Sermon outline
We have never faced a year like this…
- Is God both good and powerful?
- Why does God let his beloved children (Romans 8:15) suffer?
- And yet the Bible seems to insist Christians will suffer…
Romans 8:17 “…we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we might also share in His glory.”
- Present sufferings cannot compare with future glory (Romans 8:18)
Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
- But why can’t we be pain free now AND have future glory later?
We live in a groaning world
Romans 8:22 “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
But why is the world a ‘groaning’ place?
Romans 8:20 “For the creation was subjected to frustration (futility), not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it…”
The backdrop to the argument in Romans 8
Genesis 1-3
Subjected to frustration….in Hope
- What are some of the implications for us?
- Things are not the way they should be
- The place of Christian environmentalism in a frustrating world?
- Suffering is not the end of the story
Romans 8:19 “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.