Romans 8 Part 4 - Nothing can separate us from the love of God - Tim Evans

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Honor to be uh sharing with you this morning, and I hope uh that today will be encouraging and more than anything, just another brick in the spiritual house that we're all building in our lives. Uh so we're gonna be jumping into the end of our Romans 8 series. Yay! So it's gonna be it's gonna be good. Uh, did anyone attempt to read Romans 8 the last few weeks? Um the past okay, good job. 10 points to Luke. Sorry, that's probably a bad question. Um, but um, such a beautiful scripture, but it's so condense. And I know we this is the fourth week we spent on it, but we could probably spend um a lot more time on it. So uh we're gonna try summarize this mammoth of a scripture here. Uh so we're gonna jump into Romans 8, the last the last part from verse 31 to 39. And I asked if um Rachel could come and just read, read for us, give us some encouragement. Thank you, Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Thank you. Okay, I'm just gonna read from the screen. Romans eight, thirty-one to thirty-nine. What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Thank you. Beautiful reading. Great accent. Happy Fourth of July. She's Canadian, but that's all right. That's right, close enough. Right, so we're gonna jump into from verse, so we're gonna break it down two by two pretty much, from verse 31. And just the first thought I wanted to draw out of here is that we have access to God. And that was what Josh Sound Mixer Master at the back spoke on about how we've come into adoption, adoption, we've been adopted into the family of God. And we're gonna just jump in from verse 31. It says, What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he also not, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Well, and just something to note that this this passage jumps off of the very famous passage just before, uh, which talks about how in life there's gonna be hardships, uh, but God's gonna be with us and he uses all things for good, and he turns all things for good in our lives. And then Paul jumps into this scripture here that God gave up his son for you and I. And uh we've been given all these things. So we've been included in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We've been included in all the victories that that that achieved in our lives through what Jesus did for us. And he's reiterating here at the end of the chapters that we are part of that that family that Josh spoke about so beautifully a couple of weeks ago, and that the generosity of the sacrifice of God includes us into that family. So it's such a beautiful picture that we have access. I grew up, I went to high school in the noughties. Um smack bang of the middle of a millennial. Um it was during the uh the metal phase, metal core was huge in Australia, Parkway Drive. No, heine, one person, and then um right after high school, I moved to Japan. And Japan is the best place to watch live music because I get a whole head view above everyone else, got the best view, and you can banter with the bands. It was great. And I had a I had a friend in Japan who was um really into metal and he knew all the bands. And when they came, this is a long time ago, like 15 years ago, but when they came and toured Japan, these are bands like Kill Switch Engage, Under Oath, Um, Trivium, he knew the members. So when they came and toured, he would get access to the green room because he was friends with them. But when I went with him to the shows, I would tag along and get to meet these bands that I loved in high school and go meet the members, which was pretty pretty cool experience. Um, so it's not because I was special, I knew the guy who knew the guys, if that makes sense. And I think that's like our relationship with Jesus. He, through his sacrifice, gives us access to the green room of God, um the kingdom of God through what Jesus did. Because we know the guy who knows the guy, you know, because we have that relationship with Jesus, we get access to all the things and all the blessings that come through knowing God, um, through that the death and resurrection. We get that family status. Um, so you know, we can have the knowledge of God, all the study, uh, which is really fun, but we can still not have the access. Uh, we can choose not to jump into the relationship and to journey with God. You know, and I don't know about you, have you ever won something that you felt like you've maybe you didn't deserve? I played a season of soccer, and sometimes we win the match. I didn't even, I was a defender, didn't even touch the ball once. I'm like, woo, we won the match, but I knew deep down, I'm like, oh, I did it nothing to help win the match. Um, I was just a token player. Um, and I think sometimes we can we can feel deep down, oh we don't I've done nothing to achieve this. But Paul is trying to encourage the church here, saying that we have access through the sacrifice of Jesus, that we can jump into that relationship. Uh, but it's our choice to to choose that, to choose that to journey with God, to choose to be a part of that family. Um, so then this verse continues, and Paul kind of continues that conversation in verse 33. It says, Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. The next thought here is that we're justified, it's a big word, but that that there's no no accusation sticks to our lives. And I've heard Romans 8 kind of being explained as a cosmic court case. You're in the courtroom and you're ready to go to court to be judged guilty, essentially. And when you enter the court, it's it's empty, there's no one there, and there's no accusers, um, and Jesus' death and resurrection has changed the verdict before you even walked into the room. And Paul chose this language because they were in the Roman Empire, and Christians were being starting at this point to be dragged into the courts and being judged by the Romans, and this was like a real fear and concern of the people of the day. And Paul was speaking directly to that concern. I guess the question is us to say, what's our what brings condemnation in our lives, in our thoughts? And for them, it was the early church's case, it was the the Roman Empire, the government, a slightly different structure to what we have today, but that was the fear in their life. You know, the Bible talks about the devil being an accuser, he can bring condemnation in our lives, the feeling of judgment. Um, the crowd could be your mum, the people closest to you in your life. It could also be yourself, feeling of not good and not being good enough. But Paul is saying all these voices of condemnation have been silenced through Jesus, through Jesus on the cross. And not just that, he says Jesus is interceding for us, which is a big word and can be described and explained in a lot of different ways. But maybe the simplest one in this case is he's advocating for us in the heavenly courtroom. Jesus advocating on our behalf. Um such a beautiful picture that Jesus is interceding for all of us. Um but I wanted to just take a moment there just to speak about one area of condemnation that maybe we all feel or put on ourselves. Um and that's maybe self self-condemnation could just be me. Um but this can stop us from entering into that all access area of God, like the family of God. This could be a blockade that could stop us jumping in if we are constantly condemning ourselves, saying, Oh, I'm not good enough. Um because the kingdom of God is here today, and the family of God is here today, and we can jump in at any moment, but we can also choose to sit on the sidelines, to not jump in. Um, and I think um, yeah, that's something I just wanted to talk to for a second, because the victory has been won, but yet we sometimes don't accept it, don't accept the invitation from God. And you we and not I'm not saying because maybe we don't understand, but I'm saying because we feel, oh wait, wait, I'm not good enough yet. Oh, I haven't done enough things right, or there's a few more things in my life that I need to work on. Um, because the fact is we'll never be ready or good enough. Um, but we need to take that feeling to God because it might be based in some fact. Maybe you were the soccer player who didn't touch the ball the whole match. Um, and you you know, and you know, DJ, oh like I haven't done anything, and I kind of feel good enough yet. Um, but I want to encourage us that that that's part of the journey of being human. And Jesus knows all about it, all about it. And even though you might have an area think, I need to overcome this one thing first before I have a problem with with anger. Like I keep snapping out, I wish I could be a better parent. Or there's something in my life that I once I overcome this thing, then I can jump into the family of God. Uh, but God is not surprised at all. Romans 8 really is talking about how the spirit, God's spirit, interacts with our everyday lives, our humanity, the good bits, but also the the not so good bits, the bits that we struggle with. Um and I think even the spirit of God even wakes us up, maybe, to the reality that there's some things that need to change in our lives. That things are not how they ought to be. But the beautiful thing is the spirit is also there supporting us to change, saying this is maybe how things could be, but we're gonna journey with this uh together. We're gonna keep building as we build bricks in our lives, as we trust God, as we get to know God, He is gonna shape our lives, shape our hearts around the things of God. So I want to encourage us, don't let that self-condemnation fester. We've got to take it to God quickly. And we all, well, I imagine we all experience this and go through this. Uh, but Jesus, like he said, he's interceding on our behalf. That means if we if we're tuned into the things of God, there's gonna be things stirring within us, and that's completely normal. And Paul will summarize this chapter in a moment with just the resounding sound of God's love, Jesus' love. He summarizes everything through the lens of Jesus' love. I think this is where we need to stop and remember the type of God painted throughout the Bible, the heart of God, the character of God, the loving father of God. And if we are self-condemning, if we're judging ourselves essentially, I think we need to keep painting this picture, get keep getting close to God and understand actually, He's a loving father. And if you're your biggest critic, I think let's have that fresh reminder, because Romans 8 is hinting that you know we are limited, our knowledge, we can have knowledge of God, but now what Romans 8 is saying, we need to get the heart of God, the Spirit of God in our lives. Because the knowledge is is important, um, but then the Spirit comes in and gives us the power to change. God knows our weaknesses, all our weaknesses, and He's there with us. So I hope that kind of makes sense. I know I'm speaking a lot of intangibles today, and if you're newer to church, I apologize. But I this is a key part though of learning to stop and let the Spirit of God come into our hearts and shape our lives, not through our knowledge, not through another another podcast or another morning routine, or like that's all well and good, but there's a moment where we need to experience the relationship and the power of God's love in our lives, and that's where things begin to change. Um, yeah, great. So again, Paul then builds on this in the next two verses. So let's jump into verse 35. Uh and this is a very famous scripture, but who who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we face death all day long. We are considered sheep as to be slaughtered. So Paul is quoting just that last part there is from Psalm 44. And when Paul's writing this, he's just about ahead to Rome, essentially. He's probably writing this from Corinth, just about ahead to Rome for his first stint of being arrested. Um, so Paul, the point is, Paul knew this wasn't like a theory list, this was a real list that he experienced. And when we're talking about conquering or victory, that means there are challenges that come along with that. That means something needs to be conquered, so to speak. And we're not talking about people, right? But something in our lives we need to overcome, become overcomers. Um, and sometimes we walk into trouble. Sometimes trouble comes to us, sometimes we head into trouble, right? In our in our lives. So I've got um a three-year-old and an eight-year-old. Um, when I had the eight-year-old, I thought, oh, this is easy. She was great, good eater. Listen to everything we said. I've probably forgotten as well. Thought it was all nurture. And then the three-year-old came and we're like, whoa, what is this thing? Um and this is a little, yeah. So he's he's learning a lot, but the other day he's he was upset about something, probably trying to like lick the power sockets, put his tongue in there. I'm like, no, you can't do that. He's like, oh, but I want to do that. Um, so my older daughter, she would just cry but be very upset and get over it. But my son, so he goes, he stands up, goes, fine, gets up, walks to the door, opens it up, puts, puts on his shoes, goes out, down the stairs, out the front gate. And I said, I wanted to see how far this would go. So I was like hiding, and he just goes out our complex, starts walking down the road, doesn't look back once. And I was hiding behind trees just to see at what point will he get a bit nervous because my daughter would not have ever done that. Uh but he just keeps going, and eventually he hits the main road, and I had to be like, okay, no, we can't, and then he has his breakdown. But now I'm out in the main road. Um legend. Um so the the the point is the point is sorry, it's gonna be it's gonna be great, guys. It's gonna be it's gonna be great. Um the point is I was I was always there, whether he knew it or not. I was I was always if if some real trouble came up came along, if he jumped into the road, I was gonna intervene. Um and I think that's the same as as God. God is always there, even in our anger, maybe even in our indifference to him, in the problems of life, God is there with us. Nothing can separate us from the troubles of life. Uh from sorry, from the trouble or the other way around. The love of Christ. But also troubles are definitely coming to be a part of it. Um great, because some things will try to separate us. Um, so I guess the question is what what are the the hardships um that you're walking through at the moment, and maybe have you mistaken those for separation from God's love? Um because you know, I've been in hard places in life, and I'm sure there's gonna be many more, and I've looked back at some of those and think, I thought, oh, I wish I had, I wish I had acted a little better. I wish I hadn't let that overflow into other areas of my life when I was having a difficult time at work, and I would then I was a bit short with my family. I wish I was a, you know, I wish I was a better Christian, like I wish I was acting more like Christ-like. Um but I want to encourage us as well. The goal of our lives is not to achieve a Zen-like Puritan kind of ethic, like, oh, we are perfect. God understands we're gonna mess up. That's the point. Not that we're trying to mess up, but He's gonna be there in our humanity, in our mistakes. God's love is still there, even when we feel like, oh, I've done it again, I got angry again when I didn't need to. God's love is still there. We're not separate. And I want to encourage us all today, because I I feel like that, in those moments when you feel the worst, God is still there with you. When when you know you've stuffed up yourself, God's love is there and it's real, you know, and and maybe Paul's list there is full on. I mean, and we've solved modern-day life has solved many of those issues, like nakedness. For the most part, we've solved that, and I'm very glad in winter that we have, you know, and a lot of famine, but we kind of have new problems, maybe an overabundance, so we have different issues today. Um, and I think these are real, but the question is how how are we gonna face these issues of life? Um, are we gonna take it to God or figure it ourselves? I think sometimes maybe we grit our teeth and go, uh, I'm gonna fake it till you make it, I'm gonna just positive my way through this. Everything's good, everything's good, everything's good. But inside you you're dying, you're melting. I mean, you're not honest with yourself, you're not honest with your the people around you, you're not honest with God. I think that's maybe the way the culture was before, right? Like we'd like, come on, the good old pick yourself up, you got this. Um, and I don't know how helpful that is. And then today we've gone maybe the other extreme where why me? This, why does it always happen to me? I'm always so unfortunate. Um, oh, everyone's against me. This could be another another response to troubles in life. Oh, that's the government, oh, it's the multinational corporations, they're the problem with the world. Why am I alive now? I can't, I have no opportunities. And maybe that's the other extreme that we're kind of going towards today. But I think neither of those responses are really helpful. We got to learn how to be confident that God is with us, whilst acknowledging, yes, there's some troubles in life. Yes, these are real, these are real issues in our life, but I'm gonna trust God anyway. And I think that's the fine line, we're gonna walk forever. Um, but that's part of the journey because we're gonna grow ultimately, we're not the conquerors, it's Jesus. Um, so just into the last two scriptures, which where Paul again continues on this thread, and hopefully this is making sense if it goes in verse 37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, 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. Yeah, wow. So that's the more than conqueror bit. We didn't conquer. And Paul chose these words very carefully, because in Rome Caesar was the conqueror. That was his nickname, Mr. Conqueror. Um, and he um and Paul ended up in prison after after this letter. So I wonder if maybe the the printouts got out, and then Paul's kind of poking the bear, I suppose. Um, and because he's saying, no, we're more than conqueror, but we're not conquering through the sword, we're we're conquering not through force, but through the suffering love of Jesus. That's what made us more than conquerors. So we're not like Caesar, we're more than Caesar, all right? So even in troubles of life, we can bear the fruit of the spirit. That kind of Luke touched on last week as well. There's the fruit naturally coming out of our lives. And Paul then lists this that list of death, life, angels, powers. So these were like the forces that were believed to rule the day and age, then. Um, and he wright puts it like this they are not just like philosophical. Categories or emotions, they were real feared forces. And Paul is saying, not one of these forces gets to write your story anymore. We're not letting that dictate how we live lives, our lives. And yeah, I wonder if we ask that question now, what are like the philosophical categories that we are allowing to rule our lives here in 2025 in Brisbane, Australia? What are the things that are have taken over our thoughts? Um, like I said, it could be political parties, your favorite or your least favorite political party. It could be it could be the Aussie dream. I work in in finance and property, and I can see this retirement and property has captured the imagination and spirit. Maybe, maybe it's my world is swayed, but people are so worried, so worried about the future retirement. It's captured our minds, and fear has captured our souls. And I'm not saying it's not real, but I'm saying that is that gonna dictate how we live our lives, is that gonna dictate our story, the decisions we make? Is it out of out of fear and worrying? And I mean that's a callback to Romans 8 verse 15, where it says, we are no longer slaves to fear. I think it's important in a time when we're everyone has anxiety, everyone's worried, concerned about the future, and maybe it's warranted and it's justified. But but what narrative is dominating your mind like currently? What is the biggest concern? Um, and that does not get to define you or write your story, um, because your story is written by the deep love of God, and He has an amazing, exciting plan for our lives, and not just that, not just for our lives as individuals, but for our lives as part of the kingdom of God, as part of bringing heaven, it's right here, right now, that we're we're called to be in Brisbane or wherever you are in Tokyo in put to be building the kingdom of God in the world and society around us, and that's why when we need we need to I know I've meandered through these scriptures a bit, um, but I think the essence here of Paul's writing when he summarizes it is that we need to understand that we have access to the kingdom of God now, and we need to stop living on the sidelines, but to jump into that access, and that's gonna be part of bringing God's love to earth to the people around us. That's our our mandate as Christians, that's gonna overflow from our lives, and that we will not be led by fear and anxiety and the world's issues, but we'll be led by what God's called us to bring here on earth. So I hope that made a little bit of sense and was a little bit helpful. But I just want to take a moment just to pray through some of that. So if you're comfortable, we can just close our eyes to focus. I want to just pray on some of these areas like fear and maybe separation. And if you've experienced that, just open your heart to God right now. God, we we thank you so much for what you've done for us and what Jesus has done for us through the death and resurrection. And I just pray for a fresh revelation of what that means in our life. And may the may your love drive out any fear in our hearts and minds that has captured us. May we get a new understanding of that love, Jesus, and anything, any fear that's been holding us back from maybe stepping out, from being a part of this new creation, God, I just pray that you can tear that down. God, we can we give that to you? That we will be people who don't hold back but but step out, who outpour your love and to the world around us, those people in our lives. And if anyone here has felt maybe separated or through self-condemnation, just constantly not feeling good enough, I just pray for a fresh understanding of your grace, God, for an understanding of the character of God through the entire Bible. How much love, how much you're for us, how much you've conquered on our behalf. I pray we can just get that understanding in our hearts, God. We receive that now. We love you, Jesus. Amen.