The Love of God in our Daily Lives

Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Romans, Romans 8:28. The title of the message is: “The Love of God in our Daily Lives,” the love of God in our daily lives. If you need a Bible, there's one under a seat nearby. It's about the sixth book in to the New Testament there. There's an index in the front where you can find these.

I want to tell you about a man who lived about 450 years before Jesus Christ. This man's name was Ezra. Ezra, the Scriptures say, was a scribe, skilled in the Law of the Lord. He was also an exile who lived under foreign rule in Babylon, modern-day Iraq. The King of Persia was in power. Persia ruled the world with a heavy fist. And this king, this foreign pagan king, told Ezra, he and the Jews could return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. This was a long, dangerous journey for Ezra to think about and consider. He and the families would be easy prey. They would be easy targets for ambush, to be killed, all of their stuff taken, and never even make it to Jerusalem. So, he thought about asking the King for some soldiers to help protect them along the way. But then, he remembered something that you and I need to remember: that God is good.

Let me read to you what Ezra at that moment before the king, as he pondered asking for soldiers, let me read to you what he thought and what he said. Ezra 8:22, “For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, ‘The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.’” Ezra 8:31, then Ezra departed, it says, “Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.”

You know, this is a level of trust in God, in his person, in his character, in his nature that is beyond most of us. Ezra was trusting his own life, and the life of all of those from Israel who would follow him, to the nature of God. This is beyond the trust of most believers. I would say it is beyond our own trust, all of us, at times. This journey was not quick. In fact, it took five months for Ezra and the Israelites to walk across the desert, to get to Jerusalem. And they arrived in Jerusalem safely. And in Ezra chapter seven, verse nine, there's this very familiar phrase that is repeated throughout the book of Ezra. For the reason why they got there safely. It says in Ezra 7:9, “for the good hand of his God was on him.” Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD [i.e. the Law of Yahweh], and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Notice the study, practice, teach pattern. That's what Ezra did. See, Ezra chose to live differently than the rest of the world. He chose to live differently.

Ezra, in Babylon, was in a foreign nation. Under a foreign king. Under the threat, every day, of a foreign army. He was in a pagan educational system. He lived under pagan influence and pagan rule. And all those who came from Jerusalem were forced to learn their culture, their ways, and their language. God told them to establish homes and businesses, you're going to be there for a while. You would think in a crazy world like that, that Ezra lived in, that he would be under extreme stress every single day of his life. That he would just be full of anxiety, crushing anxiety. But yet, even in 450 BC, Ezra understood the goodness of God.

Can I ask you a question? And I just want you to think about this. Is God still good? Did you find yourself this weekend overwhelmed by the goodness of God? Do you find yourself as you're thinking about our country, our education system, or maybe our social security – which your amazed still exists – that God is good? Are you overwhelmed by that fact? If we found ourselves, just hypothetically speaking, in a society like Ezra, would God still be good? If we found ourselves in a world like Ezra, would we have the same courage and mentality that he does?

You say, “Well, you know, he just did that for a time, those were God's people.” What do we call the Israelites? God's chosen people. Right? We are okay with that phraseology, when we think about the Israelites, that they were his chosen people. So of course, they knew God was still good, even though he sent them to get plundered and pillaged and sent off to a foreign land for a long time. How do we have the mentality like a person like Ezra? How do we live in a world and in a culture that bombards us with pagan ideology, and pagan influence, and pagan rule, and pagan leaders? And how do we live in that sort of world? Is God still good?

That brings us to our passage today, Romans 8:28. You'll look in your Bibles there with me to read God's Word. Follow along as I read. Romans 8:28 says this, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God's people have always been those who are called. From the beginning of time to the end of time. This has always been the case that God is good and that he will always be good to his people.

But do we live like we believe this? Do we live like God is on the throne or that somehow the King of Persia is on the throne? Do we live like God is good, and loving, and merciful? Or are those just words? Do they cause us to act, in our daily lives? Does God's goodness cause us to behave a certain way? Does God's goodness cause us to think a certain way? Or are we crushed by our surroundings? Have we set our minds on the truth of Scripture? Or are we focusing on the evils of this world?

I'm here to declare to you today that God is good. God is good. And that for those who love God, all things work together for good. All things. Everything. Joseph learned this in Egypt, did he not? That all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. He said, “I have set you here to protect my people.” That was God's calling on his life. It wasn't something Joseph thought of and engineered and made happen because he's so brilliant, and he was brilliant. He led the most powerful nation in the world at the time, through famine, successfully and fed not only them, but all around because he was so brilliant. Yet, even he, would not have devised the plan that God did for his life. And yet God is good.

Abraham learned this in a foreign land. It's where God found him, in a foreign land worshiping pagan gods. It's not like Abraham was born, woke up and said, “I'm following the true God.” No, God had to get him, take him, and send him this way. So, Abraham learned this in a foreign land. Noah learned this when there was no land, it was all covered up by water. Moses learned that God was good when he was kept out of the land. You can just look at it. God is still good. David learned this when he was a boy. He was the runt of the family. The smallest. Scripture calls him small and ruddy with pretty eyes. That was David. Not even in the lineup to be chosen as king. And yet this David is the one who, didn't stand up to “the Goliaths” in his life, he stood up to Goliath. When the entire army of his country, who claimed to believe in God but didn't act like it – not a single person in the whole country acted like it – the boy, who knew God was good, stood up against the biggest foe they had ever faced. Why? Because God was upon him. And he trusted in God, and it affected and changed his life.

God is good and his purposes will come out. And we must learn this. And there are a zillion stories in the Bible about this. It is everywhere. That God is the cause, the one who works things out together for good, he is not the lone benefactor of all of our good decisions, and his heaven is not populated with all of these people who chose him on their own. No, God is the one who causes things to work together for good.

Let me read to Romans 8:28 again, as you think about Joseph, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, the Jews – “And we know,” we know!, “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This happens for those who are called according to his purpose. And just so you don't think that we're going to just take this verse out of context and turn this into a Joel Osteen, pick-me-upper sermon. Let me just do a little survey of Romans to see how we got to where we are in this verse. This is very important. If you don't understand the first eight chapters and 27 verses, you will and have and will continue to take verse 28 out of context for the rest of your lives. And that would be a shamble, because it's one of the most encouraging verses that we all love, right?

First, you need to know that God saved you. God saved you. To understand this, you need to understand the depravity of man. You say, “Where's that?” Turn to Romans chapter three. We don't have time to make this a treatise on Romans, or on the sinfulness of man, or on his depth. So, I just want to read to you what the Scriptures say. And I want you to consider thinking about exactly what the Scripture says. Romans 3:9, please turn there with me, if you would. He's just gone to great depths to show how favored the Jews were. “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, [in case we wondered what that word means] both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”

That's the way the Bible explains all of mankind. The Jews and the Greeks are under sin, [Romans 3:10-12] “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” Now look at the very first part of verse 10. What does it say there to start this quote? “As it is written,” that means this is a quote from the Old Testament. This is not a new thing. This is something that has always been this way. This is a quote from two Psalms. Romans 3:13-18, “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” How many people is this describing? All. All people.

Now recently, one of the world's most followed leaders, good ole Pope Francis, said this – and this is a translation of what he said. He’s not speaking English, “We are all fundamentally good. Yet there are some rogues and sinners.” Another way to translate that, by the way is, “there are some sinners and rogues in us.” In other words, he's saying that there might be a little sin in us. You could also take it that way legitimately. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners but the heart itself is… an open grave? Deceitfully wicked? No, he says, but the heart itself is good. That is antithetical to Scripture. And if that makes you uncomfortable, then go evangelize your Catholic friends whom you think love Jesus.

Listen, you have to decide, are you just going to try and get along and have a kumbaya hug? Or are you going to follow Jesus and not follow those who clearly don't know their Bibles? When a man or woman clearly speaks against God's Word, we must not follow them. There is a gigantic mission field in the Catholic Church. Gigantic. If you just think, “Oh, he didn't mean that.” He's already said, atheists go to heaven. Atheists, who don't believe in God, go to heaven. He said that about two years ago. He already said Muslims are our brothers in Christ. Mother Teresa said things like that constantly. If they in themselves, Mother Teresa says, have a clear conscience in following God, whom they know, whom they describe on their own, then they for themselves will be saved by that God. It is not unkind and unloving to share the truth with people.

In Noah's day, mankind was so bad, only 8 people survived! The heart is not good. In David's day, mankind was evil. In Jesus's day, mankind was evil. Where are all the good people that saved him from going to the cross? His best friends ran away. Things have not really changed a whole lot: wars, corruption, lies. Man still needs Jesus. And what I mean by that is not that man needs Jesus, in the sense that man needs to come to the right conclusion. But we are actually in need of Jesus to get to the right conclusion. As it is written, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).

You say, “Dave, you're cherry picking.” Okay, if that whole paragraph still hasn't convinced you, look at Romans 8:7. This is the state of all people before coming to Jesus. This is the state of all people before coming to Jesus: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, [it what?] it cannot.” It cannot! This is God's Word. This is the dependence that we have on Jesus. This is what it means to need Jesus. When you say, “people need the Lord.” And there's that wonderful song, “People need the Lord,” and I used to sing it a ton of times. That's why. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” Romans 8:8, he just repeats it. This is the reformed understanding of salvation. No more is God's choosing clearly seen than in salvation. Why would he talk about this? Because none seek after God. No, not one. To understand the love of God in the world, you have to understand what he has truly done for you. And what he has truly done for you is beyond your capacity. It's not just that you got out of the sin line and hopped in the heaven line. And everybody who hopped in the heaven line gets to see all these amazing things about God.

Yes, you must have faith. Yes, you must repent, you must believe. Jesus's main message was repent and believe. He called all people everywhere to repent and believe. The time is at hand the kingdom of salvation is here. God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. The gospel is replete for everyone to come to faith in Christ. But they cannot, on their own. Before salvation, all people have their mind set on the flesh. That's what Romans 8:7 says. Romans 8:8 says those people in the flesh cannot please God. So, when I say that we need Jesus, we actually need him fundamentally even to come to him. If we cannot please God in our sinful state, then what hope is there? Jesus is our hope.

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus, Romans 1:16. Romans starts out with these things. If you go back to Romans 1:1, he says, “Paul…called to be an apostle.” He's saying this calling right from the get-go. He gets to Romans 1:16, he says the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation.” How does this work? The Gospel changes you.

You say, “Jesus is our hope but when I look around, there's a whole lot of suffering going on in the world.” There is, there's a ton of suffering. You and I here in this country, this is easy street. This is not difficult, in this era of our lives. This is not difficult, but we see suffering and if we see the suffering, and it's troubling us and it's too much for us to handle, then you look at Romans 8:18. He goes through a series of objections. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

All the sufferings that Paul can imagine aren't even worth comparing to the glory of God, is that our mindset? They're not even worth it. And yet, we get so riled up, especially in election years. And we think that people, “Wow, the others, they're just evil.” No, God said, “we're all evil.” And without Jesus, we'd still be in that state. You think, “Wow, how could we ever vote for this guy or that guy? Or, how could we do these things?” Ezra didn't even have that choice. We should be thankful for a country where you even have a choice. There are many countries where he who has the biggest gun, makes the choice. You don't live in a place like that. We live in a blessed country. Memorial Day was a time to remember just what people gave, even non-believers gave. So, you and I could sit here and worship the God of our choosing. That is a blessing from God.

“The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed” (Romans 8:18). We don't know and understand the glory, so there's not much of a comparison. Yet that was Paul's mindset to get through suffering, any suffering. You say, “Okay, alright, well, you got me on that one. But my body, my personal body, is wasting away. You can see that, it doesn't work like it used to.” Anybody over 21 is already thinking that, right? You say, “Even creation, like who would make mosquitoes and weeds? To be enjoyed?” No, I think those are part of the curse. But, you know, the whole creation is cursed. What about that? Is that good?

Romans 8:20-21, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,” even creation didn't get to choose to live the way it wanted to, “but because of him who was 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.” Romans 8:22-23, “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,” anybody out there groaning, you wish your body was different?, “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

It is not just some kind of spiritual destination. Your body will be renewed and glorified when you stand there in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're different and he has already been made new and now we follow in those firstfruits of what the Spirit has given, but also in the renewal of our bodies. Does this affect how you think? So, Paul is doing a series of apologetics. And Romans, it's not really written against any particular thing. Any problem the church was dealing with, it's a general principle. The whole epistle is a setting forth of what is true of all times, the principles that you and I can benefit from. And so, Paul is writing this so that people of all times can benefit from it.

You say, “Yeah that’s a long ways away.” Romans 8:25, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Patience. That's a difficult word, isn’t it? Patience. I mean this is so much easier to preach than to do, I can tell you that. Patience. We wait on the plan of God, patiently fixing our minds and our lives on God who is good. God who is good. If we don't believe that God is good, all these things make us restless, worrisome. “Yeah, but you don't know what my Monday holds.” No, but I know Who holds Monday. Right? “You don't you don't know my family situation.” I don't want to know your family situation sometimes. You don't want to know mine. You don't want to know what I'm thinking half the time. But God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

So, you say, “Alright, so I'm just praying about all these things. These things are pretty clear in Scripture. I need to pray about my physical body, I need to pray about my life, my family, my friends. I need to be thankful for all those things. I need to pray about our country, I need to pray about this world.” We're not just part of a little Christian bubble here in Purcellville or the surrounding areas. God's world is his plan.

But I'm not even sure I'm praying, according to the specific will of God. Do you find yourself in that situation? You've been praying for a long time, but you don't know what God's specific will is? I don't know maybe God's not going to save this person. Should I pray for them? I don't know what's coming down the pike for our country, what should I pray for? Like we need a third and fourth option, some of you have said. I think the main option is God, and that's what we need to pray comes forth, is his plan. But you find yourselves thinking, I don't even know what to pray for specifically. It gets confusing. So, we get weakened in our desire to pray. We get confused in our desires to pray. Or we pray platitudes, like, “Lord, heal this person, if it's your will.” And we use that as a way to say we actually don't have the faith that we should, that God's going to still do these things that he said he does all throughout time and history. And so, it just weakens us and weakens us. And then we find ourselves not really praying about anything specifically at all.

Look in Romans 8:26-27, this is the last excuse, so to speak, that he gets out of the way. Romans 8:26, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness,” praise God! That means the Spirit is working in us all the time, right? “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” That doesn't mean you should go around just groaning. You're told to pray with words. The Holy Spirit uses the groanings, you use words. [Romans 8:27] “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.” The Holy Spirit!

So, you pray for that family member in the way you know how: to be saved, to love Jesus. That's what you and I are called to do. If somebody doesn't know the gospel, we're not called to fix them. We're called to share the gospel with them to lay out the Word of God specifically and without reservation, because we love them. That's our job. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf to pray specifically, on our behalf, to the Father, because he actually knows the specific will of God. He knows the mind of God. You and I, we say, “Do I take this job or that job, this house or that house, have this person or that person over? What should I do with my afternoon? As we pray about it, we sometimes don't know the specificity that we should know. We don't understand that, but the Spirit does. And the Spirit intercedes on our behalf. So, you should be praying all the time.

1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing.” Even when you don't know how to pray, or what to pray, or what to say. You’re just praying the Scriptures to God. You’re saying, “Lord, please help.” The Holy Spirit intercedes with the specificity we need. Do you find that encouraging? Do you find that encouraging as you look at the world and you don't know what's going on? Or who's going to be in control, or what's going on with your family? Do you find it encouraging that the Holy Spirit, every time you pray, every single time, intercedes on your behalf? That encourages me. Because sometimes I don't know what to pray. You just kind of find yourself in this situation, looking at all the things that are going on, and we just don't know. So, with God we pray, “Thy will be done.” Why? Because God is good.

Look at verse 28, Romans 8:28. “And we know,” we know! “that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” And if that weren't enough, he finishes verse 29, to the end of the chapter, chiseling away every other last excuse we have for God's plan to fail. So, that we set our minds on God and his goodness. There was a famous sculptor who was asked one time, “How can you take this big block of stone, this piece of marble and turn it into something that is so lifelike, that looks so alive?” He said, “Well, I pick a block of marble, and then chisel away everything that doesn't look like a horse.” He can see what other people can't see. Romans eight chisels away everything that looks like man, and puts the focus squarely on God, as if that hasn't already been accomplished through the first seven chapters.

Romans 8:29-30, let me read to you the inspired Word of God, “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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Now, if you start at the word “predestined,” you get predestined, called, justified, glorified. So, the only real wiggle room you have is if you don't understand what the word “foreknowledge” means. And many try and take that and put that squarely on the shoulders of man, but you already believe in the election of Scripture. You have to, it's there in plain English. And let me show you why. There are a few other passages that use the same word “foreknow.” And the rest of it is obviously an unbreakable chain. If he's predestined you, you're going to be saved, you're going to be glorified. There's nothing you can do to break the chain of God and the plan of salvation in your life. That is very clear. But how did we get to that place? He has just taken away every excuse we can think of to doubt God.

But some people will even doubt whether they got saved in the right way. And if we were all honest, we'd all put our hands up right now and say, “Yeah, I've done that.” And he's trying to take that excuse away, too. There's a familiar passage where God talks about those whom he knows, whom he knows. He knows everything so it's not talking about something he's learned. If foreknowledge means he looked down the halls of time, and learned who would choose him on their own to be saved, then you have a god that asked to learn something, that's not a god, that is something less than a god. A God is omniscient and knowing all things. So, it can't mean that. He knows everything so it can't mean that he just knows something a little better. He knows all things perfectly, and completely.

There is a passage where it describes God's knowledge of his children in a parental way, and it uses the same understanding found in our passage. You're very familiar with this passage, and this one is very clear. It's not hard to understand. In Matthew 7:21-23, it says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.’” I never knew you!

Never? Before time began? Never knew you? “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” This is the fake believers. These are the ones who when asked to give an account to say why they are saved. Who did they focus on here? Themselves. Did we not … in your name? Did we not … in your name. Just saying the name of Jesus and slapping that as a label on something you do in life does not mean it brings glory to God. “Depart for me, I never knew you, you workers of… pretty good works because you have a good heart”. No, “you workers of lawlessness.” In other words, they have a law unto themselves. A law that they themselves created, a Jesus that they themselves created. That's very clear in Matthew seven. There are people who say they follow God, but they don't. They follow “a god” of their own making and that god is not going to lead you to heaven. Jesus wasn't saying he had never heard of those unbelievers, as one commentator says, but that he had no relationship with them. No relationship. “I didn't know you. Oh, I know you because I'm God and I know everything you've ever thought from before time, and now, and all into eternity. I know all those things. But you're not mine.” God knows his children differently than he knows unbelievers.

God knows, according to this passage… let me let you answer that for yourself. Who was doing the acting after God foreknows in verse 29, what comes next? HE. Not you but HE. He foreknew, he predestined to be conformed, that he might be the firstborn. Among those he predestined, in verse 30, he called. Among those he called, he also justified, and among those he justified, he also glorified. The focus is undeniably on the sovereign plan of God. The only way you and I are in this passage is we are the object of God's causation. That is, we are the object of his love, the object of his plan. Those you just mentioned indescriptly. Those who are known are predestined, called, justified and glorified. What's so loving about the love of God? Divine election. In context. In context.

Now why did I just tie this into love? Because that's what Paul does in the very next section. Look in Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Notice the word “Christ.” Christ is the what? He's the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Who shall separate us from God's love? And then he goes through this list that you and I ruminate in our minds and hearts about when we're having trouble, [Romans 8:35-37] “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

This is a tribulation, this is a time, this is a pressure, that goes beyond the normal – you had a rough workweek, or not getting any sleep, or just arguing with someone. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. And through Christ, we’re more than conquerors in all these things. Election, predestination, foreknowledge, being called – those are words from the passage – justified and glorified, are all a massive testimony to the love of God for unworthy sinners. That’s you and me.

How do we know, in context, all things work together for good? Well, right before that is the Holy Spirit interceding according to the Word of God. And right after that, is the divine election and sovereignty of God in salvation. You can't wiggle out of those two. The Holy Spirit's got you on one side. God’s got you on the other side. And you're nestled in the middle, and you just get to watch God work in your life.

Romans 8:35-36, talk about dreadful things: pain, hunger, and poverty. Abuse, that can't separate you from God's love. That would change a lot of people in this world. If God's love was more dominating than the things, the awful things that have happened. We are conquerors only through him. And he is good. He is good.

So, you say, “God caused me to come to him?” As a brother said this morning, he who began a good work in you. God began it. Yeah, exactly. God caused you to come to him. Romans 3:10-11, no one seeks after God. No, not one. Not even you. Not even Mary, not the Pope. No one. “So, God caused me to come to him. He will see me through to the end. Is that what you're saying?” Well, that's what the Bible is saying. He will see you through to the end, you will be glorified. However, you think you're in that chain. Once you're in that chain, of foreknowing, predestined, called, justified, glorified. There is no stopping that, you can't lose your salvation. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, when you will be redeemed and made new both physically and spiritually.

Romans 9:11 says, “not because of works but because of him who calls.” There's a whole lot more, I was telling the guys I had to get rid of about eight pages of notes on this one. Because God will see me through to the end, nothing in this world can separate me from God. Yes, nothing in this world. If you watch the news and get anxious. First, just turn off the news, start reading your Bible. If your just pouring soot and garbage into your mind all day long from unbelievers and then going, “Wow, God, where are you?” You haven't been talking to God or listening to him. You’ve just been listening to the world. Pipe in the good stuff.

You say, “What about powerful things that we just can't stop? What about death? What about demons? The future? What about those things? Does the love of God cover those things? And we have one of the most beloved verses again in all of Scripture in Romans 8:38-39, as we wrap it up here, “For I am sure,” there's that word again. I know, for we know, for I am sure. “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, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In this magnum opus on salvation, where you are totally depraved. And you can't do a thing on your own. And God comes to you and saves you by his grace. And he awakens the faith that you have. And you repent and you believe, and you love God, and you follow him, and you don't do it very well. And he has this destination for you set, sure, and secure. It starts and ends with the love of God. Do not fear the world, do not even fear your own doubt. You can't get out of the chain.

“So you're saying nothing can keep me from God's love?” Exactly. If you are in Christ, you are destined for glory. So, what's so loving about the love of God? It never fails.

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we come before you knowing that one day we will understand all these things perfectly. But that is not today. But we see, Lord, on the pages of your Scripture how you describe things. Lord God, help us to trust in you that you are good, that you've always been good, and you always will be good. And that we when we see you in heaven, when we see our Lord Jesus Christ, that we will behold him face to face. That we will see someone good.

Lord, help us to trust in those things above and beyond all the things we don't understand. The things of this world, the real trials, and the real pains, and the real hurts. Help us to, as you've said, comfort one another with these words, that you are in control.

Father, I pray that if there's someone here that doesn't know you that they would turn from their sin. That they would cry out to you, confessing their sin, acknowledging their sin, and acknowledging their need for a Savior. Lord God, you say that if we confess our sins, you're faithful and righteous to forgive us. Lord God, we pray that you would save those who don't know you.

Father, we pray for those who do know you today. That we would trust that you are good and that your love never fails.

Friends, let's just take a moment to ask God to help us to trust him fully. That his love never fails.

Lord, thank you for everyone that you have brought here today. Thank you for the mercy it is to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.