Episode 1665 Wait with Eager Longing

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,665 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast

Tom Kereszti: I'm Tom Kereszti. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find the keys to leadership is key, and any way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Be loving. And think about how we live and show up in the world for people, yes, but also for the creation of God. Are we showing up in a way that has that loving relationship each and every moment [00:01:00] of each and every day? And if not, why not? Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Romans 8:12-25. I share how we are called to serve in the world even when our mind is on the eternal, and I also talk about how our fate is tied to the fate of creation. Romans 8:12-25 says, "So then, brothers and [00:02:00] sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if the s- by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption.

When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope." That the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and [00:03:00] will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole of creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, but who hopes for what one already sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we can wait for it with patience. This passage from Romans picks up right where the passage from last week leaves off, the, the one discussing fruit and flesh and spirit and what that all is tied up together in. This text is another one where it, it's hard to know exactly where to start with it.

There's a ton of different images and messages that are within here that you could begin to [00:04:00] pull out. It begins again with that call to live not by the flesh but by the Spirit. But then it shifts into a passage about our relationship with creation itself. And I don't know about you, but that seems sort of contradictory because after all, living in creation, living in the world, isn't that a fleshy flesh consideration?

And yet it tied in in saying that we're to cons- be concerned about that. I don't know about you, but I've, I've done work before trying to figure out ways to be more environmentally conscious, more friendly, more ecological, more green, and so to speak. And when I look at the choices that I make daily, how can I investigate the companies, their impact on their environment?

What should I support? What should I not? What should I use? What should I not? And in fact, doing that work is really hard work. That's one of [00:05:00] the reasons we don't always do it. We don't always follow through because it's hard. And what's more, the, the efforts that we make seem to be in direct contradiction to the messages that we get.

I, I don't know if I can trust the information that's out there about this company or that company being good for the environment. And then beyond that, the impact that we seem to make seems to be so small in the greater scheme of things. And then add on top of that the political conversations about, is this real, is it not?

Can't we just wait? Isn't there contradiction? And yet I think we can all see the change and the damage that we've done and continue to do to the environment. Paul seems to be saying Don't look at this world, look to the next one, right? That's what Paul's all about. Get your priorities spay- [00:06:00] straight, look at the prize, go to the finish line.

And yet here it talks about, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will but the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

I don't know about you, but this whole creation going through pain and longing. Maybe he's talking spiritually, maybe, maybe it's a metaphor. Maybe it's really about spiritual matters, not physical ones. But I get a hint in here that Paul is actually saying that our salvation is tied up in connection with the bondage and the decay and the damage of all creation.

The fate of the world and our fate seems to be tied together. And what's more, God is there [00:07:00] relying on us, well, or at least our, our better selves, our more spiritual selves, our true selves as the sons and daughters of God, to treat the world way. To treat it well. Notice we're not saying creation is God.

We're not worshiping it as a god. But we are saying that when we look at creation, we get a glimpse of the creator. We know who the artist is when we look at the work of art, whether that's looking out at the dawn, painting beautiful pictures on the sky or whether it's standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon and being amazed at the power of nature and God, and that grandeur and that beauty.

All of that is part of that. That's-- Go read the Psalms to talk about the, how they, they cry out at the beauty of nature overwhelming us with the power of God. [00:08:00] We also talk about the fact that we have dominion over nature, and most people look at the word dominion and immediately think authority and power.

We're like little gods. But yet it's not about really power. The dominion, the world that, that's used for dominion here isn't about using, exploiting, abusing. Instead, it's about caring. Just like God cares for creation, just like God cares for us, we are to be mindful and caring of God's creatures, God's habitats, God's creation.

We're to give it the care it deserves, and I don't know about you, but I don't think we do. Our dominion is about caring like God cares To be mindful, to be loving, and think about how we live and show up in the world [00:09:00] for people, yes, but also for the creation of God. Are we showing up in a way that has that loving relationship each and every moment of each and every day?

And if not, why not? Thanks for listening.

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