Gods Greatest Promise
Notes
Transcript
Without a doubt it has been a difficult week! This week we have heard that thousands have died because of a pandemic that seems to have overtaken every country in the world. And while we hear sad news from lands we have also been warned of local cases and cautioned and then commanded to stay at home to reduce risk for ourselves and our community! These are hard and uncertain times.
I think the hardest part of these hard times is the realization that this is only the beginning! And we will have not days but weeks and months of waiting ahead of us. Our lives have changed, our jobs have changes, our means of support are challenged. It is enough to make one cry, or groan.
And that is a good place to be for this week’s word from God. To cry out or to groan in frustration and in pain is not a bad thing!
It reveals a desire, even a hope for something more. But as we groan, and moan and maybe even complain a little. lets find out what scripture says is truly worth groaning about.
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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children 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 brought into the freedom and glory 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, 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 they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Paul begins this section by referring back to the sufferings that we must endure. Sufferings that are worth enduring. Now there are several types of suffering that he is referring to.
The first is the suffering that comes in the battle with sin. Remember from Romans 5 onward Paul has been speaking to the Christian who lives in conflict with sin. He describes it as a struggle between our old death flesh and the newly justified, and adopted child of God. Sin is still rearing its ugly head and on our own strength we cannot defeat it.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
But last week we saw that the solution to the struggle is to once again turn to God. We could not save ourselves and we can not sanctify ourselves but we can defeat sin by living in daily communion with the Holy Spirit. He gives us the power to do what we can not do our our own. To defeat sin and to become ever more reliant on the love and power of God.
So that suffering is in part the hard work of sanctification.. Becoming like jesus. It is also suffering to bring glory to Jesus. As Jesus Suffered on our behalf so we should expect to suffer and to sacrifice for his glory and for the benefit our our fellow men and women.
But that suffering is nothing compared to the beauty to Come. And we are not Suffering alone!
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children 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 brought into the freedom and glory 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.
This is Incredible! What Paul is saying here is that world around us, nature itself is under a curse because of Adam’s sin. And it is groaning as though it was in labor.. as it waits for God’s plan to be Complete.
Now I want you to think about creation as we know it and enjoy it around us. It is beautiful, it is majestic, it is also deadly and harsh. Most of our labor is to protect ourselves from the wildness of the world around us. Not to mention the way that nature continues to strive against us with even microscopic warfare against our cells and community's. And humanity has fought back- destroying ecosystems, wiping out species and generally making things bad for nature and worse for us! This is how it is… But it is not how it Should be!!
Even Creation groans under the weight of human sin and the wrath of God. But groan declares that this is a temporary situation! It will not be forever.
And it is not alone: As Paul says
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, 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 they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
We too groan with anticipation of God’s promises being fulfilled. If you are a christian than you have received the promise that you are part of God’s kingdom. That he is making all things new and that we are part of that New Creation. But we have only begun to receive that great promise. We have the Holy Spirit who proves to us that God’s word is good. and that heaven will come to earth and sin will be no more. but we only have the deposit now.. It is enough.. but the wait is long- And there is some groaning involved. Some suffering and a great deal of longing for that great and wonderful day!
So we wait with patience.. in the midst of that suffering we will not despair. Because we can Trust God even in the midst of this crisis.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
But our waiting is not passive.. even now even in the midst of a country wide lockdown as the world trembles in fear and the stock markets quake and shake.
We are given guidance to be part of the coming kingdom.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
Here the Holy Spirit joins us in our weakness. our confusion our fear and our doubt.. And he teaches us to pray.. Not according to our desires- or our hopes.. but according to the will of God.
What Paul is saying here is that when we pray according to the word of god and the will of God we are participating in a divine Conversation. The holy Spirit teaching us how to come to God the Father with boldness and how to address him with confidence and then the spirit teaches us how to pray for our broken world. To weep for our loved ones that don’t know Jesus and to groan for the poor, the widow the orphan and the slave that is consumed by greed, hate and lust of evil men and women.
Ultimately the spirit prays through us God’s plan for the world.. the beauty of the coming kingdom and the redemption of the lost. We don’t just receive God’s kingdom when it comes.. We are called to pray it into being, and suffer and serve anticipating that day that we and creation are both made new!
As I close I have once question I want to ask you.
Do you allow yourself to long for the kingdom, to groan in frusteration at our current condition.
I think it is very easy to distract ourselves out of this kind of existential discomfort. To let the busyness of life, the drama of the news or the seducing hmm of continual entertainment distract us from the realization that all is not as it should be!
In the coming week as we are forced to slow down and be still. I want to invite you to take some time to reflect on the brokenness that is our world.. but not to let yourself be consumed with worry about it. instead let your self see these things as merely birthing pains.. part of God’t great process of redemption. Then think about how beautiful that day will be. And then after you are HUNGRY for that day of redemption.. Then begin to pray. Pray as the Holy Spirit leads, and rest in the knowledge that What God has started God will finish. ...
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.