The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church July 10, 2022. The Bible verses used are Romans 8:26-39.
God is love. We say that all the time,
right? God is love.
And of course, it’s a true statement. God is
love. God is lots of other things, too, of course, and we need to be
aware of those other things. But if there was only one thing that we
could know about God, that’s probably the one we should know, the one that’s
most important: That God is love.
But while we say that, and we know it, I think sometimes
that we take it for granted. I think sometimes I take it for
granted. We don’t think enough about how incredible and how awesome God’s
love for us really is.
We should. Because it really is amazing how much God
loves us. When you think of all God has done for us, and continues to do
for us, it really is almost beyond belief.
Start with just the fact that we’re even here, that we even
exist, that God even created us at all. Just life itself is an incredible
gift. And too often we take that gift for granted, too. After all,
how many times do we say thank you to God for our lives? Now, maybe you
do–I don’t know what you do–but I know I don’t say it nearly enough. A
lot of us, including me, spend far too much of our time complaining about our
lives, and not anywhere near enough time being thankful for them.
And then, think about the beautiful world God has given us
to live in. We should especially think about that here, when we’re
privileged to live in such a beautiful part of God’s world. The variety
of animals and birds and fish. The variety of plants and crops. The
incredible colors of the sunrises and sunsets. And I could go on and on.
And we take that for granted, too, don’t we? I mean,
yes, we might take a few minutes to appreciate a particularly beautiful
sunset. We might even post a picture of it on facebook. But here’s
what we don’t think about enough: God made a deliberate choice to make a
world with all that variety and color.
Think about it. God did not have to create the world
the way He did. God could have created a world where there were only a
half-dozen types of animals, a handful of kinds of birds, just a few types of
fish. God could’ve created a world without vibrant colors, where
everything was just in shades of grey. And that world could’ve been a
perfectly functional world. And if it was all we’d ever known, we’d never
have noticed the difference.
But that world would’ve been a world with less beauty, and
a world with less joy. And God wanted to create a world with beauty and
joy. So, God created the world the way He did. That’s a gift,
too. That’s a gift to you, and to me, and everyone, to live in this
beautiful world God created.
But to me, the greatest thing about God’s love is
this: God loves us so much that God takes an active part in our
lives. God did not just create this world, plop us into it, and say,
“Good luck! You’re on your own now!” God is actively involved in
our lives. And I don’t mean just that God is involved in the life of the
world generally. God is actively involved in each of our lives.
Personally. God is actively involved in your life. And God is
actively involved in my life.
Our Bible reading talks about that. In verse
thirty-one, the Apostle Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against
us?” When we read that, we sometimes jump to the last part–that no one
can be against us. And that’s important, but let’s not hurry past the
first part. “God is for us.”
I want you to think about that. I want you to always
remember that. “God is for us.” God is not against us. God is
not neutral where we are concerned. God is for us. God is in favor
of us. And God is actively working in favor of us. God is actively
working for our benefit.
Verse twenty-eight says, “We know that in all things God
works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.” Think about what an awesome statement that is. “In all
things God works for the good of those who love him.” That’s a statement
of how active God is in our lives. It’s also a statement of the
incredible power God has, and how God uses that power in our favor. God
is so strongly for us that God can and will take anything and everything that
happens and use it for our good.
We say that, but we have trouble really believing it
sometimes, don’t we? Because every person here, and every person watching
the livestream, has had some really bad things happen to them. You’ve
lost someone you love. You’ve had serious health problems. You’ve
had serious financial problems. You’ve been hurt or betrayed by someone
close to you. I may not know what it is, but everyone hearing my voice
has had something really bad happen to them. Maybe you’re going through
it now. But when it happens, it’s really hard to believe that God is
going to take that terrible thing that’s happened and use it for
good.
And God understands that. God would love it if we
could just trust Him in all circumstances, if we could just believe that God is
going to use all those things for good, but God understands why that’s a hard
thing for us to do.
When we’re going through hard times, when we have trouble
believing God is going to use it for good, God won’t be upset with us for
that. God just asks that we do one thing in that situation–go to
Him. Go to God. Take the situation to God. Talk to Him about it.
Tell God everything you’re feeling. Tell God your hurts, your anger, your
sadness, everything. Give it all to God.
And if you have a hard time
putting it into words, if you’re struggling with what to say, go to God
anyway. Verse twenty-six of our reading says, “We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless
groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of
God.”
God loves us so much that God
knows how we feel even when we cannot express it. As long as we just
allow God’s Holy Spirit into our hearts, God’s Holy Spirit can understand our
feelings perfectly. Even if we’re not sure ourselves just exactly how to understand
our feelings, God’s Holy Spirit will know. And God’s Holy Spirit
intercedes. Again, the Holy Spirit intercedes “for us”, because God is
“for us”.
God understands when we go
through hard times because God has been through hard times. Does that
sound strange to you, to say that God has been through hard times? Maybe
so. But think about this: As verse thirty-two says, God did not
spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all.
You think that was not hard for
God? It had to be. To watch His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, be
mocked, and tortured, and killed in an incredibly painful way? To know
that Jesus had done nothing to deserve that, but was willing to do it
anyway? It had to be incredibly hard for God to see that. It had to
be incredibly hard for Jesus to do it, too. But they did it. And
they worked it for the good of those who love Him. It’s only because of
that sacrifice that we are able to have salvation and eternal life.
And that’s the greatest gift of
all. None of us is good enough to go to heaven. We are not
righteous, or holy, or even good, compared to God. As Jesus Himself said,
no one is good except God alone. But God loves us so much that, if we
believe in His divine Son, He allows us into heaven. Not only does God
allow us into heaven, God invites us into heaven. God is eager for us to
go to heaven. What an incredible love that is.
God’s love for us is so
amazing. It’s a love so strong that there is absolutely nothing that can
separate us from that love. As verse thirty-eight says, not even death
can separate us from that love. In fact, for those who believe in Jesus
Christ, I suspect death only makes us feel God’s love even more. Because
in heaven, there is literally nothing separating us from God’s love. We
are in the actual presence of God, and we feel God’s love in a more powerful
way than we can ever feel it while we’re on earth.
God loves us so much. God
has given us the gift of life. God has given us a beautiful world to live
that life in. And God actively works for us in that life, working all
things, even things we think of as terrible things, for our good. God is
for us, with a love so strong that nothing can separate us from that
love. And God loves us so much that God gives us the chance for salvation
and eternal life, even though we don’t deserve that gift.
God is awesome. God’s
love is awesome. Let’s not take that love for granted. Let’s be
thankful for the gifts God has given us and continues to give us. And
let’s always remember that, no matter how things may look, God is for us.
And if God is for us, who can be against us?
No comments:
Post a Comment