All Creation Groans
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’s love, riches, and wisdom goes to the fullest extent
Of the breadth, length, height and depth to reach you Ephesians 3:18, Romans 11:33
God never gives up, so what about you?
“Never give up on something you really want
It’s difficult to wait, but it’s more difficult to regret”
So, press to the goal and prize of perfection
Which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus
You and I can break God’s heart
He grieves over His creation, but never gives up
Groaning, 6
God Never Gives Up.
Imagine God’s heartbreak
over His creation.
Imagine the breaking of His heart
at the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
Or, at the time of Noah, when…
The LORD saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth,
and that every intention of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
Imagine God’s disappointment
over Abraham’s children of promise…
The children of God as they turned to
rebellious ways over and over again.
Remember Jesus weeping over Israel, saying…
“Would that you, even you, had known
on this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Luke 19:41
Even after Jesus came with redemption
through His death and resurrection from the dead
and the pouring out of His Spirit…
The Church, the people of God,
have fallen into disobedience.
Why after nearly 7000 years doesn’t God give up?
Certainly the condition of creation
is much worse
than it was after Adam and Eve’s
disobedience in the Garden.
All individuals have failed to obey God
and brought destruction on His creation.
Even great leaders…
There was David.
A man after God’s own heart,
the apple of God’s eye,
who fell into sin.
In the New Testament there was Paul,
the apostle, who said…
I am the chief of all sinners
1 Timothy 1:15
And…
O wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans 7:24
How does God remain loving and merciful?
Psalms 136
Why doesn’t God give up on His creation?
God is greater than all our sin.
But the Law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin]. But where sin increased, [God’s remarkable, gracious gift of] grace [His unmerited favor] has surpassed it and increased all the more,
Romans 5:20 AMP
What are signs God has not given up…
Romans 5:20 tells us…
But where sin increased grace has surpassed it
and increased all the more
It is God’s grace that keeps God from giving up.
As sin increases…
His grace increases all the more.
God wants you to succeed.
Why?
Because of His mercy.
Because judgment without mercy will be shown
to anyone who has not been merciful.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:13
Mercy gives the offender the ability
to do things right the next time.
A heart with mercy will find mercy.
Twenty Six times Psalm 136 tells us…
His Mercy endures forever
Because God receives all
who come to the Lord.
There is nothing He can’t do.
When Jesus was asked about
salvation and perfection,
Jesus said…
But Jesus beheld them,
and said unto them,
With men this is impossible;
but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26
Jeremiah 32:17…
Ah, Sovereign LORD,
you have made the heavens and the earth
by your great power and outstretched arm.
Nothing is too hard for you.
Job 42:2…
I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
The God of creation is also strong enough to redeem it.
Though His creation fails,…
He will never fail.
Being confident of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6
God will never forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5-6…
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
Deuteronomy 31:8…
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
2 Corinthians 4:8-12…
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
There is no place you can go
where God is not there.
Psalms 139
God’s love, riches and wisdom goes to the fullest extent
of the breadth, length, height and depth to reach you.
Ephesians 3:18, Romans 11:33
God never gives up, so what about you?
“Never give up on something you really want,
it’s difficult to wait but it’s more difficult to regret.”
So, press to the goal and prize of perfection
which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Though you and I can break God’s heart…
Though He grieves over His creation..
God never gives up.
Scripture Reading
Philippians 3:12-16 NIV
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
No comments:
Post a Comment