ROMANS 8 PT 4

LAST WEEK

We looked at a few powerful truths in

Truths that speak to what the Christian will experience throughout their journey following Jesus.

What did we conclude?

We know that all things work for good to those who love God and those who are called according to His Purpose.

For the Jesus follower, not all will be good, but everything will work for the good of your calling and your purpose

Everything will work toward the greater good of the Kingdom.

These truths should change our perspective within the trials of life

They should change the way we see life itself

In whatever season of life you may be in

God is working all things for the Good of your person, and for His Glory.

THIS WEEK

We will look to finish Chapter 8 with more life changing truths

Truths that will continue to change us

Truths that will set us free

Truths that can change everything about our journey with Jesus

TURN TO

ROMANS 8:31-39

Romans 8:31–39 NKJV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PRAY

Romans 8:31 NKJV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

IF ALL OF THIS IS TRUE

IF WHAT PAUL IS SAYING IS BIBLICAL

THEN GOD IS FOR US

AND IF HE IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?

Many of us would love to use this text in competition

Many of us like to use this along with a popular Phillipians text, when we are in competition

It is a very encouraging verse

These are powerful truths

Because of our competitive culture, this is common to us

And Because of our competitive culture, it is very easy to do this

But I believe Paul isn’t talking about NJB or AYSO or Little League

I BELIEVE THIS IS SPEAKING OF A BATTLE THAT MOST PEOPLE DO NOT ENGAGE IN

THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE OF THE SOUL

THE BATTLE THAT WE FIGHT FOR IN PRIVATE AND IN PRAYER

IT IS THE BATTLE WITHIN

Sometimes what we don’t realize is that we are our greatest enemies

Our flesh hinders us from experiencing all that God has for us

Sometimes when it comes to our vices, we don’t even put up a fight

We leave the armor in the closet

We don’t feel prepared for battle

Therefore We don’t go to battle

Low-key, we want the flesh to win.

NOW LET’S READ IT AGAIN . . .

IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US

IF GOD WILLS HOLINESS

IF GOD WILLS SANCTIFICATION

IF GOD WILLS VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING

Who can be against us?

Us

Satan?

Demons?

Our Past?

Our Vices?

Our Habits?

Our Mentality?

US?

IF WE TAP INTO THIS POWER

IF WE WOULD LIVE INTO THESE TRUTHS

THOUGH WE MAY STILL BE RIDDLED WITH FEAR,

THE COUNTER WEIGHT TO THAT, IS THIS VERSE.

IF WE STRUGGLE WITH ANXIETY

THESE TRUTHS CAN HELP TREMENDOUSLY

They can give us hope in areas where hope was thought to be extinct.

WE NEED TO LEARN TO FIGHT FOR WHAT GOD WANT’S TO DO IN OUR LIVES

AND THEN WE COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULT THAT WE GOT

WE NEED TO LEARN TO FIGHT FOR GOD’S WILL

WHAT WE KNOW IS THIS

THE WILL OF GOD HAS AN ENEMY CALLED “THE FLESH”

The Flesh is constantly at war with what the Spirit of God wants to accomplish.

The Flesh is only concerned with what keeps you from being challenged in your faith.

Constantly desiring comfort

Constantly steering us away from the growth that God desires, and therefore causing us to stay stagnant in our faith.

Constantly fearful of what could happen if we actually confronted our poor spiritual habits.

WE NEED TO LEARN TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH

CHURCH WE NEED TO LEARN TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH

TO ACTIVELY WALK IN THE SPIRIT

TO BALANCE THE CONSTANT FLESHLY DESIRES WITH THE GOOD THAT GOD WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH

THAT WE WOULD RECEIVE ALL THAT GOD HAS FOR US.

THAT WE WOULD RECEIVE ALL THAT GOD HAS FOR US.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH JESUS

IF WE BEGIN THERE

ROMANS 8:

BECAUSE HE WANTS TO SHOW US HE IS GOOD

WE WILL EXPERIENCE THE POURING OUT OF ALL THINGS GOOD

I

CHECK OUT VERSE 32

Romans 8:32 NKJV

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Romans 8:32 NKJV

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

IF GOD DIDN’T SPARE HIS OWN SON

BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL

HOW SHALL HE NOT, WITH HIM, ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS

There is so much that God wants to give us

Things that we might not even be praying for

Things we might have given up on

Things that will bless our socks off

But here is the thing

Sometimes, we are not ready to receive what God is trying to give us . . .

What do I mean?

We are not ready

We wouldn’t know what to do with it

We wouldn’t steward the gift correctly

Because we don’t steward what we have now correctly.

How do I know?

THINK ABOUT IT

What are we currently doing with our time?

What are we currently investing in?

Personally

Financially

Etc

If we are coasting through life, unchallenged in our faith

Maybe we aren’t really walking by faith

What we have done, is learned to walk by sight.

What we have, what we see, what is normal, has become our sustenance because we can control it

All while God is trying to do something extravagant that is beyond what you can control.

Over and over in scripture we see God desiring to do something new

Not independent of people, but through people and for His People

Isaiah 43:18–21 NKJV

18 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen. 21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.

Even within the Salvation Story, He creates something new

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Maybe the reason why we haven’t experienced breakthrough is because we have given up on what God wants to do.

Maybe we have given up on people.

We have given up on society.

We have given up on the Gospel

I read an article this week about how Millennials have left the church and refocused their worship to crystals and drugs.

As funny as it sounds, people believe this stuff

It was an LA Times article.

Pastors have even gone as far as mocking this group of people

So I went on Instagram and shared my thoughts on social

So many people responded

Parents with kids going to college

Parents with kids who have gone astray

Thanking me for not giving up on them

Why do we give up on people, when God does not?

This Article revealed to me that people who agree with the LA TIMES, and everyone else who has counted this group out, don’t really know the power of the gospel.

They don’t know who Jesus is

They don’t know that His arm is not short that He cannot save, nor His ear deaf that He cannot hear

They don’t know that crystals can’t come close to doing what Jesus can do

They don’t know that crystals were created to describe, in Human terms, the glory of HEAVEN, and yet they don’t even scratch the surface

Church, we need to remember why we have been ransomed

Romans 8:33-

We need to remember that we were just as lost as “Them” over there

If God was able to save us, He can save them

He can take them and make all things new in their lives

He can do a new work in them

The thing is, we forget about our position, our standing, our identity in Christ

Create them anew

We forget that

Give them gifts that glorify Him

JESUS IS THE START

Romans 8:33-

FROM THERE FLOWS ALL KINDS OF BLESSINGS

FROM HIS VICTORY OVER SIN, DEATH, AND DEVIL FLOWS ALL KINDS OF VICTORY

FROM GIVING UP HIS ONLY SON, HE WAS ABLE TO GAIN ALL OF CHRISTENDOM

IF WE WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE GOOD OF GOD, IT IS GOING TO COST US THE BAD IN OURSELVES.

WHEN WE SUPPRESS THE WORK OF THE FLESH, NOTHING WILL BE ABLE TO STAND AGAINST US.

JUST LIKE JESUS . . .

WE WILL BE ABLE TO STAND AGAINST THE WHISPERS OF SATAN

WE WILL BE ABLE TO PROVE SATAN WRONG

WE WILL BE ABLE TO PRESS INTO THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

BE CHANGED, TRANSFORMED BY THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

ABLE TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT.

WHEN WE DO THIS

PEOPLE WONT LIKE IT

YOU MIGHT LOSE YOUR FRIENDS

YOU MIGHT NOT BE LIKED WITHIN YOUR FAMILY

YOUR LIFE WILL BE UNDER A MICROSCOPE

THEIR WILL BE CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST YOU.

Romans 8:33–37 NKJV

33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:33–35 NLT

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 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. 35 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?

CHURCH, SOMETIMES WE BELIEVE THE LIES

WE BELIEVE WHAT SATAN WHISPERS INTO OUR LIVES

WE BELIEVE THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN

WE MUST LEARN TO PREACH TO OURSELVES THE TRUTHS OF VERSE 33-35

If we are Christ’s, who dare accuse us of our faults

No one

For we have a right standing before God in Christ

If Christ has died for us, who dare condemn us?

No one, for Christ has risen from the dead.

Forever living to make intercession for us

Because of these two truths

We can rest assured that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love

Not tribulation

Not distress

Not persecution

Not famine

Not nakedness

Not peril

Not sword

IN ALL OF THESE THINGS, WE CAN REST ASSURED THAT GOD WILL BE WITH US

THAT HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US

THAT HIS PROMISES ARE YES AND AMEN, EVEN IN THE STORMS

THAT THOUGH WE ARE AS DEAD MEN + WOMEN

WE ARE FOREVER SEEN AS MORE THAN CONQUERORS IN CHRIST

ROMANS 8:

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER, WE ARE CONQUERORS OF THE GRAVE

COME WHAT MAY, IN CHRIST WE REMAIN VICTORIOUS OVER OUR GREATEST ENEMY

PAUL WASN’T JUST SAYING THIS BECAUSE IT SOUNDED GOOD

HE WAS SAYING IT FROM EXPERIENCE

2 Corinthians 11:25 NKJV

25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;

THOUGH HE HAD EXPERIENCED ALL OF THIS

CHECK OUT HIS RESPONSE

Romans 8:38–39 NKJV

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

A guilty feeling without expectation of a pardon

HE WAS PERSUADED

HE WAS CONVINCED

We are listening to Satan more than God

HE WAS RESTING ASSURED OF THE FACT

THAT NOTHING

NEITHER LIFE NOR DEATH

NOR ANGELS NOR PRINCIPALITIES

NOR POWERS

NOR THINGS PRESENT OR THINGS TO COME

NOR HEIGHT NOR DEPTH

NOR ANY CREATED THING

IS ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD

I HAVE FOUND THAT DURING THESE TIMES, GOD’S LOVE IS MORE EVIDENT TO ME

DURING TRIALS, I AM MORE AWARE OF HOW MUCH GOD LOVES ME

BECAUSE OF MY STANDING IN CHRIST, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE ME FROM THE LOVE WHICH GOD HAS FOR ME.

WHEN WE FEEL CONVICTED

The guilty feeling of one whose misrepresented the Lord

We are preaching to ourselves that we need more of Christ in our lives