Romans 8:31-34

[0:00] 00 Gathering How do we face the worst?

[0:37] How do we face the worst that life can throw at us? I don't know what the worst is for you, but I'll bet you can fill in the blank.

[0:51] What's the greatest disappointment you faced? What's the greatest disappointment you fear? The fact is that we might get into a competition and try to compare.

[1:08] Well, my worst might be worse than your worst. Your worst might be worse than my worst. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, does it? Because it's your worst in that moment when it happens to you.

[1:24] When your hopes and your hearts are invested in something, when they are dashed and broken, when they are broken, they cause us to ask questions about God.

[1:37] Jerry Sitzer writes in his book, A Grace Disguised, a book he wrote after the loss of several family members in a terrible car crash.

[1:48] He said, My loss made God seem terrifying and inscrutable. For a long time I saw his sovereignty as a towering cliff in winter, icy, cold, and windswept.

[1:59] I stood in my misery at the base of this cliff and looked up at its forbidding, unscalable wall. I felt overwhelmed, intimidated, and crushed by its hugeness.

[2:11] It loomed over me, completely oblivious to my presence and pain. It defied climbing. It mocked my pusiness. I yelled at God to acknowledge my suffering and to take responsibility for it.

[2:26] But all I heard was the lonely echo of my own voice. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you're there today.

[2:40] But our worst suffering, our worst disappointment, is only a part of what could be the worst in our own lives. Because there's also our worst failure.

[2:52] When we do the thing we said we would never do. Maybe something comes to your mind when I see this. If anyone ever knew that I did that.

[3:09] The thing you promised you'd never do again. And you did. The act of violence or selfishness that destroyed the ones that you loved.

[3:21] The things that decent people are disgusted by. That you have done. Our greatest failures are our David moments.

[3:31] You remember King David in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. He looked upon a woman. He took what was not his.

[3:43] He schemed to cover it up. When he couldn't work out his first scheme, he worked out a worse one. That killed a man.

[3:57] And even after that, he continued to sit in his throne in self-righteousness. And proclaim with outrage how terrible it was that other people would do such terrible things.

[4:12] And it was only until the prophet Nathan looked at him and said, you are the man. That David's worst failure came to light.

[4:26] And we'd like to think we're not like that. And we wouldn't get there. But the Bible says otherwise. The Bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

[4:37] The Bible says that there is no one righteous. Not one. The Bible tells us that we are all capable of our worst failure and sin.

[4:51] Maybe these moments have not happened to you yet. Maybe you feel like so far in life you've kind of skated by. I'd love to tell you, good for you.

[5:04] That'll be great. Hope that continues. But instead, I can only warn you, the day will come. The day will come when you will see these things.

[5:17] And they will test you to the core of your being. Some of you are sitting there and you are nodding because you've already seen it. Although you never know, there may be another one yet to come.

[5:29] But you've already seen what feels like your worst. Your worst trial. Your worst suffering. Your worst failure. Where do you turn?

[5:40] How do you face it? How will you walk through these worst of times? Well, this is what brings us to our passage this morning in Romans.

[5:52] We're in Romans chapter 8 in your pew Bible. It's page 944. We're looking today at Romans 8, 31 through 34. I'm going to read it in context.

[6:04] So that you can get a flow of the thought. I'm actually going to read it starting all the way back in verse 18. So if you want to start with me there, you can.

[6:17] We're going to read and pray and then look at this passage together. The Apostle Paul will help us think through how we face these worst moments in our lives.

[6:31] Let's read together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

[6:44] For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it. In hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

[7:00] For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation but we ourselves. We who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

[7:20] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

[7:32] Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we ought to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

[7:45] And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

[8:00] For those who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

[8:15] For those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

[8:27] 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.

[8:42] How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

[8:53] It is God who justifies. 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?

[9:04] 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?

[9:18] As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors.

[9:29] 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 depth, nor anything else in all creation.

[9:43] Will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this word and we thank you for this morning that we have a chance to think on you and what a savior you are.

[10:04] God, I pray this morning that you would help us to wrestle with these texts. Lord, I pray for your spirit to apply them to our hearts. Lord, I pray that we might be encouraged as we meditate on what you have done for us.

[10:20] We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we look at verses 31 through 34, this is the final section, the climactic section of this tremendous chapter, which is the final chapter in this tremendous section in the first half of Romans, whereby God has laid out in careful detail and argumentation all that God has done for us in working salvation for us in Christ.

[10:54] We've seen in chapter 8 this great argument. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Because in Christ, God has done what we could not do to satisfy the law.

[11:05] And he's given us the spirit so that we might actually be able to fulfill the law. And he's given us the spirit so we might actually live a new life, not according to our old paths of living in sin, but our new paths.

[11:17] And the spirit reminds us that we now have this new spirit of life. Because Christ has been raised from the dead, and the spirit of Christ who has been raised from the dead is now ours.

[11:29] And not only do we have this new life, but we have this new place as an adopted child of God, where he brings us. Not only does he raise us from the dead and call us right before him, but he brings us into his family.

[11:42] He calls us ours. And knowing that, he says, now we can face even the greatest sufferings of life with hope.

[11:53] Because we know that even the creation itself was subjected to futility, to corruption, to judgment, so that it might also, with us who are joined with Christ, be redeemed and brought into a place of glory.

[12:07] And we know that at the center of this glory is that we will be saved from our sin, and we will be renewed in the image of Christ.

[12:20] We will be conformed to who he is and his perfect humanity and sinlessness one day. And as we take up that glory, we reflect his glory, and we enjoy his glory.

[12:33] And it will be a beautiful thing, a beautiful place, and a beautiful world, where God will perfectly reign, and we will worship him.

[12:46] This is, in some ways, the argument of Romans 8. And it brings us then to this. What shall we say to these things, Paul says?

[12:57] How do we respond to all these great things that God has done for us? And then what we see in the thrust of these few verses in 31 through 34 is that no matter what, we are secure in the work of Christ for us.

[13:17] No matter what sufferings we face, no matter how great our sin and our failures are, the work of Christ is enough for us. And that's what we're going to look at.

[13:29] We're going to look at those things in order. So verses 31 and 32, in light of our suffering and hardship, we are secure in the work of Christ. Look at it with me again.

[13:44] Paul begins this. This section has five rhetorical questions in 31 through 39. We're going to answer the first four today. And Nick's going to get to finish with the last one in verse 35 next week.

[13:57] His rhetorical question is, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? And if you know anything about rhetorical questions, the answer should be obvious.

[14:08] Who can be against us? And what's the answer? Nobody. Nobody can be against us. And you sit there, and I sit here, and we say, really?

[14:23] Really, Paul? Nothing can be against us. It's one of those places where what the Bible tells us seems to be so jarringly out of step with our experience of life that it's almost shocking.

[14:47] I know because I've walked with many of you through your circumstances of life. I know what is against you. I've seen when to have and to hold from this day forward till death do us part seems like an empty at best and cruel at worst promise.

[15:14] I've seen some of you walk through singleness for longer than you would want to, hearing too many times, it's not you, it's me, but being left alone with your longing and your desire.

[15:35] I've seen you come into the office and say, I lost my section eight. I don't have a place to stay. I don't know where to go. I've seen you as you have tried again and again to have that baby you most wanted and failed and struggled.

[16:02] God, why wouldn't you give me this? I've seen you submit your papers and your applications for your jobs as you're finishing your PhDs and to find the silence be resounding or to find that all the work that your lab has done for the last four years hasn't really produced any results or the other lab produced their paper first.

[16:30] I've seen some of you hear the words, I'm sorry, there's nothing more we can do. All of these circumstances seem to say that God is not for us.

[16:50] All of these life challenges seem to say to us that God cannot be for us. I think of one of my high school friends.

[17:05] Married, had a family. After they had a couple of biological kids, they felt led to adopt. They'd been to Haiti. They'd seen the orphans left alone after the great earthquake.

[17:17] They said, we want to be a part of God adopting and loving those kids. They signed up, had a kid assigned to them.

[17:30] They knew there were a few developmental delays, but that was pretty typical of kids who had suffered that trauma. When they brought him home, they realized that his trauma was much deeper than that.

[17:43] He's never spoken. His emotional thermostat is completely unpredictable.

[17:57] He has fragile X. He has autism. He has a number of other things. How's God for us when we signed up to love a child and to help them, and we get this, this child whom we seek to love, but who is a terror in our household?

[18:24] It's so hard, isn't it? It's so hard when you face these things, and it causes us to question God. God cannot be for us, it seems, if these things are true.

[18:37] Paul knows that these are the things that we think, and so he leads us in verse 32 to the second rhetorical question, which is an answer for us.

[18:51] Look with me again, verse 32. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

[19:04] Friends, this is the reality of how we face hard circumstances and the worst that life can throw at you.

[19:16] It has to do with where you look. Because what Paul says is, in the face of that, you must look at Jesus.

[19:28] You must look at what God has done for us in him. The cross is the place where we see something that we may not know in other places in our lives, but where we see it so securely.

[19:40] Look with me and walk through this, the language that Paul uses here. What did God do? First of all, he did not spare his son. What parent would choose to willingly subject his or her child to suffering, and yet God gave up his own son, not only in the incarnation, as he became human and took on human frailty, but also in the crucifixion, where he was treated abominably, unjustly, abusively, painfully.

[20:26] God, greater than Abraham, as he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, did not spare his son. He did not just spare his son, but he spared his, do you see the language, his own son.

[20:44] There is only one like this. For God, it was deeply personal. God gave up his greatest treasure of his own son in that sense for us.

[21:01] And it is not just for some of us, but it is, in this language, it is for us all. All who are in Christ, God gave his son up for us.

[21:16] None of us in Christ can say, yeah, God did that for others, but not for me. God, who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

[21:41] God will graciously give us with him. Do you see that? What God gives us first and foremost is his son. But he doesn't just give us his son.

[21:55] He gives us all things with his son. All the things that we really want, all the things that we really need, all the things that we were created for, all the things so that we might be the glory that God created and intended humanity to be.

[22:16] Let's be clear. All things here does not include a big house, a comfortable life, lots of children, a fast car, and an easy retirement.

[22:33] It is not those things that God is most concerned about. He is concerned about those he called and those he predestined and those he justified and those he glorified.

[22:46] He is far more concerned with the salvation of your soul and your eternal destiny with God. And in that, his redemptive work of freeing you from the sin and brokenness and pain of life in a fallen world so that you might experience with him a restoration to perfection and to joy and to beauty and to glory beyond all imagination.

[23:19] He who did not spare his son but gave him up for us all, will he not also with him graciously, graciously, not because we deserve it, not because we've been such good or faithful Christians, not because we've sacrificed to serve him or to know him, but simply out of the abundance of his undeserved favor towards us, graciously give us all things.

[23:57] Friends, this is what it means. If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, it seems like there are a lot of things. God, how do I know that you're really for me? He who did not spare his son but gave him up for us all, will he not also graciously give us all things?

[24:18] What's the answer to that rhetorical question? Of course he will. Of course he will. God who gave up his greatest treasure for us, will he withhold from you?

[24:29] Will he hold back from giving you all that you need in this life and the life to come? Is he stingy?

[24:42] Is he hard-hearted? Friends, when we look at the cross, we can't say that he is. Some of you know that God has given me a chance to walk a road of great loss.

[25:02] And I can't tell you why he did it. Even today. It still doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't make sense when I see my kids without a mom day to day in our home.

[25:18] Doesn't make sense as I walk through life feeling like I've lost half of me in ministry and in parenting and in life. It doesn't make sense as I know many of you have lost a friend, a confidant, an encourager, someone who prayed for you.

[25:40] I don't see the good in it. Even today, the loss seems great and I don't understand why. But friends, if there's one thing that I know, it's this truth right here in verses 31 and 32.

[25:58] that though I cannot explain my circumstances and I do not know all that God has done, I do know this. He did not spare his own son but he gave us, gave him up, us, gave him up for us, for me and for you and for Brandy and for our family and for our church.

[26:21] He did that and that is how I know that God is for us and not against us. That is how I know for sure.

[26:36] It is how I can sing when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, he has taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.

[26:54] Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul.

[27:10] My sin of the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

[27:21] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. It is well. It is well. It is well with my soul.

[27:39] God is for us. Who can stand against us? But Paul says there is more than just facing the trials and the hardships and suffering of life.

[27:54] As he goes on in verses 33 and 34, he faces another part of the worst of our lives. Look with me again and it is important to get the cadence.

[28:05] The language in the English translation sometimes is a little jarring. He is not asking a question and then giving an answer and then asking a question and then giving another answer. Listen as I read it again so you can try to get what he is saying here.

[28:18] 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 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.

[28:39] So he starts off with this question and he moves it into a courtroom language. He is using forensic language here like we have now been brought into the courtroom of heaven and we are standing before God the judge and Paul says if our worst sufferings are one of our great trials, our worst sin and failure is our other great trial in this life.

[29:04] And he says, who can bring a charge against God's elect? And he says, listen, if it is God who is justified, then who can condemn?

[29:17] If God sitting in the throne room has said, no, you are, because of your attachment to Christ, been covered in his righteousness and are able to stand before me and I declare you righteous, then how can anyone gainsay that?

[29:38] How can anyone say, no, no, no, God, you don't understand. Let me tell you about him. Let me tell you about what he's done. I will bring a condemnation against him.

[29:53] Then Paul says, no, it is Christ. Christ who has died, Christ who was raised, Christ who is now at the right hand of God interceding for us like a lawyer, advocating for us, in fact, stepping in and taking our place in that judicial courtroom so that we might stand there.

[30:18] That's the basic argument here. The challenge, of course, is like in the first section. Who shall bring any charges against God elect?

[30:31] Well, I can think of a few people who could bring some charges against me. Maybe you can think of a few people as well. Those in our past, people you grew up with.

[30:46] Oh, you say you're a Christian now, huh? Really? Well, I knew you when. I know what you did. I was reading last night, rereading a testimony of Chuck Colson.

[30:58] You may know him. He worked for Nixon. He was a part of the Watergate damage control team. And he did, well, a number of not very upright things as he served in government.

[31:15] But God saved him. And he stayed in Washington and he did ministry there. And the article is interesting because it talked about how he continued to pursue relationships with his political friends who knew what he was like before.

[31:30] And how he had to endure at times the accusation. What are you now? One of those goody-two-shoe Christians? I don't think so. I know you. I know where you've been.

[31:46] Those in our past can bring accusations against us. Our own conscience can bring accusations against us.

[31:58] Because you know better than anyone else the worst things that you've done. You know the deepest and darkest secrets of your life.

[32:11] You know your worst sins. And even when it wasn't an action, even when it was only a thought or an attitude in your heart, you know how evil and vile your thoughts have been.

[32:26] You know how often you have lusted for power, for pleasure, for selfish gain. You know how often you have hated others for your own good.

[32:42] You know the ways that you have doubted and denied and rejected and resisted God. You know the way that you so often make your whole life revolve around you and you usurp God from the center of the universe and from your own life.

[33:07] And if you are honest, your conscience tells you how terrible you are. It's not just people in our past, it's not just our consciences, but there is in the spiritual world a power that brings to us accusation again and again and again.

[33:26] Revelation 12, 10 talks about the accuser of the brethren, that is, Satan, who accuses them day and night and he whispers the lies.

[33:41] If they knew how bad you really were, if they knew that you had done that, they would never accept you. You can never be forgiven of that sin.

[33:53] You will never be good enough for God or for anyone else. And he will bring to mind to you again and again and again the worst of your sin and he will bring the weight of condemnation and judgment upon it and he will seek to crush you under guilt and shame.

[34:13] because that's what he does. Friends, not only do these things accuse you but here's the thing, the law of God itself, the holiness of God Almighty brings to you a charge because what we see in the scriptures and what we see in the character of God is a holiness that we will never attain to.

[34:39] we are only fooling ourselves when we think we can be good enough. If we think that a 60% good outweighs our 40% bad is good enough, we don't know the holiness of God.

[34:58] We don't understand the gravity of sin. We don't understand the weightiness of our rebellion and our rejection of God. God, he holds up a standard that we cannot meet because of our sin.

[35:19] These voices speak to us. So when Paul says, who can bring a charge against God's elect, it seems like there's a whole room full of them.

[35:30] Right? Right? guilty, vile, and helpless we. Who then does God think of us?

[35:46] What then does God say about us? I want to pause here for a minute because I want to make sure that we do understand this.

[35:57] Right? Because the argument in Romans doesn't make any sense at all if we think we're good. Go back and read Romans 1-3 again.

[36:08] That's the whole point of Romans 1-18-3-20 is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

[36:19] All of us are under it. Religious people, not religious people, Jews, Gentiles, people with consciences, people without consciences. It doesn't matter who you are.

[36:29] All of us. This is true. And here's the crazy thing about it. It is the most verifiable theological doctrine in human history. All you have to do is stop and think about your own life.

[36:46] Are you a sinful person? Have you done things that are not right? Well, of course you have. And when you look at the greater swath of human history, you think, well, what else is the story of human history?

[37:01] Oh, there are moments of bright lights. There are moments of redemptive breakthroughs. There are moments when our created goodness shines through and we respond for a moment with goodness.

[37:15] But when we look over all, human sinfulness is one of the most historically verifiable theological doctrines the church has.

[37:29] We must not live with the illusion that we will be good or good enough. If you're here this morning and you're exploring Christianity, know how central this is.

[37:45] And I do not say it to say that you are bad and we, I sitting up here, am good. No, what the Bible says is that we are all sinful.

[37:56] No one is righteous, not one. And we are all helpless before our sin. And if we stood in that heavenly courtroom before God on our own merits, we would all face condemnation condemnation and judgment and punishment for it.

[38:17] I started quoting the hymn. Some of you probably filled it in, right? Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God is He.

[38:30] Full atonement can it be. Hallelujah. What a Savior. And this is where Paul points us again. Look with me in verse 34.

[38:46] We cannot be condemned because Jesus Christ has died. And more than that, has risen. And more than that, is at the right hand of God interceding for us.

[39:00] What is He saying here? He who died, the righteous one, the one who is perfectly sinless, died for us. He took our place when He came and died on the cross.

[39:11] He died not for Himself but for us. And bearing our sin and taking the punishment of God for us, we see both the greatness of the offense of our sin, but also the perfection of God's sinlessness in Christ that He might do it for us.

[39:31] Death would be the only proper judgment for sin against a holy God who is the giver of life. And so Jesus took that death for us. But He did not simply die for us.

[39:44] But Paul goes on, he says, and He rose from the dead. And being raised from the dead shows that the death that He died was effective to erase the punishment and to be able to then, as He rises to new life, He is able then to justify us, that is to give us a right standing before God by giving us His righteousness and by giving us a new heart and a new life, a new spirit, so that we might actually be His people.

[40:18] And so we are now raised to a new and indestructible life with Christ. And this, by faith. And so Christ, who was raised from the dead, not only was He raised from the dead, but He was raised up to the right hand of God, the right hand of God being first and foremost a place of honor, but not only is He there, but He also is seated at the right hand of God, which means that His work is finished.

[40:44] There is nothing else to do because what Christ did when He died on the cross and rose from the grave was to defeat the power of sin and death in the life of all who believe in Him forever.

[40:59] Sins past, sins present, sins future, they are covered by Christ's death and resurrection. And therefore, when we stand in the courtroom, when we, the accused, stand before Him, God looks at us and He sees not our sin, but He sees the righteousness of Christ.

[41:23] He looks at us and He cannot see what the rest of us all see is our sin. and He does not see it because Christ has covered us in His righteousness.

[41:36] And that's why no one can condemn us because can you condemn Jesus? That's where we stand, in Jesus. And no one can condemn Jesus because He was the perfect man who was without sin.

[41:50] and this is His intercession for us. This is His standing in our place for us. This is His advocacy for us in the heavenly throne room.

[42:02] So friends, just as we face the greatest sufferings and look to Christ, so when we face the greatest sin in our lives, we look to Christ.

[42:22] Is Jesus' death sufficient for the worst thing that you've ever done? Yes, it is. Can Jesus' righteousness cover your worst sin?

[42:34] Yes, it can. Is there any accusation that can be brought against you when you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ? No, there is not one.

[42:48] There is none. And so we sing, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin.

[43:06] Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free for God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.

[43:24] Friends, I wonder how many of you are buried this morning under the weight of guilt and shame. I wonder if you are here this morning and you have thought, if only I were good enough.

[43:38] I look at all these really good looking people around me and I think, well, they all have their acts together. What's wrong with me? And so you hide.

[43:51] And so you carry this burden of guilt and shame. some of you really struggle to believe, can God forgive me of this sin?

[44:03] Can God forgive me when I blew it like that? Who can bring a charge against God's elect?

[44:15] It is God who justifies. Who can condemn? Christ Jesus, it is He who died and was raised and now intercedes for us.

[44:35] Friends, I want to say these things to you. This is how we face the worst moments of our lives. We look not at those things, not at the circumstances and not at the realities and it is not to deny that those things are true, that we are suffering and that we are sinful.

[44:55] It is not to deny those things but Paul says when we face those things, how do we face them? We look up. We look to Christ and when we look to Christ, we see what we really need because He has done it for us.

[45:17] it is there that we find assurance that God is for us because He died for us. It is there that we find the assurance that even our worst sin cannot condemn us because Christ has taken that condemnation for us.

[45:35] And friends, I want to say this with all, I know some of you may be thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, I grew up in church, I've heard that my whole life, I know, Jesus died on the cross for my sins, blah, blah, blah.

[45:51] Friends, they may feel like pat answers and they may feel like platitudes to you but I tell you that they are the very bedrock. When everything else is stripped away, they are the thing that will, these truths are the things that will remain.

[46:12] Christ crucified and risen is the unchangeable truth that will help you through, that will help you to face those worst moments.

[46:28] And friends, as you think about how to prepare for those worst moments, I tell you, practice this. Practice looking to Christ.

[46:40] Practice looking to Christ in a life of hopeful faith, even when you're not in your worst moments. Look to Him and remember His goodness. Look to Him and develop a reflex of trusting Him with little things so that you can trust Him with the big things.

[47:02] Friends, look to Him and live a life of costly obedience. Don't let your suffering or your failure become an excuse for you to say, well, it's all gone to hell in a handbasket anyway, so I might as well just indulge.

[47:18] Don't let that happen to you. Look to Christ and seek to live a life of obedience, even when it's costly, knowing the greatness of His sacrifice for you.

[47:34] And finally, look to Him in a life of worship. Whatever treasure you are clinging to, the treasure of peace or security or satisfaction in this life, the treasure of your own righteousness, whatever treasures you are holding on to, release them so that you might treasure Christ for you.

[48:00] Let this be the thing. and as you prepare now by doing those things daily, weekly, then when you face those moments of the worst, you will know where to stand.

[48:22] What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Let's pray. Lord, this morning we have talked about things that are touch on perhaps some of the most painful and difficult things of our lives.

[49:00] Lord, we pray this morning that you would come and bring the comfort and the balm of the cross to our hearts. Lord, I pray for those this morning who are burdened, who are doubting, who are questioning, who are wrestling as they face suffering, Lord, as they see and feel the guilt of their own sin.

[49:24] Lord, I pray that you will meet them in those moments and Lord, that you will raise them, raise their eyes to see what you have done in Christ for them. Lord, that you would help us, Lord, to look not on the earthly things but to look at Christ in the heavenly realms, to fix our eyes on him, Lord, to be helped.

[49:51] Lord, will you do this, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. As the music team comes forward, we're going to sing a great hymn, Immovable Our Hope Remains, and I hope that as you sing it, you will consider the words as he walks us through the very things we've been looking at this morning in Romans 8.

[50:14] Please stand as we sing together. Amen.