Hope in Suffering (Romans 8:18-28)

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Well, good morning everyone. It’s a It’s really exciting for me to be here. I’m so blessed and excited that I get to open God’s word and study that with you. We’re going to be in Romans eight today, like Pastor Kyle was saying, if you want to open up there right now, we’re going to be in Romans eight verses 18 through 28 While you’re turning there, you can go ahead and do that, and I’m going to share a little bit about myself, because some of you I haven’t met, and you’re maybe thinking, okay, he’s talking a lot about this Alex guy. So what does he have to offer? Not a lot. And that’s okay. So I’m Alex. I’m originally from a small town Portage Indiana, lived there, born and raised, and for the past three or four years, I’ve been a Moody Bible Institute where I’m studying pastoral ministry, and part of the moody curriculum is that you need to do a required internship, and so I’m looking for a pastoral internship some church that will take me in. And couple of things are falling through. I’m hopeless. I don’t know what’s going on. And then I stumble across Cityview, and I’m like, Okay, let’s try it. I email them like, Hey, could you possibly maybe take me in off the street? And they’re like, Okay, let’s talk. Let’s see how it goes. So I meet with with Kyle and Brandon, and let’s just say I walked in the door, they saw that I was bald, and they said, Yes, they knew that they needed to tip the scales back. There’s too many people with hair here, so yes, but yeah. So I’m currently interning at Cityview, and it’s been such an honor. I’ve learned so much, and I’m excited to keep learning. And one little ice breaker, fun fact about me, in two days, I will have been engaged for one month, which is so exciting. And don’t get me wrong, I do absolutely love that I get to plan a wedding, that I get to know my fiance deeper and on a new level. But I want to be married. I don’t want to be engaged for my whole life. I can imagine having to do that, and I know all the engaged people in the room are feeling the same way right now. There’s so many great things that come with engagement, like planning a wedding, learning more about your significant other, getting to do pastoral some counseling with a pastor, premarital counseling, but that’s not what we’re working towards. Our goal is to be united in marriage. I got down on one knee, I put a ring on a finger. We are committed. We love one another, but we are not quite there. Yet. We will choose to rejoice in where we are, but we continue to look toward the future longingly, knowing that there’s something greater to come. So when the planning process gets stressful, we disagree on something, we can look to the future and say, one day, this will pass, and we will be where we want to be. And so as we look at our passage today, Romans eight. They’re in a very similar situation. Paul has been writing to the Roman church in the first couple chapters, talking to them about the good news and encouraging them. He’s saying, you know, you need to rejoice in this good news. But Paul also understands that there’s more going on in the human mind. They hear there’s good news. They hear rejoicing. But there’s one question, what do we do with this suffering? And Paul addresses this elephant in the room our passage. It’s a very popular passage. You’ve probably heard it before. It tells us a very important truth. It’s our big idea for today. So we’re going to follow this along as we go. Trust God, he is using your pain for His purpose. Romans, eight gives us four distinct ways that we can trust God in our suffering and rejoice in the hope of our future glory. In Ephesians, Paul writes that the Holy Spirit is like our engagement ring. It’s a guarantee of what’s to come. And when you make the decision to give your life to Christ, you are committed to Jesus. We have joy in the present, but we still groan for the day when we’ll be fully united with Him, standing face to face. And maybe you’re here today groaning about something, maybe you’re here with pain. You’re here with questions. You’re here with a story that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to Romans 818, through 28 has good news for us. It says God is using your pain for His purpose. So let’s walk through our passage today and see these four truths. It will anchor our hope in Christ, when life feels heavy, first, we look at verse 18, where we see our first main point. That main point is that we can trust God. Your trials will lead you to glory. Verse 18 says this, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It’s important to recognize that Scripture does not deny hardships in the world. Right at the start of the passage, we actually see it named it says suffering, suffering is real, and it’s important to our Christian life for us to recognize the reality of this right now, there are some of you that walked in here today that are struggling. Maybe a family member is in the hospital right now. Work has been so stressful. You’re dealing with loss or grief, and that is real. Your suffering is real. But that’s just one word out of this sentence. There’s another important word here. It says consider. And when we hear consider, we say, okay, what are we considering? You’re told to consider your present suffering and weigh them in light of the future glory that comes from Christ and that can be hard to take a step back from your suffering and look to something that you’ve never experienced before. I like to think about it like this. Imagine you’re training for a marathon. It takes a long time. There’s lots of running. You’re so tired, you have to work on eating right? You have to get good strength and stamina. And the entire training process, it’s long and difficult. It can be so easy to quit, give up and say, you know, that was past. Alex, I don’t know what I was thinking, but for the people that run marathons, there’s something that’s so worth it at the end, all of the training, the pain, the aches, the tears, the blood, the sweat, it’s all made worth it because there’s something greater at the finish line, a banana. Yes, a banana at the finish line. Marathon runners really do look forward to the banana after their runs. There’s something about the chemicals that they get that they had been expelling when they were running. I don’t get it. Don’t ask me why. I go to Bible school and you have Google so you can focus on that, but when they eat that banana, they get a boost, and they rejuvenate, and they feel good all that pain that they experience from the run, from the marathon, from the trainings, it seems so much smaller. It seems so much more tame, because they’ve accomplished something and they’ve received a reward that made it so much more worth it, and many marathon runners choose to do it again, because the glory at the end of the suffering is worth it, and Scripture tells us that we’re working towards something at the end of the suffering, something so much greater than a banana. Thank God. So when you’re experiencing suffering, when you’re sitting at the hospital bed of a loved one, or you turn on the news and you see death, destruction, terrible things in the world, and you think to yourself, how can I possibly get through this look to Christ and the glory that will be revealed? Because on the day that you stand face to face with the Creator of the universe, your suffering won’t even cross your mind looking at the majesty and the glory of the One who gave Himself for you, who loves you more than you could ever think standing in the new heavens and the new earth. You won’t even think about your suffering. You won’t even recognize that it’s gone and that it’s past. All you’ll care about is that you get to lift up praise to the one who has saved your life. Now it’s also important to recognize that when we place our faith in Christ, we don’t deny we don’t turn away from the world and say that suffering isn’t real. Instead, we get a renewed vision. We get this Christ like vision. We find hope in the truth that we can trust God because your trials are leading you to glory. We know that Christ has ascended to heaven. We know that he is preparing a place for us. He has redeemed us, realizing what we have to look forward to. It can be so easy to ask, Why do I have to wait for the glory to be revealed? It’s because Christ isn’t just preparing a place for you in Heaven, but he’s preparing you for that place. He is working to prepare you for that place. Christ is preparing you for eternity with Him. So when life hurts, when you face heartbreak, loss, betrayal, pain, suffering, anchor your hope in what lasts, not what hurts. This moment we are in now is temporary, but the glory revealed in Christ is eternal. He is preparing for us to return to what creation has made for us. As we look around at the brokenness of the world, we see war, starvation, hatred, death, we can continue to place our trust in God and our second point today specifies that where it says trust God, he will redeem the world. Romans goes on in verses 19 through 22 saying, through creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it and hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, the fall of man and the destruction that sin brings ruined so many things. In Genesis three, we can see that at the Fall, three distinct relationships were ruined, and the first two seem pretty obvious to us. There’s a brokenness in our relationship between humanity and God. There’s also a relationship between humanity and itself. And I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never walked side by side in a garden with God, and I get into a lot of very civil disagreements with my family, I’d say. But this third one’s interesting. There’s a brokenness in the relationship between humanity and its creation, or in God’s creation. See, creation was given to humanity for us to rule over and to take care of it. Creation was made to be perfect and to thrive, but the fallen, sinful, selfish nature of humanity has thrown the world into disorder and pain alongside those who are longing for the full glory of Christ to be revealed, you are joined by creation itself. The passage tells us that creation, creation is actively and intensely groaning for the full revelation of Christ. The word for groaning here is really interesting. It’s not this groaning that you’d experience with maybe a little kid or they’re throwing a temper tantrum and saying, Oh, I don’t want to go to the store with you, mom. It’s not that kind of groaning. It’s this neck strain and groaning, the pain that the earth is experiencing is so great to bear that all of its body, all the way up to the neck, is straining. In fact, the passage compares it to the pains of childbirth. Now I’m 21 years old. I am a male. I will never personally experience childbirth. Let’s get that out of the way first. But from what I’ve heard, my mom has told me some things some other women in my life, childbirth can be pretty painful, right? And the build up is a long process. There’s nine months of aches and pains as your body adjusts, and then the neck straining while you go into labor while giving birth, the pain is so much that the neck begins to strain as a woman pushes and the pain comes and waves, the body begins to compensate for the pain by straining every muscle in the body all the way up to the neck. But all of this is something that the woman continues to push through, because what comes after is amazing. I know that when my mom held me in her arms for the first time and experienced the newness of life, the gift that this brought her made the pain of childbirth suddenly become worth it to experience taking part in the glory of the new creation. This is the groaning the world experiences pain so great the entire body, all the way up to the neck, is strained, but it is awaiting the fullness of glory that will be revealed in Christ. Jesus, the world knows that it can bear this pain, because the passage tells us that this is pains of childbirth. These are not pains that lead to destruction, but they do lead, or they don’t lead to anything worse, but they do lead to something better. They lead to new life, new life for the eternity of creation. And what a comforting truth that Christ’s sacrifice and work is not merely to redeem your soul, but to redeem the entirety of creation. It goes beyond each and every one of us to something even greater. He doesn’t end his work by redeeming us, but by redeeming everything. Not only will the transformation you experience be amazing, but you will be joined in. In the entirety of creation, you are not alone in your suffering. You are joined by creation, and you belong to the same creator. So that hope that creation experiences is one, that you can join in, not only this, but we have what Hebrews calls a sympathetic high priest, which is Christ. He is able to sympathize with our suffering. Christ went through a lot when he took on human flesh. He has been starved, dehydrated, humiliated, beaten, lonely, stressed, tired, scared, whatever it is, you name it, he knows that this pain and suffering that you experience is difficult, but he lived a human life focused on the glory that will be revealed. He bore the cross that he might be able to bring redemption to all of us, so that one day you can join him in the new creation, in the new redeemed heaven and earth. And what a magnificent truth to look forward to, which brings us to our next point, the third point today. Trust God, we will experience full adoption now the next section, verse 23 through 25 tells us that not only so, but we, ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet, have we wait for it patiently. Hope is part of the plan. Your suffering is not meaningless at all. It reorients us, in fact, to the future promises of restoration. I want to take you back to my engagement story. We are in love, we are committed, we are planning, we are looking forward, we are excited, but we haven’t walked down the aisle yet. The commitment is made, but the celebration and the covenant fulfillment is ahead. We are not living the fulfillment of that covenant and yet, and that’s okay, in the same way, God has already brought us into his body, we have already been adopted into him. But the full unveiling of that adoption, the wedding day, the feast, is still to come, the day when Jesus Christ comes for His bride, the Church, the day when faith becomes sight, when waiting becomes joy, when the veil is lifted and we see Him face to face, when every tear is wiped away and every broken thing is made new, that’s the celebration we’re longing for right now. We live in this already, but not yet. We are spoken for, we are loved, we are promised, but we are still waiting for that final day of union, of fulfillment, of feasting, and in the waiting, we hope with this firm, confident expectation that the bridegroom is coming, he hasn’t forgotten he’s preparing a place, and when the time is right, the doors will open and the celebration will begin. So don’t grow weary in the waiting. Know that God makes good on his promise. Don’t forget who you belong to. Keep your eyes on the wedding day, the Feast is coming. We are called to faith, to hope in what we do not see. But hope in Scripture is not a wishful thinking. It is a firm, confident expectation. We know that the Lord is faithful. In fact, we get the ability to groan, because we know that there will be one day when he returns. It’s like going on a road trip or a long drive with a bunch of little kids, and in the back you hear about 40 times, are we there? Yet they’re able to ask that, because they know that eventually they will be there. They will make it to their destination.
So don’t lose heart when you see when you don’t see results, live by faith, not by sight, knowing that Christ is faithful and good to bring fulfillment to His promises, and know that it’s okay. It is okay to long for the future. But don’t forget where you are now. Don’t miss out on the present. You’re here for a reason, and there is still so much work to do. There are souls to reach, there are prayers to pray, and there are people to love, and that feels like a pretty heavy burden for us Christ, like I said earlier. He has ascended. He’s not on earth anymore, and we have been given his work.
Sorry, like I mentioned earlier, Christ has ascended. He’s not on Earth. We’re given the mission that he can I’m never going to live up to the work that Christ has done. And the great thing is that we don’t need to bear that. We don’t have to expect that all of the burden that is on Christ is on us, because we are surrounded by the body of believers and the power of Christ is in us. Our final point today reminds us of this. That point is trust God, he transforms our weakness into strength. The final section tells us that, 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 through wordless groans and He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 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. Life is hard. It can often be way too much for us to bear. Struggling at work, there’s deadlines, there’s long hours, there’s this feeling that you’re always behind and you’ll never be able to catch up. Whether it’s at home, you have a mountain of bills, you have another broken appliance, or there’s just constant noise and chaos and you can’t rest. Or there’s relationships, there’s misunderstandings, tension, distance, or just the ache of loneliness. Or your families, you realize that your parents are getting older, your kids are struggling. There’s unresolved tension between you and other family members, or you’re just trying to hold it together. When you’re falling apart inside. Sometimes it all hits at once in that in those moments, you sit there and you don’t even know what to pray, you sit in silence, you groan, you cry, and it feels like nothing is getting through. And that can be really disheartening, but here’s the good news, that’s exactly where God meets you. He doesn’t wait for us to have the right words. He doesn’t require perfect, polished prayers or emotional strength. Romans eight says that the Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. In other words, when you don’t know what to pray, he does and when all you have is silence, he speaks on your behalf. When you’re at the end of yourself, Christ is just getting started, because God meets you in your weakness. So the Spirit intercedes for us. He prays when we don’t have words. He prays when you don’t even know what we need to pray for. And that’s reassuring. I think there’s a negative pressure on believers that we need to have perfect prayers that can change lives, and we need to pray the way that Billy Graham would preach, but that’s not true. We are called to simply pray honestly and hopefully. Christ desires a relationship with you. He doesn’t expect perfection, so pray. Pray throughout your day. Pray with your family. Pray don’t be afraid to do things when you are not perfect, and know that as you pray, God will answer you, and God’s answers align with his will, not always our desires, but always his perfect plan. Verse 28 says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him. It doesn’t say that all things are good. It says in all things, even the bad ones, even the hard ones, God is working for your good. I’ve had a lot of long commutes this summer, and with that, there have been plenty of times that I’m driving, I have my destination in the GPS, and then I look down and I miss my exit, or I took a wrong turn. All of a sudden, I’m lost. I have no idea where I’m at, and I’m in the worst possible part of Chicago. So I start freaking out. I don’t pull over. I just keep driving. But what I do here is this calming presence. The GPS going recalculating. It doesn’t yell at me, it doesn’t give up on me. It just reroutes. It’s calm, it’s steady. It’s determined to get me where I need to go, even if the route origin. Lee is different, and I think that’s a lot like how God works in our lives. There are going to be things. There’s going to be delays, detours, disasters that throw off your plan. You’ll make decisions you regret. You’ll take paths you never thought you would. But God doesn’t throw up his hands in frustration. Say, Alex, what are you doing? He doesn’t abandon you. He helps you find your way back to him, because, unlike a GPS, he’s not reacting to your wrong turns. He already knew they were coming. He is sovereign. He saw the suffering before it started, and he’s already worked your detour into his design. So when you feel weak, lean on the spirit. Trust that the Lord is on your side, that he is working for your good, that even in the bad situation, there is good on the other side. Surrender your plans to His purpose. There might be some of you today that are not experiencing suffering. You’re thinking, what does this have to do, possibly to my life. There are people around you that are suffering, and when others are suffering, you need to be the voice that reminds them that you are not forgotten. You are not hopeless. God is not done with you. Yet there is hope on the other side. So where does that bring us today? Romans eight. It doesn’t promise you an easy life, but it does promise you a glorious future. It doesn’t say that you won’t groan, but it says that your groaning will lead you to glory and through it, all the pain, the confusion, the weakness, the spirit is praying, the father is planning for you, and the son is coming again for us, so we can trust God, he is using your pain for His purpose. If you here today and you’re in a season of suffering, don’t give up, don’t back out. You might feel like you’re wandering without direction or progress, but scripture reminds us that there is something to hope for. He reminds us that we can trust that God is working all things to his good. If you’re feeling weak today, turn to God. Say, God, fill me with your strength. And if you’re here today, and that doesn’t apply to you, gather around those grieve, with those who grieve, joy, with those who joy. And then we get to verse 29 I know it’s not on your calendars, but I think it’s important that we look at for those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. That’s the good that verse 28 points out to us, not comfort, not this happy ending that you run off into the sunset, but Christ likeness. God is not working just to make your life easier. He is working to make you more like Jesus through every painful season, every weak moment, every unfulfilled longing, he is shaping you, molding you, chiseling away at you. And what did Jesus look like? Jesus was a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief, full of grace and truth, glorious in suffering, victorious in resurrection, so when it feels like life is breaking you, remember God is forming you, and when it feels like the waiting will never end, remember God is not wasting a second, and when you feel weak and can’t go on, remember the spirit is carrying you and Christ is being formed in you. Let’s pray together, Heavenly Father. We thank you for being near us in our weakness. We thank you for being near us in our weariness and in our waiting. And we thank you for the promise that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that you will reveal in us even when we can’t see it. You are working through every trial, every detour, every tear and every unanswered question. We confess that we don’t understand what you are doing, but we choose to trust you. We believe that you are using our pain for your purpose and our struggles to shape us into the image of your son. Holy Spirit. Thank you for praying for us when we don’t have the words. Thank you that we are not alone in our groaning, that creation groans with us. We groan, and you groan with us, teaching us to hope even when it hurts. Teach us to wait with patience. Faith and to live with faith. We trust you, we love you, and we lift our eyes to the day when we will see you face to face in Jesus’ name. Amen.