WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.000 Now, the goal of this sermon is to convince you that if you love God, then God Almighty is making all your sin and all your suffering serve your ultimate good and that nothing can stop him. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:24.000 That's the goal. And I'm going to give you, you know, every good sermon has application points. I'm going to give you the application points right now and get those out of the way. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:36.000 And then we'll get through the rest of the sermon. So there's really two application points. I want you to ask yourself, is this a God I could love? 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:50.000 And then to take all your sorrow and your sin to him at the cross. That's it. That's the application. Is this a God I can love? And then just take your sins to him. Take the sorrows to him. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:01:05.000 God put Romans 8, 28 to 30 in the Bible to comfort broken people like us with his might, with his power and to make our lives just hum with significance. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:12.000 So now that we've got that out of the way, we're going to jump right into the text. There's three verses, 28, 29 and 30. So there's three points. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:21.000 One, God makes evil serve good. Two, your good is glorious. And three, nothing can stop him. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:35.000 So verse 28 again, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:49.000 All things work together for good. Here's why that's so hard to believe. Because we want to put our finger on one bad in our life and trace it to one good in our life. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:59.000 We want to look back on, you know, the sorrows of last year and say, ah, now I see why God allowed that to happen. And it was worth it. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:10.000 But if you've gone through deep sorrow or if you've seriously sinned, you know that's not generally the way that life works or that God works. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Paul says all things plural work together for good singular. Okay, so it's like trying to trace one bad to one good is like trying to understand why Beethoven's ninth symphony is a masterpiece by just listening to the notes of the French horn. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:36.000 And you single out that one instrument and you listen to it and he plays a note here and a couple notes there and you think, I don't get it. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:44.000 I don't see it. It doesn't seem like a masterpiece to me. It's when all the instruments work together that we can hear the masterpiece. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And it's when all things in life, all the things work together that God is building that masterpiece of your good. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:08.000 So God has a purpose for you. It's a good purpose and it's not something vague. It's not something foggy, but it's an ultimate good that is concrete and glorious. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:21.000 And the means that God uses to get you to that good is by bending all things in your life to serve that purpose. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:33.000 All things work together for good. There is a lot of room in the word all. I mean, what part of our experience in this life doesn't fit somewhere in that word all. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 It's a big word. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:50.000 So your mistakes, my mistakes, you know, if you feel that you've bitten off more than you can chew in life, you've gone down the wrong career path and you, you know, maybe you feel like you're, you're an imposter. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:02.000 Maybe you've made a foolish decision with money and it's hard to make ends meet. You've made mistakes. All things, all things work together for good. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:11.000 Proverbs 3-6 says that if we, you know, consider God in our way in our life that he doesn't say that he puts us on a straight path. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:17.000 He says God will make straight your path. That crooked path you're on because of all the mistakes that we've made. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.000 God straightens it in front of us. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:31.000 One of my favorites from Isaiah 35 verse eight, he says he's talking about the really Isaiah is talking about the Christian life and he's picturing it like a highway, like a road. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:37.000 He says a highway will be there and it will be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:43.000 It shall belong to those who walk on the way, even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Some of us hear that is good news. The Christian life is a road of holiness that you have to be clean and holy to walk, but even, even some of us fools can't stumble off that road. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:01.000 All things work together for good, including your mistakes. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.000 And it includes your suffering. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:12.000 Every time you experience the brokenness of the world in your body, in your mind, in your circumstances. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:15.000 If you've gone through the death of a loved one. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:22.000 If you know the languishing and anxiety of isolation of this past 18 months. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:31.000 Sickness, disability, all of those kinds of suffering, any kind of suffering. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:44.000 Romans 8.18, so earlier in this chapter, Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:53.000 All things work together for good, including your suffering and the good that God has for you far outweighs the suffering. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Even the most horrible thing that's happened to you. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.000 I wonder if you believe that. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:09.000 And sin, your sin is included in that word all. Do you ever think of that? All things work together for good, right? 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:14.000 So I might think, well, what if I've done something really bad? 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:19.000 Now, some of us have kind of this general sense of sinfulness. You know, I know I'm not the person I should be. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:31.000 I know I'm a sinful person, but some of us, maybe more of us, have that one or two huge glaring sins in our life. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.000 That one thing that you're most ashamed of. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:43.000 That one thing that makes you feel dirty or unworthy or unlovable. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.000 All those things are included too, in that word all. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:07:03.000 The very place in your heart where you feel the most powerless over your sin is the very place that God wants to touch with cleansing mighty power and bend it for your good. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:09.000 Now, there's two mistakes that verse 28 helps us to avoid. Here's the first mistake. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:14.000 My sin isn't really that big of a deal and I can manage it, you know. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:21.000 God's going to work it for good anyway, so what's the big deal? 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:29.000 That's a mistake. So verse 28 says, for those who love God, all things work together for good. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:36.000 And a casual, flippant attitude towards sin is not loving God, is it? 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:46.000 So calling yourself a Christian while making truces with your pet sins is like calling yourself a husband while you're sleeping around. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:50.000 And if that's you, here's what you do. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:58.000 Right now, decide by God's grace to go to war against your sin and take this verse with you into battle. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Go back to your first love and entrust all those past sins to Christ, all those mistakes, entrust them to Christ's mercy. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:17.000 Because the good news, the gospel of Jesus is big enough to restore you. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:20.000 So that's the first mistake, is that casual attitude towards sin. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:25.000 Here's the second mistake, is to say, you don't know what I've done. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:36.000 My sin is so nasty, so big, so shameful, so strong, I'm too far gone. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:42.000 Your sin cannot defeat King Jesus. Period. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:52.000 Over and over again, the New Testament makes this abundantly clear that on the cross, Jesus defeated sin and Satan. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:56.000 They just don't stand a chance against him at all. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:10.000 So Romans 8 begins in our call to worship by reminding us of the complete and total power of Jesus over sin by saying that there is now no condemnation in Jesus. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.000 None. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:24.000 So there's no evil done to us and no evil done by us that God will not bend around on itself to serve our good. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.000 By way of illustration, there's a little town in Germany called Wunziedl. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.000 It's very fun to say, Wunziedl. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:41.000 And for years, the citizens of Wunziedl were terrorized by a neo-Nazi group that would come and do an annual march through their city. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.000 It was kind of a parade of terror. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:54.000 And so people would shudder the windows, businesses would close, they would stay off the streets, and they would just hope and pray that Wunziedl wouldn't erupt in violence this year. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:10:04.000 But in 2014, some local businesses and charities took matters into their own hands and they organized, I love this, they organized a secret walk-a-thon. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:17.000 So they raised money, they raised pledges so that for every meter that these neo-Nazis walked, 10 euros would be donated to a charity that helps people escape far-right extremist organizations. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:25.000 So that year, the citizens turned out in droves to cheer these people on as they marched. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:36.000 And they gave them bananas and water bottles and cheered and waved, and at the end, the neo-Nazis marched across a sign on the ground that said, thank you for raising 10,000 euros. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Every step that was intended to terrorize had the exact opposite effect. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:51.000 That's what God does to our evil. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:56.000 And we know that's true because of the cross. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 We know God has that kind of power over evil. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:05.000 Who else but God could take evil up in his hands and bend it into good? 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.000 Who could do that? 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:14.000 But at the cross, the worst evil to ever occur was the murder of the Son of God. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:21.000 And at the cross, the greatest good you could possibly imagine came from the murder of the Son of God. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:40.000 And if God can make the death of Jesus the vehicle which brings us the glory of resurrection and eternity with God, what chance does our sin and our suffering stand against that kind of power? 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:46.000 Point number two, we've been talking about this good that God is bending evil around to serve, right? 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 So what is that good? 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.000 Point two, your good is glorious. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.000 Let's look at verse 29. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:07.000 For those whom 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. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Now I wonder what you consider to be good for you. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:14.000 What do we call good? 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:25.000 Financial freedom, comfort, time with our family, lack of conflict in relationships, health. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:34.000 All those things are good, but none of them are the kind of eternally glorious good with the capital G good that Paul has in mind here. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:41.000 Paul's not talking about momentary good or kind of a partial or limited good, one that's going to expire. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.000 He's talking about ultimate good. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:52.000 Paul's talking about the sort of good that we read in Genesis 1 and 2 that God looked at all that he had made and called it good kind of good. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:58.000 A deep, deep good, radiantly good. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.000 Now in these verses, there's a bit of a Bible sandwich going on. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.000 So verse 28 says all things work together for good. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.000 Verse 29 says that our future is to be glorified. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:13.000 That's the bread in the Bible sandwich, good and glorified, right? 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:21.000 Verse 29 is the middle of the sandwich conformed to the image of his Son. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:25.000 So verse 28 makes us ask the question, what is good? 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Verse 29 makes us, I'm sorry, verse 30 makes us ask the question, what is glorious? 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 And verse 29 in the middle gives the answer. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Conformity to the image of Jesus is our ultimate good and it's glorious. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.000 That's the logic of these verses. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:54.000 So you'll note on the screen that word for in verse 29, that for means that 29 is supporting and explaining the statement made in verse 28. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.000 Let me read it again. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:02.000 And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.000 Four, right? 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:05.000 Supporting and explaining. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.000 Four, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.000 Predestined for what? 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.000 To be conformed to the image of his Son. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:20.000 In order that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:28.000 So God is taking every mistake, every ounce of suffering, every sin in your life, and he's picking it up in his mighty hands. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:39.000 And he's bending it around to make you into the sort of everlasting human who looks like Jesus. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:43.000 Now that word, I want to talk about the word glorified for a minute. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:46.000 It's a weird word to put there, right? 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.000 Paul says that we're glorified. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Hold on, Paul. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:54.000 That's a word for Jesus, not for me, right? 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 How does glorified describe us? 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Well, Paul's saying that our future, that good of conformity to the image of Jesus, is glorious. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.000 Because we'll be, we'll look like him. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.000 And he's glorious. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.000 And I don't mean you're going to look like a Nazarene carpenter. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.000 You're going to look like Jesus at his transfiguration. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000 Glory, glowing with God's holiness. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.000 A glorious future. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:30.000 And when I look at the sin in my life, I can hardly believe that that's true of me. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 But that's the whole point. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:43.000 That's why God is showing us in verse 28, that our sins and mistakes don't keep us from that future. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:49.000 They're shaped into that future. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:53.000 Romans 8.29 is perspective giving. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:57.000 It gives us a view, a glimpse of God's purpose for us. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.000 And it just, it gives us a purpose. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:02.000 It gives us a sense of purpose, doesn't it? 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.000 You know what the devil is terrified of? 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:16.000 A church full of justified sinners with a God-given Jesus-fueled sense of destiny with a purpose. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:19.000 That just makes him tremble. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And that's what God is doing in all his people. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:30.000 By his might, God is making our evil serve our ultimate good, and nothing can stop him. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.000 And that's our last point. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Nothing can stop him. Verse 30. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:40.000 If we were to ask, hey Paul, that all sounds really good. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.000 I'd like that future. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:44.000 I'd like to believe that. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:47.000 But how certain is that future? 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:49.000 How certain is that good? 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.000 Paul would say eternally certain. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.000 A certain is anything. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:58.000 His answer to that question is verse 30. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:02.000 Those whom he predestined, he also called. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:05.000 And those whom he called, he also justified. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:11.000 And those whom he justified, he also glorified. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:16.000 There is no wiggle room between those verbs. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:19.000 I wonder what your story of come to Jesus is. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:21.000 What's your conversion story? 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.000 You know, all Christians have a story of loving and following Jesus. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:33.000 And for some of us that might be, I never knew a day that I didn't trust in Jesus and know the gospel. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:37.000 And for some of us, it might be fits and starts. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:41.000 And some of us might have come to Christ much later in life. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:48.000 But verse 30, this is your conversion story from God's perspective. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:53.000 So my perspective is I grew up in a Christian home, but it wasn't until I was about 19 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:58.000 that actually put my trust in Jesus and made him my Lord. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 And then for the last 13 years since then, I've just been kind of stumbling forward in the faith 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.000 day by day as best I can by God's help. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:18.000 And God says of that same story, fornown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:22.000 If you're a Christian, that's your conversion story. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:30.000 Now God, you may have noticed, is actually the subject of all of those verbs in verse 30. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.000 The emphasis is not on what we do. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:36.000 The emphasis on what is on what God has done. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.000 God fornuit, God predestined, God called, God justified, God glorified. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:45.000 So let's just think about each of those words for a moment. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.000 So fornown and predestined. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:55.000 That's talking about kind of God's activity in eternity past, right? 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:04.000 Like before time, before creation, God fornuit you and God predestined you. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:09.000 But if he only predestined us, this just hit me and it kind of blew me away. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:17.000 If he only predestined us and didn't fornuit us, then God might be disappointed or feel let down 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.000 or even surprised when I fail him again and again. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:27.000 You know, I've got this great destiny for you, this purpose, but you keep messing it up. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.000 But that's not what he did. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 He foreknew us and predestined us. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.000 So he looked into our future and he knew that we would be weak. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:47.000 He knew that we would sin and do it again. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:53.000 And he chose you anyway. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.000 He foreknew us, he predestined us, he called us. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.000 So now we're not talking about eternity past anymore, right? 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.000 The calling of God is in our experience. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:06.000 It's in our kind of earthly moments. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:09.000 We're called to Christ. 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:12.000 But we're not just talking about a gospel offer. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.000 That's not what Paul means by the word called. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:24.000 So he doesn't mean that you heard a presentation of the gospel and then had the, you know, you could consider whether or not to respond. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.000 And we know that for this reason. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:28.000 Paul, well, for two reasons. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:38.000 First, Paul doesn't say that, you know, out of those whom he called, some responded and he justified those ones. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:44.000 No, Paul says those whom he called, he also justified. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:52.000 No one slips through the cracks between called and justified and no one ever will. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:54.000 When Paul speaks, this is the second reason we know this is true. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:00.000 When Paul speaks, uses this word call in Romans, he means something really specific. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:07.000 He's using the, he means the same thing as when God called creation into existence. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:12.000 That kind of call theologians call it the fiat command of God. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 God is the God who commands things to be and they are. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:25.000 So for instance, in Romans 4 17, Paul says that God gives life to the dead and calls into calls into existence. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:28.000 The things that do not exist. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.000 So from our perspective, we decided to follow Jesus. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.000 We did with our own free choice. 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:42.000 We decided to follow Jesus, but from God's perspective, he called us and justified us. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:49.000 In other words, here's the truth of the Bible, whether we can totally understand it or not. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:57.000 Our free choice to follow Jesus was the vehicle of God's command. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:03.000 Put it another way, God ordained our free choice to follow Jesus. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:13.000 What a relief because who among us would have chosen him of our own free will? 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:18.000 So God is the subject of all those verbs and here's why that's such good news. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Because your future, your ultimate glorious good of conformity to the image of Christ doesn't ultimately rest on your shoulders. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:36.000 The emphasis is on God and his power and what he's done. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.000 God has a purpose for you. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:40.000 God has a destiny for you. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:42.000 God has determined it for you. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:47.000 God has called you into new creation existence in Christ. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:55.000 God justified you by sending Jesus to die for your sins and God glorified you by conforming you to the image of his son. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:58.000 God did it. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:04.000 Now hold on, glorified isn't glorification in the future, right? 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.000 Isn't that, you know, we're sinners saved by grace here. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:16.000 We still wrestle with sins and weakness and our flesh and then one day we'll die and go to heaven and then we'll be glorified, right? 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:22.000 So shouldn't it read, those whom he justified, he also will glorify? 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.000 Maybe Paul made a typo. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Here's how certain your future is. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:35.000 It's so certain that Paul talks about your future in the past tense. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:42.000 Jesus said from the cross, it is finished, done. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:52.000 The death and resurrection of Jesus completed God's purposes for you with absolute certainty. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.000 That's God worth loving. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Won't you love him? 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:10.000 If you will, then your glorious future to be conformed perfectly to the image of Christ is inevitable. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:23.000 And he's using all your mistakes, all your suffering, all your sins to serve that glorious purpose. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:33.000 You can look back one day with perspective and say, I loved him because he loved me. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:41.000 And from eternity past, he said his heart on me and I'm so glad. 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:49.000 So it seems fitting to just conclude by reading the rest of Romans 8. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.000 Romans 8 verses 31 to 39. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:55.000 What then shall we say to these things? 00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:00.000 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.000 He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:11.000 How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:16.000 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000 It's God who justifies. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:20.000 Who is to condemn? 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.000 who indeed is interceding for us. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:41.000 Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.000 As it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:48.000 We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:50.000 No. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:56.000 All these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:03.000 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:09.000 nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:16.000 will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:23.000 So I go back to the first two application points. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.000 Is that a God you could love? 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:34.000 And if so, will you take your sin and your sorrows to him at the cross? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.000 Let's pray. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:52.000 Lord, this is almost too good to be true, and I find it hard to believe. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:01.000 And we're all a mess, and I feel like a huge mess, but I'm really glad to be your mess. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:11.000 And so we just right now together put all the messiness of our lives in your hands, 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.000 and we trust you with it, and we admire you and worship you for your strength and your power. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:29.000 And we're so glad that you're not just for us but weak, nor are you apathetic toward us 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:38.000 but powerful, but you are for us and powerful, that you're using your might to save us 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.000 and to make us look like Jesus. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:45.000 Thank you. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:28:00.000 Amen.