You Are Faithful Series

I STILL BELIEVE: YOU ARE FAITHFUL (2)

A. Romans 8:22-25 (READ)

ILLUSTRATION:

Have you ever sat through an important meeting or job interview and then all of a sudden, your STOMACH violently GROWLS and GROANS? Anyone?

I don’t think there ever has been a STUDY done on this, but if there was, I think it would show that more times than not the embarrassing sounds of HUNGER PANGS come at the most INCONVENIENT times.

Like when your BOSS has just asked for everyone’s THOUGHTS in a meeting, or when your FRIEND is trying to pour out her HEART to you, or when the ROOM has grown QUIET and the tone is extremely SERIOUS . . . your STOMACH decides to let everyone know that you are HUNGRY and it WAITS for no one.

And when it happens no amount of SQUIRMING, COUGHING, TALKING LOUDER, or any other improvised DISTRACTION will divert everyone’s ATTENTION from the GROWLING and GROANING that is coming from your GUT.

B. “GROAN” is a word that Paul uses twice in these verses, and will use it a third time in reference to the

Holy Spirit that we’ll study next week. (The word speaks of a “deep sigh, distress or grief”.)

1. The way that Paul uses the word “groan” in our text today, is an indicator of our FAITH in the One

who CREATED us and a descriptor of the FAITHFULNESS of God.

a. When our STOMACH growls and groans, it serves as a SIGNAL.

COMMENT:

It is our BODY’S way of ALERTING us to the fact that something is OFF. Something DOESN’T MAKE SENSE, and that the only way to FIX it is by something OUTSIDE of OURSELVES.

b. The same is TRUE with us when it comes to SUFFERING.

COMMENT:

When SUFFERING comes, our BODY recognizes that God didn’t DESIGN a WORLD for

SUFFERING.

When your HEART DROPS at the report of BAD NEWS, when you LOSE your APPETITE in the midst of SICKNESS and SUFFERING, when your EMOTIONS OVERWHELM you at the LOSS of a LOVED ONE, it is our BODY’S way of telling us that something is OFF.

2. Have you ever thought about your GROANING, your GRIEVING, your HEARTACHE, your BODILY RESPONSE to SUFFERING as being a WAY by which your TRUST in the FAITHFULNESS of God

GROWS?

a. Not only does our GROANING serves as a SIGNAL that something isn’t the way that God intended, but it can serve as an act of SURRENDER knowing that only someone outside of ourselves can FIX what is BROKEN—and that someone is GOD.

b. Acknowledging the SUFFERING of the WORLD can actually be the way we foster greater FAITH that God truly is “working all things for our good”—that God is moving in the DIRECTION of REDEMPTION and RESTORATION.

C. We are in week two of the series: “I STILL BELIEVE”.

1. The question we are discussing throughout this SERIES is how we allow our CIRCUMSTANCES to

shape our BELIEFS about God—either we TRUST Him or we DON’T.

a. There are those who allow their “present sufferings” (that we talked about last week) to actually

draw them closer to God as they seek His STRENGTH to get them through the DIFFICULTY.

b. But then there are those who allow their SUFFERINGS to cause them to WALK AWAY from God

as they BLAME Him for the DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES that they are going through.

ILLUSTRATION:

We saw that in the life of Jeremy and Melissa Camp in the movie “I STILL BELIEVE” and, more importantly, in REAL LIFE where Melissa’s CANCER strengthened her FAITH in God while her STRUGGLE with CANCER and ultimate DEATH led Jeremy to question his FAITH.

2. But ultimately it was Jeremy’s GROANING over the LOSS of his WIFE that led him to write these

LYRICS to his hit song: “I STILL BELIEVE.”

I STILL BELIEVE IN YOUR FAITHFULNESS.

I STILL BELIEVE IN YOUR TRUTH.

I STILL BELIEVE IN YOUR HOLY WORD.

EVEN WHEN I DON’T SEE, I STILL BELIEVE.

C. Paul talks about two EXPRESSIONS of GROANING that point to the FAITHFULNESS of God.

MESSAGE:

I. GROANING OF CREATION- v. 22

A. The GROANING of “the whole creation” can’t be overlooked because Paul is saying that all of God’s

CREATION is AWARE of its FALLEN STATE—that it is DECAYING.

1. The “GROANING OF CREATION” tells me that God did not DESIGN it this way.

COMMENT:

We can look around us and see SIGNS that the WORLD is DECAYING. EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOS, HURRICANES, TORNADOS, TSUNAMIS—are all INDICATORS of a DECAYING WORLD.

2. But then some people ask, “Well, if God is so GOOD and so GREAT, then why didn’t He just

create a PERFECT world?”

a. He did, and man MESSED it up.

b. When the UNIVERSE was first created, the Lord declared it to be “very good”- Genesis 1:31.