Fearlessly Embracing the Supernatural Power of the New Covenant: A Deep Dive into Romans

Well, we're in the book of Romans, romans chapter 8. This is, i believe, our third service on Romans 8. We've done Romans 6, 7, and 8. Our guest or if you've missed some services, i encourage you to just go back. Check out our YouTube videos, get these teachings There's not that many of them but get them in your spirit, get them under your belt. It's vital to your spiritual health. It's vital to your spiritual vitality because, after all, we're living under the new covenant, we're serving God under the new covenant And if we don't understand the principles of the new covenant, we're going to get frustrated. The new covenant is different from the old. The old, the apostle Paul, calls in Corinthians the ministry of death. That doesn't sound like fun, does it? I didn't sign up to be a minister of death for the rest of my life. I'm a minister of life, and that life is presented in Jesus and in the new covenant and all the blessings that afford us. So that's why we're going through this series. We're going to be starting Galatians next week, so we understand what exactly is happening here under this blessed new covenant that was ratified with Jesus' own blood. Are you ready? We finished with verse 15 of Romans 8 last week. Let's just begin there, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. So Paul here is just concluding this thought and reminding us, within that verse, what he established in Romans 6 and Romans 7. And what he establishes that our old sin nature was crucified with Jesus and we died to sin. You receive that by faith. It's not something you feel, but you receive it by faith. You always receive it by faith first, and the feelings come later. Amen. The Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight and not by feelings, and not by what we hear or even touch, but first we receive it in our spirit and then we see it manifested in the natural world. And because now we died to sin, we died to the law he establishes in Romans 7. Because of that he says, therefore, there is no condemnation anymore for you. Every bad thing, every wrong thing, every sin you've ever committed, you're ever going to commit, was thoroughly punished, and God's wrath was exhausted in the person of Jesus. Therefore, hence, hitherto, there is none, absolutely zero, left for you. That's good news, isn't it? There is zero of God's wrath left for you because it's been exhausted on Jesus while he was on the cross. That's why the Gospel is called good news, the greatest love story ever told. And because of this, because you have been justified, which means you've been pronounced not guilty, the great judge Almighty has declared in the courtroom of heaven, because he sees the blood of Jesus applied to you, those of you who have received Jesus and who trust him for his righteousness, the verdict is not guilty. That means you're justified And you're not condemned. And because of that, you now have, according to the Scriptures, access with confidence. Yeah, you don't have to crawl up to God's throne like I'm some old worm. You can usually tell how people stand in their understanding of grace and on the impartation of righteousness, about how they begin their prayers. There are some places you'll go and people will begin. They begin with a whale Oh God, i pray now. Like they're very apologetic, like it's me again. I know you're tired of me because I'm tired of me and I've done bad. So I want to demonstrate to you that I'm not like. I'm just sashaying up into the presence of God's aside And they're moaning and wailing. It's like somebody strangling a cat. What's happening here? What's happening is that they don't understand what's happened to them during the new birth, and so there is a timidity there. They don't know they have access with confidence. They don't know that they can come boldly. That's what the Scripture says Come boldly to the throne of grace, A forgiven person, a person who knows they're justified. They come boldly. I can tell what kind of a parenting job I'm doing by how my kids approach me. How many of you know it wouldn't be healthy if, whenever my kids want my attention, they're like I've got to walk on eggshells around Dad. You don't know how you're going to find him. It's up one day, down the next. No, if I'm in the middle of a Zoom call, i want him to. You can run right up, jump on my lap. You're welcome in Dad's presence. Amen, i'll put him out of the room immediately after, but they know that they have access with confidence. So what's he saying here? What's he teaching us? He's saying because you know you have, you've been adopted and you don't have the spirit of bondage Again. To fear the spirit of bondage was under the old covenant, because you were never really forgiven of your sins, you didn't have the new birth, you weren't made new and that caused the fear. But you have the spirit of adoption by whom you cry out, abba Father, not boohoo cry out, but like a lion you roar, abba Father. It comes from a place of confidence, not in yourself, but in what Jesus did for you on the cross and at His resurrection, amen. And that's why the scripture says you don't have a spirit of timidity. It says many of you know that verse as God has not given you a spirit of fear, right But of power and of love and of a sound mind. Yes, it's a spirit of fear. It can also be translated as a spirit of timidity, which I say this would love and respect and gentleness. But I just want to say it that shyness, it's not of God. When someone is shy, we like to make it cute. Oh, no, i'm just shy. But they're just shy. No, i was once shy. Believe it or not, there's nothing godly about it. You can be quiet, that's fine, a quiet person. You can be an introvert where you're more energized being alone than with other people. That's fine. But I'm telling you from personal experience If you're quote unquote shy, there is a spirit. It's a spirit of timidity, and it's there to torment you, to keep you bound and locked up And something got hurt, something got traumatized on the inside And God wants to heal it. The Bible says listen, the righteous are as bold as the lion. Well, that means you first have to go to the cross and receive righteousness, not do stuff. But you look at Jesus. You know that He has given you His righteousness. That means you are just as righteous as Jesus. Get comfortable saying that. Some Christians hear that and they physically manifest as though they're hearing heresy. No, if He's given you something on an equal level, you now are clothed with the very righteousness of Christ. That means God, the Father, sees you the same way He sees Jesus, receives you the same way He receives Jesus. So now you have a boldness and that's why the righteous are as bold as the lion. The condemned, the ones who aren't in the Word, the ones who are struggling with guilt and shame because they aren't going to Jesus. They're not bold And they're the ones who begin their prayers with wailing and weeping and kind of like this scratching, clawing their way up before the throne. You don't have to claw your way and you don't have to work to get into the throne area. There's all these teachings you know, back in the 90s they had these wild teachings First you gotta enter His courts with praise. So you need 45 minutes of hand clapping And then all these steps and then there's the outer tabernacle and then the inner courts and then the holy place and then all like after two hours you now get to enter in Like people gotta work. You know People got places to go. The moment you say Father, in the name of Jesus, you're before Him With no guilt, no shame and no condemnation. Amen, accepted in the beloved Hallelujah, verse 16, the Spirit Himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we are children of God. Now I just want you to know I've said this before, but pay attention in the scriptures, when there's a lowercase s and a capitalized s, divinity is capitalized. And so when you see a capital S, it's talking about God and His Holy Spirit. When you see a lowercase s, it's talking about your human spirit. And there is some confusion here, because whenever people hear the term spirit, they immediately assume it's talking about God. But you need to know that you are a spirit. You don't have a spirit. You are a spirit. That's the real you. You are a spirit that has a soul, that lives inside a body, but the real you is a spiritual being And in that real you. When you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes. So now capital S makes His home in lowercase s. And what does He do? He does a lot. He regenerates your spirit, makes it new. He speaks to you. That's why, if you're looking for God to speak to you with these flappy things around your head, you're not gonna hear Him. He speaks in here. Yes, sometimes He can come with an audible voice. I'm telling you, nine out of 10 times It's the still small voice. It's the inward witness of the Holy Spirit inside your spirit, and He's the one who will confirm your salvation to you. He bears witness that you're a child of God. Now I wanna just talk about this for a little bit, because I understand that there's some people who think they're saved, but they're swimming in false doctrine and they're not really saved. And there's also some people who really are saved, but they've been under spiritual attack. Their emotions are all over the place And now they're believing that they're not saved. And there is this always within a church, there are some people who struggle with this, and so whenever you give an altar call, their hands always goes up, and I'm not a big fan of that. Why am I not a big fan of that, because I know that's a type of torment And I don't want the people to be tormented. You don't have to, based on your feelings, get born again, again and again and again and keep raising your hand until that's torture, right? Why would somebody get into that state? Well, when you're confused, when you're feeling emotional, you can't trust your feelings. The only thing you can cling to is the word of God, and if you don't have enough of the word of God in you, if you haven't read and then internalized, memorized scriptures that deal with your salvation, you're going to fear that you're not saved. If you haven't internalized scriptures on how you're gonna live forever, you're gonna fear death. A Christian should not fear death. I would start with that scripture where Jesus said he who believes in me, will never die And get that in your spirit. In fact, anything that's plaguing you, you overcome with the word of God. That's how Jesus defeated the enemy. 0:12:51 - Speaker 1 It is written. 0:12:52 - Speaker 2 It is written it is written Amen. Listen, i've had folk deathly ill come up for prayer And I'll ask them, what healing verse are you? standing on And just look at me in blink. Sometimes they say, oh, you know the one about how he was whipped and because of that were healed. You know, yeah, i know, but you gotta know, i don't live inside your spirit. You gotta know. And if you got a real problem, there shouldn't be something you paraphrase, kind of sort of maybe this is something you should have in your spirit five, 10, 15 powerful verses. There it's the truth. There is a creative ability in the word of God. You doubt that? Just read Genesis one. He spoke and it was he created through speaking. Death and life are in the power of the tongue And they that love it, they that love that fact that death and life are in the power of the tongue, will eat the fruits thereof. The word of God is alive, quick, sharper than any two-edged sword. So I wanna have the word of God in me. Listen, if you're struggling financially, you gotta have 10 verses on God's abundance and his prosperity in your spirits. Eat those verses every night. The word has to be made flesh. This is why God came to Joshua and said all right, joshua, you're young, you're inexperienced. Moses laid his hands on you, but I understand you're now gonna take all of Israel, cross the Jordan into the promised land. You can just picture Joshua, just his knees, having fellowship one with another, you know. And God said all right, you're gonna meditate on the word of God day and night. And when you meditate which in the Hebrew is to mutter don't think of somebody sitting in the lotus position with their fingers like this, crying oh, meditate means to mutter, repeat over and over again. And when you meditate on the word of God, then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. That's the promise associated with the word of God. Oh, hallelujah, i know, i know it's good because it's in the word, but it always, when I say it, it's a funny feeling in the spirit. For some people they're like yeah, and for others there's this well, i don't know what I have to do. This is a sad reality that some people will cross their arms and nod their head and for years we'll listen and go yeah, you know, that's probably true. You know that's a good point, and never, ever apply these things. And this is something that'll change your life in a matter of I'm telling you days, days, days. This isn't even a part of my message. I'm going off now, but somebody needs to hear this. Things will change when you start agreeing with the word of God, hallelujah, and saying it out loud with your mouth. You got saved because you opened up your mouth. You didn't just look up and go mm-hmm. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, note that faith is 50% in your heart and 50% in your mouth. You confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved. Hallelujah, verse 17. And if children, then heirs. You know what it means. When you're in air, it means there's an inheritance. What's the inheritance? Everything, all of heaven and what heaven has to offer. And if you're in air, you have an inheritance Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. You know what the problem with the rich young ruler was Is that he came to Jesus and he said what must I do to inherit eternal life? He got it all wrong. You don't have to do anything, you have to be. When you be in the family, you be in air. Amen. Everybody wants to do, do. Do People love Thriveon to-do lists? What must I do? You must be born again and then you're in the family of God and then you just be. This is important Because everybody wants to prove themselves to God. This was, by the way, the temptation of Satan to Jesus in the wilderness. He said if you're the son of God, then do something. If you're really the son of God, then command these stones to be made bread. If you're the son of God, then throw yourself off this high place and the angels will come and rescue you. Do something to prove that you're the son of God. And Jesus is just like. I don't have to do abhi Amen. I just am. I don't have to do anything for it. Have that posture. It's a posture of great rest. Throw no effort of your own. He did all the work. You give your life to him. You join the family of God. You're adopted as a son with the same rights and privileges, as a natural born heir. And if indeed, oh if indeed, we suffer with him, i want to say this according to the scriptures, we're called to suffer. We're called to suffer the sufferings of Christ And only the sufferings of Christ. There is this. This is just people and this is how we are as humans. There's always a pocket of people in every church, isn't it all right? if I use these examples? Sometimes people get nervous because they think I'm talking about. Like I look in that direction and he's talking about me. He's talking. No, i trust there is no method to who I'm looking at or pointing at. Or There's a pocket of people. they love suffering. They're suffering junkies. They take great pride in their suffering. They advertise their suffering. Oh, just going through it, you know. They'll say things like I'm a modern day Job. Their favorite book in the Bible is Job. They love Job. Their whole identity is wrapped around Job. Doesn't matter that it's the oldest book in the Bible, the most misunderstood book in the Bible. That early on in Job, chapter three, when all that stuff happens to him, he says the thing that I was afraid of has happened to me and that which I feared has occurred unto me, meaning he opened the door to all of that stuff through fear. You're not ready for this. All his kids being wiped out. You already imagined that, in a spirit of fear, all his properties being burnt. You already imagined that. You already saw it all when it all happened. See, i knew it. He was sacrificing every day. Let's. Maybe one of his kids did something wrong and upset God. He should have sacrificed once and stood in faith. That it was enough. But you know, you can pray in nervousness. There's people every time they're in the car. Lord Jesus, help me traveling mercies, make sure nothing bad happens. And all they're doing is opening the door of fear wide for that exact same thing to happen. Stop that. When you're in faith, you can walk in, close the door of your car and say oh Lord, thank you, another smooth ride. Hallelujah, amen. Back to suffering. The sufferings of Jesus is what we are called to. Jesus said the servant is not above his master. They persecuted me. They will also persecute you. The sufferings of Jesus will all fall under the category of persecution being misunderstood, people being envious of you. Those are the sufferings of Christ. Trust me, that's all the sufferings you need. Do you know what's not underneath you? Do you know what's not underneath the umbrella of sufferings of Christ? Car wrecks, freak accidents, getting fired from your job, being broke, sickness, disease and all these other things that sometimes we get in our lives just as a natural consequences to our own behavior. But then we wanna spiritualize it and make it seem like we're modern day Job, cause it sounds so lofty. You know God's eyes were scanning the whole earth, so was Satan's, and out of eight billion people, satan's eyes fell upon me And then God said hey, have you considered my servant Anika? This is important because you need to know what sufferings to deal with and accept. If it's the sufferings of Christ, it means you're being persecuted. You're being persecuted not for your jerkiness but because of your faith in Jesus. I gotta say that cause there's some Christians with personality disorders, they upset everybody at work, they get fired and they say oh, it's cause I was Christian. No, it's cause I'm so anointed. No, it's cause you're so annoying, not cause you're so anointed. Don't blame God. Now, when it's the real sufferings of Christ, the Bible says rejoice in that day, for the spirit of God and of glory does rest upon you, but all the other sufferings, then you need to know I'm gonna resist that If the devil is pinching you in some other area of life, he's got you cornered. Then you don't have to accept that. Sufferings of Christ, embrace, rejoice. Anything else you gotta push back on with the word of God and in your faith. Is this making sense? Amen, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Oh hallelujah, verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, whatever it is that we're going through, both the sufferings of Christ or any kind of suffering, it's not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And note the subtext He doesn't say the glory that shall be created in us. It's already there. It's just on that day, at the full consummation of our salvation, that deposit of the Holy Spirit we all carry. It will be revealed in us, subtle but powerful. When you're going through it, it's a powerful thing to remember. Whatever's happening around me, it's not even worthy to be compared. It's compared to the glory that'll be revealed in me. Next verse, please, for the earnest expectation of the creation. All of nature, all of creation eagerly waits for us for the revealing of the sons of God. All of creation is on edge. All of nature is on edge, waiting until that day. Yes, we're saved now, but on that day we'll receive the fullness of that self. We'll get a glorified body. Why is nature so eager for the full revelation of the children of God? Because nature itself is still under a curse. And when that glory is revealed in us, on that day, do you know, all of earth will be redeemed to its original glory. And a lot of times we don't consider that. If you ever been to Colorado, you look at the beautiful vistas of the mountains. You go wow, and it is. It's beautiful for us, wow. You go to Hawaii the waterfalls, palm trees, mountains, cliffs, wow, yes, it's beautiful. But you know, everything we see right now it's still under a curse. What's it like when the curse is lifted? Who knows, mind blowing. Maybe the waterfall goes in reverse. Maybe the flowers talk to each other and talk back at you. You look at a flower and just the glory of God radiating out of it. Maybe the flowers start singing. You can see the colors as they sing. But that was the original creation And now, as beautiful as it is to us, it's not under a curse. But on that day when we're truly revealed and you know, you'll get a glorified body. That's exciting. Amen. You have to have a glorified body because when that glory is revealed in you, if you didn't have a glorified body, your current body would explode. Amen. So you need to be a holy ghost, superman and superwoman physically. Amen. And I hope you're getting by the way now that heaven is not just a spiritual place. Like heaven is because it's often portrayed like an angel with wings and you become an angel and you're bouncing from cloud to cloud in a mist. That heaven is real. It's more real than this earth is real because heaven made earth. Amen. Next verse, please, for the creation nature was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Hey, let's go to that verse in Isaiah just to show you what it will be like in that day. Isaiah prophesies of what will happen when Jesus comes back and brings his reign to earth and all things are renewed. And that's what we're doing as a church, by the way, we're joining Jesus as he renews and restores all things. That's the journey we're on, that we're all on together. We're expanding the kingdom of God. Look at this. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. There'll be no killing, there'll be no murder. Vegetarians love this passage. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The leopards and the wolves and the this is what it was like in the Garden of Eden. They could be a herd of lions And Adam could say here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, and they'd just come right over to him. Verse seven the cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Hallelujah Ah, i've read that and something leaps. What's that? What's leaping? It's that cry and that groan. Our future is there, right here. We're just passerbys, we're strangers and pilgrims. The Bible says aliens wandering through. Next verse please out of Romans. Hallelujah, i believe it's Romans 19. Yes, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits. No, maybe 21. Yes, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together. Until now There is a groaning in creation for what To be aligned with God's ultimate will for it. Not only that, verse 23, but we also have the first spruits of the spirit. That's us. We have a deposit of glory. So even we ourselves groan within ourselves. That's why you never quite feel at home in this world. You have a deposit of glory. That's why you cry out still come, lord Jesus, hey, listen, right now I am. People think if you're blessed, if you have some, you know your problems, earthly problems are taken care of. You just wanna live. Yes, you wanna live, and I can be. Right now, in this particular season, i got no problems. Life is good, life is great. You know what I still don't feel at home here. I love you especially, love my wife, my kids. I wanna fulfill the call on my life, but still there's always a cry Lord, if you wrap this whole thing up tonight, i'm good to go. This is not my home. We ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, even though we are adopted right now. Right, we're children of God right now. But there will be a full consummation of that, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise, the Holy Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. Hey, that's good news, isn't it? The Holy Spirit helps in our weaknesses. Say that with me. The Holy Spirit helps in my weaknesses. What weaknesses? What weaknesses is the Apostle Paul talking about here? I'm so glad he answers the question in the very next sentence, for we do not know what we should pray for, as we ought. There is, especially when you're going through it. You know it to be true. If you're under the gun. If you're suffering, you're feeling the pressures of life, you get emotional right, you get a little confused, some doubt and unbelief start coming in, you wonder what the will of God is and you go to prayer. Have you ever gone to prayer while you're going through it And everything is not crystal clear and you feel like there's a swarm of flies buzzing around your head. And that can happen when you're really going through it or it can happen on another Tuesday morning And you don't know how to pray as you ought. You're at step A. I must only be preaching to myself. I don't know about you. I'm convinced I have a destiny. How about you Call my destiny where I'm gonna end up? step B, but I'm at step A. How do you get from A to B? There's a lot of intermediary steps between A and B And I don't know how to pray about all those things. That's the weakness that I have, and the Bible says the Holy Spirit has come in to help with that specific weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He's drawing a thought from the previous two verses also, there's a groan inside a creation, a groan to be aligned with God's perfect will for them. Within us there is a groan to be aligned. I wanna be in the perfect center of God's perfect will for me, but I don't even know how to pray as I ought. So the Holy Spirit will come and help me. It's like a cheat code. God will come inside of you and pray through you to himself, not a weird emotional, wacky prayer that I'm gonna pray. I still pray in English a lot For this. I've read a lot of study texts on this And I'm convinced this is speaking about praying in other tongues supernaturally. Any study I've read about why this isn't about tongues, that's the satanists' right, it's always. This isn't about tongues. And then I'll why? Well, because it isn't about tongues. Well, what is it about? And then they can't tell you what it is about. But they just say but I'll tell you what it's not about. Well, i'll tell you what it is about. It's about speaking and praying in tongues. Those are the groanings which cannot be uttered or spoken out in intelligible speech. So when I don't know what to pray as I ought, out of my belly comes neshdalara vahotastaga anda revonda ze like esatara ka nanagigologara namashika hato nostoko narevato narevasingailara mahanako. And I'm praying according to the perfect will of God, bypassing my messy brain. So how do you know that? I'm so glad you asked. Look at the next verse Now. He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So when the Holy Spirit is praying through me in my heavenly language, i'm not praying my fears, my doubts, my confusion, my yes, lord, you know. Lord, oh God, oh God, oh God. It's a joke about how we repeat oh God when we're nervous. In prayer, father God, i, just, i, just I feel like heaven is like just what I just wanna, i just. When you speak in tongues, you don't have to worry about any of that. You're praying according to God's perfect will, scripturally speaking, paul and Corinthians taught us when you speak in tongues, there's several things you can take to the bank. One, you do give thanks well. Two, you edify and strengthen yourself. Three, you're praying the perfect will of God, the Father. This is why speaking and praying in tongues is so powerful. Consequently, this is why the enemy fights it so much. And if you're new here and you're all of a sudden realizing oh, this is one of those kind of churches and you're looking at the brightly lit exit signs, one in a hustle on out. May I encourage you to take two books on your way out. We call them the red pill and the blue pill. One is red, one is blue. Morpheus made Neo decide with just one. You get both. Take both pills, read the red book, read the blue book, read them covered. They're mini books And then you decide for yourself. But I just decided when I was 16 years old I'm greedy for the things of God. I want it all. I want everything he has to offer me. Hallelujah. And, by the way, some of you, you're sitting on the Holy Spirit. You haven't prayed in tongues since the day you got baptized in the Holy Spirit Because of nervousness, because of few. 0:37:32 - Speaker 1 All sorts of reasons. 0:37:35 - Speaker 2 You never moved away from Ricky Ticky Ticky. Don't be the Christian that prays Ricky Ticky Ticky for 20 years. The reason you never moved from Ricky Ticky Ticky is because you don't actually pray in tongues. You try for 30 seconds and you go. Yeah, you got to let yourself go. When I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, they told me I spoke four distinct languages, four distinct dialects, like distinct. But you know why? I was going at it for three hours. I didn't even know it was three hours. I was just thinking about Jesus. 16 years old, i was crying out to him, those people praying around me. They told me that You got to give yourself over to the things of the Holy Spirit. Stop playing safe, stop being nervous. Get out of your Western headset. You know, christianity is not a Western, frontalobian, logical faith. This is an Eastern spiritual faith. You're called to the supernatural Amen. You get to experience a supernatural walk with the Lord, and this is where the rubber meets the road. See, everybody's fine. If I'm presenting an intellectual dissertation on grace, i start actually demonstrating. They've watched too many like Pentecostal snake handling documentaries on YouTube. There, maurice, bring out the jars of arsenic. I want to demonstrate real faith right now. What's that? You only got strip nine. That'll do Verse 28. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh man, some of you, you're so close And I just, i just want to, lovingly in Jesus' name, just you over a little bit, because this is fun, this is an adventure like you've never known, and there are benefits. There's nothing worse than hey, let me give you this There's nothing worse than having benefits and not knowing them. My kid broke his iPad the other day. And I mean, when I say broke, i mean I've never seen one so broke, like I don't like it when they have the hairline thing. But this was like you remember those like early 2000s you saw the crackle vases everywhere in Target. It was like a crackle vase And I'm already doing the math. I'm like, all right, i got to get it. I got to get you a new iPad And I had that in my head for two days. All right, and I'm still the same. Do I get him a brand new one? And, by the way, it had it had. It looked like a loaf of bread around it. It had the bumper guards and all that. It wasn't like it was not in one of those, it was one of those thick, rubbery G shock, like a loaf of bread all around. So what do I get? And then I go in. I go in his iPad to retrieve his, his Apple ID, and as I'm going there I realized and it said Apple care expires sometime in 2024. And I thought, huh, huh, huh. And I looked at the kind of Apple care. It says accidental breaks. And I could have bought a new iPad and missed out on the benefits because I didn't know. There's nothing worse than not knowing the benefits. And some people live Christianity that way. They don't know, they never read the. That's what the Bible says. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and don't forget his benefits. You got a Benny package. You never did the work. You never did the work to go through it and realize what all has been given to you. Amen. It really feels like I'm working hard to see people get blessed this morning. It's so funny. What's his motive to see you blessed? What's his angle? I want to see you live the abundant life. Well, i'm going to really make it hard for you because I like being miserable. You're going to have to really convince me That face. Life has taught me the opposite. Life will teach you the opposite. That's why we come to him to be our teacher. Amen. And we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose, that's you. What is this verse saying? It's saying that God is a master recycler. It will take our garbage and the bad things that have happened to us and out will come a bar of pure gold. All things work together for the good. He will make it better. An important thing to understand is that just because he makes all things work together for the good doesn't mean that he brings about all things. So when bad things happen, you don't have to think oh God is doing this to me because he's going to eventually make it all good. That sounds like you're in a relationship with an abusive parent. I'm going to kick you down so that I can teach you that you can stand up again with my help. What A lot of the things that people ascribe to the nature and character of the father. If he was an earthly father, he'd be arrested and locked up for life for child abuse. My wife's out of town. I'm going to go to my mom's after this and get a. I need a nutrient-rich lunch, high protein. I am working hard here. You have no idea. Christians got to pray for me. I'm saying these things and there's something happening all throughout. I can feel your brains just firing away. Please never be proud to say, because here's how it starts, you're going. No, i wasn't thinking wrong the last 20 years. it can't be, he's wrong. People like to take this because it makes us feel good, right, it makes us feel more spiritual. All that bad stuff. It couldn't have possibly been me and decisions I made. God was doing that to me so he can make all things work together for the good. You see how that works. Couldn't Some things happen? Hey, guess what? Sometimes it's not Satan, sometimes it's not God, sometimes it is just is Because we live in this world And there's stuff that happens just because it happens. Not everything has its origin from light or darkness, and then some things do happen because he's the enemy, he's the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. But God won't do that to you. He came to give you life, and life more abundantly. There is the sufferings of Christ And yes, alak, we est to this. There are times where God will allow things, but it doesn't mean he's the originator of them. It doesn't mean he's the instigator of them. Sometimes he allows things more often than that We allow things because we moved away from his protective covering. But let's not then blame God. Amen, hallelujah, verse 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. What's the Bible saying here? It's basically saying he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Get that in your spirit. If God is in your corner, and he is, and if he's on your side, and he is, what does it matter? how big your current goliath is? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the evil report says, it does not matter. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And if God be for you, it does not matter what the enemy is doing or how big he is. Amen, hallelujah, verse 32,. He loves you so much This is what the apostle Paul is driving home here That he didn't even spare his best, his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not, with him, also freely give us all things? How better to express the generosity of God, the love of God, than by saying if he didn't spare Jesus, then why do you think he's going to cheap out on you now? Why do you think he's going to withhold from you now? He gave you his best already. He's not going to do you dirty now. After giving you his best, he's going to continue in a way that is true with his nature and character. Hallelujah, verse 33,. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns Satan? It is Christ, who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword, as it is written, for your sake. We are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors. Through him, who loved us, say this with me I'm more than a conqueror. That's the Greek hyper. More than studying the Greek, i learned that Nike means victory, or conch. I'm like I've been wearing that. I didn't know Who knew that. I didn't know Why did I just feel like Trump? I didn't know Who knew that. Did you know? I didn't know Really, i just found out. You're telling me now for the first time Hallelujah, god bless this mess, amen, hooper, nicao, you're more than a victor, more than a conqueror. Now, when I grew up in the Lord, especially in the 90s, there was an image that went along with this verse, and the image was one of a warrior, because we all related to this. It was a warrior And he had a whole suit of armor and he was scaling up a mountain. He was all bloodied and tattered with dings in his armor. It was us, it was a representative Christian, and he makes it to the mount top. More than a conqueror. And we go yeah, that's me. That's not what the scripture is saying. Here's what the scripture is saying. I'll give you the illustration of a boxing match Heavyweight, world Championship, $65 million, purse and two prize fighters. They're going at it. One round, two round, three round, they're beating each other to a pulp. Four, five, six, seven, eight, not 10. Our hero, our protagonist, he's getting beat, but in the 12th round gets a fresh win 13, 14, 15 rounds. In the 15th round, our hero, our man, our boxer, knocks the opponent down and gets, ding, ding, ding, victory and a $65 million purse. Wow, how many of you know that man is a conqueror? He then leaves Madison Square Garden, goes home, walks in through the front door, there's his wife waiting for him and he hands her the purse, $65 million. How many of you know she's more than a conqueror? Amen, we're more than conquerors. We're not the ones who are bloodied and tattered and did any work. Jesus did all the work. He was bloodied, he was tattered. He purchased salvation with his own blood and passed that victory to us, free of charge, received by faith. And we're more than conquerors. Amen, hallelujah, for I am persuaded worship team, come on up. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor government, nor PSYAPS, nor media manipulation, no policy nonsense, no recession shall be able to separate us from the love of God, hallelujah, which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Thank you, jesus, father. we thank you for the truth of Romans 8. We thank you that we are safe and secure in the palm of your hand And I pray, in Jesus' name, that your Holy Spirit move now and bring the truth of the gospel and of Romans 8 into everybody's heart And during this next song, may they sense your presence and receive a word from you about the week to come and the weeks to come. Lord, i just sense your presence in a fresh way in our church. I see like you're doing a new thing. Behold, it will spring forth. We're trusting you for that, and may this nikah, this victory, be manifest in every single person's life In Jesus' name, amen.