Nothing Shall Separate Us From The Love Of God!

NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD!

Rom. 8:38-39

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. 3 men went deer hunting together. One of them was a preacher. A deer stopped where all three could see him and all three shot.

2. All three men said the deer was theirs and an argument broke out. Just then a game warden appeared and they asked him to tell who’d shot it. He looked at it and said the preacher had shot it.

3. “Why” they said? “Because the bullet went in one ear and came out the other ear.”

B. OLYMPICS IN PARIS NOW

1. Psychiatrists years ago identified a phenomenon called 'The Paris Effect.' It’s the disappointment many first-time visitors to Paris experience after the hyped up expectations from the media. Visitors arrive expecting a friendly European capital where slim, beautiful Parisians walk around smelling of Chanel. Instead, they find pavements peppered with cigarette butts and aggravated commuters in packed metro trains. The romanticized vision of Paris leaves a lot of room for disappointment.

2. Not so the experience of knowing Jesus. To meet Him is to be transformed. It is to encounter the love of God in Christ. I experienced and still experience this phenomenon every day & I want you to have it!

C. TEXT & THESIS

1. “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” Romans 8:38-39.

2. Title: “Nothing Shall Separate Us From the Love of God.” We see 3 things Paul was persuaded of:

I. 1st, HE IS PERSUADED OF THE LOVE OF GOD

First Paul was persuaded that God is a God of love, and that God loved him! Are you persuaded that God loves you?

A. GENERAL SIGNS OF HIS LOVE FOR US

1. God made us with intellect and creative powers like His own. He gave us this beautiful world to live in. He gave us many joys – food, families, children, sensual pleasures and opportunities for growth & achievement.

2. He made us spiritual creatures who can commune with Him and develop a personal relationship with our Creator. He gives us all things to enjoy. But He did more.

3. When we sinned and cut ourselves off from fellowship with Him, He (from before the world) decided to humble Himself, become a human, and die a cruel death for us to redeem us with His perfect life. His Spirit was willing to come into our rebellious, sinful hearts and wrestle with us and persuade us to walk with Him.

4. He states that He loves us with an everlasting love; a love greater than any other human, including our own mothers! His whole purpose is to redeem us and transport us into a new and beautiful universe that He will make specially for us and that He will personally dwell among us from that time on, forever.

B. THE OVERWHELMING SIGN OF HIS LOVE

1. Paul sees, in the death of God’s Son for us, the incontrovertible proof of the love of God for us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” John 3:16. It’s as though God bartered a diamond to buy a common pebble from the brook, or gave away an empire to purchase something of little worth. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8

2. In not sparing His own Son, God gave us the greatest pledge of His good will. When God delivered up His Son, He gave to us His greatest Gift. If God was willing to do this most difficult thing, it implies that all lesser sacrifices (of God) would be given without hesitation. “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?” Rom. 8:32.

3. So we are persuaded of these three things, first, that God loves us; next, that God has shown His love to us by the gift of His Son; and third, that His divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ, and are loved for His sake.

4. Dear friends, I want you to get this persuasion into your heart. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the person who trusts in Him! Secondly, Paul was persuaded that...

II. BELIEVERS ARE JOINED TO GOD BY LOVE

A. PAUL SAID, “NOTHING SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US”

Now Paul wouldn’t have said “nothing can separate us from God” if we weren’t joined to Him. How can we picture this union in the bonds of love with God?