Destination, not the Journey

Romans 831 to 39 What then shall we say in response to this?

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 not also along with Him, graciously give us all

things? Who will bring any charge

against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. Who is He then, that condemns

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

at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or

nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written for your sake,

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

slaughtered. So no, 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 or the future, nor any powers,

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in

Christ Jesus our Lord. Beautiful goodbye.

Is that not just a roar over our lives?

Isn't that just the most incredible, raw over our lives?

Beautiful guy? The title of this morning's

message is it's the destination, not the journey.

It's the destination, not the journey.

And we've been enjoying this incredible Symphony that is

Romans Chapter 8. And as we approach now the final

Romans 8 · chapter mention

movement of this great Symphony, we've got to, we've got to

anticipate something great. We've got to have something well

up within our hearts that expects something quite

incredible, something quite different.

You see, the orchestra has given its absolute best.

We've heard the trumpet blast go out.

There's no condemnation. Come on, there's no

condemnation. That's my best trumpet noise, so

try again. That was better.

Hey, OK, we've heard the string section singing in the beautiful

song of adoption and of inheritance.

And we've heard the drum beat of the spirit constantly saying

live sanctified walk by the spirit.

And then the melody that's created in the unification of

our spirits and his that cries out ABBA Father and helps us

during hardship and suffering. And now the music is changing.

It's almost as if the lights go dim, the orchestra shuffles in

anticipation and turns the page as we get ready for the grand

finale. See, good music has dynamics,

but truly great pieces of music create this tension that creates

this anticipation. It's almost as if it sucks you

into this vacuum before the release.

And so too does Paul, with the heart of a pastor, with the

heart of 1 longing for the church to understand all the

things that have been laid before, before the church longs

for them to grasp. It invites us to pause and

reflect. And he begins his final argument

as a master communicator with this most profound and important

question. What then shall we say in

response to these things? What then, dear 3 CR, shall we

say in response to these things? This is not a closed question

with yes and no answers. There's not a hypothetical

question. It's not a rhetorical one.

This is a probing, reflective question, one that demands a

response like the cry of a newborn baby.

That was a bad one as well. Hey, sure, it's been a while

since I've had a little baby. I didn't even know how that

sound anymore. Thank goodness that is better,

but it's like a cry of a newborn baby designed to grab our

attention and husbands you. You will recognize this type of

question because it usually comes on a Saturday afternoon,

just as you sit down to enjoy a little bit of sport.

And you might have your favorite beverage in the left hand, some

snacks on the right. And you're flicking through the

Formula One, the cricket, the soccer, And there might even be

a little fire that's going on in the outside and and you're just

thinking, life could not get any better.

This is bliss. And in that moment, you just

hear this sweet, familiar voice. Kai, Kai, Kai, Kai, do you see

that the guts are still leaking? Kai Kai, have you seen that now

the damp is rising up the wall? And can you hear, can you hear

the dishwasher? The dishwasher is making exactly

the same noise it was making a few months ago.

And why does it come back now? It's making the same sound.

And last night, then the the alarm went off.

Did you remember? And you said it could be the

batteries in the sensor. Have you gone and checked the

sensor? Because I am not staying in this

house when you are going away with the alarm going off in the

middle of the night. Kai, Kai, what is your response

to these things now? Just a little bit of marriage

advice. These are not hypothetical

questions. They're not rhetorical ones.

And you might be fooled into thinking that they're multiple

choice because there's like, there's like a lot of them.

There's they're just, they're coming at you like boom, boom,

boom, boom, boom. And you think I need to choose

one? Nope, don't choose them.

See, all of these are probing, reflective questions that demand

action. They demand a verdict.

They demand a response. And so too, Paul is saying to

us, I need your verdict. I need your verdict 3 CR.

What then shall we say to these things?

And today the Holy Spirit is asking us this question.

None of Romans 8 makes sense if we don't have the Holy Spirit

illuminating this message deeply within us.

I love the word the King James uses.

Quickens. Don't know if you've come across

it. The Holy Spirit quickens our

souls. The Holy Spirit quickens the

words that I give you, and quickens means to be made alive,

spiritually revitalized. The Holy Spirit bringing about

is spiritual awakening, it's revival.

It's revival and revival starts in here.

Now you may have come across this, but quickening is often

used in pregnancy and quickening there is referred to as the

first feeling of fetal movement, often referred to as a gentle

tapping. And we're pregnant with the

message of Romans 8 and the Holy Spirit is tapping on our hearts.

It's tapping on our bellies saying I want to bring this word

to life. I want you to give birth to a

three CI so that it can impact your lives, so it can impact

your family, so they can impact Pretoria in South Africa.

I want to bring about a quickening.

I want to bring about revival in your lives.

What then shall we say to these things?

The problem is that in all of us we have the Sunday person who is

the yes person. I've got the message.

But then we have the the Monday person who's the yes but person

Yes, but the one that feels completely different when the

reality and the burden of Monday comes along.

Am I right? Who loves a Monday morning?

Anyone. Oh, there we go.

You don't mind it? OK.

Do you love it there? OK, Well, the OK for the 95% of

the rest of us, no one really loves a Monday morning.

It's tough. It's hard.

And the Monday person says this. I hear what you're saying that

there is no condemnation, but why do I still feel so guilty?

Why do I still feel dirty? And the Monday person says, and

I know what you're saying that I've been adopted, but I feel so

alone. Why do I feel lonely if I've

been adopted into a family? And the Monday person says, I

understand that you say that nothing can separate me and that

God loves me. But have you seen what my life

is like? Have you seen all the bad things

that happened to me on a daily basis, all the suffering that

I'm going through? Surely that's proof.

Surely that's proof that God doesn't love me.

You want a verdict? You're asking me for a response

this morning, but I'm not convinced.

I'm not convinced. So Paul, in this final movement

of this grand Symphony of Romans, chapter 8, says fan

Romans 8 · chapter mention

pause. Stop.

You don't have to answer yet. I've got one final trick up my

sleeve. I'm not afraid of your doubt.

In fact, I'm inviting you to lean into it.

In fact, I already know what you are concerned about.

You are wondering, can God really be powerful enough to

save me? You are wondering, am I really

free, or can someone still come and convict me?

And you are wondering if anything can still separate me

from the love of God. And God is so kind.

He acknowledges the reality of our struggles and our fears.

He doesn't skirt over them. He's not afraid of our doubt and

neither should we be. So can we this morning, over the

next 15 minutes or so, lean together into the dart and

invite the Holy Spirit to come and consider.

We might consider, is there anything left that is preventing

me this morning from responding to this message?

So, Holy Spirit, I asked you to come.

You're tapping on our hearts. You're tapping on our bellies.

Would you help us to overcome any lingering doubt that we

might have so that we might be persuaded and convinced that

nothing can separate us from the love of God?

Thank you, Jesus, Amen. So doubt number one.

And Paul starts off like this. He says, if God is for us, who

can be against us? In other words, can anyone or

anything oppose God's plan of salvation for us?

We might still feel and still ask, is God really strong enough

to bring about this plan of salvation?

Is He really strong enough to save me?

So let me show you this morning how He is the only one that can

save us. First, let's consider whose plan

it is. And the answer there is it is

God's plan. It is God's plan of salvation.

It's not yours. It's not man.

It's not the church's plan. It's not some government's plan.

It's not some powerful man's plan.

It's not the King's plan. It's not even your favorite

artist's plan. It's God's plan.

The creator of the universe of all things seen and unseen, the

all powerful, omnipotent God. It's his plan of salvation.

I remember at the beginning of my engineering career, I was a

line manager at the Maiden Wharf Soap Factory.

And you would think that keeping a soap factory was an easy task.

Clean was an easy task. Don't you think that would be

like pretty, pretty easy? But actually it was very, very

difficult. You see, the way soap works is

that dirt sticks to soap and then soap sticks to water and

then it's washed away and you are clean and you all went OK.

That was like a revelation to me, OK, a few years ago, I'm

sorry if you're all new IT, but basically dirt sticks to soap,

soap sticks to water, and you become clean.

The problem is, is that if you don't set up the machines

correctly, it's just the shavings that flow all over the

place. And then if there's a jam like

Spaghettis all over the place, and if you don't deal with it,

then the whole place just becomes a dirty slip and slide.

And along comes young Buckeye. This is my first management

leadership job. Very excited.

Going to be an easy task for me to motivate the team so that

they're going to clean the line and set it up correctly every

single day. And they just looked at me like

I was some stranger from another universe and I tried everything.

Inspirational quotes. You know, those posters you get,

you know, I stuck them up in the team room, the one with the cat

hanging on the on the tree, just hang in there.

Things like that. But nothing worked.

Nothing worked. They just didn't take me

seriously. And then the one morning I

arrived and I was completely aghast because I walked into a

spotless, well organized, perfect production line and I

was like, what happened? See, unbeknownst to me, the

plant manager the night before decided to take a walkabout

before he went home. And he was a short little man

with a very mean temper. He had been around the block and

then around the block again, and then had made the block.

We used to call him the Poison Dwarf.

You know what you're dealing with.

If you're calling him the Poison Dwarf, you did not mess with

Adam. You just did not.

And after his, let's just call it an intervention, the night

shift made sure that the line was absolutely spotless.

You see, Adam carried a different authority to me.

He was the boss of bosses boss. He made the calls.

And no matter what we do what we can try and clean up the mess in

our own lives, but we just don't have the authority and the power

to wash away our own sin. Only the one who has all

authority and all power can. It is God's plan of salvation.

And Paul to to drive this point home, says this.

Paul says just consider how much.

God sacrificed in putting this plan together.

He who did not spare his own son, He.

After sacrificing so much, why would he give up at the

finishing line? It's like running the Comrades

Marathon. You've trained for two years to

run it. You've made a good time.

You're 10 meters to go with an hour still before cut off and

you decide, no, I'm just going to walk off into the crowd.

You wouldn't do it, it's unthinkable and God, having

sacrificed so much, would not walk away from you.

The second bit of doubt that we might have is that surely

someone can still convict me. Surely someone can still condemn

me if they knew my thoughts, if they knew my behavior, how I

acted, if the deeds that I've done, the way I spoke to my

wife, the thoughts I had about that person, the doubt that I

have, surely if these come to light, they will be able to

convict me. And here Paul says, let's look

at the legal argument. Let's take a look and see what's

transpiring in the courtroom of heaven.

You see it as Jesus who intercedes for us.

It is Jesus who stands at the right hand of the Father and

pleads our case. It is Jesus that is our

advocate. And you might be wondering, why

is this important? It's a really nice sentiment.

Thanks, Jesus. You know, like fist bump shot,

bro, you know, you got my back. That's really cool.

But what is the significance of it being Jesus that stands and

pleads our case? Well, it's important and it's

significant because he is the only one, the only one who can

present the evidence to get us acquitted.

He is the only one that can present the evidence to get us

acquitted. I love that song.

We don't often sing it here, but I sing it a ton, a ton at home.

It's it's come touch my hands. Come touch my side.

I'll show you where they laid me.

You'll see the grave is empty. So come touch my hands and come

touch my side. I'll show you where they laid

me. You'll see the grave is empty

and the father turns to us and says based on the evidence

presented, his hands, his side, the empty grave, your sins are

forgiven. Welcome to paradise.

Who can convict, who can bring a charge?

Who can say to Jesus, you didn't die, you weren't roses, you

didn't rise again? Who?

The answer is no one, no one, no one, Three CR.

And the last little bit of doubt that you might have is you might

wonder, can anything separate me from the love of God?

Can anything drive a wedge that just gets bigger and bigger

between me and God's love? What about trouble?

What about hardship? Persecution.

Famine, nakedness. Danger, sword?

Pretty exhaustive list, don't you think?

What about if you feel like you're a lamb to the slaughter?

That your life is so hard that it feels like it's just leading

you down a path just to be taken out?

That you're like a sitting duck, taking shot after shot after

shot with no recourse, no ability to escape.

What about if your life is so good, you've got everything?

Number one attorney in Pretoria. Massive business on the side of

the N1. What about your life has become

so comfortable that you've grown complacent?

There's nothing to fight for. Has led to unbelief.

Can unbelief separate me from the love of God?

And God says no, neither death nor life, neither angels nor

demons, neither the present today or the future tomorrow,

neither powers, neither hearts the hearts of our lives, the

depths of despair, nor anything else.

Anything else in all of creation is able to separate us from the

love of God. Are you convinced?

3 CR Are you convinced? Are you persuaded?

Still not convinced? Let me tell you how much God

loves you. A good man?

No. A really, really good man might

conclude that he should forgive the person who murdered his

child. That would be a very good man.

Would you agree? An incredibly good man to be

able to stand in front of the murderer and say I forgive you.

We saw Charlie Cook's wife do it at the funeral.

But you know, it's quite another thing to then look that murderer

in the eye and say you are adopted into my family.

It's quite another thing to look that murderer in the eye and say

come and live in my house, not the servants quarters.

Come and live in this bedroom that I have prepared for you.

Come and enjoy every single right that you have as a child

in this house, a full air, and come and enjoy the inheritance

that I have prepared for you, all the riches of this family,

for you and your kind. From this day forward, you will

get to enjoy them. It goes beyond our human

understanding. We cannot fathom it, but this is

the insurmountable, inseparable love of God.

What then shall we say in response to these things?

Don't let anyone fool you. 3 CI as struggling sheep, facing

trials all day long, feeling abandoned and maybe as if God

doesn't love you. No matter what the others try

and tell you, no matter what the world tries to tell you.

It's the destination, not the journey.

It's the destination, not the journey.

We get it so wrong. We always focus on the journey,

on the experience, what my life should be like here on earth.

And we think that our Christian walk starts and ends here on

earth, and we are more than conquerors because we understand

that it is the destination and not the journey.

And one day, when all is said and done and our lives are no

more than smoke and we stand in that place of judgement with

Jesus as our Advocate, we will understand without a shadow of a

doubt that it is only the destination that matters.

So as we begin to conclude this great Symphony that is Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8, do you have a clearview of eternity?

Are you persuaded? Are you convinced We sing that

song all the time? When we arrive at Eternity

Shore, where death is but a memory and tears are no more,

we'll enter in as the wedding bells ring.

The bride will come together and we'll sing.

You're beautiful. What then, my dear?

3 CR shall we do in response to these things?

Amen.