[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Book called the Road to Character. And the book deals with what it is about certain people that just have great character, no matter the situation. And one of the major themes throughout the book is this, that what oftentimes leads to a person of character are sufferings, trials, and the ups and downs of life.
And what was interesting in the book, one of the things that he discusses that is one of the greatest hindrances to going through those trials that lead to character is pride in oneself.
In fact, he has a little bit of a section where he deals with people boasting in themselves and what they accomplish on their own. And so the book ended up taking off and being so popular that he got invited to be on npr.
And when he was on npr, the guy that interviewed him said, hey, we want to ask you about your book, but specifically this section on boasting and how boasting can actually get in the way of the way you handle, you know, trials and things like that.
And so he said, yeah, what was interesting is you might remember right after 1945 and World War II was over, we finished that war with Japan.
Bing Crosby got on the radio and said, you know, after now the war being over, you would think that what we want to do is get our hats and throw them in the air. We want to throw a party, he said, but at that time, none of that feels appropriate. Really. All we want to do now that the war is over is just humbly come before God and thank him that this whole thing is over.
He said, you know, I thought it was so ironic that I just heard that. And then I go to my recliner, I turn on the tv and I watch some NFL football on Sunday. And when I do, I see the quarterback drop back, hit a quick out route to a wide receiver for just two yards.
He goes out of bounds after those two yards, slams down the football, points to his jersey points to his name on the jersey and starts saying, I'm him.
He said, I thought it was kind of interesting that there was way more boasting and celebration after a two yard gain than there was after the entire ending of World War II.
And when it comes to boasting, I think we would all agree that boasting, even in its most mild form, is annoying.
And we would think that Paul, after spending four chapters of talking about boasting that he would deny boasting in all of its forms.
Because you might remember last week when Brandon talked about the faith of Abraham, that the faith that you and I look up to and the people then looked up to about Abraham, that what made Abraham such a great example of faith is not because Abraham was so great. What made Abraham's faith so great was the faith he had in God. And God infused or imputed his righteousness into his faith.
And then we looked at in Romans 3, that every single one of us are sinners and we fall short of the glory of God. And we all have this in common. We all need a Savior. We can't fix ourselves. We can't save ourselves. In chapters one and two, he talked about and we discussed the law and how while the law is good, the whole point of the law is not to be like, well, I memorized that and I knew that in fact, Paul was a guy that knew about 600 commands.
And so we asked ourselves, would the answer to mankind's problems today be just have more laws?
If we had more laws, would that just fix everything? And we answered, of course no. The answer to our need and our craving in this life is not another law, but the answer to our problems is the fact that we need Jesus Christ.
So again, for four chapters he's denounced boasting. Then all of a sudden we get to chapter five and he says, okay guys, you can boast.
Why the shift?
Well, what he's letting them know and what he's letting us know is we don't boast in ourselves, but now we boast because of Jesus Christ.
And one guy put it this way, for four chapters, he has given us the theological view of our standing with Jesus Christ.
And then what he's wanting us to understand is now that we know that standing with Jesus Christ, now it becomes practical.
And your standing with Jesus is now going to help you endure, but also navigate in such a great way your trials, your temptations and your sufferings.
Now I'll go ahead and tell you, when I was getting ready for this message this past week, I was sitting at camp and one of my favorite spots is to sit the little porch where like the mess hall is and it overlooks like the baseball field. There's a little rocking chair up there.
And I had my laptop out and I was working on this lesson and I was sitting with one of our college students and he said, hey, Andrew, what are you talking about Sunday?
And I said, well, I'm talking about something that I would have never considered until the text presented itself to me. And that's this, that our standing with Jesus Christ impacts how you and I handle our suffering.
Because if you came up to me and said, hey, Andrew, will you put together a lesson on suffering? Here's what I would tell you to do, here's a list of things to do, and here's a list of things not to do.
That would be my approach.
But what I love about this text is he's gonna show us what gives us the power and the standing to do what we need to do and what we don't need to do as we go through suffering.
Now you might look at this and think, well, why in the world would he talk about this? Well, here's part of the reason why he's talking about this.
Keep in mind they are the church in Rome, not the easiest place to be a group of Christians.
And what he wants them to know is, listen, I know you feel like it's all your standing in the government and what the leader's saying and what the leader's doing, but what I'm letting you know, it's not about some government thing, it's not about your standing with them, but it's about your standing with Christ the King.
And when you understand that type of standing, then the suffering that you're dealing with as the church in this era, you're gonna be able to navigate it.
But when I also think about this idea, I think, well, what really does standing have to do with my suffering in life?
And so two examples I'll give you.
So the first one is this. Do you remember when you maybe had, I don't know if any of you had this happen, but it happened to me in sixth grade is I went to a brand new school for the first time in sixth grade.
Not the best time, by the way, to go to a brand new school, sixth grade, you're already a little bit awkward, or at least I was. And you walk into that school and you're like, what is my place? Like, where do I stand with these people? I don't know them. They don't know me.
And you know what usually happens when you don't know where you stand with people?
You usually do one of two things, especially a sixth grader. What you usually do is you kind of cower back and you don't do anything or you act out in hoping that that will then help you find your place.
Why do you act in those two ways? Cowering down or acting out again? Because you haven't yet figured out where you stand.
I'll give you another example.
When I was at Faulkner, one of the degrees I got was in education. And so that meant that I had to do something at the very end of my time at Faulkner, which was called student teaching.
And that is where you go into a public school and you are that teacher.
And where I went to, I had a great guy that I was able to learn from. But the school that I went to in Montgomery was a 98% free, reduced lunch school.
So it was a lot of kids that were in really difficult situations, very poor.
And for the first few weeks, I would show up right at 8 and leave at 3. 8 to 3, 8 to 3.
But then the longer I was there towards the end of the semester, the student teacher leader wanted me to get there early to now have the new experience to experience before school care, which happened in the cafeteria and car pickup line, which everybody loves. Car pickup line.
And so I started getting there at 6:30 in the morning and then had to stay till the last child was picked up.
Well, I gotta tell you, when I had it just 8 to 3, there was this one boy in one of my classes, y' all, he was awful, terrible.
Like I would have my lesson plans ready to go and every week he took them and kicked them like he was one of those that just made everything difficult.
And one of the things that we would do is if they would act out, we'd tell them to go sit at the pole. I'm not saying that's the greatest way to do things, by the way, but I'm just telling you what we did. And so I literally was doing roll be like, so and so are you here? And he was acting like, go to the pole. Like we hadn't even started class yet. And the kids having to sit over there, he disrupted everything.
But then my perspective started to change When I went to before school care and I had to go to car pickup line.
I'll never forget my first day on that Monday morning when I was there in the cafeteria for before school care. They come to the cafeteria and they get their Breakfast.
And this little boy walks in. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna sit by him because I know something's going to happen.
So I'm just going to kind of stay near him. He got his little breakfast, and he sat down and y' all, he scarfed that breakfast down.
He couldn't eat it fast enough.
He drank that milk as quick as he could. And then he started looking at and going to the plates of other kids, asking about their food, if he could have it.
And then when he went to that garbage can to dump his food in, I noticed that he would always look at the very top to see if there was stuff he could pick up and eat without other people looking.
And then at car pickup line, that where he lived, according to Kevin, was an area where the bus just couldn't go to.
It was a hard road to get down. And so I would stand there waiting for all the kids to be picked up. And every single day, if he was picked up, he was the last kid to be picked up.
And he was usually picked up by somebody different every single time.
That what we're going to see in this text is something I think we know to be true, but Paul's trying to make sure we really understand, is that there is a direct connection between our resiliency in our struggles and our relationships.
I want to say that again that there's a direct connection between your and I's resiliency in our relationship. What we're saying is our standing and our suffering.
And so I want you to think about this for you, and I want you to go back to a time when you took a big step in your walk with God.
I'm telling you, every single spiritual advancement that you have ever had always comes back to this.
You understanding your standing with Jesus Christ. I'll give you an example. Maybe for some of you, you remember a time when your faith was so weak, or maybe it wasn't that fact, it was just weak. You just left it all together. But then you remember, like, you were sitting in a pew, you were sitting in a class, whatever it was, and you walked forward. And what made you walk forward was two things. Number one, you knew that the people in that audience weren't gonna throw tomatoes at you. They weren't gonna boo you, they weren't gonna disconnect you. You thought, listen, I have a church family that loves me and cares about me, and they're gonna receive me. But more importantly, when you walk forward, here's what you knew. That even as I walk forward, I serve a God that is also the God of Hosea and Gomer.
That just as Hosea went after Gomer, God goes after me.
And I serve a God that I see in Luke chapter 15 that when I come forward, what he's going to do is he's going to kill the fatted calf, he's going to put a ring on my finger, he's going to put a robe on me, they're going to throw a party, because I was lost. But now I've found.
Every advancement we've made in our walk with God, all goes back to that place where we know we stand.
But what I love about this text is he lets us know the real perks of that standing. And this is what he said. He says, we have been justified by faith, and so we have peace with God.
Notice in this text, he does not say the peace of God. He says, you have peace with God.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the peace of God.
But I want you to think about for just a second. The difference between the phrase of and with the peace of God is something that at times can be a little bit subjective. And what I mean by that is this. Have you ever prayed for God to give you peace about something, whatever it is, and then you get something that you think, is that the piece he's talking about, or is it this, like we're trying to decipher on our own?
Is that the peace? Or is this the piece? Or is it.
You get what I'm saying that it can be a little bit more subjective, but what the peace of God is, is the peace with God, excuse me, is not subjective, it's an objective reality.
He's saying right now there is peace between us. You don't have to wonder. You don't have to base it on a feeling or a curiosity. It is real. You have peace with me. Now, here's why this was a big deal.
You wouldn't believe it and you wouldn't know it, but in Rome, one of the biggest deals to them was peace.
And we know this because part of what got Jesus crucified, right, was they wanted what? They wanted peace. They wanted all the commotion to stop.
And so peace was a big deal. And so Caesar Augustus bragged about all the time this thing called the Pax Romana. And here's what the Pax Romana was. Pax Romana was saying, hey, if you look around at Rome, we're doing really good because there's no wars going on, but there is the peace of the King. And Whoever was the king, whoever was the ruler was like, look what I did. Look at this peace.
But here's the problem.
If you did, like, one thing the king didn't like, or you approached the king without being asked, guess what would happen?
Off with your head.
So while there was peace in the country, there wasn't peace with the king.
There's a big difference in having the peace of something and peace with someone.
And that's what he's getting at in this text, that you have peace with me, not just the peace of me.
And so this is how this peace looks like. He says this. So we have gained access because of this peace right through Jesus Christ. And we are now in his grace and favor, and we're standing in it.
I want you to think about that for just a second.
This peace that we have with him, we are now standing and gained access.
Have you ever had access to something that ordinarily you would have never had unless it was for somebody else?
Like, you know, like a ticket. Like, you got a ticket to something and you arrived and you're like, listen, I am sticking out like a sore thumb here.
Everybody knows I don't belong in this place. And the only reason that I'm at this place is because they gave me a ticket to it several years ago. And Abby Walker knows this story well because it involves her dad.
So her dad and my dad are the best of friends. They were best men in each other's weddings and went to Faulkner together.
And when I lived in south Alabama, he would come down and visit quite often. An area called Point Clear, specifically where he worked. They would have this big conference at a place called the grand.
And there was a group of guys that I used to like to bike with. And we would always bike in that area because it was safe and there's beautiful scenery all around.
And so I remember one morning, it was like on a Saturday morning, I hop on my bike and I just start biking down that area. It was about 15 minutes from our house. And so I was able to drive there and start biking there. And I get a text from Scott.
He's like, hey, Andrew, just want you to know I'm here at the grand if you want to stop by. And I was like, what? I said, I'm actually going to be near Point Clear in just a second.
I'm biking near here on some of the side roads, and, yeah, I'll stop by and say, hey. He said, yeah, text me when you get here.
And so I was biking, and I'd heard of The Grand.
And if you don't know much about that area, super nice.
But I'd never, like, been in that place before.
So I pull into there on my bike, and I text him I'm here. He's like, all right, I'm coming out. And he comes out, and he's dressed very nice, And I start talking to him, and he said, well, how about this? Why don't you come join me for breakfast?
And keep in mind, I've got, like, a cutoff sleeve shirt, a bike helmet, biker shorts, and the biking shoes that have, like, the little hard things in the front where you have to walk like this, you know?
And he's like, why don't you come in for breakfast? And I've had breakfast at a hotel, but I also want you to know the kind of breakfast I've had at hotels, like Holiday Inn Express.
I've had the cinnamon rolls, you know, the cereal where you turn it 20 times to get three pieces. Like, that's the kind of continental breakfast that I'm used to.
And so he invites me in. I was like, sure, I guess so. And so I walk in there like this, and I'm sweaty and I'm stinky, and I'm holding my bike helmet, and. And I walk into this room.
There's chandeliers, white tablecloths, there's chafing dishes, there's people serving. And I was like, oh, no. And he's like, no, come sit down. And y' all, you know who was sitting at that table? One of those was Governor Ivey.
There was the lieutenant governor, the state treasurer, the Secretary of state was at this table.
And he introduces me. And you can tell by the look of their face, they're like, what brought you here? And I was like, scott. Scott is the one that brought me here. And of course, they had questions for me. And I was like, listen, I want y' all to know that I did not know that this was gonna happen today. I would have packed something different, but here I am. And I know. I want y' all to know that I know that you know that I stink, okay? Like, I want us to clear the air here. And the only reason I'm here is because of him. And I felt out of place. That's what he's getting at here, is that you and I, we have the stench of death on us. We stink. There's nothing great about us. The only reason we are where we are is because of Jesus Christ. He has given us this access that ordinarily we wouldn't Have. And look what he says to us about it. We stand in it.
That grace is something in which we stand.
When I think of grace, a lot of times I kind of visit grace. I don't stand in it.
Like, if I made a poor decision, I'm gonna go visit grace.
And if I don't know what to do next, then I'm gonna go visit grace. He doesn't say here in this text because of this access, you just go and visit grace. He says because of this access, you stand in grace.
Wherever a child of God goes, they are standing in grace.
But notice here he says that you've also gained. What is this. This favored status.
Why is it important to have this. This status to know that you are favored?
Jason gave me a book a few months ago called Habits of the Household. And he probably knew I needed it or something. But anyway. And I did, by the way.
But it was a really good book. And one of the things he talks about in that book is how our children become what they need to become in Christ.
And the very beginning of the book talks about something that I think we all know is a reality right now that is under attack with our kids. And it's this, their identity, right? That's like the major thing. Because the world's saying, you just be whatever you need to be, according to you, okay?
And yes, you're involved, but if you call the shots, that can kind of be a dangerous thing.
Whether it's about your sexuality or whatever it is, you just do whatever you need to do and let the world tell you who you are.
That's what's happening.
So I love this book that it first deals with that the thing that you need to have in your home are regular rituals and traditions and times where you remind your kids who they really are.
And so he said that what I encourage you to do is have little sayings with your kids.
Little things that remind them about their place and who they are.
And so I remember I was on my way to school with Dawson and we kind of came up with this one that we did. And it was this. On the way to school, I would say, I'm strong. I'm strong.
I'm brave. I'm brave. I'm loved. I'm loved. And I'm faithful. And I'm faithful.
And then I'll never forget that we were doing that every single day when I picked her up and when I would bring her. And then if I forgot, as we're pulling into the church building, she. She said, you didn't do strong, brave, love, faithful. I love this, right? Say, I'm strong, I'm brave, I'm loved, I'm faithful. And his point in the book is, by saying whatever you decide to pick with your family is that when we understand who we really are and we understand our place, it helps us then to be more resilient and to understand who we are. He said it's raising resilient kids.
And this is kind of an example of this.
This is a picture of a throne of a king and a king and his family.
But I want you to notice, in one picture, the kids are standing beside the throne. In one picture, the family is actually standing or sitting in a lap.
Did you know that if you usually go to a king and you're not a child of the king, you have usually one of two approaches?
The same approach you took when you would go to that school for the first time.
If you walk into that throne, you kind of walk in with your head bowed low. You don't really say anything. You give your request and you get out as quick as you can.
The air is not clear for friendship. The air is not clear for a relationship, or you're a jester.
And as a gesture, what do you do? You act out.
And if you act good enough, if you perform good enough, then you can stay.
I want you to think about for just a second.
When you come before God, do you feel like those kids, or do you cower, feel like you can even come before him, talk to him?
Or are you kind of like that jester?
You try to act out to see if he is pleased with your performance.
And as you think about that for just a second, I understand, especially today being Father's Day for some people. While it is a good day for some, it's a painful day for others. And part of the reason it's painful for some people is that they would probably say that their relationship with God is not where it needs to be, partly because of their relationship with their earthly father has not been really what it needs to be.
And so sometimes what happens is we interpret our heavenly Father through our earthly one instead of our earthly one through our heavenly one.
But I want to remind you this morning that in Psalm 139, the Bible says this, that God writes, it's like he's journaling about you.
You don't journal about someone unless you really, really love that person. Zephaniah 3:17 says that right now he's actually singing over you.
That's the kind of father we have and so I want to ask you, do you feel like these kids? Do you feel like you stand in that kind of place?
And so he says, also because you've gained this access, what I also want you to know is that you have the hope of the glory of God.
Notice this. He says, we rejoice, or some translations say, we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
This is a difficult part of this text, but some people call it the theology of suffering that. Notice in the text, he doesn't say, you rejoice in your reality, you rejoice in your situation. He actually is saying, you rejoice in what hope.
He doesn't say rejoice in reality, because if it's just based on reality, we're going to have a really difficult time rejoicing.
But we rejoice in the idea that God can do something, right? There's a hope of what can come now or one day that God is doing something in it. He's doing something through it. So notice here he's saying, you're rejoicing in hope, not reality. But the other thing that I want you to notice in the text here, he says, we rejoice in that hope because of the glory of God. It's what he did. It's kind of like when someone came up to me a few weeks ago and they said, hey, Andrew, do you think Florida State's going to do better this year?
And I said, well, I think we can't be worse, and I think we should have a better team. And then after that came out of my mouth, I was like, who's we?
Like, I'm not playing.
I'm not on the offensive line, but I act like it's a we, right? And that's kind of what's happening here. He did all the work, but at the same time, we get to respond to that work and live in. In that kind of hope.
And what I love about this hope is he goes on to say, so you rejoice in your sufferings, because here's what you know about your sufferings is that just like the road to character talked about, that a true person of character has gone through some fire. They've gone through something. He said that suffering, you know what it's going to do? It's going to produce endurance. That endurance is going to produce character, and that character is going to produce hope. Endurance, character, hope. But I want us to know that all of those things that he mentioned, there are not just automatic things.
Have y' all seen those people that have gone through a difficult time. And it's amazing how they handle it with this peace, that they handle it with faith.
And you're like, man, how do they do it like that?
I want us to know that it's not just an automatic response.
It's actually a deliberate focus. We talked about this a few months ago when we talked about the idea of balance.
Like, man, look at my life right now. I don't know how to balance all these things that we got going on. Here's why. You weren't meant to balance everything.
In fact, the idea of balance we talked about is not actually biblical. Focus is seek first his kingdom, then what? All these things are going to be added to you. The law of balance said what? You have to have a singular focus for us. That's Christ, and then constant corrections. That's law number two.
Singular focus. Then you make corrections.
That's how one deals with. You have to have that singular focus. If you're trying to be the center of keeping things in order, you're gonna tire out. But the second thing is this. It's not also denying the fact that you have pain.
I told the earlier crowd that at a recent funeral, this lady was weeping about her loss. And in that loss, somebody came up to her as she was crying and said, hey, keep your head up.
He's experiencing the glory of God right now.
And I was like, really?
Like, let the lady grieve.
And I know he meant well, but it's okay to grieve, it's okay to hurt. It's okay to be sad. And that's actually part of the healing process.
The Bible does say, rejoice with those who rejoice. But you know also what it says, to weep with people that are weeping.
But also, we know this, that our boasting in trials is actually possible, because we know that God is using that trial to develop something within us, to produce something.
Because notice what he says here. It produces what? Character.
That word character in the Greek is actually two ideas proven worth. Proven worth.
It's the idea that really how you become a person of character is that you've not just been through something. Everybody's been through something. But it's on where that trial is landing.
An example of this is Ford has a testing ground out in the west in the desert. And what they'll do is after they've produced a truck, they will take that truck and go out west and they'll put it through the dunes. They'll go up the hills, they'll go down the hills, they'll go through wet dirt, they'll go through dry dirt. And once it's been through all of those conditions, then they'll put the stamp on it. It's ready to go out and. And it's built for tough. It's the idea it's gone through something, and that's why we're able to now use it. Another example of this is what is called kintsugi, which in Japanese is the idea of a golden transformation or broken things putting back together. And what they'll do is this, that in Japan, a lot of the porcelain or the pottery that they have in their homes is something that sometimes for years has been passed down from generation gener to generation to generation.
And what will happen is sometimes if one of those gets bumped and falls to the ground, they don't do. What we do a lot of times is what sweep it up in a dustpan and throw it out. The thing's done to them. It's important, so it's not done. What they actually do is they sweep up all of those pieces and they take it to this guy that will then take every single one of those pieces and infuse and put gold in between it.
And once all the gold has been put in between it, he'll give it back to the family. And here's what they know about it. It's now worth more than it was before because it's been infused with gold. That's what Peter Talked about in 1st Peter 1:7, is that the trials that we go through is like God refining us like that gold. That the suffering is an opportunity for God to infuse the gold of his presence into those broken parts, into those crevices, into those flaws in our life.
I came across this quote and I thought it fit good for today. And it says this, that at any given point in your life, God is doing about 10,000 different things, but you and I are only aware of three of them.
I love that quote, but at the same time I looked at it, I was like, what if you don't know what the three are, you know, and maybe you feel that way too. I'm going through 10,000 things. Can I just get the one like, you know, but. But the idea is that God is a God. That's not. Again, he's not pacing back and forth in heaven, right?
We did a whole study on the Book of Hebrews where it says that in the middle of your struggles and trials, guess what he's doing on his throne?
He's sitting so I want you to think about this for just a second. Why would you say that you are hopeful when you need hope?
I think some of us might say, well, I'm hopeful because I'm just an optimist.
You know, when I go through a difficult time, I sing. You know, sun will come out tomorrow.
And that's what really gets me through those difficult times.
Some of us will say, well, I got one of those, like, you know, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger kind of mentalities.
Some of us might even say, if we're willing to admit it. It's just we've medicated it through the overuse of a drug, alcohol. It could be materialism, status, sexual pleasure, whatever it is.
What I want you to know if any of those are the reason why you're hopeful. Optimism. What doesn't kill me stronger. And whatever you're covering the pain with, all of those will wear out, tire out, and they hit their breaking point.
What he says is the reason for our hope. And I love how he says this. We have a hope that does not disappoint. I want to say that again. We have a hope that does not disappoint. Well, tell me about this hope that doesn't disappoint. It's God's love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
The hope that does not disappoint is because of the Holy Spirit.
You know, it's really interesting, anytime the Bible uses the name, one of God's names, that the Holy Spirit, the part of the Trinity. It's interesting to look at the adjectives connected with him.
The gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
Some of you may know this, but our sixth graders here at Madison, every Sunday night and Wednesday night when they go to their classes, they're doing a whole year on the Holy Spirit.
And if you're a guest and you don't know this, the way it works is in fourth grade, our kids go into a class and they learn about God the Father for the whole year.
Fifth grade, God the Son, sixth grade, God the Spirit.
And I love this bulletin board that is in their classroom. It has the different adjectives and the characteristics of him. The Holy Spirit says that he points, he fulfills. He's a convictor, he empowers, he indwells, he sustains, he testifies, he teaches, he guides, he speaks truth, He's a helper, he promotes, he's a guaranteer, he's a supplier.
But there's also an app, by the way, where you can take a word from the Bible and look at every term that is used in connection with that word.
And so if you take the word Holy Spirit and put it into this app, these are the pouring out of what we receive through the Holy Spirit.
Listen to some of this.
Brings to life the fruit that displays the character of God.
He leads us and guides us. He empowers us. He teaches us truth about Jesus. He intercedes with our sighs that are too deep for words.
He indwells within us.
He washes us, makes us clean, makes us right before God inspires joy. Another helper to be with us and a helper to be in us.
When God says he gives a gift, God does not. The Bible even talks about that. God is not a light giver of gifts.
He's like, listen, if you guys know how to give good gifts, think about the kind of gifts that I give. So when he's saying it's love poured into our hearts, what an amazing gift that it is. And this is not some trickle, this is a pouring.
And so as we think about that, because in Romans 8, in a few weeks, I'm going to dig deeper into this.
Romans 8 says, Listen, every one of us who have put on Christ, we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So every Christian has the Holy Spirit. But here's the next part, though. Not every single Christian lives in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And not every single Christian walks in the Spirit.
So I guess the question we have to then ask, which one of those would describe us?
And so now he kind of puts the nail on the coffin. He's like, all right, so here's why you have hope. Here's why you have gained access. Here's why I can do something with your struggle and you can just stand in grace, having faith in what I'm going to do through it, is because while you were helpless, at just the right time, Christ died. Died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for just a person. Though for a good person, perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us and that while we were still sinners, he died for us.
It says this that we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. What he's basically saying the cross of Jesus Christ shows you that God hasn't given up on you and he hasn't forgotten you.
And what I love about what he says next, he's like, I'm not talking about something to come.
I'm talking about right now. He says, because more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
He says, listen, you don't just have the peace of God.
We also have peace with God.
Do you feel like those kids or do you cower down or just feel like you have to perform?
Or maybe for some of you right now, what it is is that as you go through your struggle, you're kind of like a lot of us. We're like, it's amazing. You're doing 10,000 things.
I'm just knowing and trying to figure out how to navigate just finding the 1, the 2, or the 3.
Is there any kind of light at the end of the tunnel?
Well, there's this popular painting that circulated a lot through different museums because it's got a story behind a story.
The guy, we'll just call him Fred, that did the painting, there's two people that are at this chessboard.
The one with the red feather, when he painted it, was depicted as the devil.
You can see it by the cower on his face, but you can also see it by some of the other surroundings. The chair he's sitting in.
And the painting is called Checkmate, because to the person that doesn't know much about chess, he has this guy in Checkmate.
But if you'll notice in the picture, the angel is looking at who he's looking at, the other guy.
And if you were to zoom in really close, and if you knew your stuff about chess, you would actually know that the man the angel is looking at actually has one more move.
And the whole point of the painting is that we go through life and it feels like the devil has just got us.
But what he's trying to let us know and what this text is letting us know, oh, no. God always has another move.
And so whatever it is that you're dealing with this morning, maybe for some of you, you don't know about where you stand.
And you needed to be reminded that you are a child of God. You can come before his throne.
And we talked about that. Spiritual advancement. Maybe for some of you, you need that advancement right now.
Just like I told you earlier from other people that are in this room, we had two this morning that walked down front and said, listen, I can't do it anymore. In fact, one of the ladies said this. I woke up this morning and I almost didn't come here.
And then I remembered that God said, listen, I got one more. I got something. I don't know what it is next. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I'm going to make that move because I know he's making a move. Maybe you're here this morning and you just need the prayers of this church. And what you're going to see is that you stand in a place with a group of people that love you so, so much.
But more importantly, we all stand in the presence of God that loves us so much and sent his son to die for all of us, but also to die for you.
But the other part is this, that some of you have never made that decision to give your life to Christ.
You've thought about it, but you've never made that initial decision.
And so what you're working from is a place of maybe, optimism, to be hopeful.
I'm going to try to grin and bear it, to be hopeful. That will last for a little while, but it's going to wear out. It's going to tire out.
So maybe today you need to make that decision to put on Christ. Whatever it is we want you to know you stand in a place of love before a God who loves you very much. So if you have a need, please, please come today while we stand and we sing the song together.
