Longing for Something Better
Romans 8:18-28 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 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. 27 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. 28 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.
Intro: You might be familiar with the picture of the ‘praying hands’ [Show on screen]. I’d like to share a story that goes along with them. I don’t know that it’s a true story, but please listen for its meaning.
-The praying hands: Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table, the father, who was a goldsmith by profession, had to work almost eighteen hours a day and he took on any other paying work he could find in the neighborhood.
-Despite the families’ poverty, two of the children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
-And so after many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a plan. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, and with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother had completed his studies, in four years, he would return and support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, by also going down the mines.
-So they tossed a coin and Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg while his brother Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. They say that Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, his oil paintings were far better than even those of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was earning considerable money from selling his work.
-And when this young artist returned to home, the Durer family held a festive dinner to celebrate. After the meal, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled him to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, "And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you."
-All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, there were tears streaming down his face. He rose to his feet and walked over to his brother and he said, "No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look ... what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, let alone hold a paintbrush with which to paint. No, brother ... for me it is too late."
-Over 500 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s has hundreds of works of art hanging in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of his works.
-One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had suffered, Albrecht drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. A picture which has become known all around the world as "The Praying Hands."
-Again, this story may be more myth than historical reality, but it does bring us to the topic of suffering. Our suffering often brings us to cry out a prayer, a plea for help. We groan and a cry goes out to the heavenly realms which God does not ignore. When God called out to Moses from the burning bush he said, ‘The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you, to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt’.
-God says, ‘I have seen their pain, I have seen their turmoil, and I have seen their suffering. Their cries of desperation have reached my ears and now I am going to respond’. Please know that when our suffering life connects with our prayer life – it sends a cry out to the heavenly realms which God hears. Let’s look at some thoughts about suffering and see if we can gain some insight on where it fits in to our temporary lives on this earth.
1. Suffering is a normal part of the Christian life
-Suffering is a fact of the Christian life. You know, all too often we are taught that if we become Christians everything will be peachy and all our troubles will simply go away. We sing songs of faith and victory, but if we’re honest about it, sometimes there remains a large gap between the victory song and our reality.
-Jesus said to His disciples: “In this world you will have trouble.” You will have to suffer, not only the same things that unbelievers have to suffer. But sometimes you’ll also have to suffer at the hands of unbelievers who will persecute for my sake. Peter writes to Christians who were being persecuted because they believed in Jesus. He writes to them: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
-Jesus said, ‘Take up your cross daily, and follow me’ – and you know that the way of the cross is the way of suffering. Suffering is a fact of the Christian life. Most of the Psalms were birthed in times of hardship. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. Christians suffer in many ways. Now if we are honest many of our troubles we bring on ourselves. We are simply facing the consequences of wrong choices we’ve made. But often we suffer because we live in an evil world. We get caught up in injustice, and illness, and bereavement. We suffer because people do evil things that hurt other people. And we may suffer for our faith. Christianity is costly. Siding with Jesus will cost you something. If you are true to your faith… if you are true to your calling… If you stand up for truth and justice and are living the gospel life that we are called to lead – you will suffer.
-But like the victory songs we sing, many books and sermons are devoted to declaring that Christians should be victorious, Christians are conquerors, Christians should live triumphant lives in all circumstances. But for the vast majority of Christians that’s not true, that’s not how life is. Most of the time they feel anything but triumphant! Attacked, beaten, defeated, perhaps – triumphant – No! We love to hear the idea that we can overcome suffering. But you know the truth is that we have a Savior who was ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’. We are told that Jesus offered up prayers with ‘loud cries and tears’.
-There is a triumph that can be found in Christ, but it goes through suffering, not around it. When the apostle Paul declares that we are ‘more than conquerors’ it comes on the other side of hardship and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword. There’s that old adage – ‘no cross, no crown’. For those who follow Jesus suffering comes with the territory. But here is the mystery, here’s the wonder. The suffering is not for nothing. It has a purpose! God, somehow, takes it and uses it for something beautiful, something far beyond anything we can imagine.
-Illustration: A. Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour then took Bailey to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly. "These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks," he said. "You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth." [Our Daily Bread]
-God allows us to face suffering, not because He is mad at us or is an uncaring parent. God allows suffering so that we can go deeper with Him! Suffering is temporary, but it will produce something amazing in us when Jesus comes and reveals those who are His. Suffering is a normal part of the Christian life.
2. Suffering is a language God understands – and to which he responds.
-And so in a very real way, we can take our suffering and offer it up to God as a prayer. As a cry of help from the depths of our despair.
-The problem is that all too often – in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trouble, in the midst of despair, rather than draw closer to God in prayer, we lose sight of him altogether. All too often we lose the conscious sense of God’s presence during the darkest moments of life. We wonder where God is when we are walking through the pain of divorce, or the crushing burden of having our friends turn on us, or the heartbreak of watching a loved one die. Even Jesus cried out from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
-But think about this: God sees you even though you may not be able to see him. Again, God told Moses, ‘The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go…’. To the Church in Smyrna in Revelation 2 God says, ‘I know your affliction’. This was a church that was undergoing some terrible persecution. They were suffering horribly for their faith. And God says, I know all about it. I know what you are going through. I know the things you are suffering. I know the persecution you have seen. I know the trials that you have faced. I know the hardships you endure. I have seen everything that you have been put through, and nothing has escaped me.
-In the suffering, in the trials, in the persecutions, in the dark valleys of life – even if you lose sight of God – he never loses sight of you. He knows everything this church has suffered. He knows everything that you have suffered. He does not miss a thing.
-And when we gather our suffering, when we gather our hurts, when we gather our pain, and present them before God – they become a prayer – the prayer of suffering which God cannot ignore. And when we present them to him – God will respond.
-I think of Elijah – overcome with fear and depression, in the midst of having a nervous breakdown – and he prays, ‘God I have had enough, take my life’. And God sent him an angel to minister to him, and help him, and restore him.
-I think of the leper that came to Jesus – the suffering that this poor man must have endured not just from the disease itself, but being ostracized by the people, an outcast from the neighborhood. And he comes to Jesus and says, ‘Lord if you choose – you can make me clean’. And Jesus could see this man’s pain, he could see his suffering – and it says that he was moved to pity – and healed him.
-I think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane – and it says ‘being in anguish he prayed and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground’ – and God sent an angel to minister to him and strengthen him.
Suffering is a language that God understands – and when it is offered up to him as a prayer – he responds.
3. Things go better with Hope!
-As you look at this passage about suffering and groaning and longing for something better, a person might be tempted to view it as dismal and depressing. But that’s not what the Holy Spirit intended when He inspired Paul to write these words.
-Just look at some of the language here: glory will be revealed in us! Creation itself will be liberated … and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. The Spirit helps us and intercedes or prays for the saints in accordance with God's will. 28 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.
-God is the God of hope! If everything in life was perfect, we would have nothing to hope for, wait for, or long for. If we never had a problem we wouldn’t know God as the problem solver. Granted, God did not create evil or problems, but in the midst of them He promises to help us when we cry out to Him.
-In this passage, there’s a whole lot of groaning going on. Creation groans. Believers groan. And the HS groans within us as He prays for us. There is something within every parent that makes them respond to the cries and groans of their children. Note that there is a difference between groaning and whining. Whining brings punishment; Groaning brings help as we cry out to God, trusting in Him to answer us.
-Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
Again, Romans 8:28 says, "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." That gives me hope! In the midst of all of the things we go through in this life, God is working for our good! The “all things” can trip a lot of people up. There are a lot of things I don’t want to go through and I don’t want my family or friends to go through! I don’t want the “all things”! I just want the nice things.
-But if we will continue to do life with God and learn to believe what He tells us in His word, we can find hope to get us through “all things.”
-We are longing for something better! If this is as good as it gets, then what’s the point? God has prepared unimaginable things for those who love Him. Right now He is preparing those who love Him for those unimaginable things! Are you trusting Him to do His job in you? Are you only willing to accept the good that God brings your way, or can you trust Him in the midst of adversity? Hard times will keep coming. So keep praying! Keep hoping for His soon return! Keep groaning and longing for the day when you’ll see Jesus face to face and experience the glorious freedom of the children of God!
-If you are running low on hope today, or maybe you’re fresh out, I’d like to pray for you. If you want God to breathe new life into your spirit and renew your hope and your trust in Him, just raise your hand high. I want to pray and groan for you. The Holy Spirit is groaning in intercession for you. God wants you to go all in with Him, pouring out your heart to Him so He can pour His life and hope into you.
Pray
[Portions of this sermon were borrowed and adapted from Paul Green, sermoncentral.com]
