We live in a beautiful country not that I have visited the rest of the world outside the South Pacific but I understand that we live in one of the best spots on the globe.
Not being attached to a continent is a huge advantage that so many New Zealander’s forget about, thinking about it, we would probably not be so clean and green if we were just off the coast of a larger land mass. (Before this Power points 1-4 Scenic photos of New Zealand)
Even in our clean green state we as a nation we have managed to mess with the natural created order of things, the Huia, Laughing Owl and Main Land Tuatara will testify to that.
So you are probably wondering what the Green Party speech that I’m meandering along with is all about, well before we get onto Maurice Dancing and Mung Beans, let’s head back to the Bible.
In the last few weeks we have been looking at Paul’s letter to the Romans chapter eight and ‘what life in the Holy Spirit is about and how God travels with us on the journey.’
Three points have been discussed are,
• God works all things for our good as we take on the attributes of Jesus
• That we have life and peace through the Spirit of Christ as he lives in us
• We have an intimate relationship with God, that allows us to have a Father – child relationship with him
Paul in Romans 8:18-22 (read) alludes to the point that our being in relationship with God the Father as his children has something to do with the rest of creation; and that creation itself will share with us in the liberation from decay. That creation will be brought into the freedom that we have in Jesus as we are his fellow heirs and children of God.
If we wind back, way back, in the beginning God created, we are a Bible believing church and God created!
I like the second verse of Genesis that reads in part, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”. (Genesis 2:31) (Power point 5)
Scripture tells us he was there and then and experience tells us he is with us now, abiding in us, who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
When God had made everything including Mankind we read this “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” It was very good!
1) Today creation groans, why does it groan? Because we and our ancestors have made mistakes! Lets look at God’s original plan and what happened, when our first parents made that first mistake.
What was God’s original plan for the world; [Frames Prolouge2.4 - 6 of the Bibles Big Story our Story, Dr Harry Wendt, Crossways International: Minneapolis.] Frame 2.4; Shows Gods plan for creation and his plan for creation to remain “Very Good”
Frames Prologues through to 6; show what occurs with sin entering the lives of human beings, and that there is an on flowing effect on the rest of the earth and even beyond.
So our redemption from sin occurs as we accept Jesus sacrifice for us and his resurrection from the dead, as we confess our sins, as we come into relationship with the Holy Spirit, we are justified with God. No longer do we have to live as our fallen ancestors have, out of sorts with God and out of sorts with one another. This is a move towards Gods original plan for what creation was like. We are put right with God. Liberation from our fallen nature occurs as the Holy Spirit enters our lives. (SBI)
Let’s look verse by verse at Paul’s words, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
2) Paul is not saying, ‘get over it’ or ‘take a concrete pill and harden up.’ Paul here is saying no matter what you may be undergoing, what ever persecution, and the early church was persecuted some of them to death; or what ever else is going on in your lives these sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.
This is a man who understood suffering; remember the whippings, the stoning, the ship sinking, and the danger, always on the move, remember that thorn in his flesh he asked God to take away. Paul knew what it was like to suffer.
But this man had had a glimpse at the glory of God. He had met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus, the light from heaven had flashed around him.
His life was never the same his path changed from that of the Anti-Christian to the Christian, from the persecutor to the persecuted, from the wrong to the right relationship with the Heavenly Father; from being Anti-Jesus to being one of Jesus main spokesmen.
He was now living in the Spirit, he was now living with the Spirit of Christ in him, he understood his place in the God’s plan for creation, and he understood his place in eternity. He knew the liberation from his fallen nature that occurred as the Holy Spirit entered his life. (SBI)
For us, how does that relate? God the Father knows us intimately and we can know him intimately. The pains we suffer, the hurts, the failed exam, failed relationship, the illness, the restricted movement, the concerns you have over your children, relationship, and career path are all real, so real that they keep you awake at night or invade your thoughts before you get to sleep. God the Father knows he understands. But in comparison with the “glory that will be revealed in us”, there is no comparison.
We are co-heirs with Christ; we are sons and daughters of God!
And Creation itself is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed!
2) Paul says it this way in verse nineteen “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed”
Remember because of our first ancestor’s disobedience the ground was cursed, and it is only through our labour that we produce enough to eat. Part of the redeeming work of God includes the reversal of the curse! It should be remembered that God’s original plan never included sin entering the world.
Creation has been frustrated, because of the human race.
Again Paul says “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 glorious freedom of the children of God. “
As the children of God we have freedom, from what?
3) Freedom from the past that held us to generations of bondage, there are people who are bound in sin, carried along by circumstance, seeing their lives of decay as the norm, from day to day living - but not fully alive. Not knowing that the light shines - let alone that Jesus is that light.
Are these people the children of God? Are they? They can be, they are entitled hear the gospel; also they are entitled to heal. What would make them children of God and free from decay? Well we have learnt that Liberation from our fallen natures occurs as the Holy Spirit enters people’s lives. (SBI) How do they come to this knowledge?
How do the children of God get to hear about their Father?
For four weeks we have been looking at what life in the Holy Spirit is about how:
• God works all things for our good as we take on the attributes of Jesus
• That we have life and peace through the Spirit of Christ as he lives in us
• That we have an intimate relationship with God, that allows us to have a Father – child relationship with him
The message is clear, freedom from the fall comes when the Holy Spirit enters our lives; we have gained in part our inheritance as the children of God. We have the knowledge that liberation from our fallen nature occurs as the Holy Spirit enters our lives. (SBI)
There is a reason that this liberation is also called salvation, people are saved, saved for the present and saved for eternity, no longer having to live according to their old nature.
What about us and our liberation, do we grasp onto it keeping it to ourselves or do we share it with our neighbour, the class mate, work mate, our family, the bus driver, and the old friend, the business man, the person working behind the counter, the whosoever? (Power points 6-9 Slides of a house in neighbourhood, bus etc) God, wants that Father-Child relationship with all of humanity, the difference can only be made by those of us who know him. He no longer wants his creation bond up, frustrated by sin.
4) I don’t know how you see it; I see a lot of frustrated lives in our community. Lives that are only a shadow of what they could be, lives that remain in bondage, living as people who are a shadow of who they can be, in a what is a creation that is a shadow of what it was intended to be.
We sang earlier this verse from the song book: (SASB 298 vs 4)
“Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me. (William Booth)
As the children of God we have a role to play in removing the frustration and making the reality of God’s original plan plain to the rest of our fellow men and women, A FRESH START- A FREASH START!
There is a mass of people awaiting liberation; creation itself awaits liberation that liberation occurs as the Holy Spirit enters people’s lives.
You may have been challenged to talk with someone, about their part in God’s plan, met that challenge, and God will bless you as you share the news, it’s not just good news, it is very good news, and actually it is the best news. You may be wondering about your part in his plan, we have a place here where people meet God and experience the Power of the Holy Spirit in their lives as they come into relationship with Jesus.
Think about this what glory is to be revealed in the lives of these people, in you as you live life in the Power of the Holy Spirit?
Benediction:
We have been liberated,
We have been saved,
The Spirit of God hovered over the waters,
The spirit of God abides in our hearts,
Live in his Power - you are set free!
Free to worship the Father,Son and Spirit.
Live in his power, Amen.
If you have taken the time to read this please rate it. Ta Andrew.
