Untitled Sermon (6)

Opener: So I’d like to start by telling you guys a little bit about myself, and how I get to speak to all of y’all today. My name is Garrett Johnson, I grew up coming to church here with my family, and I graduated from Hunt High School in 2020. After High School, I went to college at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD where I graduated last year. The Naval Academy is a military style college- we wear uniforms and participate in different military training while also taking college courses and working towards our bachelor's degree. It was a lot of fun, or I should say it got a lot better as I went along. As a brand new freshman, you’ve got a lot to learn and a lot of rules to follow, but by the time you make it to your senior year, you’ve grown into a leader who is prepared to lead out in the big Navy. I am so grateful for my four years there, most importantly, the tough challenges and unexpected trials helped me to grow in my faith in ways I didn't know were possible. During my Sophomore year Christmas break at the beginning of 2022, I met with Pastor Rusty for the first time, as I had been struggling in my walk with the Lord. We started meeting weekly, and when I headed back up to school, we would continue to meet through a zoom call on our computers at 0530 on Wednesday mornings! My words could never express enough the gratitude I have for how Pastor Rusty has poured into me time again. He has always been very patient with me. It didn’t matter if I had completed no HEAR journals, if I was running late to the meetings or had slept through my early morning alarm. He was always present, enthusiastic and ready to pour into me.. He has taught me the value and importance of discipleship, I know without a doubt that my faith would not be where it is today without him. Recently, Pastor Rusty has been working with me on how to better study the Bible, and teach it to other guys in Bible studies I lead. When I told Pastor Rusty I would be coming into town for a few weeks, he kindly offered to let me speak to you all. He told me to bring my A-game, and warned me that this is a tough crown

Subject: So tonight I am going to be talking to you about God’s guaranteed love and we will discuss how we should respond to this unbelievable promise which has been secured for us by Jesus.

Intro/ Attention Grabber: I want to discuss this with you tonight, because I myself have doubted God’s love in the past year of my life. During this last year, I’ve had three surgeries, and I’ve experienced a lot of pain and doubt with what my military career might look like. I felt like I was doing all the “right things.” Daily quiet time, time spent in prayer, discipling younger guys around me, but pain and suffering seemed to be the only results of my hard work for the kingdom.” I often struggled with this question: Has God’s love disappeared from my life? 

Tonight we are going to read through Romans 8:31-39. We will discuss the promises of God, the provision of God, and how God’s love always prevails.

** PLEASE TURN WITH ME NOW**

** READ THE TEXT **

Context: Paul has come to a climax point here in these verses in Chapter 8. In the previous 3 chapters, Paul has been describing the blessings that come to those who are saved through Jesus Christ. V.31-39 are here to serve as the “End all be all” where no room is left for doubt or despair for the born-again-believer. 

Point 1: Look with me now at verses 31-32 where Paul explains the promises of God.

V.31-32 “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

Explain: As I mentioned previously, we are at the peak of this salvation exposition by Paul in the book of Romans. Let's look at the first part of V.31. “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?” What “Wonderful things” is Paul referencing? At this point it is fair to say that Paul is referencing all of the things promised to the Believer which he has summarized in Chapters 5/6/7. Let's take a closer look at chapter 5. Here, Paul describes all of the blessings that come to the believer as a result of justification. 

Here are a few: The ability to rejoice through trials (V.3). The Confident hope which comes from our salvation (V.4). The Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts (V.5). Christ serving as our propitiation while we were “Utterly helpless” (V.6). Freedom from eternal condemnation (V.9). By Jesus’ blood, we have been saved from the eternity in Hell we rightfully deserved. 

Next Paul asks the reader “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Now, by no means is Paul saying no one will be against us. Paul knows well enough from his own experience that followers of Christ will undoubtedly face persecution, hardship, and loss. But despite the temporary struggles the believer faces here on Earth, the answer to this question remains the same: Nobody and no thing can ultimately harm, or stand in the way of the one God is for. 

Paul continues "Since God did not Spare even his own son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

This undoubtedly parallels the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. We know how the story plays out, God stops Abraham right before he sacrifices Isaac. And because Abraham had not withheld that which was of the most value to him- his only Son Isaac, God blessed him with everything else that he could be blessed with. 

So if God the Father has not withheld from us his most beloved and prized possession, his perfect son Jesus, then it would be illogical to think the Father would not also give us everything else necessary to bring our salvation to completion..

Application: So what you might ask? This scripture is encouraging, it gives me confidence, and makes me happy to be a believer. When I wake up after a full night's sleep, and open up my bible in my warm house with a full belly, it is easy for me to believe these things. I believe every word of it, and I’m motivated to take on the day, confident in the fact that God is for me. But the second I walk out the door whoosh it’s out of my head. I’ve begun facing the day, dealing with a whole slew of things. Why does this happen? Because our identity is not secure in Christ alone. We’ve placed our identity in wealth, in marriage, in our own abilities, in the state of our Country. When we do this we forget about all of the wonderful things we’ve been promised. We forget that these challenges are of no comparison to the Love God has for us.

Illustrate: My identity was rooted deep in becoming this great warrior. I wanted to be able to lift a lot of weight, to be able to run fast, swim fast, and be down right unbreakable. I wanted to be a good shooter, a good fighter, and a good leader. This is what it looked like [Show Pictures]. It was awesome, I was waking up early to workout, and going to the range to shoot after school. Although these are not bad things to aspire for, they distracted me from finding my identity in Christ alone. Going into my senior year, my body began breaking down. I was experiencing pain in a lot of different places, and my lifestyle disappeared right before me. I was no longer able to move and train like I used to, and I quickly spiraled down this emotional dark hole. This is what I looked like: After these surgeries in the past year, I’ve learned about the dangers of misplacing my identity and neglecting the promises we receive as Christians. 

When we place our identity elsewhere we are easily swayed by our circumstances and emotions: Our identity is not secure at all. We must find our identity in the security of God’s love for us.

Point 2: Lets look now to V.35-36 where Paul explains the provision of God.

”Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one- for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one- for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

Explain/Illustrate: 

Let me try to paint the picture for you. Let's say you are driving this week and you are absolutely cruising. You’re running, lets say, 105 MPH. You get busted, the cop has you on radar and you’re done. Well the good news is that the county you got busted in just happens to be the county in which your dad is the judge. So you’re thinking that you’re golden. He loves you, he’ll let you off, everything will be fine. But just as you are entering the courthouse, you remember that your dad is a really good judge. He never punishes the innocent. He always punishes the guilty. He is a good and just judge. Now you’re a little nervous. You stand before your dad the judge and he says to you, “Son, this officer says you were going 50 mph over the speed limit. How do you plead?” You respond “guilty” knowing there is no way you can plead innocence after breaking the law this bad. He looks at you and says, “That will be $500 or you are going to jail. Guilty as charged.” And he bangs down the gavel.

Well you don’t have any money, so they take you away so you can start serving your time, when your prosecutor stands up and says, “Wait a minute, bring him back here.” Then he stands up, reaches into his coat pocket, takes out his checkbook and writes the court a check for $500, the exact amount of your fine. Then he offers it to you. Now as he stands there offering you the check, you have the choice to accept it, or reject it. 

Does this story sound familiar? We are the defendants, facing Satan, a prosecutor who is good at making us feel unworthy and guilty because of our sins. God, our Heavenly father is the perfect judge, he loves us, but must still maintain justice in his court. Our defense attorney is Jesus, the son of the Judge. Our sin has brought us to this court and we know that the punishment for our sin is eternity in Hell. But Jesus Christ, sent by his Father, steps up in the court and takes the punishment himself. He takes every one of our past, present, and future sins all onto himself, so that no accusations or condemnations will ever be able to stand and separate us from God.

But I’d argue that the most encouraging part of these two verses is the second half of V.34: “He [Jesus] is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Jesus’ seat at the right hand of God serves as the evidence of his atonement and that his sacrifice continues to cover us. He continues to secure for us the benefits which his death brought about for us believers. The promise of forgiveness for the believer is secure forever!

Counter Argument: So maybe you are sitting in here today finding these words hard to grasp. You feel far away from the Lord because of some past, or current sin, and it is really driving you away from your faith. That's exactly what the devil wants. He wants us to hold on to our mistakes, and to be weighed down by them so much that we drift further and further away from God.

Application: I would encourage you to think back to that courtroom setting I just described. I want you to try to picture yourself sitting at that counsel table. You stare across the courtroom and see your accuser, the Devil. He’s pointing his finger at you and speaks endlessly about all of the evil thoughts, actions, and words you’ve used in your life. He yells across the room “You are worthless! You’ve done much more harm than good. There is no saving you!” Then you turn your head and see Jesus. All of the noise coming from the accuser’s mouth is suddenly blotted out and you are reminded that no one, no thing, not even the devil himself can cause us to be separated from God’s love because of what Jesus did for us. And he is sitting in Heaven now at the right hand of God, still interceding for us.

Point 3: In verses 35-37 Paul describes how God’s love always prevails.

V.35-37“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble, or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say- “For your sake we are killed everyday; we are being slaughtered like sheep). No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” 

 Explain: Paul addresses a very important matter here. Does God no longer love me if I am facing hardships? Paul himself has encountered and struggled with each of the things listed as he has worked to spread the Gospel. By enduring these trials, Paul has been able to prove to himself and to others that these things are in fact unable to separate us from God’s love. 

Next, Paul quotes Psalm 44:22- “For your sake we are killed everyday; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” Pretty intense verse right? “Killed everyday… Slaughtered like sheep.” Paul is driving home the fact that there will always be opposition towards God’s people and God’s will in the world. Through this opposition the devil and his minions will attempt to convince the believer that he or she has been separated from the love of God because of the hardships they are facing. 

Illustrate: For me, this is very similar to my first few months at the Naval Academy. All first year students are called “plebes” a word representing a lowly being with little to no status or rank. All plebe’s begin their Academy career with “Plebe summer,” your two month bootcamp. Plebe summer is run by older students who will serve as your drill-instructors, they are given the title “detailers” and stand ready to fully indoctrinate you into the Naval Academy culture. [FLASH PICTURE]. They aren’t very cuddly. The detailers use a wide variety of tactics to teach discipline and correct mistakes. Running, push-ups, leg levers, marching, and making and remaking your bed over and over. Waking up early and spending long days running around to various activities under constant scrutiny… what is it all for? In the moment it seems like the detailers are just down-right mean and want to unleash on some innocent new guy at all times. But as time went on,  I started to realize that their true purpose was quite the opposite. These detailers didn’t hate me at all. They really loved me. They understood that one day I may face the challenges of combat, or have to make decisions with lives-at-risk, and they knew that these trials now, were better preparing me for the ones to come. If they truly loved me, they would make me miserable and restless, so that I could perform under pressure down the line. But there were certainly times each day that I doubted the heart posture of my detailers. Had they abandoned their desire to see me grow and prosper because they were inflicting pain and hardship? 

Has God abandoned you, and withheld his love from you because you are experiencing something from the list Paul gave? Let's look at v.37 for the answer- “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.” 

Apply: Tonight I would encourage everyone to think about that challenge in your life that is currently causing you to question the existence of God’s love. Maybe you are also struggling with health problems, or some kind of family or work issue. Whatever it is, I would encourage you to really look at these verses and understand that there is no possible way we can ever be separated from God and his goodness in our lives. Even though you may wake up some days, and doubt this because of what lies in front of you, come back to these verses and be reminded of what we have been promised through the blood of our Messiah Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

To tie these things together, I’d like to tell you about the life of someone who truly lived these things out. Adam Brown grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas and served 12 years in our Military as a Navy SEAL. Before joining the military, Adam struggled with major drug abuse problems, and almost died on multiple occasions from heroin and cocaine. After being thrown in jail, Adam gave his life to Christ, and began to climb out of the deep hole of despair he had dug himself into. Eventually, Adam got married and he enlisted in the Navy with the goal of becoming a Navy SEAL. He would go on to achieve this goal, and to also do a number of other impressive things throughout his military service. At one point, during a training accident, Adam lost his dominant right eye completely. Shortly after this, while on deployment, Adam’s dominant right hand was completely crushed during a humvee accident. So think about that, his ability to function on his entire right side has been vastly reduced. After these injuries, while facing the possibility of being medically discharged, Adam was Miraculously admitted to try out for SEAL team 6- the most elite military unit in the world. Only 1% of all Navy SEALs aserve on team 6. Despite having one eye, and a reconstructed right hand, Adam re-taught himself how to shoot and operate left handed. Could y’all imagine having to all of sudden start writing with your non-dominant hand, or typing out a text on your phone with just your non-dominant hand. He would successfully pass the grueling selection process and was admitted into the world’s most lethal fighting force. 

Down the line, Adam was on his last mission before retiring from the Navy and settling into a more normal lifestyle with his wife and two young kids. Here is an excerpt from Adam’s biography about this specific mission. “Think of this mission like they infiltrated a hornet’s nest, which is way worse than just kickin it. The whole area was swarming with hard-core-taliban, so they snuck into that valley like it was the entrance to the nest, and they crept past all these hornets who were asleep and went straight for the queen. And then they kicked the queen right in the head, knowing the entire swarm was there on top of them and they still had to get out of the nest. Crazy thing is, these guys were ok with that.” During the mission, Adam spotted a shooter who was laying down effective fire on his teammates. He needed to get a grenade through a window in the compound in order to stop him. Heroically, Adam began scaling the building to put himself in a position to do this, when he was shot multiple times and killed.

–PAUSE–

Years earlier Adam had written a letter to his family during his first deployment. He wrote “I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this Earth because I know that no matter what, Nothing can take my spirit from me. … No matter what, my spirit is given to the Lord and I will finally be victorious.” How similar are these words to those we’ve just read?

Adam Brown knew that even death could not separate him from the love of God. Additionally, before this mission, Adam had formerly requested that if he was killed, he wanted a chaplain to share the gospel of Jesus Christ “Unhinged” with his teammates. And that is exactly what happened. Though Adam had been killed in combat, the gospel message was being spread to men whose hearts had been hardened by years of combat stress and loss, and many of Adam’s teammates accepted this message.

Adam’s identity was secure in what God had promised to us: He knew that God’s son Jesus had secured our eternity. Adam also understood that God has provided for us. While I am sure Satan did his best to accuse Adam of the sin he committed as a young man with a drug addiction. Adam understood that his defense attorney, Jesus, had paid the price for him. And lastly, Adam knew that no amount of hardship, pain, or even death itself could separate us from God’s love. From drugs, to injury, and all the way to his death, he knew “Overwhelming victory was his through Christ..” 

And if there is still any remaining doubt in this room, if there is anything still causing you to doubt God’s sovereignty in your life and the promise of his unwavering love, look with me to our last verses- 38 and 39. “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, Neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul expels everything, every single thing- there is nothing which can challenge the believers security in God’s love.

Thank you all so much for allowing me to speak to you tonight, would you please bow your heads with me?