If I told you that you had to pick one aspect of your life, one thing, it could be a relationship,
it could be your income, it could be your job, it could be your skills, it could be your level
of holiness, whatever it is. If I told you that you had to choose one aspect of your life and
right now we will lock that aspect in. I mean it will stay as it is right now and will not change
for good or bad at any point in the rest of your life. What would you choose? Would it be your job?
Would it be the amount of money that you earn? Would it be the place that you're in relationally,
maybe with your spouse or your kids or with your housemates? Is there an aspect of your life,
any aspect at all that you go, you know what, I'm happy with where that is and I actually don't
need it to go anywhere else. Now you might be kind of happy, you know like I love my wife,
I think we get on pretty well but I'm kind of hoping we keep getting better at being married
and our relationship keeps improving. I want it to improve, I think I get paid reasonably well,
you might be pretty happy with the income that you get but you wouldn't turn down a slight increase,
I mean it wouldn't hurt to have a little bit more money for a holiday or whatever else you want to do.
I'm glad that I'm good at certain things and I have certain skills but you know I'd love to
get even better or learn. It's built in to every single aspect of our life, even the ones that we're
happy about, is this kind of subtle discontent. It's not driving always, sometimes it is but there's
this inbuilt sense that I actually want to move forward from here, I actually want the next step,
it could be that it's good and you want it a little bit better, it could be that it's horrible
and you want it fixed but every aspect of life we have this inbuilt perspective and understanding that
we're longing for just a little bit more, just a little bit better, just a little bit happier,
just a little bit nicer. We long for more, we hope for more and we actually need that hope
because hope is the thing that makes it okay that even though it's good, it's not quite where we
want it to be. Hope is the possibility that the things that I'm not okay with are going to improve.
We actually need that hope because it doesn't take a whole lot of looking around at the world to see
that there are some problems. There's injustice, there's oppression, there's war, there's natural
disasters, there's starvation, there's sickness and it's not just out there that there's problems that
we sit there and go, it's got to improve, it's here as well. In my life there's pain,
there's frustration, there's hurt. In your life there's relational breakdown, there's starvation.
And we need hope because hope is the possibility that this isn't all there is.
Hope is the thing that protects us from despair. Hope is the thing that releases us from giving up
because it just gives the chance that we could be in a better situation. And hope's not an exclusively
Christian thing. Everybody in the world needs hope. People need and want to believe that life can get
better, that there's going to be a little bit more than this. And in Romans 8 that Nick just read out
for us, Paul wants to encourage us that our present sufferings, those things that we're not quite happy
with yet, those things that frustrate us, those things that we want to move forward, we want to change,
are not worth comparing to the future hope that we look forward to as Christians.
They're not worth comparing to heaven. They're not worth comparing to all the goodness that is promised
in scripture. Our present situation doesn't weigh up next to just how good it's going to be one day.
But our present situation is still our present situation. It's still real. It's still the thing
that you wake up each morning going, oh, I've got to go to that job again. I've got to deal with that
person again. I'm not feeling well again. It's still real. It's still there. And so we need hope.
And we need it every day. And so Paul opens in verse 18. I consider that our present sufferings are
not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Why do we need that hope? 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 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 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
grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. Paul tells
us that it's not just us who feel this discontent, that creation itself is frustrated, that the world,
the material world around us is frustrated because it is buckling under the weight of its bondage to death.
Everything that exists is trapped in a cycle of decay from the point where anything is born or
begins, it begins to die. That is the weight that weighs down not just us as people but even
trees, nature, forests, all those sorts of things. It is this cycle so that even the creation
longs for the day, longs for the future that Christians look forward to when those who belong to God are
finally and fully vindicated, fully released from this curse, from this burden.
And on top of creation, we've grown inwardly. We've kind of tasted how it's supposed to be.
This is what we talked about last week. We've tasted what it is to have the possibility of punishment
removed from us. We've tasted the joy of being accepted by God. We've tasted the joy of being
promised eternal life, having death taken away. And so we know even more so how much this world is
not how it's supposed to be. We feel it even more acutely because God has begun to open our eyes to how
it is going to be. And so suddenly, not only is it just this vague sense that it's not quite right,
it's actually nowhere near the picture that God is painting for us. Something better is waiting.
The redemption of our bodies. The removal of the effects of sin and death. I mean, already,
condemnation is gone. The possibility of punishment is gone. But in the future, one day, every trace of
sin, every consequence of sin completely removed from creation. One day, heaven. We've had the taste.
And so now we're aware what we're missing out on. This might not come as a big surprise to you,
but I'm a bit of a soft drink junkie. And so my wife holds grave fears for our two boys.
So we have an unofficial line that my son, my older son, we haven't even talked about Hudson yet,
he's second. So he's bound to get a softer version. But my oldest son, Bailey, always wants Coke.
He sees us drinking. Can I have some? Can I have some? No, no, no. And then we joke, you know,
maybe for your 18th birthday, we'll get you some Coke or something like that. And then we're having
a half serious conversation the other day. And we said, oh, maybe when he's like 10, we'll let him
try some Coke. Because I'm just worried that he's going to be like me. And he's just going to drink
it all the time. But Coke has brought out this ginger flavored Coke as a promotion for Christmas.
This is not cash for comment, just to clarify. Although if Coke wants to give me some, I'm not going to
turn them down. And so we bought some to try it. And it was quite good. It was on the table. And Sal
had this genius idea that maybe she'll let Bay try this one because he probably won't like it
because it's got ginger in it. And so he said, can I have some? She goes, oh, you just give him a tiny
bit in a cup. And you should have seen his eyes light up the second it touched his tongue. He was
licking the bottom of his cup to try and get the last dregs out of it. He was trying to wrestle my can
off me so that he could continue drinking it for the remainder of dinner. And now the issue is,
he knows how good it is. And so whenever I'm drinking Coke and I say, not just a vague sense
of it's probably good and one day it'll be nice. He knows exactly what he's missing out on. And so
the angst has increased. The answering back has increased. The attempts to steal Coke from the
fridge have increased because he knows how good it is. And in a similar way, because we have been
invited into God's family, because we have been forgiven, because the power of death has been taken
off from hanging over our lives, we know that all the effects of death that we experience,
all the effects of sin, sickness, disharmony, oppression, injustice, all these things that we've
talked about, we know how good it tastes when those things are gone. And so we long for the day when
they are fully and finally removed. And so in this life where they're still here, in this life where
day-to-day you still have to deal with frailness, with sickness, with relationship breakdown, with your
own failure, we need hope. Hope is essential. But what does hope look like?
It's not that we'll no longer experience suffering or difficulty. It's not that somehow suffering or
difficulty is not as serious as we thought it was. I mean the image here in Romans, I don't know if you
caught it, is that it's like childbirth. Now granted I'm a man, but I can say with a fair degree of
confidence that childbirth is at least a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. I'm joking, I'm joking, it's
like a 15, it's crazy, I didn't even want to be in the room. But the point being that the pain is still
real. Paul's not trying to shrink it down and go, we've got hope so. It's still there, it still matters,
it's still serious. So hope's not about ignoring it or pretending it's not painful. What does hope look
like? Verse 25, if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Hope is patience. That's not the same as disinterest or apathy, because we already heard in verse 23 that
we're waiting eagerly. So what does eager patience look like? Well verse 26, in the same way the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. So in the same way, it's got to do with patience. In the same way the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes
for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts, that's God, knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
Eager patience looks like prayer. Hope is expressed in prayer. Hope is lived out in prayer. And the crazy
part about this is we don't even know exactly what to pray for in our hope and our discontent.
We know things aren't the way they're supposed to be, and so we can pray, God, this sucks,
and that's good, and that's right, and that's valid. But our understanding of what God will do,
of what it will be like, is so partial that we literally don't even know what to pray for.
Christian hope by its nature is not seen. We don't have it yet, and we've never had it.
We've got a little taste. We've got clues from God's Word in the Bible. We look forward to no hurt,
and no sickness, and no pain, and no tears, but we really don't know what that will be like,
because all we've experienced is hurt, sickness, pain, and tears. It sounds appealing, but we actually
don't know exactly what it will be. We look forward to meeting God face to face, but none of us has
experienced that before, so we've got this kind of veiled, non-detailed idea of what it is that
we're hoping for, which could be enough to stifle eagerness. That could be enough for us to get
distracted by some other things and think, you know what, I'm going to hope for holidays, retirement,
something less. But God bridges the gap between what we know and what we need to know by His Spirit.
This is the same Spirit that released us from the power of sin in the beginning of chapter 8,
the same Spirit that drew us into God's family as His sons and daughters, which now intercedes for us.
He guides us in our hope. He takes our imperfect prayers and kind of sharpens them and aligns them
with God's will. It's God's Spirit, so He knows what God's mind is. He knows what it is that we're
looking forward to. He knows it perfectly, and so not only is He adjusting our prayers,
He's slowly adjusting our hearts, slowly adjusting our desires,
aligning our hearts with God's heart, so that as we pray, we're actually being given a sharper image
of our hope. We won't see it fully until we get there, but what's going on here is we're praying,
these imperfect, fumbled prayers that God would fix everything that's wrong, which is good and right,
and the Spirit is taking those imperfect prayers and making them express God's desire.
And when someone intercedes, that's not a one-directional interaction. They go between,
between us and God. So they take our limited understanding and make it a prayer that is in
line with what God has designed, and then they take that prayer that they've sharpened and write it
onto our hearts, so that increasingly our desire lines up with God's desire. Increasingly, our vision
for the future lines up with God's vision for the future. Christian hope looks like prayer.
Prayer because we're eager, because we get this incredible vision, even in its limited
bit that we see, we get this incredible vision of what God has in store, and at the same time patient,
but because we have this deep confidence in the one who has promised to deliver.
But this isn't the same as fatalism either. Christian hope is distinct from the attitude of,
hey, it could be worse, or hey, somebody else has it worse than me, or one thing, things will get better.
Now, there's some overlap there. There's some truth in those statements,
but Christian hope is more than just something that we're waiting for. It's more than that.
Christian hope actually transforms right now as well. It is future. That's what hope is by definition.
It is something that we look forward to, but it's not just that.
Christian hope actually has power today. Power in your situation, in your circumstance.
Have a look at verse 28.
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who've been called according to his purpose.
We're still in the groaning.
We're still in the things that we want to change,
but Paul says confidently, we know,
not we hope,
not fingers crossed,
not it's my best guess,
we know
that in all things God is working for the good of those who love him.
This is one of the best known and quoted Bible verses,
and it's a good one to have memorized.
We love to quote it when times are tough in our own life or to people around us.
But how can that be true?
What do we mean when we use the word good,
and we're talking to somebody who's just lost a loved one?
What do we mean when we say God is working for your good
as you receive the diagnosis of cancer?
What do we mean good as you hear the word that you have lost your job
and you will have to work out how to feed your family and pay your rent?
Is it like relative?
Do we mean, hey, it's not as bad as it could be?
At least you're not starving in Africa?
Or does the Bible mean,
and do we mean when we say it,
good is in a sense that this is positive,
this is beneficial,
maybe even joy giving?
What do we mean by good?
Good is defined here
by God's agenda.
Verse 29,
for those God foreknew,
He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God's agenda
is that you would be made completely like Jesus.
Or from last week,
in verse 4,
God's agenda is that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fully met in you.
God's design,
God's good desire for you
is that you get transformed
to the point
where you're righteous enough
to be able to spend all eternity
in the presence of God.
That's His good for you.
That you might spend all eternity
in the presence of the One
who is all-powerful,
all-loving,
all-knowing,
creator,
sustainer,
judge,
source of every good gift,
in the presence of the One
who sent His Son
to die in your place
so that you might have eternity in heaven.
That is the good
that God is committed to for you.
That is the good
that it's talking about
in Romans 8.28.
That's the ultimate good
that gives context to everything else.
God has raised the bar on good here.
I think sometimes we get criticised
and maybe fairly
that we use this verse unhelpfully
and that we kind of,
by good we mean,
you know,
survivable.
But God hasn't lowered the bar here
so that He can use the word good.
He has actually lifted it.
Good is no longer defined by
I've had a good week.
things are good at home.
And God's replaced it with
I'm one step closer to heaven
than I was.
God's replaced it with
right now,
in this moment,
in my pain,
in my struggle,
in my win,
in my everything,
God is here walking with me.
Loving me unconditionally,
strengthening me,
enabling me to keep going.
Context is everything
when you think about good.
I've got an illustration
that I use in
a year six scripture lesson
that I used to do annually
as to try and invite kids along
to Jesus mostly,
but also to join church and youth.
And it's about the two roads.
It's a story that Jesus tells.
And so I draw up on the board
this kind of mountainous goat track
with a fence at the front.
It's hard to find the entranceway.
And then this just amazingly drawn
six lane highway
with a big neon sign.
And ask the kids,
which road do you want?
And, you know,
apart from the kid
who knows the answer
and just wants to cause trouble,
everybody chooses the freeway.
Because the freeway looks straight,
it looks easy,
there's plenty of space,
no one's going to get in your way.
And that makes total sense.
But you don't choose a road
based on how it looks.
The point of a road
is to get you
to where you want to go.
You can't get on the M2
if you want to go to the beach.
You might eventually end up at a beach,
but it's going to be the long way.
You choose the road
that's going to take you
towards the coast
because that's where you want to be.
That's the destination
that you're trying to get to.
We've got to understand
that it is a daily miracle
for us to keep following Jesus.
The Bible makes it clear
following Jesus is the goat track.
It's the hard path.
It's more difficult
than just doing your own thing.
It is a daily miracle
that God enables us
to keep going on that track.
It is God's grace to us
that we are able
to persevere through difficulty
and get that one step closer
to the destination
that we actually want.
It makes so much more sense
if you ignore God
to just take the easy road.
But what we want
is not an easy road.
What we want
is something better
than an easy life.
What we want is heaven.
What we want
is all of the problems dealt with,
not just the struggle this week.
We want death taken.
We want sin taken.
We want sickness taken.
We want pain taken.
We want relational difficulty taken.
God has raised the bar on good
because he's given us hope
for eternity.
Our measure now
is not how was my week
or even how was my year.
God has given us a vision,
even just a partial vision,
that is so good
that words can't express it.
We need the Spirit's help.
Even our wildest imaginations
keep falling short
of what heaven is going to be.
And so everything
from now until then
needs to be measured
in relation to that good,
to that destination.
That's why Paul says,
I consider our present sufferings
are not worth comparing
with the glory
that will be revealed in us.
They're still difficult,
but they're not worth comparing.
And so in the context
of marching towards heaven,
even difficult can be good.
When that's the ultimate good,
when that's the thing
that defines all other good,
even painful can be good
because it's taking me
to the good that I need
and want most.
Which takes us to our last question.
How do I unlock this kind of power
in my life?
How do I hold on
to that future hope
in such a way
that it does transform right now?
Because it could be
that right now
you don't have a whole lot
of need for hope.
When we started,
you actually had a few things
in your life
that you go,
I'd be pretty happy
if this locked in like that.
I like where I live.
I like my job.
I like my family.
Maybe things are going well
and so you don't have
a whole lot of eagerness
for what might be.
Or maybe you're at the other end
and right now
it is a struggle for you
to be sitting here,
let alone being told
that God's working for your good
in whatever's going on
for you right now.
In those circumstances
and everything in between,
how do we unlock
the power that makes
right now good?
That makes it possible
for you to hold on
to the truth
that God is actively
working for your good
in your situation?
How?
Verse 31.
What then shall we say
in response to 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 us all,
how will he not also
along with him
graciously give us
all things?
Hear that again.
He who did not spare
his own son
but gave him up
for us all,
how will he not also
along with him
graciously give us
all things?
the foundation
for hope,
the thing that
enables you
to look past
your circumstance,
to believe
even when it's hard
to know exactly
what God is doing,
that he is doing good,
is Jesus.
It's the cross.
The cross is the place
where we take it
not just as empty words
but as the all-powerful God
who is unmatched
in his power
expressing an unmatched
love for you.
It is God who has
everything at his disposal
choosing to express
his love to you
in a way that you
cannot ignore
by sacrificing
the thing that
matters most to him
so that even though
you may not know
how or why
God is doing
what he's doing
in your life,
you can know
that it is
for your good.
God
because
why would he
hold something
small like
your temporary
health
or your job
or a few dollars
or a restored
friendship back
from you
when he's already
handed over
his precious
only son?
the all-powerful
God
the all-powerful
father
holds nothing
back
in pursuing
your good
that's his agenda
in transforming
you to be more
and more
like Jesus
he's taken
condemnation
he's taken
the only thing
that could stop
you finishing
this path
that you're on
in heaven
and now
instead of
judgment to fear
there's that
question in there
did you catch it?
verse 33
who will bring
a charge
against those
whom God
has chosen?
and the answer
down halfway
through verse 34
no one
Christ Jesus
who died
more than that
who was raised
to life
is at the right
hand of God
and intercedes
for us
so the one
who will judge
the one who
will make a
decision about
whether you get
to that glorious
hope that you
want to get to
that hope that
has the power
to transform you
right now
and give you joy
even in difficult
circumstances
the only one
who could say
no you're not
welcome
says here
died and rose
again
and now
sits in heaven
at the father's
right hand
forever
Hebrews 7
says this is
his forever
job
he sits at
the right hand
of God
saying no no no
I love them
they're one of mine
when you stuff up
Jesus is there
he's already
saying to the
father
in that moment
it's okay
I've paid for
that
he intercedes
the judge has
gotten off the
judgment seat
and is standing
as your defense
lawyer
there is no
judge left
and so your
hope is certain
the hope you
need
to face
whatever you
are going
through right
now
is here
in Jesus
if you
lack
eagerness
if you've
lost sight
of how
good
heaven
is going
to be
then just
look at
Jesus
and see
how
kind of
sad
and pathetic
the things
that you are
looking forward
to are
in reference
to him
even
even though
you don't
get it
completely
understand
that if
it cost
Jesus
death
on the
cross
to
purchase
it
for you
it's
going to
be
better
come back
here and
begin to
dream
about what
God has
in store
for you
and begin
to live
in light
of that
if it's
hard for
you to
see
how
God
could
be
being
good
to
you
right
now
the
hope
you need
is in
Jesus
won't
make the
pain
disappear
but he
will walk
with you
in it
and he
will guarantee
that there
will be a
good
outcome
in it
it may
not be
the good
outcome
that you
want from
him right
now
but it
will be
the best
kind of
good outcome
there is
it will
be heaven
it will
be another
step in the
journey of
preparing you
for eternity
in the
presence of
God
himself
the hope
you need
is in
Jesus
and lastly
if you're
not a
Christian
if this
is your
first time
in this
room
or if
you've
been
coming
here
for 40
years
but you
know
you're
not a
Christian
and you
feel that
discontent
that we
started
with
you feel
that desire
that something
would be
different
in your
life
in the
world
around
you
the hope
that you
need
is in
Jesus
the power
to transform
your life
is in
Jesus
the one
who loves
you even
though you
don't deserve
it
the one
who dies
in your
place
removes
condemnation
and invites
you into
his family
if you're
not a
Christian
the hope
you need
not just
for this
life
but for
eternity
is here
in Jesus
who dies
in your
place
and forever
intercedes
what
then shall
we say
in response
to 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 us
all
how will
he not
also
along
with him
graciously
give us
all things
who will
bring any
charge
against those
whom God
has chosen
it's God
who justifies
us
who then
is the
one who
condemns
no one
Christ
Jesus
who died
more than
that
who was
raised
to life
is at
the right
hand of
God
and is
also
interceding
for us
who shall
separate us
from the
love of
Christ
shall
trouble
or
hardship
or
persecution
or famine
or nakedness
or danger
or sword
as it's
written
for your
sake
we face
death
all day
long
considered
as sheep
to be
slaughtered
no in
all these
things
we are
more than
conquerors
through him
who loved
us
for I'm
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 creation
will be able
to separate
us
will be able
to separate
you
from the
love of
God
that is in
Christ Jesus
our Lord
Amen