Word, but we’re going to go over to Romans 8, and we’ll continually, we’ll come back to that idea of being made in God’s image, and actually living that out well, because of the gift of the Spirit. So, rather annoyingly, we cannot cover all of Romans 8, which is a bummer, because Romans 8 is one of the best chapters of Romans. But the quarterly just pulls 14 through 27.
I had my moment of frustration, and then I had to let it go because I knew there was absolutely no way to try and squeeze all of chapter 8 into one week. So we will abide by the verses that the quarterly has. Has. But it is important. We are between two ideas. If we were to read all of 8, which is very long, we’re between two ideas.
And it starts out in chapter 8 with this idea that there’s now no condemnation, and nothing can separate us from… I’m sorry. No condemnation for those who are in Christ. And at the end, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which are beautiful, wonderful thoughts. Theologically, things that we should hang on to every single day of our lives. But we’re looking at the middle section of chapter 8. And the middle section, you know, there was one of the commentaries I looked at, and they actually said, you know, this middle part is really the heart of the passage, which is why that’s where the quarterly landed. So we’re going to read verses 14 through 27. 14 through 27.
“For all those led by God’s spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in the hope that creation itself would also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the Spirit as the first fruits, we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope, we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? Now, if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
“In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
So just a tiny chunk of chapter 8, but a very, very dense chunk of chapter 8. I mean, I said this before. If I had my pick, I would have been thrilled to pieces if they gave chapter 8 3 weeks in the quarterly. But alas, they did not. I don’t always get my way, so we’ll pivot. But Romans 8 is great because I told you a few weeks ago. I’m going to find my little list I made. It was back here on… here we go. Chapter 6.
Finally, kind of after chapter 5 pivots from why we need to believe these things, chapter 6 goes to, like, “you are free. Stop living as slaves.” And then chapter 7, which was last week, we deal with the tension, and Paul reminds us and helps us understand. There’s still a struggle with sin because we’re still living in bodies. We are embodied souls. And then chapter 8, which we’re in today, really leans into “how do we have victory?” Like, how do we actually have victory in the living within the Holy Spirit?
So this is neat, because if we were created as image bearers of God in Eden, and sin enters the world by chapter 3, very quickly after, we know our image bearer status has been tainted. Which means, as we read through even today, going back to last week’s sermon, it does link together this concept of what does it look like to actually be redeemed by Jesus and then restored as an image bearer. And that won’t happen perfectly this side of eternity, but this is Paul helping us get to that place of understanding. We do not have to live as broken image bearers. We can start walking toward redeeming what that looks like, redeeming being an image bearer.
On 64, it starts with a funny question. Funny, funny question. When you picture a happy family, whose family do you think of? Do any families come to mind when you’re like, “big happy family?” I mean, yeah. If you go back like 70 years, like Brady Bunch maybe. But even then, Jan. Jan was just a pain. The Cleavers. The Cleavers, yeah. That’s actually a great one.
This show is… I’ve only watched parts of it that I can remember. So I don’t have a full… I could be, like, giving a really bad example. But we watched chunks of Parenthood. Not a Christian show. Like, they don’t love Jesus, unfortunately. But there’s, like, 4 kids, I think, in this family. And, like, all the siblings and, like, their spouses and all their kids, they just… they do everything together. Like, every sports event, every school event, like, everybody’s there to a fault. And it’s silly. But I like that concept of they kind of roll together no matter what they do. Even when they make each other mad, they’re still synced up.
This idea of, like, happy family, whether it’s real or whether it’s something we just… I don’t know. We talk about in marketing sometimes in class how often when you watch commercials, they always depict families far more peaceful and happy than they really are, because everyone’s in a family and they know the squabbles and the awkward, like that one that we kind of keep him at a distance and, like, “well, I’m still mad at that one from 20 years ago.” Like everyone knows those weird dynamics. So then you see commercials and it’s like, “oh, it’s the perfect family. Like they’re so happy and there’s so much joy in their faces.” And we talk about marketing. We’re like, “why do they do that? When we all know that’s not really how every family functions.” And eventually the kids kind of get around to like, “well, because they know people want that.” And I’m like, “exactly.” Like the idea of having this family, this happy time, is a great thing. But we’re not talking about human families today. We’re not talking about the brokenness of human relationships. What we’re talking about is being part of God’s family.
And being part of a family that should shape our belonging far more than our earthly family does. You know, you could look at my children being adopted. Like when their name legally changed and their birth certificate really has us listed as their parents, their sense of belonging changed. Like legally in that moment, it changed. They were little enough. They still don’t really understand what adoption means. They kind of get it, but it’s a little bit high in the sky still for them. But when we think about being adopted in as God’s children, that should dramatically change our sense of belonging. We now legally belong to another family. We don’t belong to the broken patterns of this world. We belong to the King, the Creator of all things, that is restoring all the brokenness in the world. Which means it’s up to us to be very cautious and very wise and discerning to now live as members of that family, not members of the family of the world.
We’re going to go ahead and reread. We’ll come back to that concept a couple other times. But I want to reread verses 14 through 17. And I am very dorkily, as we all know, this is the 25th anniversary of the ESV Bible being released. So I brought my ESV today to read from because that felt appropriate for a Bible nerd. So we’re going to read 14 through 17, but I’ll read ESV this time just to be, you know, myself. All right, verse 14. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” So…
This idea like we see unfold very quickly. And I made some notes on this page. This first chunk, the 14 through 17, it starts out with this idea of us being led by the Spirit. If or for those who are led by God’s Spirit, meaning those who are seeking to live, trusting and obeying and in God’s kingdom, living life in the Spirit. It tells us then very quickly in verse 15, like “you, where did it go?” 15. “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.”
If you were walking in the Spirit, you were not under the slavery and the bondage to sin and fear anymore. Instead, you received the spirit of adoption. So he’s contrasting. You’ve got spirit of slavery and the spirit of adoption, which begs the question, what exactly does that even mean? What does it mean to have a spirit of slavery versus a spirit of adoption? I don’t know if that question’s in the book or if I made it up. Yep, made it up. Didn’t even remember doing that. But what’s the difference between a spirit of slavery and a spirit of adoption? Well, one of them you feel included in. The other one is you’re outside. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good way to put it. One of them, it’s an includedness. The other, it’s a… “you’re… set apart.” Set apart, yeah, in the wrong way. I think it’s also good with suffering and being loved. Ooh, I like that. You know, your spirit of slavery that you are suffering. Yeah.
And that when you’re adopted, you know, a friend of mine used to always say when people find out she was adopted and they give her a hard time as a kid, she goes, “at least my parents chose me.” Right. We’ve actually had a few of those moments at school where I may have told the story. There was a kid last year who took all my willpower not to go and find his house and have a chat with his parents. But like he… Rissa was waving at me in car line, like saying, “hi, dad.” And he goes, “he’s not your dad. You’re adopted.” And it just, I mean, crushed her. And she’s… she holds her feelings in like she’s not a… Jack, feelings are on his sleeve. Bear, I don’t know. Rissa, very much, like, he’s unpredictable. Depends on how hungry or tired he is. Just can’t make up his mind. But Rissa, she holds him in until they bubble out, and usually it’s a much bigger explosion because she’s held him in so much. And, I mean, she gets in the car and is just big tears. I mean, just beside herself. And we had a whole conversation about that, like, “sweetheart, like… this is nothing to be ashamed of. Your story, as, like the world is not going to understand that your story very closely mirrors what we read in scripture, that we are adopted as sons and daughters spiritually. You’ve been really adopted. Like your mom and dad chose you. Your mom and dad said, ‘yes,’ like this is really, like, and I mean the hurt still is there, but like her being reminded of that once in a while, even though they don’t really get adoption, like it’s still really good because she needs to remember that that’s not a… a different thing.”
But I like that. That’s a really good way of putting that. You think about actually really every other world religion, you are in bondage to doing all these things as best you can in the hopes in the end you’ve done enough good to outweigh the bad. You’re trying to gain approval from whatever deity they’re serving, where instead for us, those who follow Jesus and who try to live in the Spirit, it’s acceptance because he has done the hard work, which is really beautiful, which then leads us to the rest of verse 15. And it says, “by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.” Like the word Abba itself literally is like “daddy.” It is the most intimate and simple version of calling someone father. And so it’s, Paul is helping us understand this is no longer like, “yes, father, no father, of course, father.” Like it is a… no, like this is an intimate relationship. I don’t call God daddy when I pray, but I know that there’s that deep intimacy in that relationship.
And then it goes on in 16, “the Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, also heirs, and heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.” So we have really two parts to this first section of like being led by the Spirit. If we indeed are led by the Spirit, then we have been given a spirit of adoption. And that spirit of adoption testifies to the Father through the Spirit that we indeed through Jesus are his children, which is a really beautiful thought. And it seems so simple. I think most of us would go, “well, yeah, of course. Like we’ve been in church. We know that’s true.” But do we live as though it’s true?
Like knowing that something’s true, you know, that journey from head to heart is a shockingly long journey. It’s not that far. I don’t know how far, like 18 inches, 6. I guess it depends on how tall you are. I have a huge head and I’m too tall. So maybe longer for me. But we can know something’s true and fail to really like hold on to it and live in a way that that changes our lives. So.
When we look at the rest of the notes in here, there’s a good question, but I probably rephrased. We’ll ask this one first. It says, “how does calling God Abba Father impact your understanding of prayer and intimacy of him? How does knowing that it’s not just God the Father, but Abba Father change things for us? Or how should it change things for us?” What part of the… maybe where in your life… I have two questions I wrote down. I’m deciding.
Which part of the passage makes you the most confident that you belong to God? If you broke down that passage, we just reread a few times. There’s the first verse that’s being led by the Spirit. Then you have crying, Abba, Father, in verse, I think, 15. Yep, and then verse 16 talks about this idea of being… I’m sorry. 17 talks about being heirs, so there’s 3 ideas here of being led by the Spirit, being able to cry Abba Father, and being heirs, co-heirs with Jesus, which of those make you feel the most confident that you belong to God, because I think each of those can hit people differently. Some are going to read that and go, “yeah, knowing that I’m led by the Spirit changes everything. Like that matters to me.” Where others, the ability to cry intimately and take every little care and concern.
I mean, think about if I gave you a running list of how dumb most of the questions are that my kids come to me with every day. There are indeed dumb questions. Like I hate when teachers say there’s no such thing as a dumb question. There are. There are dumb questions. Those teachers are absolutely wrong. I disagree. But they know that they can go to their mom and dad with those dumb questions. Like we might say, “think about it for a second. We answered this 2 minutes ago. Oh, right.” And then they run off. But they know that it’s still safe, even if dad looks a little miffed. They know it’s still safe to come and ask. So to some people, being able to go to the Father crying Abba, that strikes them as being more accepted. Or… knowing that they are a co-heir. And I think that’s part of it’s just the way we’re wired. Part of it’s probably life experience. That each 3 of those things that are reminding us that we belong to God are going to resonate differently with us. So, which one resonates with you the most?
I think the last one does for me because the first time I realized or read that we are… Yeah. Which is hard to fathom. Yeah. Yeah. It’s amazing. Well, that one, I always liked that one because I don’t know why recently. I think it’s because Jack is a raccoon, and Jack loves collecting coins and money. And for some reason, he actually, I don’t know where he got this from. He was like, “so what happens to all of… And he gets really upset when we talk about me not being here anymore. And I’m like, ‘buddy, if Dad’s not here, Dad’s with Jesus. We’re good.’ But it really upsets him, so we don’t talk about it. But he goes, ‘Dad… when you go to heaven, what happens to all your money?’”
And I was like, “well, you’re 10. So right now, if dad went to heaven, it would be mom’s. And if mom went to heaven, grandma would take care of you guys and it would be her money. And so you guys are old enough.” And he’s like. So, like, I mean, you can just see his little wheels spinning. And we’re like, “well, buddy, what this means is, like, you 3 are mommy and daddy’s heirs. Like, you know, whenever we’re gone, whatever is left gets divided between the 3 of you. Unless you really make me mad and we cut you out of the will.” And Jack goes, “no, it’ll be bare.” Which I’m like, “it won’t be bare. But…”
It was funny because that concept’s kind of foreign to them. But in a weird little way, I think it actually made him feel, I don’t know, safe, like protected. And we were like, “well, buddy. Hopefully nothing like that bad happens before you’re grown up. But even if something did, that’s why daddy has life insurance and we have the retirement money. We’ve tried to be really smart. So in case something happens, you’re safe. You’re taken care of. And grandma’s on the wheel. So that way she takes care of you guys until you’re of a certain age.” And you can see his little wheel spinning. And we were like, “but in the end, you guys, there’s 3 of you, which means there’s 3 heirs. There’s 3 of you that split between.” And they were like, “yeah, I guess that’s fair.” It was sweet. But when we… You don’t have to worry about it unless you wake up in the middle of the night and he’s right here going, “how you doing?” Yeah, he does that sometimes that really just…
I didn’t used to get scared by things. And the other day, it’s dark now when I leave for school. And I’m coming back around the car after I’ve thrown my stuff in the passenger seat. And I’m opening the door. And I come around the corner. And it’s 6:20 in the morning. And Rissa’s like, “hi, Dad. I just wanted to give you a hug for a good day.” I’m like, “oh, my gosh. Stop.” I mean, it’s pitch black outside. There’s no streetlights on our street. And there’s just this kid, like, right there. I mean, it’s like, “you’ve got to stop doing that.” She’s done it to me, like, weekly for the last 6 months. Jack’s putting her up to it. He’s got to be. He’s got to be.
Jack is really good at, like, and I know that my house isn’t haunted, but, like, I’ve been in the bathroom before, like, brushing my teeth, getting ready, and the door is just, like, our bathroom door is a pocket door. And you can just see, like, something is slightly moving, and then it stops. And I’m like, “oh, my gosh.” And then it, like, happens. But there have been a few times where he’s done that, and I have not. My peripheral didn’t catch it. And it just scares the tar out of you. And you’re like, “there’s nothing worse than having, like, jump scares at, like, 6:15 in the morning.” But anyway, so he might get cut out of their will. Joke’s on him. His parents are teachers. But anyway. Anyway.
Those 3 things I think should hit each of us. Being led by the Spirit, that one for me, knowing that I don’t have to have every answer and be in control, but I can genuinely trust being led by the Spirit gives me a great deal of comfort. Crying Abba Father for some, and then the idea of being an heir brings a lot of comfort to others. And the heir thing is neat because you can use the physical example of adopted children still being an heir. That’s us. We are adopted into God’s family, but yet still heirs, not held at a different level, not lesser than, which is amazing.
And it’s neat because I do think it’s worth noting in verse 17. That’s where it talks about suffering. Where did I see that? Oh, it is 17. “And if children, also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.” I have, I can only assume, I don’t watch a lot of prosperity gospel stuff, but I could only assume someone teaching a prosperity gospel could look at that verse and be like, “oh, co-heirs, like we’re promised, all the things.” It doesn’t say that. Spiritually, but it also says, “if indeed we suffer with him.” Suffering is still going to happen. We’re not exempt from hard things. So it’s not a false prosperity that we’re co-heirs. It’s that we are co-heirs, and we still suffer with him, even though we experience glory in heaven. I think it’s a neat idea. There are many ways that we could lean into this, but the idea of crying, Abba, Father… after being set free from slavery is a really big deal.
Like, most of the time, like, set free from slavery, and it’s, “You’re a second-class citizen, you’re kind of, you know, sent.” I mean, we can even read, like, slavery still happens in the world today, but in just our view of slavery in the United States, the slaves were not, like, best buddies after they were freed. Like, with master, I mean, they were, typically, they took off. They ran for somewhere else that they weren’t around those people anymore. In this case, set free is… And now able to cry Abba Father is unbelievable. It’s a radical thing when we slow down and think about it in that manner.
Okay, let’s keep reading. We’re going to read 18 through 25. 18 through 25. Future glories, my Bible labels this. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he can see? If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
So how often do you catch yourself thinking about heaven? Heaven. Yeah. How often do you catch yourself thinking about heaven? Or just eternity in general? I know that I tend to be a little on the bookish side of life. There’s a book series we read with the kids called The Green Ember. And their story, the background isn’t important. They’re in turmoil, as we all are. And they randomly will make this phrase, it will not be so in the mended wood.
And the idea being like when all things are set right again, it will not be this way. We won’t have to fear. We won’t have to worry about this. We won’t have to guard or keep our guard up and protect. And I’ve always liked that phrase. So that tends to be the phrase that comes to my mind when I think about eternity is it will not be so in the mended wood. It will not be so when things are set right again, which I think, again, this idea of Paul’s unfolding, he talks about hope a lot in the second half, is exactly the hope that we want to have.
That yes, there will be suffering this side of eternity. We live in a broken, fallen world. But we know for believers, the best is always yet to come. That it will not always be so. It will not always be the way of the world. So when you do think about heaven, what do you most look forward to? I’m expecting a first answer. What do you most look forward to in eternity? A hug from Jesus. Ooh, that’s good. Yeah.
That’s really good. A hug from Jesus. That’s a really good one. Man, that’s a better answer than the one I had in my head first. Mine was probably more selfish than that one. I think maybe pretty close in that top 5 list. What’s that? I said you’re probably going to be asking all the questions.
Oh, absolutely. I’ve got so many. So many good questions. But I think loved ones. Being reunited with loved ones is high on the list. I think maybe… If we don’t get to ask questions and we don’t get answers for things, we won’t care at that point. But I kind of hope I get to ask questions. I just… There’s nothing more exciting than when someone has a big board and they start showing all the little lines between all these things. I just want to know the dominoes that fell and what…
That sounds fun. Like, I don’t know, it’s overwhelming, but it won’t be overwhelming there. He is exceedingly more patient. Infinitely more patient than I am. What else do you look forward to in heaven or eternity? That’s a great one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I’ve wondered, I mean, I don’t know, and I’m sure we could find some random theologian who has an idea, but we won’t know until then. Knowing that there’s a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem coming down, I’m so fascinated by what that will be. I know. I’ve always wanted to go backpacking in Kazakhstan. I don’t need to go there. I’d get killed so quick, I’m sure. It’s not like I could blend in. It’s like, oh, cool, a white guy. But the mountains there, I’ve seen videos. It looks unbelievable. Beautiful backpacking.
I, like, secretly hope. I’m like, does that mean, like, some of those things, like, still carry, like, I mean, I don’t know. And we don’t know. Like, when it talks about the new heaven and new earth, the word in Hebrew and Greek is really renewed. But I don’t know. Like, I would love to be able to explore. Like, that’s silly, but that’s high on my list. So, but for Paul. Paul is leaning into this idea in verse, we started in 18.
And it’s a really important verse. It’s one that we’ve probably all heard a dozen times, if not more. But he says, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Again, the second promise of there’s going to be suffering this side of eternity, period. But it’s not worth comparing to the glory. I mean, I had a really good analogy once.
If you, Oh no, I wish I thought of these things like before when I could write it down and find it. Um, if you took all of life, if you took all of death and I’ll find the quote, the idea of being like the vastness of evil and darkness compared to the enormity of light and goodness, they’re incomparable. I mean, it’s like a drop in the ocean in comparative reality. It makes so little difference because the weight of glory, which is a cool phrase. C. S. Lewis talks about this idea. I didn’t think of any of this yesterday, so whatever.
C. S. Lewis has a book written called The Weight of Glory. And The Weight of Glory is wonderful. And he leans into this idea, and I like this a lot, of like have you ever tried to grasp smoke with your hand? Like if you’ve been by a campfire or like maybe when you’re a kid, like you’re trying to grab the smoke, and it’s impossible. It’s like for half a second, maybe not even that. It’s kind of in your hand, but then it just is gone because you can’t grasp smoke.
C. S. Lewis, I think, kind of alludes to that idea of the ability to understand glory is so little for us as human beings that it’s genuinely unfathomable. It is grasping at smoke. We get glimpses and parts, but we really cannot fully understand. And I read Paul’s words here, and that’s the analogy that comes to my mind.
That the sufferings of this present time aren’t worth comparing with the glory that’s being revealed to us because the glory is so vast. The weight of that glory is so incredible. We can’t. We can’t fathom it because we’re human beings. And at that, we’re fallen human beings who have been redeemed, but we’re still living in this world. Yeah, Bill? I think too many people forget during the suffering that it’s not worth comparing to when you’re in that spot. Yeah.
I think that’s true, and I think that’s where talking about these things, even when we’re not in the suffering, like direct suffering moment, is so important because then when we are in those suffering moments, hopefully we have enough muscle memory. It’s like people who physically train for climbing. Have you ever watched American Ninja Warrior?
Gosh, like I wish I was more agile and 20 years younger. Like that would be – and I had a trust fund that I could just do that all day because I don’t know how those people make a living. But Jack likes watching that because honestly, if like we lived close to one of those places, we would have to somehow get Jack involved. Like he would just eat it up and probably be shockingly good at it. But that said, those guys train. So when like the things are moving and like their muscle memory kicks in and they’re able to just –
I think that similarly, when we have studied the word and we understand the theology well, then when the moment of suffering comes, we actually have some muscle memory to hang on to. And we’re not just trying to hold on to that one happy thought. There’s a few people I’ve talked to lately because of seminary classes and counseling stuff that would say they love the Lord, but they feel abandoned by the Lord because things have been harder than they wanted them to be.
And why didn’t God give me relief in that hard season? And it just, it is the hardest conversation because they’re in the moment of suffering and they have no muscle memory of which to, to walk through it. Um, because, and they’re just trying to grasp at straws. Um, those are hard conversations. I assume most people have probably had those hard conversations in life. Um,
And the reality is, we see it in these next few verses, the curse is heavy. The curse hangs hard still. When we read on in verse 19, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.
In hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom and the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
The curse is heavy. If all of creation has also been subjected to this futility, to this bondage to decay. I mean, think about that. The world, I suspect, in the garden was not intended to atrophy. But yet, the world we live in atrophies very quickly. It’s kind of crazy. When you go out…
We like driving through Lone Elk a lot. And Lone Elk is maintained because it’s a county park. But it used to be part of like a military something. I don’t actually really know if anyone totally knows. But they stored stuff. They practiced there. It was something useful a long time. And it was Lone Elk and it was –
I think West Tyson’s right by it. And then you have Tyson Research. So you’ve got this long stretch that was all some kind of military research training storage facility right there at 44 and 141.
It’s so interesting because I’ve hiked at West Tyson most of my life, and there’s zero remnant of any military anything on that property. I mean it’s crazy. But then you literally cross a chain link fence, and you’re in a research facility where there used to be missile silos buried underground. And then on the other side of the chain link fence and lone elk that you can drive through to see the elk and the bison, which by the way, it’s worth going to see the baby bison.
Really cute. So fluffy. Just so fluffy. And they probably weigh as much as my car, but they’re so cute. But there’s old military bunkers all over the place. But it’s just interesting. Land in the middle, between the research and then the county park side, it’s just the hiking in between. So quickly, nature just overtook whatever had been there. Very, very fast. And we see it all the time.
I don’t need to give more examples. You can think of, like, you go into the woods, and where there used to be, like, buildings, and they’re just, they very quickly just decompose back into the earth. The world is heavy under the curse. It’s not just us. It’s not just human beings. All of creation, Paul says, all of creation, in verse…
22, we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Not only creation, but we ourselves. So this whole thing is painting a picture that life outside of the kingdom of God in the curses is overwhelming. Sin corrupted the entire universe. But Jesus coming again reversed that. It began to unravel the evil that had been done.
We, where did I write this? It was, oh, we got to talk about the first fruits. Okay. So we glossed over it when we read it a couple of times, but it’s important. Verse 23, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit.
Groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons for the redemption of our bodies for in this hope we were saved but hope that is not seen i’m sorry that is seen is not hope for who hopes and what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience so paul is trying to help us understand in this this short little spot that yes we too just like creation is groaning under the weight of the of the curse and waiting to be redeemed
But those of us who are in the spirit, those of us who follow Jesus, we have been given the first fruits of the spirit. And I read this yesterday, and now I’m a little frustrated because I don’t know where it’s hidden in my notes. That’s okay. I can vaguely remember where I read it. The idea of first fruits, especially in biblical literary speaking, is the idea that it’s not unlike me planting an apple tree.
Rarely does it have fruit the first year it’s growing. But after a few years, they tend to produce fruit. It’s not unlike, we planted a bunch of wildflowers in front of our porch this year that the kids were excited about. We only got black-eyed Susans, which is fine, we love them. But it takes a couple of years sometimes for those to produce their fruit, their flowers.
But Paul is telling us not only that, but because the Holy Spirit has given us some of the first fruits, it depicts that there’s going to be a bountiful harvest. Like having first fruits is a really good sign that better things are to come, if that makes sense. I watched this video years ago with the kids. Has anybody ever gone to D. C. when the cherry blossoms are like going crazy? Yeah.
You know that happens, though? Okay. It’s super pretty. I mean, just absolutely gorgeous. There’s a tree called the Signal Tree, which I think is neat. And you can only find it because there’s like a little metal token that’s like nailed into the side of this beautiful tree. And fun fact, there are a second batch of cherry blossom trees because the first batch of cherry blossom trees had some disease and they all died, which is kind of fun. And then…
I think they were a gift from Japan. Is that right? Okay, good. Thank you, Sandy. And then Japan sent a second batch, and they did it again. So they’re phenomenal. They’re beautiful, and people travel every year to go see the cherry blossoms because it’s so pretty. Well, the signal tree, for whatever reason, it blooms like anywhere from 6 days to like 9 days before all the other trees.
So they know, and I don’t think scientists totally understand why that one blooms first, but they know if that tree starts to bloom, you’ve got 6 days to get here. Like that’s when the peak of all of these trees just exploding is, which I think is very cool. So this idea of first fruits, while that’s,
A little different. It’s still that signal tree blooming healthy a few days before all the others is this symbol of the first fruits that even more is to come because the first one has happened. So the believers can genuinely experience or they can hope in that the completeness of this joy and redemption is coming. We have the first fruits.
Like we still live in these bodies. We are embodied souls. Our soul has been redeemed, but our bodies have not yet been redeemed. We are not in eternity. Jesus has not come again. We know that we still live in a world that has suffering and brokenness and evil, but we know where we’re going. And we know that everything beyond is better for believers. Everything in the future, the best is yet to come. So this idea of first fruits,
Is depicting, like, look, you’ve been given, the signal tree has bloomed, which means because the signal tree has bloomed, there are some fruits of the Spirit growing out of you. Even more is to come. It’s a very cool promise. It’s a deep thing, and it’s a little wordy the way Paul unravels it over those verses, but it’s important, and he tells us why it’s important, because in verse 24, for in this hope we were saved.
Now what is hope? Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes on what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. That’s the hope we’re holding on to.
It kind of plays it backwards. You don’t hope for the thing that’s already happened. You hope for the thing you can’t see yet. You hope for the redemption and the restoration of all these things. It seems like it’s just a wordy spot, but it’s really important because we’re all going to suffer. We’re all going to have frustrations. We’re all going to struggle. But when we see any fruit of the Spirit within us, it should remind us you belong to God and there’s hope.
Because if there’s first fruits, there’s harvest later. Does that make sense? Is that computing? I hope it’s something you meditate on later because I think that the question that it asks there in 69 is how does the hope expressed in these verses help you in times of adversity? That’s how it’s supposed to help is that maybe I’m doubting a lot of things. Maybe I’m frustrated. Maybe I’m hurting. Maybe I’m fearful. Maybe everything around me feels chaotic.
But if there’s a candle glimmer of hope, There is first fruits. There is something that’s pointing me like the signal tree. There’s something saying like, don’t worry. There’s still the spirit has not like that matters enormously. Like it might be tiny blessings, but you know, moms used to always tell you when you’re like count your blessings, like it actually mattered.
Because then even the little blessings start to help us remember God is still good. Like the spirit is still at work. And the first fruits of the spirit can take a lot of look, a lot of different look, a lot of different. No, that’s not the right phrase. The first fruits of the spirit can look a lot of different ways. That’s what I’m trying to say. It can be that maybe we’re seeing patience grow in us, which Paul hopes for, that that hope produces patience. Maybe it’s that we’re able to
Understand the love of god more fully maybe it’s us sharing more sincerely what we’re going through and still saying i don’t understand it but i’m still trusting god those can be first fruits the things the little acts of um of of belief that maybe don’t make sense in a world that’s broken and falling um so what do you any other thoughts like when you that question has the hope expressed in these help you in times of adversity i kind of stole all of it but
Does it strike any other thoughts in you? Today’s a quiet day. I won’t make eye contact with you. It’s fine. Okay. All right. Let’s read 26 through 27. 26 and 27. Which I’m very bummed. The last few verses…
You know what, I’m actually going to read through 30. I just can’t not do it. It’s going to make me really, I’m going to feel that like, it’s like when you start to sing a jingle from a favorite cartoon and then you stop halfway through and then you’re like internally, it hasn’t resolved yet, you’re frustrated. We just can’t stop at 20 seconds. It’s annoying. Okay, 26. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he justified. And those he justified, he glorified. So that’s, I mean, some of those are some of the most famous passages in Romans, if not scripture itself. But we have to stick with what the quarterly’s got for now. Okay.
How do you handle doubts about God? Maybe they’re not yours, but they’re other people’s. How do you handle your doubts or other people’s about God? Everybody has them. One of them, I think, we do right now. We’re studying scripture. And I think when we have doubts, going back to scripture and understanding again God’s faithfulness and goodness does help us hold on.
It’s not unlike, I mean, this is silly, but when you have relational equity, like, I tell this to students a lot. It’s like, if you have broken my trust multiple times by asking to go to the bathroom and then wandering the halls for 20 minutes, the relational equity has now been severed somewhat. So just know, I trust you less next time you go and I will give you a timer. But in this sense, like,
We spending time in scripture does build up that relational trust with the father but paul gives us a really good reminder too in verse 26 the spirit helps us in our weakness we are weak we don’t like to admit that we’re weak because that’s not the way americans and um you know people function but we are weak and we’re prone to forget we’re prone to get confused we’re
But Paul tells us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Not only does he help us, but when we don’t know what to pray as we should, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. It’s amazing. What a cool thought. And we’ve heard that thought before. We’ve read that before. We’ve been in church. But when we don’t know what to do in our weakness, when we’re at a loss for words, which I hope, I’m not going to make you raise your hand, but hopefully everyone has had a spot where they’re at a loss for words.
Hopefully everyone has been at that place where they genuinely do not know what to pray. But the spirit intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. I vividly remember some of the scarier foster care days. I don’t remember exactly what phone call we got or what happened. But I remember the emotions of those scary days when you thought everything was going to fall apart. And all you could pray was, God help us. I don’t know what to pray for. You love these kids more than I do.
Help us. Because you don’t know what to pray in those moments. It’s so overwhelming. Hopefully everyone’s been there, but that’s the beauty of the Spirit, is even when we have moments that everything is crashing down, we see the decay and brokenness of the world around us, we see it in our own hearts and minds, and we don’t really know how to solve it. Great, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For when we don’t know how to pray as we should, the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.
That goes back to this idea, like chapter 6 was all about living the freedom, stop being a slave to sin. And then chapter 7 was the concept of, how did I say it? The struggle that we still have in non-redeemed bodies. And then chapter 8 that we’re in now is, this is how you actually have victory. Trust him in your weakness. You know, in Corinthians, he makes the comment later, like his power is perfected in your weakness. Like it is actually better that you are weak because then he can actually work through you more fully.
I had a really good conversation with a guy at school this week, and he made the comment about being young. And he was on a team at school, and he – how did he phrase it? Like he – regularly felt like he didn’t have the insight and wisdom to actually help this team. And someone on that team made the comment to him, well, you don’t have to have all the answers. You have the collective wisdom of the team. And he disagreed. He goes, no, that’s not the point. He’s like, of course, that’s why you’re on a team. One person can’t win a soccer game. You need a team. But that doesn’t mean I don’t. And he was, I mean, we’re at a Christian school, so he can say this.
He’s like, I need the humility to know I don’t have all the answers, just like no one has all the answers, but I have the spirit to do this well. And I was like, yes, absolutely. Why in the world would I possibly try and trust human wisdom when I have the spirit helps me in my weakness and prays for me when I don’t know what to pray? How arrogant to think that I have all the answers. And he wasn’t, these are my words now, but he was like, he was a little afraid to say that because he was in a room full of people twice his age.
And he’s like, I actually don’t agree because I think I’m, it’s good that I’m young and I don’t have all the answers because that makes me want to trust the spirit more because I don’t have all the answers or I don’t think I have all the answers. It should convict us all. It was a good thought. He probably doesn’t even realize that I remembered it, but it was a good thought. But the spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to do. You know who doesn’t know what to do? All of us. None of us know what to do. We might, so there might be some muscle memory that I know, like, when the bad thing happens, I need to pray. None of us knows what to do.
In the end, like, I don’t know. This is basic economics. We talk to the kids, like, you can’t knock over a domino and know exactly what’s going to happen for the next 100 years because that one domino you pushed over. God does. We don’t. So it leads us to this place that that should humble our hearts to trust him more fully. That he knows the outcome. And I love, man, I’m so annoyed that quarterly, this is where I got more annoyed in the beginning. When it lands in 28, and we know that those who love God or for those who love God, all things work together for good for those according to his purpose.
Like in the end, God, it must make Satan so angry that God can take all the evil and brokenness and sin and the bad dominoes that we push over that we shouldn’t have pushed over that we realize later. Whoops. Like that God can somehow use those things and mold them and reshape them for his good and his kingdom. Hope it does because it’s really really incredible. Um, okay, so the spirit. The the quarterly makes this comment that’s worth worth noting and i have a little question for it. Um, and then i have to stop talking.
The spirit helps us walk with jesus. The present now of the Spirit is like the down payment. It’s like here’s the, you could say first fruit, single tree, or down payment. It’s like this is what, this is a taste, a foretaste of what’s to come. By dwelling in us, the Spirit, he keeps our hope in Christ alive. When we can still hope in Christ, we might be having the worst month, year, decade of our lives. But when we can still say, I don’t get it, but I’m still gonna trust Jesus. That is indeed the spirit dwelling in us and keeping the hope of Christ alive. That is a gift.
Like what I’ve said before, wanting to want the things of God is a gift. It’s the spirit working in us. But then there’s this other thought. It says weakness often shows up as confusion or uncertainty that leads to frustration. I think that’s fair. We are weak humans, which even when we’re like really on our A game, can sometimes lead to confusion and uncertainty. And inevitably, anyone who’s confused or uncertain for long enough is going to get frustrated. It’s just the way you can see it in a kid really fast, like a little guy who doesn’t understand what’s going on. And their frustration tolerance is much, well, it’s hopefully lower than adults.
In those moments, though, the spirit intercedes for us when words fail. What does that look like? For the spirit to intercede for us when words fail, what does that really look like? A book I read years ago talked about, and I’ve told you that I do this sometimes when I’m working on new stuff at school or for seminary. Bach used to write at the bottom of his composition, Soli Deo Gloria, which in Latin means all glory to God, which is lovely. It’s a great thought. But at the top of his compositions, most people don’t realize, he almost always wrote Gesu Juva, which means Jesus help in Latin.
And Bach was actually, I believe, a pastor and also a composer. Just the pastor part gets forgotten in history. And so he approached that in the sense of I’m sitting down to compose. I’m sitting down to write and to create something. But I want the help of Jesus to do this well. I don’t know what you, I mean, I guess the words you could pray if you’re writing a piece of art like him of like, Jesus, help me write this thing. But Jesus doesn’t actually need the rest of it because he knows. So I think maybe that’s a simple way of like, what’s it look like to actually not have the answers and just say, Jesus, help. That could be an example.
I think when we’ve done dumb stuff. And we’ve dug ourselves into a hole that we don’t know how to get out of, which is common for holes. We don’t know how to get out of holes because you dug yourself into it and now you’re in a hole. I mean, like, have you ever watched kids at the beach dig themselves into a hole and then they try to get out of the hole at the beach? It’s cute, but not quick or effective. Because as you keep climbing, then the hole digs, I mean, it falls in on you more. It’s cute for a little while. When we dig ourselves into those holes and we can’t get ourselves back out of the hole, that’s the exact moment that we need to stop trying to figure it out and have a plan and just say, Jesus, help.
And I don’t mean Carrie Underwood, Jesus, take the wheel and you let go of the steering wheel. I’m not advocating for that. But that we pause and we humble our hearts and we say, Jesus, help. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. Help. I think that’s another example. This idea of weakness should lead us to the frustration that we do dumb, but it should lead us to the place of humility and letting Jesus guide us versus us have all the answers.
Okay, we’re going to skip question on 71 there because we’re down to 1010. Going back to that question I asked earlier. This is kind of like the one where like being led by the spirit or crying Abba or being air, like which one makes you feel like you’re a child of God. I’m going to build off that question. When we read Romans 8, this idea of living life in the Holy Spirit, which part really helps you shape the way you need to live? Is it being led as God’s children? Is it learning how to wait with hope and suffering? Or is it learning to trust the Spirit to intercede?
And maybe it’s all three. Like, this isn’t in the book. Sometimes I wish I could give you guys, like, here’s a sticker to add into the book. But I don’t have a sticker machine. So we won’t do that. But I see those three things really clearly in chapter 8. Being led as God’s children, waiting with hope and suffering, and learning to trust the Spirit’s intercession. You don’t have to necessarily say a lot, but…
Do any of those strike you as things that, like, I need to do a better job at that? Like, I need to learn to be led as God’s children, like God’s child. I need to learn to wait and hope in suffering. Or I need to learn to trust the spirit to intercede. That one’s hard. I’m a doer. I am not a, I am not a, like, I have had to train myself to not go in hot situations. And I don’t mean mad. Sometimes I do. But most of the time I mean like when there’s a problem, I had to train myself not to be like, let me fix it and just take over because that’s my natural inclination.
I have had, and thank goodness for my own kids, but really high school kids, learning to let them wrestle through something is really important. They don’t learn. If you swoop in and take over and be like, let me fix it all. They don’t learn. They don’t like it when they have to do the hard learning, but that’s how they learn. If we’re doing the coffee house, if we’re doing Photoshop, if they’re sending, like right now, one of my groups, we have one of our entrepreneurship classes, they run an ad agency, and we really wanted real clients this year, so they like really can help serve. And a lot of it is like non-profits and churches who don’t have the budget for a marketing person. So it’s like, let’s let the kids…
Practice and they’re a little more forgiving because it’s free. All the above well one of my and we told the kids We’re only emailing one client each like they’re all on teams of 3. Every team just needs one client for the first semester just to work out all the kinks and then second semester We can add a couple more. It’ll be fun. Well. I had a team who emailed their second client and and set up a meeting and I’m just like ah But after I didn’t go in like er I was like okay. I let’s have a really good conversation about scope. And you guys know that word scope. It’s like, you know, how much bandwidth does each of these things take?
And it was, they will learn a really hard, but really good lesson because now they will not go to the next client meeting and say, this sounds great. Thanks so much. We’re going to get started right away. Instead, they’ll say, let us go back. Let us make, look, look at our calendar and look at like, figure out how much all these pieces, they’re only in class 4 hours a week with me. They don’t have 30 hours to work on these projects. It’s limited. So, it’s really good. It’s annoying. I was annoyed in the moment, but it was good because I have to not only back up, but this idea of being led by the Spirit, I need to trust that it’s Christian school. I can actually say this to him and to myself. The Spirit is going to work out some of these things. It might be that we learn a hard lesson versus it being a little bit smoother than I was expecting. And that is okay.
But that comes back to this idea of Romans 8, living in the spirit. Am I trusting the spirit to give me hope in the frustration, but also to intercede and to mold and shape what these things are happening? Genesis 10, 14. So perhaps what this looks like, this idea of living a life in the spirit, chapter 8 of Romans, it’s learning to obey the spirit. And not obey what we think the world’s answer, our own, would be. Maybe it’s denouncing the lies that fear propagates to us. Think how often fear drives our decision-making. Like, I’ll buy things. It’s not like massive fear, like, you know, catastrophe. Sometimes it can just be the fear of like, oh, I’m going to buy extra of all of this so that we don’t run out on the camping trip. But I will go and spend. I guarantee you I’ll do this this week.
I’ll buy another of those stupid expensive propane tanks that cost a fortune. If anyone has an empty one at home they want to get rid of, let me know. Man, I looked at the little thing today at Sam’s, it was like, to refill it was like $20, to buy a new one was like $70, and I’m like, no. That’s crazy. But it’s silly, but the fear of running out, and some of the times that’s preparing, but I’ll make a decision based off of fear. If I’ll do that based on like, I don’t want to run out, I don’t want to not have enough, think about how fear will impact much bigger things that are actually fearful versus like just silly.
Maybe it’s enduring suffering, but hanging on to hope. Maybe it’s trusting the spirit to speak when you don’t know what to pray or you don’t know what to do. Maybe it’s waiting with patience. Again, I kind of am a let’s just go solve it. Let’s get it done. Cross off my list and move on. That is not always the right move. Sometimes the right move is to shut up, to humble your heart, and let Jesus speak into the situation. And act when he calls you to.
And then I think last, this idea of living life in the spirit, more than any of the others, inviting the spirit daily to lead us as adopted children of God. We have to do that. Like we have to daily humble our hearts and say, lead me. Like I don’t, there are a million things today I don’t know what I’m going to encounter, but you do. I need you to be the one in control, not me. And I think that changes us very quickly in the way that we live life and we start to understand how we live in the spirit, which is very cool. Okay, any thoughts before we pray?
Today’s quiet, so I don’t think anyone’s going to say anything. Okay, let me pray. Father God, thank you for our class. And God, thank you even on days that chapter 8 is kind of heavy. There’s a lot of theological depth and struggle here. God, help us to reflect on it well. Help us to understand. Help us to live lives in the Holy Spirit. Help us to listen daily. Help us to surrender. Help us to be humble enough that we want to be led by you, not to be in control.
Jesus, I’m thankful for our class, and I’m thankful for your word. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right, next week is session 8, and you have a guest teacher. Uh-huh. It’ll be really good. We are going camping. So the kids have been annoyed at us that we have not camped since we got a new camper. And we were like, yeah, it’s because school started. But anyway, it’s fall break, so we’re going Han State Park. Good. I’m excited.
Thank you, ladies. Be sure and keep us posted on how surgery goes. Have Marilyn or somebody at least text Bernice. Okay, good. Or Debbie or somebody. Text one of us and we will get word out. Okay, I will take care of that. Good girl. Have a good week, girl. Bye, ladies.
Not since Friday. And I didn’t see Rob outside. I think I saw him driving around in the new golf cart, but I didn’t check. I think I saw Rob from a distance. I mean, it’s cute. Oh, I missed it. Well, hey, buckaroo. Are you a buckaroo? Yeah. Buckaroo bear. Oh, getting so big. You’re going to be able to do that much better. I know. It’s going to be a sick day. Did you behave during class? Yes. Good. She does not get overwhelmed staying in there.
