The Spirit Suffers with us - 04.19.26 - Kyle Morris

 In this message from Romans 8:14–28, we are reminded that the Holy Spirit meets us right in the middle of a broken and suffering world, giving us confidence, identity, and hope. Paul calls us to “do the math” and see that our present suffering, while real and painful, cannot compare to the future glory that is coming. We are not alone in our struggle, all of creation is groaning for restoration, and yet we groan with hope, like childbirth that leads to new life. Through it all, the Spirit assures us that we are adopted children of God, invites us to cry out to Him as our Father, and even intercedes for us when we don’t have the words to pray. Because of this, we can trust that God is at work in every circumstance, using even our suffering to accomplish His good and perfect purposes in us. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm not like the real original football. I'm smiling a little bigger today because for my daughter's Christmas present, she asked if I would just suffer with her and go to the Lionel Messi game. And so yesterday we packed in with about 75,000 other people at Empower Field. Is anybody else at that game? I mean, you couldn't have asked for more. Well, you could have. The Rapids could have won three to two. But they lost three to two. But, and I saw you there. I did see you. I was like, was that Nancy? Yes, it was. All right. Leon O'Messi scores the game winner. Like, he scored. It was just, you had to be there. And you have to be a soccer fan, but it was it was incredible. Amazing, memory-making moment for me and my daughter and our friends that went, so it was great. That has nothing to do with the sermon. Romans chapter 8. If you have a Bible, Romans chapter 8. We're going to begin today in verse 14. We're going to go through 28. And as you know, we're walking through the book of Acts, but we hit pause at Easter time to do this miniseries on resurrection life because we as a church, we're really after the presence of God. That's really what we believe the Bible says is the most important thing about who we are. We were created, whether you realize it or not, we were created for God's presence. And not only that, God desires our presence. Like He's delighted when we spend time with Him. And the way that we spend time really with the presence of God on this side of the cross and the resurrection is God has literally given us Jesus' Spirit to live inside of us and to indwell us. And so we're looking at that in the book of Romans, chapter 8, and it makes all the difference in the world. And so I want to read this passage, then we're going to look at the resource of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our suffering. The resource of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our suffering. Let's read verse 14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. 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 pains of childbirth until now, and 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. 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 our hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, this morning, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we ask for your truth to be illuminated in this room and in our hearts and online as people are watching. God, would we see maybe for the first time the great resource, the irreplaceable resource of the Holy Spirit that you have given us to walk through this corrupt and this broken world that is unraveling before our eyes? But also to be with us as we experience great and profound suffering. As we experience not how you created the world to be, but how the world has been impacted by sin. And would we walk out of this room today with a confidence, an unshakable confidence, that no matter the circumstances in our life, the turmoil that is swirling, that we can put our hope and our confidence in you. It's in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, I just felt a weight yesterday with this sermon and just thinking about just you and me and our church. And I was thinking about the suffering that is represented in this room online and in our 11 o'clock service. There is great and profound suffering that we are walking through. Some of you, you're dealing with medical challenges that I can't even wrap my head around. Like it's an everyday thing. Like you wake up and you're suffering, and you go to bed and you're suffering. For some of you right now, you're having to walk life forward without a spouse at way too young of an age. And there's this deep sense of not just suffering, but God, do you care? Some of you, you're you're walking through the deep suffering of seeing a child who is now an adult running as far away from the church as possible. And it's hard because you have other children that are locked in, that are following Jesus, and you raise them the same way. And so you have all of these questions about why did it work for one but it didn't work for the other. There's profound suffering even in marriages that didn't last. And now the fallout of divorce. And trying to get on the same page with your ex-spouse about how to raise your kids right, and there's disagreement about should we let them go to church? Should we not let them go to church? There's all kinds of suffering that is represented in this room today. For some of you, for some of you, you you just feel abandoned by God. Like you just look at your life and you go, man, there has been so much pain and there's so much suffering that my faith, it feels like if it's there, it's hanging on by a thread. There is so much suffering just represented in this room. My life is not void of suffering. Since we started leading here at Revive, particularly in the last 10 years, when I said yes to this lead pastor role, we have had suffering one thing after another. It might not be as bad as your suffering, but it's suffering. And so there's a couple things about this text and about the reality that I'm describing. One is really hard, and one is really hopeful. It's really hard to just kind of sit back when you're in my position or when you're in the position of our staff members and we have this up-close look at all the suffering within our church, not to mention all the suffering in the world, it's easy to look at all of that and just to get really overwhelmed at the unraveling of people's lives and what looks to be the unraveling of our world. It's it's easy to get overwhelmed, but also when you take the cumulative sum of suffering that's represented in this room and online and at the 11 o'clock, and when I think about the people that are still in the midst of that suffering that are holding on to hope, I go, praise God. Praise God for the faith, for the hope that is being exhibited by this body of believers that are have walked through a lot of pain and suffering and are in the middle of pain and suffering. And so this there's this tension of lamentation of God, when will this stop? And celebration, God, to see you so faithful in the lives of so many people, what that does is it witnesses to my spirit. It should witness to our spirits that we are not alone in our suffering. And there are there are people who are walking this road and walking this journey long before us who have suffered. And in the midst of that suffering, they have put their hope in God. And so this morning, you might be in the midst of the greatest suffering in your life. This morning you might be on the other side of what has been the greatest suffering of your life. Or there may be some of you in the room and you're like, I haven't experienced that much suffering. Just give life a little more time. You might be too young. And so, my hope is that wherever you are this morning, this sermon would be a moment that you remember, that God's word in Romans chapter 8 would be a moment that you could keep in your pocket for when you need it. And for some of you, you need it right now. You need it desperately. And so we're gonna look at this this morning and we're gonna come out of here. I hope, with a greater understanding of the resource of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our suffering. That God has literally given us his presence to be with us no matter what it is that we're going through. I want to start. I typically preach verse by verse through a passage, but this morning I want to start in verse 18. And then when we get to the application of this, we'll work our way through the rest of the passage. But if you have a Bible, I want to invite you to Romans chapter 8, verse 18. Paul writes these words. He says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So what is Paul doing here? He's saying, Hey, I want you to consider what you're walking through right now. And this word consider, this means more than just think. In fact, if you were to look at this word in the Greek, it means to equate or to come up with a sum. Literally, what Paul is saying here is when you think about your present suffering, in light of the eternal glory that you will experience in Christ Jesus, do the math. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying, do the math. There is no comparison. If you were to put your present suffering on one side of the scale, and it might feel really weighty. And I know for some of you in this room right now, it is really weighty. If you were to compare the weight of your current suffering with the future glory that is to come, Paul says, do the math. It's not even close. The weight of what you will experience, the weight of what we will experience as we are glorified with Christ Jesus at his return, Paul says, there is no comparison. And what helps with Paul saying these words is if you know Paul's life, he wasn't sitting in his ivory tower writing this letter. In fact, if you look at 1 Corinthians 11, I'm not going to read through this entire passage, but in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul just starts to name some of his own personal suffering that's come from following Jesus. He says, five times I received lashes at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes, less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I was adrift at sea, in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. He says, I know what it means to experience suffering. I know what it means to feel like I am surrounded with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. And so, Paul, he's speaking from a place of one who experienced great suffering. This is comforting to me. It's comforting to me to know that Paul, the apostle, the one who's responsible for pinning a significant amount of the New Testament with his letters, this guy, as close as he was to God, as much as he was being used by God, he faced tremendous suffering. You see, because we we all have the tendency when we're experiencing suffering, we have the tendency to start asking questions that lead us to the place of, God, where did I tick you off? Like you must be mad at me. You must be angry with me that I'm experiencing this kind of suffering. Now, what Paul's talking about is suffering for the name of Jesus Christ. There are aspects of suffering that every single one of us bring on ourselves. I just want to say that.

unknown 13:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

God has given us his word, and he's given us his word to be instruction and guide on how to live in the flow of creation. God says, hey, I created the world. If you want to live with my blessing in mind, it doesn't mean that you're not going to experience suffering that comes by way of sin and the fall. But if you want to live your life in the flow of my design and experience my blessing, here's how to live. And so when we don't set our lives up in alignment with the word of God, it's kind of a principle of sowing and reaping. It's the principle of cause and effect relationships that are principles and laws of the universe that God has set into motion. But not all suffering is that way. There's a lot of suffering that comes by way of sin and by way of the fall. And the fact that the world that we live in right now is not the world as God intended it to be. And so Paul is reminding us in the midst of our suffering, he's saying, do the math. And I love that he says, do the math, or I love that he says consider, because what Paul is saying is in the midst of our suffering, make sure that you don't forget to activate your mind. So I'm going to tell you right now, uh, my tendency when I'm experiencing suffering is to only activate my feelings. It's to only think about how this suffering is making me feel. And here's what happens: I get this very narrow focus, and I forget to get the bird's eye view of what the scripture says about suffering. And it is this that the suffering I experience in this world pales in comparison to the glory that I will experience one day. That you will experience one day. And so when we experience suffering, Paul says, think, do the math, consider how what you're going through right now, as difficult and as painful as it might be, is not the end. You see, when we experience suffering, it's actually an invitation. It's an invitation to answer questions like, what is it that I most value in life? Where is it that I'm putting my hope? What are my actual priorities? You see, I think this is what separates people who are surrendered to Jesus versus people who just think church is a good idea. People who think church is just a good idea and they're showing up to fulfill some sort of religious duty, but they're not surrendered to Jesus, the moment that suffering comes, they look at God and say, Hey God, I thought that if I started doing these things, that you would return the favor and my life would be smooth sailing. And it's a misunderstanding of the gospel. Because the gospel says that it's at the cross where Jesus experienced the greatest suffering ever placed on a human being that also accomplished God's greatest glory. This is what Jesus said. He said, Hey, in this world you will face trials of many kinds. You will face all kinds of suffering, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So, as believers in Jesus Christ, how do we face suffering? Well, the first thing that we have to do in order to face suffering as surrendered followers of Jesus Christ is to expect it. We should anticipate it. Going back to football, the real kind soccer, I played in high school, and my job as a forward was to score goals. And when we would play really aggressive teams, when we would get deep into the playoffs, there would be corner kicks, and the corner kick was the opportunity for our team to basically have a free kick from the side of the field, and the person would cross the ball and I would run in full speed and I would try to get my head or some part of my body on that ball and direct it into the goal. And I could tell you right now, I was tall but very skinny. And defenders are typically short and very fit. And so I knew as soon as I jumped, I could expect to get hit. Might have been an elbow to the face, might have been that somebody was doing something very illegal that the referee couldn't see. But I knew that when I went into that box at full speed, I was gonna get hit. You see, we as Christians, more than any other human beings, we should understand that we are living in a fallen and broken world filled with suffering. And in the midst of that, we should expect to get hit. We should expect and anticipate some forms of suffering. Look at what Paul says in verse 19. I think this is incredibly helpful. Paul says, 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, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. And so what is Paul doing? He's following up this command to make sure that we do the math on our own suffering and to make sure that we don't get so overcome with temporary suffering that we miss the eternal perspective. We just went through the book of Luke. How many of Jesus' parables were focused on us setting our eyes on the kingdom of God? How many of those parables were focused on us focusing on eternity and not just on the temporary? Paul, in this moment, he's actually inviting us to take our eyes for a second off of our own personal suffering. Which can be really hard because when we're experiencing suffering, the tendency is to focus on ourselves and focus on what we're experiencing and how other people maybe are not experiencing what we're experiencing, and that may be true to a certain extent, but no human being escapes suffering. See, Paul, he's inviting us to look beyond ourselves. That suffering is not just my problem. Suffering is not actually only a human problem, but suffering is actually a creation problem. Not just humans, but all of creation is longing to be restored to its intended purpose, which is perfection. Right? This is what Paul is saying in verse 19. Creation is waiting and longing for renewal. That not only human beings were impacted by sin and the fall. No, all of creation was impacted by sin and the fall. Humans are not the only ones under the curse of God because of sin. No, no, no, no, no. Creation, all of creation, is unraveling right before our eyes. Whether we can see it or not. And so we have these moments in the midst of our own suffering where we actually get an up-close look at this. We hear about the suffering that's happening in our world, the destruction of our planet. We see the debris and the disaster after a tornado or the wake of a hurricane. We hear about casualties of war or the number of children who are being trafficked across the world every single day. And there's this deep sense of groaning within us that says, this is not the way that life is supposed to be. This is not how life was meant to be experienced. It's interesting if you look at that word that Paul uses here for groaning. It's not just an expression of pain, it is the cry of someone who is facing death. And the way that Paul describes this kind of groaning, the example he uses is a woman who is giving birth to a child, which in that day, oftentimes, women went into childbirth and they would actually die in the process. And so, Paul, he's speaking of not just us as human beings, but all of creation is groaning in this way. All of creation is steadily wearing down. And there's this deep groan within us and within creation for restoration. Now, Paul ultimately, I believe, is not using this analogy of the groans of a woman in childbirth to communicate the death of the woman who's about. To have a child. Instead, what he's doing in light of what we've already read in verse 18 is Paul is describing the joy of childbirth after the pain has subsided. The pain of childbirth, what Paul is doing is he's connecting it to the joy of the child being born. I've been privileged to witness my wife go into a completely different kind of beast mode during our seven children's births. And each time I've witnessed this, I have been utterly amazed with the pure determination that she has to get each child out as safely as possible. But the moment when my wife is given the child and the child lays on her for the first time, the pain dissipates and the joy fills the room. The glory of the child overshadows the groan of the pain. This is what Paul says that we can be confident of. What's Paul talking about here? What does he mean when he says first fruits? Paul's talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's talking about the valuable, irreplaceable gift of the Spirit that is within us, that is meant to be our resource in the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering. So, what does the Holy Spirit do right now to help us in our time of need? Now, what I'm about to describe is unique to the person who's following Jesus. So, in order to for you to experience the resources that Paul is talking about in the midst of your suffering, right, the prerequisite is relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the gift of his presence in the Holy Spirit. Paul says this the Holy Spirit brings us assurance that we are God's children. Look at verse 14 and 15. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. So in the midst of our suffering, the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are children of God, that we have been adopted into God's family through Jesus Christ. Now, the idea of adoption into the family of God, it's actually a really powerful picture. And what Paul is trying to paint here is the legal contraction that God has to us through his son on the cross that cannot be changed. In the Roman world, when someone chose to adopt, it was far more than just a legal process. It usually occurred when a wealthy adult didn't have an heir to inherit his state. And so what he would do is he would adopt an heir and take the heir in as his own child. And so at the moment of adoption, three things happened immediately. Number one, all of the adopted son's debts and legal obligations were paid. Second, the son would receive a new name, and he was instantly the heir to all that the father had. And then lastly, the new father became instantly liable for all of the son's actions moving forward. So any debt he incurred, any crime he committed was now on the father, and now he was liable. What is Paul doing here? He's reminding us, as he has throughout the book of Romans and throughout Romans chapter 8, that this adoption of God into his family, it is a final, never-changing reality of what it means to be brought into God's family. And so, how does this bring confidence, particularly in the midst of suffering, and this overall sense of, hey, our world is unraveling? How does it bring confidence? It brings confidence to know that the Spirit of God, the Spirit that makes us sons and daughters, cannot and will not be removed from us. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 says this in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Meaning, here's what that means: there's nothing to fear. If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is the one who guarantees our salvation by the gift of his son Jesus Christ, then who's going to condemn us? Do God's checks bounce? There's nothing, nothing that can separate us from the love of God. There's nothing that we can do that would cause us to be removed from God's family. So how does this impact us right now? Well, first it changes the way that we go to God, it changes the way that we approach God in prayer.

unknown 27:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Paul's saying, when you approach God as his child, talk to him like he is your father. In Aramaic, this word Abba literally means daddy. And so when we come to God, we are to cry out to God as our daddy. If you have children, then you probably have experienced at some moment when your child has gotten really hurt or your child is in danger and you hear the scream, and this is not the scream that you hear when they're fighting with a sibling. This is not the scream you hear when they're not getting their way. This is the scream you hear where you stop what you are doing and you run to your child. You know in that moment that your child is hurt and that your child requires intervention from you. This is the kind of relationship that we now have with God as our father and our dad. We see this in Scripture as well, right? The story of the Exodus, the people are in Egypt, and they're under this great oppressive rule of Egypt, and they're crying out to God as his children, and we see that God hears their cries. It doesn't mean that they were immediately removed from their suffering. It doesn't erase the fact that there were hundreds of years of slavery and hundreds of years of persecution, but he hears their cry and ultimately he provides Moses to bring them out of captivity. And so what Paul is saying here is you can be confident as God's child, that he hears you. How can we be confident in our position as children of God? Look at what Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, verse 16 and 17. And particularly if you're in this room and you struggle with assurance of your salvation, if you're in this room and you know that you've given your life to Jesus Christ, you know that you are a follower of Jesus, but you struggle with this nagging sense of, am I actually saved? Does God actually love me? Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8, verse 16 and 17. He says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. We've talked about this before, but I'm just gonna say this is this is worth returning to over and over again because in the midst of suffering, we tend to have moments where our assurance is at question. Paul says, when we cry out, when we groan, the spirit in that moment assures us that we truly belong to God's family. When you look at Romans 8, when it says the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are his, there's a word here, it's the Greek word, martyria, it's where we get our word for martyr. And we think about a martyr as someone who dies for their faith in Christ. But originally that word wasn't used in that way. But instead, a martyr was an authoritative witness, someone whose testimony could settle a case beyond any doubt. Pastor Tim Keller and his teaching on the two advocates, he paints this picture so helpfully. This changed my life because for a number of years I really struggled with my assurance. And this picture for me was the moment where I experienced what he was describing. And I believe that it's not God's desire that anyone lives with a lack of assurance. And so imagine a courtroom, there's a trial that's underway, and the defendant, in this case, this would be you, is standing accused. And there is some evidence in your favor that is pointing toward your innocence, but the case in this moment, it is still uncertain. And then at a critical moment in the case, there's a witness that is called to the stand. And the witness is able to sit on the stand, and the witness was actually at the scene of the crime. The witness has firsthand knowledge of what happened that night. And so the witness, he steps forward or she steps forward and says, I was there. The defendant was not. The defendant is innocent. And with that testimony, the case is completely settled because a star witness who was there, an eyewitness, steps into the moment. This is the picture that I think Paul is painting of what the Spirit does for us. We already have some evidence, right? We trust Christ, we have his promises, we've seen some transformation in our lives. We're not who we used to be, we're not who we want to be yet. All of this, it's building to this real and growing confidence that we belong to God. But then something more and profound happens. The Spirit of God comes alongside us, and he does something more. He testifies. He testifies within us that we are truly a part of God's family, that there is nothing that can separate us from God. I like to describe it like this: when you have the witness of the Holy Spirit within you, you can't stop believing even if you want to. That's how profound it is. Because your faith is not given to you based on your ability to believe. Your faith is given to you based on God's kindness. See, there are moments when the Spirit allows us to experience God's love. There are moments when all of this becomes deeply real to us. It might happen when you're driving, when you're listening to a worship song, it might happen when you're reflecting on scripture, it might happen in the midst of your pain and your suffering where you shouldn't have peace, but you do. Might happen in the midst of sharing your faith with someone else. Doesn't happen all the time, but there are moments where we have these experiences that go beyond explanation, where the spirit is at work, the spirit is bearing witness, and the spirit is testifying to what God has already accomplished in our lives. There's more, verse 26. The Holy Spirit prays for us. The Holy Spirit prays for us. Look at verse 26. 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 our hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things will work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Now, have you ever been at a point in time where you're experiencing something, going through something, you're considering something that's broken in the world, and you are so at a loss for words that no words come out? Have you had that moment? Or the moment where you've prayed for something, you've come before God over and over and over again, and you're not seeing the result that you expected with your fervent prayer. Have you had that moment? I want you to understand exactly what God is saying through Paul is happening in that moment. What he's saying is that there is, there are times in our lives when we struggle to pray, when we struggle to have the right words to express to God, or we've used all of the words that we have, or we're not even confident that there's a God who's listening, and the Holy Spirit will actually pray on our behalf. This is powerful. I experienced this a couple years ago when my son was laying at children's hospital, and I was laying next to him, it's the night before his surgery on his heart, and I just started crying, and I didn't have any words, but I can tell you in that moment, it doesn't happen all the time, but in that moment, the Spirit of God began to testify to me, you are a child of God, I love you. And he began, I think, in that moment to begin to pray on my behalf the words that I didn't have. This is why we can have complete confidence in Romans 8 28. When Paul says we can know that for those who are in Christ, all things will work for the good, according to his purpose. This is why we can have confidence. Because each of us we don't all the time know how to pray, and oftentimes we pray according to our will. We pray according to our perspective, which is very limited, but the spirit prays perfectly according to the will of God. Well, what is the will of God? The will of God is to work in our lives all things for the good of those who are surrendered to God's purpose. Meaning, in other words, the Spirit prays in the way that we would pray if we knew everything he knew. The Spirit would pray, or Spirit prays in the way that we would pray if we knew all that he knows. As we close, I want to return us to this image and this metaphor that Paul uses to describe what our suffering is leading to. You see, it'd be very different if Paul was using the metaphor of groans that were coming from a battlefield where soldiers were dying. It'd be very different if that was the metaphor that he was choosing to use, where he was talking about the groans of soldiers who are about to die, and there's these deep guttural groans of uh of people who are about to die, that it's preceding death, but that's not what Paul does. Instead, he describes the future of a believer, those who are in Jesus Christ. He describes it as the groans that precede the birth of a child. And so, although there is great suffering in this life, and although none of us escape great suffering, Paul is reminding us about the glory that is to come. Doesn't mean that there's not going to be challenges, there absolutely are gonna be challenges, and this is why Paul says, fix your eyes and your gaze on eternity for the hope that you have in Christ. If we knew all of the answers, if we had everything sorted out, there would be no need for hope. But to cling to hope is to have faith that the future that Paul is describing, that there is a glory that is to come, it actually completely overcomes and overwhelms whatever present suffering that we're experiencing. I'm gonna invite you just to bow your heads for a minute. And as we close this morning, I'm gonna invite our prayer team. Prayer team, if you can gather toward the back, the sides in the back, that would be awesome. We're gonna start our family meeting, but I just don't wanna I don't wanna leave without giving each person in this room the opportunity to ask for prayer and to join with someone else to pray whatever's going on in your life, whatever suffering that you're facing. And the more that I talk to people, the more I realize everyone is facing suffering. None of us are living kind of this airbrushed Instagram life where things are good. Yeah, it's great. Things are good. No, that all of us are facing hard things. And so I'm gonna invite you to just stand up if you feel led to just go to one of our prayer partners and just to allow them to join you. Father, we come before you. We thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. We thank you that your Holy Spirit confirms to us and in us that we are children of God. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that says you help us in our weakness, meaning you join yourself to us in our weakness. That you're not looking at our weakness from afar, but you actually you're joining who you are to what we're going through to help us. I pray that you would provide a tremendous amount of help this morning in all that we're facing. That you would lift our chin and that you would show us the eternal perspective that the weight of our present suffering is not comparable to the weight of glory through Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

Would you stand if you're able as we respond to worship? And he would draw us together. He would draw us close. He must stand all around. And we would know that there's a God who loves us and cares for us. Who has saved us and redeemed us. We wouldn't just know that in our heads, but God, we would know that in our hearts, and we would live differently because of this charge. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we dismiss from our service and start our family meeting, uh, we understand that not everybody will stay instead, but we want to make sure that everybody hears this call, this charge. So would you lift out your hands and receive this blessing? God the Father sent his son Jesus to save us from our sin. And he did that, and he's given us the Holy Spirit. So this week, go and live in love like Jesus, right where you are. We love you. Family meeting will start in about thirty seconds.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

Yeah, it's a quick it's a quick turnaround. Jonah. I need Jonah to look up. Jonah. Jonah. Jonah. All right. Welcome, welcome, welcome, check, chirp, church. All right. Hey, welcome to the Revived Church family meeting. We uh we're really privileged to do these family meetings on a quarterly basis. Most of the time when we do a family meeting, what our goal and intent is is to bring relevant uh kind of uh announcements to you guys, whether that's an update about a partner in the bridge or it's something related to our vision or uh a yearly focus if we have one. Um today's family meeting is a little bit different. We are gonna spend uh a few minutes recognizing some elders and their wives who have served so faithfully here at Revived Church for a number of years. And we're gonna have the opportunity to celebrate them as they kind of move on and move uh into different directions uh in their lives, but also in ministry. Um, and when we're gonna have an opportunity this morning to present new elders to you today with their wives as well. So um this is actually the first time that we have done this in 10 years. So we're kind of building the plane as we're flying it. Um but we are excited to see people stepping into these roles as we continue to grow as a church. The need for elders continues to grow. So um we're excited to see what God is providing uh as we walk through this process. Um before we introduce kind of our our elder process and think through uh what this looks like moving forward and introduce our new elders, we want to take a moment and we want to recognize some people who've had a profound impact, not just on our elder team, but on the life of this church. Um, Mark and Cheryl Schroeder. Many of you know Mark and Cheryl. Um Mark and Cheryl Kiddo just adopted uh a jumbo. So Cheryl's actually up in Greeley. No, she's in Texas. Oh, Texas, I'm sorry. She's in Texas right now, and so she was not able to be here with us. Uh you may or may not know that Mark and Cheryl have actually relocated to Greeley and are no longer a part of Revive Church, which we are mourning their involvement in leadership, but also just being a part of our church. And I know a number of you are in a small group with these guys, and we're gonna we're gonna miss you greatly. Um we also have Gary and Cindy Spears who probably are in the top two or three couples who have been at Revive Church the longest. So uh they have been here a long, long time, and they have done incredible ministry here, both with support of our Elder team, but also small groups, um, marriage mentoring, uh young married, they've just done a whole lot. And um, Gary and Cindy, as you know, a little over a year ago, they stepped in to being the primary leaders and overseers of our Celebrate Recovery Ministry, uh, which is amazing. I just want to thank you guys for stepping into that. If you haven't had the opportunity to attend Celebrate Recovery, whether as a participant or just to see what goes on there, uh, it is amazing to see what Gary and Cindy have done. The culture of grace and truth that has been built in that space is beautiful. And so, although Gary is officially stepping off of the elder board, uh we're really viewing his role as as changing a little bit as he continues to oversee the ministry of celebrate recovery. So uh can we just think it's hard to just clap for them because they've done so much, but I just want to say thank you. I don't know, Stephen, if you have anything to add or if you guys want to add anything, we want to give you a second, but yeah, well, we could I can totally put you on the spot so you can think about it for 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_05 50:11

I just want to say that um when I stepped into the role of an elder um a number of years ago, Gary uh was a part of that. Uh we rebuilt our elder board and uh uh from some leadership uh challenges that we were navigating a long time ago. And uh as I spent some time with him early on uh as a young elder, uh he he really encouraged me. Uh he and Cindy really encouraged me and Valerie. And uh it was it was an honor to be able to come under their wing and to be mentored by them. And then a few years later, when Mark and Cheryl stepped on, just the heart of service that they have, the quiet heart of service that they have uh was just so profound. Um, and it was just a deep encouragement. So our our benefit of being uh a part of a church where you all have been able to faithfully lead is going to be known in ways that we don't understand fully as a congregation, but we're grateful for it. So I don't know. You want to add anything to that? Me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Um how much time do I have?

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Okay, now it's more starting.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

Uh it's been an honor serving this church in a in an elder capacity. Um we uh together have just really had uh just a calling of God to do that. But now um the calling has kind of changed directions a little bit. We still want to serve people, but we really, really feel passionate about the celebrate recovery ministry. And um I just don't feel like we can do both justice. Um so uh we are uh kind of shifting our emphasis on to the uh celebrate recovery uh platform and and uh these new elders will be great, they'll be fantastic. So anyway, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_06 52:16

Just briefly, uh I was honored to be here. This is uh I will miss this dearly. Uh God, when you sit in the presence of God, he moves you in different ways. Uh, we move by family, and we have the freedom to go down to Texas and see our other kids. And uh God, God is alive and well in Greeley, and He is more than alive here. I we are blessed. We will miss Kyle. I still watch the sermons online, thanks to that. So God is good. All right, let's pray for these guys.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

God, we thank you for Mark and Cheryl and Gary and Cindy. We thank you for the countless hours, conversations, mentoring, counseling, uh, long board meetings, hard decisions. Uh they have invested so much here. And uh I just pray for Mark and Cheryl as they enter into a new season of life of supporting their kids and their grandchildren, and as they uh are in Greeley now, God, we pray that you would provide for them the community that they need. Uh, Lord, this new church that they're a part of, God, would you show them where you would have them sow into your kingdom there? And we just pray blessing over them. Pray for Gary and Cindy as they just continue to pour themselves into this place in uh like for 35 plus years. And God, that is profound to think of the impact that they have that we can see and that they will have in the future. And would you just continue to bless them as they also support their children and their kids, and as they champion, uh celebrate recovery, and as they come alongside so many who are hurting, and as they learn and grow together with them, that this would continue to be a place of hope and a place of healing for all who enter. We pray just blessings over both of these couples, and we're so grateful and thankful for them in Jesus' name. Amen. Love you, bud. Love you. I want to take just a minute, and we don't have a lot of time. Uh we spent probably uh a good chunk of time, maybe a year and a half ago, talking about elders in a family meeting, but just at a very high level, um, what are elders doing? What is the need and the purpose of eldering here at Revived Church? And when we look at the New Testament and when we look at the biblical framework for leadership and overseers, we we believe that the Bible describes that the plurality or a number of elders who oversee a church is the most healthy way of leadership within a local body, meaning I'm not in charge and Stephen's not in charge, but rather we are a part of a larger group of men who also have the support of their wives who are leading this church through prayer. So that's a big part of what we do. We gather as elders on a weekly basis, we pray together. We gather together regularly to talk about what we're gonna be teaching, not just from our stage on Sunday morning, but we think about hey, in all of our environments, how do we make sure that Revived Church remains a biblically solid church that is not giving way or giving in to any false doctrine? So we pray, we're making sure that good doctrine and biblical doctrine is being preached and taught from all of our prop platforms in our community groups. Uh, one of the other areas that is new to Revived Church that we're really excited about is the leadership of our mini flocks. As many of you know, if you've been through the Revive Rooted process and you're a member of Revived Church, part of how we're beginning to shepherd as a church is through taking our really large church and putting people into what we're calling mini flocks or smaller numbers of people. And really what this does is it gives our pastors and elders and their wives an opportunity to really keep our eyes on a smaller number of people so that people are known, seen, and cared for. So when we think about eldering and what that looks like at Revive, it really is about prayer. It's about teaching or feeding our flock, and it's about making sure that people are shepherded and cared for. So Steven's gonna walk you through just a couple minutes of kind of what the process has been for our new elders and their wives over the last year as we're presenting and welcoming them officially today to our team.

SPEAKER_05 56:46

That's good. Uh, it actually goes back a couple of years. Um, when we uh began this journey, uh, it actually goes back several years when we as a group of elders said, Hey, are we doing what we're supposed to be doing the way God and Scripture has defined for us? And we spent a lot of time working together through scripture and through some uh different resources, and as a part of that process, we discovered that we need to continue to grow in our understanding and our shepherding of our church in a healthy way. And one of the things that became apparent is we needed more elders and we needed to add elders, and so uh back in 2024, for those of you who were here at the time, uh we started a process where uh several uh names were provided to us uh as an elder body that as as potential nominees or recommendations for a candidate of elder, and the way that process unfolded was we created uh an elder nominating committee, uh which was comprised of Betty Burke, Mary McCookie, and Roger Beach. And the three of them went through and interviewed and processed the initial applications of about 15 different candidates at the time, and they went through that whole cycle, and at the end of that uh phase, uh that nominating uh team came to the elders and said, based on everything that we've observed, here are some names that we think you should consider moving forward with in the elder process. And so uh we then went through a phase two, uh, which was a deeper application and a deeper uh uh exploration into the testimony and to the lives of the candidates who went through phase two, and the candidates and their wives went through both of these phases together. So, in the case of Tony and Tracy and Wes and Alicia, they they all went through this together. Um, and then we met with them. Uh we as an elder team met with them over the course of a period of time, and then at the end of that phase, we then said, church, we feel confident that the Lord is leading us to these new elder candidates, and we want to give you a chance to provide us any insight that would help us know about their character, about their testimony, about their service, and we had a season where you were able to provide that, and then at the end of that phase, right? You got me? We got three phases. Um at the end of that phase, we were able to say, Hey, we are excited about presenting to you all Tony Bryant and Wes Dobson, and that was at the end of 2024. So that was to get them to that point. 2025 was uh was a year of them exploring what it means to be an elder. So they joined us uh as elder elects for a year to watch everything we did because we wanted to give them the opportunity to say, this is a good fit or this is not a good fit. And at the end of 2025, as we walked through the year together, we were able to as a as a unanimous elder board and also with Tony and Wes say, yes, this is the right fit for Wes and Tony at this time, and we are excited about them joining our elder team. And so, with that, I'm formally introducing you to Wes and Alicia Dobson and Tony and Tracy Bryant. And we're gonna put you on the spot.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:25

Maybe, Wes, you could take a second and share about your experience. Sure. So uh Alicia and I have been coming to Revive for about eight years. We we lived in Arvada further south, and we moved up north and closer to here, and it made sense to find a new church. And um, we were invited by the Lutz family. First, and uh yeah, and then Kyle, I don't even know if you remember this, but um we we we came here for our first week, maybe, maybe I think we bumped into you for a few seconds, and then we bumped into you a week later at um Sweet Bloom, and you remembered our names. And we were both kind of struck by that. We're like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:01

Must have been in my 30s.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:04

Right. And we were smaller, right? But we were just both struck by that. We were like, wow, like a pastor that we could go to a church that where the pastor knows who we are, that would what a concept. Um so uh like we're um man, we're we're really hopeful, and and uh with this new mini flock initiative, we're really hopeful we can keep that going, that everyone here will be known. And I'm super Alicia and I are both super humbled to be doing that because we're introverts. We're this that's not our natural thing. Um I have other things that I'm better at, but um I would yeah, I I'm being able to divide it up into smaller chunks that we that are manageable. I I would really love to make this continue making this a place that everyone's known, and we can do that in a way that honors God. And so we're really thankful for this. Thankful for you guys. Thanks, Wes.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:55

Tony All right, well, what Wes said. Well, I just good morning, church family. I am just grateful, first of all, Tracy and I uh thank you for trusting us with the responsibility of this. Um we feel the the weight of in a good way of really serving this congregation. And so Tracy and I have been coming for about uh 10 years now, and um it's been a wonderful experience to be here at Revive, and we came from a place where we needed some refreshment and healing at first, and Revive provided that, and there was just no um judgment or condemnation as we we just kind of sat in the back for a little while. But as we uh were just encouraged and refreshed, started stepping into serving again, and just uh the church has really fed our family, and we are eager to and return through God's hand because we know it's through God's power, right? To serve. Um, and so we are eager to do that as we pursue our just our personal relationship with the Lord alongside each of you. And I think a big part of that, and I think why we're willing to do this, because to be honest, we're like, what, wait, no, this is for somebody else. We were surprised when we were attacked. Um but we are working alongside the father, as Kyle said in the sermon. Right? We're not doing it on our own power, we're not doing this alone, but we're doing this together alongside the father. And so we're eager to do that and see what he will do uh together, all of us. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

Um obviously we're losing two and gaining two, so net was not what we had hoped for. Um, however, uh we are we're really excited about the work that we've done over the last two plus years to really lay the groundwork and the blueprint and the foundation for bringing elders and wives onto our team. So we're gonna continue to grow this team. Uh, you will not be waiting 10 years again for this to happen. Um, we're gonna almost immediately begin looking for uh more elders and wives to join us. Um I want to ask you, we're gonna pray over uh Tony and Tracy and Wes and Alicia, but could I just ask you to keep them in your prayer? There's something about stepping into this role. Uh there is an attack on families by the enemy that's just real. Um it's it's just real. And so I want you to uh just commit to praying for uh Tony and Tracy and their kids, and Wes and Alicia and their kids. Um I just want you to add that to your list because it's a real responsibility to take this on, and it doesn't come without a cost. And so um we're really thankful uh for you guys, thankful that you're joining our team. Uh ladies, we are uh we really need your wisdom and we really need your insight. Um, I know for me, uh I don't make a decision of any weight without the wisdom of Erica, and that's how God has created us. He's created us to help one another. And so I would encourage uh you ladies, as much as you're able to engage in conversations and shepherding, and I know you will, uh, because we need as a church, we are better when this is a team environment where we're working together and getting the inside of one another. So we're thankful for you all and the commitment you're making because it's a big one. Um and so let's pray. We're gonna just pray over you guys. If you want to extend a hand uh toward our new elders and wives, we want to do that. Father, the weight and the calling of this office is real. Um there is a level of responsibility, there is a level of ownership, and there is a level Of giving of yourself that is it's real. And so I just pray for Tony and Tracy. I pray for Wes and Alicia. I pray for their families. God, we thank you that you've set them apart for this work. We thank you that right now your sovereignty can be trusted. That you have brought the right people in this moment to step into these positions for this season here at Revived Church. And so we can just rest in that confidence. We can rest in your sovereignty. Lord, I pray for the days that are ahead, the hard days where the enemy will whisper in their ears that they're not good enough or that they shouldn't be, or just the ways that he will distract. And we pray for just a deep, deep, profound confidence for the testimony of your Holy Spirit, as we talked about this morning within them that you have called them to this purpose according to your will. We ask for blessing in their lives. We ask that you would continue to show them the areas where you're calling them to serve, the ways that you're calling them to invest. And so would you give them wisdom and healthy boundaries? Would you give them wisdom in the ways that you have uniquely gifted them, both individually but also together, to serve the larger body of Christ here at Revive. God, I am in awe of the character of those who are sitting on this stage. I'm in awe of the addition to our team with these elders and wives that this is, God. You have just blessed us beyond measure with men and women who are incredibly capable, incredibly theologically bright and sound. Teachers, those who can walk alongside other couples who might be struggling in their marriages. There's just so many gifts that are represented here, and I'm just grateful and thankful that we get to stand here today to be a part of this presentation and to be working in the flow of what you're doing. God, keep us humble as a church, keep us humble as an elder team, and continue to use us. Continue to allow us to be a part of the work that you're doing here in Arvada and beyond. In Jesus' name. Amen.

unknown 1:08:26

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:34

Hey, we just want to say thank you. We know that sticking around for these meetings uh takes time, but this is really important. Uh be praying for our elders and wives. Uh, we would ask. And then when you see these guys, please make sure that you support them and let them know how thankful that you are for them. Love you guys, and we'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

Very nice. I got a little something, I'll mail it to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

You know what?

SPEAKER_08 1:09:18

I know. And I said, just put my notes away. That was good.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:23

Dude, that was perfect. Y'all did a great job. That was great.