want to, but 1 Corinthians 15 expounds on this reality big time.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42 says this what is sown, meaning the body that's buried of a Christian, what is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable.
SPEAKER_02: No matter how beautiful you are, y'all are all beautiful, by the way, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I better get some compliments on the sermon because of that right there.
SPEAKER_02: No matter how cute you are, beautiful you are right now, your body now is perishable.
SPEAKER_02: There's an expiration date on you.
SPEAKER_02: It is corruptible.
SPEAKER_02: And this strikes me big time whenever I'm watching the NBA draft, and these analysts on ESPN are talking about look at how fast he can run, look at how high he can jump, he's the next so-and-so.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just thinking in my head, Father Time is undefeated.
SPEAKER_02: Give it 10 years.
SPEAKER_02: He'll be an analyst, analyzing the next guy.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not I'm not being cynical, but I just know that there's an expiration date on athletic prowess.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, you are getting weaker.
SPEAKER_02: Our bodies are actually getting weaker.
SPEAKER_02: Every stage you hit is a corruptible stage.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not I'm 29, but I'm I'm figuring this out now.
SPEAKER_02: There's a time in my life I could I I physically couldn't walk up the stairs.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_02: I had to run.
SPEAKER_02: I saw stairs and I had the energy, I had to run up the stairs.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it was.
SPEAKER_02: I had to run every stairs.
SPEAKER_02: And now I turned 29 a month ago, and it's been like 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, am I tired?
SPEAKER_02: Am I ready to go to bed?
SPEAKER_02: You are you are dying.
SPEAKER_02: Our bodies are getting weaker, but later on, we're gonna get a body that's not subject to decay or subject to aging.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 43 says this, where the body is sown in dishonor, but it is raised in glory.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is, man, some of you have you've let yourself daydream about the beauties of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, your body will match the beauty of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It will match that glory of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 43 says, It is sown in weakness, but it is raised in power.
SPEAKER_02: Our bodies now are so weak.
SPEAKER_02: All it takes is one cell in your body to go rogue, and you have a huge problem on your hands.
SPEAKER_02: Our bodies are so fragile, but there's coming a day where our bodies will not be raised in power.
SPEAKER_02: That means that Leo doesn't have to get intrusive thoughts and start shaking like he always does.
SPEAKER_02: There will be no more mental health stuff.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be no more hand sanitizer, be raised in power, no more hospital visits.
SPEAKER_02: It is sown a natural body, but verse 44, it is sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is your resurrection body will be animated by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Only.
SPEAKER_02: Animated by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit only.
SPEAKER_02: No more struggling with the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: That's all those days are gonna be over one day.
SPEAKER_02: He began this work and he's going to bring it to completion.
SPEAKER_02: You will get, we will get new bodies.
SPEAKER_02: Contrary to popular belief, I like more than just basketball.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody said, really?
SPEAKER_02: I like, I no, no one knows, I love camping.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I actually really love camping for about 25, 26 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: And what usually happens never fails.
SPEAKER_02: It never fails.
SPEAKER_02: Around s'more number three, I'm like, I want torches.
SPEAKER_02: And there's the initial adrenaline of setting up your tent and bunking with your boys and talking, but I'm like, this isn't my bed.
SPEAKER_02: I want my bed.
SPEAKER_02: I want to lay down like a starfish in my bed.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to talk.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: But friends, this is how the Bible describes our earthly dwelling.
SPEAKER_02: This is a tent, this is a temporary structure.
SPEAKER_02: As you feel pain, remind this is a temporary structure.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's a temple of the Holy Spirit, but this is not our permanent home.
SPEAKER_02: Elsewhere, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, he says this, for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house that's not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_02: For in this tent, in our current tent, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_02: If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked.
SPEAKER_02: For while we were still in this tent, we groaned, being burdened.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we should we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_02: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_02: Again, your fullness is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: It is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: So the glory that's coming includes redeemed bodies, and lastly, a new redeemed world.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_02: For the creation awaits with eager longing, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_02: Creation is waiting for our revealing.
SPEAKER_02: Right now, Christians blend in with everybody else.
SPEAKER_02: In the Bible see here, one creation is excited for Christians to get their brand new body.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, how?
SPEAKER_02: Well, that word right there, eager longing.
SPEAKER_02: Some of your Bible say eager expectation.
SPEAKER_02: It literally means to watch with an outstretched neck.
SPEAKER_02: Ever been on the highway when there's an accident?
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And you get up there and you realize there was no blockage at all.
SPEAKER_02: It was just people doing what?
SPEAKER_02: Watching.
SPEAKER_02: What's that called?
SPEAKER_02: Rubbernecking.
SPEAKER_02: So this is the picture that Paul is trying to paint.
SPEAKER_02: All of creation is currently rubbernecking, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_02: They're waiting for the future of the destiny of the people who are filled with the Spirit now.
SPEAKER_02: Creation is on its tiptoes to seeing what to see what happens to you.
SPEAKER_02: Now look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
SPEAKER_02: Why is creation rubber-necking right now?
SPEAKER_02: Because creation was cursed because we were cursed.
SPEAKER_02: So whenever we get redeemed, all of creation gets redeemed with us.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: The same way our bodies will be glorified.
SPEAKER_02: This passage is saying creation will have that glory too.
SPEAKER_02: Now finally, look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_02: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth now.
SPEAKER_02: The pains of childbirth now.
SPEAKER_02: If you hear a woman screaming in a hospital, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
SPEAKER_02: It depends where she's at.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Oncology ward, probably a bad thing.
SPEAKER_02: But in a maternity ward, a great thing.
SPEAKER_02: Because that pain is horrible, or so I've heard.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: But it leads to a great thing.
SPEAKER_02: In that same way, there is a new birth coming over this way.
SPEAKER_02: All things will be made new.
SPEAKER_02: This would be a new world without the curse.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, yes, the struggle is real, but listen, the glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: The glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Now, as adults, we're bad hopers.
SPEAKER_02: Bad, bad hopers.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're born good hopers, then something happens to us, we become jaded.
SPEAKER_02: We start expecting everything to be terrible.
SPEAKER_02: And I heard someone say, if you expect everything to be terrible, when something's really bad, you go, well, at least it wasn't terrible.
SPEAKER_02: Christians should not behave this way because the New Testament is consistently inviting us hey, get your hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: This is a waiting game.
SPEAKER_02: Get your hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: People who are filled with the Holy Spirit, live with their hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: Because our hope, we're not crossing our fingers, we're waiting for our destiny.
SPEAKER_02: Get our hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: Get your hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Well, verse 24 and 25, for in this hope we were saved.
SPEAKER_02: Hope that is seen is not hope.
SPEAKER_02: Through hope is what he sees.
SPEAKER_02: But if we hope for we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
SPEAKER_02: People who are filled with the Holy Spirit live with their hopes up.
SPEAKER_02: Take some time to get yourself excited about your destiny.
SPEAKER_02: Your story does not end with you still struggling with your flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: People who are filled with the Holy Spirit, there is a future for them.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: A prosper a prosperous future that is more than this world.
SPEAKER_02: We get God Himself.
SPEAKER_02: We get to be with God.
SPEAKER_02: This is the first fruits.
SPEAKER_02: We get to be with God Himself.
SPEAKER_02: So let's live with our hopes up and pray.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, you are the great reminder.
SPEAKER_02: Remind us of these truths.
SPEAKER_02: Remind us of these truths and give us the courage to calculate our present sufferings in light of what's coming.
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We like to carve out some time in every one of our services to take a step back and just mentally worship and process what you've heard.
SPEAKER_02: So I have some questions here on the board, or not on the board, on the dry erase board, as you can see up here.
SPEAKER_02: What you can do is you can take a picture of them, or you can just zero in on one of them and you can just talk with the Holy Spirit about this question.
SPEAKER_02: But nevertheless, I would love for us to spend some time processing the truths that we have just heard.
SPEAKER_02: Dear God, we trust you.
SPEAKER_02: God, give us the courage to continually calculate our pains.
SPEAKER_02: I know our people.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us are going through a serious season of suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us are about to enter a season of suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us are just leaving it.
SPEAKER_02: God, you're good.
SPEAKER_02: Trust that.
SPEAKER_02: Trust you.
SPEAKER_02: Get it down deep in our soul, Holy Spirit, that the glory is coming.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your beautiful name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, um, as always, church, um, it is so good to be with you.
SPEAKER_02: My guy, my name is Leo Almeida.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the pastors here on staff.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you are a visitor here today, um, welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're so glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_02: You matter to God, um, and you also matter to us.
SPEAKER_02: And if you wouldn't mind, would you just text that number right there on your screen?
SPEAKER_02: That just gives us a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't have a church home, we would love to be um your church home.
SPEAKER_02: And I would love to be one of your pastors.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, after the service, we're gonna have several of our pastors here down front who would love to meet you, um, pray with you, or just process some of the things that you've heard here um this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And along with those pastors, one of our pastors is gonna be um Ian.
SPEAKER_02: Ian is here.
SPEAKER_02: Ian, our new student pastor is gonna be here.
SPEAKER_02: And you can um give a round of applause.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, so after Ian, hey, stand up, Ian, stand up, do it again, do it again, do it again, there we go.
SPEAKER_02: After our service, Ian and his wife, Kendall, are gonna be uh available here down front for you to meet them, and they'd love to meet you.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I I I'm just we're so excited to have him on staff as a staff and also as a church, man.
SPEAKER_02: Ian, good to have you here, brother.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so if if this is your church home and this is the day that you worship through giving, um, there are some boxes here in the back that you can do so.
SPEAKER_02: Now, we always want to let you know what's happening in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_02: So would you please point your attention to the screen?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: Singer-songwriter Ross King will be with us on August 7th for strings and stories.
SPEAKER_00: Mark your calendar and invite a friend.
SPEAKER_00: The table is tonight.
SPEAKER_00: The deadline for dinner and child care has passed, but all women are invited to join us for worship.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to seeing you then.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure and check out our website where you can find information about staff, upcoming events, what we believe, and resources from our church.
SPEAKER_00: Also, be sure to give us a follow and a like on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new or would like someone to pray for you, be sure to find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Would you stand and receive this blessing?
SPEAKER_01: Put your hands out for me.
SPEAKER_02: Children of God, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no heart of man has imagined, the things that are in store for you.
SPEAKER_02: Walk in that confidence that the best, the epic, is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Walk in that confidence that you're one church service closer to seeing him.
SPEAKER_02: I I I declare these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.