Having Hope While Living in a Broken World

Having Hope While Living in a Broken World
Romans 8:18-25
April 23, 2023

We live in a broken world and we have seen it too closely this week:

• Two teenaged students in Granbury died suddenly and tragically this week.
• Ruby Sargent’s last sibling passed away last week.
• One of our members experienced an accident at work that could have been deadly.
• Several other church members have been hospitalized this week or experienced significant illnesses.
• Sonny Murphy went for his morning walk on Monday and had a heart attack and did not awaken. In grace, we have not had a GBC member die in several years; his sudden attack and imminent death have been sobering.  We have been reminded of the brevity of life and the harshness of death.
• And I haven’t even mentioned broken plumbing systems, broken relationships, rebellious parents, illness that kept you awake at night, and temptations to far too many sins.

The world is broken.  And the most difficult part of the brokenness is the intrusion of death.  When we are young, it doesn’t seem imminent.  But it is.  Sometimes it comes slowly and almost imperceptibly.  And sometimes it comes with suddenness, as it has this week.  We are reminded of the reality of James 4 —

“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (Js. 4:14).

So how will we respond when death intrudes?  What should we think about our suffering, and death in particular?  It is those kinds of questions that Paul addresses in the middle of Romans 8.  The theme of these verses is —

Always remember your coming glorification.

Paul will not minimize suffering and he will not attempt to remove the reality of death.  But he will tell us that we need to think in new ways about suffering.  And he will give us two particular thoughts to consider.

Context:

• God’s children are inheritors (v. 17a)
• God’s children are sufferers (v. 17b)

1. Consider Your Sufferings (v. 18a)

• You must think about your sufferings
• Your sufferings are various
• Your sufferings are now

2. Consider Your Glorification (v. 18b)

• You must think about Glory (it’s incomparable)
• Your glory is all-transforming
• Your glory is certain

Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 8:18-25.

Garden Tomb by upyernoz.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.