Words of Advice
Notes
Transcript
Show Kia Comercial
Really powerful comercial right?
Some of you may have remembered seeing that commercial in the superbowl this past year
And it features Josh Jacobs from the Oakland raiders.
And as I am sure you can tell Josh had a really tough childhood.
He grew up homeless, He probably did not have access to food regualerly and really He constantly faced challenges throughout his childhood.
And what I love about this commercial is that its
Josh Jacobs talking to himself as a kid and he gives him this advice.
He says look there are going to be rough times, but throughout it he starts to give himself advice saying push through it, keep fighting, because things will get better.
It might not seem like, but they will
And today we are in Romans 8:18-28 and essentially Paul is doing something that is similar to what Josh Jacobs is doing in this commercial.
Because Paul is talking to a church and he realizes the Christians in this church are in a tough place.
There is persecution, some of them are loosing everything to follow Christ, others have lost loved ones, and some just have the hurt that comes with life
And Paul takes a very important moment in this letter to address what happening.
And in the place we are today he starts by talking about the pain they face, but then he talks about this future hope that they have, and then finally he mentions this is what I want you to know and do until you get to this place.
And even though this letter was written for a specific church, it was also written for us today.
Because Paul knows there are things in our life that cause pain, but he also knows we have the same hope that this church had and their are things he wants us to know until we get to see that hope for ourselves.
So once again we are in Romans 8:18-28 and we will just be starting at the first part of verse 18 and I know I have been stopping a lot in the middle of verses recently but its because the book of Romans goes so deep
And there is so much their that I want to make sure I cover it before moving on.
So starting in verse 18 it says:
Romans 8:18 (ESV)
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
Pause here. Because I am about to blow your mind with this, but did you know there are things in our life that cause pain and suffering?
You probably did not need to come to church for that?
Because if you look at our lives there are things that just seem to hurt us.
There are small things:
We lock our keys in the car, we loose something, we get in trouble at work.
But then there are big things:
We loose a loved one
Our kids hurt us
We get into a car accident and our life in changed
We mess up big time and have to face the consequences.
We loose our job
Our marriage is a mess
And weather its a big or small thing it starts to pile up and before you know it you are paralyzed.
And we ask God how can I go on from this?
And look at these next four verses 18-22 because it says:
Romans 8:19–22 (ESV)
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 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. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Basically it is saying the reason we experience this pain is because of us living in a world that is fallen and has sin in it.
And Paul is saying you are not the only one going through this pain and suffering,
In fact he says all of creation has been groaning together since we were created
As soon as you are born you feel the effects of sin.
I mean if you have ever been there when a child is born, the kid typically does not come out smiling and happy,
They are crying right?
They just entered the world and its not fun
And because we are stuck with the effects of sin in this world in verse 19 it says that creation is longing for the day when God fixes it.
that word longing is power because in the Bible’s original language it is saying that we are straining our necks to look and get a glimpse of that hope.
Because even though Christ died for us and we are free from sin we still live with it in our world, which is why we still have death and pain.
But Paul gives us this hope because he says yes there is pain, there is hurt, there is sorrow, but this is temporary.
Look at the second half of verse one because it says:
Romans 8:18 (ESV)
Future Glory
18 ...the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Basically while there is pain, it is nothing compared to the future glory that we have.
And this might be something I do not discus enough, but there is a day coming where their will be no more pain, no more suffering, all will be made right, and we will literally stand in the presence of God in heaven with the rest of creation that has longed to see God.
And can I just say that will be amazing.
Because in heaven there will be no effect of sin and it will be exactly how God created it to be.
And this is saying the pain we feel now it won’t even be a little splinter compared to what is coming
I mean that is something to look forward too.
But the issue is we aren’t there yet. So what do we until that day? What should we know? What should we do?
Look what it says in verse 23 because Paul tells us something that is a game changer it says:
Romans 8:23 (ESV)
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
What Paul is saying here is that if you are a Christian you already are experiencing a small part of heaven now.
Its almost like when Arika and I were wedding planning, one of the only times I really helped out a ton was when we were looking for a wedding cake
And I got to try small slices of wedding cake from different bakeries(it was great)
And I remember when we found the place we went with, their cake was amazing.
and I remember I tried it and was thinking could I have some more of this? Because it was good, but I had to wait for our actual wedding day.
But you know Paul is saying when you accept Christ you get a taste of heaven because God’s spirt is living in you.
and now we get the first fruits where we can give a lot of the burdens we have been carrying to God and He begins to direct us to live a life for Him.
And some of us might be here going thats great, but I am a Christian and my life is still rocky, there are still things that I feel paralyzed by
Look at verses 26-27 because it says this:
Romans 8:26–27 (ESV)
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
I want you to think about these two verse because its continuing saying that we have times where we are weak. We have been beat up, beat down and we are saying I can’t go on.
Have you ever been at a place like that?
this verse says where we get to a place where we do not even know what to pray for because we are that week?
Where your prayer might just sound like a scream.
But can I just point out God not only makes sense of the scream but it says that His spirit picks us up in our weakness and is literly praying for us when we can’t find the words
You know whenever we go the beach with Liam he is such a wild kid. He is just running around in the sand, if he finds a mound he tries to climb it,
But by the end of our time at the beach Liam usually starts getting really worn out,
and he gets to the point where he tries to stand in the sand and just rolls over
And he is covered in sand, and he can’t walk very well and he is just kind of grumpy.
But when that happens what I end up doing is I grab Liam, get him out of the sand and rinse him off.
And then he sleeps all the way home.
But you know thats what God does with us. We might be to exhausted to go on, but God grabs us, cleans us up and we have rest in Him.
Praise God.
And it doesn’t just stop there but this last verse really is powerful and we have talked about this a little a couple weeks ago but look at verse 28. It says:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God is going to use the things you are going through now, to shape your future.
And this is beautiful, because right now we might just feel beat, but right now the very thing in our life that the enemy intended for evil, God is going to use for good.
This morning I know there are some of us who might feel beat down, and this might not sound very pratical for you, but the implication are huge.
Because even though you are beat down, you have a future hope that you can experiance now, but you also have a God who is praying for you when you don’t have the words, and the things that the enemy is intending for evil, God is going to use for His good.
Will you pray with me?