What, Then Shall We Say!

What, Then Shall We Say!

Romans 8:35,31

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (NIV)

Acknowledgments:

Now – lets preach.

For our scripture today let us consider Romans chapter 8 verses 31 and 35. But I want to do something a little different. I want to read verse 35 first, then verse 31. lets read.

(Read text)

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (NIV)

Turn to your neighbor and look them DEAD in the eye and say, what, then shall we say!

I took the liberty to look up the word separate in the dictionary and found that it means to keep apart, to withdraw, scatter, to part company, disperse, to come apart, to stop living together as spouses, to become divided into components or parts.

As I looked at the definition of this word it became clear to me that another tactic of the enemy to separate us from the love of Jesus. As a matter of fact, this word separate plays right into his main purpose for the bible says the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy. So if he succeeds in separating us from the love of Christ, he has completed his purpose.

Young people, this is the most important time of your life. This is the time in you life where God is growing and developing you into the young men and women He wants you to be. However, Young people, you are faced with so many things in your young lives that tend to try to distract you. You are faced with stuff that disconnect you. Your are confronted with things that will keep you apart, You are faced with things that try to separate you from God and His plan for you.

If I can get a few adults to be truthful, you know there was a dark period in your lives between your innocent youth days and before you became sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. You know that before you totally surrendered to the will of God, there were some things that came in your life that tried to keep you from God.

Yeah there were some people we met that didn’t have church on their agenda. There were some days, months, even years for some when we never woke up with our minds stayed on Jesus. (I know I’m right about it.) There were hardships that came that divided us. There were troubles that came to keep us away. There were dangers that came trying to keep us from ever having a relationship with God.

And now our youth stand where we once stood. Our youth are standing on the threshold of young adulthood and they need answers, they need guidance so my question to you parents is, WHAT, THEN SHALL WE SAY!

What shall we say to our young men? Do we tell them to get their run out? Do we tell them boys will be boys? Do we teach them how to run game? Or do we teach them to become honorable men after Gods heart?

And what shall we say to our young women? Do we tell them that all men are dogs? Do we teach them how to play hard to get? Or do we teach them how to become a virtuous woman?

WHAT, THEN SHALL WE SAY?

Before I go further, let me let you in on what’s going on in the book of Romans.

Paul begins in chapter 1 giving us a description of the deplorable condition of the Gentile world, which begins the proof of the doctrine of justification by faith. It is in this chapter Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 2, he takes the focus of the gentiles and puts it on the Jews. He proves in general that Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level justice in the eyes of God. The Jews needed to know that they were no better than the Gentiles. Paul was telling them that they needed to practice what they preach.

And I might need to stop here to let somebody know that they need to practice what they preach. You can’t encourage somebody to stop drinking if you’re still drinking. You can’t tell somebody to quit stealing if you steal. You can’t preach to somebody to stop shacking if the person sleeping in your bed is not married to you. Paul is saying you’re the very reason why we can’t get them to come to church. Look at somebody and tell him or her to practice what you preach.