Inviting the Spirit: Finding Hope in the Birth Pangs

• The Holy Spirit's Intervention [00:34:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the Spirit intervenes for believers, particularly in their weakness and groaning, contrasting this with the cultural notion that suffering is random.
• The Fall and Creation's Decay [00:35:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that creation groans due to Adam's sin, leading to a state of decay and frustration, rather than random chance.
• Suffering as Birth Pangs [00:42:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of birth pangs to explain that suffering is not meaningless but points toward the future redemption and glory of children of God.
• The Problem of Suffering and Evil [00:41:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the cultural view that 'stuff happens' without meaning against the biblical view that suffering is a result of sin, yet serves as 'birth pangs' pointing to future redemption.
• The 'Already/Not Yet' Tension [00:43:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains the concept of the Spirit as a 'down payment' or 'firstfruits,' indicating that while believers have the Spirit now, the full redemption of the body is yet to come.
• Walking in the Spirit vs. The Flesh [00:46:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > Uses the analogy of changing time zones to describe the shift from the realm of the flesh (self, law, human approval) to the realm of the Spirit (freedom, pleasing God).
• Identity and Motivation [00:48:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Argues that behavior is secondary to identity; believers must recognize they are children and heirs of God, which changes their motivation from seeking human approval to seeking God's pleasure.
• The Spirit's Intercession [00:55:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > Highlights how the Spirit helps believers in their weakness by interceding with 'wordless groans' when they do not know how to pray.
• The Spirit's Intercession [00:55:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the Spirit helps believers in their weakness by interceding with wordless groans when they do not know what to pray.
• Human Weakness in Prayer [00:56:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor admits his own struggle with prayer, normalizing the feeling of weakness and misinclination toward prayer as part of fallen humanity.
• Divine Reliance vs. Flesh [00:57:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the flesh's desire for self-reliance and control with the Spirit's role in doing the 'heavy lifting' in prayer.
• The Nicene Creed and Trinitarian Living [00:58:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the Spirit's work to the Nicene Creed's affirmation of the Spirit's full divinity, urging the congregation to live as Trinitarians.

• Sermon Illustration [00:35:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story about adopting a beagle puppy, driving back to Maryland from New Jersey with a student, and experiencing a series of disasters: the car breaking down in Pennsylvania, a dead puppy found in the road that they buried, the car losing power on hills, and arriving home to find the furnace broken.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares the story of his friend Jeff, who battled leukemia for ten years and recently passed away, illustrating the reality of suffering and death within the community of believers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites a song by Caitlin Tarver titled 'Stuff Happens' which claims there is no deeper meaning to suffering, using it as a foil to present the biblical perspective on evil and redemption.
• Sermon Illustration [00:47:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy comparing the Christian life to changing time zones: just as a body struggles to adjust to a new time zone after travel, believers struggle to adjust from the 'old time zone' of the flesh to the 'new time zone' of the Spirit.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal anecdote about posting a photo on social media and feeling depressed by a lack of 'likes,' illustrating the fleshly desire for human approval versus the spiritual desire to please God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story from the pastor's time as a college president, where he resented a colleague's enrollment success attributed to a spiritual revival, illustrating the 'fleshly' mindset of comparing oneself to others and viewing God as an employer.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a driving analogy, suggesting that when overwhelmed by a prayer list, one should 'invite [the Spirit] in and let me do the driving' because the Spirit will get them where they need to go.
• Sermon Illustration [00:58:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes believers as 'instruments in God's own bittersweet symphony' who must open themselves up to the Spirit to be played.

• Pastoral Charge [00:54:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Contact church leadership to confirm salvation assurance
• Pastoral Charge [00:54:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Talk to church leadership to confirm salvation
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > Invite the Holy Spirit to intercede and 'drive' their prayer life
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > Live as a Trinitarian by actively inviting the Holy Spirit into their lives

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:01:44] Good morning and welcome to Corinth where our mission is to proclaim and worship Jesus as Lord. Whether you're joining us in the room or you're online watching us, we're glad that you are worshiping with us today. If we haven't met yet, my name is Amy. I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Corinth. I've got just a few announcements that I want to draw your attention to. The first two I say every week and that's that at the end of your rows you've got black folders. We call those our friendship pad. It is really helpful if you let us know that you are here by signing in on that friendship pad. But if you're new to
[00:02:14] a blue card. We call it our Visitor Connect card. There's also a QR code if you'd rather fill it out online. But in either case, whether you fill it out in hard copy or online, we use that to know
[00:02:24] that we need to reach out to you and give you a little extra information about who we are and how you might get connected at Corinth. A couple of announcements that are new for this week. The
[00:02:32] first is that we have a VBS volunteer training today right after this service on the elementary hallway. If you're signed up to volunteer with Vacation Bible School, which is just about four weeks out, you need to attend a brief training either today or on June 8th. So look at your
[00:02:47] calendar. If you're busy June 8th, make sure you stop by that training today. The second big one is that this afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Student Center, which is right behind that wall, if you
[00:02:57] could walk straight through two walls, you'd be in the right place, we are having a children's musical called The Pilgrimage. Now that show is written by our own Dr. Peter Corneliuson. It is being performed by Corinth Kids. They've been working hard at this for a whole lot of weeks.
[00:03:11] So if you want to see a great show this afternoon, you don't want to spend a lot of money, and you want to encourage kids in our church, show up at four o'clock today. The show is free
[00:03:20] in the Student Center. They would love your support. And the last one I want to make sure is on your calendar is this Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. in the Althaus room. We're going to have
[00:03:28] our church-wide prayer time. Everyone is invited. We're going to spend about 30 to 40 minutes praying for our church community, the Hickory area, the world missionaries that we support.
[00:03:38] all kinds of things are going to be on the table for prayer. Prayer is one of the most important things that we can do together as a church. So if you're available Wednesday at six, we would love
[00:03:46] to see you. One of my personal dreams is that we have to build a whole new building because we can't fit enough people in the room to pray. But right now we haven't even outgrown the old house
[00:03:54] room. So join us Wednesday night. Now, as my buddy Jamie comes forward, I'm going to remind you that if you've been around Corinth for a little while, you have heard about our maps initiatives. Those
[00:04:03] are strategic initiatives we rolled out a couple of months ago. They're a mentor, attract, promote, and Shepherd. And Jamie has been leading up our Attract initiative, and he has got some exciting announcements for how that's going. Thanks, Amy. You don't need to raise your hand,

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:04:19] but I would wonder how many people in this room are struggling with how technology is affecting your children. Or perhaps someone has experienced church hurt, and you aren't really sure how to process that. Or maybe you're looking for advice on how to navigate a relationship with a prodigal
[00:04:34] child or a prodigal parent. Part of our mission at Corinth is to extend hope and to do so in a way that offers insight into everyday problems. That's why I'm excited to announce Corinth's new speaker
[00:04:45] series, Extending Hope. Over the next year, the series will feature five leading speakers who will address these and other challenges we face every day. With each speaker's visit comes the opportunity to learn, to engage, and to ask questions.
[00:05:03] To view the full Extending Hope schedule, we invite you to scan the QR code on the screen or pick up a hard copy in the RAL Welcome Center.
[00:05:14] If you find yourself searching for answers, this series was created with you in mind.
[00:05:18] So I hope you'll join us.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:05:26] That is the result of a lot of weeks of hard work, and that team has been putting it together.
[00:05:30] I have checked out their speakers and what's coming up, and I think you'll all be really excited about what they've got coming for us. So you might know that by now we are in week six of
[00:05:40] a sermon series on the Nicene Creed, and I've talked to you a few times about the Nicene Creed and what it is and where it came from. On week six, I will tell you that the Nicene Creed, if you
[00:05:49] haven't noticed, is structured in such a way that we talk first about what we believe about God the Father, and then the next paragraph is about what we believe about Jesus, and then the next paragraph
[00:05:59] is about what we believe about the Holy Spirit. And that's where we're going to be camping out today. Pastor Nick's got a great sermon for us on the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit means
[00:06:07] in our lives. But before we get to that, I do want us to affirm together the things that we believe that are written out for us in the Nicene Creed. So would you stand and we're going to say the
[00:06:18] Nicene Creed together all the way through the part about the Holy Spirit. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all
[00:06:42] ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
[00:07:08] For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
[00:07:12] He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
[00:07:19] He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
[00:07:24] He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
[00:07:28] and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
[00:07:43] who has spoken through the prophets. And if you want to know how that ends, you got to come back next week. But for right now, while the band comes up, take a few minutes and greet someone near you.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:09:02] Okay, if you'll make your way back to your seats, we're going to begin our time of worship.
[00:09:06] I'm going to start by reading Psalm 42 to you this morning.
[00:09:11] As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
[00:09:16] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
[00:09:20] When can I go and meet with God?
[00:09:22] My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, where is your God?
[00:09:28] These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
[00:09:39] Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me. Therefore, I will remember
[00:09:49] you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from Mount Mazar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. All of your waves and breakers have swept over me.
[00:10:00] By day the Lord directs his love At night his song is with me A prayer to the God of my life I say to God, my rock Why have you forgotten me?
[00:10:09] Why must I go about mourning Oppressed by the enemy?
[00:10:12] My bones suffer mortal agony As my foes taunt me Saying to me all day long Where is your God?
[00:10:18] Why, my soul, are you downcast?
[00:10:20] Why so disturbed within me?
[00:10:21] Put your hope in God For I will yet praise him My Savior and my God So I chose to read this psalm to you this morning because it really echoes the sentiment of the first song we are going to sing.
[00:10:33] In this psalm, the psalmist is clearly expressing his feelings and the waves of trouble that are sweeping over him.
[00:10:41] And I think that's one of the things I love about this psalm, is it reminds us that we have permission to share our feelings with the Lord.
[00:10:47] But he doesn't stop at just sharing his feelings.
[00:10:50] The psalmist chooses to do a couple of things.
[00:10:53] If you heard it several times, he reminds himself of who God is.
[00:10:57] he reminds himself how he used to go to the house of God and praise. And it says, therefore, I will remember you. And he also chooses to put his hope in God twice. It says,
[00:11:08] put your hope in God. And he chooses to praise the Lord, for I will yet praise him. He says that twice. So I think this is just so relatable. We all can experience times when joy, we kind of
[00:11:20] have to fight for joy, or we have to preach the goodness of God to ourselves. So this is our reminder this morning that praise can indeed be a weapon. When we sing that, we're getting ready
[00:11:29] to sing praise can be a weapon. Praise is the thing, it's a tool that can change us. It can change our perspective and remind us who God is and remind us to put our hope in him regardless
[00:11:40] of what we're going through. So let's pray and then lift our voices to God together.
[00:11:47] Lord God, as we prepare our hearts for worship this morning, we declare your goodness and we declare your faithfulness. Lord, when we feel overwhelmed, remind us to put our hope in you, God. Today we choose to lift our eyes above our circumstances, whatever we're going through,
[00:12:03] whatever we've carried in here with us, Lord, and we fix our eyes on your faithfulness, Lord.
[00:12:08] I pray your presence would refresh us today, God. We love you, Lord, and we give you all the praise

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:12:13] in glory. Amen. Let's praise God together. Chapter 5 verses 13 through 18. You, my brothers and

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:21:51] sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your
[00:22:03] neighbor as yourself. If you buy and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh
[00:22:14] desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the
[00:22:24] Spirit, you are not under the law. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for all that you've given us. Thank you for this time that we just get to come together and worship you
[00:22:33] and learn more about you, Lord. Thank you for your Holy Spirit and that it fills us, Lord, and allows us to be yours and allows us to spread your light to others. Lord, I pray that during the sermon
[00:22:42] today that we just listen with our whole hearts and during this worship song that we just worship you with all of our heart and thank you for everything that you've done for us. In your name,

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:22:50] I pray. Amen. We welcome you to do your work in us today. We thank you, God, for your presence,

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:27:50] your comfort, your power. Thank you for teaching us all things and guiding us to the truth.
[00:27:55] Holy Spirit help us to be more aware of your presence and guidance search us renew us and lead us closer to Jesus today through the worship and the preaching we surrender ourselves to you

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:28:06] God have your way in us and through us amen the band sets their stuff out we are going to transition to our time of offering there it is we're going to transition to our time of offering
[00:28:19] so I always like to tell people offering is not the best fundraising idea the church has had yet because it's really inefficient as fundraising but what it is is a way that we worship together
[00:28:28] So when we share our tithes and offerings, what we're really doing is we're helping people to hear the good news that we're here to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and that they can grow in faith and there is hope and that there is love in this world.
[00:28:39] So your tithes and offerings help us to do things like have vacation Bible school.
[00:28:44] We support missionaries that are right here in our community, but also in these far-flung places of the world where there is so much persecution that most of us can't even imagine it.
[00:28:53] So I'm going to pray for them, and at any time during that prayer or in the minute or so after, I would love for you to bring your tithes and offerings, or you can give using the QR code on
[00:29:00] the screen. God, we pray for the ways that our gifts are used together. We pray that you would fill the people of this community and around your world with the awareness that you are good and
[00:29:12] that you love them and that your Holy Spirit is available to them. We pray for our partners here in town over at Lenore Rhine and at the Pregnancy Care Center and at the Soup Kitchen, the people
[00:29:21] who are the boots on the ground doing such hard work day in and day out to love your people.
[00:29:26] We pray for our missionaries in places like Nicaragua and Moldova, in northern Africa and in the Middle East, places that are seeing really hard times who've asked us to pray specifically for the persecution their people are facing. We pray that you'll be with them and that in some
[00:29:41] way as we share our resources together that your kingdom would grow and that it would look a little bit more like the world that you imagine. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So our scripture reading
[00:29:53] this morning comes from Romans chapter 8. We're going to start in verse 12. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. For if you
[00:30:06] live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit
[00:30:19] 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 by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies
[00:30:33] 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, if indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share
[00:30:46] in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own
[00:31:03] choice, 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
[00:31:13] 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 spirit groan
[00:31:25] inwardly as we eagerly, 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 is no hope at all. Who hopes for what
[00:31:39] they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit
[00:31:52] 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.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:32:15] Morning, church. Sometimes it's not enough just to call up somebody. You have to invite them in.
[00:32:29] If your plumbing backs up, you call the plumber. You just don't let the plumber sit in the driveway in his truck. You invite him in. You discover faulty wiring in your house, and you call the
[00:32:42] electrician. You don't leave the electrician out on the porch. You invite him in. You found termites in your house and call the exterminator. You don't leave knocking on the door. You invite him in.
[00:33:05] We're in the Nicene Creed series. And this portion of the Nicene Creed, we're focusing in on the Holy Spirit. And here in what I think is Paul's best letter in Romans and the best chapter of his best
[00:33:19] letter, Romans chapter 8, we see Paul focusing in on the Holy Spirit and the difference the Holy Spirit makes. When we call on Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives. But there's something else Paul wants to say. That has to happen. And that's something else is we have to
[00:33:42] invite the Spirit in. We have to invite the Spirit into our lives. In fact, there's so much to say about this passage, so many things we can talk about. I want to just focus in on one thing,
[00:33:54] and I'm going to summarize it this way. Because of what the Spirit does for us, we must invite Him into our lives. So this morning, I want to talk about exactly what does the Holy Spirit do anyway, and what difference does the Spirit make for us? Well, I want to talk
[00:34:13] about that, and let's start with my first point. The Spirit intervenes for us. The Spirit intervenes.
[00:34:21] I'm going to pick it up at verse 22.
[00:34:24] Paul says this, We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
[00:34:32] Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
[00:34:43] Now, Paul says that the whole of creation has been groaning.
[00:34:47] The whole cosmos is groaning.
[00:34:50] And the word here, groaning, in the Greek, it actually means growing with or groaning together.
[00:34:55] And so it's not like creation just lets out this one groan.
[00:34:58] It's more like a cacophony of groans coming out from creation.
[00:35:03] It's more like a chorus of groans.
[00:35:06] It's more like a kind of bittersweet symphony of groaning, and creation is just groaning and groaning and groaning, and we groan along with creation.
[00:35:18] Now, why do we groan?
[00:35:19] Well, the Bible talks about that because way back in Genesis, in chapter 3, what happens is our first parent, Adam, chose against God.
[00:35:28] And in his disobedience, he just didn't fall away from God.
[00:35:32] All of creation fell into a state of decay and frustration.
[00:35:37] And you and I live with that every day.
[00:35:43] One time many years ago, I adopted a little puppy beagle.
[00:35:49] And you know how puppies work.
[00:35:51] They just, they're a lot of work.
[00:35:52] But I think the way that works is when you put a lot of work into something like a puppy beagle, you know, making sure that they go out, so they go to the bathroom outside rather than inside,
[00:36:02] is you get really attached to them in a short time.
[00:36:05] This was the cutest little guy, and he and I had to go to the New Jersey.
[00:36:09] I was living in Western Maryland, drove about six hours to New Jersey, spent Thanksgiving there, and it was Sunday night, and I had arranged with a student from Western Maryland College, to take her back from this place in New Jersey.
[00:36:24] I said, yeah, I can give you a ride.
[00:36:25] It'll just be me and pupper.
[00:36:28] And so she gets in and we start driving.
[00:36:31] And then I'm driving along and I'm realizing there's something wrong with this car.
[00:36:36] It's like the timing on the engine was off, but it was just like the engine was just so weak.
[00:36:41] And then somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania on this cold, drizzly Sunday night, the car breaks down.
[00:36:49] And I said, okay, I think I might be able to fix it.
[00:36:52] Maybe. I said, here's what you need to do. You hold the dog, and I'll see what I can do. So, you know, she's got the leash, and we're on this busy road, and I'm working, and then I hear Annika
[00:37:07] call out my name, and I look up, and she says, the dog, and I look out in the road, and there's a dead puppy in the middle of the road, and without thinking, I just run out. I mean, you know, I didn't
[00:37:20] really care, I got hit, I was just like, this is my baby, and so I scooped up the puppy, and he was clearly dead, and I walk back, and I'm like, what happened? You had one job, and decided to call a
[00:37:39] local church in my denomination, said, hey, I know this is weird, but here's what happened, and they happened to be in the building, and they sent a guy out with a pickup truck and a shovel, and he
[00:37:47] He says, you can bury it on my property.
[00:37:49] And we go over, and we bury the dog.
[00:37:52] We kind of get the car squared away, and I get back on the road.
[00:37:56] Well, it just got worse from there.
[00:37:59] Because as we're driving along, the engine continues to lose power.
[00:38:03] And as you get into western Maryland, it gets more and more hilly.
[00:38:06] And we're coming up these roads, and we're trying to drive up the hill.
[00:38:10] And you're supposed to be driving like 55, 60 up these hills, but we're hitting 50 and 45, and I'm going slower and slower and slower, and, you know, and we can only be going 15 miles an hour. I think the car is just going to pass out on me, and then we make it
[00:38:26] to the top of the hill, and then we do it all over again, and I'm like, oh, it's like two o'clock in the morning. If we stop, we have to be walking for miles before, in the rain, before someone's going
[00:38:39] to find us. Thankfully, we made it home. I took Annika back to her residence hall. I got back in the house without my dog, of course, and I walk in, and the place is absolutely freezing. Why?
[00:38:54] Well, the furnace is broken. Now, some of you have days like that that you can tell me stories about.
[00:39:03] Some of you have days, but why is this? It's because creation is in this reality of being decayed, of being broken, and this is part of the nature of creation. But here's what Paul says.
[00:39:15] Paul says, this isn't random stuff. Our culture, however, says, no, this is random. You know, in fact, our culture has a saying that summarizes this reality, this kind of reality I'm talking about. It's a two-word sentence. Maybe you've seen it on a bumper sticker, on a t-shirt. There's
[00:39:36] even a game by this name. And well, I might as well just come out and say it. Stuff happens, or something like that. Stuff happens. And when people say stuff happens, it just means it's random. Stuff happens like dogs dying and cars breaking down and furnaces breaking down.
[00:40:04] But it's not just that. It's our bodies. Many years ago, Kim and I met a couple by the name Jeff and Joan. We were in our 20s. I was assistant pastor at our church. We were a small group
[00:40:16] together. We had our first kids around the same time. They had four kids. We had two kids. And our lives kind of revolved around each other. And we're just long-distance friends that just stayed in touch our whole lives. Well, just short of about a decade ago, Jeff got diagnosed with
[00:40:34] leukemia. And he spent the past 10 years battling leukemia. Last year when I married his son to his future daughter-in-law, we thought he was going to make the wedding, but he was so sick that day
[00:40:51] he could only watch it through the phone. His first kid to get married, he couldn't even make it because of the disease that he was carrying. A week ago, we got the phone call from Joan
[00:41:03] that Jeff passed.
[00:41:06] And this past weekend we were at the funeral service grieving and sharing the grief of Joan and the four adult children and groaning together.
[00:41:18] And you say, well, is this just stuff that happens?
[00:41:24] There's a singer-songwriter by the name of Caitlin Tarver who a couple years ago came out with a song called Stuff Happens.
[00:41:33] Well, it's pretty close to what it's called.
[00:41:36] And here's what she says.
[00:41:37] she says in the song, I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom. Sometimes stuff just happens worse than you can imagine. Stop trying to make it make sense. There's no real deeper meaning.
[00:41:52] Let me save you the suspense. By all means, find the silver lining, make good out of bad, but don't tell me there's a reason that someone lost their dad. The Bible tells us there's a
[00:42:07] reason. The reason we have evil in the world, the reason we have suffering, is because of sin.
[00:42:13] When we sinned in Adam, all of creation collapsed and was subject in decay. But God solved that by sending a second Adam in the person of Jesus Christ, and he's bringing us out of that creation,
[00:42:29] but we feel the birth pangs. Here's the difference. For women here who've born a child, you know the birth pangs are no fun, but what allows you to persevere is knowing that those birth pangs will eventuate in a new life, right? Paul compares our sufferings to birth pangs
[00:42:53] because he wants to remind us that when life is tough, God will use that suffering in our life to sharpen our hope of what's about to come. And what's about to come? Well, Paul talks about that
[00:43:08] verse 23. He says, not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we await eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For this and this hope, we are saved. How does God intervene? How does God the Spirit intervene?
[00:43:28] Just as Christ delivered us from our sin, the Spirit intervenes by redeeming our bodies. One day At the resurrection, our bodies are going to be made completely new.
[00:43:40] And God, through the Spirit, is actually beginning that transformation process now.
[00:43:45] Paul talks about that because he says the Spirit is like the first fruits of the Spirit.
[00:43:52] Stage one.
[00:43:55] You see, when you came to Christ, as I hope you have, when you came to Christ, you put your faith in Jesus Christ and said, God, forgive me my sins.
[00:44:03] And then God sent his Spirit, and the Spirit filled you.
[00:44:06] But that's just the first installment.
[00:44:09] There's going to be a fuller installment to come when we see him face to face.
[00:44:13] And when that fuller installment comes, we will have redeemed bodies.
[00:44:16] And that's how God intervenes in and through us.
[00:44:21] So when Paul talks about the first fruits of the Spirit, do you notice how it's like a down payment?
[00:44:27] It's like an initial installment, and then yet there's more to come?
[00:44:31] There's an already, but a not yet.
[00:44:36] Sometimes Christians, we struggle with this paradox.
[00:44:41] Sometimes Christians fail to grasp that the Spirit is already in us.
[00:44:45] You know, I think of Christians who say, you know what?
[00:44:49] I have these desires, and I know the desires, they're not ideal, but I have them, and so I just have to go with them.
[00:44:57] This is part of who I am.
[00:44:58] It's the way God made me.
[00:45:00] And I say, no, Fred, because the Holy Spirit comes in, and the Holy Spirit can change your desires, but you have to rely on the Holy Spirit to do that.
[00:45:10] You're not a slave to your desires.
[00:45:13] You don't have to be a slave to your desires because the Holy Spirit freed us from that slavery.
[00:45:18] You see, he redeemed us.
[00:45:20] Now, there's other Christians who say, yeah, I understand that the Holy Spirit's come.
[00:45:25] And in fact, the best thing, life I have now is a life I'm now living.
[00:45:30] And it won't get any better than this.
[00:45:32] There's nothing really waiting for me on the other side.
[00:45:34] I'm putting all my eggs in this basket and I'm living my life to the fullest.
[00:45:38] But what happens is when you think that way, when you get a diagnosis that you don't want, your life falls apart because you didn't think it could happen.
[00:45:52] You're surprised by suffering.
[00:45:54] And we shouldn't be because God wants to use that suffering to sharpen your vision of what's to come.
[00:46:05] There's an already but not yet to the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives.
[00:46:08] And that's how the Spirit intervenes.
[00:46:10] Here's the second thing the Spirit does.
[00:46:11] the Spirit interacts with us. How? Two ways. First, by breaking us of our old selves. Let's go to verse 12 for this. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it's not to the flesh to
[00:46:26] live according to it, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Okay, so Paul is talking about these
[00:46:38] two realms of reality. On the one side is the flesh. And with the flesh goes the self and the law. And there's this other sphere of reality called the spirit. And where the spirit is,
[00:46:50] Paul says, there's freedom. And we get this by faith. Two spheres of reality. And Paul wants to know which sphere of reality are you going to walk in? Because when Jesus found you, he found
[00:47:05] you in the realm of the flesh. And what the Spirit does is saying, you know what? You're not in the flesh anymore. If you know me, you're in this new reality, and I'm going to help you put that to
[00:47:20] death. So that funeral I told you about this weekend, you know, it was central time, so you get on the plane, hour, time difference, no big deal. But you know that if that funeral were in
[00:47:34] California, and I'm used to getting up at six, my body says it's time to get up, and that would be 3 a.m. California time. You know, when we become Christians, it's almost like we change time zones,
[00:47:50] and we spend the rest of our Christian life training our body about this new time zone that we're in, and the old time zone doesn't work anymore, and it shouldn't work, but our body's like, no, I want the old time zone, and we're like, no, that's the flesh. Paul says one of the key
[00:48:08] ministries of the flesh is to crucify the old person within you, the old man, the old woman that has to say bye-bye. Why? To make way for a new reality, a new self, which God is forming
[00:48:22] in Christ. How do you know if you're in the flesh? Well, ask yourself, what's motivating you?
[00:48:29] Are you motivated by pleasure and human approval, or are you motivated by pleasing God? I mean, think about it this way. Let's just say you get on social media and you post something of yourself.
[00:48:42] Man, it is a cool picture. And you just can't wait to see how your friends are going to respond to this cool picture you post yourself. And you say, hey, okay, I'm going to check in, just see how
[00:48:53] people are responding. And you're on there and you're like, oh, they're not responding. I didn't get hardly any likes on this. You know, this is actually really depressing right now. Why do we do that. If you're doing that, what it means is part of you is seeking human approval. Paul calls
[00:49:17] that walking by the flesh. It doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It just means you're in the wrong time zone temporarily. You got to get back in the right time zone. Think about your unstated
[00:49:28] motto in life. You know, when you're in the flesh, when you're in the spirit, here's what you say.
[00:49:35] You go through life and you say in the spirit, you know, God, I deserve judgment, but you gave me mercy. You gave me the grace. Hallelujah. When you're in the flesh, you say, I've been a good
[00:49:49] person. God owes me. Have you ever been a place where God has disappointed you? Something just didn't work out, and you're just so, you're kind of angry about it. And you say, God, you must hate
[00:50:08] me. You must hate me. Why did you do this to me? I've said that to God. But when you say that, what does it really mean? What's the story behind the story? The story behind the story is you look
[00:50:25] at God as some employer. You're the employee. You've done the job. You check the boxes. Now it's God's turn to make sure your life goes smoothly, right? When you're thinking like that, you're in the world of the flesh, and it's inconsistent with who you are, you see?
[00:50:43] God, and the reason why we need the Spirit is because we keep slipping into the wrong time zone. And God wants to break the old watches and bring you into this new reality where you can
[00:50:55] consistently be in the spirit. What about success? Are you geared up to like how other people are doing? This guy who gets this huge raise, you know, how come he gets that promotion? What about me?
[00:51:13] or, you know, why do they get that break or whatever?
[00:51:21] God has such a sense of humor.
[00:51:23] This came home to me once in my previous life as a college president.
[00:51:27] What we would do as Christian college presidents, there was about 14 of us who would get together twice a year and it was just like a retreat and we'd hang out and tell jokes and have fun,
[00:51:36] but we'd also do business and just report on how stuff is going.
[00:51:40] And I was walking into this retreat going like, oh, man. I was expecting enrollment to go like this, and instead it was going like this.
[00:51:49] And if you know anything about higher ed, you know that everything hinges on enrollment, and it's a struggle sometimes. So I'm going in there, and we're sitting around the table, and right next to me, Kevin Brown, president of Asbury University. Okay, Kevin, before Nick
[00:52:07] gives his report, why don't you give your report? And Kevin says, you know what? We had this revival at Asbury. Spirit was doing this. Spirit was doing that. Spirit was doing great, great things.
[00:52:18] And the Spirit was taken off. And by the way, it's fringe benefit. Enrollment has tripled for the fall. How do I follow that? But you know, I'm going to just confess this. I really resented
[00:52:35] the fact that the Spirit was working on his campus and not mine. And somehow the Spirit was creating monetary, he was monetizing that as well. And so I was in this moment of just being
[00:52:50] really fleshly. But if I'm thinking consistently and remembering who I am, then I put those things to death because that's what the Spirit wants me to do. And here's what the second thing the Spirit
[00:53:02] does. He reintroduces us to our new self. And I get this from verse 16 and 17. Paul's talking about how by the Spirit we cry out, Abba, Father.
[00:53:13] And then it goes on in verse 16 to 17 to say this, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
[00:53:20] Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
[00:53:25] If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.
[00:53:33] You know, I don't know how it came to this, but, you know, Christianity, we all got hung up, hung up on the do's and don'ts.
[00:53:40] Do this, don't do that, do this, don't do that.
[00:53:43] It all became about that, and boy, that's just the wrong focus.
[00:53:49] I mean, our behavior is important, but behavior has to be rooted in identity.
[00:53:56] I'm going to say that again.
[00:53:58] What you do on a day-to-day basis is secondary to how you think of yourself and who you are.
[00:54:08] And what we just found out from Paul is that the Spirit has this ministry of testifying us within us saying, you know, you really are a son of God. You really are a daughter. And if it
[00:54:22] doesn't feel like it through your sufferings, actually that's more proof that God is conforming you because that's the way it worked with Jesus' sonship and that's going to weigh the way it works with us. And maybe you've never heard the Spirit say that to you. And maybe that's because you've
[00:54:43] never invited the Spirit in. And that's because you don't know Jesus. If you know Jesus, the Spirit will testify in this inscrutable way that we are children of God. And if you're not sure about your
[00:54:57] salvation, then talk to somebody who's been up on the stage, myself or somebody else, and be sure.
[00:55:04] Because God wants you to be sure, and the Spirit wants you to understand that our identity as children of God and as future heirs of the kingdom of God.
[00:55:16] Wow, if we grasp that, it changes everything about the way we live life.
[00:55:22] Here's the third thing the Spirit does.
[00:55:24] The Spirit intercedes through us.
[00:55:28] Verse 26.
[00:55:29] In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, we do not know what we ought to pray for.
[00:55:33] The Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
[00:55:38] 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.
[00:55:48] Now, when Paul's writing the Romans, he's writing a church that's just going through some hard times.
[00:55:54] And he knows that as they're going through hard times, there's stuff they're going to want to pray about.
[00:56:01] Now, there have to be people at Romans, at the church at Rome, who when it comes to prayer, it just doesn't come real natural.
[00:56:09] In fact, I know that for a fact because here's what Paul says in verse 26.
[00:56:13] In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
[00:56:19] Friends, I take such comfort in the fact that Paul writes that.
[00:56:23] You know why?
[00:56:25] Because I don't consider myself a prayer warrior.
[00:56:29] I don't consider myself like, okay.
[00:56:32] I just feel like when it comes to prayer, I just feel weak all the time.
[00:56:37] Like I'm just like, gosh, I wish God, just prayer came more natural.
[00:56:43] Does anyone else struggle with prayer?
[00:56:45] Here?
[00:56:46] Just the two of us in the room?
[00:56:47] Okay.
[00:56:49] But the two of us in the room, everyone else, you just check back in on the sermon.
[00:56:52] For everyone else, the good news is this.
[00:56:57] If you're weak in prayer, join the club of fallen humanity.
[00:57:02] Because God expects us to be just misinclined to prayer.
[00:57:06] It is not our thing.
[00:57:07] It's not what we do.
[00:57:08] That's not what the flesh wants.
[00:57:09] The flesh wants to rely on self.
[00:57:11] The last thing we want to do, we want to control.
[00:57:13] We want to do it ourselves.
[00:57:14] The last thing we want to do is pray.
[00:57:16] That's what the flesh does.
[00:57:17] But the Spirit says, mm-mm-mm, here's what you're going to do.
[00:57:20] I know you're weak, but I'm going to come in, and I'm going to do the heavy lifting for you.
[00:57:24] I'm going to pray for you.
[00:57:27] In fact, more exactly, I'm going to pray through you.
[00:57:30] Because Paul says the Spirit helps us in our weakness with words that groans can't even express.
[00:57:35] And I find that tremendously freeing.
[00:57:37] You know why?
[00:57:38] Because sometimes I get before God, and I'm just so overwhelmed with the list.
[00:57:44] I'm like, God, I don't even know where to start.
[00:57:49] And the Spirit says, don't worry about that.
[00:57:51] Just invite me in and let me do the driving.
[00:57:56] And prayer is not so much us talking to God as God the Spirit talking to himself through us.
[00:58:07] Let me say that again.
[00:58:08] Prayer is not so much about us talking to God.
[00:58:10] It's about God the Spirit talking to the Father through us.
[00:58:14] we are like the instrument in God's own bittersweet symphony but you have to invite him in and you have to open yourself up to the spirit and saying spirit my prayer list isn't working this morning
[00:58:31] I can't figure it out just come and start praying through me and God will get you where you need to be going but you've got to rely on the spirit and you've got to rely on that promise
[00:58:44] that the spirit intercedes through us and so we come to that portion of the Nicene Creed, which talks about the Spirit's full divinity, this was not taken for granted when the Nicene Creed was written. There was people who said the Father's divine
[00:59:01] check, the Son's divine check, but not the Holy Spirit. And the Nicene Creed says, no way.
[00:59:06] Holy Spirit has to be as fully divine, has to be as much Lord as Jesus is Lord, or it all falls apart. But this same Spirit does so much for us. Don't live your Christian
[00:59:21] life like a Benitarian. Live like a Trinitarian. Invite the Holy Spirit in. Because of what the Spirit does for us, we must invite him into our lives. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this liberation you have sent, not just liberating us from our sin, but liberating us from the slavery
[00:59:46] of living in fear to death and to the bondage of decay. Thank you for freeing us, Spirit.
[00:59:54] continue your work of redemption in our lives so that we truly might be no longer slaves but fully the sons and daughters of living God help us to do that experience that this week amen

[01:00:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:00:11] will you stand and join us in one last song this song comes from the scripture from today and it reminds us of our new time zone it reminds us of our new self our adoption to sonship
[01:00:31] that we are children of God and no longer slaves to sin.
[01:00:35] So sing with us.

[01:00:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:00:36] You surround us all,

[01:01:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[01:01:10] our God, our chosen.
[01:01:46] Lord, thank you for this day.

[01:05:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:05:17] Thank you for all that you've given us.
[01:05:19] Lord, I thank you for this time that we got to worship you.
[01:05:22] We got to learn more about you, Lord.
[01:05:23] Thank you so much for giving us your Holy Spirit to make us new and to help us be better, Lord.
[01:05:29] I pray that through the week that we just continue to shine your light and use the gifts that you've given each and every one of us.
[01:05:34] Lord, I pray for anybody in this room who might be going through some things that are unsaid and I pray that you just place a hand of peace on them and allow them to know
[01:05:41] that you are walking with them through everything.
[01:05:44] And in your name I pray.
[01:05:45] Amen.

[01:05:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:05:46] Now this benediction.
[01:05:48] May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be on you all.
[01:05:55] Amen.