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What do you say we get this party started? How's everybody doing? I was just thinking about something before we sing this song. It's called children of the living God, but just the this is a joy in knowing that, we're sons and daughters adopted into God's kingdom like he calls us ours or his. Sorry.
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And, just knowing that gives me a lot of joy. It gives a lot of comfort. And I think it's something worth singing about. How about you? What do say we stand up?
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Alright. Children of the living. Children of the living God, come and sing. Say out loud, children of the living God. Sing to the God.
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Sing to the wonders. The mercy. Listen up the mercy that he gives. Though we sin, he forgives the mercy that he gives. Saints of the living God God, sing the living God, and sing for the morning.
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Sing the morning when he comes in the clouds. Glorious suns. Save the morning when he comes. Save the living God. One more how he loves and how he loves us with greater Amen.
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Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements here this morning. Not many actually. The summer, there is nursery available downstairs, zero through five and there's a new nursing room downstairs too. We're not having children's church down there at this time.
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So, children get to stay up but if you're in the nursery, they're welcome to stay down and start now all the way through. This Thursday night, Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center is having their twenty sixteen gala. That's Thursday, July 14 at 06:00. It's up at Spring Creek Ranch. If you don't already have a seat or know that you have a seat or if you even if you still like to sponsor a table, Judy's not there.
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Judy, Judy's sitting there in the second service. Just talk to me or to Judy Bassey today and we'll make sure that you have a place. It's going to be great. Roland Warren is coming to speak. He's a great great speaker.
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It's going be a good event and Monday night, back on.
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Yep.
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You are in Luke.
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Luke, starting Luke.
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Starting. Yep. Out Luke.
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Yep. Chicken tacos tomorrow. Come join us.
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Chicken tacos. Alright. So, meal, music, and a message every Monday night, 06:00 on Mondays. We meet in the fellowship hall. It's a little church plant on training wheels and we love it.
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Alright. For everything else, the announcements are in the bulletin but I have one more. Miss Robinson, would you come forward, please? I'm going to have this precious young lady introduce herself to you and let you know she is going on a mission trip and I would like for the elders that are here, current elders that are here, would you come on up to the front when she when she right now, if you would, come on up to the front. Just tell who you are, where you're going, what you think you're going to do, and then we'll pray for you, okay?
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So, I'm Sophie Robinson and on the seventeenth, I'm going to be going to Germany and Poland to participate in World Youth Day, and I'm going to see the Pope. He's going to preach and stuff like that, and that's going to be really cool. And we're going to be doing service projects like, so far they've told me we're going to be painting and building playgrounds but it's going be cool.
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Thank you. Now, she has been a member of this fellowship for a long long time. They they are always active and I'm going to ask the elders if you would to just pray for as I pray out loud because I have a microphone, okay? You want come lay hands on her shoulders here? God, thank you for thank you for the way that you work.
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I thank you that you are working in the hearts of young people and this morning, I pray that you would bless Sophie that she would be able to speak out of that which she knows about you. That she'd be able to glorify you lord through her physical effort and exertion but also through every conversation she'd have on this trip. I pray for blessings and travel and and divine appointments all along the way and God for whatever buildings that end up getting painted or built that they would serve for your glory. Thank you God that you call us into your work and time and space you call from eternity. In Jesus name, amen.
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Amen. Thank you very much. Thank you, God. Yes. Thanks.
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Amen. Alright. Now, get up and greet one another. If you're anywhere near Sophie, give her a hug.
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Alright. Who breaks the power? Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so stronger, the king glory, the king above all kings. Who shakes the holy, all kings.
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This is amazing grace. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my face. Jesus is safe for all that you've done for me.
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Alright. Who amazing grace. This is unfailing love. Have you taken my place? Have you bear my cross, you would lay down your life, that I would be set free.
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Jesus is safe for all that you've done for me. Amen about that. I hope it's been on Let's sing that again, shall we? My hope is built with nothing less. My hope is built on nothing less.
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Sing that chorus again, shall
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God, it's so true. You are lord of all, lord of everything. And it doesn't take much just to see it and experience it. Just looking around at the beauty of where we are right now and saying, God, you are God. And for for that, we will praise you, but I thank you, God, that you care enough to step down to us, to live with us, to dwell among us, and to save us ultimately, but then to give us this to walk in this newness of life that you give us.
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And I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are responsible, partly responsible for that and that you live in and through us. And so, Holy Spirit, we do wanna say, we welcome you here. I don't wanna hinder your work. I want you to be able to move in in power and in freedom in here, and I pray that that we indeed would let you and be open to you. Amen.
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There's nothing long for. To be overcome by your presence, oh, presence, Lord. And let us become more aware of your presence. Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us Would
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y'all pray with me? God, thank you for this beautiful morning and this beautiful place and I just come before acknowledging you lord and working our way right now towards communion. Just thinking about it and dwelling on it that you are so good. Lord, I I just want to I just want to come before you thanking you for all that you've given and as we do that, lord, would you accept back a portion of what you've given to us so that others may know who you are. Lord, we know who you are.
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Would you use these gifts, these tithes, these offerings, this return? Would you use this to further your kingdom? To take the gospel in the places it has never been, to take the the true heart of the gospel where there has only been artifice and empty words. Would you take it with all of those that leave out of this place today, lord but would you take it with what we leave behind in these plates? Would you expand your kingdom?
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In Jesus name, lord, we ask for you to bless. Amen.
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All things have
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Amen. We're having our own World Youth Day here. That's great. That's Adrian Better and Kyler Areola and Eugene backing them up. Thank you for that.
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I am this morning up to Romans eight eighteen through 25. That's the section we're going to cover today. We're actually going to concentrate probably longer on verse 18 than anything else. Last week, we actually hit it. I ended the sermon last week with this.
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Because I didn't want to end with this underlying portion. Now, the natural break kind of right with this section last week ends right here. For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again because we all know what it's like to be enslaved and to be in fear because that's the way we all start off. It's our tendency. The more we sin, the more we want to, the further we get into it but after having been saved, you've not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out or we can cry out.
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Abba, father, daddy, papa, abba, papa. A term of endearment for God almighty. A closeness to him. The Holy Spirit, you see the capital list. The Holy Spirit himself testifies with our spirits that we are children of God and if we're children, then we're heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
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Join heirs with Jesus as we travel this side, the old song says. If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may be glorified with him. Now, I I added on last week for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed and that's where I ended and the sufferings of this present time, I didn't really go into. I just went into that they were not compared with the glory that is to be revealed. As I started the study for the passage this week or as I started the study of the preparation of what I would say this week, this arrested me.
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The sufferings of this present time because I've been here now for four years. Four years and a couple of weeks, I think. Tanya and I have been here full time. Now we were two summers as interns before that, and we've been coming to Jackson for nine years. In that time, y'all know this is an extreme place.
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For those of you who are visitors, you might not know it. Maybe you read the paper and see some extreme, strange things, you just think, well, place has something that happens extreme. This is an extreme place. Do all of us agree? The topography, the people, we get extremes here.
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And we have seen some fairly tremendous things in the past four years and as I was thinking about, I was thinking to this, I don't want to I don't want to skip over the sufferings of this present time just to get to the future glory and I I listed em out but as I look out, I knew when I got up here, would look out and I would start going, yep. Everyone of y'all has a story of suffering in these last four years. I don't know of any of you who don't. If I don't, no, I don't know you. Everyone of us does.
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So, as I was thinking, we've been here just over four years. We've seen a lot of suffering. I'm going to I put a list up here to read but there are a lot more of these and some of these are fairly vague but they're not vague to the ones who they hit. Does that make sense? So, the sufferings of this present time, saying goodbye to friends who move away.
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How many of you who live here in Jackson have had to say goodbye to friends who've moved away? Every single one of us have. Dear pets fading and dying. I put this one second on the list. They're not in any particular order, but I know of somebody who just had to say goodbye to two cats that she's lived with for seventeen years.
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They've been in the house with her, and she's primarily there by herself most of the day. And it was an incredible time of suffering and pain. Lack of adequate housing. Anybody experience that? Prolonged marital strife.
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There are some of you that are both conscientious believers but have a hard time getting along with one another and that's hard and it's hard for both of you. There's some of you who are an a believer married to an unbeliever, and that's an incredibly hard row to hoe. So would I imagine being in the house with somebody who was constantly telling you that you needed to get saved? Infidelity, which leads to resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness. The winter blues.
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It's not the depth of the winter, it's the duration. Right? Some of us get the winter blues in April. Unrequited love. Where you love someone and they just won't love you back.
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Issues with intimacy Family members who either deny or resist or deny and resist God's love. Abuse, physical, emotional, or verbal. Now, each one of these that I've read, I've thought of a lot of people. I don't know if you're thinking of, oh, that's mine or those three are mine or those seven are mine. But they're suffering and there's no doubt about whether it is or not.
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I've got another list here. Jobs ending unexpectedly or expectedly, either one. When people come to live here and they come to find a place that is home and then, first, they've gotta do the shuffle to figure out what else they can do and sometimes it's stepping off of a career into a job. Something that meant something and it was part of a man's identity and now he's doing something that doesn't mean anything to him and it's heartbreaking. Financial issues.
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There was a lady who used to be a counselor here and she was a financial counselor. That's what she did for underprivileged folks, and she did free counseling in one of our various nonprofits around. And then she figured out that she had been spending all the money she had saved just to be able to be here, and she had to move. And that was really, really hard. It was hard on her because she's a financial counselor and didn't realize it.
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Aged parents dying. I could actually just say parents aging. Parents aging at a distance. When we're here, you know, my parents are aging. And there's some suffering that goes with it when you don't hear.
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We got news of of a very very dear loved one that didn't think to mention because we're so far away. They didn't think to mention of a heart surgery. Expected or unexpected surgeries, procedures, murder, taking the life of a relative. That's happened to more than three people that I know here since I've been here. The aftermath of a close friend's suicide, an attempt or two or three?
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Accidental death? We see those all the time here. Addiction, ever present. Old age just creeping up. Paul wrote this letter a long time after he got saved.
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It's probably been twenty something years since Paul was converted. He's about probably 55 or 56 at this point. That's what we're pretty pretty good guess that that's about how old he was. Old age was creeping up on Paul. He starts mentioning the the body and the redemption of the body a lot more often.
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Dementia progressing for some. Tragedies afar about which we can do very little beyond prayer, which is the first response, not the last resort.
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Lost
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love, the aftermath of any violent assault, and parents grieving the death of a child. So I asked Tanya the other day how many people we knew. And she said it was a it was a significant percentage of the people that we know dearly here. The sufferings of this present time are very, very, very real, and they're very valid and they're not something to just skip over to get the future glory. I'm gonna back up through that list and get back to this.
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If indeed we suffer with him, there's a depth of empathy that comes about through suffering. That Paul links to our eventual glorification. If indeed we suffer with Christ so that we may also be glorified with him. Suffering is a an essential part of life but of the Christian life. There can be no doubt and if I haven't, is so today's, I'm actually just going to linger in that for a little while.
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The sufferings of this present time anticipate the eternal glory that is to be revealed. The rest of the passage talks about that. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. Now, when I say all of those things or anyone of those things on the list, the way that I typically describe it is, that's heavy. Or when somebody asks me, they say, Ray, how is it that you're able to just listen to people come in and they've got the hardest thing that has ever happened?
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How are you able to just be there with them and help at all? How can you empathize or how can you continue to when it just keeps going? And there are, you know, four, five hundred people that call this church their home. How can you do that? Because it's heavy.
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That's what they always say. Heavy, heavy, heavy. And this is what Paul calls all of that. Because it's about perspective. He says, our light affliction.
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Now, it's heavy. Don't get me wrong. It is heavy but as compared to the eternal weight of glory, it pales by comparison. This is a part about suffering in one of the most hopeful chapters in the Bible. In the middle of Romans eight, we've got this little paragraph that is about suffering.
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For our light affliction which is but for a moment and that's the key is this is but for a moment. This does actually have an end. It is finite. It's working for us, Paul says. At the in in the other passage I read 15 through 18, it says, that in our suffering, we identify with Christ and will be identified with Christ in our glorification, his glorification.
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This says that our affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory. Peter, first Peter four twelve through 19 says this, beloved, do not be surprised that the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with that exaltation. If you're reviled for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rest on you. Make sure though that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a troublesome meddler. Don't let it be your own fault.
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If you're suffering, if you if you speed and you get a ticket, don't call that suffering. You deserve the ticket, alright? But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he's not to be ashamed but is to glorify God in Christ's name or this name. Those also who suffer according to the will of God. Wait a second, we're suffering now according to the will of God.
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Yep. Those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. Okay. Hebrews 11. A hall of faith and you can read the whole thing.
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I skipped a bunch of verses in here but I I picked up the ones. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Hope, hope is going to come into play at the end of our passage today but now, faith is the assurance or the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen or not yet seen. For by the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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So, this is creator, creating creation, out of nothing. By faith, Moses, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin in Egypt. He considered the reproach of Christ. Now, this is Old Testament. How can it be Christ?
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He's looking forward to Christ just like we look back to him, okay? He had a fuzzier picture than we do because we have the actual history of what happened but he's looking forward to Messiah, Christ. He considered the reproach of Christ. Greater wealth than all the treasure of of Egypt for he was looking forward to the reward and then he gets toward the end of the chapter and says, and what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, all those are good things, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
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All that's happy, right? Good stuff. Others, though, suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two.
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They were killed with the sword. They went about in skin of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. Of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Have I said this lately?
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The prosperity gospel is hogwash, okay? The only thing that we are guaranteed is trial and tribulation and temptation. Now, that's not the only thing we're guaranteed. Eternal life's kinda nice but on this side, the prosperity gospel is hogwash. That is not what it's all about.
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To go forward from there and I do want you to just linger. I meditated on that verse this week and I couldn't get away from it. The paragraph helps but that first verse, just go to sleep tonight thinking about that. Go to sleep tonight thinking about the sufferings of this present time and feel em. Feel the suffering of this time, the loss and the grief.
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It's heavy but it's not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed and this says, for even the creation, the anxious longing of God's creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Now, right now, you can have people that are saying that all religions are the same. Creation itself, according to this verse, is anxious for the vindication of the true believers, the true children of God. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly.
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Creation didn't do anything. Adam did. Mankind did. Making that choice to rebel against God and everyone of us since. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it but he subjected it in hope.
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He's saying that there is an aspect of suffering that leads to hope. And we've seen that at the very beginning of Romans. We saw that you can exalt in the hope or you can exalt in tribulations which cause perseverance which cause proven character, which brings you back around to hope. And the same thing he's saying here in chapter eight, seven chapters later. The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.
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In hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Now, I don't understand this part. Completely, I don't understand this part but I know there's a lot of effort being made to renew the Earth, to do all we can to be good stewards of the Earth and the Christian community and a lot of times Christians are blasted because they think that we're looking at this verse and going, oh God's just going make it all new anyway. Let's treat it however we want to. Nah, don't do that.
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The creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Something happened at the fall by Adam's choice that subjected creation to this as corruption and slavery and creation itself is longing for. Now, this week, I've also studied and thought about how Psalm 19 says that the heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament is screaming out and all of this is screaming out the glory of God but can you imagine how much more it wants to say? The rocks and hills want to cry out how good God is but it's being restrained. It's stuck because of our corruption.
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Now, our slavery Creation itself also will be set free. Praise God. From its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, he gets back around.
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He starts off with us and our sufferings and then he talks about how creation, everything around us, groans for this renewal. And not only this, he comes back around to us but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves. Can you see how inner that is? I didn't make this translation up. That's what it says.
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Not only this but we ourselves, having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our complete adoption as sons and the redemption of this body. Like I said, Paul is 56 at this point, somewhere in there and I visit, I visited with somebody yesterday who's 88, had a knee replacement and as spry as she has always been. Right now, she's not feeling as spry as she once was. She's looking forward to the redemption of that knee. Waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
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For in hope, we have been saved and that's secure. It says it flat out. We have already been saved. But hope that is not seen. Hope that is seen is not hope.
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Does that make sense to you? Are you with me? Hope in the Bible, anytime hope is mentioned, it is a certainty but it's a certainty that has not yet come to pass. It's something you're looking forward to. Peter calls it an incorruptible hope in heaven for sure.
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For in hope, we have been saved. There's no doubt about whether or not it is the case but hope that is seen is not hope. We haven't seen all of the blessings of that salvation yet. So, we're in the already and not yet. We've already been saved but we have not yet come through this part that involves so much suffering.
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For who hopes for what he already sees? When it becomes reality, you don't have to keep on holding that hope in your heart. But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. That's the place where we are. We're eagerly waiting for the not yet to become now.
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I wanted to lead to end this with a much more positive up, you know, and Romans eight twenty eight is just three verses away. I could easily do it but I also want you to savor the suffering part and not try to escape it, and not think that you are alone or that you are abnormal for still feeling some sting on this side, because we do. And I think if we don't, that's almost delusional. It's not worthy to be compared with the future glory, but it is something on this side. As we eagerly wait for it, can we do what Peter said to let me go back to it.
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It's gonna take a long time, but here we go. Those who suffer according to the will of God, And Christian, if you are suffering according to the will of God, just entrust your soul to the faithful creator in doing what is right. Go forward in doing what is right. Now that the spirit is the one who does the work in us. Right?
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And the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, whatever, self control. Let's concentrate on living that life because that's the power that's in us. That's where our incorruptible hope is anyway. As we feel this suffering, I don't think that we should feel that it's a the fiery ordeal is something strange that nobody else has ever gone through. Consider that every person you meet on the street, believer or unbeliever, is experiencing some sort of pain.
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And it can be redemptive suffering. It can be according to the will of God. If we can turn that suffering towards our good and gracious, loving God. Amen. Now, when I said during my prayer a minute ago, it caught me off guard theologically because I said, we're working our way towards communion and I went, oh, I can't say that but I just did it in a prayer.
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You can't white out a prayer. We're not working our way at this at all. Christ has done all of the work. Praise God. Christ has done all the work.
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Read ahead. Three more verses. All things are working together for good, but this right here, I think the fact that it's body and blood shows that it is about the sufferings of Christ. And it is our taking part in and our fellowshipping in the sufferings of Christ. When we do this.
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So, I'm going ask the elders if they come forward and you playing something pretty, Lorraine? Thank you. Would y'all pray with me? And elders, when y'all when I say amen, y'all please distribute. God, I thank you for I thank you for this reminder.
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Right in the middle of the most hopeful chapter in the Bible. I've heard two or three people have texted me or called me or mentioned to me this week that this is their favorite chapter in the Bible. This is their favorite verse. 32 is my favorite. 28, 29 is my favorite.
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Eight one is my favorite. God, eight eighteen is working its way up to the top of my list. As we consider your suffering in the body, in the flesh, and consider that God almighty, you sent Jesus so that you could condemn sin in the flesh and set us free. We thank you Jesus for your for your body that which was broken for us and God I I ask you to bless this little cracker as we distribute this morning. To each one that would partake because they believe in you and they are taking part in identifying with your sufferings.
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Lord, for each one that must let this plate pass because they just don't know you and don't believe in you, don't know enough to know about you and make that decision right now. God, would you bless them to and redeem all of their suffering to this point and allow them to see that the kindness of God not the judgment of God but the kindness of God is what leads to repentance. So, lord, would you bless this bread as we distribute it this morning? In Jesus name, amen. God almighty, we thank you that Jesus on the same night that he was betrayed, another thing to suffer through.
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On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, this is my body that is given for you. Take it and eat and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Dear Lord, we ask your blessing also on this cup as we distribute this. That we would remember your shed blood. Physical suffering.
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Lord, that that you agonize through. We remember your shed blood for the remission of sins and God, would you bless this cup and each one that will partake with the confidence and hope that the new covenant provides and lord for each one who must let it pass because they don't trust in it or know about it. Would you draw them to yourself through the lives of the body of Christ continuing right now. In Jesus name, amen. In the same way that he had taken the bread, he took the cup after supper He said to the disciples that this is the new covenant in my blood.
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The new covenant. A lot of Romans has been about the old covenant and the new covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. And Paul says, by doing this, this little symbolic act that we just did, he says that we proclaim Christ's death until he comes again.
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So, the hope is out there and it's not yet seen but he's coming again and it's an assurance. There's no doubt about. But we're remembering his death and his suffering and the fellowship of that. Will you join us in singing Glorious Day? Would y'all stand with us?
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Elders, y'all can head on.
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One day they led in Calvary's Mountain. One day they nailed freely forever. One day he's coming. Oh, glorious day. Oh, glorious day.
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One day the great seal no longer, and one day the great could seal him no day
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Thank you to the God of all comfort and all mercy that he comforts us so that we may be a comfort to others and draw them into him. In Jesus name, be blessed. Amen.
