Redemption is Coming | Part 4

``And I don't believe creation is resigning itself to fate kind of like, woah, it's us. All is lost. No. I don't I don't believe that. I believe creation according to this verse is crying out for that renewal. All of creation is crying out for that renewal. It is actually aching for the day God restores everything. You know, Romans eight twenty two, really, if you break it down, the earth isn't dying. It's it's in labor, and the chaos is not the end. It's just contractions. [00:08:10] (31 seconds)  #CreationInLabor

Let me just end with this. Every time, watch this, God is not forcing this restoration. He's inviting participation. I want that to be in our forefront of our minds. And every time when a believer, a Christian chooses obedience, resists sin, chooses to walk in love, prays your kingdom come. Creation is moving one step closer to freedom. Do not think your prayers, your sighs of groaning, your calling out to God is not having an effect in The Middle East even today. It is. Do not think your worship maybe where you're frustrated about something maybe at home. You're dealing with a heavy situation. [00:34:35] (51 seconds)  #PrayAndParticipate

And so the war, the pain that we see, the natural disasters, decay, the moral corruption, the social unrest that's in our country, even the physical suffering. I don't believe that these are signs that God has lost control. We know the enemy is out there, but I believe these are signs that that actually redemption is on its way. Redemption is coming but we are in the groaning stage. We're in the in the space in between. We haven't seen it fully realized between you could say curse and restoration and and and it that can be confusing. [00:07:34] (37 seconds)  #GroaningStage

God is not the author of the groaning. He is the redeemer that is responding to it. Romans eight twenty one, if you jump back a few verses it says, the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Bondage implies something that was imposed upon it. Something unwanted. Something temporary. It's not permanent. Once again, God didn't cause the bondage but he did promise deliverance from it. Amen. [00:20:30] (33 seconds)  #DeliveredFromCorruption

They are labor pains what's happening in the earth and it's it's it's indicating, watch this, that something is trying to emerge. Something is trying to break forth. Creation is crying out for redemption. It's not resigning itself to fate. Paul is very intentional with his language and he doesn't say that it's dying. He's saying creation is laboring. It's groaning. [00:14:34] (27 seconds)  #LaborOfRedemption

And, I have this, that creation is not groaning because God ordained decay. No. It is groaning because it is not yet what is meant to be. It was created what is meant to be, but the fall happened and now it is groaning and it's crying out for redemption. And I want you to think about this as I talk about this. Like, where is he going with this in light of the future and our present? Where we're at? I'll get into that in a moment. So so once again Paul's describing these birth pains not death pains. [00:14:06] (29 seconds)  #GroaningForRedemption

Contractions that are happening. And so we said this that groaning means something is wrong, but birth pain mean that something actually good is coming. Ain't that right? We developed that a little bit. I'll talk a little bit more on that, but I don't believe we're watching the collapse of God's plan. But, you know, we may be hearing these these contractions of his redemption. And so let me just continue on just some basic things step back a little bit. Why is creation groaning? Why? Because it was affected by human free will. [00:08:41] (31 seconds)  #ContractionsNotCollapse

And so Genesis three makes this clear that Adam and Eve, we know they choose rebellion and sin entered in and the ground was cursed. We know about that and and but that was not God's original design. Once again, it was the consequence of misused freedom. Not so in heaven though. Misused freedom. And so if I could say it this way that God did not design suffering, watch this, he allowed freedom and freedom carried consequences. Your choices, my choices carry consequences. [00:12:57] (35 seconds)  #FreedomHasConsequences