“God’s Great Love for Us” Pastor David Pranga Romans 8:31-39 Good morning and welcome to Brewster Baptist Church. My name is David Pranga, and I am one of the pastors here at the church. Pastor Doug and Jill, along with 38 people from our congregation, have traveled over to France for the next two weeks. Please keep the crew in your prayers for safety. This morning, we are going to be finishing up the book of Romans. I want to share with you a passage from Chapter 8. To me it is one of the most powerful passages in all of Romans. I want to ask you a few questions this morning. Feel free to grab the back of your bulletin and a pencil to answer these questions…. #1. Do you ever struggle or have doubts that God loves you? Do you ever wish that you could know for sure that the God of the universe, the God who created us, really does cares about you? Do you really believe that God loves you? I think that question is one we all wrestle with. #2. Why do we struggle with the fact that God could really love me? What are some reasons why we may feel like God couldn’t love me?  God’s love is intangible  I feel insignificant  Don’t feel worthy – guilty  Insecure  Our past sins; we cannot forgive ourselves Many of us in this room struggle with accepting God’s love. Many of us realize we don’t feel we deserve God’s love. Many of us struggle with the thought that God could love us. Because we know deep, down inside we have constantly gone our own way. We know we are selfish individuals. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we know that we put ourselves first most of the time. So we think to ourselves, “How can God really love me?” This morning, I want to share with you how much God loves you. God loves each person in the room, more than you and I could even imagine. God knows each aspect of our life. God sees our heart. God sees us at our best. God sees the dark and ugly side of us as well. Yet, God still holds a special place in his heart for each person here today. God knows each person here this morning. I believe it is not by accident that you are here. God wanted you to hear this message. Let me read from today’s passage: Romans 8:31-39. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 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.” 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, 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. 1. God is for you! (Romans 8:31) I want you to think of a person that really believed in you. Sometime in your life, I want you to think for a minute of a person who believed in and got the best out of you. I want you to think of a person that truly had your best interest in mind. Who was your best cheerleader? The person could be a coach, a teacher, a friend, a parent, or even a spouse. What made that person special? Does everyone have a person in mind? When I think of that question, it would be easy to say one of my parents or my wife Christy. I chose someone else. I can remember back in my middle school years. I can remember going out for the football team at school. My math teacher was the coach – Mr. Fermanich. He soon became my favorite teacher. I can remember one of our first days of practice where Mr. Fermanich pulled me aside and said, “David – you are going to be the quarterback of our football team. You are going to run the offense. You, David are going to lead this team.” Before I had time to digest what he said, (mind you, I was probably a hair over 5 feet tall and maybe 100 lbs. on a good day) Mr. Fermanich then called the entire team over. I was still in a fog about what he said to me. We were all a bunch of awkward, young teenagers who were playing football for our school for the very first time. We all huddled around Mr. Fermanich. Mr. Fermanich then announced each position and who was going to play them. Mr. Fermanich started with me. He said, “David is going to be our quarterback and you need to listen to everything David has to say. David is going to be the coach on the field. He is going to run this dynamic offense.” I was looking around slightly embarrassed. But if that is what coach thought, I better look the part and act like it. So I stood tall and pretended I knew what he was talking about. Then Mr. Fermanich went and told each kid what their position was and how important it was to the team. I mean every kid there believed he had an important job to do and we all felt good being there. We practiced and pretended we were Green Bay Packers. Remember, I grew up in Wisconsin. Mr. Fermanich taught us about football that year. He was full of encouragement and believed in each person. He believed we could do things that we did not even think we could accomplish. Each of us improved throughout the season. Every week, I got better and the team got better. As the season went on, my confidence soared, as well as the team. I remember we won every game that year. Was I the best player? No, not even close. I remember handing the ball to two running backs who gained a lot of yards that season. How we won all those games in 7th grade? I don’t even remember. What do I remember? I knew I had a coach that believed in me! Mr. Fermanich believed in me more than I believed in myself. Game after game he believed in me. All I know is that we had a coach that believed in each person on the team! He let us make mistakes, and joked around with us when we made them. He even let us call some trick plays. We had a coach that cared about us first and winning second. We had a coach that really loved us and believed in us! Point #1: God is for You! When I read this verse… “If God is for us, who can be against us?” – Romans 8:31 When you see a verse in the bible that says, “If God is for us (meaning you), who can be against you?” What that verse is saying to me is that God is the greatest coach you can imagine. God sees the potential in you as a key player on his team. That is the reason why I love Jeremiah 29:11. 11 “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I want you to know that God is your biggest cheerleader in life. God is cheering you on just like Mr. Fermanich coached me in football. God is cheering you on the good days, and God is there in those difficult days we face. But first and foremost – God is for you! God wants the best for you. God loves you! I realize this might be tough for some of you to believe. God knows everything about us. God knows your favorite food. God knows how you like to spend your free time. God wants to give you his best. Even when you don’t know it. But I believe God shows a glimpse of his love with point #2. 2. Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 8:32-33) How much does God love you today? Let me read verse 32. 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? How much does God love us? God loved us so much that he sent his only Son – Jesus here on earth. God knew that we were in need of a savior. Jesus was both God and man. Jesus was perfect in every way. Yet, Jesus had to give his life for us. Why? We have a sin problem. We as humans have been sinful since the days of Adam and Eve. We have continued to sin. This sin brought displeasure to God. Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We deserve death because of our sin. To God our sin is a big deal. A bigger deal than we may realize. God knew that Jesus had to pay the ultimate sacrifice for his people. Jesus in his humanity chose to die for our sins. Jesus took our place. Somebody had to pay the price for our sins. It had to be a sinless and perfect person. Jesus was chosen. God’s own Son had to die on the cross, so we can have a relationship with the Father. Jesus paid the ultimate price of our sins. Jesus had to die on the cross for us. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice and how much God loves us, we can now be with God in paradise. I know for some that is a lot to comprehend. What I need you to hear is this. God in His great love for us – sent His one and only Son – Jesus, here to earth. Jesus lived here on earth and was perfect. Yet Jesus, in His great love for you and for me, paid a terrible price. Jesus took the weight of our sin, the sin of the entire world, upon him when he died on the cross. We have movies like “Passion of Christ” or “Jesus of Nazareth” that show us just a glimpse of what the torture was like. Yet Jesus chose, he volunteered, to pay a terrible price of pain and death. Why? God is willing to do anything to love you. God wants a relationship with you. He will stop at nothing.

Let’s move on to point #3. 3. God has justified, forgiven and intercedes for us (Romans 8:33-34) 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. When we accept Jesus Christ into our life and want to follow and live for him, there are many things that happen in our relationship with God. First, God gives us the Holy Spirit to be our counselor. God loves us so much that he does not want us to walk alone. God gives each believer a gift of the Holy Spirit because he loves them. The Holy Spirit is there to help us live our life. A second thing happens. When we accept Jesus and turn from our sinful ways. God views us as justified and declares us righteous in Christ. When we sin against God, when we are disobedient to God, God offers us forgiveness through his son, Jesus. No one can condemn us for our sins. The Holy Spirit is our advocate. Jesus died and paid the price of our sins. Only Jesus can forgive us, and restore our right relationship with God. Here is some good news. When we die; the Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf – we are seated at the right hand of God. That is how much God loves us. We are justified, forgiven, and we are righteous in God’s sight. I want to share with you a story that I read this week. It was taken from Charles Stanley. Charles Stanley tells the story of a professor who wanted to teach his students a lesson about grace and God’s love. "One of my more memorable seminary professors had a practical way of illustrating to his students the concept of grace. At the end of his evangelism course he would distribute the exam, and caution the class to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. This caution was written on the exam as well. As we read the test, it became unquestionably clear to each of us that we had not studied nearly enough. "The further we read, the worse it became. About halfway through, audible groans could be heard throughout the lecture hall. On the last page, however, was a note that read, "You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom and in so doing receive an A for this assignment." "We sat there stunned," Stanley said. "Was he serious? Just sign it and get an A? Slowly, the point dawned on us, and one by one we turned in our tests and silently filed out of the room. "When I talked with the professor about it afterward, he shared some of the reactions he had received through the years. Some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through, and they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page. "Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally. "One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He did not want any gifts; he wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A." Romans Chapter 8 is the last line on the test of life. All who read the words here and believe them pass God's test with flying colors. They get an A, so to speak. Some hear about God's holiness, and give up ever trying to make the grade. Some of those spend an entire lifetime angry at the God who desires to give them grace. And of course, a lot of people depend upon morality and good deeds to get them into heaven, and they do their best to work their way into God's approval. Unfortunately, nothing less than a perfect score will do – and only by God's grace can any of us achieve a perfect score. Like Charles Stanley's professor, God makes an offer that seems too good to be true. But the truth is, it's the only question that ultimately matters. Would you take the grace and love of God, or reject it? God offers us his grace. Grace is getting something we don’t deserve. God’s love is something we really don’t deserve. Yet, I believe God wants to shower us with God’s grace and love. But we have to accept it. A third thing happens. God is interceding for us, which means God is praying for us. The same Savior who died for us now intercedes for us in heaven. Jesus is praying for our well-being. He wants what is best for us. I think it is great that God loves us so much that God is praying for our well-being. That is how much God loves you. 4. Christ is for you, despite your troubles and hardships (Romans 8:35-36) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? God is for you despite your hardship, troubles or failures that may happen. The problem many of us have with understanding that God loves us or that God is for us is we are very familiar with our failures. We know how many times we turn our back on God. We know how many times we fail to follow him. We know how many mistakes or poor choices we have made. We begin to believe that God cannot really love me. The fact is that God’s love is so different than our love. Our love is often based on getting something in return. God’s love is strictly – unconditional love. A love that comes with no strings attached. God still loves us for who we are. God still looks at us as a “son or daughter” to him. As a believer in Jesus, our spiritual position is one with Jesus Christ. How many of us realize the man who wrote the book of Romans and many other books in the New Testament used to persecute Christians. Paul did everything to bring Christianity down until God changed Paul’s heart. The Apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus. He denied him 3 times, even after Jesus predicted it. Did God hold a grudge against Paul and Peter? No! God still used Paul and Peter to be great leaders in the early church and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ to people to the ends of the earth. God still used them despite their past actions. God can see the good in them. God still loved them first and foremost. I believe that God sees the good in you. God will not hold your past against you. God will not punish you. I believe that God can and will use your past to touch people for good. God will take your experiences to help other people that need help. God still loves you! God still loves you despite anything you may have done. God still believes the best in you. God’s love is there through the most difficult and hard times in your life. 5. Christ’s Love Is Supreme (Romans 8:38-39) These are some of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither 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. Paul is reminding the Christians in Rome, and Paul is reminding us today, of the great love God has for his people. As I read these two verses, we see the depth of God’s love for us. Nothing conceivable “in all creation” can drive a wedge between the love of the Savior and His redeemed people. What God is saying is there is nothing;  not death and life  not angels (good) and demons (bad)  not the present or future  nor any powers  not height and depth  nor anything else in all creation When I read these verses and see all the different contrasts, I can summarize like this: God’s love is supreme! God does love us! God loves us more than we can know. Nothing in the heaven above or on the earth can separate believers from God’s love for them in Jesus Christ. Recap Slides:  God is for You  Jesus died for our sins  God has justified, forgiven and intercedes for us  Christ is for you despite troubles and hardships  Christ’s Love is Supreme Why do I share this with you today? For some in this room, we may need to come to the point of accepting Jesus into our heart. If you have struggled with believing in Jesus, today, I ask you to consider asking Him into your heart and decide to follow Him. All you have to do is tell God, “God, I need you in my life. I am a sinner. I can’t do it on my own. Forgive me for my sins. For, I want to follow Jesus. Amen” For some of you – you have accepted Jesus. Yet you struggle believing that God can still love you. Sometimes you feel like God cannot love you because of your past or the place you are in right now. Today, I hope you understand that God’s love is not based on anything you can achieve or do. It is something you just have to accept. I ask you today to receive God’s love. Accept it. God paid the price of His Son – Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You have been justified, forgiven, and you are co- heirs with Jesus seated to the right hand of God. God is praying for you. I want you to remember this one thing today. God’s love is not based on your good works, or your attendance here at church or how good of a person you may or may not be. God gives his love to each person for who they are. God grants us grace and love to each believer. Let us pray….