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Breaking off Condemnation and Experiencing Freedom Part III
Romans 8
Pick your Hard; Pick your Purpose
Introduction:
- Life is hard for everyone.
- For the poorest of the poor, life is hard just finding provisions for the day.
- For the richest of the rich, life is hard because they have to keep figuring out ways to keep the federal government from getting their stuff.
- Life is hard, but life is not nearly as hard if there is a purpose to our suffering and pain.
- A hard life with Christ as your advocate
- Or a hard life with only yourself as your defender
- Suffer with the inner peace that your ultimate destiny is heaven
- Or suffer with inner questions and turmoil, wondering what eternity holds
- Rejoice in suffering because you know that God causes all things to work together for good
- Or blame God for your suffering because you have no faith in God’s sovereignty
- Charles Swindoll said, “I don’t think I have ever learned any deep, lasting, life-changing lessons on the cress of success. I have learned very little from winning, but I have learned a great deal from losing.”
- What does the Spirit work within us through suffering? We cannot avoid suffering. Pick your hard! But what is God’s purpose in all of this?
Romans 8:14-16
- Being “led” means to be guided and directed.
Purpose to Suffering: We are Given a Spirit of Adoption
- We have been given a different spirit!
- It means like “A companion in a marriage ceremony; protected.” Companioned by Him.
- We have not received a spirit of fear and slavery; that is what we had before!
- The hard of the old life was the constant struggle with fear and doubts:
- Fear of not being cool
- Fear of not being accepted
- Fear of not looking good enough, or not being smart enough
- Fear of losing what we have
- Fear of not having enough
- Fear of aloneness
- Fear of being a failure
- Fear, fear, fear
- Self condemnation, depression, and anxiety attacks are all based in stress and fear.
- We are now His kids; adopted into Him and His family.
- Ex. In the movie, Ben Hur, Charlton Heston was a slave on the ship. In the battle he escapes and is floating on this piece of wood, and saves a senator’s life. The senator calls for Heston’s character, and in front of everyone gives Heston’s character a ring and a new name. He was adopted into the senator’s family with all the privileges that came along.
- This is what we are talking about; we have a new name, a ring on our finger, a new family, a new life. This is our adoption.
- You have been given a different spirit, a spirit of adoption, and it is tough to grasp and understand.
- Ex. I know a family who adopted two kids, and the kids would just stuff their faces with food and have to throw up because they were starved to death by their biological parents. The new parents who adopted them had to show these children the refrigerator and the pantry, explaining that there was going to be enough food.
- You see we have been given all the benefits, rights, and provision of God, no strings attached.
- Love from God is hard for us to grasp!
- Love that is committed without strings!
- Love that just loves you because you are in the family!
- Will you get out of the boat and embrace His love for you; you are adopted!
- God doesn’t love us on a curve. His love is free and it is not based on us; it is based in Him.
- He has given us His Spirit to set us free.
- He has given us a new law, the law of life in the Spirit.
- He has taken away our fear.
- And we can now say “Abba Father,” which is a term of endearment for father, like “Daddy.”
- The Spirit of adoption is within us, so it is the Spirit within us that cries out “Daddy.”
- In Roman times, a slave couldn’t say “Abba.”
- Ex. My kids don’t call me “Father.” No, they say “Dad.”
Vs. 17-18
Purpose to Suffering: Prepares Us for Future Glory
- Yes, we will suffer as believers, but we suffer within God’s family.
- Heirs of a kingdom, that is us.
- If you were fighting a war but knew that you would win and that the kingdom would be given to you as the heir and king over that kingdom, how would that affect your fight? Wouldn’t you fight with courage rather than fear?
- Courage is not the absence of fear, but moving forward in spite of our fear.
- Courage is facing our fears and giving them over to Christ, laying them at the foot of the cross and letting Him take care of them.
- We have strength today because it is preparing us for the future glory.
- Ex. Eli Bremer, one of our members, is a Pentathlete on the Olympic Team. His eyes are on the Olympic Prize.
- Keep that day before the eyes of your heart: the kingdom, given rewards, before that mighty throne.
- You do suffer in this life, but your tears are being stored. Your pains are being felt by Christ.
John 15:18-20
"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
- All of us have experienced this! When we get saved, we are excited and our family wants to kick us out.
- In these latter days, the persecution is increasing. Our rights are gradually, slowly being taken away, eroded.
- We cry out to God, “I don’t understand.” It is a kind of groaning, not a griping, not a complaining, but a groaning. The rest of this chapter in Romans talks about this.
Vs. 19-20
- We can’t deal with death; we are not wired for death; this is not what we were created for.
- So, we are groaning over the pains of this life.
- Ex. We want our kids to be safe, to play in safety and security, and yet this world is getting worse.
- And even all of creation is longing for heaven!! We are all longing for heaven, and we keep finding out that this is not heaven.
- For the unbeliever, it doesn’t get any better than this earth: heaven forbid! But, for the believer, it doesn’t get any worse than this, only better!!
Vs. 21-22
- Ex. Ladies, how about being in ceaseless labor for thousands of years, “groans and labors.” Imagine, it means that all of creation is in transition, in labor, for thousands of years!!
- So, it is through our suffering that God is building within us hope for a new day.
- Creation itself, along with us, are awaiting that day, for it builds hope within us for a new day.
- Ex. What was the original creation like? We really wonder:
- They’ve discovered Aroma Therapy that brings freedom to our bodies.
- Light Therapy that brings life to our bodies and spirit through life.
- Discovering all these homeopathic cures, it makes us wonder what creation was like before the fall.
- Ex. Moses spent 80 days on the mountain without food or water!! How could he do that? It was a different dimension, and unimaginable for us what awaits us!! Paradise awaits us.
- All of creation is longing for that; we will all put on immortality and the mortal will fall off.
- We suffer through death, persecution and hardships in this life, but we cast our eyes on the glorious future home and fellowship we will have in Christ.
- Ex. An article in the Wall Street Journal from a few years ago, not written by a Christian, Dr. John A. Clark, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Michigan, is entitled: “Smart Machines and Foolish People. Clark says, “Rather than supporting the random event hyphothesis of evolutionary science, the revolutionary insights provided by fact of information stored in the DNA chain raises the pregnant question of where and how that information got there. As each person or species, it makes them unique and information in the DNA unique. The ideas of randomness as its cause appear to be foolish. Further if one looks to the insights provided by the recent developments in cosmology it becomes clearer that a design and plan exists for human life and the cosmos. These ideas are powerful and compelling and do require a reconsideration of the arguments of the random selection put forth in the 19th century.”
- Duh!! It is not a random change mess; it is creation, but it is being corrupted.
- Ex. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, entropy, all scientists agree, flies in the face of evolution. Things are not improving; it is all disintegrating.
- Evolutionists are telling us that we are evolving, getting better and better. I don’t see that. Their theories take way more faith than creation does.
Vs. 23-25
- We are the first fruits of the Spirit.
- Ex. Scientists say if you took all the DNA of every cell in your body, it would all fit into an ice cube. But, if you put all the strands of your DNA end to end, it would go from the earth to the sun and back, 300 times! Now that’s a lot of information.
- And we haven’t seen anything yet! Imagine what will happen when all of that potential and information is fired up by the Spirit.
- Imagine what we will be like when the constraints of this earth are thrown off.
Purpose to Suffering: Makes Us Long for the Full Revelation
- We are longing for the fulfillment of our adoption and the full revelation of Christ.
- The spirit of adoption has given us light and has given hope for something we can’t see right now.
- Ex. We often say, “I’m not as thankful as I should be.” Well, if wer were as thankful as we should be, we would have to be looking into the face of Christ, so be as thankful as you can be.
- “I need to pray more, study more.” It’s never enough.
- What we are saying is that we are groaning; we are longing for our real home.
- What we are really saying is “I want to see my wife there, my kids, my parents, my granddaddy and grandmother. I want to see my brother and my sister, with no worries about kidnappings, muggings, gangs, or terrorism.”
- We have a new HOPE. The Spirit has given us a new vision for our life, but it will never be fulfilled completely until we are redeemed.
- We are ruined for this world.
2 Thessalonians 2:16
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace…
- It is purifying; it is our consolation; it is our grace.
- Read Revelation 21 and 22 again! Hope for that!
Vs. 26
Purpose to Suffering: We are Drawn into Prayer
- Prayer doesn’t appeal to the flesh, worry does!
- The Spirit guides us in prayer, especially during times of turmoil and suffering.
- We have the mind of Christ speaking to us as we pray.
- The Spirit prays through us; He helps us pray.
- He comes alongside us and bears the burden with us; He doesn’t take it all, but He comes alongside.
- We come to pray, we think we are going to change things, and really He comes and changes us!
- When we experience His presence, something happens that changes us!
- “According to the will of God,” it is in prayer that the Spirit meets us and interprets the will of God through our selfish prayers.
Vs. 27
Purpose to Suffering: As We Pray, as We Seek God, the Holy Spirit Leads Us into God’s Will for Our Lives
- We don’t even know it, but as we pray, as we stay in the Spirit, God opens up His will in our lives.
- It is not always what we want, but it is always what He wants.
Vs. 28
Purpose to Suffering: We Realize that God is Sovereign and that All Things Really do Work Together for Good
- If you are living according to His purposes, He is using suffering in your life to produce something.
- Pick your hard: trust that God is in control, or be left on your own to try and manipulate and cajole your own way.
- Ex. I have now lived long enough to see this to be true. So many times the circumstances seemed so bad, so difficult, and now I look back and see the shadow behind it all, God working out His plan.
Vs. 29-30
Purpose to Suffering: God Uses Suffering in Our Lives to Conform Us More to His Image
- God’s purpose is to change us to be more like his Son.
- It is most often through suffering that we are crushed into His image.
- Ex. The gold smith places the gold into the vat and slowly turns up the heat, and as the dross and impurity floats to the top, he skims it off, until the point where he can clearly see his reflection in the gold.
- And so it is with the Lord; He is purifying us through pain and suffering that He might see His face, His reflection clearly in us.
Vs. 31-39
Purpose to Suffering: Through suffering, We are Forged into Conquerors
- I like what Winston Churchill, who was not unfamiliar with great failures, said, “Success is going from failure to failure with great enthusiasm.”
- You can’t be a “conqueror” unless there is something to conquer: some obstacle, barrier, crisis, enemy, or determined foe.
- In verses 35-39, our passage says that you can be more than a conqueror.
Cripple a man, you have a Sir Walter Raleigh;
Lock him into a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyon;
Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge. and you have a George Washington;
Raise him in abject poverty, and you have a Abraham Lincoln;
Deafen a genius composer, and you have a Ludwig Von Beethoven;
Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial prejudice, and you have a Booker T Washington, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, or Martin Luther King Jr.;
Call him a slow learner and deprive him of any parental affection, and you have a Winston Churchill
You are more than conquerors! What are your obstacles? What are your fears? Face them and conquer them through the power of Christ.
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
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