Romans 8:35-39

Let’s Pray

Two weeks ago we looked at how God works all things for His glory and our good as Christians....those called...those who love God....our love is on display through our obedience and faith

Last week we dove into predestination

we looked at it from a Biblical perspective and I pray you spent time this past week in Bible study and prayer to see it more clearly and therefore seeing God more clearly.....that is really what Bible study and prayer and secret place time is all about.....getting to know God better and deeper which then deepens your faith and obedience and love for God

This week we look at the depth of God’s love for you!

The overall theme of today’s scripture is Nothing

Absolutely nothing can separate you from God’s love for you

God loves you more than you can ever imagine or understand as long as you are bound to this earthly, temporary, dying earthly body

this morning I want to pull 3 things from today’s scripture to look at and dive into this morning

1. God Matures You Through All Things

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Romans 8:35-36

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Romans 8:35–36 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

As you grow in your faith you grow in your understanding

Nothing is beyond God’s control and authority

He can start or stop

shorten or lengthen any situation

any circumstance

any situation

doesn't matter if it is good or bad

nothing is beyond Him

So that brings us to a question that many have and i have heard asked Does that mean that God produces evil

Psalm 92:15

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Psalm 92:15 “To shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

The Hebrew word here translated unrighteousness means evil, iniquity, sin, perverseness, unjust, wicked

God will never bring evil into your life because there is no evil in Him

there is no sin in Him

there is no perversion in Him

There is no unjustness or unrighteousness in Him

if you are trying to justify sin by saying God said it is okay you are foolish at best and blasphemous at worst

that logic never lines up with scripture and you must never allow yourself to be there

we

you

me

we all experience all kinds of things including evil because this world is broken and sinful and evil

we even as Christians have unsanctified flesh in our body and that brings temptation and evil into our lives if we give it power

God allows satan to rule this physical earth

Revelation tells us that this is for a while

a set amount of time and then satan will be chained and thrown into the bottomless pit for a 1000 years before the final battle ending evil for eternity

as you grow in Christian maturity you gain more and more understanding through the Holy Spirit

as a Christian you will experience all kinds of things

Tribulation

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Greek pressure, afflicted, anguish, burdened, persecution, trouble

All intentional by the way

tribulation is always intentional

this world

satan

spiritual forces being allowed to rule are all intentionally pressuring you to walk away from Christ and His great love for you

they are intentionally afflicting you with all sorts of afflictions

they are intentionally burdening you with all sorts of burdens

they are intentionally bringing trouble into your life so you focus on it and not God

All intentional attacks meaning you must intentionally put on the armor of God daily so He can defend you or you will always fail and give in to the enemy

You prepare and plan for tribulation by being in God’s Word and knowing who HE is

Distress

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Greek....narrowness of room, anguish, feel like the walls are closing in

great definition of distress

so many of us let distress define our lives

we focus on the anguish and that focus then allows it to truly feel like the walls are closing in

however that cannot separate us from Gods love

we choose to separate when we focus on the physical

the situations and circumstances that make it feel like the walls are closing in

if we stand on scripture and know who God is and how much He loves us those other things fade away because if He loves us the way we find He does in His Word we then know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is in it and working it for His glory and our good despite what we feel and see in the physical

I mentioned last week about our vacation and how we missed two major pieces in Vickie and Melody

Leading up to vacation there was much distress

my Bride felt caught between a rock and a hard place

no way to satisfy or please everyone

it was hard

narrowness of room

no wiggle room for sure

However God provided and vacation was wonderful and Melody and Vickie grew in the Lord and closer together as mother and daughter

we still faced distress but God worked it for His glory and our good

Persecution

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Greek...persecution...Websters 1828 defines persecution as inflicting pain, punishment, death upon others unjustly particularly for adhering to a religious creed or mode of worship

Inflicting pain

punishment

death because you are a Christian

This world hates Jesus

this world killed Jesus

if you are a Christian it hates you and wants to kill you because of Jesus

Famine

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Greek scarcity of food, hunger

Nakedness

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Greek nudity

Broke

no food

no clothes

absolutely destitute

have nothing....not even clothes

horrible desperate situation

terrible situation

a situation maybe some of you have faced

a situation we may all face if things continue as they are

Peril

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Greek danger

Sword

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Greek sword, war, violence

In Dearborn Michigan there is a movement by muslims to institute Shira law...their law....they hate Christians and kill Christians under Shira law....a time is coming where this will be at out doorstep...are you ready

none of these are good

none of these are pleasant

however because God loves you

you are not alone

He is with you

He also will work for His glory and your good

you have to understand the process

James 1:2-4

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James 1:2–4 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

James 1:12

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James 1:12 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

God grows you in the pain

He grows you in the tribulation

in the distress

in the persecution

in the famine

in the nakedness

in the peril

in the violence

He is with you

He grows you if you stand on scripture

if you run to the world you will be further from God because He is not your rock

the question is never will these things happen but when they happen will you turn to rest in God as He leads you through them?????

2. More Than Conquerors

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Romans 8:37

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Romans 8:37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Many of you live your lives as those who have been conquered instead of conquerors

as Christians you live and do from freedom

from victory because in Jesus you have victory

John 16:33

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John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus has overcome the world

the world has zero power in your life as a Christian yet you cower and run for cover and live in anxiety and worry and fear about the things of the world

you let the conquered become the conqueror

you are the conqueror through Jesus

STAND ON SCRIPTURE

The things you face are real

the danger is real

the tribulation is real

the persecution is real

death is real

they are real but they have no power

Jesus has defeated them all

you will feel them but in that moment you have a choice

stand on scripture and be a conqueror

or

stand on emotions and feelings and circumstances and situations and be conquered

God loves you so much He puts Himself in you as a Christian in the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit then leads you

guides you

comforts you

encourages you

convicts you

speaks Truth

John 16:13

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John 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”

Holy Spirit speaks what He hears from God

He will show you things to come

God doesn’t want you unprepared or blindsided by evil

He tells you the questions is are you showing up to the briefings

the president of a company or even the USA will get constant briefings

they are getting information so they can make decisions

that information is trying to predict what is to come

if the president never showed up to any of the briefings and then just made random decisions chaos would follow

yet God wants to brief you every single morning....in fact all day every day if you will listen but we are told to have a secret time with Him in worship and prayer and Bible study everyday where He can brief you through the Holy Spirit on what is to come so you can be prepared and make decisions in God’s will not yours

when you don’t show up and then chaos surrounds you that is on you bro..........you went out on your own and are paying the price for it

God sent Jesus not just to save you but to give you victory

Live in that victory

I Corinthians 15:57

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1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God gives you victory through Jesus

Do you see it

do you get it

stop living like you are fighting for victory and start living from victory

this world has nothing on you spiritually all it can do is get you to focus on physical and give up victory because you are focusing on the wrong things

when you face tribulations

distress

persecution

famine

nakedness

peril

violence

put this next scripture on your front sight

focus on it

I John 5:4

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1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

born of God

saved

Christian

if that is you you have already overcometh the world because of Jesus

STAND ON THAT TRUTH

3. No Separation From God’s Love

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Romans 8:38-39

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Romans 8:38–39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There is nothing left off of this list

NOTHING

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

can separate you from God’s Love

the same love that sent Jesus to become flesh

to be rejected by the very people He came to save

to live a perfect holy life and be beaten beyond recognition

to be whipped

to be spat upon

to have a crown of thorns shoved into His skull

to become your sin my sin the sin of the whole world

to die for that sin

why because God loves you

If you would not stop at anything to offer you salvation why in the world would He stop after you are saved

He paid much too high a price to ignore you once you are saved

John 10:25-30

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John 10:25–30 “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

Those who are saved

Jesus’ sheep

they know His voice because they talk to each other all day every day

Christians will never perish because Jesus gives them eternal life

neither can anyone pluck them out of His hand

you are spiritually secure and safe and untouchable

why in the world do you live scared

why do you live with anxiety and worry and depression

you are safe if you are saved

when you feel the attacks of the world you just laugh and go on because they have no power over you

you get scared

you get fearful

you have anxiety

you have worry

you have depression when you focus on the attack and not the one defending you from the attack

John 6:37-39

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John 6:37–39 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

You are good spiritually

the problem is you may know that Truth but you refuse to live that Truth

you allow the circumstances

situation

pain

anguish

distress

tribulation

persecution

famine

nakedness

peril

violence

define who you are because you focus on them and not on Jesus

you focus on the situation

you focus on the things of the world and not on Jesus and what He has told you so that you may have peace

Here is where the rubber meets the road

no matter what you are experiencing or going through....the pain is real the situation is real not trying to take that away because it is there and it is real

but no matter what you are experiencing or going through you have a choice

life from victory and experience Jesus and His peace that passeth all understanding

or

life in defeat and be destroyed by the enemy

Here is your choice

John 10:10

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John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

death or life abundantly

not abundantly in wealth or power or health or worldly physical things

but life abundantly in the fact you know you are in Jesus hand and nothing can pluck you from it

you have such a deep relationship with Jesus that you completely trust Him

He is your first middle and last

you turn to no other person

no other place

no other thing

you only turn to Him....He may lead you to a person to minster to you

He may lead you to a place to minister to you

He may lead you to a thing to minister to you

but if you turn to those things instead of turning to Jesus you are choosing death not life abundantly

God loves you so much nothing can separate you from that love

Isn’t it time you walked in faith this morning and told all that is worrying you, causing you anxiety and pain to get behind you because you are more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ

your time is now!