More Than Conquerors
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35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
OPEN IN PRAYER......
May 7, 2005.
Corrales and Castillo trade punches for nine brutal rounds in Las Vegas.
Then round ten comes.
Castillo drops him with a left hook.
Corrales barely gets up.
Seconds later, Castillo drops him again.
The referee even takes a point away for CORRALES spitting out his mouthpiece to buy time.
He's about to lose that round ten to six.
One more punch, and it's over.
And then, out of nowhere,
Corrales lands a punch Castillo later called...
"a perfect right hand,"
follows it with a left hook,
and Castillo's legs give out.
Referee jumps in.
Fight IS over
WOW......I WATCHED THE VIDEO OF THIS FIGHT AND ALL I COULD SEE IS US AND SATAN GOING AT IT.
OH COME ON.....ANYODY ELSE FEEL THAT WAY?
ROUND AFTER ROUND
BLOW AFTER BLOW AND….
WHAT, AT TIMES SEEMS TO BE THE END
ACORDING TO HOW THE FIGHT IS GOING CURRENTLY
DEFEATS SEEMS INEVITABLE
BUT THEN GOD.....
HE SHOWS UP AND GIVES US THE NEEDED STRENGTH TO FINISH STRONG
HE BREATHES LIFE BACK INTO US
AND THE HOLY SPIRIT BEGINS TO WHISPER....
YOU GOT THIS....GET UP....KEEP FIGHTING
DON’T QUIT....YOUR FAMILY IS COUNTING ON YOU
YOUR KIDS ARE WATCHING YOU
DON’T JUST SIT....YOU GOTTA GET UP
OH MY LORD....CAN SOMEBODY THANK GOD FOR HIS STRENGTH
Knocked down twice.
One punch from finished.
And he still walked out the champion.
That's exactly where Paul lands us this morning.
WE’VE TAKEN Six weeks TO WALK through Romans 8 —
WE WENT FROM HEARING THE VERDICT...TO
GOING "From Slaves to Sons,"
THEN "TAKLING ABOUT HOW OUR PAIN HAS A DUE DATE"
AND THEN....THE PICTURE ON THE BOX
TALKING ABOUT HOW YOUR LIFE MY NOT LOOK LIKE THE PICTURE ON THE PUZZLE BOX
IT MAY LOOK A MESS
AND THERE MAY BE SOME PIECES MISSING RIGHT NOW
BUT GOD STILL HAS A PLAN,
HE STILL HAS YOUR PICTURE
HE IS STILL IN CONTROL...
WE GOTTA TRUST HIM
THEN A COUPLE WEEKS AGO WE TALKED ABOUT HOW...
THERE IS....."No STONES LEFT TO THROW" —
SOME OF US NEED TO TAKE OFF OUR FILTHY CLOTHES
AND INSTEAD PUT ON THE FINE GARMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT JESUS HAS LAYED OUT FOR US
TODAY we come to the last round.
And Paul doesn't end this chapter with a pep talk.
He ends it with a DECLARATION OF VICTORY.
Look at verse 35 AGAIN:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
WHAT I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND IS THIS...
Paul didn't pull that list out of the air.
That's not a hypothetical checklist.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11 and you'll find Paul's actual resume:
Every single word in Romans 8:35 is something Paul had already lived through by the time he wrote it.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
This isn't a man who...
never got hit telling you not to worry about getting hit.
This is a man writing from inside the list,
HE IS telling you THAT the list doesn't win.
Say THIS with me —
he got beaten, and separation didn't win.
He got shipwrecked, and separation didn't win.
He went hungry, cold, and naked,
and separation still didn't win.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
Whatever you want to add to THIS list from your own life. — DO IT
write your name in —
AND I PROMISE...separation. Still. DOES. Not. Win.
Paul IS not the only one who could testify to that.
Job lost his flocks, his servants, and all ten of his children in a single day —
JOB still said,
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15).
A man with nothing left,
holding onto everything that matters.
15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
That matters, church.
Because the question was never going to be
"will hard things happen to me."
They will.
LISTEN TO ME.....
Trouble is not evidence that God stepped away.
The question Paul IS actually asking is a completely different question:
can any of it separate you from what God feels about you?
And he's about to answer that with everything he's got.
If you want to see Romans 8:35 walk around on two legs, go to Daniel chapter 3.
WE SEE DANIEL.....SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABEDNEGO
The Fire Had No Power to Separate Them
The Fire Had No Power to Separate Them
King Nebuchadnezzar builds a gold statue ninety feet tall
HE orders the whole kingdom to bow to it.
Three men refuse — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Listen to what they say to the king's face:
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
"But even if He does not."
They answered the question of whether trouble could separate them from God...
before they even knew how the story would end.
That's a decision that stands...
whether the miracle shows up or not.
So the king heats the furnace seven times hotter
IN FACT......IT WAS so hot it kills the soldiers who throw the three men in
But then the king jumps up and asks his advisors,
"Didn't we tie up three men and throw them in?"
"True, O king," they answer.
And he says, "Look!
I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed" —
and the fourth one, he says, "THE FOURTH IS LIKE THE SON OF GOD”
Church, did you catch that?
God didn't keep them from the fire.
He got in it with them.
The furnace didn't lose its power to burn —
it just couldn't touch what mattered,
because they weren't in there alone.
When they walked out,
"the fire had not harmed their bodies,
nor was a hair of their heads singed;
their robes were not scorched,
and there was no smell of fire on them"
Not even the smell of smoke stuck to them.
LOOK AT YOUR NEIGHBOR AND TELL THEM...
THE FIRE COULDN’T TOUCH WHAT MATTERED
WATCH THIS....He Quotes the Losing Side of the Psalm
WATCH THIS....He Quotes the Losing Side of the Psalm
Verse 36:
36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
That's a quote from Psalm 44.
The verse is right before it say, LOOK AT IT
"though we had not forgotten you... our feet had not strayed from your path... but you crushed us" (Psalm 44:17-22).
17 All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant. 18 Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. 19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; you covered us over with deep darkness. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? 22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
That's not sin bringing consequences —
that's faithful people getting flattened anyway, and not understanding why.
Here's what ought to stop you cold.
Paul had his pick of any triumphant verse in the Old Testament.
Instead — right in the middle of his greatest declaration of unshakable love —
he reaches for the psalm of people who feel like....... sheep led to slaughter.
Why?
UNDERSTAND THIS....
Because Paul refuses to let you think...
you have to stop hurting
before you're allowed to be victorious.
OH MY LORD....HELP US....
He puts the pain and the triumph in the same sentence.
Verse 36, you're the sheep.
Verse 37, you're more than a conqueror.
Same paragraph.
Same person.
Same moment.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
You don't have to pretend the hard season didn't happen to also be walking in the victory.
You can still be bleeding from the fight in verse 36
and be declared the winner in verse 37 —
because the win was never based on how the fight looked.
It was based on who's holding you through it.
THIS brings us to the word Paul actually uses for that win — and it's not a normal word.
IT’S A Word Paul Had to Invent
IT’S A Word Paul Had to Invent
Verse 37:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
"More than conquerors"
THIS is one word in the original Greek: hypernikōmen —
built from hyper (beyond, over) and nikaō (to conquer, the root behind the name "Nike").
This exact word shows up nowhere else in the entire New Testament.
Paul used it once,
right here,
and never again
Paul had access to every word for victory in the Greek language,
and none of them were sufficient.
He had to build a bigger word,
because what happened at the cross wasn't an ordinary win.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
IT’S NOT JUST CONQUEROR
It's "conqueror" with the roof blown off.
Not conqueror. Not overcomer.
Hyper-conqueror —
TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR...
hyper-conqueror.
OH MY LORD.....
A conqueror wins the battle.
A hyper-conqueror wins SOOOOO completely
THAT THERE IS no rematch,
no appeal.
And look what Paul credits it to —
not our strength,
not our grip.
HE SAID....."Through him who loved us."
CHURCH
The win belongs to the Love that carried you,
not the performance you put on while it did.
WILL SOMEBODY GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE.....
BECAUSE....that win is that BIG,
Paul's not done —
he's about to close every last door ANYBODY could try to sneak an exception through.
WRITE THIS DOWN.....
Every Loophole....Closed
Every Loophole....Closed
Verses 38-39:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Read that list slowly and notice what Paul's actually doing.
He names time —
present, future.
He names the spiritual realm —
angels, demons, powers.
He names space —
height, depth.
And then, in case you were WONDERING
PASTOR CHRIS.... "what about my situation,"
he adds one final clause...
built to swallow every remaining exception:
HE SAYS....."nor anything else in all creation."
That's not poetry for poetry's sake.
That's a man closing every loophole a good lawyer could find —
every category of existence named and ruled out,
then sealed shut.
There is no fine print.
THERE IS No asterisk with your circumstance printed underneath it.
OH MY LORD.....
Not death.
Not life.
Not angels.
Not demons.
Not the present.
Not the future.
Not any power.
Not height.
Not depth.
And in case you thought your situation was the exception —
not anything else, in all creation.
Did you hear that?
Not....Anything....Else.
GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE.....
That's why the wisdom writer, centuries earlier,
described this exact kind of love this way:
"love is as strong as death...
many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away"
6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Scripture keeps landing on this same conclusion:
there is no flood big enough,
no depth deep enough,
no future dark enough to out-last this love.
....WORSHIP TEAM JOIN ME.....
God's Word doesn't just say it — it shows it.
Take "depth." JONAH CHAPTER 2 SAYS...
Jonah goes down into the belly of a fish,
down to what he calls....
"the roots of the mountains,"
down to a place he says....
"barred me in...forever" —
and he still prays,
and God still hears him and brings his life up from the pit.
take "death" itself.
As the crowd rushed at Stephen with stones in hand, ACTS 7 says...
he looked up and saw heaven open, and Jesus standing to receive him .
Not even death could separate him from that love —
it just walked him straight into it.
from Scripture proving it — to somebody a lot closer to our own time who proved it too.
LISTEN TO THIS MODERN VOICE THAT SAYS THE SAME THING
LISTEN TO THIS MODERN VOICE THAT SAYS THE SAME THING
You don't have to go back to the Bible to find this tested.
Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück,
a Nazi concentration camp, for hiding Jewish families in their home during World War II.
Betsie never made it out.
But before she died, she told Corrie:
"We must tell people what we have learned here — that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still" (Wikipedia, Corrie ten Boom).
THIS WAS Said by a woman standing at the bottom of one of the darkest pits history ever dug.
Corrie carried that sentence to over sixty countries for the rest of her life
If Romans 8 held up inside a concentration camp,
THEN church, it will hold up wherever you're standing this morning.
CONCLUSION: The Whole Series, in One Breath
CONCLUSION: The Whole Series, in One Breath
We didn't get here by accident.
Every week built to this one.
nothing in all creation,
nothing in time,
nothing in the spirit realm,
at any depth,
can separate you from THE LOVE OF CHRIST.
Three men walked into a furnace bound
and walked out not even smelling like smoke,
because Somebody got in the fire with them.
That's not just their story.
That's yours.
That's not six separate messages —
it's one sentence God's been saying for six weeks:
you are held, and nothing can undo it.
The fight might still be swinging in your life this morning.
Some of you are still bleeding a little.
But the scorecards were already settled at the cross.
You're not fighting to win this.
You're fighting from inside a win that's already yours.
....STAND TO YOUR FEET.....
this morning.....IF you've been carrying trouble AND FEELING LIKE GOD HAS LET GO — I WANT YOU TO TO COME TODAY.....
GOD HAS NOT ABANDONED YOU...
HE IS STILL HERE
HE IS STILL FOR YOU AND NOT AGAINST YOU
SOME OF you need to hear it out loud:
nothing you're walking through gets the final word over your life.
His love does.
If YOUR HERE AND you're ready to stop fighting like the outcome's still uncertain —
THIS IS FOR YOU.....come AND receive what's already true.
YOU ARE MORE THAN A CONQUEROR THROUGH CHRIST
NOTHING CAN SEPERATE YOU FROM HIS LOVE
THESE ALTARS ARE OPEN....WOULD YOU COME TODAY SEEK HIS FACE
CLOSING PRAYER
CLOSING PRAYER
HEAVENLY Father, WE thank You FOR YOUR LOVE THAT HAS THE final word before the fight even starts.
LORD, For everyone carrying trouble this morning
WOULD YOU remind them
THAT it was never bigger than You.
THAT YOU ARE IN CONTROL
THAT YOU ARE GREATER THAN ANY STORM WE FACE
FATHER....For everyone HERE who HAS never said yes to this love —
let today be the day.
FATHER....Seal in OUR HEARTS what Your Word just declared:
nothing in death,
nothing in life,
nothing in all creation can separate us from You.
FATHER WE THANK YOU FOR THAT....
EVEN THOUGH WE DON’T DESERVE IT
WE THANK YOU
WE PRAISE YOU
WE GIVE YOU ALL THE GLORY AND HONOR
In Jesus' name WE PRAY......amen.
