Down to The Core (Paul Penelton)

Well, good morning, Leamington EMC.

It's great to be with you this morning.

I left my house at 6:00 AM this morning, and so if my hair is a

little out of place, I'm just kidding.

We'll be fine. My name is Paul Pendleton.

I'm one of four pastors at Straffordville EMC. 2 are lay

pastors, and two are on staff. I'm one of the two on staff.

And as I'm sure you've gathered by my name so far, I am not like

the others. I am not Deech, and I don't just

mean my last name, my first name too.

I have a bone to pick with some of you people.

One of the first things I learned when I was hired at

Straffordville is that I was the only Paul at the church.

And when I came here today, I talked to your administrator,

your treasurer, and I said are there any Paul's in this church?

And they said no, not one. When I asked why at our church,

they said they only named their children after their favorite

biblical characters. However, no one could tell me

what they had against the Apostle Paul.

I mean, he wrote over half the New Testament and is referred to

as the greatest apostle. Unbelievable.

So why? Why are they all?

Why when there are already so many Peter Jacobs Abes?

Why are there no Paul's? There's even one guy in our

church. His last name is Peters.

He has five other brothers, not one named Paul.

Guess what? They named him?

Peter. Peter Peters.

Are you kidding me? Did Meno Simons make a no Paul

policy for his followers? That's my question.

Well, just to get back at you, I'm preaching out of the book of

Romans today written by the Apostle Paul.

I'm just kidding. I'm not that petty.

I am preaching out of that familiar passage this morning in

order to remind you or perhaps for the first time for some of

you really explore a theme that is a deep down to the core of

Christianity. And I hope you like to drill

down or or bite down to the core of your faith because that is

where we form our core convictions.

You see when I was growing up, my mom was a nurse and she had a

core conviction. An apple a day keeps the doctor

away and everyday she would put an apple on my plate or in my

lunch box. And now today I love apples.

But back then I struggled to eat anything that wasn't chocolate

covered or candy coated. I don't know if you can relate

to that, but the apples my mom gave us were neither.

They were the real deal. And in order to ensure that we

ate them and didn't throw them in the garbage, she made us

prove to her that we ate them. So after we ate our apple, we

had to put the apple core back in our lunch box to bring back

home for inspection. And inspected she did.

And we had to eat it all the way down to the core or face the

consequences. And she would say this, you had

to eat your apple all the way down to the core in order to get

all the nutrition that the apple could offer.

So as we begin to unpack our key text today in Romans 831 and 39,

I want you to think about your own faith journey and ask

yourself, am I getting all that my faith in Jesus can offer?

Am I living according to my core convictions?

You see, if you want to live an abundant life and make a

difference on this earth, you need to develop core

convictions. Of course, you have to identify

them first. If you don't know what your core

convictions are, well then how do you know who you are or what

you stand against? I know that's blunt, but your

convictions are the truest things about you.

You are your convictions, or more accurately, you become your

convictions. For better or for worse, your

deepest held beliefs will define who you become and who you are.

So let's discover where we start.

Do you want to know what the Apostle Paul score conviction

was? Here it is.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

That wasn't just the foundation upon which Paul built his life.

He banked all of eternity on it. You see, the last few verses of

Romans eight form the pinnacle or the mountaintop of all of

Paul's words to his readers. And these words were intended to

lift our hearts to a new understanding of our key theme

today, which is God's grace. Why is this important?

It's important because very few Christians understand what grace

is really all about. Very few Christians comprehend

what God has promised to do in our lives because of grace.

To be honest, it's life changing for the believer.

Let's dive in now and look at the fact that Paul poses 5

rhetorical questions in this section of the last few verses

of Romans 8. And these five questions point

us to the clearest description in the entire New Testament of

what it means to live by grace. Here they are.

Who can be against us? Who will provide for us?

Who can accuse us? Who is it that condemns you?

And finally, who can separate us from God?

And I believe the answers to those questions are the best

description of grace in the entire New Testament.

You can summarize grace really in one sentence.

God is for us. God is for us.

I want to challenge you to meditate on that truth all next

week. I think it can revolutionize

your life in light of the fact that God is for us.

Let's look at 5 things we need to learn about grace today.

The first thing we learn is that grace means I can always count

on God's power. Paul asked in verse 31.

What shall we say then in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

If God is for me, who can be against me?

Frederick Douglass, he was a black slave reformer.

He once said one plus God equals a majority.

And what he meant was that nothing should ever discourage

believers when we recognize the fact that God is on our side.

Sorry, have you ever felt as a child or a parent if we could

just get that one guy on our team then we would win.

Some of you who follow sports who are as old as me might

remember when a future Hall of Fame hockey player got traded

from the Edmonton Oilers to the New York Rangers.

The Rangers had not won the Stanley Cup in 40 years.

So you can forgive this overzealous and sacrilegious New

York Post headline. The Messiah has arrived.

They truly believe that this larger than life leader could

take their team back to the promised land, and he did.

Not only that, if you think about it, if confidence backed

by talent can help A-Team or a business find success, how much

more confidence should we have as believers when the greatest

power in the universe is backing us?

That, in a nutshell, is the message behind verse 31.

The power of God is so overwhelming that no enemy of

ours can stand against it. Do you believe that the Apostle

John confirms this in first John 4/4?

You, dear children, are from God and overcome them because the

one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the

world. So what is it in your life right

now that's overwhelming you? Financial problems, Emotional

problems, Past trauma, perhaps a relationship problem?

The Bible says the greater is he that is in you than the he that

is in the world. God's power is part of God's

grace, and grace means I can always count on God's power and

nothing, nothing in this world can overwhelm me if I put it in

the hands of the Lord. Why is this important?

In this age of anxiety, we sometimes lose hope because we

do have people who are against us.

The Bible says the devil is against us.

He wants to attack us. He wants to get us down, He

wants to destroy us. However, the Christian never

needs to be intimidated. If God is for us, who can be

against us? Now I'm going to get a little

personal here. If that's OK, then I'll walk

away from my notes just for a second.

I had been a pastor for probably 25 years, the lead pastor of a

Church of about 220 people. Our church had grown from about

85 people to about 220 people really over the course of about

three years. And and then it started to

plateau. I went to the church board and I

kept saying we've got to do something.

We either have to plant another church, we were 90% full, or we

have to build onto the church or we have to start sending out

missionaries into the community. We have to do something.

And their response was no to all of my suggestions.

No. And it started to to really

press down on me, really, really disturbed me that that we

weren't trying to expand the Kingdom.

And I actually began to get very anxious and then suddenly every

little slight against me seemed to be really overwhelming and I

began to have anxiety. This is why it's important

because even pastors get anxiety.

Pastors struggle. I don't know if you know this,

but during COVID, 50% of pastors resign from their church due to

stress and anxiety. What did they forget?

What did I forget? In Philippians 413, the apostle

Paul declares confidently, I can do all things through Christ who

strengthens me. Grace means that I can always

count on God's power. Commit that verse to memory.

I I mean that when I say that and access it whenever fear

overcomes what you're trying to accomplish for God's Kingdom or

whenever you face an enemy or even an abuser.

Remember, because of God's grace, you can count on God's

power. The second thing we learn about

grace comes from Romans 8 verse 32.

Romans 8:32

We're just going through the verses now, which teaches that I

can always count on God's provision.

Here the apostle Paul writes he meaning God did, who did not

spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also along with him, generously give us all

things? I want you to think about this.

If God loved me enough to send his Son to die for me, then

surely he loves me enough to care for all my needs.

Most people think I don't want to come before God and talk

about him with my finances or about my emotional needs or any

small problem I've got. I only want to give God the big

the big things. Well, this verse says the exact

opposite. God, your loving Heavenly Father

not only solved your biggest problem when He sent Jesus

Christ to die for you on the cross, but He most certainly

wants to take care of all your little problems as well.

What Father doesn't want to fix all of their children's

problems? I can't think of one thing I I

wouldn't do to help my kids if I could.

The point is that because of God's grace, I can always count

on God's provision. God wants to provide for my

needs. Can you imagine somebody buying

you a house and you say, well, thank you, Would it be OK if I

lay down in the bed at night? Do you think they'd answer, no,

of course not you can. It's your bed, You've already

received the gift. So when God saves you, you get

to experience the full benefits of salvation.

Here's my question. Are you accessing all of God's

grace? Some people ask about verse 31.

How do we know that God is for us?

Well, verse 32 tells us how we know that God is for us.

He sent His Son to die as a sacrifice for us.

Could you do that? Allow your child to die so that

a stranger, perhaps even an enemy, could live?

If our God could do that for us, is there anything He wouldn't do

for those who put their faith in His Son Jesus Christ?

Grace means I can not only count on God for His power, but I can

also count on His provision. Psalm 37, four says delight

yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your

heart, not just your needs but your desires.

The scriptures say we can. We can pray for anything that

doesn't say God will always grant everything you always ask

for. We are like small children to

God, so sometimes we ask for things that really aren't

necessary and maybe are a little crazy.

But if we are aligned with God's Word and God's desires, if we're

really delighting ourselves in the Lord, that means we're

putting Him first in our lives, wanting Him to be #1 wanting Him

to live through us. And I want God's will more than

anything else then. And then my desires are going to

be aligned with His will. And He will give you the desires

of your heart, Psalm 8411 tells us.

For the Lord God is a son and a shield.

The Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is

blameless. Do you have to be perfect for

God to bless you? No.

Why? Because God has justified you.

He has declared you you perfect through the sacrifice of His Son

Jesus Christ. Not that you are perfect, but

He's declared you perfect because of what Jesus has done

for you. No good thing does he withhold.

Grace means I can always count on God's provision.

He will always take care of me. He will always meet my needs.

My response to this then is to ask over 20 times in the New

Testament. I'm commanded.

Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you will find whatever

things you asked for in prayer. Believe that you received them

and you shall have them. The believer who trusts God

lives a life without limitation. Paul guarantees that in

Philippians 4/19. He says, My God shall supply all

your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ

Jesus. So one whose resources are

limitless has promised to provide for all our needs in

life. He wants to help us.

God wants to meet your needs. Grace teaches me I can always

count on God's power in my life and I can always count on His

provision. There's a third thing we need to

learn about grace this morning. It's that I can always count on

God's protection. It's found in the question who

will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen.

It is God who justifies, who can accuse us.

Many people want to put you down, to accuse you, to

criticize you for being a Christian.

But who is the chief accuser? The answer is found in

Revelation 12/10. Then I heard a loud voice in

heaven saying, now have come the salvation and the power and the

Kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ, for the

accuser of our brothers who accuses them before our God day

by day has been hurled down. Of course he's talking about

Satan who's continually accusing us before God.

But thankfully, we read in verse 33, it is God who justifies.

Grace means I can always count on God's protection, not just

his power, not just his provision, but His protection.

I want you to imagine a courtroom scene in heaven.

God sits in the judgment seat. Satan is the prosecuting

attorney. He's bringing all this evidence

against you. Look at what they've done.

How can they claim to be Christian?

How can you love them? How can you promise to meet

their needs when they've done all these things?

But the Bible says we have a defense.

And who's that attorney for the defense first, John 21, My dear

children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in

our defense, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 He is the atoning

sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the

sins of the whole world. Scripture says that Jesus Christ

is our defense attorney. What a beautiful truth.

However, if you've got the judge and the defense attorney on your

side, and the price for your crime was already paid by Jesus

Christ, then your accuser, Satan does not have a case.

Lot of people, lot of Christians live in guilt.

Always, always living in guilt. I'm not good enough.

The scripture says you are. Have faith in what Jesus Christ

did for you. Believers will never have to

face our due penalty because, well, you've passed from a life

of judgement into a life of freedom.

You are free. Remember Job, The Bible says he

was a righteous man. God says to Satan, look at Job,

let's use him as a test case. Have you, have you considered my

servant Job? That's what he says.

Look at what a righteous man he is.

God is kind of bragging about his servant Job, and Satan says

this. Does Job fear God for nothing?

Satan replied. Have you not put a hedge around

him and his household and everything he has, but now

stretch it out your hand and strike everything he has and

surely he will curse you to your face.

But God knows the conviction deep down of Job's heart that

nothing can separate him from the love of God.

The key to the book of Job is, is the question, why does a man

serve God? Does Job serve God for nothing?

Well, Job lost everything, his wealth, his health, his family

as the devil was allowed to take it all away.

And yet Job kept his integrity and he remained true to God.

And Satan was accusing him. And Satan tries to accuse you

before God. I'm sure you feel it at times he

tries to accuse you and make you feel guilty.

But someday, someday, God is going to settle all accounts.

Do you know that? Even the false accusations that

have been made against you, God is going to settle that score as

well. Do you feel unfairly attacked?

Grace means I can always count on God's protection.

And that leads us now to the fourth thing that we can learn

from grace. I can always count on God's

pardon. We find this in verse 34.

Who then is the one who condemns?

What's the answer? No one, Christ Jesus who died

more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of

God and also interceding for us. Who shall condemn us?

No one. The question is, have you

received your pardon? Have you stopped beating

yourself up? The point is that grace teaches

me. I can always count on God's

pardon. I'm not going to be perfect.

Christians aren't perfect. We're just forgiven.

He's saying, who is it that condemns you?

Well, it's not Jesus Christ. So many people grow up feeling

that God hates them or God is against them.

That's the opposite of what Scripture actually tells you.

He died for you. He loves you.

He's justified you. And as the previous verse said,

as the previous verse said, so live like it.

Accept your pardon. You are free.

How do we know that? Romans 81 says therefore there

is now no condemnation. If you're a Christian, you are

living without condemnation. It doesn't mean you're perfect.

You still sin, you still make mistakes.

When you do, you confess, you repent, and remember your

judgement has already been paid for by Jesus Christ.

No condemnation for everybody. Well, no, no, not for everybody,

for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Jesus

Christ the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin

and death. Freedom from condemnation is

only true for the Christian, only for the Christian.

It is Jesus gift to you the believer, but you need to

receive it fully, you see. Well how could that be true?

First Peter 318 says for Christ died once for all, the

righteousness, the righteous story for the unrighteous to

bring you to God. He was put to death in the body,

but made alive by the Spirit. So Jesus Christ was the

righteous dying for the unrighteous.

Who's that? Us.

When he was on the cross, He took every sin that you and I

have ever committed, past, present and future, and He took

our condemnation. He was condemned so that we

might live without condemnation. What is required of me?

John 318 says whoever believes in him is not condemned.

It's belief. And what is belief?

It's trust. How do we know someone trusts

the Lord? They follow Jesus.

That's what Jesus said to us. Follow me.

The Bible says that's what grace is all about.

It's by grace we are saved through faith.

See, when I put my faith in God's grace, I experienced no

condemnation. Grace means I can always count

on God's part. Who then is the one who

condemns? Verse says no one.

Jesus Christ, who died more than that, was raised to life at the

right hand of God, and he is also interceding for us.

Can you believe that Jesus Christ is praying for you?

He's interceding for you right now.

Even when you make mistakes, He's praying for you.

Scripture teaches that Jesus is our high priest.

Did you know in the Old Testament there were no chairs

in the temple? The priest never sat down.

Why? His work was never finished.

He was always sacrificing continually for the sins of the

people. And then at the end of his

shift, another priest would come in and continually sacrifice for

the people because people are continually sinning.

But when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid it all.

Past, present and future. His work has been finished from

the cross. He said it is finished.

Our crime has been paid in full. And that's the difference

between every other religion and Christianity.

Other religions are based on what you have to do in order to

please God. That's the rules, that's the

religiosity. But the Christian life is not

based on doing. It's based on what's been done

for us. Our penalty has been paid

through Jesus Christ. And grace means I can always

count on God for His power, His provision, His protection, and

His pardon. And the 5th and final thing

about grace that I can learn is that grace means I can always

count on God for His presence. Do you know how comforting that

is? He is always with me.

He will never leave me. In verses 35 to 38, the question

is who can separate us? Who shall separate us from the

love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or

persecution or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword?

Let's take note of the word trouble.

Jesus said in John 1633. In this world you will have

trouble, but that can't ever separate you from the love of

God. You're going to have trouble in

this world, and no trouble you encounter will ever separate you

from Jesus Christ. How about the word hardship?

In the Greek it literally means stress.

How many people feel stress? Everybody.

Our relationship with Jesus may be stressed, but that's not

enough to separate you from the love of Christ.

Persecution describes what other people do to you, it says.

And not even famine or nakedness.

People who are naked in that time just they couldn't even

find have money to to buy any clothing or or have anybody make

them clothing. They were just so lost danger or

sword. Nothing can separate us from the

love of Jesus as it is written for your sake.

We face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be

slaughtered. What does that verse have to do

with what we're talking about? Well, Paul, here, the apostle is

quoting from Psalm 4422. He's referring to the Jews as a

nation suffering and being scattered all over the world.

They've they've lost the land of Israel for years.

And Paul uses an illustration to ask if all that happened, should

we lose hope? No.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who

loved us. So many Christians live in

defeat. Paul now shares another one of

his deep convictions. For I am convinced that neither

death nor life, neither angels nor demons, the present or the

future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything

and all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isn't that incredible What a great chapter Romans 8 is?

He starts with no condemnation, and he ends with no separation.

Absolutely nothing can ever separate the believer from God's

love. Nothing you can ever do will

make God stop loving you. He loves you on your good days

and your bad days as a parent, you know that, right?

My daughters sometimes were awful to us.

You know, parents. Parents get that sometimes,

right? Especially moms.

Oh boy, what my wife had to put up with.

It's incredible. My daughter said some awful

things to them, never to me. I don't know why.

Probably because she had to discipline them.

Anyway, she never, never stopped loving them.

Scriptures teach this over and over.

Our final scripture proof from comes from John 1027.

This morning it says this. My sheep listen to my voice.

That's how you know you're following Jesus.

I know them and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,

and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my

hand. What comfort it is to know that

we can lose everything in life, but we can never lose our

relationship with our heavenly Father.

But just like your kids and my kids, they can walk away.

We can walk away from God. He never stops loving us, but we

can choose to blasphemy. I think it's difficult to lose

our salvation, but it's it's it's possible we can we can

reject Jesus, but he never rejects us.

You are secure in God's love because of this Amazing Grace.

The love depicted in Romans 831 to 39 architects today.

It's it's not a sentimental love.

It's a love that's bound by blood and sweat and tears.

It was a costly love. It's a love that's been knocked

down but gotten back up every time.

And when we worship, we don't just sing in the present tense.

We sing out of our past tense memories and our future tense

dreams. We sing out of the sum total of

our lives. Each song spans our lifetime.

So the older we get, the more capacity we must worship God.

I don't think I'll ever know the kind of persecution that Paul

endured, But each of these experiences was an event.

It was an event that revealed more of God's love and more of

God's grace. So if you're in a tough place

today, take heart. No one likes tough times in the

present tense. But as author Mark Batterson

writes, those tests add tenor to our testimony, and those are

often the memories we cherish the most.

Isn't this weird? Our great grandparents love

telling stories about adding water to ketchup to make tomato

soup during the Great Depression.

Did you ever hear that? Using the outhouse in frozen

temperatures and walking through a foot of snow to school that

was uphill both ways? We look back on challenges with

a touch of nostalgic pride. According to one poll, 60% of

those who survived the blitzkrieg that was during World

War 2 remembered it as the happiest times of their lives.

Why? Because it's the tough times,

the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the famine, the

nakedness, the danger in the sword that test our love.

But it's also how it's proved the love of Christ was improved

by his miracles. As impressive as those miracles

were. His love was proved on a Roman

cross and it's proven to be fail proof.

The cross is God's way of saying over my dead body.

No matter what trouble or hardship or persecution you

face, this too shall pass. More importantly, Jesus is with

you and He is for you. So what if we decided to take

God at His word today? What if we decided to believe in

God's gift of grace? The apostle Paul did, even

though his life was way more difficult than anything you will

ever have to face. Job did even though he lost

everything. What if you decided today to get

back to the core conviction of God's grace that nothing can

separate you from the love of Christ?

What would happen in your life? Here's what would happen because

of God's grace, we won't ever have to worry about opposition

from God. We don't ever have to worry

about dire situations from God. He has promised to provide.

We don't ever have to worry about any accusation from God.

He's not against me, He's for me.

He defends me when Satan accuses me.

We don't ever have to worry about condemnation from God

because Jesus took our punishment.

And as a result, we don't ever have to worry about separation

from God. Why?

He will never let us go. Isn't that a wonderful truth?

God is for us. That's what grace is all about.

It's summed up in these 4 words. God is for us.

Would you pray with me that that message lands today?

And I pray that this is an encouragement to you today.

Whatever you're dealing with, Let's pray, dear Lord, this gift

of grace for the believers beyond all of our dreams.

We now know, Lord, that this is a gift of grace.

And what it means is we can count on your power and your

provision and your protection and your pardon and finally your

eternal presence. And Lord, we ask that if there

are any here today, we've not accepted that gift of grace

today, that they would receive it and start to live as a free

person in your son Jesus name. Lord, we also ask if there are

any here that have not decided to follow your son, that you

would compel them today to make that choice, to decide to follow

you into freedom and eternity by declaring your son Jesus to be

Lord of their lives and by believing that you raised him

from the dead. Together, Lord, may we all

prepare our hearts for what we're about to do to celebrate

the gift of grace you've provided through communion.

We pray this in Jesus precious name, Amen and Amen.