NOTES
SCENE ONE: CREATION’S GROAN

Step outside for a second.
Feel the wind in your face. Watch trees bend under storms. See the cracked earth, the flooded rivers, the starving fields.
All of it is groaning. Not in words — in earthquakes. In wildfires. In extinction. In decay.
And Paul wants us to see that creation knows something is wrong.

Creation, somehow, remembers Eden.
It was made for beauty. For fruitfulness. For life.
But now it lives under a curse.

Creation is waiting for something it can’t fix.
It’s not just suffering — it’s longing.
And every flood, every drought, every cracked tree branch is a cry:
“Restore us.”

SCENE TWO: OUR GROAN JOINS THE CHOIR

But then Paul turns the corner.

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves…”
Romans 8:23a, ESV

This isn’t just a problem out there. It’s inside of us too.

He says:
“…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly…”

And now it gets personal.

You and I — the ones who have already been saved, already received the Spirit, already belong to Jesus — we’re still groaning.

We’re not above it. We’re not immune. We’re not stronger than it.

**We groan because we’re caught between what’s been promised and what’s not yet come.

We still lose people we love.
We still fight temptations we thought we’d be past by now.
We still wake up to anxiety, to fear, to depression, to exhaustion.
[Anyone else wake up at 3p almost every morning?]

And some of you — you don’t even know what to name it.
You just feel the ache.
Like your soul is limping through a world that doesn’t fit.

You wonder, “If I have the Spirit… why do I still groan?”

… Because you were made for a world you haven’t yet seen.

SCENE THREE: WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

Paul tells us exactly what we’re groaning for.

“…as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Romans 8:23b

That’s the phrase. That’s the destination.

We’re waiting for the reality of adoption — not the paperwork kind, but the full welcome into the Father’s house. The moment we step into His presence, look around, and realize: we’re home.

And we’re waiting for the redemption of our bodies.

Think about that.
Not escape. Not floating on clouds.
Redemption.
Your body — yes, the exhausted one, the one that breaks, the one that carries wounds and memory — is going to be made new. Brand new.
ALL THINGS MADE NEW INCLUDE NEW YOU!

You’re not going to become less human.
You’re going to become more human, fully human — the way God designed you to be.

That’s why you groan.
Because somewhere inside, your soul already knows: this isn’t all there is.
(Ecclesiastes 3:11- …he has put eternity into man’s heart…)

SCENE FOUR: LIVING IN THE GROAN

Now here’s where we live — between the groan and the glory.

The temptation is to numb it, to fix it, or to pretend it isn’t there.

Some medicate it with distraction. You wonder why so many fall into addiction? This life hurts like hell, because hell spirits ruled it for so long and broke so much!

Some spiritualize it with fake smiles.
Some walk away from faith because they think the groan means God isn’t real.

Paul is reminding us the groan doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means your faith is real.

You don’t groan for something you don’t believe in.

You groan because the Spirit in you has already started the resurrection — but the world around you hasn’t caught up yet.

[CONCLUSION- DON’T WASTE THE GROAN]

So what do we do with the groan?

We don’t waste it.

We let it teach us how to hope.
We let it turn our eyes toward what’s coming.
We let it remind us that what we feel is not the end — it’s labor.

And labor is temporary.
But life with God in the new world is forever.

That mother in the hospital hallway?
Her cries didn’t end with silence — they ended with a baby in her arms.

The groan gave way to joy.
And so will yours.