Romans - Week 15: Romans 8:18-39

This week Pastor Mel takes us through the second half of Romans 8. The sermon opens with a reframe that sets the tone for everything that follows. When Paul talks about glory in Romans 8, Mel argues he is not primarily talking about heaven. He is talking about God's Spirit tabernacling in believers -- the same dwelling presence that was in the wilderness with Israel -- and about the goodness of God's Spirit being manifest through us for dominion in a broken world. Psalm 8 comes in here, and the connection between crowned with glory and given dominion over creation is one of the most striking moments in the message. That leads into the central question Mel keeps returning to throughout: what if God is not saving us from the world, but for the world? Creation is groaning like a woman in childbirth, waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed. And Mel makes the case that every time Summit does teacher appreciation or shows up for first responders, something is happening in the spirit -- the sons and daughters of God are being revealed and a little of the brokenness of the world gets relieved. From there he works through the Holy Spirit interceding for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words, and makes a careful distinction between this and tongues -- these are sighs, the same word used in Luke 10 when Martha asks Mary to come help her. The Holy Spirit is not waiting on God to work. He is waiting on us. Mel handles the suffering question honestly: suffering is not evidence that God does not love you. It is part of what it means to be co-heirs with Christ.