Sunday 01 • 14 • 18

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 the 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 first fruits of the spirit, grown 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 sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 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 in the mind of the spirit. Because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. — Romans 8:18-27

Good morning. My name is James Sutton. I'm the associate pastor here. Jeff Bradford, our senior pastor, is off leading a retreat for the New City Fellows this weekend, and he asked us to be in prayer for him. Let's go to God in prayer both for Jeff and our New City Fellows at the retreat, as well as for our hearing of God's word this morning.

Lord Jesus, we praise you that you've given us your word that we can come to your word this morning. We pray for our senior pastor Jeff and some of the members of our church who are off on this New City Fellows Retreat—a retreat meant to encourage a cohort of people in a variety of vocations and the work that they're doing for you throughout the city. Lord, we pray that you would empower Jeff during his time with them. Pray that they would be encouraged and built up. And Lord, we pray for ourselves this morning as we come to Romans chapter eight. Lord, it is an incredible passage. Lord, enliven our hearts to hear your word. Lord, enliven me to preach it. I feel unable, not up to the task. These words are incredible. So Lord, move in power through your spirit. Use this time. We pray for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, I'm nervous about preaching this text, and I'm also really excited about preaching this text. We're in Romans eight, guys. I mean, this is as good as it gets. We've just come through the holiday season, and what's fresh in my mind is a lot of road trips. I know I talk a lot about my kids. I talk a lot about being a parent of five kids. I know you all are probably tired of those illustrations, but it's all I've got. It's my whole life right now. I'm struggling to raise up these little kids. And over the holidays, we traveled a bunch. For Thanksgiving, we went to Williamsburg. For Christmas, we went down to Florida. And we get into our little minivan with our five kids, and we are maxed out at this point.

In the backseat of that minivan are three increasingly growing children who are rubbing up against each other, and they're in tight quarters for long periods of time, and it is miserable for everybody. They're miserable. They make us miserable. The whole time we're going anywhere, we're just miserable. It's terrible. And every time we talk about going somewhere as a family, my wife and I sit down and we do a little economy conversation. We're like, is this going to be worth it? Is where we're going going to be worth the absolute misery that we're going to put our entire family through in order to get there?

You know, the apostle Paul in this section of Romans is inviting us to ask that question, and he wants to answer very strongly in the affirmative that it's worth it. Listen to his words at the beginning of this in verse 18:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. — Romans 8:18

The sufferings of this present time—what is Paul talking about there? I think anytime we talk about Paul and he's talking about sufferings, we immediately think about persecution because he was very persecuted. He's experienced a lot of persecution from the world and from others and outsiders, and I think that's certainly probably a part of what he has in mind there. But the context of this passage—he's been talking about our struggle with sin. The sermons that Jeff has been preaching have been about our wrestling with our sin nature and how the spirit equips us for that, and how it's a struggle, but we have great reason to hope because of the spirit's involvement in that struggle.

The sufferings that Paul has in mind include our struggle with sin. That's suffering, right? Don't you suffer in your sin? Aren't you ready to be shed of it, done with it? Isn't that suffering? I think also in the context of this, he talks about death and corruption and decay. Isn't that suffering? Don't we experience that kind of suffering in this life? I know that there are many of you in this room that are experiencing suffering of that kind.

One of the things that is the hardest for me as a pastor is as we continue to grow as a church, I know more and more about the sufferings of individuals and it weighs more and more heavily on me. The suffering that we experience in this life is hard and it's intense and it's miserable and I think that's a part of what the apostle Paul has in mind here. I think it's all of that. I think it's all encompassing. What he means by suffering is any kind of suffering that we would experience in this life and that's a lot, quite a lot if we think about it.

And yet he says, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with glory that is to be revealed to us. When I was a kid, I did not play football at all. I watched a lot of football and one time I thought by watching enough football that I was good enough to play football. I had a close friend, Dan Teeter in Asheville, North Carolina and he and I and our dads used to watch football together all the time. One day, we started talking smack to our dads and we said, "Let's go out on the field. Let's see what you got, kids." We went out and that was my one football game. I was quarterback and Dan Teeter was wide receiver and we were obliterated by our dads.

Now, I want you to imagine that you turn on the television tonight when you get home onto ESPN and you see two analysts and they say, "Tonight, we are going to compare two great quarterbacks: James Sutton and Tom Brady." There would be moans. You'd be like, "What in the world? That's not right. James Sutton and Tom Brady don't even belong in the same sentence, much less do they need to be featured on ESPN." That should not happen ever, no way, shape, or form. That is what the apostle Paul is saying about the glory that we're going to receive versus the suffering that we now experience. He's saying in the most encouraging way that he possibly can: "Hey, the trip is worth it. It's going to be worth it. Where we are going is so incredibly amazing that the suffering that we're experiencing just doesn't even belong in the same sentence in terms of being compared."

And how does he do that? In this passage, he encourages us with three groans. That's the outline for this morning. We're going to look at three different groans that are meant to encourage us in our trip together to receive the glory as our adopted sons in Jesus Christ.

The First Groan: Creation

Let's look at the first one. We're going to look at verses 19 through 22 and the groaner here is creation.

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 the 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. — Romans 8:19-22

I have to tell you a story. One time when I was first hired by Saint David School, they asked me to come to a parent-teacher conference and to give a devotion. Being trained in the reformed tradition, I immediately said, "Let's go to Romans 8." So I came to this group of parents on a Monday morning that were gathering like a PTA, and we looked at this passage. I was so excited. I was going to encourage these parents. It was going to be exciting. I launched into an extensive exposition of my knowledge of childbirth. And at this point, my wife was expecting our first child.

I started talking about how moms go into childbirth and there's this period of struggling and suffering and it's really intense but then the baby comes and they're just so happy. I drew it out. I was talking about all of it. And I looked up and I realized there were like two dads and 80 moms in the room and they were all chuckling because I don't know anything about childbirth, right?

I mean, even at this point, I've witnessed five children being born but I have not birthed a child. And yet, there's a sense in which having witnessed it, having been exposed to it, all of us kind of know that childbirth is hard, right? It's intense. I don't have to go through it to know that it was hard for my wife. I have heard her talk about it a lot. I was there with her when she was groaning in childbirth. It is intense and that's the picture that the apostle Paul is giving here. It's a picture that all of us relate to because we all have a concept of how difficult childbirth is.

But I want you to think about this. Childbirth in the ancient world is different than childbirth now. As intense as it is now, it was more intense—the groaning, the pains of childbirth that the apostle Paul is talking about in his context. I think it would be safe to say that if we were talking about our experience of childbirth to the ancient world, they'd be kind of giggling. Like, you don't know how hard it is, right? It's an intense groaning. Why is it so intense? It's intense because it's hard, it's painful, there's a risk of death. It seems at times—I'm a dad, I don't know—but I think it has seemed at times to my wife, hopeless in the moment.

And yet it's also something that's hard and you're groaning because you're expecting this baby to come and there's this eager expectation. It's like, just please, can the baby come? I want to see this baby. This baby that's been in my body for nine months. Please, can the suffering and the pain and the danger end and can I get to the baby? That's the picture. That's the picture that the apostle Paul gives us of the world, of creation, of the universe's view on the realization of our salvation.

He's saying that all of the earth, everything that God created is sitting on the edge of its seat in pain, in agony, in almost death pain but also in eager expectation. Can't wait to see what's coming. The glory of the adopted sons of God and them being restored to their rightful place.

The Curse on Creation

Paul almost certainly has in mind Genesis chapter three in this section. In Genesis, Adam and Eve, they fall and as they fall out of the garden, God issues a curse. It's a curse to the woman and to the man and to the serpent but it also includes a curse to the earth, right?

Thorns and thistles will the ground bear — Genesis 3

The whole world is cursed because of the fall of mankind. Why is that? Why is the world cursed? What did the world do? Was the world wrong in the garden? Was the problem that the tree shouldn't have grown those apples or whatever, right? No. The whole earth was subjected to futility not by its own desires, not because it did anything wrong but because of us.

Why? Because mankind was the crowning achievement of creation. We were meant to be the lords of creation. We were meant to be its rulers. We were meant to be its governors. We were meant to guide it, to lead it in its ultimate purpose which was what? The glorification of God. And when we fell, all of our dominion fell apart as well. Ever since then, the creation has been laboring in futility and also corruption.

Futility in that it has lost its purpose. Its purpose to declare the wonders of God. It's not living up to that fully because we're not. We, its leaders, right? If you've ever been in an organization where you've experienced poor leadership, you know that it can be so frustrating when the leader isn't doing their job, right? And it makes it kind of impossible for you to do your job. That's the reality of the world. And also corruption. Death came into the world. Animals die because we sinned. Think about that. Worlds are falling apart.

You know, one of the most depressing things for my wife and I is, every now and then, there's these articles about environmentalists and their kind of predictions about just how long we have here on Earth, right? I'm not a scientist. I don't know. I know there's lots of discussions about how long do we have really and how damaging is this and how damaging is that. But one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty: this world is winding down. The universe is winding down. There is no hope that this world will last forever. There is no hope that this universe will last forever.

Nobody in this discussion is saying these things are eternal and we never have to worry about it. The reason for that is because we sinned and when we fell, death and decay and corruption came into the universe and all of it is groaning because of us. But it's not just groaning in pain and in sorrow and in suffering. It's groaning in expectation. It's growing in eager expectation. Notice the hope in this passage.

Not willingly was it subjected but because of him who subjected it in hope. — Romans 8:20

What hope? Well, in Genesis three, there was a curse but there was also a promise. There was a promise that one would come that would strike the serpent's head. There was the promise that mankind would be restored to its rightful place and so there's this hope that creation has that one day through Jesus Christ, we will be what we were intended to be when we were created. We would be the crowning achievement of all creation, and we would look and see one another as not just good, but very good. The ultimate leader of all of creation, and we would lead that creation in the most amazing chorus of praise and adoration to the God who created us. That was our created position and one day through Christ Jesus, we will do that and creation can't wait. It can't wait for that worship service. It is sitting on the edge of its seat saying, "Where are the sons of God? Are they going to get here?" And that groaning is an eager anticipation of our arrival. It's looking forward to us coming through Jesus Christ and being revealed as who we are.

Think about that road trip, right? Think about the suffering that we're experiencing now and think about the cosmic implications of our salvation. It's not just that we are going to be saved. It's not just that we're going to be with God for eternity. It's that through God's redemptive purposes for us, all of the cosmos, all of the universe will be redeemed. So think about your suffering and think about the redemption of the universe that's coming through you, through the work that Jesus Christ has done for you. And think about: is it worth it? Is it worth comparing our suffering compared to the redemption that we will have?

Creation's longing for it. That groan. If you're in that car and you look outside and you see everybody—you're driving by and there's a parade of like, "Yeah, here they come. Here they come." I think if every step of the way, all the way down to Florida, someone was outside of our car cheering us on, I think that would make it better. But my kids would be like, "Who are these people? What are they doing?" That's our experience. That's what Paul's saying—everything around you is cheering you on, looking forward to your ultimate arrival of who you are in Christ. Is that encouraging? Should be.

Our Groaning

Secondly, verses 23 through 25, we see the second group that are groaning. Let's listen to it.

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, 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 sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. — Romans 8:23-25

Where the other people that are groaning, right? All of creation is groaning but we're groaning. We are groaning because we have experienced some of our salvation. We're groaning because we haven't experienced all of it. We're groaning because we're still dealing with the fall and its effects in our lives just like the rest of creation. We've been subjected to futility in our fleshly lives, right?

You want to experience that? Talk to anyone who's an atheist and agnostic. Ask them, "What's their reason for living?" They have to come up with things. And the Bible actually has an exposition of this called Ecclesiastes where, arguably, one of the richest men of all time explores, "Hey, where's the meaning in this life?" And what does he conclude?

Apart from God, everything is meaningless. — Ecclesiastes

Meaningless, meaningless. Vanity. It's all vanity, right? You ever struggle with that? Like, you're walking through life and you're just kind of like, "What is the purpose of this? What is the purpose of what I'm doing?" Man, I do that all the time. I like the good stuff I'm doing and I'm like, "Does this have any purpose?" Well, if it's apart from God, it doesn't, right?

And we've experienced the purpose. Those of us who have been redeemed, that have been saved, that have put our trust in Christ—we experience it, right? There's new purpose to our lives. We understand everything that we're doing, right? The new city fellows, they're off at this retreat.

They're talking about how all of their different individual callings and roles, all their different jobs—every single job has a purpose that God has created and is good in and of itself. God's using all of us in our various different callings and placements for His good purposes. We have great purpose. But do we see all of it? We don't see all of it yet. We have redemption. We have hope in Jesus Christ, but do we see all of it? Has death and dying gone away completely? No.

John Stott, when he's talking about this passage in his commentary, talks about how we're in a "half saved" reality. I don't know about that framing. I think we are fully saved because the work of Christ is completed, and I know John Stott would agree with this. It's complete because Jesus has done everything, but it's not fully realized. We are, at the very least, in a half-realized situation of our salvation. This passage talks about that.

The Holy Spirit as First Fruits

This passage talks about the Holy Spirit as the first fruits—like the down payment, right? Think about homeownership. I own my home, sort of. The truth is, there's a bank in Atlanta that owns my home. I send money off to them every month, and hopefully someday I'll own my home. It's going to be a while. I own some percentage of my home, maybe, but it's not fully mine. That doesn't prevent me from walking around saying I own my home, right? I'm a homeowner. There's all sorts of things like this in our reality. We understand the concepts of down payment and ultimate ownership, and that's the picture we have here: we have some of the realized fruits of our salvation, but not all of it.

Paul is kind of confusing in this passage. He talks about waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. Well, in the section just before this, he talked about how we had been adopted as sons—he talked about it as a past tense event, right? It's what we talk about all the time: it's already and not yet. That's the reality of our situation.

The Frustration of "Already But Not Yet"

And isn't that a frustrating situation? That's so frustrating. I can think of the two most frustrating times in my life. If I had a time machine and could travel to any point and relive it, there are two times I would definitely not go to. One is middle school. Middle school is hard because you're not just starting out, you're not really ending up—you're stuck in the middle. You know there's all kinds of things going on, but you get the picture. Middle school was hard for me. I really struggled in middle school. I'm not going back if you give me a time machine.

The other time I'm not going back to is engagement—the time between when I proposed to my wife and when we got married. Miserable. But that's where we are.

But if I'm honest, part of why those times were so miserable is because what was waiting for me on the other side was so good. It was hard, but I can't wait. I can't wait to be married. I can't wait to be graduated and done with school. I'm so glad to be done with school. That's the groaning that all of us experience, and Paul wants to say: hey, talk to each other. Look at what you've already experienced in terms of your salvation. Isn't it good? Isn't the reality of what's been bad awful? Don't you long for what's coming? Allow those groans to be encouragement to you.

Learning to Groan Well

I think, and we talked a lot about this during our Psalm series this summer, as Christians we sometimes struggle to groan, right? We struggle to say this because joy is such a theme in the Bible, and that's right. It's good for us to be joyful as believers, but I think sometimes we forget that where we are is hard by comparison to where we're going. And it's okay to groan. It's, in fact, good.

Our groans in eager anticipation can be a good thing. When my kids are in the backseat, I try to teach them instead of saying, "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?" or "I hate my brother," I try to teach them to say things like, "I can't wait until we get there. Oh, I can't wait!" We try to shift to a positive kind of groaning. But that's the groaning of this passage—a groaning within the context of hope. And that's something that's actually very good, and that's something the Bible is full of. There's a book called Lamentations. It's nothing but groaning. There's Psalms that are nothing but groaning.

There are times when Jesus walked through this life and he did nothing but groan. When he saw Jerusalem, he wept. When he came to Lazarus in the tomb, he wept. It's okay to groan because those groans are encouragement. They're a picture, a foreshadowing of what we are expecting will come. Of our hope. But notice also that it's important to keep it in the context of hope.

I think that some of us struggle with the opposite side. In recent years, there's been a real push by Christians—evangelical Christians especially—to make room for lament. And I think that's good. We've done that and I hope that we feel like we have space where we can lament and we can cry out together. But sometimes we can push it too far to the other direction where we just become nothing but whiners. We get to the point where we're whining so much that we condition our hearts to be so focused on what's bad and negative that we start to despair. And that's where it's dangerous—when we lose the hope. When we lose hope, when we forget about that, then things become problematic.

Paul is saying, don't be what you might call a "bow slapper." That's somebody who comes along to any situation that's negative and they slap a bow on it and they say it's okay. That's not what we're called to be as Christians. We're not called to be bow slappers every time something bad happens. We come along and just say, "Hey, it'll be alright." We can lament, but we're also not called to be whiners. We're not called to be people of despair. We always lament with the hope of Jesus Christ.

He talks about that hope. He says:

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. — Romans 8:24-25

That's a curious section. What is hope? It's something that we don't see, but it's something that we know is there. You know, my favorite Disney princess had a quote in her most recent movie where she said, "Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you can see it, you'll never make it through the night." That's Princess Leia for those of you who don't know—my favorite Disney princess. I'm not spoiling anything in the movie, I promise. But she said, hope is like the sun. If you only believe when you can see it, you'll never make it through the night.

That's our situation, right? Our hope is like the sun. If we only believe in it when we can see it, we'll never make it through the night. There are often times in this road trip of life where we don't see the immediate realization of our salvation. It's dark and there's all kinds of hurt and despair in this world. But the truth is that we have hope that is certain and sure, even if we can't see it. And it is so good. It is so good that we wait for it with patience.

We're in this road trip, but where we're going is so good. We're so excited that we can handle it. Paul wants us to be encouraged as we travel because the suffering that we're experiencing—as hard as it is, as terrible as it is, as much as it makes us groan and it's okay to groan—we can make it because the realization of where we're going in Christ Jesus is so good.

The Spirit's Intercession

Lastly, the biggest groaner of all. Verses 26 through 27. Listen to who else groans.

Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray 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. — Romans 8:26-27

The spirit is the last groaner that Paul points to as an encouragement to us on our road trip through life.

Let's review the spirit's role. There's a lot about the spirit in Romans chapter eight. Jeff's talked about this in previous sermons, but it's important to keep this in mind. Remember that in verses two through eight, we saw that the spirit is who enables us to fulfill the law. In verses nine through thirteen, we see that the spirit subdues our fallen nature. In verses fourteen through seventeen, we see that it's the spirit that assures us of our adoption as sons. In verses eighteen through twenty-three, we see that the spirit assures us of our final inheritance, which he is our foretaste and down payment. We just talked about that. He's the down payment. He's the part of the house that's already been delivered, right? There's more coming, but he's the down payment. And finally, in this section, we see that he intercedes for us in our prayers.

All of that adds up to—that's quite a down payment, right? Think about all that the spirit does. Think about how powerful and amazing he is in terms of the gift that he is to us. He allows us to fulfill the law, subdues our sinful nature. He reminds us of our adoption as sons. He's constantly there encouraging us, right?

He points to the fact that God was serious about these promises. He didn't just kind of say, "Hey, I'm going to deliver this." He gave himself to live inside of us as a down payment, as the firstfruit of what's to come. It's surely going to be more, and he reminds us of that. And even in his being inside of us, more than us, more than creation, he groans for the fulfillment of the final payment of our inheritance as adopted sons.

Think about that. Think about the Spirit of God. It's not just creation that longs for this. It's not just us that long for it. God himself is on the edge of his seat because he can't wait for what's going to happen with us. He can't wait for us to experience the majesty and brilliance of the glory that he has for us in Christ. He can't wait for that, and so he groans. He groans so deep that it's beyond what words can express.

Why the Spirit Intercedes for Us

Now, I think that it's worth noting why the Spirit needs to groan for us. Why does he need to intercede for us? Well, here's why: there are certain parts about the glory that we're going to receive that we just have no clue of. We have no clue what's coming. We have a picture. We have God's word that gives us a great and glorious picture of it. But we don't know all of the ways in which it's going to be full. We don't understand that.

Think about a world without suffering and dying. You have no clue what that's like. I have no clue what that's like. But I groan for it. The Spirit knows what that's like and groans for it all the more. Think about all the suffering and death. The Spirit knows about all of the hardships of this world better than we do. We have a very finite understanding of the suffering and futility of this world in our lives. The Spirit knows all of that. And so it groans. It groans deeply.

And here's the thing, here's what's encouraging: he groans. He intercedes for us in our prayers. Now, if you're like me, I read a passage like this and I'm kind of like, this is what I do with a passage like this: the Spirit is groaning, groaning far more than I am groaning. In my prayers, he's interceding. I don't have to pray, right? I don't need to pray. The Spirit's praying better than I can pray. Why do I need to pray?

Well, that's not what Paul's going for here. The point is essentially that the Spirit in his groaning is setting your heart up to pray better. What that means is that you can be assured that when you pray, even when you pray for dumb things, the Spirit who's at work with you is working good things.

You know, if I look back on my life and I think about my prayer life, there have been some prayers that I wrote down over the years and I've revisited them and I've looked at them and I'm like, man, I prayed for dumb stuff. Do you do that? Any of you who write down your prayers, you should do that sometime just so you can see. Because I didn't know what God had in store for me. So, like in college, I was praying for all these girls to like me. Girls that weren't Katie. Those were dumb prayers. Katie was perfect for me. I can now see that.

Now imagine exponentially the things that we pray for versus the glory that God has in store for us ultimately. In all of our prayers, there's always dumb stuff. But in the midst of it, even in the midst of those prayers that I prayed in college that were dumb, there are these core prayers that really reflect the beauty of longing for the coming of Christ. In our prayers, even in my stupid, dumb prayers, God the Spirit was cultivating in my heart a desire, a groaning that was more like his.

I love this quote by John Murray. He says, in Scripture we see that we have two intercessors. The Son of God who intercedes on our behalf in the court of heaven. Jesus rose and he went to heaven and he intercedes for us in front of the throne of God. The very Son of God interceding for us right before the Father. That's awesome. That's awesome truth.

But then he goes on. He says that the Son intercedes on our behalf in the court of heaven, but we also have the Spirit who intercedes in the theater of our own hearts. Isn't that beautiful?

God, in prayer, has put himself on both ends of the conversation in order to perfect our prayers. And what that means is not that you don't have to pray. It means that you have encouragement that when you pray, God is at work. God is going to hear those prayers as mediated by the Son of God in heaven, and he's going to cultivate in your heart the desires that are ultimately pure, that are more like his desires.

Such a beautiful thing that we have the Spirit who groans. As we go through suffering in this life, as we struggle, we can be sure that we're not the only ones that are groaning. That creation isn't the only one that's groaning. That God himself is groaning and cultivating in our hearts a desire for the ultimate fulfillment of his redemption, which is cosmic and amazing.

I hope that encourages you, CTK. I hope that as you consider the road trip of your life and the sufferings that you're experiencing in this time, that the fact that all of creation is longing for what's going to happen with you, the fact that you, in and of yourself, if you're honest with yourself, is longing for what's going to happen—but more than that, that God himself is longing for what is going to happen—is an encouragement to you because it's a picture of how great and majestic and glorious what is coming is.

Now, the next section of Romans, we're really going to get to the thick of it in terms of the beauty of what God has in store for us. Paul is—this is like the crescendo into that. And we have so much reason to hope, so much reason to rejoice, so much reason to go to him in prayer and to trust that he hears our groaning. But more than that, our groaning is done in harmony with his groaning, in his longing for the revelation of us as his adopted sons.

CTK, as we go through this week, my hope is that you would go to God in prayer, that you would add to his groans, that you would allow his groans in your heart to cultivate and to shape an excitement and a longing for what's to come. And that instead of whining or complaining, you would rejoice in the truth of what is coming to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.