I STILL BELIEVE YOU ARE FOR ME
A. Romans 8:31b- “…If God is for us, who can be against us.”
1. A few years ago, one of the most popular APPS to hit smart phones was a game called “Pocket God.”
a. How many of you are FAMILIAR with this GAME? I never heard of the game (ANGRY BIRDS, yes; but POCKET GOD, no), but I came across it as I was doing RESEARCH for today’s lesson.
b. The game first came out in 2009, and is still AVAILABLE in your APP STORE. Millions of people
have DOWNLOADED this game.
ILLUSTRATION:
When the GAME first hit the MARKET, it ADVERTISED with this question: “WHAT KIND OF GOD WOULD YOU BE?” That question sparked my INTEREST, so, I got on YouTube this
past week and watched a TUTORIAL on the GAME.
You, the PLAYER, are the ALL-POWERFUL GOD over this GROUP of PRIMITIVE ISLANDERS. According to the GUY giving the TUTORIAL, you can have hours of fun GIVING
LIFE and TAKING IT AWAY again.
As GOD, you can control the WEATHER, and with one TAP send a LIGHTENING BOLT hurling to the GROUND and FRY one of the little PEOPLE. You can make VOLCANOS erupt, cause EARTHQUAKES, HURRICANES, extreme HEAT and COLD to bring DESTRUCTION on the
people.
As GOD, you can control WILD LIFE. If you so desired, you can FEED the little people to the SHARKS or pound them to death with an APE or kill them with a SNAKEBITE or make a BIRD poop
on their HEADS.
From the TUTORIAL that I saw, all you were able to do as GOD was to HURT people. (No wonder these little characters look so frightened.) To me it seems that the CREATORS of this GAME came to the TABLE with the preconception that God is CRUEL and ENJOYS causing BAD things to happen to PEOPLE.
2. Perhaps, depending on how we GREW UP and what we were TAUGHT, we could have some strong
preconceptions of the CHARACTER of God, as well.
a. It could be that you think God is out to GET you—that He’s just waiting for you to do something
WRONG so that He can POUNCE on you.
b. That was my CONCEPT of God growing up in a LEGALISTIC church.
COMMENT:
In the church of Christ, we were taught that we were the ONLY ONES going to HEAVEN, and
HALF of us wouldn’t MAKE IT. I heard so much PREACHING about God sending people to HELL, that I thought He DELIGHTED in doing so. I was more AFRAID of God than I LOVED Him.
B. The apostle Paul CHALLENGES the thinking that God is CRUEL and is out to GET US.
1. Paul knows by PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that LIFE is TOUGH.
COMMENT:
In this chapter alone he talks about SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PERSONAL THREATS and PERSECUTION, PHYSICAL HARDSHIP, NATURAL DISASTERS, PRESENT SUFFERINGS,
even DEATH.
He paints a FRIGHTENING but REALISTIC picture of how VULNERABLE the average person is in this HARD, COLD, and FALLEN world.
2. But Paul also JOYFULLY points out that WE ARE NOT ALONE.
COMMENT:
For those of us who have given our lives to Christ through FAITH, we have the ALL-POWERFUL and ALL-LOVING God on our side.
C. Today we conclude the series: “I STILL BELIEVE” based on a tragic event in Jeremy Camp’s life.
1. Those of us who watched the MOVIE saw how Jeremy’s FAITH in God was TESTED during the
SICKNESS and LOSS of his wife Melissa.
a. The PAIN of the LOSS of his wife led Jeremy to question God’s LOVE: “How can a loving God
allow this to happen to Melissa, a young woman who loved the Lord with her entire being?”
b. But then we also saw how Jeremy came to the realization that God’s LOVE NEVER FAILS, and wrote the song: “I STILL BELIEVE”.
2. As we conclude this series, I want to FOCUS on who our God really is.
MESSAGE:
I. GOD IS FOR US- Romans 8:31-34 (READ)
A. As Paul begins this section, it is as if he CATCHES his BREATH after vigorously EXTOLLING all the BLESSINGS that we have as God’s CHILDREN and then writes the question: “What, then, shall
we say in response to all this?”
1. Paul is excited to share with Christ’s FOLLOWERS what he had learned from personal experience
about God’s SOVEREIGNTY and His LOVE.
a. He began this chapter by assuring us that although we struggle with SIN, “For those of us who
ARE in Christ Jesus there is NO CONDEMNATION”- vv. 1-4.
b. He stressed what it means to us to be “given the Holy Spirit to TRANSFORM us from the
INSIDE OUT into the LIKENESS of His Son”- vv. 5-17.
c. He reminded us that although “WE and all of God’s CREATION are under the curse of SIN bringing DECAY and CORRUPTION, we GROAN waiting for Christ Jesus to RETURN one
day to make all things NEW and PERFECT again”- vv. 18-25.
d. He told us not to FRET if we “don’t have the WORDS to say as we try to PRAY to God, because
the Holy Spirit speaks to the Father on our behalf”- vv. 26-27.
e. He comforts us with the fact that “regardless of what we face in life, GOOD or BAD, God is
WORKING in our lives to produce GOOD for His purpose”- vv. 28-30.
COMMENT:
I don’t know about you, but I’m with Paul. What can we SAY in RESPONSE to what all God HAS and is DOING for us, except: THANK YOU, ABBA FATHER? We are so deeply BLESSED to be God’s CHILDREN.
2. And being God’s children Paul then asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
a. I realize that Paul wrote a lot about “suffering” in this CHAPTER, and some might ask Paul, “How can you write about God being “FOR US” with so many of His people suffering in this world? Doesn’t our suffering reveal that there are countless things “AGAINST US”— perhaps even God Himself?
b. That’s what the CREATORS of POCKET GOD wants you to believe—that God ENJOYS ZAPPING people.
B. But Paul goes on to ELABORATE what he means by “God is for us and no one can be against us”.
1. Paul- “He did not SPARE His own Son, but GAVE HIM UP for us all.”
a. Having just LOST my SON; I must CONFESS that I do not understand this kind of LOVE at all.
COMMENT:
I’m rather SELFISH when it comes to my FAMILY, and I would not EXCHANGE the LIFE of a SINGLE MEMBER of my FAMILY for ANYONE else. (HOW ABOUT YOU?)
Yet, God GAVE UP His Son for YOU and ME. He did not SPARE His only begotten Son,
but EXCHANGED His LIFE for ours—for UNGODLY SINNERS like us.
Romans 5:8- “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
b. And as if that is not enough, Paul goes on to say, “if God gave up His own Son for us, how will
He not along with Him graciously give us all things?”
COMMENT:
In other words, “If God gave us His very BEST, then He will take care of the REST.”
No, it doesn’t mean that God will GIVE YOU everything you WANT, but it does mean that
He will take care of your NEEDS. So, “Since God GAVE UP His Son for us, we need to TRUST Him with all the other STUFF.”
2. Paul then goes on to EXPLAIN what he means by, “…NO ONE can be AGAINST us.”
a. He’s not saying that BAD THINGS won’t happen to us, but that “through Christ NO ONE can
bring a CHARGE against us or CONDEMN us.”- vv. 33-34.
COMMENT:
It’s not that we HAVEN’T done anything WRONG for which a CHARGE can’t be brought
AGAINST us. On our own MERIT, “we stand CONDEMNED because we are SINNERS deserving of DEATH”- Romans 6:23.
But as God’s CHILDREN we are FREE from CONDEMNATION because we have given our LIVES to Jesus and have been and continue to be CLEANSED by His BLOOD that was SHED on the CROSS when God GAVE HIM UP for us.
b. Not only did Christ DIE for our SINS, but Paul points out that “He was RAISED to life and now
SITS at the right hand of God INTERCEDING for us.”
COMMENT:
Jesus Christ, having come to this earth to LIVE among us and experience SUFFERING and TEMPTATION just like us and then DIE for us, is now in Heaven REPRESENTING us before our Father.
He is our “Heavenly HIGH PRIEST who has atoned for our sins and sympathizes with our
weakness because He was tempted just like us” (Hebrews 4:15).
He is our “ADVOCATE (defense counsel) who stands before God and DEFENDS us when we sin” (1 John 2:1).
He is our “INTERCESSOR who, being at God’s RIGHT HAND, has the EAR of our Heavenly Father on our BEHALF” (Romans 8:34).
II. GOD LOVES US- Romans 8:35-39 (READ)
A. Can you just sense the URGENCY in Paul’s writing as he tries to help us UNDERSTAND more
completely the LOVE that God has for us?
1. Paul wants his readers to KNOW that there is not an EXTERNAL FORCE in HEAVEN or on
EARTH that is POWERFUL enough to SEPARATE us from the LOVE of God.
ILLUSTRATION:
Some years ago, Tony Campolo wrote this account of a little girl he knew:
“A friend of mine has an adorable four-year-old daughter. She is BRIGHT and loves to TALK. One night there was a violent THUNDERSTORM. The LIGHTNING flashed and the THUNDER rumbled. It was one of those TERRIFYING storms that forces everyone to stop and
TREMBLE a bit.
“My friend RAN upstairs to his daughter’s room to assure her that everything would be all right. He got to her room and found her standing on the windowsill with her arms and legs spread out against the glass. Fearfully he shouted, ‘What are you doing?’ She turned away from the flashing lightning and happily reported, ‘I think God is trying to take my picture!’”
COMMENT:
No SELF-IMAGE problem there!
The frightening POWER of the STORM probably seemed THREATENING to others who had lived longer than her FOUR years and recognized how DANGEROUS and DIFFICULT the WORLD was. But this little girl ASSUMED that all the POWER of the HEAVENS was being brought TOGETHER as God's FLASH CAMERA to take her PICTURE. How VALUED she believes she was in the EYES of her heavenly Father.
2. Our God wants us to live with the same level of CONFIDENCE and CERTAINTY in this world.
COMMENT:
We know it is DANGEROUS and that there are STORMS and PRESSURES working AGAINST us. Every day when we WATCH or READ the NEWS, we are reminded that we LIVE
in a FALLEN WORLD.
Not only that, we are also well AWARE of our own PERSONAL INADEQUACIES and the REASONS that EXIST for God not to LOVE us. But as much as we are AWARE of those things, the greater TRUTH is that there is NOTHING that we can DO to make our Father LOVE us any MORE or any LESS than what He does right now. We are SPECIAL in his EYES.
B. You may not feel all that SPECIAL because of a DIFFICULTY you are GOING THROUGH right now.
1. Yet, Paul says emphatically that “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.”
a. He even presents a list: “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.”
b. Paul is saying “Whatever DIFFICULTY you are facing in life, know this: NOTHING can SEPARATE you from the LOVE of God.”
2. But you may be going through something right now that has brought such HEARTACHE and PAIN
in your life where you have begun to QUESTION God’s LOVE for you.
a. I know when you hear SERMONS like this you sometimes think, “But preacher, you don’t understand what I’m going through. You don’t know my STRUGGLE, my HURT, my DISAPPOINTMENT.”
b. I may not understand your STRUGGLE and your HURT, but I know ALL about MINE.
COMMENT:
Preaching on this series has been an EMOTIONAL JOURNEY for me, and I’m sure it has been for you, as well. But re-studying Romans 8 has only SOLIDIFIED what I already know about
God—that He is always GOOD and always LOVING . . . even during the SICKNESS and DEATH of our SON.
CONCLUSION:
A. Our Heavenly Father is not like POCKET GOD that finds JOY in causing MISERY for people.
1. No, our God sent His only Begotten Son to come LIVE among us to EXPERIENCE what we go through in this FALLEN WORLD so that He can sympathize with our STRUGGLES and our WEAKNESSES,
and then GAVE HIM UP on the CROSS for us so that through Him we can have ETERNAL LIFE.
2. There is the kind of LOVE that creates a DEEP DESIRE to LIVE our lives for God.
a. The only way to SURVIVE the ONSLAUGHT of Satan’s ATTACKS in this FALLEN WORLD is to KNOW that God LOVES YOU and ME as WE ARE and not as WE SHOULD BE.
b. To KNOW that He LOVES us beyond WORTHINESS and UNWORTHINESS, beyond LOYALTY and DISLOYALTY.
c. To KNOW that He LOVES us without CAUTION, REGRET, BOUNDARY, LIMIT, or BREAKING POINT?that no matter what WE do, He can’t STOP loving US.
COMMENT:
But when YOU and I are FULLY AWARE with the REALITY of the WILD, PASSIONATE, RELENTLESS, STUBBORN, PURSUING, INSEPARABLE LOVE of God for US, then it’s not that WE HAVE TO, or WE MUST, or WE SHOULD, or WE OUGHT?suddenly WE WANT TO CHANGE AND BECOME MORE LIKE HIS SON because WE know DESPITE what the WORLD wants us to believe, GOD IS FOR US!
DO YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT GOD IS FOR YOU?
