10/25/26 AM

We're continuing to work our way through Romans chapter 8 what I consider to be the greatest and really the most important chapter of the Bible, it's really a summary of all of scripture. It begins with that tremendous statement that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, and it continues 438 versus R39 versus ending with this promise that because there's no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, there is also nothing that can separate you and I from The Amazing Covenant Love of God. I think it's quite interesting here, and this tremendously triumphant chapter of the Bible, this, but this chapter that I'm texted gospel really, in such a unique way, that it stands out above all of the other chapters that it's been so much of its time. Talking about suffering. That's what we've been reading through here these last couple of weeks. But even though there's no condemnation even though you and I are held securely for all of eternity and the love of God and Father At this moment in this season as we're going to see here in the moment. Who were suffering in the Bible, doesn't sugarcoat this at all. Let's go ahead and read our passage here. This morning, we're going to start by reading the same words that we looked at last week. We talked about how last week verse 22. There is sort of a bridge verse from the one paragraph to the other. And so we're going to read that verse as well, all the way down to the end of verse 25. Starting at Verse 18 of Romans chapter 8, it's on page, 1757 near the bottom. Romans chapter 8, starting at Verse 18 here. Now, the word of the Lord I consider that our present sufferings, Are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in US. The creation waits in eager expectation. For the sons of God, to be revealed for the creation, was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in. Hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to Decay and run into the Glorious. Freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the Pains of childbirth, right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the ad, for our adoption as Sons for the Redemption of our bodies. For, in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen, is no hope at all who hopes for what he already has. But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently. I pray that God will open these words to our hearts and Minds Father in heaven. We thank you. That's the Bible, meets us where we are at. It meets Us in the midst of our suffering. And certainly father, there are various degrees of suffering. The lowest of which we have never come near to, we thank you for that. But yet every one here, and one way or another father is suffering,

We thank you that we don't need to ignore that. We thank you that we can lean into it in fact and we thank you that even in the midst of our suffering. We can do so in. Hope that's what we want to learn about here. This morning. Father that's where you were word brings us and we pray that as we go through these verses that you will open them up to our hearts and our minds that you will shine your light into our dark spaces and give us true. Hope all of this we pray now in Jesus name, amen. The really what we talked about last week and what we're going to continue talking about today is all one unit there. You can see it, which is all in one big paragraph. We split it up into two weeks because there's so much to talk about but let's just review what it is that we learned last week. Some of you were here, some of you were not and verses 18 through 22. We understood here that the Bible makes sense of suffering. It doesn't answer every question for us, it doesn't give us a response every time we ask God, why after something terrible has happened? Sometimes in our lifetimes, we can see how it is that God is using that for our good, another times. We can't we'll never understand here on Earth. Why something bad happened? Why it is that we suffered the way that we did, what the Bible says is it just gives us a framework by which we can understand it. It it, it helps us understand that the whole creation has been cursed because of our sins. But that there is redemption coming. That's the second thing that we learned that suffering is a seasonal disorder member, we looked at that word time and talked about how we could be understood, that more in the sense of a season. It's a, it's a moment in history that the suffering that has has Reign Over the earth and the end of this season is coming. Just like those noseeums will be gone soon. That's season is ending. So, too, will this season of suffering that we're going through now? Be brought to a close when Christ returns. That's what we're longing for we learned last week. This, good news. That not only us, God's children. Covenant children, but his entire creation, everything that God has made will be liberated from this suffering. This is what we are looking forward to It's okay to keep that in mind. Now, as we move on to these remaining chapter, these remaining verses, in the midst of this suffering, this suffering, that all of us here are experiencing to one degree or another. You must know I wrote that if I had to do the outline over again I would rephrase how that opening line goes and we'll see you here in a moment, why? But it's not something that you must do. This is the way that you really just are as a Christian, didn't think of it in those terms. This is what a Christian looks like here. That being described for us now and his subsequent versus I am, we're going to see two primary attributes, do primary attributes, and I'll tell you right now, that as we look at these two attributes this morning, you're not going to like either one of them but you're also going to realize as we go through them, this is really what it is. That defines life so often and that first one is simply groaning. We are people who grow verse 23, not only so we ourselves groan. I thought about that recently how often how much of your week is consumed with groaning? We don't think about it in those terms, do we? But where we're going to see here this morning it is that this attribute of groaning is one of the key Christian, descriptors of what it means to be a follower of Christ. We are people groan, I don't talk about this very often. This really isn't a popular topic, is it? Nobody wants to sit around talking about groaning Dewey? Because as we think of this word grown in it sound so pessimistic and dark and who wants to be with somebody who's continually groaning? Can't we talk about something like oh or Rejoice or something? That seemed to lift our Spirits a little bit more. What I want you to do right now is put that idea out or mind. This is so see a shin that you naturally have between groaning and pessimism. Yeah, I understand why you associate those two. Things that makes sense. Because when we think about our kids, groaning all the time, it's just his complaint. It's it's it's been demanding of us. The way that the Israelites, we saw a moment ago, demanding of the Lord. That's what we think of when we think of groaning against clear that slate as best as you can. We're going to come to understand grown really if you want to live in in the Peace of Jesus Christ. That's that's been promised to us. This is one of the things that you have to be doing and we're not doing it enough, we have to be groaning more. What is this word grown mean again? It's not one that we use all the time. It simply means that you live in this state of chronic discomfort. That doesn't sound very good. I would rather live in Comfort, not discomfort know, you live in a state of chronic discomfort. Because you understand what? We talked about last week. This world is not the way that it's supposed to be that. It's cursed and wracked with a, the effects of our sense. All around us. We can't escape it, and it has a Christian. You need to be really, really uncomfortable with that. Another way to think of it is not just chronic discomfort, but I want you to think of this groaning as a holy angst, just a feeling that has to be done with soon. I hope it's tomorrow afternoon at the Lord returned and picks us up out of this life of suffering that we have passed ourselves into by our sin. This is so important for us to get used to because week after week here, we we remind ourselves that has God's people. We need to be content with that which he has given to us, right? Certainly, we're not going to back away from that at all, but we also talked about the need for tension, in our lives. That's where scripture brings us over and over this idea of 10 sedraty tension and integrity together that when you're being pulled in two different directions, your strong write it just like what a rope is, it just a flimsy rope if it just laying here on the table. And if I pull it on both ends, that wrote becomes quite strong and and and just like in a suspension bridge, you can actually hold up tremendous amount of weight when it's pulled in tension. So, here's our attention. On the one hand, you're called to be a people contented with what you have. Find happiness in your toil Cadets. This is what we talked about the other night, isn't it? In Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 that you can find bits of enjoyment? No matter what, your lot in life is, find those bits of enjoyment and live into it. There's nothing wrong with that kid. That's on the one hand, be content. On the other hand, you're pulling you in the exact opposite direction. Is this? Need to grow? His need to realize that no matter how good you have it. No matter how much enjoyment you do currently get from this world. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not what it's supposed to be. It should be better and we long for Christ to return. You see, how you're being pulled in two different directions there? But that's holding you steady, isn't it as you? Don't let go of either side of that. The real way to spend our time here. This morning, looking at a bunch of adverbs, you noticed that in the notes. They're all of the subsequent words end and the suffix ly that makes it into an adverb, doesn't it? An adverb is something that modifies the verb, how is it? Then that we're two grown. First of all, were to groan inwardly. Edward Lee. Not most of us, here are really good at groaning out for the, aren't we? We're really good about complaining about this or that whatever circumstance, we happened to be in. We're good about complaining about our politicians for good about complaining, about our baseball team, which is once again not in the World Series. We're good at complaining about the Vikings. We complain all the time don't win. We complain to one another. All of, you know, somebody who complains a little bit too much and if you don't know somebody who complains a little bit too much, you're probably the one complaining too much. This is just something that's hardwired into us because of sin, isn't it to outwardly grown. So that everybody around us can hear it and hear about how unhappy we are with a particular situation. That's not what we're being called to this morning. Quite the opposite, your cold to groan inwardly What does that mean? It stems from a mindset. Remember, we talked about that word, mine said it's been several weeks ago, now you're mine said, is just sort of this governing agent and your brain is controlling all of your thoughts and your feelings. And your desires, your mindset is sort of the one who makes the final decision. And we were told not to have a mindset based in the things of this world are flash, but rather to have a mindset of the spirit, the whole different way of thinking. Hayden. So if you want to groan inwardly, that's where it has to begin by repenting. That's what the word. Repent means to think differently to have this mindset of the spirit. And in the more you have this mindset of the spirits, the more you just naturally grow into what is good and perfect and pleasing, that's how the biblical pattern goes. The more, we set our thoughts on things above, we're going to talk about that tonight, the more those things are actualized in our life, right? That makes sense. But see here's the thing. As you grow in sanctification, that's what we call that as your theology develops, that your ability to see everything else is going on in the world, through the lens of scripture, as these things grow and develop, you're going to begin to notice all the more that this world is not what it supposed to be. You see the Paradox? There, there's tension here again, isn't there? The more you grow into Christ. The more you experience, his spirit in your life, the more you are blessed with his wisdom and knowledge and contentment in all of these other good things that come from Christ. The more you're going to look around you and just grown as hell broken, this world actually is

Here's cell Paul. Put it in another book in 2nd Corinthians, same author, different book. He talking about how it is that that we're living in this Earthly body. When she calls at 10 to start up working on a metaphor here, this is as we live in this Earthly tent. Meanwhile, We Grown login to be clothes, instead with our Heavenly dwelling longing for things to be the way that they're supposed to be there. While we're in this tent. We grown and our burden. This is something that all of us can identify with, right. All of you, if we passed around a sheet of paper right now and you had to write down what it is that you were burdened with this past week, or maybe what it is that you're going to be burdened with us a week, gets going once again. Tomorrow, you could write something down. All of us have something that we could write down. Some of those lists would be longer than others, but all of us are groaning. Over some sort of Burden, look up Paul puts this here, Paul's not burdened, by the things of this world is not burdened by what he has to do the next day or by how it is that somebody had betrayed him in the past. What he's burdened by is this desire to not be unclosed but to be clothes instead with our Heavenly dwelling so that would his mortal may be swallowed up by life. You see this attitude shift for Paul not worried about how things are going here. That's not burdening him as difficult as what it is for him, as he writes this letter, chained to a wall, Play. His burden is what his groaning is. Is the desire to be clothed. In his Heavenly dwelling, is it complete mindset shift, doesn't it? Don't ask yourself just this past week, just the last few days. How much energy, how much energy did you waste groaning about the wrong things being burdened by the things of this world? Rather than loaning for, what is the come when Christ return? If y'all just doing that, just just shifting what it is, that your groaning about changes so much. So learn to groan inwardly, it's a, it's a mindset shift, it's an attitude shift. Secondly, grown. Hopefully, he hears our theme for the day, isn't it? We've been talking about Hope and just about every passage and every song that we've sung together grown, hopefully, fascinating words. This is for, in this hope we were saved. It's a fascinating word, just just in and of itself because it's one of these words that can be used in, every grammatical sense. Is it's a verb, isn't it? You can hope that's an action that you can take. It's an adverb as it is here. It modifies. How it is? That? We grown, We Grown. Hopefully, it's an adjective. That person is very hopeful. But what I want you to come to think of it primarily as here, this morning is a way that is presented to us. In this passage as a noun as a thing. Hope here is something that objective. That means it can be described for what it is and its particular hope is different than anything else. In this entire world. That's what we want to focus on. This is what it means to be hopeful hope is not just an emotion that optimistic people have I'm not a really good friend of mine who serves on a denominational committee with me. And I tend to be overly optimistic about how something's going to work out. Let's just do it. This is a good idea. Let's get it done. He on the other hand, has some wise pessimism in him and he can slow me down and ask some questions that need to be asked prior to us just delving into it. It came up with you, you know, somebody who's just an empty Optimist shallow Optimist, a just think that somehow everything is going to work out and everything is going to be okay? They have no rationale for that attitude. They have no reason that they should be optimistic or hopeful about the future, they just are. That's not what we're talking about here. This empty optimism hope. Here is not an emotion. It's a noun is a thing. It's up, Jeff. David something that we can Define It's a condition to be in. Look at how Paul put that there in verse 24 in hope that you are saying. It's not that you're hopeful as you're saved, you are saved in hope in a particular thing.

It doesn't matter how you feel here this morning. Maybe you came in and you're a little bit more in the pessimistic side of the dial. You're, you're angry, and sad all the time, your despairing of all of the problems in the world and are plenty of problems to despair over, aren't they? And you're just passing Mystic miserable all the time. Or you're on the other end of the spectrum, your ear, happy and contented and overly optimistic for really, no particular reason. Wherever it is that you happen to land this morning. However, it is that you feel this morning. None of that matters. Take those feelings, whether they're optimistic or pessimistic, take those feelings and put them in this hope in this. Hope Paul says, what does he mean by that? He's talking about overall subject, care of these verses that were looking at this hope this certain knowledge that creation itself will be liberated from his bondage to Decay. Now, that is that's optimism, isn't it? That that's not just something that we hope maybe if everything works out the way that we would like it too. And that. Creational be liberated. No, this is a certain hope, isn't it? This is secure. This is what we put our hope in. This is what we are. Absolutely certain of that creation will be liberated from the bondage of Decay that causes so much suffering. But she has not yet seen is it? We know this is going to happen because crisis promise, it's going to happen and he always keeps his promises but hope that is seen Let's not hope it all after all who hopes for what he already has rights. So it's because hope is pointing us towards the future in an optimistic way because of who and what Jesus Christ is and what he has already done But it's not yet there that's that same tension again that we talked about last week that already not yet. Already Christ has paid for our sins and his death. He has risen from the grave declaring victory over sin and death. And he has ascended to the right hand of God the father from, which he ruled through his church. All things incredible. Isn't it? That's already happened and nothing can change that. It's already happened but we have not yet, we've not yet. Seeing the effect of this victory in all of creation, we're waiting for that. We know it's going to happen and we have hope it's future bass, doesn't it? I just hope that this anticipation of the future is how we already read this verse today, didn't we? This was this was our Assurance of Pardon that we have this hope as what an anchor for our soul. I hope is. Yes it is. It's a future condition that we haven't arrived at yet but it's his future condition. That is so absolutely certain you can see through your entire life to it and it's not moving. That's how certain we are of this. That's how hopeful we are. This is what it means to ground, spew. See how grown in here is not pessimistic at all grown in here is something that we do and worldly, because of the hole that we have in Jesus, Christ's we just are ready to burst because this world is so broken. And when we want all things to be made new, we're hopefully waiting for that to happen. We groan inwardly We Grown. Hopefully we grow grown expectantly creation. A metaphor that Paul gives us here, isn't it? The whole creation has been groaning. They were not the only ones that grown here just like we will be liberated. All of creation will be liberated. Just like creation is groaning. We are grown in. As in the Pains of childbirth, right up to the present time. But clearly here, this is not something I can identify with nor any other guy here in this room. We don't know what it's like to experience the pain of childbirth, but that's not really Paul's point there to talk about just how sharp and awful. Those pains are, what is what he's trying to set up here. Is this idea that as those pains of childbirth are being experienced, they're being experienced in Ho, aren't they? Because of what is going to result in New Life. It is. It's a pain with a purpose, isn't it? In any mother, he will be able to tell you about that in ways, that, that I can't even begin to describe the true pain. But his pain with a purpose of a new life, that it will be delivering, that's the kind of grown in that you and I need to do as well. This expectant grown, what are we anticipating? What are we in a sense? Waiting to have waiting to be born here. What right? What is it? That is our object that we're looking forward to. Well it's it's already. And his son. Not only so, but we ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly expectantly for our adoption as Sons. Is it hey wait a second and I still have my Bible, open its him back and what we've already read their inverse 15. It says that we have already been adopted as sons of the most high that is those who have been given all of the legal rights and identity of God our Father this is what it means to be adopted as his son and that has already taken place that's on the already Side Of The Ledger not on the not yet Side Of The Ledger and that's true. But yet we anticipate its fullness, don't we? Here's how you can think about that. I think back in history went orphanage is worth or a more common a reality for it for children without parents and think of think of a young boy who had been in that orphanage far too long. All of the other kids, one by one or adopted in the new kids come in now. But yet this boy never gets adopted. Finally, he gets word finally, get he gets word that that he has been adopted. However, there in the country in this orphanage and the paperwork for this adoption needs to take place in the big city. A long ways away. Do you see how both of these things are true? Know his adoption is made certain the moment. Those documents in the big city or sign but yet he is way out there in the country and it takes time for his new parents to get from the city to where he's at. Do you suppose? This boy has been in this orphanage. So long, who could talk about suffering in the way that most of us here couldn't even begin to imagine you suppose, he would be groaning and worldly at this point, you suppose he would be groaning. Hopefully, and it definitely has he looks forward to his brand new parents coming. His parents who are now legally, his parents coming to pick him up. That's the image that Paul is putting forth for us. Here, you have been legally adopted by God, your father. That's an amazing thing. We've talked about that and now we anticipate in him coming to pick us up, pick up with that, boy would do, I think about how he'd want to learn some more about these new parents, that he has, the question that he would have about them that he wants to come to understand, think of how he would share with the other kids in the orphanage, just his Joy at being a by these new. Parents, and even boast about it, wouldn't eat in the Bible calls you and I to boast in this, in this sense as well. Boasting in ourselves, that's sinful boasting in our adoption. By God, that is demanded two different kinds of boasting, speak about how he would be looking at the window of this orphanage. Looking at the country road, is it stretched off in the distance? Just waiting for a glimpse of this car coming over the horizon to pick him up. That's the type of groaning that you and I are being called to here. Waiting for our adoption fee, is to be made complete its official, but it's not complete that I have to call you too, grown. As you wait for it. We're waiting for our adoption, but that's not it. That's not all there's more. We're also waiting for the Redemption of our bodies. Are you have been set free? From the slavery to send you no longer a slave to sin if you are in Christ. Yes, we fall back into sin and the Lord picks us up back out of our misery as we confess it to him, but you're no longer a slave to sin, you don't need to listen to it. But yet. You still experience sickness. You still prone to injury? He is still suffering the effects of aging and me and many of you even as you sit here this morning or being reminded of the back pain and nerve pain that you deal with on a regular basis. Your body is not the way it's supposed to be. By any stretch is that none of us are the way that were supposed to be in a physical sense? We've already been spiritually redeemed, but we grown for the day, when we are also physically redeemed, when our bodies are made new The Bible tells us that for those who were alive when Christ returns, this is going to happen in the in the twinkle of an eye instantly, your bodies will be made new and perfect and whole what an experience that will be for those who remain for those who have Paul puts it have fallen asleep in Christ. Then they are going to be called up out of the grave and their bodies are going to be transformed in an instant as well from dead and decaying to alive and healthy and exactly the way that they're supposed to be. And were groaning for this data happened with. Crony expectantly for it, until all things are made new.

Then we grown confidently as well. if you're not growing alone, You're not groaning in your own strength and you're not just groaning with a community around you of other people who are grown, and that's important. But it's not all that we have as we grown together know. We also have the first fruits of the spirit to not only sell but we ourselves to have the first fruits of the spirit. We are grown in in Ridley, even though we have the first fruits of the spirit What is that mean? First fruit is a word that that we don't use on a regular basis either much very often there. But the Jewish people that Paul wrote this to, they would have picked up on this right off the bat. This was their offering of Thanksgiving to literally the first fruit or grain that they would harvest in a given year and they would bring it to the Lord, but it wasn't necessarily an offering of Thanksgiving. Let's see how this works. We'll turn back to the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 3. Honor the Lord with your well, with the first fruits of your crop. Of course, we understand that this is much more than just an agricultural metaphor. This is applicable to all of us. Honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of your crop. Why? Then then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your Vats will bring them over with new y. Ellis, be careful with this is not a get-rich-quick scheme here, just like with all of the problems at speaking generally. Not universally, that doesn't mean that if you give the first thing that you earn to the Lord, you're going to get a return on it much more than what any other investment would give to you. That's not the point, the point here isn't, as you are bringing his first fruit to the Lord. You're bringing it to him as a deposit, you're bringing it to him and trust that he will supply your needs for the entire season and think about what it takes to do that. You know, we coming to harvest time now and we still can go down to the grocery store and it's just as full as what it ever is right. But but put yourself more in this context here. We're by the time you get to harvest the cupboard, empty, there's nothing left from the year before and you desperately desperately need this crap that's coming in and you're to take the first fruits which you so badly need and give it to the Lord because you know, that he will return upon that and be faithful to you. That's the idea that's going on here. So, what's going on when Paul calls the holy spirit's a first fruit, this is not an offering that you and I make to God, this is God giving his first fruits to us but can help Paul put sitting here again and 2nd Corinthians. It's God who makes both of us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us. Tennessee, Livonia ship on us and put his spirit in our heart as a deposit. You see the financial terms that are being used here. He put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit barrentine, another Financial term guaranteeing. What is to come

You've been given this Holy Spirit and it's just the first fruits. There's something so much better than coming behind it. It's God's deposit upon your heart's. Giving you an absolute confidence. As you groan inwardly, that something better is coming. How is it then that this Spirit helps us through? How is it that he gives us confidence? Jesus tells us about this and John 14, John, 14, and 15. If you really want to know about the Holy Spirit, those are the two chapters to go to John 14 and 15. Jesus says, all I have spoken all this. I have spoken well still with you but the advocate the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name. Jesus says will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you, you seen a how it is that the holy spirit gives you? This confidence is not just a warm feeling. Is that you? From time to time because the Holy Spirit has been given to you as a deposit. Although that does happen. It is the continual amplification of all of these words. All of these words. Not just the words in the gospels like this. One in John, 14. That are the words of Christ. All of them are the words of Christ and as you read them and study them and absorb them, the holy spirit is teaching you all. Thanks and reminding you that you can grown confident as you await price return. We groan inwardly. Hopefully expectantly we grown confidently. And then we also wait. That's not something that we really like either is it, is anybody here like to wait? Is anybody here want to lift one of their favorite places in the world? As a waiting room? No, of course not. Where did the ironic thing is? Is this is what we do with Christians as we wait, If you don't like the way that we wait here on Earth, that's that means that we got to wait. Differently here in our spiritual lives. How do we wait? Well, we groan inwardly as we wait and if we hope for what we do not yet have what we're waiting for it. How do we wait for it to get more advert? We wait patiently. Wait patiently. It doesn't hear this doesn't hear mean that. We're just sitting back not complaining about the situation that we have in life are not groaning about that, we're just going to resign and Lee, take everything that comes our way. That's what it means to wait. Patiently. That's not at all with being described here for us. It is literally if we're to translate that word patiently it. So it's a different, it's a different Greek word that lies behind their than what's normally translated into the word patiently. It it really means her to steadfast lirum. Ain't what I want you to thank all of. You have had to dig a rock out of a field at one point in time. Some of you more than others and think about the biggest rock that you've had to get out of your field 10. Maybe it was a rock, so big that you did not have the equipment to make that thing Bhajan. Ultimately, you're just going to have to farm around it. That's something that's steadfast. Moving is it? That's why we just sang. That Christ is the rock upon which we stand. It does unmovable Rock. That's the way that were to wait, then, fastly resolved, and God words, that's what it means to wait, patiently. We're going to be singing some hunt 130 in just a moment. I am verse 5, goes this way. I wait for the Lord, my whole being wait till you see how you're invested in this completely. As you're waiting for Christ to return or to call you home. And it's in his word. I put my hope. That rock doesn't move simply because of its heft and its size and it's so heavy that we don't have a machine to move it. You have something even heavier. Even sturdier, even more unmovable. You have the word of an unchanging God that you stand upon Christ is The Rock in whom we hope we wait patiently because of that. Finally, then we wait eagerly await merely. Is that what yearly here? We see it. At the end of verse 23, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly, it shows up three times in our in our passage. You don't see it as such because they properly translated into other words and, and some slightly different contexts there, but it, but it keeps showing up. This is something that's right up there along that the two adverbs I want you to just hang on to more than the rest. Hopefully and eagerly. Okay, hopefully a niggly. This one is so important. It's his anticipation that we have or what We ought to have for Christ returning. What is it that you were anticipating? You looking forward to this week or in the remainder of this year or next year. What's your goals for the next decade? Those are all important. Those are good things to have but over and above all of that needs to be your eager anticipation, waiting for the Lord to return. How many if you woke up this past week into the Lord? Is today the day that you returned? I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and I'm so eager for it to happen. Will you come back today? Do you see how this is a mindset shift? We still going to go through our days. We're still going to plan for the future. We're still going to glorify God in the work that we do. All of that remains truth, but we're waiting eagerly for the Lord to return. Make all things new. More tension here. John Stott helps us to understand the tension that we need to hold. As we wait, we are to wait, neither. So eagerly that we lose our patience are. You can see how that would happen that you begin to demand as you pray to the Lord to return every day that you demand. That he comes back and makes all things new. Now, that's, that's too far. That's way too eager, to temper, your eagerness with patients, temper, your patience with expectation. Don't be so content. This is our biggest problem here, we have life, so good. David that we can wait patiently uncomfortably and we completely lose any sense of expectation. Any desire for the Lord to return? That's not healthy. Either don't do that, either way. It's so eagerly that you lose your patience or so patiently that you lose your expectations but wait, eagerly and patiently together is that easy to do know? Very, very hard. You can see, even in the way that he phrased, it that very hard to do, it takes every ounce of energy, you have to do this, doesn't it this hard work that we're being called to.

Plies. We As we wrap this up today, understand you that Romans 8, what we just read. This is not a command for you to grown and wait. That's why. I wish I would have rephrase that the way it's on the outline. It's this is not something that we must do. This is something groaning and waiting. That characterizes us as Christian, if you are in Christ, you will be groaning. In the sense that we just talked about it, you will be waiting. So then here's the big question. if you are not doing these things, if your life is not right now, described as somebody, who's groaning and waiting and eager expectation for the Lord to return. Why not? Why not you're in Christ. This is what people who are in Christ ought to look like. This is what you need to be thinking deeply about this week. What distracting you in this world. What good thing is it that we have that's pulling our attention away from from eagerly hoping and waiting for the Lord to make all of his promises. Yes. And amen. And I'll be thinking about that this week as you go through your other activities that the Lord has called you to I thank God for his word Father in heaven.

We're still mired in in our own sinful flesh, and our own sinful thinking that we look at words like groaning and waiting and we're almost repulsed by them. But yet father you have unpacked them in such a way for us that we can see now through the power of your holy spirit that this is the only way for us to truly live into the piece that we have with you through Jesus Christ, help us to be better at this father, help us to clear away. All of our distractions in this world that we might properly grown and weighed longing for Christ's return longing, for our adoption to be made, complete long and for our bodies, and all of creation to be redeemed and made new How do we pray that you would come back soon? Opus the eagerly anticipated. All of this. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.