Unburdened #3 - Living Without Despair
Message Description
Continuing to verses 18-27 of Romans chapter 8, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund takes note of the word "groaning" that repeats itself. What is it that we groan about and what do we do with our pains and problems?
Message Transcript
Hey, welcome to Orchard Hill. It's great to be together as we're in this re-gathering phase having people gather. It is great to have people in Butler County, the Strip District, Wexford, Chapel, gym, and the different places we're meeting. As you might know our Worship Center is under construction, which actually works right now with social distancing and trying to have a little bit smaller groups but it's still good to be together. I know many of you will continue primarily online for at least this short season, but we look forward to the day when we can all be together again in different venues that we call Orchard Hill. Let's take a moment and pray together as we begin. Father, thank you just for each person who's gathered. Lord, I pray that today, wherever we are and whatever we're going through that you'd speak to us. God, I pray that my words would reflect your word, in content, tone, and emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
So, let me ask you a question. When's the last time you groaned about something? Now, you may say, well, okay, that's kind of a weird question. I'm not sure what you mean by that. But when's the last time you just had that sense of going, ah, why did that go the way that it went? My guess is that there are a lot of different answers. Some of us would tell about maybe a recent death, somebody that we love that passed away and we just said, oh, why, why this? Why now? Maybe it was an illness that hasn't led to death, but you got a diagnosis or somebody you loved went through a health crisis. And you just said, ah, why this? Why now? Or maybe you did something yourself and you didn't think you would ever do anything like it. And when you did you thought, oh, how did I end up making that decision, that mistake? When you think about it, you just say, ah, why, why did I do that? Or maybe you've had a broken relationship. So, it's something that you've worked at strive to make, right, but it hasn't been right. And you haven't been able to make it right. And so, there's just that sense when you think about you just say, ah, this just hurts. Or maybe there's been somebody close to you who has been battling an addiction. You've seen how much it ravages their life and you keep hoping and longing for it to be different. And then there's a relapse and you just say, ah, ah.
Or maybe it's grander things, maybe you've seen global hunger and you see pictures of kids that are malnourished across the world and you think, oh, it shouldn't be this way. This isn't how things should go. Or maybe you look at some injustices in our world. We've certainly had our fill in recent days. And you say, ah, this isn't the way things should be. This isn't how I envision our world being. Or maybe it's just the dialogue, the political discourse that seems so full of rancor and just acrimony that you say, ah, can't people give anybody the benefit of the doubt? Or maybe you look at our culture and you see the breakdown of families in the home or people who are raised without a mom or a dad. And you say, ah, this is hard to see.
We're in a series that we started a few weeks ago, from the book of Romans. We're in actually chapter eight of Romans, which many people would say is one of the foundational chapters of the Bible and we've called this Unburdened. In the image is of saying, if you pack a bag and you have a bag full of things, and you take some things out, it makes your journey lighter. And today we're going to talk a little bit about what it means to live without despair.
Because in the passage that you heard read in Romans 8:18-27, you see this idea of groaning. In fact, the word groan is used three different times in this section of the Bible. It's used in verse 22 where it says this, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up till this present time." And so what that tells us is that the experience of going, ah, this isn't the way it should be, this isn't what I want to be true, that this isn't how I thought the world would go, is something that all of creation has experienced and continues to experience.
In fact, the Greek word that underlies our English text for groan is the word stenos, and it means to sigh or to groan because of an undesired circumstance. So, if you have an undesired circumstance, and you just grown inwardly because of it, you're doing what Romans eight is talking about. But it isn't just that all creation groans. When you see in verse 23, that Christians also groan. In other words, people of faith, it says this, "Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit." Which is a way of saying you have the spirit. You are now a follower of Jesus. You're a Christian. It says, "We've grown inwardly as we eagerly wait for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies."
Sometimes people have this idea that says, if you come to faith in Jesus Christ, then all your groaning is done, and all of your hardship is done. And if you have enough faith, if you believe enough, if you try enough, if you work hard enough at your faith, then you'll eliminate the painful things of this world. But here we see very clearly that groaning is something that happens for all of creation, but it also happens for people of faith. In other words, it doesn't keep us from having those moments of saying, Oh, this isn't how it should be. This isn't how I want this world to function. And sometimes we'll groan because of our own sinfulness or the sinfulness of the world, or the things that are broken in the church or just not seeing God getting his do.
But then there's another place that groan is used here. And this is in some ways the most surprising. It says this verse 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." Now that's talking about prayer. And we'll actually talk a little bit about this next week. But the idea here is that the Spirit groans. So, all of creation groans and people of faith groan. But then it says, the God Himself groans, the Holy Spirit groans, because he feels the hurts and the pains that you and I live with, and have, and experience throughout our lives.
It's a pretty amazing thought. In Psalm 56:8, we see this, it says, "Record my misery, list my tears on your scroll. Are they not in your record?" And a literal translation of that actually says that the tears that we have God keeps them in a bottle. I mean, think about that. God taking your groans, your heartaches, your tears, and saying I'm keeping them in a bottle. That's how much God cares about the very things that disturb you and are painful for you in this life.
Now, once we kind of understand that, there are a couple different reactions that we have, just this idea of groaning or what do we do with our groaning. One is that we try to fix our groaning with our own programs or efforts. So in other words, what we'll try to do is say, well, I'm going to try to hedge my life against any kind of groaning or any kind of pain, any kind of thing that would keep me from having more groaning. And sometimes what we do is we try to make ourselves feel good. So, this is sometimes where we say I'm going to make sure that I do everything in my life to make myself feel good, so that I am hedged against groaning. So, some of us will say, what I'm going to do is I'm going to succeed in this world. I'm going to make my life a success. And so as long as I keep becoming more and more successful, then I hedge myself against groaning. Or some of us will say, you know what, this is about having a family around me that will make me feel good no matter what happens. Or some of us, it will be maybe that we try to work on our physical wellbeing so that we don't end up in a place where we feel like we don't have... (and you can you just fill in your own blank.) But this is a little bit like looking at your life and saying, or a car and comparing your life to a car and saying, that with a car that is having a problem and needs an oil change, and you say well, you know what, I can put oil in there. And engine oil is pretty expensive, so I'm going to try canola oil in my car. It would not work. And it's a wrong solution.
And so, what some of us do when we're confronted with the groaning and the heartbreak of this world, is we say, I need to find some way to solve this. And we'll try everything to solve it. But we end up still with this groaning. Some of us will maybe just give up. What we'll do is we'll say, you know what, this world will never satisfy. And since I know that and I understand that, then what we do is we simply say it's no use, trying to do anything other than just simply ride out this world, this existence that we have. And then some of us might say, well, if there is a day coming, that Romans eight talks about where the groanings of this present age will one day be redeemed. In fact, this is how this passage starts in verse 18. It says, "I consider that this present suffering is not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed in us." And so, some people will say, well, if there's a glory that's coming, then I want to make sure I'm on the glory side. And what we'll do is we'll try to earn that, so that one day, whatever is ahead of us, that God will have to give us the better life than what we have now.
But here's what Romans eight is actually pointing to. And that is it isn't our work, our effort, our ability that gets us this promised glory, but it's what Jesus Christ has done. The way this chapter starts is by saying there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In other words, the way that you will ultimately live without condemnation, without this despair because of the things that are wrong in the world, is something that God gives to people who come to trust Jesus Christ. It's not something that you have to earn or can earn. It's something that is given as a complete gift.
Now, you may say, well, okay, you know, we've talked about some of these things that we groan about. But as we look at this, there's a few things that jump out at us. And I just want to suggest that this is a Christian alternative to despair or a Christian worldview that emerges from this passage. And a worldview is sometimes used as a buzzword to say this is how people should see the world. And all it means is, this is a way that you arrange the perceptions of your world around something. And so, a Christian worldview simply means, how do you deal with the things that bring despair into your life? How do you look at this and say, this is a way to think about this? And here's what again we see, verse 18, "For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth being compared with the glory that will be revealed in us."
Now, there's a couple things here and I'm just going to give you three elements of this. The first is that this world is God's. In other words, God is the Creator. This is God's world. He's the one that made it. He's the one who has the ability to say, the future is full of glory. I am in charge. And that may not seem like that regulatory of a statement, but when you are walking through a time in which you're groaning, one of the first things we do is we say, is there even a God? Is this God's world? Does God have any sway over this world? But what Romans eight does is it says yes, we're groaning. Yes, we're living in a time, but God is still God. He still is in charge.
I know when I've walked through seasons of groaning, no matter how much I understand the Bible or believe the Bible, there's still an impulse to say God, are you there? God, re you part of this world? And so, the Christian worldview says, this is God's world. But not only that, it tells us that this world is not the way that it was created to be. And this is what we see really clearly here in Romans eight. Here's what it says, verse 19, "For creation waits, an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subject to frustration." So, creation, in other words, the world that we live in is subject to frustration. And the word here, the Greek word that's used here, means the inability of something to fulfill its intended purpose. That's what it means to be subject to frustration.
I was driving a while ago, back when there used to be traffic and events. And I was driving downtown on the day that there was a big race in Pittsburgh. It was one of the marathon days I think or The Great Race. I forget which one and I was I hadn't thought through the fact that the race was going on. And so everywhere I went, the roads were closed, and they kept rerouting me. And it was like, I just want to go there. But I can't go there because the roads are all closed, and I'm rerouted. And I didn't think about it. That was a moment of frustration. And this is what it means when the text says very simply that the creation is subject to frustration. You say this is how it should be. But I don't get here. In fact, I would say this to those of you who, who say, you know, I'm not sure about there being a god. One of the ways that you actually know there's a God is because you have a sense that things should be different. All of your groaning moments, all of your argh moments, are actually moments where you are saying there should be a different way. When you see injustice in this world and you say, that shouldn't be the way that it is, that's your yearning for God. And that's the perversion of creation saying, we're doing things our own way. And it's frustration. It's like saying, I want to get there, but I can't get there.
But not only that, we see this and that is there's not just frustration, but there's also bondage. Here's what it says, verse 20, "For the creation was subject 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 bondage to decay." So, bondage and decay are the other words that are used here, frustration, bondage, and decay. And bondage just simply means being stuck somewhere that you don't want to be.
Some time ago, I had taken some stuff to drop off at this little camp that we inherited from my wife's family. Now it's an old cabin in northern Pennsylvania. And it had kind of rained, and I backed my car out, and got stuck in the mud. I don't know if you've ever gotten your car stuck in the mud. And I was there by myself and I was trying to push it out. And I couldn't push it out because I'm not strong enough to push a car out of mud. I tried to drive it out and it just went down deeper. I finally had to get a person with a chain to pull me out because I wasn't able to get it out. What bondage means is that you're stuck in a place that you can't find the solution for it. So, this world is not as it was intended to be. Not as it was created to be by God. It's full of frustration. It's full of bondage.
And then we're told that it's full of decay. Do you know what decays is? It means that things are getting not progressively better, but progressively worse. If you don't believe it, look at a picture of yourself from 20 years ago. So sometimes people do the social media challenge, you know, here's a picture of me now, and here's a picture of me 10 years ago. And they always pick by the way, a really good picture of themselves now, so that when they post it, everyone's like you don't look any different. All right, that's a social media lie. You look different in 10 years. I look different in 10 years. And 20 years, you look a lot different. 30 years you aren't the same. I was talking with George Palombo this week, whose one of our pastors, and George was just talking about how when he wakes up in the morning in heat, his body feels better. You know what, that's decay, because as you get older, your body doesn't let you do everything the exact same way. And it's just, it's just part of living. It's part of living. And the Christian worldview says, this is part of our experience. You know, you can Botox it, nip it, tuck it, do all kinds of things to try to make it better, but it is still on the decay train. That is just the reality of our lives.
But here's the beautiful thing about this Christian worldview and that is this world will one day be renewed. Again, verse 18, "For I consider that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." I mean, think about this. God's world, not the way it should be because humanity fell because of sin, and sin is wreaking its havoc on all of creation, but the promise of Christianity, the promise of the Bible, the promise of God Himself, is that I will one day renew all of creation. That is what the Christian has to hope in.
Now, what does that mean for us? What does this lead to? Well, this text tells us that there's at least two things. First, I would say is perspective and second is motivation. Verses 18-23, which we've mostly just read, give us this perspective, that I consider that this present suffering is not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed. In other words, whatever you're walking through now, whatever your, ah, groan moments are, argh moments are, whatever those are, those are the moments of your life that you can say this is just a moment because I'm created for something much greater than just this life. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you can say I know that I'll one day be part of something that's completely renewed, and all of these hardship moments will be redone.
I don't know if you've ever traveled with little kids somewhere, especially over a long trip. But one of the things that happens for little kids in a car is they get frustrated because they don't want to sit in a car for a long period of time. And as a parent what you do is you say well, it'll be really good when we get there. We know that the trip is worth it because we are going somewhere, we need to get to and when we get there, it will be worth it. But when you're in the car as a kid, you're just saying no, this is not worth it. I'm stuck in the backseat. I don't want to be here anymore, I want out, because they can't see. And what happens is as you get older, is you're able to endure a trip better because you understand that it's a temporary part of a journey to a greater destination. And as we grow in our understanding of who God is, what happens is we start to say this is part of a temporary journey, that's part of a greater destination. Now, it doesn't make it not hurt. It doesn't make it so that we go, oh, this is good. We're still groaning, but our groaning is with perspective.
And then we see just this motivation. And this is in verse 24, and verse 25. We see this it says, "For in this hope we are saved, but hope that is seen as no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." And the reason I say this is motivation is because it isn't just a personal perspective that we get from saying that this world will one day be renewed, even though it's subject to frustration now. But we have a motivation, a hope, that we say I know that this is not all I was created for. See if you and I believe that, understand that, live in light of that, it changes how we live.
One author put it like this, he said, "All of our best days lie ahead of us. And one day all of our painful days will be behind us." Let me say that again. All of our best days lie ahead of us. And one day all of our painful days will lie behind us. You see what will help me, help you, walk through and navigate our groaning moments, our ah, moments of life, is the knowledge that this world will be renewed and the worship and wonder of who God is that says you can share in this. See, that's again part of the whole message of Romans eight. As you come to say, I've trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I acknowledge my sinfulness, what God does is he says, you're still going to live in this world that has frustration and bondage and decay, but there will come a day when I will free you from all of it, and you will live without the brokenness of this world. You see that sense of worship will give you that perspective and motivation.
I saw something earlier this year and it was from a memorial service. A lady named Lois Evans, died, she died slowly cancer. She was a lady in her 60s I believe. She's the wife of a man who is a prominent pastor and writer. His name is Tony Evans, you might know him. She's the mother of Priscilla Schreier, who you might also know her Bible studies and some of those things. And so, this is a family that's been steeped in church and Christianity their whole life. And after she died, Jonathan, her son gave part of the eulogy at his mom's funeral. This is what he said. Again, this was after a long battle with cancer. Here's what he said.
Jonathan said, "I was wrestling with God. Because I said if we have victory in your name, didn't you hear us when we were praying? Didn't you see the cancer? Didn't you hear us? Why didn't you do what we were asking you to do? Because your Word says, if we abide in you, and your word abides in us, we can ask whatever we want, and it will be given us. Your word tells us to ask according to your will, and you hear us. Your word is telling us in Mark 11, that if we pray, believing that you will receive to be anxious for nothing but through prayer and supplication to make our requests made known to you. So, where are you? Where were you? Basically, as my mom was dying. I was wrestling with God the last few days because this was a great opportunity that we can tangibly see your glory. So basically, God, why don't you bring your glory to bear here? Everyone would be praising you if my mom were healed. Everyone was praying not only in Dallas, but around the country and around the world. People were watching. Where are you? This was the opportunity to see your glory. And as I was wrestling with God, I sensed that he said, number one, you don't understand the nature of my victory because I didn't answer your prayer the way that you wanted me to doesn't mean that I haven't already answered your prayer anyway. Because victory was already given to your mom. You don't understand because of the victory that I have given you.
There were always only two answers to our prayers. Either she was going to be healed, or she was going to be healed. Either she was going to live, or she was going to live. Either she was going to be with family, or she was going to be with family. Either she was going to be well taken care of, or she was going to be well taken care of. Victory belongs to me because of what I've already done for you. The two answers to your prayer are yes and yes because victory belongs to Jesus. Then he had this sense that God was impressing on him, you need to understand that I am God, and I am sovereign, and that my plan is bigger than any one player on the field. So, you need to trust the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on you but lean on me because I have the ability to make this crooked situation straight. I am the sovereign God. That is why they say that I am, that I am. As higher as the heavens are above the earth, my ways are from your ways, my thoughts are from your thoughts. We don't think the same. P.S. Don't tell me how to get my own glory."
Now I read that because if you've had to walk through something where somebody close to you has suffered or died, or you've had the broken relationship, you've made the personal failure, you've seen the global injustice, chances are at some point you've cried out and said, God, why don't you do something? God do this. But again, a Christian perspective, motivation says, I hope. So I can pray and say God, would you and at the same time trust and say, but if you don't do it the way that I want you to, you've already answered my prayer. And either way, there is victory. Because one day you'll renew everything that's broken in this world. And that's what Romans eight tells us in why we don't have to live with despair, why we can live with frustration, yes, with the awareness that there's bondage and decay, yes, but not with despair because we're not without hope.
Now, let me just make one thing clear and that is it would be easy right now just to say okay, we all hope, that's good and God will one day make it all good. But you don't share in that unless you've come to acknowledge your need for Jesus Christ. Romans 8:1 starts with this, there is now no condemnation, and then it qualifies it by saying, for those who are in Christ Jesus. The only way that you can say, my frustration in this world is not ultimate, therefore leading to despair. The only way that you can say my groaning is not ultimate, is if you are in Christ Jesus. And that happens when you acknowledge before God your own sinfulness, in other words, God, I haven't done everything right, and your need for a savior who's done everything right on your behalf. And when that is true for you, then you can say, with Romans eight, for I consider that this present suffering this present hardship, my current groaning, is not worth being compared to the glory that will one day be revealed in my life, and that's where we get hope.
Let's pray together. Father, I pray today. As we're gathered, I pray for those who are groaning right now, groaning about things in our world, and groaning about things that have happened in their own lives. And God, I asked today, that you would help us to not let our groaning turn to despair. But instead we'd bring it to you, and be able to say, God, whatever you want to do with this, I know that you are bringing about renewal. And that in that we would find hope and be able to unpack one of the burdens that we carry in this life, which is our frustration with how things are working out. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
