Romans 8 - Owning
This is our Sunday teaching from Senior Pastor, Tom Thompson. Recorded live at our Sunday Service in Harris Academy Purley, Croydon on Sunday 4th January, 2026.
Below you can find the full talk audio, and a summary article. The slides are here.
Owning, Groaning, and Glory: Living the Weight of God’s Presence
In our ongoing journey through the book of Romans, this week’s teaching invited us to step more deeply into three defining realities of the Christian life: owning, groaning, and glory. Drawing especially from Romans 8, we were reminded that these are not abstract theological ideas, but powerful, lived truths—“engines,” as Paul describes them—that fuel transformation, hope, and mission.
Paul declares that if we are children of God, then we are heirs—co-heirs with Christ—sharing both in his sufferings and in his glory. Glory, a central theme in Romans, is not only a future promise but a present reality. Through the Holy Spirit, believers already experience the “weight” of God’s presence: something tangible, warming, and restorative, like standing near a radiator on a cold day. This present glory sustains us now, while pointing us toward the greater fullness still to come.
Yet this life of glory is intertwined with groaning. The Spirit meets us in our weakness, even when words fail us, interceding through deep, wordless groans. This groaning reflects the tension of the Christian life: we have tasted God’s goodness, but we long for more. We ache over unanswered prayers, injustice, broken relationships, and unhealed wounds. Far from being a failure of faith, this groaning is itself a ministry of the Spirit, drawing us into deeper honesty and dependence on God.
Central to Paul’s message is a sweeping vision of God’s saving work: those God foreknew, he predestined; those he predestined, he called; those he called, he justified; and those he justified, he glorified. These words describe the depth of God’s love and initiative. God knew us fully before we were born, chose us by grace, personally called us by name, and set us on a path of transformation into the likeness of Jesus. This truth dismantles the fear that we might disappoint God—he already knew what he was getting, and still chose us.
As we look ahead, the invitation is clear. This is a season to own the truths of the gospel until they are written on our hearts, to groan honestly with the Spirit over what is not yet whole, and to live increasingly marked by glory. As we do, we become people who carry the presence of Jesus into every space we enter—so that others might glimpse God’s glory through us.