MORE THAN CONQUERORS
Romans 8: 28-39 (p 800) February 24, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
Some of our men are doing a Max Lucado Bible study called “Fearless”, it’s led by one of our elders David Kiser. I laugh sometimes at how God brings some things together…When we did our “Radical” study one of our elders, Doug Lucas had read the book by David Platt and was sharing it with our Mission’s team. I’d already read it some months before and had started to plan a series when Doug asked if I could present some of the principles to our church…I said, “I think I can do a little better than than…How about a year long challenge?”
So, after I read “Fearless” I earmarked this story for “the More than Conquerors”, Romans 8 message…”It’s about Max’s brother Dee…Max describes Dee as someone who made friends like a baker makes bread…He permitted no stranger to remain one for long…but in his mid-teen years Dee made one acquaintance he should have avoided –a bootlegger who sold alcohol to endanger drinkers. And for the next 4 decades it would enslave Dee Lucado…He would drink away his health, relationships, jobs, money…all but the last two years of his life…At the age of 54 Dee discovered a resource of will power he’d never had…He emptied his bottles, enjoyed a season of sobriety…stabilized his marriage, reached out to his children and exchanged the local liquor store for the local A.A…But the 4 decades of hard living and 3 packs of cigarettes a day turned his “heart” into ground meat…Here’s how Max describes it in the book “Fearless”.
On a January night during the week I began writing this book, he told Donna, his wife, that he couldn’t breathe well. He already had a doctor’s appointment for a related concern, so he decided to try to sleep. Little success. He awoke at 4:00 a.m. with chest pains severe enough to warrant a call to the emergency room. The rescue team loaded Dee on the gurney and told Donna to meet them at the hospital. My brother waved weakly and smiled bravely and told Donna not to worry, but by the time she and one of Dee’s sons reached the hospital, he was gone.
The Attending physician told them the news and invited them to step into the room where Dee’s body lay. Holding each other, they walked through the doors and saw his final message. His hand was resting on the top of his thigh with the two center fingers folded in and the thumb extended, the universal sign-language symbol for “I love you.”
I’ve tried to envision the final moments of my brother’s earthly life: racing down a Texas highway in an ambulance through an inky night, paramedics buzzing around him, his heart weakening within him. Struggling for each breath, at some point he realized only a few remained. But rather than panic, he quarried some courage.
Perhaps you could use some. An ambulance isn’t the only ride that demands valor. You may not be down to your final heart-beat, but you may be down to your last paycheck, solution, or thimble of faith. Each sunrise seems to bring fresh reasons for fear.
In Romans 8 Paul talks about our new life…A life not dictated by rules, but enveloped in the Holy Spirit…He changes our thinking, He changes our thinking, He changes our actions, He is the witness of our adoption ceremony…from within our soul He shouts….”I’ve got a new Dad”…I’m an Heir to a future inheritance”… even during the times of suffering I’m reminded of this hope…This Holy spirit which lives in me even groans for my “New” fathers will to be accomplished in my weakness… He intercedes for me…
And then we come to Romans 8:28…If John 3:16 is the best known and most memorized verse in the New Testament…Romans 8:28 will give any other number 2 a run for its money….Now you know some context for this amazing verse…you see
I GOD HAS ALWAYS HAD A PLAN
Listen to these verses… Romans 8: 28-30 (p801)
Nothing usually goes together very well, or gets built properly unless there is a blueprint…A Plan…These 3 verses present God’s overall plan for mankind as well as any three verses in scripture!
It starts with God at work in the lives of those who love Him…you know, the ones He’s called…and have answered His call…
You see God isn’t building a building…He’s building a people…a nation…
The church Big “C” not little “c”…how are the parts of this building project identified…”those who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God.” (v14)
It’s His Spirit that brings Holiness to our lives…We can only be Righteous” because the Righteous “One” now lives in us…The Jewish people, and Paul was one…believed that the “Law given to Moses” and their heritage through Abraham guaranteed them a special, eternal place in God’s plan…
Paul is a Jew…He is writing to Jews or those who understood their history…so when he talks about foreknowledge and Predestination He is talking about god’s eternal plan…A plan that now includes gentiles as well as Jews…He has just finished his 3rd church planting, and disciple growing journey on the mission field…He hope to go to Jerusalem, then Rome and then Spain…He probably wrote the letter we are looking at in preparation for that visit.
But God has a way of changing our plans so His plan can best be realized…Paul knew that well…So do I!
God’s eternal plan…as He worked through a covenant relationship with Abraham…and Moses…was to save all men through His Son, the Messiah…Paul knew the law, the sacrifices, the temple, the priests and the old covenant were just shadows…revealing the person to come…Jesus…The Hebrew writer said in chapter 9…listen
Hebrews 9: 15, 19-28 (P850)
In every stroke of the pen to the Romans Paul wants to reveal God’s plan for all mankind…Yes, the shadow…the copy came through the Jews so that we might understand the real thing…the old Testament was a springboard to the New and Paul thought of his people the Jews with a burden that crushed his heart…listen to what he says in Romans 9: 1-6.
Romans 9: 1-6 (p801)
I cannot explain God to you…I am not God, nor do I know how He plans…Paul literally says, “I’ll go to Hell…If it would save the Jews” “I’ll be cut off from you God, if they accept Jesus”
When God calls…you should answer…He has a plan for your life…As you receive a Savior…As you are Spirit filled for resurrection…He justifies you….”Declares you not guilty for your sin”…If that is His plan…and we know it is…”He is patient with you NOT WANTING ANYONE TO PERISH BUT EVERYONE TO COME TO REPENTANCE” (2 Peter 3:9)
We are saved by Grace through Faith, and this not of yourself, it is the Gift of God” (Eph 2:9) How is faith made available for all people? “Faith comes through Hearing the message of Christ!” (Romans 10:17)
Before this world was created…the sacrificed, perfect lamb was chosen, His blood would purchase our perfect atonement, not the law…He was revealed in our lifetime according to Peter… (1 Peter 1:19-20)
God’s plan, before Adam & Eve, sin and the world...He preplanned, predestined…He does not do past…present and future…He sees it all, foreknowledge.
And in this dynamic…the message is shared by Jesus disciples (us), God’s Spirit convicts the world in regard to Sin, guilt and the judgment…He cuts our hearts…(Acts 2) And He calls…follow me…turn from you empty way of life and “Follow Me”…Jesus still says, “Anyone who would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
Who will truly answer that call?...God knows…and if you do answer that call…and if God has elected to show you his great mercy, “Who does He shower that mercy on…Whoever and whenever He desires…Its His mercy to do with as he wants…God said to Moses…”I will have mercy on whom I Have Mercy, And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Romans 9:14)
Romans 9:16 is an awe inspiring scripture…”It does not, therefore, depend on mans desire or effort, but God’s mercy” Romans 9:16)…verse 18 says, “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and He hardens whom He wants to Harden.”
Our text deals with just that subject matter… In Romans 8: 28-30 and then verse 31 says “What then shall we say in response to us.”
The answer for God’s chosen…
I WILL LIVE A VICTORIOUS LIFE IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST.
“If God is for us who can be against us?”
I’ve heard some preachers somewhat indicate that “No one can be against us” If God is for us…No One Can Be against us!”
Well, that’s a crock! Paul is presenting teams again…On one team is God…and those whom He’s called, justified and will one day glorify…
But on the other side is the one who brings charges against the individuals that God has chosen…listen again Romans 8: 31-34 (p801)
Who brings charges against God’s chosen Ones…Satan does He has a team also…Eph 6 specifically says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)
The name Satan means “Accuser” or “Condemner”. He accused Job before God in the Old Testament…He wanted to sift Peter like wheat in the New Testament. It requires all of the Amour of God to fight him, his schemes, and the Spiritual forces of evil…
But the amazing truth for the born-again Spirit filled and led followers of Christ is…NO POWER COMPARES TO GOD’S POWER INUS, OR HIS PLAN FOR US.
Satan will “accuse” “Attack…brings trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger…even the sword…
“Paul says, “For your sake we face death every day, all day…like sheep going to the slaughter…”
Our team is under attack every day all day from the accuser and his forces… But he does not win! Romans 8: 37-39 (p801)
On one side of the battle is evil…a murder, a liar whose native tongue is untruth…He’s a thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy…Rev. 12 describes Satan’s attack…along with those angels who followed his rebellion.
Rev. 12: 10-12 (p873)
He’s filled with fury and hatred…He know his time is short…He’s the accuser, attacker, original rebel…but…”We, God’s Spirit adopted children have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…as we’ve already seen!
I’m going to end this morning with what I believe is the entire heart of Romans 8… ended the entire letter…
“God gave his only Son for our salvation…”He gave Him up for us all”…when you consider the power of that gift…Paul asks…”Is there anything worth more than that? If He’s done that for us...is there anything bigger?
As adopted children, co-heirs with Jesus…People who have answered His call…We need to realize our inheritance Now!
Jesus beat death, rose from the grave…He is Victorious…He is King of Kings and Lord of Lord…And even now is at the right hand of God, interceding for his followers…He’s connected with them through the spirit, the father provided to make them one…What can separate that person from the Love of God that in Christ Jesus our Lord?
Death can’t, life can’t, angels and Demons can’t the present or the future can’t, no powers in the world can or any other world! Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from that kind of Love…
You know…the Kind of Love that gave His only son to provide an eternal adoption process for mankind…for me…for you…
So today will you answer His call, believe His Word…Repent…turn from your old life to Christ for new life…would anyone die, be buried and rise again? Filled with His Holy Spirit…crying out in testimony “Dad”…
I will not tell you life will be easy following Christ as Lord, but I will tell you…it’s abundant, freeing filled with purpose…Hope and you will never ever regret doing it!
Let’s pray
