Lord, did they not hear our message?

Read Isaiah 53

Read Romans 10

My program director—Dr. Tom Campbell—was also my preaching instructor while I was in school to be a Cumberland Presbyterian minister or Word and Sacrament.  He told a story once of a small congregation that he ministered for a few years.  At the end of each service, one member would always shake his hand and say, “Warm sermon.”

When it was time for Tom Campbell to move on and pastor another congregation, he asked the man what he meant by “warm sermon.”

With emotion, he replied, “Not so hot.”

For those of you who want something more in your sermon, I will include 3 P’s that you can take with this week. 

Just in case you need something small and manageable to take with for your drive to work or as you walk the hallways at school or if you get lost trying to remember what you came into Walmart for in the first place, there are 3 P’s at the end.  You probably won’t pick them up along the way, so just know that there will be a take-away at the end even if you think you are imprisoned in a warm sermon.

Many of us have lost something that I don’t think we can get back.  We may try but I don’t think we will ever regain it, not that we want to.  What exactly have we lost?

The ability to understand what it was like to be lost, to be without Christ.  Some who may have come to Christ recently may still have clear memories but many of us who have been living in this gift of salvation have forgotten what it was like before.

Yes, we have testimonies.  Yes, we have memories of times past, but the state of being lost or forsaken or true hopelessness is foreign to us.  We are no longer fluent in hopelessness.  It is a dead language to us.

We only distantly relate to blindness to the truth.  We know that Jesus is Lord.  We have professed it with our lips and we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead.  We believe!

We may struggle to stay the course as we follow Jesus, still have a bazillion unanswered questions, and often wonder when God will answer some of our prayers; but we believe.

We believe!

We believe that God loved us so much that he came in the flesh to live and die as a man.  He came to teach and to heal.  He came to bring the mighty acts of God into whatever situation he was in. 

He came to die as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.  He did all of these things and we believe.

He made us right with God and we believe.

The prophet Isaiah said that all of these things would come to pass but most of us before we believed were not very familiar with Isaiah.  If it wasn’t required for a book report or in today’s generation didn’t fit into the size of a text message, we probably didn’t read it before we believed.

So here we sit safely in our salvation, thankful and blessed and loving the peace and divine connection that we know; and sometimes wonder about everyone else.  What about them?  Will God’s message reach them?

Paul was still sharing his pain with his readers as we enter into the 10^th chapter.  We should be able to feel how he longed for his people to come to know Christ.  It’s not that they were an ungodly people or too apathetic to care.

They were zealous about their God.  They knew he was the one true God.  They knew that all righteousness comes from God; yet, they drifted into a righteousness of their own and were blind to the truth.

Were we to read ahead to the next chapter we would see that these chosen people were in a stupor.  They were not sensitive to what was happening around them.  It was if they were drunk while Christ walked the earth and missed the whole thing.

Paul still has a heart for his people and has more to say about them later, but for now he counsels his readers that faith once again is central to receiving this gift of salvation, with which comes being right with God. 

He used words that many of us know so well.  They are words of salvation and life.  These are from the New Living Bible.

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

This invitation is for Jew and gentile alike.  Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Israel heard.  Some responded.  Most did not.  In the words of Isaiah: “Lord, did they not hear our message?”

We are going to step out of Romans chapter 10 and step into the 21^st century church, specifically this body of believers for the moment.

Have you ever felt like Isaiah?  Have you even felt like Paul?  “Lord, did they not hear our message?”

Think of the many ways that we connect.

·     Walk a block for Jesus

·     Trunk or Treat

·     Easter Egg Hunt

·     Vacation Bible School

·     Feed the Players

·     5^th Quarter

·     Backpack Ministry

·     Chewy Tuesdays

·     Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter

·     Food baskets

All of these things are laced with messages of God’s love and invitations to know Jesus as Lord.  These things are accomplished by ministers hoping to share God’s love and salvation.  I don’t mean the guy in the robe who preaches twice on Sunday.  This is the body of believers connecting.

Did they not hear our message?  Most of these conversations begin with God loves you.  We don’t put people in headlocks or even thump them with a Bible. A wrist band might get them from God loves you to love one another.  If we haven’t scared them off by then, we might actually get to talk about how great God’s love for us is.  That ultimately leads to Jesus.

“Lord, did they not hear our message?”

On top of that some people have even come into the church building on a Sunday for a service to check it out.  Some have even heard me preach.  How could that not have been enough?  Yes, my tongue might be stuck in my cheek on that one.

“Lord, did they not hear our message?”

Some have heard and have come and are seeking the Lord, but many have heard and have not.  “Lord, did they not hear our message?”

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Paul was heartbroken about his own people.  He addressed what is in store for them in the next chapter.  But what about us?

What do we do when we continue to follow Jesus and help so many who are lost or are disconnected from the body and they will not hear?  What do we do?  Consider Paul’s words in the New Living Translation.

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

This is our message to share.  Jesus Christ is Lord.  In him alone comes salvation.  We are commissioned to take this message into the world.  Remember that a commission is more than a command.  A command tells you what to do or what not to do.  A commission comes with some authority attached.

Think to the end of Matthew’s gospel.  Jesus states that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.  He is not bragging or boasting about his status because the next word that we encounter is the word “therefore.”

Jesus makes a connection between his authority and our commission.  We are to go into all of the world making disciples, baptizing, and teaching people to follow what he taught us.

We have a mission.  The Lord has commanded this and he has also given us the authority to take his message into the world.

How much authority did Jesus have?  All authority!

God’s message of love to the world is now our message of love to the world as well. It is our message.  We are like Isaiah in this regard.  We can say: “Lord, did they not hear our message?”

We can say it and know that we have not overstepped our authority.  We have the authority to fulfill our mission.  We take this good news to the world.  We are sent by our Lord and Master into the world with this incredible news of God’s love for us.  We are very much in this divine work together.

We have been called out of the world, set apart from the world to be made ready for a special work, and now we are sent back into the world commissioned to do that work.

And so many do not respond.  What are we to do?

Go into the world and proclaim the gospel of peace and salvation and love everlasting unburdened by the response.  The response lies in the domain of those who hear and God’s own Spirit.

The response of those who hear the gospel is not part of our yoke that our Master has given us.

We continue to go where we are sent.  People must hear.  They need to hear it in person.  Webcasts are great.  Television preachers are fine.  Facebooks posts surely are compelling, but this message is best delivered in person.

“How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

We are those messengers and we continue our deliveries.  Some might be thinking, “Hold your holy horses one minute.  Isn’t that why we hired a preacher?”

There is an interesting dynamic here.  The pastor or shepherd tends the flock and when that analogy is used, people often say: “I don’t like being compared to sheep.  Sheep are stupid.  Don’t compare me to a sheep.”

But when the topic of taking the good news to the world comes up, the same people sometimes say, “Hey, I’m just a sheep.  Send the shepherd out into the world with that message.  Isn’t that what he is there for?”

We are commissioned.  When it comes to taking the good news of life in Jesus Christ to the world we need to accept, perhaps even embrace our role as the commissioned.  That is who we are.  We deliver good news!

We deliver!

But the yoke of our Master has not placed the response of those who hear on our shoulders.  We could not bear it and we should give thanks that we don’t; but we continue to proclaim the good news of life in Jesus Christ.

We don’t own the response but we continue in our commission.  It has not been revoked.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Corinth noting that he had become all things to all people so that some might be saved.

Some?  God’s desire is that all be saved.  How could Paul write so that some might be saved?

For as zealous as Paul was to take the gospel to the world, he knew that his commission was to deliver this good news.  For those who came, the work continued in baptism, teaching, and discipleship; but even zealous, zealous Paul knew that not all would respond even though they heard.

Paul so longed for his own people to know true joy in the Lord and we will find in the next chapter what the plan for that is, but he knew that he was one man, set apart by God for a special work.  He would do great things for the Lord and many would come.

But many would not.  “Lord, did they not hear our message?”

My message to you this day is this:  Do not be discouraged.  Your commission remains in effect.  It has not been revoked and some will hear and some will respond and some will know the joy of the Lord when they call upon him.

“How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

The work that you have been called to do, commissioned to do, is still a blessed work that will produce good fruit.  Share the good news.  Live in response to the good news.  Know that some will call upon the name of the Lord because they have heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

Some will be saved!

Now to the promised P’s.

We are people who have PEACE.  It is peace that goes beyond human understanding.  It is a connection that we often know in the way the psalmist charges us—be still.  Know that he is God.

We have PURPOSE.  We are called out of the world, set apart from the world to be prepared for the work of the Lord, then we are sent back into the world to be God’s love and deliver his good news.

We are PROTECTED from a burden that is not ours to bear.  God’s Spirit is with us always and the response of those who hear our message rests with them and God’s Spirit.  Their response is not part of the easy yoke that our Master has given us.

We who know peace in God also have been given purpose by God and are protected by God as we go into the world to be his love and proclaim life in Jesus Christ.

Some will be saved!

Amen!

Prayer for the Day: Here I am Lord

Do we really approach the throne of grace boldly?  If so, why do we ask our Mighty God for such small things?  We are empowered to deal with the things that afflict us.  Let’s speak to the affliction in the name of Jesus and spend more time asking God for things like the pouring out of his Spirit, repentance of our nation, helping us produce good fruit that brings glory to God and enriches the body of Christ.

We serve an awesome God.  We still pray as Jesus taught us seeking daily bread and affirming that we are forgiving as he is forgiving, but we also need to come to our heavenly Father asking him for things that change the world.

Lord,

Thank you for my life, life abundant, and life eternal.

As I live out my salvation as the most important thing you have given me, help me to be bold in calling upon the name of Jesus as I face the troubles of this world.

Help me to be bold in asking you to intervene in the affairs of the world so I can testify to your mighty acts in this age.

Help me to be bold in seeking your kingdom and your righteousness.

Help me to be bold in listening to your reply should your answer include my involvement.  Do not let me grow deaf when you are calling me to your purpose.

Give me the courage to simply say, “Here I am Lord,” and be ready to go wherever or do whatever you have for me.

Thank you Lord that I will never know the shallow, timid life of those who will not hear you.

Here I am Lord.  Use me to your purpose that I may bring glory to your name.

Amen.

Great patience

Read Romans 9

Paul has taken his readers in Rome and us a very long way in these first 8 chapters of this very comprehensive letter.

·     Paul longed to visit Rome.

·     He insisted that everyone should know there is a God by the evidence of creation itself.

·     We have all fallen short and have no excuse that will hold water with God.

·     The Jews had more instruction but they didn’t do much better than the gentiles.

·     While we did not love God, he went the extra mile to love us by giving his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sin.

·     Our part is to receive this fantastic gift of salvation by faith—the same faith that justified Abraham.

·     In this faith we know peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

·     We are made new.  It is as if we died with Christ and now have been given life with him.

·     Surely we are to be dead to sin and alive in Christ.

·     Having received this gift of salvation—undeserved forgiveness for all of our sins—should we continue in our sin so we could know even more grace? No!  That’s not who we are any more.

·     Sin is still here in this world we might just have to wrestle with it.  It cannot alter our eternal destination so it will try to mess with our abundance in life in the here and now.

·     Even when we fall, we do not despair for there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

·     We are God’s kids.

·     We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

·     We are joint heirs with Christ.

·     We are led by God’s own Spirit.

·     God’s Spirit doesn’t need our words to communicate.

·     God’s Spirit speaks for us.  Jesus makes intercession with the Father for us.  Yes, this is the same Father who will never stop loving us.  The full trinity is engaged in our well-being.  This is good stuff.

·     God is for us!  It doesn’t make a hill of beans who is against us.  God is for us!

·     We know that God takes everything that happens to us, within us, or around us and works it to our good.  We love him.  We have answered his call.  We can’t always figure everything out but we know that he’s got this.

·     God knew what we would look like when he got through with us before we emerged from our mother’s womb.  We would look like his one and only Son, Jesus.  We were destined, predestined if you will, to be like Jesus.

·     We are conquerors—more than conquerors—in that the suffering and hardships that we know now will seem like nothing at all when everything is reconciled to God through Christ—like nothing at all.

·     When God comes in his glory we will forget everything that seemed so insurmountable in the here and now—pain, loss, and suffering of all sorts. 

·     And we left off at:  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.

That was just the first half of Romans.  That’s a lot of theology.  That’s a lot of very powerful affirmations of God’s love for us.  And these are just the highlights.

Most should sound very familiar to you, not just from Romans.  Paul has touched on many of these things in his other letters.  The letter to the Romans is just a bit more comprehensive than any of his others.

So we come to chapter 9 with great anticipation and Paul gives us great anguish.  What is going on with this man?  He builds up his readers for 8 chapters and then with some substantial hyperbole says that he would give up this wonderful gift of life from Jesus just to bring his people into the light, just to give them eyes to see, just to bring them their own road to Damascus experience.

Paul tells us that he is hurting because his own flesh and blood people—at least most of them—missed the truth that he knows so well.  Remember that as Paul brought the good news to the gentile world, he would first stop at the synagogue in each new city to share this fantastic gospel.  He was often disappointed at the reception and then turned to those who worshiped false gods and brought them the truth; but Paul always sought out his people—God’s chosen people—first.

But Paul is not throwing his own personal pity party.  This is part of the story.  This is part of the story for those who follow Jesus.  The Roman believers needed to understand and everyone who reads Paul’s letter to this congregation, need to understand that in Christ we became a part of a much bigger story.

The story is about flesh and blood people but it is less about the cutting of the flesh or the purity of the blood and more about the promise given to people whom God selected to be very special to him. 

The promise goes back to Abraham and comes through Isaac, and the sovereignty of God’s selection of Israel as his people become clarified in the twin whose name would be changed to Israel—Jacob. Jacob was second out of Rebecca’s womb and contrary to the tradition of the day, would be the senior.

The story of God’s selection of a people continued to Moses.  Three months out of Egypt, the Hebrew people arrived at Sinai and Moses went up the mountain for the first time.

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:  ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Why does Paul need to share this with the Romans?  This story is now a part of their story for one.  Mostly Paul reminds the Roman believers of God’s sovereignty.  God is sovereign.

God selects.  God chooses.  God’s mercy brings us to the life we know in Christ Jesus.  God is sovereign!

Sometimes, that is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you get words like predestined and foreknowledge thrown in the mix.  Those make for good discussions but Paul is leading his readers to a point that he wants to confirm.  It is a place that we have visited many times.  It is one that we know so well.  This was just a more circuitous route to get us there.

Our salvation is not by our own works.  It is by the grace and favor of sovereign God.  It is by the mercy and compassion of sovereign God.  It is all of God’s choosing and doing.

Our gift is received by faith and not by works and most of Paul’s flesh and blood relatives missed this and were not open to the gospel of life in Jesus Christ.  And Paul had great anguish that all of Israel did not have its own road to Damascus experience, but he was not finished with his letter.  Don’t give up on Israel just yet.  There is more in store for them.

So as we come to the end of the chapter but not the end of the story of Israel and the gentiles, we should consider the sovereignty of God.  Everything is his, he spoke it into existence, but out of everything he chooses some to do special things or be something special or receive special gifts.

Israel was chosen by God to receive an identity as a special people—a treasured people if you will.  The men were chosen to receive a sign in the flesh.  The entire nation was chosen to receive God’s law.  Paul even called it a trust.  These same people were chosen to receive a land promised long ago to them.

We need to understand that these chosen people are also chosen for the faith that we as Christians live in, but that chapter has not come for the entire nation of Israel.

We may ponder the why of this, but we know with clarity one benefit that we have received because of this.  God’s salvation has reached the world.  It has gone beyond his chosen people.  It is for everyone.

Paul explained to the church in Rome and now to those of us that want to understand more fully, that God’s heart desires all to repent and come to him and Jesus is the way to do that.  This story did not begin with Jesus dying on the cross or rising from the dead.

This story began long ago with a Sovereign God who from the beginning knew that his ultimate act of sovereignty would be to take the sin of the world upon himself for us.

We should know with certainty that God is sovereign. He reigns.  He alone reigns. There is no authority above him or beside him or even close to him.  We must know this.  Sometimes it is tough to be the clay, but that’s what we are.  God is above all things.

Potter and clay may seem too simple an analogy, but it hits the mark for sovereignty.

He will do with us what he knows needs to be done.  He is sovereign.  We are his.  We must know this with certainty.

We should be thankful that our sovereign God is a loving God who in his purest form we know simply as love.

Our human nature sometimes prompts us to say, “Well I can’t believe in a God who would…”  You fill in the blank. People have put plenty of qualifiers in that blank over the centuries.

Paul makes this point to his readers.  God is God.  That is that.  He is sovereign over all.  That includes your salvation.  It was and is his to give.  It was never yours to earn.  This should come as a relief if you really think about it.

We need to understand this point.  It was never ours to earn.  Our free will, our ability to choose, is not given so we can earn our salvation or right standing, but so we can receive it and take the fullness of life that we know to bring glory to God.

His own people didn’t get that, at least most of them anyway.  They made the mistakes of believing that their genealogy or their works took care of everything.

Paul is bringing these new followers of Jesus into the greater story of God’s sovereignty and his love.  We need to understand this as well.

There is one more thing to chew on here.  In God’s sovereignty, he saw fit not only to be true to his character in love but also in patience.  God is patient. 

Glory and wrath are real.  Some will know the glory of God and forget about anything and everything they ever suffered.
 

Some, contrary to God’s heart and his deepest desire, may come to know his wrath, but:

·     God’s heart prefers mercy over sacrifice.

·     He longs for reconciliation over wrath.

·     He practices patience but gives us a mission of urgency.

Paul shared that he had great anguish over his people’s blindness to the truth of the gospel but he also knew that he served a God of great patience and the story was not quite complete.

We need to understand that Peter and Paul are very much in sync here.  They just use different words.  The Lord is not slow in coming as we define fast and slow.  The Lord operates in his own time.  As sovereign God, he owns time too.

What we might call slowness, we should come to understand as patience.  His heart longs for all to repent and come to salvation in Jesus Christ.

We should be thankful for the Lord’s great patience.  How would you feel if God sent his Son to claim his children—those who had received the wonderful gift of salvation—the day before you were ready to profess Jesus as Lord.

We might just want to think in the terms or phrases of the prophet Joel for a moment.  He described a day that will come for all as the great and terrible day of the Lord.

Great and terrible—now that’s a combination!

It is a combination that reminds us to be thankful for our salvation—that we will never know the wrath of God—and for the glorious, abundant, and eternal life that in his sovereignty, God has bestowed upon us.

It is a combination that might also bring us a little anguish if there are those close to us that are blind to the truth.  God has not given us a burden but he has commissioned us with a mission.  Take the gospel to the world.  Start with your own family, then go to your friends, then go to people you don’t even know and maybe don’t even want to know, then just keep on going.

God is sovereign.  He will do what he will do and he will be fully just.  For us, that happens to be great news.  We didn’t earn anything but God in his sovereignty made us his forever.  We are given life and glory and abundance and eternity with him. 

Others are given to us as a mission field.  God has a heart that none perish and all know true and abundant life through Christ.  God has made a way to be right with him.  Jesus has commissioned us to deliver this good news.

God has shown us great patience but given us a mission of great urgency so that we need not know great anguish.  We will hear more on the Jews in the messages to come, but for now be thankful for God’s patience and take his good news to the world with great urgency.

Amen.

The Spirit Himself Testifies

Read Romans 8

Paul wrapped up the 7^th chapter with an interrogatory provocation—his specialty—and then answered with an exclamatory affirmation.  He was no stranger to those either. But the expository explanation comes in the next chapter.

What?

Paul was being Paul using his literary skills but he had more, much more to say on these subjects.  That brings us to chapter 8.

What a pitiful person I am that I can’t even live fully for God when I know how much he loves me.  I know that very love in Jesus Christ.  I know it well.  It is very personal and real; yet, it seems that I give in to my human nature time and time again.

My mind which really wants to follow Jesus with everything I have is at war with this physical creature that carries my mind around all day.

Jesus, thank you for saving me.  Thanks be to God for loving me so much that you have made me right with you, because I sure was never going to get there on my own.  And that brings us to the 8^th chapter and this point:

In Christ there is no condemnation.  We who have received this gift of life in Christ are not condemned even though our scorecards might say otherwise.  Our hearts and minds are set on following Jesus and they belong to God’s own Spirit. 

Paul said, “Now hear this.  Get this straight.  For those of you still in school, this will be on the test!”

We have an obligation to follow the Spirit’s leading.  We are freed from our rule following, flesh governing law.  That only showed us that we were on the path to death.

But the Spirit of God that brought Christ from the grave to life is with us to bring us to life in the here and now and for eternity.  Our relationship with God has changed.  Perhaps restored is the better verb.

We have moved from being a people who tried to follow rules in order to win God’s approval and we could never get them all right to being sons and daughters of a loving Father.  We are sons of the almighty God.  His Spirit works within us to recognize this relationship as we cry out Abba, Father, Dada.

In this relationship there is no condemnation.  We are God’s kids. 

Think of your own children.  Maybe skip over the terrible two’s and a few teenage years, or not—they are all precious to us.  Some gave us gray hair or hair loss or heart attacks, but our children are precious to us.  We would never condemn them.  We condemned many of the things that they did, but we would never condemn them. We would never kick them to the curb. 

Okay, when they are 40 or 45, maybe they need to move out of the house and get a job.  In today’s economy, maybe wait until they are 55 or 60.  I am being purposefully facetious.  We will never disown our kids.

No matter what they did or what they will do, they are our kids and we love them.  Sometimes we concurrently want to blister their bottoms or put them in time out for life or whatever parents do these days but they are always our children and we always love them.

This is our relationship with God, except in this relationship we are the kids.  We are the kids and we have the best big brother ever.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are heirs with Christ.  This God’s family stuff is just covered in benefits.

Paul was on a streak here:

·     No condemnation

·     Led by the Spirit

·     Adopted as God’s own kids

·     Siblings and heirs with Christ Jesus

·     Share in the glory of God that we know in Jesus

Then he threw in this bit about suffering.  Just as our brother suffered, so we might suffer as well.  Share in the glory—share in the suffering.  Wow, there’s always a catch, at least it seems that way sometimes.

Paul continues and notes that it is not a balanced scale here.  A little suffering now and then a little glory later—no, that’s not what he is saying.  Whatever suffering we have now pales in comparison to the glory to come.  The greatness of the glory that we will know is so extensive that it makes our suffering seem minuscule.  The time will come when we won’t even remember it.

Now when we are suffering in any form:  physical pain, loss of a loved one, being dejected, homeless, penniless, unfriended on Facebook, or whatever other extremes we might face; that is the biggest thing in our lives at that time.  It many ways when we are going through something it sometimes seems bigger than life.  Paul reminds us that the glory that awaits is so great it will make the worst of the worst of our suffering seem like nothing.

This is not just a promise.  It is something that the entire creation has been waiting for since it’s been broken.  The entire creation yearns for this glory and reconciliation.  And one of the biggest signs of that future reconciliation is us.  The sons and daughters of God will be revealed. 

Those who are led by the Spirit will step forward and be known as God’s children.  We long for the same thing that the entire creation longs for—complete reconciliation.  The Spirit of God within us wants to cry out for this reconciliation and the glory that we will all realize one day.

We hunger for it because God’s Spirit lives within us.  God’s Spirit lives within us.

Sometimes we think that God’s Spirit is there just to tell us what to do.  “C’mon Spirit, do I take the job or not?  I’m counting on you Spirit, do I pay my gas or electric bill or partially pay both?”

When we put the Spirit of the Living God in that kind of box, we miss out on so much.  God’s Spirit is within us and is testifying to his love for us.  Are we listening?  Do we hear the Spirit?  Are we trying to give God’s own Spirit multiple choice questions when his answers are not only narrative but poetry in motion?

Are we looking for the Spirit to participate in the mundane when he lives within us to bring us to the divine?  Of course the Spirit knows what’s happening in our lives—jobs, bills, relationships, stress, 2 losses for the Sooners before conference play even began.  Yes, the Sprit knows everything that we are dealing with.

We need to understand the syntax of the Spirit.  What?  We need to understand that God’s Spirit doesn’t have to have our words to communicate and to testify.

God’s Spirit—the same Spirit present at the creation of the world—doesn’t need our words.  The Spirit is not limited by our lexicon.  It moves in our hearts and minds and causes our bodies to groan as it speaks in God’s own language—love.  The Spirit calls out to Father and Son to begin this divine dance in our lives—this Perichoresis.

The Spirit is inviting us to let God go to work with us—Father, Son, and Spirit embracing us as the crown of the creation that we were made to be.  Sometimes we just don’t want to let go of our carnal nature.  Sometimes we claim the struggle as our own and wont’ let go.

Have you ever not known what to pray?  You knew things were upside down.  You knew you were hurting.  You knew that you didn’t know what to ask for but you knew to come into God’s presence and just let the Spirit take over.

The psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Sometimes we just need to close our mouth and shut our eyes and open our heart up to God and let the Spirit talk with Dad and Jesus.  They will do all the talking.  We don’t need to interject.  Our minds need to be set on “receive only” mode.   We don’t need to check things off of a list to make sure they didn’t miss anything.  We don’t need to hashtag any key phrases.

We need to just be still and let the Spirit of God that lives within us handle this end of the conversation.

What happens, and some here know this all so well, is that we realize what Paul realized 20 centuries ago.  Whatever is going on within us and whatever is going on around us  and whatever is happening to us is just grist for the mill for those who love God and have answered his call.

He will take everything—things that we can make sense of and things that make absolutely no sense at all to us—work for our good.  He will take all things and make them work for our good.  This is not a statement for the general population.  This is for us. 

For those of us who have accepted this wonderful gift of salvation, we realize that Christ Jesus is not only our brother, but we are on a journey to be more like him every day.  He is our model.  We are being made in the image and likeness of our brother, Jesus.  On another day, we might take a trip to the potter’s house to enhance this metaphor.

For now, know that we will always be God’s children.  He will never stop loving us.  His Spirit lives within us and knows exactly what we are going through when we suffer.  God takes everything that happens to us and uses it to make us more like Jesus.

That’s bigtime.  That’s not just God’s peace within us.  That’s not just knowing that things will be okay.  That’s not just getting through life.

That’s victory.

That’s the perfect time for another one of Paul’s interrogatory provocations. 

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Paul, of course, answers his own questions.  God loved us so much that he gave his Son for us.  If he would do that while we were still alienated from him, how much more will he do now that we are his kids and in right standing with him?  

How much more will he do for us now that his own Spirit lives within us?

Paul loved answering questions with questions.  He gives us this to think about.  The Spirit is with us.  Jesus intercedes for us with God the Father.  What can get in the way of us bearing everything to God?  Really, what can get in the way?

Trouble?

Hardship?

Persecution?

Famine?

Nakedness?

Danger?

The sword?

We have already overcome all of these things by being right with God.  In Christ Jesus we have been victors over whatever the world might throw at us.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Sometimes we think that everything is out of whack.  Look at the world.  It surely seems to be a complete mess.  But for us, things are just what they should be.

We need to stop trying to get in sync with the world and know that we are right with God, that he will never condemn us, and that the victory we know in Christ Jesus goes far beyond anything that we may face now or in the future.

Why?  For us, there is no condemnation.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus!  We live in God’s love.  We are his kids and that’s forever. When we suffer, we know there is so much more glory in store for us that our suffering won’t even be a distant memory.

We know that God’s Spirit is within us and God is for us.  Even when we don’t know what to say we need to hear God saying, “I’ve got this.”  His own Spirit that lives within us is testifying, “I’ve got this.”

There is nothing that will separate us from God’s love.  We might try to go run and hide from God.  We might try to ignore him, but he is not going away and he is not kicking us to the curb.  We are his kids and even our worst mistakes will be used to shape us in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.

Joseph told his brothers, “What you intended for evil, God used for good.”

Paul tells us that God will take everything happening to us and everything happening within us and use it to make us more like Jesus.  His love is at work in us.

Paul wraps up this chapter with one of the most declarative statements in all of his letters.  It is worth keeping.  It is not on our memory verse list but you might want to put it on yours or at least bookmark it in your Bible.

 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.

Now that is an affirmation that we should hold on to and remind ourselves and each other of every day.  This 8^th chapter has been full of affirmations.  It is almost a greatest hits collection in itself.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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.

~

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.

~

God’s own Spirit is alive within us and wants to testify to us and through us.  Last week we noted that we still have to wrestle with sin, but we don’t have to wrestle with God’s Spirit.

Let his Holy Spirit testify to us and through us.  Let God’s Spirit truly live with us.

Amen!