VISION SERIES: A Different Way of Life // ”Relief from the Orphan Spirit” (Rom 8:14-25)

thing. We're going to be in Romans 8

today. If you were here last week, we

started with this concept of the new

year ach. And I want to I want to kind

of segue off of that. But first, I just

want to talk about we're in a vision

series to start the year. But I feel

like there's just a going back to some

of the core elements of why um we even

are the church and why we why we felt

that we were supposed to do our part in

planting the church. Sue and I had this

prayer when we came to Pasadena. We were

walking around um this missions campus a

couple blocks away that we were going to

live across the street from. And one of

the things the Lord dropped in our

spirits was was this prayer to build a

family that would confront the orphan

spirit of Los Angeles.

>> And

it's very spiritual language, the orphan

spirit.

This message is really answering the

question, what the heck is the orphan

spirit and why it matters?

the the verse the Lord gave us uh Romans

Romans 8:19

8:19 and we're going to preach that

passage right now. Romans 8:19 says

Romans 8:19

this, "All of creation eagerly waits for

the revealing of the sons and daughters

of God." All of creation eagerly waits,

groans with eager longing is what the

text means. For the revealing of the

sons and

the deepest ache of humanity and all of

creation

is that those who call Jesus Lord would

be revealed.

Think about all the other things that

aren't the deepest ache for that to be

the deepest ache.

That verse to me has was and is and has

become and still is our core verse as a

community because I don't understand it.

There's probably nothing I understand

less in all of scripture than how can

the core groaning of of all of creation

be us

to figure out who we are.

That's weird, guys.

We're starting very introspective and

we're going to get practical.

But if you just think for a moment, why

did you even come to this city? Many of

you, some of you were born here. Great.

I love locals. I'm so jealous of the

locals.

[sighs] It's like you've got friends and

stuff like they go deep and long. Real

friends.

We were talking with someone this week.

It's like they they're still friends

with someone that they like went to

grade school with. And I'm like, is that

you can do that? That's amazing. I

didn't know you could do that in LA. And

it's it's like deeply comforting to my

being that you can walk an entire life.

I think that's one of the the things

that bonds a lot of people together is

that we're all trying to figure out how

to have deep relationship in a city

where no one has deep relationship.

And then and then those that do, whether

you have it naturally or you figured it

out, it's another thing of the kingdom

is is that this is what we're supposed

to establish in Jesus's kingdom. Not

just great friendships, but a community

that can that can take storms and that

you can be uprooted and still find the

kinds of people that their entire lives

are going the same direction yours is.

And so, a lot of us have come to this

city with a dream. I'm not going to give

you a a dream speech, but I do want to

acknowledge that that doesn't just have

to be a career. Many of you had

aspirations uh in the industry or

whatever else, but but most of us,

whether you came here, we came here with

a dream. Many of you moved here and you

dreamed that something better than what

you thought was the worst case scenario,

you had to come here. You didn't even

want to.

Somewhere along the way, maybe the dream

quietly turned into pressure. I know

it's turned in that for me

and the orphan lie that we all are

wrestling with whether very very few

people are orphans. I think that those

who are orphaned in the natural

understand what God is saying in the

spiritual when he talks about this

concept of being adopted much easier

than than those of us that that aren't

adopted. But here's here's the thing.

When your dream, this is the lie of the

orphan spirit. When your dream becomes

your identity, failure when you fail,

you feel disqualified.

When dreams become your identity,

failure feels like you've been

disqualified.

Then to slow down feels like you're

falling behind.

To stop striving feels like you're

falling behind. And rest, to really

enter into some whatever God's talking

about, enter my rest. What does that

mean, God? to rest feels like some sort

of irresponsibility because I'm not

going towards the goal that I'm striving

for. But but [snorts] we call that

ambition in the modern world and to be

ambitious is a positive in the kingdom.

The lie underneath that false ambition,

I'm not saying all ambition is wrong.

I'm just saying that kind of ambition is

a lie. Underneath that is this orphan

lie, this orphanhood. And the Bible has

a word for that way of living. and and

what the Bible is saying, it's older

than Los Angeles. It's older than

self-help,

and it's older than our January

resolutions. And Paul calls this a

slavery to fear.

I'm going to read a few verses. Romans

Romans 8:14

8:14. For all who are led by the spirit

of God are sons of God.

This is including women. I don't think

we have to like change the text and the

context in order to include everybody.

Everyone's included. 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, "Aba,

Father." It's an intimate

familial cry

to a father. The spirit himself bears

witness with our spirit that we are

children of God. And if children then

heirs he means you get something you get

all the benefits of being that child

heirs of God and fellow heirs with

Christ.

One condition

one condition suffering

provided we suffer with him in order

that we may also be glorified with him.

We're going to have a few mindset shifts

to invite us back into today.

understanding adoption. Realizing that

to suffering is not a sign of your

disqualification. It's a sign of your

adoption.

And then we're going to step in

into a whole new way of life as a

result. So last week we talked about

this New Year's resolutions. The reality

is this. We keep looking for a new way

to fix ourselves. That's what we're

doing. Jesus keeps inviting us into an

ancient way of living by trust. And he

calls us into trusting him by telling us

that he trusts us when we don't deserve

it. That's what he did with Peter. And

and I I called out this confidence

crisis issue, right? Um and the the the

mantra is that I'm already worthy today,

not someday, but for no other reason

than I just need to say a mantra.

And there's a fatal flaw in culture

solution. We have we have the right

ache. They understand there's an ache in

all of us. And there's even this I must

improve myth that we talked about that

was in this article. They had this truth

meter. It's like is this thought true?

Is this thought serving me? What's a

more empowering thought that I can

choose right now? And the thought that

they suggested that you and I give are

I'm enough exactly as I am today.

And and it and what we said is that

while that is well-intentioned and it's

trying to hit the core ache, the issue

that we have a confidence crisis and we

have a new year ache and we have a

constant ache of our soul, a groaning

instead of just like doing what they say

and doubling down on what brings me joy

and what serves me

or as they said, you don't need a new

you, you need a truer you. All all of

that just affirms our own exhaustion,

comparison, pressure to reinvent. And

the solution

of the world is to stop trying, to

believe that you're already worthy. And

the gospel doesn't want you to find a

truer you because that sounds freeing

until you realize that how much weight

that that puts on you and that you

ultimately become the savior of your own

life. If that is true, I don't want to

be my own savior. I want to come to

terms with the fact that the true orer

me is not good news.

What Paul is saying is what Jesus says

follow me again. Paul then says the

problem is not a lack of discipline.

It's a it's an orphanhood. You're

orphaned. And so John 21, what we did

last week is all about how Jesus

restores people when your confidence

collapses. He took Peter who was

completely dejected after the

resurrection. And Peter goes fishing

because he has no idea what to do with

the with the most phenomenal miracle the

world's ever seen. He still has no idea

what to do because his confidence is

shot. Romans 8 here tells us who we

actually are. The bedrock and foundation

of why Peter can have trust given to him

and an identity that isn't his own, that

he didn't pay for that can sustain his

lack and crushing lack of confidence.

And what you and I can stand on is what

is Paul is saying here in Romans 8.

So here's here's the fir here's the

first point. What does adoption do?

Adoption completely reanchors our

identity.

There's there's just as we were

worshiping and I was having my moments

of sniffling and just processing. And I

just realized it's again just the simple

things that I need to hear over and over

again. Starts with

you know it how many of you done therapy

like me? Can we we it's 2026 like we all

like it's more embarrassing than if you

haven't done therapy.

Who has never done therapy? Let's shame

you. Raise your hand. Good.

Now how many therapists are here that

would like to introduce you? No,

quite a few. Um,

things have shifted a lot. I mean, if if

anything the last generation, it's that

like we've all acknowledged we're all

jacked up and we're all going to

therapy.

So, that, you know, we've done a little

bit of we've done a little bit of

movement. Maybe maybe in the right

direction, maybe not. I don't know where

you Yeah. Anyway, so

I realized that we're we're all trying

to figure out uh who we are.

family of origin. If therapists, those

of you in the room, we won't have you

raise your hands. Um, how often do pe

people's parents come up

in their issues? Like 108% of the time.

And then I'm I'm bothered by the fact

that I had good parents and my parents

still come up. I'm petrified of how much

I'm going to come up in my parent in my

own kids' lives.

You start you guys think about that like

how like those of you that are young

parents, it's like your kids are going

to go to therapy because of you.

Like we laugh about it because it's a

thousand% true. They're going to go to

therapy because of you

and you're going to do amazing compared

to everyone else. And here's the

problem. If comparison is the goal, like

we're all screwed because our kids are

all going to be in therapy in some way,

shape, or form. Now, when I say therapy,

I don't mean like we're all going to

have jacked up kids. Like, we should

have different fruit because of who we

follow. And we will. And the fruit of my

life is different than my parents and

grandparents because of the fruit of my

parents doing the right things. But

despite the fact that I still needed

some measure of therapy because of them,

I'm still way further ahead than I ever

would have been if they wouldn't have

been following Jesus and what they

poured into my life. And I'm so

thankful. In fact, one of the hardest

things in my therapy when I've gone

through things is to like acknowledge

how they've messed me up in some way,

shape, or form without the meaning to

because they tried so hard, right?

I have a hard time of going to God with

my own pain sometimes and my own anger

at him because I know he's perfect and I

have such perfect theology and doctrine.

All right. So, we've gotten a lot like

just on the table just now, right? We

all need therapy. We're all going to

cause someone else to go to therapy.

Okay.

But adoption, if the core thing about

you, where you came from, who your

parents are, is like maybe the the

anchor that everything goes back to for

you to figure out life,

what Paul is saying

is that the entire good news of the

gospel of Jesus Christ is anchored on

this thing that that you are first and

foremost not the children of your

earthly parents, but of God himself.

That's insane. Like,

so as a Christian, your entire life,

what you should constantly be trying to

get back to true north for you is how am

I living outside the reality

that God is my father, that I'm a child

of God first and foremost. That is the

most true thing about me. The truest

true of me, my true north. Trudy true.

You can say true. Just say it in the

right truth form. Truest thing about

you. You're a child of God.

Do you understand how big a deal this

is?

I don't I don't.

That's why my therapy keeps going back

to this. I can't tell you how important

this is. You need to sit on this daily.

When you start the Lord's Prayer, what's

the first phrase?

Our father.

What's the subtext? The subtext Jesus is

giving is every prayer you ever need to

pray starts with the fact that you're a

child of God.

It's a different identity. We're

wrestling. We're fighting constantly

about our identities. Constantly in

culture, constantly fighting over our

identities.

And this this as a Christian is the only

identity issue that matters is this.

Okay, I think I made my point. Adoption

resenters your identity. So what when

you're outside of that, what orphanhood

does is it makes you self-reliant.

You're afraid because you think that you

are the only option to take care of

yourself.

Adoption gives you a security and a

belonging.

You can't obey something before you've

learned how to identify with who you

are. So everything that we do in the

church where we're trying to do

disciplehip and formation and mission.

If you don't get identity right, you

will keep going into a cycle of of

striving to kind of do to be enough or

or trying to kind of form and practice

all these things. It's it all becomes

striving unless you're secure. Jesus

didn't do a thing in ministry. He didn't

do a single miracle until he showed us

the bedrock of his relationship with the

father. And at his baptism, what

happens? The spirit of God comes down

like a dove and the and the father

speaks over him. This is my son whom I'm

well. Please listen to him. And then he

goes and does everything that he did.

Everything it's showing us. Everything

in your life is anchored by the bedrock

and foundation of your sunship,

daughtership, your adoption of being a

child of God. Christ showed us. This was

what Christ was showing us how to live

in right relationship and what that

meant. [snorts]

This will break your confidence in being

obsessed with outcomes and being

obsessed with self-discipline in

yourself in general.

And this passage goes, "The spirit will

bear witness. It will testify and lead

you that you are a child, that you are

children of God." So what this does when

failure when adoption changes, you're

you'll start to know that this is true.

When your failure doesn't completely

eject you,

when when when just slowing down doesn't

doesn't give you anxiety that you're

constantly behind. When when you feel

weak, you know that that's not a

disqualifier.

And we live in a city of completely

self-made and a country. I mean, our

country like if if you inherited

anything, you guys ever gone to any of

you British gone to England? I hope I'm

not going to offend anybody. It's like

they have issues, a lot of issues over

there, but like they're not afraid to

like if they come from a great family, a

lot of great families, a lot of

generational things, right? Um and

I've I've met there's there's an ongoing

joke. I don't know if I should say this

again. Not in my notes. This is the good

stuff, guys. Lean forward. He's gonna

Christian's going to say something

inappropriate. Um I'm going to say I'm

going to say it appropriately anyway.

I've met a lot of people in ministry in

the UK and I and I I over the years I

started realizing like where do they get

their money? Like some of these people

like live in these places and they drive

this and that and then someone told me

like because they don't if they're

Anglican, right? I know a lot of

Anglicans. They don't get paid anything.

And I go, "Oh, this is" And then someone

goes, "Uh, you understand how

generational wealth works?" And I go,

"Oh, yeah.

Yeah, England had a lot of that, didn't

they?"

Um, so a lot of them are still operating

under that little help and and they're

not living just off their um, you know,

their their their Anglican uh, priestly

paybook or whatever. And it's not really

guilt and shamed over there because it's

a common place in America. People will

literally like, "Oh, you didn't make

your success and your money. You're a

loser." Like like we all ashame people

for coming from like a handout, right?

We we exonerate those who who've made it

on their own.

Well, there's something beautiful about

raising people up and that you don't

have to like again, we all know that

history has has said people try to keep

each other down and and America is all

about breaking through those norms. But

when you do that in the world's way, it

becomes

becomes a heavy burden. And here's

here's here's what I want you to do.

There's there's something that I I think

the orphan verse adoption test or we

call this the job interview test might

go something like this. Um, think about

going in for a job interview. And and

this would be kind of like a test to see

if you've understood how the orphan

spirit versus the the way of being an

adopted son or daughter in the kingdom

looks like. Um, we all wrestle with this

in some way, shape, or form. Imagine

you've just had this important job

interview.

And you walk out, you get in your car,

or you know, well, you're going to get

in your car, you're in LA,

your phone buzzes,

and

I want you to think for a moment. You've

just had an important job interview.

Your phone buzzes. Who do you imagine

calling you?

like you don't know what happened in

that job interview. So you're you're

super vulnerable.

You're you're asking questions in your

head. Did I say the right thing? I

should have done this and that better.

You interview second guessing

everything. Did I do the right thing?

Did I get think of it? prepared all

these things and then you're like

you just feel like you could just melt

and like go down the drain and it's just

you had all this expectation and then

you walk out of there and it's like

somebody else just owns you and you're

just feel like a complete so like they

can see right through every part of your

being. It's a horrible feeling

and you just don't know how you did. But

who are you imagining that that voice on

the other end of the phone

and you're ultimately thinking if this

doesn't work out it's on me how I did.

That's that's the voice that voice in

your head questioning questioning

questioning questioning question. That's

the part of you that still has some

element of the orphan spirit.

Not because no one loves you but because

somewhere along the way you learn that

your worth depends on how you perform.

Right?

But imagine a different voice on the

other line that's simply saying, "I'm

proud of you

just for showing up.

No matter what happens, you're okay and

you don't have to earn your place with

me."

And then I know if you're like me,

you're like, "Okay, that's fine." But

like, did I get the job?

I don't care that you love me, Jesus.

Did I get the flipping job or was it my

own fault that I didn't? Well, you no

prophetic word is going to make me feel

better other than did I get the job.

[snorts]

But it's if you'll let that voice speak

to you and you'll receive that voice

even when you don't feel like it. That's

not self-t talk. That's adoption.

When you will let the voice of God tell

you that he's proud of you for showing

up. When you will let the voice of God

tell you that no matter what happens,

you're going to be okay because your

worth is not based on your performance.

When you let the voice of God, the

father tell you that you don't have to

earn your place with him in the family.

When you will let that voice speak to

you, not because you feel like it's the

truest version of you, but because

you've built your life on that voice

instead of the orphan voice, that's when

you start to realize that you are

learning to be a child of God. And

that's what's happening in Romans 8.

Paul's saying that the defining mark of

a Christian is not that you're confident

in yourself. It's that the spirit bears

witness that you are a child of God.

Adoption means that when you fall, you

don't get fired.

When you're slow, you're not behind. And

when you're weak, you're not going to be

disqualified. That's adoption. And

Christian confidence, confidence in

Christ is not confidence in myself. It's

confidence that I'm a child of God and

this is my father.

It's a big deal.

So

I want I want you just for a moment. I

want to pause. I mentioned that that

that verse for creation waits with eager

longing for the revealing of the sons of

God is a big deal. Um

when he says that what Paul is saying is

I I want I just want to touch on these

three things. these it's like deep

theological things and and in the midst

of this they can be simplified but

sometimes we miss like any of you kind

of like

some of you that are like big Bible

nerds love the book of Romans but any of

you just want to admit the fact that

like ah it's kind of dense

it's kind of like reading reading CS

Lewis at 4 am like and I haven't even

had coffee it's Like it sounds nice.

It's good for a quote or two.

What does he mean by creation? By

creation when he say all creation

eagerly waits. Creation is the entire

created order. The world, the history,

nature, society, everything God made

that's fractured by fallenness,

brokenness, sin. That's what he's

talking about. And Paul is saying the

whole world feels that something is not

the way that it's supposed to be.

Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that

the world's not the way it was supposed

to be. There's something that ache of

the whole world. Everyone knows that.

So, what's creation waiting for? That's

the that's the question. And Paul does

not say creation is waiting for

Christians to go to heaven.

That'll fix a lot of theology and a lot

of Christian stuff right there. Paul

never says it. Jesus never says it. We

are not waiting for Christians to go to

heaven and escape the world. Not once is

that ever a focus of the kingdom of

Jesus Christ.

He does not say

that creation is waiting for us to fix

the world either.

That one I don't like as much. I want to

fix the world.

He says creation is waiting for the

revealing of God's children.

That's us.

What does that mean? What is revealing,

unveiling,

being made visible for who we really

are? That's what it means. For you and I

to be made visible for who we really

are.

Well, for if we're all honest, who I

really am is a load of garbage. I don't

want the world to see that. That's not

going to not going to fix anything. It's

not going to help anyone. Yep. That's

exactly right. because I'm a new

creation.

I've adopted. I'm a child of God. And

then what they can see is absolute

beauty and restoration from nothing and

ashes and brokenness by his blood, by

his love, by his suffering,

by his transforming work in my life.

That's what they see. They need to see

the visible you of the hand of God

making you a child and an heir.

This is why adoption matters.

Creation's not waiting for us to be

super impressive. And we all want to be

impressive. We all want to be performers

in some way, shape, or form, especially

in this town. But it's not waiting on

you to perform. It's not waiting on you

to be impressive. It's waiting on you to

be who you truly are, a child of God.

When people live as orphans, the world

groans. When you and I live as orphans,

the world keeps groaning.

But when the children of God are

revealed, when you start living from

belonging instead of fear,

what happens is is the entire created

order, all of humanity gets a glimpse

of what Paul calls hope.

Hope.

We're going to get to hope more in a

second. I'm going to do these last two

points quickly. The point number two is

about suffering. We need to understand

suffering is not about failure.

Paul does not say that adoption removes

suffering.

Being a child of God does not guarantee

anything easy in your life.

It says that provided that you suffer

with him, it's the one condition of all

this good news that you get out of this

is that you're going to suffer with him.

I could go into a whole message on just

what does the suffering look like

because I've seen Christians that really

have no idea what suffering is.

That could get cute and fun. But here,

let me just quickly say suffering is not

failure.

That's the thing that's that most of us

I've seen people talk about like, oh,

because someone said something negative

about your Christian bumper sticker that

that was suffering. It's not suffering.

>> That's not suffering.

Most of us watch too much news. You need

to watch more news if that's what you're

complaining about.

Suffering. Suffering for most of us.

What we don't realize is that it's not

failure though because most of us feel

like we're failing.

And when we're failing,

we think that that's a sign that we're

screwed up and that we're screwing up.

The groaning does not mean it's a lack

of faith and the waiting does not mean

wasted time. We don't understand that we

can acknowledge that we can have regret

without regret being a complete

catastrophic failure.

Talked about that last week. Many of us,

we live with a constant sense that I

thought I'd be further along in life by

now.

We live with leadership fatigue if you

carry any amount of responsibility or a

constant guilt of what we should be

doing.

My biggest one as a parent is it's never

enough. I'm always wasting time and it's

fleeting and they're growing up right

before my eyes. But Paul's answer is

creation itself is groaning. And if

you're struggling, it doesn't mean that

you're off course. If you're suffering,

it doesn't mean that you're off course.

But it may mean suffering in your life

may mean this.

You're being formed

into something that you not are not

right now. And we don't like that the

point of our life is who we become.

We want the point to be what we achieve.

But who you become can only

can only be put in its proper context

when you allow suffering to form you.

When you see suffering as a way to be

formed into someone else,

you will stop trying to just sit here

and remove suffering.

I I have been comp every time I go back

to this story and I I'll I'll screw it

up, but there was there was once um

there's one of the most uh influential

uh leaders of the Chinese underground

church. This was a couple like a

generation or two ago was uh no one knew

where he was and they were trying to

reach him um for for something

significant and some western person was

was was literally stirred by the Holy

Spirit and literally had to get words of

not meaning that praying and asking the

Lord how and where to go because this

this person was literally having to hide

out from the the persecution. I think

was ultimately had to find him in a

prison of some kind. When when this

western Christian found this leader of

the Chinese underground church,

they had this

collision of over this topic.

He goes, "Stop praying

for the persecution and suffering to

stop.

Stop."

Why? because out of that

is all the fruit. He goes on to explain

to him it's like this. This is why the

church grows. This is why people are

meeting Jesus because of the suffering.

We don't understand how that work. We're

praying help them in their suffering and

stop the suffering and this. Now, I'm

not don't hear what I'm saying. I'm not

saying that we just leave the people

being beheaded to be beheaded and not do

anything about it. I'm saying that the

prayer our prayer as Christians is never

keep us from suffering.

What's so what's your deep heart cry?

What's your deep heart's prayer?

If it's for a comfortable life, you're

you're never going to be formed. No one

is formed by comfort.

You're always formed by discomfort.

Christians lean into the discomfort. We

lean into suffering. And here's the

suffering test. A simple test for

suffering. When life gets hard, what do

you assume first?

Here's the options. Maybe I'm doing

something wrong. God must be distant,

but and maybe if I was really mature, I

I wouldn't feel as heavy.

But Romans 8 says the absolute opposite.

Struggle doesn't mean that you've

stepped off the path. It may mean that

you're finally walking the right one.

Orphans interpret difficulty as

rejection.

Children of God, sons and daughters,

they interpret difficulty as formation.

That's the bottom line. How do you

interpret your difficulty in this life?

What lens are you receiving it from? And

if suffering doesn't mean we're failing,

the question then becomes, how do we

live while we wait?

Paul doesn't deny the ache. Romans 8

doesn't deny the ache. It refuses to let

this ache be the final word. And it says

he's calling you now to this concept of

hope. Hope. And this is where we'll

land. Not by fixing the world, but by

anchoring us in the father. The last

several verses look something like this.

I think we have it on the screen. I'm

going to read it quickly and then we're

going to close. 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 creation, but we

ourselves who have the first fruits of

the spirit grown inwardly as we wait

eagerly for the adoptions 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. Again, dense.

Some of you haven't had coffee. Here's

what it's saying. What is hope not? Hope

is not super optimistic glass half full.

Hope is not positive thinking and it's

not confidence in your outcomes. What it

is,

what hope is,

is future certainty shaping present

faithfulness. Or as my friend John White

says, you remember the future.

Remember the future.

Trusting before resolution.

That's what hope is.

Waiting

as a child, confident in their father,

not panicking as orphans.

So this creation imagery, all of

creation's been groaning.

If you feel something is off,

maybe maybe you're not weak, you're

actually awake, maybe you need to be

reminded that hope teaches patience,

that hope trains you in endurance, and

that it shapes how you suffer, and it

stabilizes how you'll actually live your

life. We're we're inviting us not to

just start the new year with a couple

nice weeks of resolutions.

We're we're inviting us into what we're

calling reset to rhythms.

40 days to start the year to train us as

children not to panic as orphans.

And so what I want to give an example

[clears throat] the team can start to

come up because that helps me actually

close. When I say I'm going to close,

I'll never close if they're not up here.

uh

childbirth. Paul uses the term he uses

the example of pains of childbirth.

And he doesn't say creation's groaning

like someone's dying. He says it's

groaning like someone's about to be

born.

Child birth pain is real pain. I've

never experienced it, but I've been

there with uh five births. Now, I'm

going to pretend for a second that my

wife went through as much pain as a lot

of you women went through because she

did go through pain. And it was way more

pain than I've ever gone through. But if

you want to get annoyed, let my wife

tell you how easily she can birth a

child. It's

it's it'll be annoying for some of you

and it'll be discouraging for others of

you. Uh I'm not saying she had no pain.

I've met some of those people. They

annoy me even more. Uh that's beautiful.

>> [clears throat]

>> our our second son, she literally um

like was dry heaving in transition and

then he was on the table like, "Oh,

hello son. I hope you're breathing."

In all seriousness, ch child birth

though is is it's real pain.

She only had a few moments of it, but

it's real pain.

direction.

It's pain with direction and purpose. No

one's wondering like what's this pain

for?

It has meaning.

The meaning is that you know something

someone is coming. And when we have lost

the purpose of our pain that something's

coming,

that's when we've lost hope.

No one in labor says this must be

pointless.

I've never heard one person giving birth

going, "This is so pointless."

[music]

They say other things that I can't

repeat. The husbands tell me that part.

The women instantly forget everything

they said.

I've heard a few things you've said,

ladies, from your husbands.

But it's never, this is pointless.

Romans 8 says, "The ache that you feel

isn't a sign something's wrong, but

something's about to be born." It's a

sign that something's about to be born.

Hope doesn't remove [music] the pain.

It's telling you what kind of pain this

is. And so, I want to invite you just to

ask a few questions today, few steps as

we respond this morning. [music]

Step one, where's pain

been shaping my rhythms lately? And what

is shaping your rhythms just of late?

Where do you feel hurry, distracted, or

spiritually thin? What kind of life do

you want to be [music] living a year

from now? And what is one small thing

God might be inviting you into?

And then I want to invite us to [music]

just step into one way to practice this.

[snorts]

I've noticed that when I'm operating in

my orphaned mindset, I try to change

everything all at once.

But when I'm operating as a son,

I can just I can just choose one small

act of trust.

Slow down and let God work in me over

time.

I want to invite you to do the same.

Just choose one practice, [music] not

all of them. One rhythm that will just

train you as a child to wait, not panic

as an orphan.

Maybe that is just a daily pause of

dependence on him where you're going to

just pause and say, "Father, [music]

aba father, I depend on you. I belong to

you. I trust you with what I can't fix."

What's the prayer that you need to just

pause? [music] Holy Spirit, lead me

today.

That's the promise Paul ends with is

that the spirit is our guarantee to go

with us and to lead us and to cover the

entire process. That you can't do it in

your own strength. Jesus showed us that

he was only led by the spirit. You can't

do this in your own strength.

And maybe to be teaching you in the

waiting, you want to just choose a

simple thing. Maybe you need to step

back [music] into Sabbath, fasting,

silence, or scripture. Just choose one,

not all of them. Don't be an

overachiever. No one's going to be

impressed.

Maybe you just need a one small block of

time where you stop producing and

receive. You need to step into Sabbath.

You don't know how to Sabbath. Maybe you

need to skip one meal or a habit that

that that will teach you to remember

your limits. You need to step into

fasting.

Maybe you need just 10 minutes with no

noise, no solving, no scrolling.

You need to step into silence.

Maybe you need to let the voice of God

speak over [music] you without rushing.

Step in the scripture.

We're not asking for intensity here.

We're asking you to simply let

consistency train your trust

cuz Jesus already [music] trusts you

to be the answer to the world's

groaning. Would you stand and let's

respond. [music]

Holy Spirit, come now.

Minister to our hearts. Lift up our

spirits where we feel

numb.

Put your hand in a place where we can

feel and we can begin to trust again.

Remind us of the simplicity of being

children and how we over [music]

complicate the life and life's biggest

longings.

Build us up in a confidence [music]

that isn't built on our production, but

on our surrender.

Just take one more [music] few more

seconds and we're just going we're going

to close and just invite people to just

get ministry however they feel led.

Prayer team, you can come you can start

to come forward. [music] I just want to

ask if there are those in the room that

just really resonate

with with just feeling that [music]

orphan spirit like just just that I know

it's true or I hope that it's true that

God has [music] adopted me and considers

me as child. But if I'm honest, I still

feel completely alone and severed and I

don't feel like I've got that covering

of [music] a father that's good that

loves me.

no guilt and shame. But if if that's I'm

not saying you don't know it, but you

don't feel it and that's your heart cry

this morning,

just invite you to stretch out your

hands to the Lord. Lift your hands in

worship

and just acknowledge that that's your

cry, your heart.

No need to look around. This is just

have a moment with the Lord and be real.

Holy Spirit, we invite you to meet those

[music] in the room.

Cry of our hearts as we are orphaned,

but you say we're adopted. [music]

We cry out and sing songs about your

goodness because it doesn't always feel

that way.

We respond [music] today in worship, not

because of the way it feels.

but because of the way of life and the

identity that we are [music] choosing to

step into because of your work, not our

own. Would you remind us of that?

[music] Aresh today as we respond.

If this is all new to you, this whole

Jesus stuff, you're still like

considering it, questioning it. Maybe

you're like dating Jesus in some ways,

that's great. You're you're welcome to

date Jesus here.

But if this is the day you're like, you

want to get more serious, you want to

take this relationship more seriously,

we [music] would be honored to pray with

you, if that's the cry of your heart,

you just tell him, "I'm not sure about

all this, but I know I want to take this

more seriously.

He's here to encounter you this morning.

[music] He's here to meet you this

morning, regardless of how you came in.

Holy Spirit, as we go out,

remind us we are first and foremost

children of God and the world [music] is

groaning

for that to be revealed. We love you and

we honor you in Jesus name. [music]

Amen. Amen. that his team is here on

your