In his sermon 'Groaning in Hope,' Scott Brown delves into Romans 8:17-25, emphasizing the twin doctrines of suffering and hope. He explains that all believers will experience suffering, which is part of God's plan and a sign of being heirs with Christ. Despite the inevitability of suffering, Paul assures that it is incomparable to the future glory awaiting believers. The entire creation is described as eagerly waiting for the revelation of the sons of God, groaning in its current state of futility but infused with hope. Brown highlights that Christians should grow up in their understanding of suffering, not responding with surprise, anger, or despair, but with a mature, hopeful perspective. He underscores the importance of setting one's mind on heavenly things and immersing oneself in Scripture to cultivate a resilient hope. Ultimately, the sermon encourages believers to persevere through suffering with the assurance of future glory and redemption.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 8 and find verse 17. Romans 8 verse 17. And we'll be reading to verse 25. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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. Because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray.

Father, I pray that you would give us such insight to understand what you from heaven are saying to us here on earth. That you would come and alter the way that we think, the way that we work through our sufferings, that you would make for yourself a people who understand suffering and therefore rejoice in the hope and the glory of God. Amen. Please be seated. So we've seen over and over again here in the book of Romans as we've been walking through it verse by verse, that the Apostle Paul is so full of encouragement in every section.

He's declaring the greatness of the plans of God and it's so thrilling. And this section is just another example. And this section, it has been written for the Church of Jesus Christ to help them to undergo the sufferings that they experience, because every believer experiences suffering in some way. And we find ourselves at the feet of the Apostle Paul to learn how to think about our sufferings and various deprivations. They might be sufferings in the body.

They might be what's happening in the culture. They might be what's happening in matters of creation, as the creation rises up and does all kinds of damage in the world. And We've landed really at a very thrilling doctrine. There are actually probably two heavyweight doctrines in these verses right here. But you find the whole doctrine of suffering.

But Right alongside of it, the apostle doesn't want us to understand suffering without hope. And that's the second doctrine. It's the doctrine of hope and putting them two together to teach a church how to suffer in hope. Now if you've read your New Testament, you know that the Apostle Paul taught many churches how to suffer And it's so critical that we understand that. The word hope is mentioned six times in these verses.

And that's telling, it helps us to understand what The Apostle Paul is trying to drive home today. It's always thrilling to bring the word of God to people because the word of God is always so full of hope. And you just see the beauty of the kingdom of God and how God prepares his children to live in the real world. And I'm so thankful to have these words. Yet when you leave here today, here's what I hope.

I hope maybe there's gonna be a child here, you're getting in the car and you're driving home and that little child says, I'm growing up, I see the world better now than I did before. I hope that someone will say I'm gonna stop groaning in despair. I'm gonna start groaning in hope. You know the Bible says hope does not disappoint. Maybe one of you spouses will look at one another and you'll say, I guess the world is not falling apart.

It already fell apart, and it was God who caused it. And he equips us to live in a world that in one sense is falling apart, yet is completely under his sovereign control. We live in a world of degeneration, don't we? And our bodies are falling apart. And I was just thinking about my dad.

You know, he died when he was 97 years old. And I remember when he started losing his hearing. And then I remember when he developed macular degeneration. This is just a manifestation that the creation was subjected to futility. This is the natural world.

Then his cartilage, you know, started failing in his knees and and then he entered into a wheelchair and It was cruising all over the place. And then he couldn't walk at all at the very end. He couldn't even stand up. And we watch this progress. And, you know, that's why people talk about, you know, being over the hill.

He's over the hill that means he's degenerating and his physical being and you then you need glasses you know you start putting on glasses I know some of you are brilliant manifestations that the creation was subjected to futility, all of you out there with your glasses on. And as you grow older, you know, there's your, You have degeneration in your muscular structure. It's really a brilliant declaration that evolution is ridiculous because things are falling apart. It's called the second law of thermodynamics. Everything is moving toward disorder, not order.

Okay, does anybody think the world is moving toward order? I don't think so. You have to be an idiot with blinders on to think that the world is just naturally becoming more orderly. No, this is just a ridiculous proposition of the evolutionists. And then you have huge industries now trying, they're actually dedicated to dealing with all of these failing bodies.

You know, the baby boomers, you know, are getting older. And there's actually, there's a billionaire, his name is Brian Johnson. He's spending millions and millions of dollars trying to stop the aging process and he wants to he's 46 he wants to reverse his aging process down to age 18 and so he's getting blood plasma transfusions from 18 year olds and he takes a hundred supplements a day and he's getting bone gene therapy and he's wears a baseball cap that shoots red lights into his scalp and he's actually he's actually on a failed mission because the whole creation, even Brian Johnson, has been subjected to futility. It'll be very interesting to see what he's Actually acting like and and looking like in 30 more years. I read that somebody told him, if you want immortality, go to church.

Amen to that. Go and become a part of the everlasting family of God. So, the words in this text, the prominent ones are hope and groan, and the whole creation is groaning. The word groan appears three times, actually just twice in the text we're focusing on today, but in the next message on this we learn that our spirit groans. Here in verse 22 the creation groans, in verse 23 we ourselves groan, And then in verse 26, which we'll not handle today, the spirit within us groans.

So that's what you have. And at the same time, you have the groaning, but it's connected to another word, eagerly. We groan eagerly. Christians groan differently. The unbelieving world, you might groan in despair, but not the believing world.

The believing world groans differently. It's kind of like you can you can almost always tell the Christians at a funeral because they grieve differently. They grieve in power because they know their Redeemer lives. And so, but we do groan, and the creation is subjected to futility. And so the apostle is teaching us how to do that.

Now I've identified, if you have an outline in front of you, you'll see this, it's obvious where I'm going here this morning. There are four things the Apostle Paul wants us to know about suffering. I pray that these four things would really fortify this church and help this church learn how to suffer better than they ever did before. And we begin in verse 17. Now when we come to verse 17, we encounter the word heirs.

If children, then heirs of God. And this is the continuation of the previous thought where we, where the apostles talk about adoption. We've been brought into a family. We've been adopted. We now have a father.

Everyone has a father in the Church of Jesus Christ. But not only that, we're brought in, all the adoptees are brought in together into a local church. And everybody's adopted in a local church. And so we've been brought into a family, we have been adopted, so we are heirs of God, we have an inheritance as adopted children, and then we are not heirs of this inheritance, we are heirs of God, and we are heirs of Christ, we briefly mentioned this last time, but Then in verse 17, we are heirs of suffering. So as adopted children and we cry out, Abba, Father, but at the same time we live in a world that's full of suffering.

So the first thing here, we are heirs of the sufferings of Christ. The Lord wants us to know that, that we are heirs of the sufferings of Christ. Suffering just didn't come upon us. In fact, proof of being a Christian is that you will suffer. The Bible teaches that the believer is in Christ and that Christ is in us and We are with him says says with him.

Do you see that if we suffer with him? We are with him in suffering, but he is with us in our suffering. We do not suffer on our own. We suffer with him. He suffers with us.

Whenever a believer encounters suffering, they are never alone. Maybe nobody else understands your suffering or cares about it, but Jesus Christ suffers with his children. And this is just something you should believe. You can believe that you're alone in your suffering, that's a lie. Nobody cares about me, that's a lie if you're a believer.

Jesus Christ enters into your sufferings. And so we are not on our own. And so here, suffering is a proof of your faith. You know, there's this idea if someone is suffering, they've done something bad. That generally is not a very biblical idea, because every Christian suffers.

We should expect in this church that we will experience different kinds of suffering. Sufferings of the body, sufferings of the mind, sufferings as a result of family calamities, sufferings resulting of accidents and cancer and birth defects and we The church of Jesus Christ will suffer. I read the other day that three or 4% of all children born have some what we call a birth defect. And that would mean probably six or eight of us here was born with some fairly severe birth effect. But what we're being told here is that you never suffer on your own because we are heirs of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 5-7 says it like this, Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. The church learns obedience by these things that they suffer. Suffering is the way that we learn how to walk with the Lord. In greater depth, instead of just having a sort of a shallow, happy, clappy faith, You actually have a real, substantial faith that will take you through anything.

What a blessing it is. In Hebrews chapter two, verse 10, it says it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom all things are made in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings And this is the whole doctrine of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. But we are heirs of the sufferings of Christ. So in one way, another way to say this is look, grow up in your view of suffering. Just grow up.

If you're suffering, you are suffering because Christ suffered. Something hasn't gone wrong. The world is not out of control. God has ordained the world for suffering for the benefit of his people. But when we suffer, we often respond in wrong ways.

I'll give you seven ways that are not helpful. Seven ways that we suffer that are not helpful. First, we are surprised. This passage should never allow you to be surprised again. Don't be surprised.

Oh, why? The second wrong response is to be shaken. The third is to be disheartened. The fourth wrong response is to respond in anger. The fifth response is through avoidance, through drugs, through seeking pleasure.

The sixth is through apathy or resignation or just inactivity, laying in bed all day. Seventh, doubt. People suffer and then they experience doubt. These seven are inappropriate ways to respond to suffering because the Christian should not be surprised in suffering. The Christian should not be shaken or disheartened or doubt their salvation.

You know, whole religions have been created to try to help people go through suffering. In Hinduism, you seek extinction and annihilation so that there will be no more suffering. The Bible gives you actually reality, how to deal with suffering in a real way. First Peter four, one and two. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

He says, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though something strange has happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy. There's so many places that we could go where the church is instructed that they will suffer. So the first thing that the apostle Paul wants us to understand is that we are heirs of the sufferings of Christ. You know, in my experience over the years, so many people were delivered from darkness, forgiven of their sins, because they went through a great time of suffering. And they hit bottom.

Praise the Lord. They hit a bottom that they could bounce off of and rise to everlasting life. And this is what God does often. People taste the bad fruit of their sin, and they see what their sin has done to them. And they realize their only hope is in Jesus Christ.

And so they come to the right physician, they come to the great physician, and they're healed. And he pulls them out of the pit from which they had dug for themselves. And this is the glory of salvation. But God often brings suffering to the unbeliever to wake them up so that they could see the state that they are in. So the believer should not fold under sufferings, but they should be wise, they should know.

And I want all you little kids in here to understand something right now. Grow up right now, grow up right now. This is a world full of suffering. And you know, the more years you add to your life, the more suffering you're going to see, and you will probably experience things that you never dreamed you would, because it was always the other people. So grow up now.

Understand the way God wired the world. It's a world full of suffering. I remember I heard Steve Lawson say one time, Christians don't throw in the towel, they eat the towel. A long time ago, I think like I was in my 20s, I read this book called Eat Your Problems for breakfast. It's just another way of saying, it's a world of suffering, you know, you can make it, you can get through it.

So the second thing the apostle Paul wants us to understand about suffering is that we are part of the creation that waits for glory. This is in verses 18 and 19. Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us. So notice what's here in these verses. You have the sufferings of this present time and then you have a comparison with glory, the glory that will be revealed in us.

So he's putting these two things together, the sufferings and then the glory, and what he's saying is that The glory is so great the sufferings will be nothing to you when you reach glory. But here's what I want us to really get from this. Something is happening to the whole creation. You are part of the whole creation. You are a creature that God created.

He created you in his image. He knit you together in his mother's womb. You are part of creation. You are a creature. You are a created being.

You are part of the creation and There's a connection Between your suffering and what's happening to the entire creation in other words, you are caught up in some something that is happening to everything in the creation and In other words, we are all in the same boat in other words if you're if you're suffering you're not getting picked on This is something that's happening to the entire creation We're We are being created beings in God's universe. We are part of an unstoppable trajectory to glory or damnation. We are included in this flow of history and we're actually caught in an unstoppable trajectory with the rest of creation. In other words, this isn't just about you. This is about the overall plan of God.

God is managing all creation and he's going to bring it to a crescendo where he is summing up all things in Jesus Christ. All of the sufferings, all the troubles in this world will be summed up in Christ and you'll be able to see it like you can't see it today. You can't see why you're suffering, but here we're being told at least the big picture of why there is suffering. It's almost like, you know, it's almost like all of us together, we're like on this freight train that's running downhill and the brakes are broken. And it's not going to stop.

It's a freight train. It's just too heavy to stop. It's like dropping a boulder off the Empire State Building. It's going to go down and it's not going to stop until it hits the ground. And this is what is happening with us.

We are all caught in a trajectory, but what is that trajectory? It's the glory of God for the believer and it's everlasting punishment and damnation for the unbeliever and it's and there's nothing that mankind can do except to turn to Jesus Christ for refuge. He says it's not worthy to be compared. You have this weight of the glory of God, the beauty of the kingdom of God, the everlasting pleasures of heaven on the one hand, and the sufferings here in this world. And he's saying that your sufferings, you'll think they are nothing compared to the glory that is ahead.

And the sufferings are short-lived in comparison to eternity. But it's very important that we understand that we're not being picked on. We're part of a grand scheme of God to bring many sons to glory. And he uses everything, every trouble in the world to glorify himself some way. We might not understand how, but he understands how.

We don't have to understand. But we can see what it looks like at the very end. And then it says that the whole creation eagerly waits. This is really, this is great language. Eagerly waits and like so many things in the Bible, so many words in the Bible, they are word pictures.

And this is one of the great word pictures in the Bible. It's a picture of someone craning their neck. The whole creation is craning their neck. They want to look over the wall to see what it's really going to be like. They eagerly wait and what he's saying is that, and I don't even understand how this works.

How does the creation crane its neck and eagerly wait? I don't know. But there's an expectation and an anticipation that exists in nature. You know, Peter in 1 Peter 1, 2 said that there are things that angels long to look into. And we have this imagery in the Bible, and we should be careful to, you know, not take it too far or not to take it at all, but like in Psalm 98, we read these words, "'Let the rivers clap their hands, "'let the hills be joyful together before the Lord.'" I mean, it's quite likely figurative language, but then in Isaiah 55 he says, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.

The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Is that entirely figurative? But I think, you know, creation is held back from its future glory. It says that this is for the revealing of the sons of God. Do you see that phrase there in the verse?

Revealing of the sons of God. In other words, this is the church of Jesus Christ. The church will be revealed. There is a specific number, The revealing of the sons of God a specific number of the sons of God Will be revealed in glory But but the question is are you in that number Are you one of the sons of God? Have you repented of your sins?

Have you turned to Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation? Do you believe that Jesus Christ came to forgive sinners? And have you, have you in your soul determined that you only wanna follow Jesus Christ? Are you in that number? Hey, don't you love that song?

Oh Lord, I want to be in that number. Do you want to be in that number? When the saints go marching in. So the second thing the apostle Paul wants us to know is we are part of a creation that waits for glory. Nobody's getting picked on, this is part of God's big scheme and plan.

And the third thing the apostle wants us to learn about suffering is that we are part of the creation that was subjected to futility and groans. This is verses 20 through 22. Let's read it again. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Here you have a God who's in control of all creation.

He's governing every molecule, every cell, everything in creation, and he subjected the creation to futility. It's interesting, not willingly, in other words, the creation wasn't willing, but God did it anyway. I think that's what he's saying. I don't know if you should picture the creation saying, no, don't do it. But the creation was subjected to futility not willingly.

This is part of God's plan. But because of him who subjected it in hope. He subjected the creation to futility in hope. In other words, not for destruction, but for hope. Verse 21, because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

So this is the big picture here. The big picture of this world. We sang that wonderful song, This is My Father's world. This is your father's world. And he in his wisdom and in his love subjected the creation to futility.

Why? Why would he do that? He subjected the whole creation to futility to demonstrate that he's a deliverer. He subjected the creation of futility to demonstrate that he's a healer and he's a redeemer. And he did it to the praise of the glory of his grace.

God wants to be the one who's praised. Praised as the redeemer, the forgiver, the one who is slow to anger. God wants to demonstrate that he can save a sinner. God wants to demonstrate that he can take someone from the worst time in their life and rescue them. He can, somebody said, from the gutter most to the utter most.

That's what, God wants all creation to praise him for his magnanimity, for his loving kindness. And that's why, you know, when you pray, you give thanks to God. You thank him for saving you. You thank him for the many blessings that he's given to you. You you're amazed that he would save somebody like you.

He's looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And of course we know that he works all things together for good to those who love him. He takes all of the creation that was subjected to futility and he takes every single part of it to demonstrate his goodness in the world. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now. And then, so the Apostle, he gives this very common, very earthy illustration of what it's like to grow birth pangs.

The, this is the illustration of what it's like to be in the world. And I think that what he's saying is that compared to the glory that's to come, we experience something very much like the birth pangs of a mother giving birth. The excruciating pain, yet the hope, yet when it's over, she's so thankful and she's likely to do it again. Because she's so thankful for that baby. That's also a manifestation of hope for her.

So he gives us this illustration of birth pangs to help us to understand this. You know, you remember when we were going through the Gospel of John, in chapter 11 is the story of Lazarus dies, Jesus' friend, Lazarus dies. And of course you have the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept, but when he heard the news, it says that he groaned. But it's so interesting that he would groan. It's so strange that he would weep.

Because he knew he was going to raise that man from the dead in just a few minutes. You know, most of us, we would not be crying, because we say, I know what's gonna happen. Nobody worry around here, but no, he weeps, he weeps with those who weep. And he was entering into the sufferings of that family that lost Lazarus. And so he entered into their suffering and he groaned.

And then he rose Lazarus from the dead. That's called groaning in hope, I think. I think that is a wonderful illustration for how we should see our sufferings. We know that the groanings, they will end someday. We don't know when.

They will definitely all end at the resurrection of the body. It says here that he subjected it in hope, and I think that's the key to the teaching. The creation groaning, your groaning, my groaning, is something that should help us to understand the hope that there is. Now, let's just camp on the word hope for a second. By the way, there's a church named Hope for a reason.

But hope in the Bible means certainty. It's not like I hope I have a million dollars, I hope I get that contract. No, this is not the kind of hope that's in the Bible. In the Bible, hope is certain. And that's how it's used.

And it's the certainty that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed. It's not speculation. It's the hope, the assurance, the confidence that corruption will put on corruption and this mortal will put on immortality. It's not I hope it happens, I know it's going to happen. That when we, when he is revealed, we shall be like him.

For we shall see him as he is, as 1 John 3 says. John also said, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. And so we are part of this creation that was subjected to futility in hope. The suffering should always remind us of the hope. In other words, we need to be mature and wise about our sufferings.

They should remind us of the right things and not to sink us into despair. God wants a strong people, a mighty people who are not crushed by their sufferings, but they know what's going on. They're wise, and they're not jerked around by their emotions, And they're not cultivating sinful emotions like fear and anxiety and anger. Those are sinful emotions Christians are turning away from those emotions Because they know that the creation was subjected In futility, but in hope they know how the story ends and so they they they ought not to be despondent about the sufferings of the present time. And then finally, We groan in hope within ourselves.

You have in the previous verses the creation groaning. Now he says we groan. We groan in hope. Verse 23. And Not only that, not only the creation, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, The redemption of our body.

Now, why does he say adoption? We are we're told earlier that we've already been adopted. Well, we have been adopted. This is the final consummation of that adoption in heaven. For verse 24 for we were saved in this hope.

God saved your soul to inject it with hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for one sees and so he's saying that we have the first fruits of the Spirit that cause us to hope you know the Lord begins to work in our lives and we experience the first fruits. But we also, we're not all that we want to be and we know that We're not tasting all that there is. And that's what sanctification is all about.

And that's what heaven is also about too. But the first fruits bring an anticipation of the full harvest. So the believer is eager for the full harvest because they've seen the first fruits of the hope in their own soul. You've seen it, haven't you? You've had the first fruits of hope in your soul.

God's been altering your life. He's been navigating you toward hope, the hope of the glory of God. You know, we read about this in chapter five of Romans, having been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says we have access into this grace in which we stand.

We're standing in this grace. We're standing in this cascade, this shower of grace every day of our lives. And then he says, and not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. So we've tasted the first fruits, We've seen God move us out of despair, out of a more mature understanding of the world and our own lives and our own sufferings.

We've tasted the first fruits, but there's more. Now there's more in this life as we grow, but there is glory beyond imagination at the final resurrection of our bodies. So that's the teaching here, and he's teaching us really about about hope and he's teaching us to eagerly await the hope and not to be lost in our sorrows as a church but to know what's going on to be a mature church a steady church a church that understands what's happening when people are sick or when they die, and he's saying don't throw away your hope in your time of suffering because it will get better. I'm gonna call this one of the most important parts of your eschatology. It's an eschatology of hope.

You know, people get all wrapped up in their eschatology. Is it just a theoretical, is it just a theoretical thing that you argue about and talk about? Or is it the hope of the glory of God? That is the pinnacle of biblical eschatology. And that's the eschatology we all ought to agree on.

So how do you grow hope? How do you grow it in the day of suffering? First of all, I think we should set our expectations. Don't expect a panacea in this life. And FYI, the higher life doesn't exist.

The normal Christian life exists. But you should set your expectations that you live in a world of suffering. And God subjected the entire creation to futility. And you are caught in forces that you cannot overcome. God is taking you there though.

He's the one, he's the one who's driving the train and he will stop it at the right time. And the second thing, second way to grow your hope is to do what we've been talking about for the last several weeks. Set your mind on the things that are above not on the things that are on the earth. Let the words of God shape your life. Let the very words of scripture to shape your emotions and your attitudes and the things that you think about life.

Get up in the morning every day and set your soul aright in the word of God. Don't neglect it at all. R.C. Sproul one time he said, I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests his power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for a power in a program, in a technique, in anything and everything except where God has placed it, in the Word.

Be a church that has been saturating the mind in the word of God. Set no unclean thing before your eyes. And saturate your whole soul in whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report. If there's anything worthy of praise, set your mind on these things. And then there's a promise connected to that.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So crane your neck, brothers and sisters. Eagerly await the hope of the glory of God. Don't drown in your sorrows, there's no reason to do that, because there are great things ahead. And God is telling us we can take it, we're not getting picked on.

I want to end by quoting the songs that we've been singing this morning. Rejoicing glorious hope, our Lord the Judge shall come and take his servants up to their eternal home. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. And then another song.

Afflicted saint to Christ draw near, your Savior's gracious promise here, His faithful word you can believe, that as your days, your strength shall be. And then we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, your word is so wonderful. It makes us wiser than our teachers. It sets our hearts aright. It delivers us from all of our fears. And it was the word of truth that saved our souls.

So Lord, we thank you. Thank you for giving us such a treasure in earthen vessels that the glory might be from you and not ourselves. And Lord, I pray that you