All Creation Groans Series
Can you hear the sound?
The sound of groaning
All Creation is groaning
Why?
Suffering
I consider that our present sufferings... Romans 8:18
Frustration
For the creation was subjected to frustration… Romans 8:20
Pain
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22
God has not given up on Family
His Family
To grow up and mature
To bring relief to Creation’s groaning
To bring the Kingdom of God to the earth
Filling the earth with righteousness, peace, and joy
God Has Not Given Up, 5
God has not given up on His creation.
He has not given up on all
He created as “Good”.
God has not given up on man
who was created from the dust of the ground
and made in His image.
God has not given up on breathing life,
His Spirit into flesh and bones.
God has not given up on His command
to man to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.
God has not given up on family.
A family to govern the affairs of the earth.
It has been a long journey filled with successes and failures.
After 4000 years of sin and repentance…
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, brings new hope
but not as many expected.
He did not set up an earthly kingdom for His people.
Jesus comes to deal with the curse of sin and
preached a message of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus told His disciples to wait till they receive
the promise of the Holy Spirit…
A new breath of life.
The prophets spoke of this coming day and
in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit filled the believers…
Peter says this is what the prophet Joel was speaking about…
“And
afterward,
I
will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Joel 2:2, Acts 2:17
Paul tell us in Romans 14:17…
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of satisfying
the desires of our flesh as Adam and Eve realized…
When they ate of the forbidden fruit.
The Kingdom of God is a matter of His Spirit.
Three basic things the Spirit does when
a person is filled with the spirit of God.
These three things can be looked at as a progression.
The Book of Romans is full of instruction…
Pertaining to the contrast of being controlled
by the flesh or controlled by the Spirit.
The Spirit always leads us in righteousness.
This righteousness always leads to peace and joy.
This Kingdom Life is for those who have
the Spirit of God and are led by the Spirit.
Jesus said…
The Spirit is like the wind.
You can’t see it
and you don’t know where it comes from
or goes…
But it is by the Spirit we are to be born again.
John 3
Jesus gives us two qualifications for being born again…
Receiving Him and Believing in His Name.
This gives a person the right
to become a Child of God.
Yet to all who did receive him,
to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God
John 1:12
Romans 8:15-17 says…
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.…
Jesus did not come into the world
to condemn the world…
But save it.
John 3:16-17
He came to His own people
and they rejected Him.
John 1:11
God has not given up on His family.
A family born again of the Spirit…
Who are lead through the process of birth,
to a child, to full grown mature Sons of God.
The groaning of creation is waiting for….
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
… the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed 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 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:14-23
Jesus Christ is the first born of many brothers
and sisters who are equipped…
By the Holy Spirit
to govern creation
as God had intended it
from the beginning.
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. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30
The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness there of
Psalm 24
Jesus Christ is coming again
and we should be excited about it.
But think about this as we wait
eagerly for the coming of Christ…
Christ is waiting for you and I.
God has not given up on what He created.
He is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God
to be led by His Spirit…
Led to bring deliverance to the suffering, frustration and pain…
God’s family to rule in righteousness, peace and joy.
We are to believe when we pray…
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on
earth as it is in heaven.
And when we groan over the condition
of the world in prayer…
We have the Holy Spirit in us who takes our groaning
and makes it understandable to God…
In whom leads us through the process of bringing
His Kingdom to our suffering, frustration, and pain.
Romans 8:26-27…
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 knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
God has not given up.
Scripture Reading
Romans 8:12-30
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation-but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 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.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
[6] And by him we cry, "Abba,[7] Father."
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that[8] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 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.
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 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. 27 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.
More than Conquerors
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[9] have been called according to his purpose.
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. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
