Romans 8:18-30
Getting on the Same Page as God about what Hope is all about
Introduction
A. We have become an inpatient world
B. Think about it, how many people have looked at the Microwave and said “hurry up I am hungry”
C. How many people have complained how slow fast food is
D. How many of you have sat at the light at 910 and rt. 8 and said will you change already!
E. How many of you have on your computer and it took 5 seconds to respond to what you told it to do and got impatient with it
F. We all do these things
G. We want things and we want them now!
H. Unfortunately we do the same things when it come to God
I. We want everything right now and we completely loose focus of the whole plan
J. God promises us to work everything out. That give us hope
K. Today we are going see why we have hope
L. Perhaps the best way to understand all of this is to look at three groans mentioned in this passage
a. Creation Groans
b. The Believer Groans
c. The Holy Spirit Groans
I. Creation Groans (18-22)
A. Explanation
1. When we look at this world we have to understand something
2. What we know as the world today, was not the way it organically intended to be
3. This all changed with Adam and Eve, the original sin. Now understand if they didn’t sin, you would have
4. But if there was not sin, there would have been no death
5. With no death there would be no pain, no suffering
6. The creation is aware of this
7. And it longs to be like that again
8. It longs to be pain free.
9. Honestly, do you think that all of creation enjoys the pain, the death that we are now experiencing
10. All of that suffering cause creation to groan
B. Illustration
1. Look at verse 22. Childbirth. What do I know about childbirth? Not a whole lot but let me try and explain. Childbirth is painful. Excoriating. Have to carry the child for 9 months. That is a tough tough thing to do (I notice all the moms out there shaking their head). But what comes out of that exeperince? Your Child
2. Your child who you love more then anything.
3. Was that experience worth it? Yeah, it sure was
C. Application
1. Now what can we learn from all of this
2. Why do we have this hope
3. Why do we have this ability to understand that despite how awful things are looking on this earth that better things are going to happen
4. Why are we able to view this situation on earth like we view childbirth, a temporary pain for something that is going to be better then we could ever imagaine
5. Why? Turn to Rev 21:3-4
6. Look at the picture we get, all the pain all the suffering all the stuff that we do not like about this life – Gone, done away with, finished
7. And we have this image of creation the way it was meant to be
8. Does that mean that this will happen tomorrow, no
9. Does that mean that this will all be done by the end of the year, no
10. Does that mean that this will come to be before we end our time hear on earth, no
11. Some day we will get to experience this.
12. Today’s groaning will be exchanged for tomorrow glorious freedom
13. There is hope, hold on to that hope
II. We Groan (23-25)
A. Explanation
1. Creation is not the only one groaning, we are groaning.
2. Here we have the word first fruits
a) When I think of the whole concept of first fruits, I start thinking about summer
b) I love corn on the cob. Especially when it first in season and it is fresh
c) I like to find the people who grow it locally buy, shuck it myself, cook it, butter it, and enjoy.
d) That first corn of the season man you cant beet that
3. To relate we have gotten to experience “the first fruits of the Spirit”
4. There have been events that have been good that we have experienced
5. I do not know if you have ever had the privilege of leading someone to Christ
6. I have, wow, I know the first fruits of the Spirit
7. I have seen people life completely transformed, that is the first fruits of the Spirit
8. I have seen small little miracles in my life that only could come from the Spirit of God. That is the first fruits
9. Unfortunately we don’t see the first fruits every day
10. That sad reality is we just get a glimpse of these first fruits
11. What often happens is we will here some miraculous story of how God got someone through a situation and we will look at our own life and ask “God where are you?”
12. The thing that we don’t realize is this miraculous stories do not happen everyday to the person telling the story
13. We desire, we groan for the first fruit everyday
B. Application
1. Let’s apply this to our lives
2. The great things that you have seen God do, not even the tip of the ice burgh
3. One day we will be with God
4. One day we will share the first fruits of the Spirit everyday
5. That is what we are told to look forward to
6. That is what should keep you going.
7. That is the hope that we have
8. You can not have hope for what you have
9. You can only have hope for what you do not yet have
10. What we do as Christians is assume that God is not there, we assume that there is not hope because we do not see everything that is going on
C. Illustration
1. What if Thomas Edison did that with the light bulb? As you know he is credited with inventing the light bulb. How did he do this? Did he get an idea try and it worked? No, he tried one idea, then another then another then another then another. It took him and a full team of about 10 people 2 full years to get it to work
2. Just because you are not constantly experiencing the first fruits of the Spirit, does not mean there is no reason to hope
3. Hang in there
4. The Bible promises us that the best is yet to come!
III. The Holy Spirit Groans (26-30)
A. Explanation
1. So we have had creation groaning, people groaning, now the Holy Spirit groans
2. We get this idea that God does not care about our suffering
3. That is far from the truth, if we believe that Bible look what it says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness
4. Those of you who are parents don’t you want the best for your kids, of course you do, when your child is hurting, doesn’t that hurt you too? Of course it does.
5. Here is the Holy Sprit does for us. It takes our cries out to God and searches our hearts and knows the mind of God and pleads for us in a way that words cannot express
a) This is when you are at the end of your rope and the words that you pray are limited to two “Lord” “Help”
b) The Holy Spirit then takes that, knows what you are thinking, know that mind of God, for in fact He is God
c) And intercedes for us in why words cannot express
6. The Holy Spirit has a tough job. The Holy Spirit choose to let us experience things that we do not want to experience
7. To go through events in our lives that we do not want to happen
8. A lot of times we are looking at it from a selfish prospective and we can not see how this is going to help
9. Then we get to verse 28, and it suddenly make sense
10. God will work every little detail out perfectly
11. Now you also notice in this passage there is the word predestination mentioned
12. In a couple of weeks we will dive heavily into this topic but let me just state right now that this passage that we are studying is written to those who are “In Christ Jesus” this mention of the word predestination is in no way saying that God predesting people to be eternally condemned
13. The only reason that they would be condemned is because of their refusal to trust Christ.
B. Application
1. What does this all mean to us?
2. This means that we can press on
3. This means that despite how bad things are, God is still in control
4. What this means is that we confidently have hope that things will be so much better
5. This means that while it seems to be the worst thing that could have ever happened God will work it out
C. Illustration
1. You all know that I have been completely frustrated in my whole ordination process. I have ask many times what is the point of all this. I don’t know if I have the full answer yet.
2. But let me tell you what has been able to come out of this so far. I have shared openly my frustrations, and how God is getting me through them, I know that has help several people out who were experiencing similar trials. I
3. I have become more sensitive and understanding of others going through failures in their lives
4. I have a better understanding of my support team that God has given me. All of the “Hang in there’s” all the “I will be Praying for you” all the “Keep on going, Dan’s”
5. Would I ever wish the experience on any one, NO!
6. Will I ever look back and say this was one of the greatest experiences of my life, NO
7. What I am, and even more so will be able to say is, God is in control
8. God works every situation out,
9. Hang in there, know that God cares
Conclusion
A. If anyone ever tells you that life is going to be easy, look at them in the eye and say your lying!
B. Do any of you know who Mitch Schultz is?
C. He is an Alliance Missionary who has gone through a ruff ruff time.
D. It starts off with his wife having a brain tumor that came within an hour of taking her life. She survived but has had an uphill battle with therapy and everything else that was effective, today she is doing pretty good, but still has not fully recovered.
E. As soon as she was stable and starting this intense therapy, his son was getting these severe headaches and pains. They took him to the doctors and found out that he had a tumor on his brain stem.
F. This tumor had a 0% chance of cure. For 10 months Mitch had to watch his son go from a normal kid, to a vegetable and finally pass away.
G. Mitch kept a journal of letters to his son during this time. I have asked Patty to read one of them for you.
H. (Patty read)
I. You know why Mitch was able to keep going? He never lost his hope
J. He never lost the sight of God
K. In his time of struggle he cried out to God, and God cried with Him
L. Hope is not about what we have
M. Hope is about what we will have
N. If you are hear today and you need help please feel free to cry out. If you want to come up here go ahead. If you want to cry in your seat, raise your hand and someone will be there to comfort you
O. If you are hear today and you have turn your back on God because of what has happened and your realize that you were wrong and want to apologize, do it now
P. If you are hear today and you just can not understand why all of this has happened, come talk to me
Q. The question is are you on the same page as God about hope?
