I hope this not too long to keep attention....
God’s Spirit Helps Us…We Can’t Lose
Romans 8:26-39 July, 2019.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Some more things God is doing for us:
“In our weakness”--- The indication in the Greek language is that this is not just some times, rather it is that we are always weak and always in need of help and that God is always there to Help. That sounds good to me!
The Greek word for weakness (astheneia) may include physical, emotional, and spiritual disability evidenced by inward “groaning” (Rom. 8:23). This a pretty wide range of issues that could face each of us. Think about yourself, when you are feeling like you need Gods’ help; is it your physical problems, your emotional problems, or your spiritual problems that put you there? My guess is, it is all three.
“Helps” in the Greek has, a rich meaning that pictures someone helping another carry a heavy load. The only other place in the New Testament where it is used is when Martha came to Jesus saying she needed Mary to help her with the hard work.
Praying---Have you ever thought you did not know how to pray? Are you one of those who go into a panic attack when asked to pray out loud in a public meeting? Jesus disciples were good Jewish boys and should have known how to pray, yet, they asked Jesus to show them how to pray. You remember the story don’t you? Jesus prayed a lot. That should tell us a lot. But the disciples sensed something different in their masters’ praying and wanted to “get it” so to speak. In Luke 11, we find one of the accounts in which Jesus teaches His disciples about prayer. “One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
So he said, “When you pray, say,
Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”
Jesus ends this discourse by saying, “Here’s what I’m saying:
Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.
“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”
Here in Romans, Paul is telling us, even if we don’t get what Jesus has taught us, no matter how bad at it we are, God is speaking forth from inside us on our behalf because He now lives in and through us---even in our groans and sighs. How comforting that is! Add to that the end of this chapter, where we learn that Jesus is interceding for us with the Father…both the Spirit and the Son are working on our behalf…I feel better already…don’t you?
Jesus is telling us even more than that. He is telling us that because His Spirit is in us, we can call forth the Kingdom as it is in heaven into our existence…we are connected to God’s will being done…and do not need to fear such an awesome position because He is with us.
Working things out for good:
We have heard this passage often as a way to bring hope when we are unsure what is going on, because it sure looks bad to us. We can see that God is at work ahead of us working out His will, when we are ones who love Him, and are called according to His purposes. It reads. “that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him (lit., “to the ones who love God He works all things together unto good”)., or God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. He cares about us as much as He did Jesus, and though Jesus suffered, He was resurrected and bought back to the Father to be seated on the throne. In the same way, the words in the Greek mean we are summoned by the Spirit and given Salvation…come and get it…so to speak.
What God was doing, was to restore us to what He had at first intended and what He had shown us in and through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. He shaped us to be like Jesus. A man and his wife once pulled into a gas station to refuel their car. As the tank was being refilled, the station attendant washed the windshield. When he finished, the driver of the car said, “The windshield is still dirty. Wash it again.” “Yes, sir,” the attendant answered. As he scrubbed the windshield a second time, he looked closely for any bugs or dirt he might have missed. When he finished, the man in the car became angry. He rebuked the attendant again saying, “It’s still dirty. Don’t you know how to wash a windshield? Now do it again!” The attendant cleaned the windshield a third time, carefully looking for any place he might have missed, but he could find no messy spots anywhere. By now, the driver was fuming. He screamed, “This windshield is still filthy! I’m going to talk to your boss to make sure you don’t work here another day. You are the lousiest windshield washer I have ever seen!” As the angry driver was about to get of the car, his wife reached over and removed his glasses. After carefully wiping his glasses with some tissue paper, she then put them back on his face. The driver embarrassingly slumped down into his seat as he observed a spotless windshield! God changes our whole way of seeing things…He cleans our glasses and changes how we see things. We in turn slump in repentance…we must because we can see how we have failed…Nevertheless…
He has named us and claimed us…we are His. Can you fathom that? You, if you are a follower of Jesus, are possessed by the creator of the universe…you have been called, named by Him…and this is a situation which because it is coming from God is established…the word established in the scripture means something that is incontrovertible…it cannot be changed…so it follows that this whole history of being part of Gods’ good plan is going to turn out well. We are restored, shaped, named, established and Jesus finishes the story with us.
What does it mean? It means we can’t lose!
Because of what God did in Jesus…because Jesus is with the Father now, standing up for us we can be worry free. Jesus loves us so we don’t have to worry… Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:... nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. There is nothing, hear it from the NIV, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”c
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,d neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is a popular story circulating about a woman who had just
learned her cancer was terminal. She invited her pastor over to help her plan the funeral. After deciding on the order of service, the woman made one final request: she wanted to be buried with a Bible in one hand and a fork in the other. The pastor couldn’t hide his surprise. Why in the world would she want to be buried with a fork? The woman explained that the favorite part of any meal for her was when the hostess, while clearing away the dinner dishes, announced, “Keep your forks.” That meant that there was something more coming, something special, a dessert. The dying woman wanted to remind her loved ones that she was looking forward to something more too. The reason we need our forks, is because God has started this new work in us, and He has promised to be with us throughout the duration of our lives on earth, and to finish the project with us in eternity…and remember…Jesus loves you. Nothing can separate you from His love. And all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called unto His purpose. Jesus truly loves each of you/us! WE CAN’T LOSE!
