[0:06] Okay, we are going to welcome Pastor Luke up to preach for us to bring the word out of Romans chapter 8 this morning.
So, let's take a minute and attune our hearts to the Spirit for a second.
If you have your Bible, I want you to open it up to Romans chapter 8 right now.
And then in an act of engaging our whole selves as we prepare to hear the word of God, I want you to just, you're holding your Bible in one hand, just place your hand down on top of your Bible and the other right there in Romans chapter eight.
We're gonna ask the Lord to speak to us through his word this morning.
Yeah, let's pray, okay? Heavenly Father, Lord, we know that in your word, Jesus said that after he ascends back into heaven after his resurrection, that he's going to tell the Father to send the Holy Spirit.
And that we want the Holy Spirit, Jesus said. you want him to come, Lord then Jesus Jesus continued to tell us the role, some of the jobs some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit would would manifest himself in his glory in our lives and one of those ways Lord would be to reveal the truth of your word.

[1:25] Lord the word is before us now and we do not we do not peddle it, we do not handle it unwisely but father we we believe that your word to us is holiness and life and we pray heavenly father that through your holy spirit that your word would be revealed in our hearts as true, lord that it would take root in our hearts to transform us to change us Lord, that we would be encouraged and challenged.
Lord, that we would hear the voice of your Holy Spirit calling us to repentance and new life.
We ask, Father, that you would speak through or in spite of our brother, your servant, Pastor Luke.
We thank you for his gifts, Father. We thank you for his ministry among us, Lord.
Lord, we pray that you would empower him this morning in boldness and confidence to preach not under his own authority, but simply, Lord, to proclaim the authority of God's word in our lives and in our midst in Jesus' name.
Setting the Stage

[2:41] Thanks, Pastor Cameron. Yes, so we've been in the book of Romans, and sometimes when we're going through a book, because Paul wrote it, we call it a book, but Paul wrote it as a letter, and just like when you get a letter, you don't read two sentences and then set it down and walk away for a week and then come back and pick up the letter.
It's not how we read letters, and that's not how the book of Romans was really intended to read.

[3:12] Necessarily. And so sometimes we need to be able to kind of like get our head back into kind of like if you ever watch like those cliffhanger shows, like my family growing up, we loved watching 24, right?
With, you know, just trying to save the whole world inside of 24 hours and never have to go to the bathroom.
That was like our favorite show watching up or growing up. And at the beginning of every episode, it's like, previously on 24, right?
You kind of had to have that go back and forth.
Introduction to the Book of Romans

[3:46] And so it's a little bit of what we're going to do this morning.
It's just a little bit of a like, all right, what do we need to have in our mind before we dive into what the rest of chapter eight has for us?
Acknowledging the Brokenness of the World

[4:00] And I kind of want to just take a moment and just kind of acknowledge the world that we we live in, right?
If we were to just pause and just think about the world that surrounds us, like the news that we see on the television, the relationships that we have, the life experiences that we have, and just acknowledge that something is inherently broken.

[4:29] Something isn't right with the world.
It doesn't take a whole lot to see that. It takes, you know, a couple of minutes on CNN to hear enough stories to make you want to go back to bed.

[4:45] And, like, why is that? Why is the world so irreparably broken?
It's not like we've not been trying to fix it for the last 2,000 years, right?
Actually, we're tempted to believe this, like, idea that, like, well, you know, if we just get enough technology, if we just educate people enough, like, that will fix it.
Well, we're like the most educated anyone's ever been in the entire history of humanity.
More people have access to information than they've ever had before.
And we are still just as messed up. In fact, we're like creating ways to be more messed up.
Like it is this brokenness that is just absolutely pervasive.
Now, if you've grown up in the church a lot, you've heard probably a lot of sermons about sin, right?
And sin in our minds, at least in my mind growing up, was always this, it's the wrong thing that you did or did not do.
Right? It's this wrong action. And that is indeed what sin is to a degree, but there's greater, I think, implications to sin.
It has a greater and broader meaning than just simply what we do or do not do that is wrong.

[6:13] And I kind of want to just think about that for a minute.
Sin is this thing that kind of has this almost virality to it.
It has this ongoing effect. Effect.

[6:28] Have you ever heard of the phrase that hurt people hurt people?
That if something has been done wrong to us, if sin has been done wrong to us, we are more likely to perpetuate that wrong and that sin into other people's lives.
You want to know how someone feels on the inside, how they're feeling?
Just pay attention to how they try and make you feel.
Right it it is just this contagiousness to what is inside of us and how it impacts us, like i've been doing a lot of reading and research and learning recently and kind of learning a lot about generational sin and like i just we don't have the time here today to talk about all of the things that go into generational sin but let me tell you it is just absolutely astounding how the sins and the brokenness and the hurts of our grandparents came to our parents and have come into our lives.
And we struggle to rid ourselves of those.
Life just continues these patterns of kind of, again, giving over the hurt to the next generation if we don't ever get its It's healing or it dealt with through the Lord.

[7:54] I want to kind of not just proclaim this to you, but I want to kind of look at this almost a little bit here.
Sin's Entrance in Genesis

[8:01] It's going to turn all the way to Genesis chapter 3.
So at the beginning of your Bible, we'll turn to Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3.

[8:26] Genesis begins with that story of creation, but then the placing of Adam and Eve in a garden, in a place that was structured, ordered, beautiful, and was all good.
And God told them to eat of one tree, but don't eat of this tree.
You're going to have any fruit, just not this fruit, the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
And sure enough, they're tempted by the serpent, and they eat of that fruit.
They make a decision to say, you know what?
We're going to live our life on our terms and not God's terms.
We want to be the arbiters of what is right and what is wrong, and with that act comes sin, and we're Where God has come into the garden to confront and talk with Adam and Eve.
And I want us to look at the impact of sin.
Sin has entered into the world. And let's just see how it has impacted things.

[9:40] This is God and he says, And he said, Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? come.
The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some of the fruit from the tree and I ate it.
Then the Lord said to the woman, what is this you have done?
And the woman said, the serpent, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
So the Lord said, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and wild animals.
You will crawl all on your belly. You will eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers.
He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

[10:27] To the woman, he said, I will make your pains at childbearing very severe.
The painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
Impact of Sin in Creation

[11:11] To Adam, he said, since from it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you will return, Notice that progression of sin.

[11:26] Notice how it's affecting Eve and then affecting how she conceives and experiences and has children.
And then it affects the relationship between Adam and Eve. Eve and then how it affects Adam and his work and how that affects the entire planet.
Adam and Eve, it's not just like they ate this fruit and I was, oh, that was your guys' personal decision.
I understand that has no consequences whatsoever on anyone else.
That's not the story the Bible tells. The story tells of this almost kind of this disease, this sin that just spreads from its moment of entrance into the world into affecting everything and everyone.

[12:23] Sin is the disease that has corrupted the world and humanity.
It is the thing that has brought brought brokenness into the human experience from the moment we are born.
In Psalm 51, David talks about being conceived in sin, like understanding that from the very beginning that he was somehow broken in some way, that there was a needing of some sort of fixing or healing.
Sin's Ongoing Effects

[12:56] If we were to turn and go forward in the Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah, towards the latter half of the Old Testament after Isaiah, Jeremiah 12. 12.
Jeremiah's Lament

[13:19] Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet because he saw so much pain and suffering he was one of the last prophets before the fall of israel and judah and he saw the consequences of of really of israel unrepenting from sin of sin having this effect on the people around them and it affecting Israel and affecting their worship and constantly leading them astray.
And so Jeremiah is frustrated because he's seen the consequences of sin and he sees it everywhere and he comes to God and he confronts God with this in the first verses of Jeremiah chapter 12.

[14:10] He says in verse 1, You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you, yet I would speak with you about your justice.
Why does the ways of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
You have planted them, and they have taken root.
They grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips, but far from their hearts.
Yet you know me, Lord.
You see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered.
Set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked.
The animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying, he will not see what happens to us.
In one sense, Jeremiah is talking about the immediate events and suffering that's happening to Judah and Israel, that they're about to be punished and dragged off.
But he's also saying, he's like, but look at everyone else.
Is there not wickedness in the rest of the world? Is not the sin and the brokenness of the ground still evident?
Won't you do something about it?

[15:40] The world is broken. And the Bible testifies to it.
It's not like the Bible says, oh, everything's perfectly fine.
Just put on a smile and go to church and have a good time.
Like, that's not, the Bible doesn't talk about it that way. The Bible is filled with lament and suffering and difficulties and saying, the world is not as it should be, and it hasn't been since the garden.
And so we're left with this question of just what exactly is the answer to Jeremiah's complaint?
Jeremiah comes to the Lord and he says, what are you going to do about this?
What are you going to do about the evil that seems to just go unchecked in this world?
What's the answer to that?

[16:35] And what's the answer to you and I who are living in this world and experiencing the consequences of sin?
Sin in our own hearts, desires, actions, behaviors that just are not of, they're not good.
We're not desiring the right thing.
What about, what are we going to do about the brokenness in our relationship?
Those that we love most, we still struggle to connect with.
We hurt those we ought to care for.
What about just the brokenness of our own world?
It seems that no matter what we do, every solution we come up with creates another consequence and another brokenness.
We can come up with so many systems, and every single system is broken just like we are.
So, what are we to do with all of that?
Well, I want to move forward back to the book of Romans, and I want to pick up in Romans chapter 3 for a moment to remind us of this passage that we talked about some months ago now.
Romans chapter 3, we're going to start in verse 23.

[18:00] Romans chapter 3.

[18:10] This is a key hinge point in the book of the Romans.
Romans 3.23, it says, For all have sinned, and all fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith.
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God's answer to sin and to brokenness is patience and then ultimately providing the redemption and the atonement for sin and brokenness in the world.
And to say it another way is to say that Jesus is the life-giving transfusion that cost him everything but resulted in a new sin-free creation.

[19:39] Jesus came and the world is sick. You and I are sick with sin, for every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
There's nothing you or I can do to heal ourselves or our world from this disease.
But Christ comes with this, using the language here of transfusion of blood.
He had the only cure or salvation that we could potentially even hope for.
And he came and he gave us new life through him, through his atoning sacrifice.
A sacrifice that cost him his life. Now, it didn't end there.
It didn't end on Good Friday or on the cross.
He was buried and he rose again to new life as the first fruits of a new creation, of a newness of life, of a restoration from the world or to the way that things ought to be.

[20:42] And so God has said, I was patient. We were waiting until the right time.
And now here Christ is, and he's inviting us all to know him, to become redeemed and to become saved and become part of that new life.
Creation. It's there that we find our healing.
And that brings us forward to Romans chapter 8, where this continues on, like Pastor Cameron was talking about last week, this adoption into a new family. Romans 8, 14.
Justification through Christ

[21:30] For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, and we by him cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
Adoption into God's Family

[22:08] If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Amen.
It's not just that we were simply saved. We don't just have a new life. We have a new family.
We have been bought by the blood of Christ. And that has now made us.
Us, you and I in this room, part of a family.
Something that is more real than the physical blood that runs through us, but by the spiritual blood, the physical blood of Jesus Christ we were bought and paid for with.

[22:48] So God is bringing about this redemption.
He's bringing about a a change in who we are.
He's giving a cure, as it were, to sin, a pathway forward.
But the question still remains, okay, God did that in Jesus Christ. That happened.
We've confessed Jesus as our Lord. We've received adoption as sons.
This passage talks about sonship and it's meant to apply to all of us, regardless of our gender.
It's this idea that we have all become the sons and daughters of God in this family.

[23:38] But all of that is true. I believe that the Bible tells me so.
But the question still remains for us is, why is there still so much brokenness?
Why is it that you and I still encounter sin inside of ourselves that wants to come out and break our own selves and break our relationships and hurt the world around us?
Why does the world still breaking apart us?

[24:11] Where is that? Why is it not seemingly this brand new creation yet?
Well, let's just keep reading.
The Groaning of Creation

[24:23] Why is it that the effects of sin still linger? I want us to read Romans 8, 17 through 19.
Connecting last week to this week's passage.
Now, if we are children, then we are heirs. heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed, for creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

[25:09] Do you notice something in those verses? Like, I think if we're not careful, because at least my Bible and most of the translations, I put a little bit of a paragraph break between verse 17 and 18.
And because of that, we might be tempted to kind of just not pay attention to that word that occurs in both of those sections in those new paragraphs.
That kind of that qualifying statement remember like we says all of these fantastic things in that last couple verses and in 17 it gives this qualifying statement it says if if indeed we share in his sufferings and then it says it again in verse 18 i consider that our present what What sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed?
For creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

[26:16] We are called to follow Jesus in his sufferings in order to share in curing the world and ourselves of sin.
The world is waiting an eager expectation for the culmination and the removal of sin for the newness of creation and but what notice what it says this is like a really interesting thing it's not waiting for god i mean it is waiting for god to do something but it's waiting for a very specific thing to happen verse 19 creation is waiting what's it waiting for waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
Is that not referring to us?

[27:06] Like, God is inviting you and I to follow after Christ.
And when we do so, we're becoming active participants in the renewal and the removal of sin from both our lives and the world.
And there will come a day when Christ will take us all and we will be revealed as the family of God, as the children of God.
And at that culmination, all of the curse of sin that the world has been subjugated to will be reversed.

[27:48] It goes on to explain more of this. Let's keep reading.
Let's go into verse, let's read verse 20 through 25 here.

[28:04] For the creation was subjugated to frustration not by its own choice remember what happened in genesis 3 the ground had nothing to say about it being cursed that was the result the spreading of sin from adam and eve but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory 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.
Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship the redemption of our bodies for in this hope we were saved but hope that is seen as no hope at all who hopes for what they already have but if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently.

[29:21] Talks about this groaning. It talks about pains as if pains in childbirth, which are not pains without purpose, right?
Pains in childbirth have a point.
They're leading up to something, the birth of new life.

[29:44] They're not pains that are without an end.
And so the same is said of our whole entire world, of our human experience.
We're groaning as we're experiencing these pains, as God is seeking to bring about a new birth and new creation.
It has so much more to do than just with you and me.
Me than to do with just how like sometimes we get into this place where Jesus is kind of my little like he's kind of like the little guy kind of motivates me through my week right like I got to get enough Jesus on Sunday morning so that I can kind of get through the week and I understand that we absolutely do need Jesus every single breath that I take, But at the same time, what Christ is doing is so much bigger than your life.

[30:46] It has to do with everyone. It has to do with people you've never met.
It has to do with the world in which we inhabit.
We kind of have this idea. We talked about this, I think, last year.
We kind of talked about it in the Eternity series.
But we have this conception of what heaven is supposed to be like.
And we kind of think of it as this like ethereal place where we all have wings and we kind of float around.

[31:15] If you go all the way to Revelation and you talk about the new heaven and the new earth, it's not talking about this place of not just etherealness, but of physicality.
It talks about Christ having this resurrected body.
Christ is not spiritual.
I mean, he is spiritual, but he's not simply ethereal. He has a body.
After he was raised from the dead the disciples ate with him if he was just casper the friendly ghost he couldn't do that right there is a physicality to what god has desired he wants to renew creation the creation you and i see is calling out to be renewed to be recreated into a place that is entirely a garden.
To be restored back to a place where we are in the good creation and we were in good relationship with God.

[32:28] And so we're put into this place of this in-between.
Between sometimes theologians call it the already but not yet i was talking with someone recently uh who was making the argument he thought maybe it would be better to call it the not yet but already because of the experience of that not yet can be so strong because we've been promised the thing the god is already he's already called us the children of god but there's something still yet that is happening and is yet to happen that's the not yet there is a brokenness in this world that remains if we think about it we could say it this way inheritance is first promised to those who have become sons but it is fulfilled in full in the future.

[33:27] An inheritance is something that is set aside, that is promised, and will be given to those who are already sons, who are already daughters, who are children of God.
But inheritance isn't a thing, it's not like a birthday gift.
You don't get it right away. You get it in the future.
And so it comes with certain benefits. It comes with a status right now.
But it's also it's not going to come in its full into the future and that's what we kind of see when we are talking about this if we go back up to verse 17 Paul's talking about we are heirs to God we are co-heirs with Christ there is this inheritance that is we've been brought into as the family of God, and it's not here yet.
It's coming. We're getting foretastes of it.
Little bits and pieces of it are breaking through as heaven comes down into earth and as God's will is done through his body, but it's not here yet.

[34:40] Yet. It's kind of like, you know, are any of you really bad at waiting for gifts?
Like, you know, like it's Christmas and you're like, what's in that gift you got me?
Like, let me know. Like, if you don't like surprises, right?
You kind of just want to know what's in in there, right?
There's this like groaning that goes on. I'm just like, I kind of want to just like peek, you know, like see what's in there, you know.
There is this groaning, this anticipation for what is coming.
And that's kind of this place in which we find ourselves.
We are invited into the groaning of redemption. Because I got to go back.
I got to go back to those words that we did not really want to hear, at least I don't want to hear, and that we're invited in to participate in the sufferings of Christ.

[35:45] God wants us to follow after Christ.
If Christ brought redemption, brought the cure to the sin of disease, or the disease of sin, through suffering, through death on a cross.
If you were here on Ash Wednesday, we talked about the passage where Christ says, like a seed has to fall into the ground and die to bear fruit.

[36:16] So also the Son of Man must die so that he can bear fruit and give life to many.
And we are called, and then Jesus says, follow me.
Pick up your cross and follow after me. Those who love their life will lose it, but those who lose their their life for my sake will gain eternal life.
And that's why, if you've wondered why there are planters in the back of the sanctuary along that last pew, is because we planted some seeds during that service to be a reminder that we are called to lose ourselves, to die, to endure a suffering offering of a sorts that puts away our sin and is creating a newness of life out of it.
We're called to participate and to pursue after that.
And it puts us into this place of groaning through the redemption that God is bringing about in the world.

[37:18] So how then do we do that, though?

[37:22] Like, nobody loves to suffer. Nobody likes that.
If I could, right now, if there was like a switch right here, I could just throw the switch and it would fix everything.
I probably would, right?
Because no one likes the stuckness that we're in, this groaning, this anticipation.
Encouragement in Suffering

[37:44] No one likes the suffering. suffering so what then do we do we're called to this hope because that's where it kind of is lead where we kind of left off when we were talking in those last couple of verses, but let's pick up after verse 25 let's start in 26 and Paul begins to give encouragement encouragement after encouragement, promise after promise for us to hold on to as we work through the groaning of redemption.
Verse 26 says, in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through the the 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.

[38:47] What's he saying? He's saying that the Holy Spirit that we are to be living by is praying for you.
That you or I, we don't know the will of God.
Right? So many times we wish, God, would you just give me a neon sign?
Sometimes he does, but so often he does not.
We don't know the will of God.
But we do know that the Spirit is praying for us.
That the Spirit is leading us into the will of God, even amidst our blindness.

[39:24] And so we're invited into this place to not lose hope because God will guide you even when you can't possibly see the very next turn. You're like, I don't know where I'm supposed to go.
Maybe you're in the middle of some difficult season right now, some groaning, some suffering that feels like the self in your life is falling apart and being taken away.
What are you supposed to do? What's next? Well, don't lose hope because the Spirit's praying for you.
And the Spirit is trying to lead you even though you don't know where to go next.
You don't know where you're going to end up. See, the thing is, is we would love to write our own stories, right?
We'd all love to be the author of my own story if I could, right?
But the thing is, is we write very boring fiction, right?
And the reason why is because like, oh, well, me, the main character went and did a thing and he was great at it.
And then he went and he did the next thing and he succeeded.
And then guess what? Out of nowhere came all of these fantastic things.
That's the story I would love to write for my life. One without suffering.
One without my own sin. Without my own failings. One in which I always did the right thing.
One in which I always got the thing I wanted.

[40:49] But that's not the story of my life, and it's not the story of your life.
Because we're very bad authors.

[41:00] Let's read on. Let's come to verse 28. and know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, And those he predestined, he also called.
Those he called, he also justified.
And those he justified, he also glorified.

[41:43] Notice it didn't say that God makes only good things happen to those who love him.
It said all things, the good and the bad things that happen to you will eventually work out for good. But what is good?
What is good? Because your definition of good, my definition of good, might be very different from God's definition of good.
God's definition of good is in that ultimate purpose that he mentions.
He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
That's the greatest good that could ever happen to any single one of us.
Is to be made into a son or a daughter that looks like Jesus.

[42:38] That's the greatest good. Because so often we're like, Jesus, wouldn't it just be the greatest good if I just, you know, got a million dollars?
Wouldn't it be the greatest good if everything was just easy from here on out?
No. Because what's that going to create in us? Is that going to create in you or I?
Is that going to make us look like Jesus? Or is that just going to feed the sinful self that's still fighting inside of us?
God works everything in your life towards the ultimate good, which is not simply our pleasure or our happiness. It's our holiness.
And that is where we're being called to be.

[43:31] God has your ultimate good in mind. He is forming you into the image of Jesus.
I kind of think about it as a Rubik's Cube. I'm going to say this like I've ever actually solved a Rubik's Cube.
I'm like, I kind of like wanted to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube.
There was like, I had a guy in college. He was way, way, way smarter than me.
He could like speed solve Rubik's Cubes and like weird Rubik's Cubes, like Rubik's Cubes that have 15 sides or something like that. It's just wicked smart.
And I wanted to figure out how to do it by myself, though. I used YouTube tutorials and stuff. I couldn't figure out.
I could get half of a Rubik's Cube solved. I'm really good at solving half a Rubik's Cube.
But the thing that becomes really difficult is in order to solve the second half of a Rubik's Cube is that you have to mess up the first half that you already solved.

[44:30] Right? You can get one side, and you can get even maybe like the top part, and you can get all the sides all kind of matched up, but then to get that other side, that last half of the Rubik's Cube, you've got to move pieces around that you already thought you had in place, and then you've got to be able to shuffle them all back in, and that is, I got to tell you what, that is what the Christian life feels like, because we've already been called to be sons and daughters.
God is already doing something in your life.
But man, and like I know some of you who have been following the Lord know what this is like because you were like, I started following the Lord and it seemed like things were just taking off.
I was growing, I was loving the Lord, growing in community.
And then at some point, things got really, really messy and hard again, because the Lord is shaking you up because he's like, all right, we got down this far into your life, but we still got all the way down here to go and we got to get there somehow.
And the only way we can do that is by breaking it up and shuffling things around.
Ultimate Good in Holiness

[45:47] Because your ultimate good is not your happiness, it's your holiness.
It's to be like Christ, to be a son and a daughter.
And we don't get there without following the path of the cross, without dying to self, without participating in the sufferings of Christ.
But don't lose hope. Never lose hope. You know why?
God's Unwavering Support

[46:18] Because what then shall we say in response to all of these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

[46:47] Who? Who will bring any charge against those that God has chosen?
It's God who justifies, and who is the one who condemns?
No one, because Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God also interceding for you. He's praying for you.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble, shall hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
For as it is written, for your sake we face death all day long.
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But no, in all these things we are more than conquerors. through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[48:07] There is nothing, there is not an experience of pain or suffering or disorientation that could happen to you that would ever even separate you for a moment from Christ's love.
The Spirit is is interceding with you, is walking alongside you and praying for you.
And again, on top of that, Jesus, who died for you, who was raised for you, sits next to God the Father and is also praying for you.
There is not a thing more powerful than the prayers of God on your behalf.

[48:56] How can we face suffering? How can we follow the path that Christ has called us to walk down if it's marked with difficulty, if it's marked with pain, if it's marked with uncertainty?

[49:09] It's because Christ is with us. He's right here with us.
Whether we walk through the valley of the shadow of death or in green pastures, the Good Shepherd walks alongside of us.
Leading us to where we are to go, calling us to be like him and to be with him.
That is the hope. That is the gospel that brings us forth and allows us to exist in this world that is absolutely groaning, that is absolutely experiencing these pains, these consequences of sin.
Facing Groaning and Pain

[49:53] Because it's everywhere. and it just bleeds over top of us all and creates so much damage and so much pain.
But how can we face that?
Face it not because we're strong, not because we're determined, not because we've got goodwill, not because we'd show up to church every Sunday.
We can face it because Christ is with us, because his spirit abides in us us and we are called to become like him in this world, to participate in the redemption of not just our own souls, but the souls of our community and the world.

[50:36] So let us strive to abide in the Spirit to be with Jesus.
Let us strive to not stray or do things in our own strength, but to remain, to remain firmly planted and connected with Jesus because we can do nothing apart from him, like it says in John.
We can do nothing apart from him. We have to abide. We have to remain connected with Jesus. We have to stay with him.

[51:10] Let us strive to become like Jesus through grace.
Becoming Like Jesus Through Grace

[51:15] You and I, we're not going to become better people because I just sat here and said, all right, I'm a better person. This isn't how it works.
You and I, we can come up with a gazillion different laws for ourselves.
A bunch of different rules. We can do a whole bunch of habits.
That doesn't make you or I a better person.
It's only by realizing that we don't have to, that we're freed from sin.
We're freed from brokenness. Not just to be free, but to be free to Christ through grace.
By experiencing and rehearsing the gospel. Christians never outgrow the gospel.
Let us become like Jesus through grace and the Spirit.
And then finally, let us embrace with confidence the path that God calls us down.
I know that you don't know where that path is going to lead you yet.
I know that that path isn't necessarily easy yet.

[52:25] But God is calling you to take the next most faithful step.
You don't have to know. You don't have to know where you're going to go yet.
You don't have to know how you're going to get there yet.
You just got to take that next step that the Spirit is calling you to take.
Say, Lord, how can I be faithful today? Okay. And that's it.
Let us abide with Christ. Let us grow with Christ. and let us follow after him.
Conduit, might I remind you of this word one last time.
Overcoming Through Christ's Love

[53:06] In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nothing present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conduit, you are loved. Go in peace.