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| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, October 8th, 2017:
Broadcast Notes:
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Life is Hard, But
God is Faithful
Good
morning and Welcome to good news in the morning. I am so glad that you have
tuned into the program today. My name is Brent Russett. I am the Lead Pastor at
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church here in Ottawa. I have been pastoring there for 27
years. One of the things I love to do is show how God’s word that was written a
long time ago, connects with our world right now.
I
know that some of you who are listening have been followers of Jesus for a long
time, and I know that others of you think of yourself as spiritual, but you are
not really sure of this Christian thing, and I know others of you just curious
how people of faith think. I trust that wherever you are on yours spiritual
journey, that you will find this program interesting and informative, and I believe
that for those of you desire it, God can use a program like this to take you
another step closer to Him.
Today
I want to take you to the last part of Romans chapter 8. I want to talk to
those of you who are Christians and ask the question, what should you expect
from your faith now.
There
are some, I would call them distortions of the gospel, which say –“If you have
enough faith then you are going to be completely healthy and you are also going
to be wealthy.” The crazy thing is, that there are health benefits to living in
line with the gospel, and there is a spiritual dynamic to wealth, so that when
you live out the gospel it helps your finances. Some people have taken those
realities and run with them, and said if you have enough faith you should be healthy
and wealthy. – That is distortion of the gospel – but what should be your
expectation of living out the gospel right now.
Some
people think that if you are living out the gospel well, and if you believe the
right things, that you will never have to deal with mental illness. After all
we are supposed to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ –
Again, the gospel rightly believed and lived out, can do amazing things for
your mental health – but I think it is a gross distortion to think that it is a
panacea for chemical imbalances and mental illnesses. But the question is, what
should your expectation be for living out the gospel right now.
There
are some people who think that if you are living out the gospel that you will
always be strong. You can handle anything that comes your way. If you are
experiencing any kind of weakness, if life is becoming overwhelming, you must
be doing something wrong. Is that true? What should your expectation be for
living out the gospel right now.
There
are some people who think that faith doesn’t really make a difference in this
world. We live like everyone else. The rain falls on the just and on the
unjust, and so there is really no difference between Christians and
non-Christians we are all just kind of muddling through. In other words, these
people have no expectation of the gospel right now, but they are hoping for
heaven. Is that what it means to be a Christian – just to get by the best we
can and hope for heaven.
I
have got to say that it is right and good to hope for the time when Jesus will
come back. It is good to have hope for the next life. The world we live in now,
sure isn’t heaven. But do we hope for now, and what do we hope for when Jesus
comes back.
So
what is it that you expect you Christian life to do for you? What do you expect
the results of living out the gospel will be in your life.
We
let us turn out attention to the Word of God, and see what it tells us in this
regard. Lets start at
The
Apostle Paul writing to the church in Roman says,
Romans
8:18 (NIV)
18 I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed
in us.
The
first thing I would have you note is that the apostle Paul, one of the greatest
apostle of all time experienced suffering. So people who tell you that if you
are doing the Christian life right, it will be all sunshine and roses – are
probably smoking something that is not yet legalized.
Paul
says, in the present I am suffering – but in the future a glory will be
revealed that will make the suffering look trivial. So I am looking forward to
that day.
But
not only me, but all of creation is looking forward to that day.
Romans
8:19–21 (NIV)
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 the creation
itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom
and glory of the children of God.
Paul
says it is not only us who are suffering, but we live an world where creation
itself is suffering. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, decay.
Romans
8:22 (NIV)
22 We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time.
Paul
is saying that in the present creation groans, but in the future it will
liberated as well and be made new. Paul is suffering creation is groaning. He
goes on
Romans
8:23–24 (NIV)
23 Not only so, but we
ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, he talks about that in
other places – he is talking about Christians
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.
At
present we who are Christians groan inwardly. If you have every woke up in the
morning with the pain of arthritis already there, you know what it means to
groan inwardly. If you have ever got news of a friend of yours who has been
diagnosed with cancer, you know what it
means to grown inwardly. If you have ever just received the news of a family
member who is going through marital breakup – you know what it means to grown
inwardly. If you have ever been walking through this worlds version of hell –
you know what it means to groan inwardly.
Life
is hard. 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.
Life
is hard, but in the middle of those challenges we await our adoption to
sonship, the redemption of our bodies. When Paul talks about sonship, it is not
a gender thing – Paul is making a
reference to how it was the sons in Roman times who inherited from their
father. Paul is talking about our inheritance as believers – whether men or
women.
Romans
8:24–25 (NIV)
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.
Paul
here, is obviously talking to followers of Jesus. People, in whom the Spirit
dwells. Life is hard – is a universal thing. It happens to most of humanity.
Everyone groans. We as Christian we groan. But we wait as well. We hope as
well. We live in hope.
To sum it up at present we suffer. At
present creation groans. At present we inwardly grown, and we wait and we hope.
I know what some of you are thinking, you
think I am the minister of melancholy, the reverend of wretchedness, the pastor
of pessimism.
Well
don’t blame me blame Paul. The bible, of course, also teaches us that life can
be really good. It is good to celebrate, and to love, and laugh.
But I
find passages like this helpful. I think one of the temptations in our culture
is to think that when life is hard that we must be doing something wrong, and
there must be a quick fix for it. To many Christians are taken by surprise when
suffering comes their way.
The
reality is that sometimes life is just hard. I know very few people who, after
you get to know them, you don’t find that they carry some deep hurts. It may be
past trauma or present relationships, or significant worries, or they are
walking with someone who is really hurting and that their love for that person
causes them to hurt for that person. And if I am describing you, I want you to
know that there is nothing wrong with you. Sometimes in life we suffer,
creations groans, we groan, we wait, we hope.
But
that is not all that is going on. We can expect more from our Christian life
than just that.
Romans
8:26–27 (NIV)
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.
There
is something else going on. The Holy Spirit helps. You see, in the middle of
the mess that life, we are sometimes
weak, and we don’t seem to have the strength to go on. Sometimes we are confused or perplexed and we don’t know what we ought
to pray for. In the middle of weakness and confusion the Holy Spirit
intercedes for you.
You
see, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit is in you. He knows what is going on in
you life. He knows what is going on in your heart. He knows what is going on in
your mind. He also knows what the will of God would be in you particular set of
circumstances. He is interceding for you in accordance to the will of God.
In
the middle of the mess, in the middle of the hardship, and difficulty – God
cares about what is going on in your life. The Holy Spirit is praying for you.
The Holy Spirit is standing in your place and speaking to God on your behalf.
He is praying that the will of God will be worked out in your life. These are
deep prayers, with wordless groans, - God is on your side. In the middle of the
pains of life, God is on your side.
Here
is the result of those prayers
Romans
8:28 (NIV)
28 And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
This
may be the most misused verse in the Bible. Let me tell you what it doesn’t
mean. I doesn’t mean that everything that happens to you is good. It is not. It
doesn’t mean that everything will turn out good in this life – everything does
not. What it does mean is that God is
working or your good in the middle of a bad situation. What it does mean is
that even in the middle of a world gone wrong, God has can and does work in the
middle of difficult situations for our. It doesn’t mean the situation is good.
It means that good can happen even in the middle of a bad situation.
But
note the qualifiers on this verse. God is working for the good of those who
love God, and are called according to his purpose. When you became a Christian
you responded to the call of God. No one comes to the Father except the father
draws him. If you are a Christian you have been called according to his
purposes. But your love for God grow lukewarm, it can grow cold, you can lose
your first love. This promise is made to those who love God.
There
is a reason for that. When God says that he is working for you good his
definition of good is found in
Romans
8:29 (NIV)
29 For those God foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,
But the definition of God’s good is
that you be conformed to the image of his son.
When humanity sinned the image of
God was broken in us.
Part of what it means to be made in
the image of God is that we reflect his character. As God is love, we are to
reflect his love. As God is good, we are to reflect his goodness. As God is
merciful we are to reflect his mercy. The only way to do that well was to
engage in our prime vocation to be worshippers of God.
But there is more to the image of
God than that. Part of what it means is that we were given authority rule over
the world under God. Or to put it another way, as we were reflecting the
character of God, we were to work in a way to make this world flourish. We had
a vocation, first of all to worship God, then to be builders of this world.
Each of you were given a vocation.
You were put here, to work together to make this world a better place. You were
called to help build this world into a place that flourishes.
Of course, when sin came into the
world the image of God was broken. We no longer worshipped God, but we
worshipped the things that God created. We no longer reflected God. We were not
loving as he is loving. And more than that we gave our authority over to idols
and we lost the ability to live out much of our vocation.
Oh you see hints of all these things
in people. There is still vestiges of the image of God in us. – But it is not
much. And so our world was broken and it groans. We were broken and we groan.
But in the middle of or groaning and
our weakness, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us. He is asking God to work
in and through us so that God’s will would be accomplished. God hears that
prayer and he is working for our good in the middle of the challenges and the
mess – he is working for out good so that we might be conformed to the image of
His son Jesus, and being conformed to the image of his son, we would have the
image of God restored in us -so that we might be who we were created to be.
In other words, if you love God, he
is going to take what is happening around you, to restore God’s image in you.
He is going to take the things that make life hard, and he is going to help you
to be like Jesus.
In the middle of a messy broken
world, God is working for you, to
restore you into all he has created you to be.
What can you expect of the gospel in
your world right now. If you love God, you can expect that he will be working
to restore his image in you, and to make you like Jesus.
******
So let me remind you of where we
have been. Paul says at present we are suffering, but the glory that is coming
will make the suffering look trivial. At present creation is groaning. Not only
that but we are groaning. And we are
waiting for that glory to be revealed, and we are living in hope. In the middle
of our weakness – where we don’t even know how to pray for ourselves, the Holy
Spirit groans for us, intercedes for us, in accordance to the will of God.
If we love God, God is going to work
for good in our lives, and part of that good will be the image of God restored
in us. Now we come to verse 31
Romans
8:31–39 (NIV)
31 What, then, shall we say
in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 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? 33 Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 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. 35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it
is written:
“For
your sake we face death all day long;
we
are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What can you expect of the gospel in
this world. You can expect God to be for you. You can expect God to be with
you. You can expect the grace of God to give you what you need.
And when life is hard and the world
condemns you, God says no – she is my child, he is my child. It is God who
justified – nobody else’s opinion matters.
More than that you can expect God
love to be directed towards you. God really loves you. God is on your side.
Does that mean that life is easy. Romans
8:35 (NIV)
35 Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword?
Life
is still hard. In this world you will have trouble. There will be hardship,
there can be famine, there can be danger, there can be real need – like the
need for clothes. In this world you will face hardship.
But
Listen to God’s promise for you.
Romans
8:37 (NIV)
37 No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Through
him who loves you, your sufferings will not conquer you, but you can triumph
over your sufferings. That does not necessarily mean that the cause of the
suffering will go away – it means that your suffering is does not define you.
Through
him who loves you, those things in life that make you inwardly groan will not
have the last word. The trials of life will be conquered.
Through
him who loves you, even you weakness, your needs, your perplexity, your
difficulties – will not define you. Because you are more than conquerors
through him who loves you.
Romans 8:35–39 (NIV)
35 Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword?
Verse
37
37 No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The
love that God has for you, puts
everything that is wrong in your life into perspective. The Spirit of God, is
interceding for you that God’s will, will be done in your life. If you love
God, then God will be working for your good, even in the difficult situations
of your life. And through the love of God, that unwavering, unending,
unfaltering, steady, consistent, deep love of God – you are more than an
conqueror. His love is at work in your situation, so that the situation does
not define you, but his love for you defines you.
I
don’t know what you are going through today, but if you are in one of those
phases of life where it is hard – I want you to know that it is not unusual,
nor is it wrong – it is just life -but don’t be afraid for God is with you.
LET’S PRAY.
Lord Jesus, I
pray for those who are feeling pain and suffering, for those who are conflicted
and confused, for those who have people they care about and they're burdened
for them. I'm asking Lord, that you
would meet them right where they are.
I pray Lord, that
their suffering would not define them, but that you would define them. I'm
praying Lord, that you would give them an overwhelming sense of your love and
your grace.
I'm asking Lord,
that you would allow this truth of your faithfulness to sink in, that they can
trust you wherever they would find you, or wherever they would find themselves.
What I'm asking is that they would reach out to you and they would find you
very close.
Lord, I ask these
things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
And
Thank you for listening this morning.
This
program is on the air by the grace of God and donations of many faithful people.
My
name is Brent Russett, and it has been a privilege to bring you Good News in
the morning.
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
_______________________________________________________
PODCAST
LINK to the CFRA broadcast:
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/57054/good_news_281_oct08.mp3
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