God is for Us

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Jonah, Jonah Faulkner.

I'm the student pastor here at Church of the Grove for our Wannack Grove campus.

But I've been given the privilege to speak this morning to preach and finish out the series that we've been going through in Romans 8, More Than Conquerors.

And Russ made sure to make it known to me about 30 minutes before the service that he wants to preach this message so bad because the passage of scripture we're going through is so good.

And he basically told me, like, you better do a good job.

So I'm excited for this morning because of what we're going through and because it is such a glorious passage.

And I know that God is going to speak to us in so many ways as he already has through the series.

But I got to start us off on a bit of a discouraging note.

Man, we stink.

We stink.

Do you believe that we stink?

I believe I stink.

I believe that you stink.

And if you tell me you don't stink, then I will not believe you because we stink.

We're terrible, terrible people.

The human flesh is terrible, terrible.

We are so disobedient to God.

We are so messy.

We are so messed up, and we have so much in our life that's just mess.

For a lack of better words, lack of more appropriate words, we got some mess in our life.

We all got some mess.

Um recently, um, I just got married, as most of you may know.

Um, yeah.

Um, I'm actually surprised I made it a little over two minutes um before I talked about getting married.

Um, but man, it was such a great time.

Marriage is such a blessing.

Um, if you don't believe marriage is a blessing, then maybe you need to talk through some stuff with your spouse and get it situated out because marriage is a blessing.

It is good.

God is glorified through marriage.

It is such a blessing.

However, and I knew this, I had plenty of people telling me that marriage is great, although they would follow it up with it's bad at the same time.

Um, but man, walking up to marriage, um, I was confident, I was excited.

Um, I wasn't ever really nervous until about a week before, maybe a week and a half, I kind of came to the realization that man, when you get married, your mess becomes someone else's mess.

And someone else is gonna know your mess.

And that scared me, that scared me.

Not only, I mean, there's a couple reasons why it scared me.

Um the first one is uh it it always seemed like leading up to the to the wedding, um, that people seem to be reminding Reese a lot that, hey, it's not too late to turn back.

It's not it's not too late to to change your mind.

Um, and it definitely doesn't help when it's coming from her dad the night of our rehearsal dinner.

Um and I'm standing right there next to him and I'm just like, oh, hey, what's going on here?

Um but it was always funny because people always told that to Reese, but never told it to me.

It was never Jonah, it's never too late to turn back.

It was always Reese, hey, it's never too late to go the other direction.

That made me nervous.

Um, but man, when you get down to it, it made me nervous to share my mess, the stuff that's broken in my life with Reese.

Um, I don't know, she's back there.

Um, y'all tell her, hey, after the service, pay attention to me right now.

Um it scared me to share the mess in my life because I didn't want her opinion of me, her love for me to change.

I didn't want her her the way that she viewed me to be altered.

I wanted her to continue want to want to marry me.

I wanted her to continue to love me and want to spend the rest of her life with me.

So I was scared.

I was a little nervous to share my mess, the stuff that's broken in my life.

Now, luckily, Reese is a saint and she loves people like Jesus loved us so well.

So she forgave me for my mess.

She she um was willing to accept me and continue to do life with me forever, regardless and in spite of the mess that's in my life.

But what I want to point out is that there's something within us, something within me, that just wants to cover up the mess, the brokenness in my life.

I don't want to let it be known.

I don't want it to be out in the public, I don't want it to be out in the open.

I want to cover up the mess in my life, I want to cover up the brokenness.

This happens in whether it's life at home, life at work, if I make a mistake at work, I automatically want to cover it up because I don't want to get fired.

Um but but more than that, it happens in my spiritual life.

As hard as it is, and even though I know the grace, the endless amounts of grace that God gives us through Jesus Christ, it's still hard for me to when I mess up, when I fall into sinfulness because I'm a sinful person, it's hard for me to come to God openly about my mess because I just want to cover it up.

I don't think it's true only for me, but I would imagine that it's probably true for you because it's it's just a part of human condition.

You go back to the very first humans that were ever created, the story of Adam and Eve, when sin entered into the world and they fall short of the glory of God, what was their immediate reaction?

They were embarrassed, they covered themselves up, they were ashamed of themselves and they hid themselves.

They tried to hide their sin from God because they were ashamed of it.

If we're being honest, this is the case for all of us.

We think that our deepest and our darkest sins are gonna somehow alter the way that God views us.

The sins that bring so much shame and guilt, we believe that it's gonna change our relationship with the Lord as if he already doesn't know about it, as if he already doesn't know our deepest and our darkest secrets, our deepest and darkest sins that we don't want him to know.

He already knows about them.

But we're so quick to try to cover those up because we believe that the way he views us, the way he loves us is gonna change if he knows the mess, the brokenness, the sin that is in our life.

And on top of this, the enemy is really great at getting us to buy into the mess that we believe that our brokenness will alter the way God views us.

The enemy wants to attack us and make us believe that if God knew exactly what you've done in your life, then he would want nothing to do with you.

Satan wants you to believe that there is no way with everything that's happened in your past, whether it's happened in the past, right now, or in the future, he wants us to believe that there is no way that God could possibly love us with that mess that is in our life.

I think some of us may believe that the Lord has forgiven us, and we may believe in the good news of Jesus and believe that his sacrifice paid for the penalty of our sin and that we are now forgiven in Christ.

However, a lot of us that believe that also tend to believe the lie that that forgiveness of God is limited, that there's a limit on God's forgiveness, that there will come a point in our life after we've already put our faith in Christ and we continue to fall short just because of our flesh, just because of what Paul talks about in Romans 7, we we believe that even though we are forgiven, there will come a point where we're just too sinful and we've just done too much where God is going to say, That's it, I'm done with you.

Satan wants us to believe that.

It's our sinful nature to cover up our sin because deep down in our souls, it's easy to fall into the trap that there are conditions on God's love.

It's easy to fall into the trap and the lie that when God says he loves us, he really means I will love you unless.

Or I will love you if you do this.

That's just not true.

That's a lie that Satan wants us to believe.

And I have conversations with people all the time, especially in college, as I was, you know, just talking to freshmen coming in, or even just my friends throughout the years, there were so many times I would share the gospel with someone, and someone would say, That's great, but there's just no way.

There's no way that can be beat.

There's no way that God could forgive me for the things that I've done.

And this is coming from young adults who have, while they're probably living willingly in sin at the moment, they don't even have 40, 50 years under their belt.

But they have this lie and believe this lie that they are too sinful and too far gone to be saved by God's grace.

And I think a lot of us have have fought that lie and struggled with that lie before.

So here's the question that I want us to answer this morning.

I want us to get it all out on the table and ask this.

If we hand our mess in terms of our sinfulness, our brokenness, over to Christ, will he still love us?

If we hand our mess over to Christ, will he still love us?

And just to put it all out there in case you stop listening to me in 10 minutes, yes, Christ will still love you, regardless of your mess, regardless of your sin, regardless of your brokenness, Christ will love you.

He will love you.

God will love you because his love is unconditional and it's never ending.

So as we finish the series, More Than Conquerors, we're going to be looking at the last part of Romans 8.

And Russ, I think, um, touched on the first week that Romans 8 is known as just the pinnacle of Scripture, that everything just reaches a climax in Romans 8 because there's so much life-giving truth.

There's so much hope found in Romans 8.

But this passage, Romans 8, 31 through 39, that we're going to, is, I mean, it's glorious.

It is a glorious passage.

We've already read so far in this series that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation.

We have read that we have been indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and with that, we have been adopted by God as sons and daughters.

We also know that the Spirit that now dwells within us is interceding for us on our behalf.

When we have groanings that are too deep for words, the Holy Spirit is there interceding for us.

And last week we talked about that all things, all things are being used to work together for our good.

And that's good news.

Romans 8 has some good, encouraging news in it.

But as if there wasn't enough life-giving, just hope-filled words in Romans 8, Paul tops it off with Romans 8, 31 through 39.

And it just gives us a declaration.

It reveals to us the unconditional, the never-ending, the steadfast love of God in spite of our past, in spite of our mess, in spite of our brokenness.

So we're going to do something a little different this morning because I believe this passage, it's just glorious.

God's word is glorious.

All of God's word is breathed out by God, and it's powerful, and it pierces hearts and it changes lives.

But this passage, man, I truly believe that when we hear the voice of God, it deserves praise.

It deserves worship.

So what we're going to do, I'm going to read this passage, Romans 8, 31 through 39, that we're going to be walking through.

I'm going to read it all together.

And man, when I get done, I'm not going to force you to do this because I want you to do this willingly.

When I get done, I just want us to praise.

I just want us to clap.

I want us to shout, hallelujah, or praise God, whatever it may be, because God is worthy of praise.

And I think we're going to see that in these verses.

So I'm going to read this and then we're just going to go crazy.

Romans 8, 31 through 39.

Paul says, What then shall we say to these things?

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

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he also not with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to give condemn Christ Jesus is the one who died.

More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

And Paul says, No, no.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

I told Russ I could really just read this passage over and over again for 35 minutes and we would be good.

Man, okay, so we're just gonna dig, we're gonna we're gonna dig and go through this passage as slowly and in depth as we can and still get you out of here by lunch.

But in this passage, Paul's gonna pose five questions.

He raises five questions throughout this passage.

And what's important to note is all these questions, they're rhetorical.

If you don't know what that is, that means that the answer to these questions is just assumed and it's embedded in the question itself.

These are all questions that we know the answer to.

We know the answer to.

However, it's hard to believe the answer to these questions.

And we're often scared to ask these questions because they're simple and common sense questions, but they're also very difficult to ask, and they're very big lies that Satan throws into our life.

But Paul is bold and he does not shy away from these hard and embarrassing, possibly questions.

So we're gonna go through each five questions that Paul asks, starting with Romans 8.31.

Paul says, What then shall we say to these things?

Talking about everything we've read in Romans 8 so far, all the glory, all the hope that's been filled, what shall we say to these things?

We shall say, if God is for us, who can be against us?

What's the answer to this question?

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

No one.

We know that.

We know that if God is for us, then there is no one, nothing that can be against us.

We know this, but we got to realize that the key to this question is found in the first part of this sentence when Paul says, if God is for us.

That's the only reason that there's one answer to this question.

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

There's one answer and it's no one.

But if Paul just said, Who can be against us?

There's a list of answers.

Entire nations, entire people groups, Satan, whatever it may be, but he starts out by saying, if God is for us, who can be against us?

No one.

No one.

Paul knew that no power was found in and of himself.

It was only the power of God that is for us that gave Paul the confidence and the boldness to ask a question, who can be against us?

That's a bold question to ask when literally entire nations are against you.

But he says, if God is for us, then who can be against us?

Only when we understand that God is for us will we be confident and sure there's no one or nothing that can possibly be against us.

This is a beautiful truth that God is for us.

However, I feel like I would not be doing my job as teaching God's word to explain and go into depth a little bit more about who he means when he says us.

When Paul says this God is for us, who's the us?

And you might get mad at me when I say this and you might want to throw something at me, but I pray that if you do get mad at what I'm about to say, that the Holy Spirit would speak to you and open your eyes to possibly repentance in Jesus Christ.

But when Paul says if God is for us, he is not talking about mankind.

He is not talking about all humans, he is not talking about the human race.

When Paul says if God is for us, he is talking to God's people.

He is talking to God's children, he is talking to those who have surrendered themselves to God and placed their faith in Jesus Christ and have had their identity changed by Christ.

It's a popular opinion in the culture we live in that God is for us, just because we live in America.

But when Paul says if God is for us, he is talking about God's children.

God is for his children, he is for his people, he is for the people that he has chosen to surrender themselves to him.

If you don't believe me, we we just look at the way that this is worded.

He starts his statement with if God is for us.

Not God is for us, who can be against us, if God is for us.

The if kind of tells us that there's a possibility that God is not for you.

There's a possibility that God is not for a certain people.

We know from the book of James that God has enemies.

He tells us if that we're if we're friends with the world, then we are enemies to God.

How could God be for his enemies?

It doesn't make sense.

That us as those who have been adopted by God and accepted the free gift of God's grace and have been changed by the blood of Christ.

I only point that out because the worst thing you could possibly do is go throughout life believing that God is for you when he's not.

It's a hard truth, it takes a lot of heart evaluation, but believe me, you don't want to be on the other side of God's wrath.

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

But if God is against us, then who could possibly be for you?

So going back to the good news of this, and if if you can't confidently say that God is for you, then I want to invite you, as you listen to the rest of the sermon, to hear the grace that is in Christ, the hope that is in Christ, and give yourself to Christ, surrender yourself to God so that God is now for you.

But moving on, with this being said, if God is for us, who can be against us?

Nobody.

Nobody, because we are his, we are God's children, and God is for us the same way a father should be for their son.

This is good news.

God is for us.

Moving on to Romans 8.32.

Um, man, I'm running out of time.

Okay.

Romans 8.32, it says, He do not, who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him, with Christ, graciously give us all things?

So the second rhetorical question that Paul asks is if God is willing to give up his only son for you, will he not also with Christ graciously give us all things?

That makes sense.

That makes sense.

Of course, he's going to give us all things.

Of course, if he was willing to give his only son for us, he will give us all things.

I truly believe that everything that's written in God's word points to the truth that's embedded in this text.

Everything in the Old Testament, as you walk through Israel's continual deliverance, by God's grace and mercy upon them, it points to the truth that's in this text.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus points to the truth that is in this verse.

The expansion of the church, the grace that has continued to be lavished on us today, it points to the truth that is in this verse.

And it's this this is the truth that we have to understand coming from this verse, and it's simple.

If God willingly, willingly, willingly gave his son for you, there is nothing he will not give you.

If God willingly gave his son for you, there is nothing he will not give you, including his love, including his grace, including forgiveness, including mercy, including salvation, including eternity in his presence.

God did not spare his own son for you.

And we have to look back.

We would be incredibly foolish to believe that the death of Christ was outside of God's plan, outside of God's will, that the death of Christ, the Son of God, was solely responsible by humans.

That humans in their power were able to kill and crucify the Son of God.

That would be incredibly foolish to believe.

We know that's not true because we see that rather than humans killing the Son of God, God willingly gave his son up.

Jesus Christ walked to the cross and willingly gave himself up.

No one took the life of Christ.

God gave it.

Jesus gave it.

It was given to us as a free gift.

And if God willingly gave you that gift, what else would he not give you?

What would keep him from not giving you the gift of grace, the gift of forgiveness?

God certainly could have spared Christ.

God could have struck down the entire human population the moment Jesus was arrested and betrayed by one of his best friends.

But God did not spare his only son.

Rather, he allowed his son willingly to be crucified by the very ones that he came to save.

However, even though we know this, it's so easy for us to think that God's love will run out for us.

It's so easy for us to think that God's forgiveness will run out for us.

That there will become a point where we've just done too much and God can no longer give forgiveness and mercy and grace, that we've just ruined it.

We've blown it.

But I want to tell you the idea of God giving up on you and his love running out for you, it's unthinkable.

It's absurd.

It's not absurd or unthinkable because we deserve it.

It's not unthinkable because we've done good enough things to earn his love.

It's unthinkable for God's love running out for us because he gave the most precious gift that he could ever give in his son Jesus.

It's unthinkable because if God loved us enough to willingly give his only son, then there is nothing, nothing we could ever do to make him stop loving us or keep him from loving us and showering us with his grace.

If God gave us the most generous gift of the cross, how could he possibly withhold anything else from us?

From this verse, we we can reach the point that God is rich in mercy and God is a big spender.

Man, we love to calculate our love with pennies and dimes, we love to get it down to the last little bit, but God is not like that.

He loves generously.

He loves in such mighty ways that is more mighty, more powerful than any sin or any sin you could do in the future.

His love is mighty.

His love is unconditional, it's never ending.

God is glorified by lavishing his mercies upon us without regard to the cost to himself.

Going into verse 33, Paul says, Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

So the third rhetorical question that Paul asks is Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

Notice again the audience, the people who's talking about is God's elect, God's chosen people, God's children, those who have been transformed.

Formed by the love of Christ.

The devil wants us as Christians, as believers, to feel condemned.

That's his main goal.

If we've already placed our faith in Christ, then his goal now is to make you believe that you are still condemned and that you still have some penalty and dues to pay for your sin.

He wants us to be miserable Christians.

He doesn't want us to enjoy God's grace and his mercy and his love.

Satan wants us to think that the only right thing is to live forever under the cloud of sins.

And that would be hypocritical to enjoy God's love.

Because this grace that God could give if we didn't pay anything for it, that's cheap grace.

We have to pay our dues.

That's what Satan wants us to believe.

And the ironic thing about Satan's lies, it's kind of true.

We do deserve punishment.

We do deserve to pay the penalty for our sin, but in Christ, in Christ the penalty is paid for.

In Christ we are now righteous.

In Christ we are no longer condemned.

Therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Since it is God who gives this grace, since it is God who justifies and deems us as righteous, who can bring any charge against us?

If someone brings a charge against us as God's children, they're not bringing a charge against us, they're bringing a charge against the creator of the universe.

And I don't want to bring no charge against the creator of the universe because he's more powerful than I am.

He is more mighty than I am.

They're bringing a charge against the perfect, perfect grace of God.

I think we would all confess that there's many charges, there's many things that someone could probably make stick to us, right?

There's many things that someone could probably hold against us, including God Himself in our sinfulness and disobedience.

But the good news is that no one, no one can make these charges stick.

We know that the case is close.

The verdict of our sin and our condemnation fell in our favor because it was paid for by the blood of Christ.

It was paid for by the perfect innocent sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Not because of our innocence, but because God has justified us through Christ, and He is the highest court of appeal.

Paul goes on to ask a very similar question in verse 34.

He says, Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

So the fourth question that Paul asks is, Who is to condemn us?

Not only can no one bring judgment upon us, but who is to condemn us?

And we know the answer.

No one.

No one can condemn us.

This is such good news that for us who have placed our faith in Christ, there is no condemnation for you.

There is no condemnation for you.

When God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of his son.

That is good news.

And because of that, there is none who can condemn you.

Why can no one condemn us?

Seems like it'd be a pretty easy thing to do because I've never made a day in my life without falling short of God's glory.

No one can condemn you.

Why?

First off, Paul tells us four reasons in this verse.

He says, first off, Christ died.

This tells us that the penalty, the payment that we owed, has been paid for.

The debt of our sin is gone, it's wiped clean.

We are now free.

We are now children of God.

We have now been filled with the righteousness of Christ.

Our crimson stains have been washed away, and we are now white as snow.

Secondly, Christ was raised.

Not only did Christ die, but if he didn't resurrect from the dead, we would have no victory.

But because he did, because Christ was raised, we have victory.

The work is vindicated, it's finished.

And Christ promises that he will raise us with him also.

There is victory in Christ because he was raised.

Thirdly, no one can condemn us because Christ is at the right hand of God.

Christ is the one that's sitting at the right hand of God in heaven, looking down upon us, guarding us.

And then Paul says, Christ is interceding for us.

Why can no one condemn us?

Because Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, pleading our case.

Not that we are good, not that we are holy, but because he has paid for our sin.

He is pleading our case because his blood now covers us.

He is pleading our case and saying to our Father, look not upon their sin, look upon my righteousness which I freely gave to them.

No one can condemn us because in Christ there is no condemnation.

Christ was condemned on our behalf.

Christ bore the death we deserve.

He bore the wrath of God that was hanging over our heads for our sin.

But because we are in Christ, we stand free as children of God.

So again, as if this alone wasn't good enough news, Paul wraps it up in verse 35 with such a glorious, glorious passage.

It says in verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Our tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

So finally, Paul asks his final question: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

This is a question that we have all asked at some point.

Is there anything in this world that can separate me from the love of Christ?

Is there anything in this world that can keep me or keep God from loving me?

Is there anything in this world that could take God's love away from me?

Is there anything in this world that could exclude me from God's love and God's perfect grace?

This is the question that he's asking when he says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And what I love about this is that there's a very significant thing about this question compared to the previous four.

Over the other one so far, Paul gave no direct answer.

But to this question that we have all asked at some point, even though it's rhetorical, even though we know the answer, Paul directly gives it to us so that we 100% are confident in it.

Paul asked in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall any of these things separate us from the love of Christ?

And he starts out verse 37 by just saying, No.

No.

Shall anything separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall distress or tribulation separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall trials or affliction separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall persecution or suffering separate us?

No.

Shall famine or poverty separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall nakedness or the shame for our sin separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall danger or temptation of sin separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Shall the sword or death or war separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

Is there anything, anything at all in this world that could ever separate us from the love of Christ?

No.

No.

Absolutely not.

And he doesn't stop there.

He says, in fact, no, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Not only are will we never be separated from the love of Christ, but we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Once we have been transformed by the love of Christ, we no longer go through this life as victims.

We go through this life as victors.

We have victory in Christ.

We are free in Christ.

We are more than conquerors because we believe in the love of God that is unconditional, that is never ending.

In spite of everything this world throws at us, we believe that the love of God is powerful enough to save us from our sins.

We believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is good enough and perfect enough and holy enough to cleanse us and justify us in God's eyes.

Things of this world no longer have a hold on us because we now share in the victory of Christ and we get to live in freedom that is only found in Christ.

Once again, we gotta notice and understand everything about this verse and where we receive our victory.

Paul does not say, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors.

Paul says, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through what?

Through him who loved us.

We are not conquerors in of ourselves.

We are not good in of ourselves, we are not perfect in of ourselves, but through him who loved us, we are more than conquerors over anything this world has to throw at us.

We are more than conquerors because the power of Christ now lives within us through his Holy Spirit that we've read all through Romans 8.

Because of the power and the victory given to us through him who loved us enough to lay his life down for us, we can now rest, rest, willingly and joyfully rest, knowing that that love will never be taken away.

It will never be kept or separated from us.

And then Paul closes out this passage.

I'll just continue to tackle on grace after grace after grace.

He says, For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor death, nor anything else, anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Man, in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, God will never stop loving us.

In Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation.

In Christ Jesus, nothing can take the love of God away from us.

In Christ Jesus, we have victory.

In Christ Jesus, we have hope and we have life.

Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we get to walk out of this building.

We get to live the rest of our lives knowing that we get to live and dwell in the presence and the love of God.

And what Jesus did in the grave and accomplished in the grave, we get to walk out of this building.

We get to live the rest of our lives knowing, confidently knowing, that we have victory in Christ, that we are more than conquerors than the things that this world throws at us.

Because of Christ Jesus, we get to live in those truths.

We get to dwell and meditate on those truths that give us hope and give us life.

Man, you read a passage like this, and to say the gospel is good news, which is what it stands for, it actually stands for too good to be true news, but to say that the gospel is good news is just such an understatement.

There are no words that we could ever utter or create that will explain the glory that's found in the gospel, the hope, the love, the peace, the joy that's found in the gospel.

No words we could ever create, no words we could ever utter, no praise we could ever give that will cover, cover the grace that's found in the gospel.

So to close out this message, we gotta go back to the question we started with at the beginning.

If we hand our mess, if we hand our brokenness over to Christ, will he still love us?

Absolutely.

Absolutely, he will still love us.

If we surrender ourselves to God and we are vulnerable and open up to him about the things that we've messed up with and we've confess our sins and confess our deepest, darkest secrets, will God still love us?

Absolutely.

He gave his son for you.

There is nothing that could ever separate the love he has for you, the love he is offering to you.

There's nothing that could separate you from that.

There's nothing that could keep you or exclude you from that love.

He is inviting you, inviting you to give yourself to him and enjoy, enjoy and encounter him in a way that you've never encountered him before.

When I said at the beginning, the reason why I said that there's an importance of knowing who Paul is talking about here is because if you're missing out on this, because there are people who are missing out on this, it's terrible to think about.

It's so sad to think about that there are people out in the world that are just searching, searching and searching for things to bring these things to them, but they're missing out on everything that God offers through his gospel.

Everything that God offers through his unconditional love.

So I say all these things to you to say, if you're missing out on this, if you can't take the beautiful truth of the scripture and apply it to your life, then please surrender yourself to Jesus.

Give your life to Christ.

Put your faith in the only Savior who is able to save us from our sins and step into a joy and a hope that you've never experienced before, knowing that the love of God can never be separated from you.

If you feel like you've blown it and God has done with you, this passage tells us that his love is unconditional, has no conditions.

There's nothing you have to do to meet or earn his love.

It's freely given.

You simply have to receive it.

God place your faith in it that Christ was enough, that Christ's sacrifice was enough.

So as we continue to worship, I want you to respond in one of two ways.

If you've been transformed by the love of Christ, I want you to worship like you have been.

If you've experienced this grace and this hope, and if you know that the love of Christ can never be separated from you, then I want you to worship like you know that.

I want you to worship like you believe that because God is worthy of it.

He's worthy of our praise, he's worthy of our worship.

And if we don't give it to him, then we are doing such a great disservice to him.

And if other people don't see us worshiping, why would they want to join us?

Why would they want to follow Christ?

Why would they want to give their life to something that we're not even worshiping ourselves?

So if you've been transformed by the love of Christ, please just lift your voice and praise God for who he is and what he's done for us in Christ Jesus.

And then, secondly, if you've never surrendered your life to Christ, if you're not included in the us of these verses, if you're not included in the good news and hope of these verses, man, I'm begging you to give your life to Jesus.

I want you to use this time of worship as an opportunity to just surrender to Jesus, to hand your mess over to him and say, I can't do it.

I can't do it, I'm broken.

I need you.

I need you, and I believe that you're enough to save me from my sins.

I believe that your blood is righteous enough to cleanse me from all the mess that's in my life.

If you never experienced the victory, the victory that's found in Christ, because you've been living as an enemy of God, and I want to give you an opportunity.

I want to give you an opportunity to become a child of God and walk in the freedom that God gives us as children, the victory that God gives us as children because we share in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

If you've never experienced and given yourself to Jesus, if you spent your entire life searching for something to make you happy, to give you joy, to give you hope, if you've been searching for something that can never be taken away from you, I want to give you an opportunity for the love of God to transform you in a way that you've never and will never experience in something else.

If you never confess your sin, never confess your mess and got it off your chest and believed in your heart that Jesus is Lord, then I want to give you an opportunity to do so as we continue worship.

Let's pray.

Oh Father, you are so worthy of glory.

You're so worthy of our praise.

You are so worthy for our entire lives to be devoted to you, to be devoted to bringing as much glory and as much praise to your name as possible.

I pray that we would see that.

I pray that we would understand that after reading such a passage as we did.

Father, your word is good and all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching and reproof, for training and righteousness, so that we may be complete as your children.

But this passage, Father, it holds so much hope, it holds so much life.

And I pray that it would pierce our hearts and transform our minds so that we would go through this life walking in confidence.

That there is no condemnation, that there is no one who can be against us, that there is no one who can bring judgments upon us.

Father, that we will walk through our lives confidently, knowing that we have victory in Christ and that there is nothing out there that can separate us from your love.

Father, let us praise you, knowing that that truth is true, that it's a rock that we can build our entire lives upon.

Father, if there's anyone in this room that cannot claim the hope and the truths that found in this passage, oh Father, would you save them?

Would you save them?

Would you draw near them and open their eyes to their brokenness and their sin and their need for a savior and how it is provided in Christ?

Father, if there's anyone in here that has never experienced your love, I pray that you would pour it out on them in a way that they can't ignore, in a way that they can't walk away from it without responding, but rather all they can do is worship and surrender themselves to you and receive and enjoy the free gift of your grace.

Father, I pray that as we continue worship that you would do what only you can do.

Father, we love you.

And we praise you.

We praise you for the good news in Jesus that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.