Measuring Our Lives and Being a Spiritual Success

We've got snow back in Ohio and snow on the ground. My mother-in-law said this morning, and much cooler temperatures. It's always good to come out to California at this time of year. When I lived out here many, many years ago going to college, I do remember this time of year as being quite nice. That's why everybody from Ohio and Michigan came out here 100 years ago and wintered out here and stayed, and the rest of the story is, you know, cut down all the orange trees and, uh, tore down paradise, as the song says. That's what happened. Anyway, it is good to be here. Mr. Weber mentioned we are on the first leg of a very long trip for Debbie and I. We go from here after the regional conference to England to meet with the ministry in the United Kingdom. And the best way I can put it, I guess, is to be consulting with them and have a ministerial get-together that has been several months building. And then from there we go down to Zambia in South Africa. We go to Southern Africa and we go to Zambia for some training with members and elders there. And then we go to Malawi for the same thing for another three or four days. And then we go to South Africa to visit one of the congregations and spend some time with Mr. Roy DeMont there and be with him.

So from a trip that just was going to be one stop, it turned into about 14 different flights to make this whole thing happen. So you get to see us walk refresh when by the end of the month we may not be so much. Well, this week the nation here in the United States and really the world paused for a moment to consider the life of former President George Herbert Walker Bush. The state funeral took place on Wednesday and then a private, more local funeral Thursday. It was a two-day affair in the country to bury former President Bush. And I didn't get to see all of the television live series. I had to work and teach and all at that time, but I caught up on some of it later via YouTube and PBS and the reruns of it. What I saw was very impressive. I've seen a few state presidential funerals in my lifetime, the first one being John F. Kennedy's back in 1963. Some of us will remember that one. And Richard Nixon's I remember. Then Ronald Reagan's. And now President Bush's funeral. And it was an outpouring this week of remembrance of one of those moments in life to really consider the life of a leader who walked and served at a great moment in history. On display this week is, I caught snatches of it really before the nation. And again, the world was the legacy of a decent man who, along with his wife, served the nation in many different ways. They also raised a large family, as we know, and his eldest son became the 43rd president of the United States. But as I was watching the ceremony, the part that I did see, the family now grown large of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all sat in the pews in the National Cathedral. And many of them spoke words to Mr. Bush's memory, reading Scripture, and paying tribute to their patriarch. Regardless of the politics and personal feelings and or failings of and toward the gentleman, such a moment is one to think about. And I chose to do that. I wrote a short piece that went on our UCG website to think about that. And as always, people have different comments, and some took exception to President Bush because of failings here or there. And I responded to one, and I said, you know, I just choose to do what Philippians 4, verse 8, says, and that is, whatever things are true and noble and just, whatever things are pure and lovely and of good report and of any virtue, think on those things and meditate on those things. Because at such a time, that's what I think is important to do. So the nation took the measure of the life of one of its former presidents, and their family did as well. How do we measure our lives? How do you measure yours? How can we know whether our path is one of success?

And most importantly, how does God measure our life and whether or not you and I are a success? That's really the most important question as we look at ourselves. Understanding God's measure of success, I think, is a key to our contentment and our peace, and based on that, we can know whether we have, then, a very solid, enduring relationship with God.

I'd like to take us through a passage of Scripture this afternoon that I think helps us to understand some critical keys to understanding that we are on the path to success in our relationship with God. We're not going to have grand state funerals to be remembered in our lives. I certainly won't. And that's not important. Those of us called into the body of Jesus Christ. The spiritual relationship that we have with God is of the utmost importance and the most critical for us to consider. I'd like for you to open up your Bibles, if you will, to Romans 8. And we're going to look at a few verses in this very encouraging chapter. We won't take the time to go through all of chapter 8, but I'm going to begin with what we find in verse 31 of Romans chapter 8 as we look at this. Let me set this up before we dive into this. Romans chapter 8, and actually beginning in verse 31, is a passage that comes after a very, very long series of chapters in the book of Romans, which is a very important book. Paul has discussed God's purpose and his plan that encompasses everything from faith to justification to sanctification. These are big, high 50-cent theological words that we tend to gloss over, and yet they're very critical to our relationship to God. He also talks about repentance. He takes a chapter to talk about faith. He takes a chapter to talk about baptism. And then in chapter 8, he talks about the power of the Holy Spirit. And there's a progression in the book of Romans to this point that is really a magisterial theological treatise that Paul works through. One commentator says that he must have been striding up and down in his room, dictating this book to ascribe, because the words just roll out. And one thought, one big thought, echoes to another, and questions and challenges are there. But what he does, as we come down to verse 31 of chapter 8, is come to a point where Paul then raises some questions, several questions that are all self-evident in their answer. But it's a unique passage. It is an encouraging passage. And it is one that I always take a young person or an older person to, and I do baptism counseling. I take people through sections of the book of Romans to explain faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Spirit, which you can do in several chapters here. And we just spend hours of counseling going through that with them. And so this week I concluded a baptism counseling that I had at the office back in Cincinnati with one of our Ambassador Bible College students who came to me, wanted to be baptized. So we started shortly after the feast, and we concluded it this week. And as I was taking him through the end of Romans chapter 8, it just struck me that what we have here is, as I was bringing out to the young man, these are keys right here to true success.

True success in life, in what Paul says. And so it kind of moved me as I was going through it, and I always learned something as I'm counseling people in this passage anyway. And so this is kind of the genesis for the message here, because it dawned on me as I was bringing out to the young man that, again, God has called us to a grand purpose in our life, and He's called us to succeed. He has called us to win, not to fail. And that's what He shows us here, that we are called to be winners at life, and the most important issues of life. What Paul shows through this book is that God has foreknown and predestined the church, which is the body of Christ. He has called us. He has justified us. He has sanctified as holy each one of us. And we are the sons of God, called to be disciples, and we're called to succeed in this life for the purpose that God has intended from before the beginning of time, before the beginning of this age. And that's what Paul explains to us at the end of this entire section here, which is in the book of Romans, because, as you know, when you leave chapter 8 and you go into chapter 9, 10, and 11, it's an entirely different section. And he changes gears and goes into a different topic, and then chapter 12 to the end of the book covers other matters. It's the meat of the center of the book of Romans that contains this very meaty, important matters regarding salvation. You know, my friend Robin likes to always, has always told me through the years, and I remember things that he says, that the best part of the sandwich is right in the middle. The beef. The meat. Where's the meat? They say. And this is the meat, right here in the middle chapters of Romans that Paul gets to. But then he comes down, and then he has something to say that is extremely valuable. So let's look at verse 31, and we'll go back to a few verses as we go along here, but let's look at Romans 8. And let's begin in verse 31. We're going to go through the end of the chapter here. Paul then raises this question. What then shall we say to these things? What shall we say to these things? And these things, as I say, they're pretty heavy stuff. The Holy Spirit, baptism, resurrection, faith, justification. And then he says, if God be for us, who can be against us?

And as commentators bring out, really the proper way to read this and to understand what he's saying is, it's not if, it's sense. Since God is for us, who can be against us? That's really what he is saying in the rhetorical manner that he brings it. That's the real meaning.

Since God is for us, he's not against us. He is for us, and he wants us to succeed. And that's a remarkable statement even in and of itself to consider for a moment. Because in Scripture, as we look at, especially in passages in the Old Testament, we know that there are many times that God says that he is against certain individuals or even whole nations. God's very direct at various times. He shows that he, at times in prophecies, that he is against the nation of Assyria, for instance. He says that he is against the ancient nation of Babylon, and he prophesied against them. God was even against his own people, Israel, when they sent and rebelled and went into idolatry and rejected their agreement and covenant with him. He told them plainly, I am against you, I have set myself against you, and he ultimately let them go into captivity. In Ezekiel 34, there's a passage where God is talking to the shepherds, and he says, I am against you, shepherds of Israel. So God, very plainly at times, has been against evil, against those who sought to thwart his purpose, but that is not what we find here. God is for us. He is for us. And he has called us according to his purpose, and since he has, he is for us as his children. If we go back here in chapter 8 to verse 12, we can see that. Go back to Romans 8 and verse 12. Paul says, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. In verse 14, we have the classic biblical definition of a Christian. One who is led by the Spirit of God. Then we are the sons of God. That's the biblical definition of those who are gods, who are his, who are Christian, if you will. They are led by the Spirit of God. Paul essentially has explained a lot to get to that particular point there. He says in verse 15, For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba Father. And that speaks to the fact that we are sons of God, that we are in a very special relationship with God. If we go back to verse 6, this thought is brought out there again. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

Sometimes I find it a little bit helpful to kind of take Paul and read one point and then kind of go back a few verses to see what he's saying and work backwards and then forwards with Paul and some of his writings to get the full understanding of a particular passage. And I think here in Romans 8, this is helpful to do. Paul is saying that that suffering leads to glory, and it is at times, through the valley of the shadow of death that one must pass as we walk with God, as he works with us. We understand that. We must suffer with him that we might be glorified together as joint heirs with Christ. But the point here is that we are called to be sons of God, and this is what Paul has said. And he shows that that calling is to be a son in a sense that we have a full adoption. Now, the real meaning of the wording here is that as we are the sons of God and joint heirs with God, we've received that spirit of adoption. The meaning here is far greater than the meaning that we've attached to the word adoption normally today, as we think of a person, a child normally, that has been adopted by parents that are not their birth parents. In an adoption process, they do become legally their own. They become a part of the family. But they are not of the same blood and DNA. We understand that, but there is a legal process of adoption. The meaning behind this here that Paul is bringing out is something far different. We are literal sons of God through a process of receiving that spirit of God, and that is different from the adoption on the human level.

We are brought into the family of God, of which we were not a part before, but with the addition of the Holy Spirit of God, the very DNA of God is then in us. And that's the critical difference. That makes all the difference. That is not what is there in a human adoption. The DNA of the mother or the father is not in the adopted child. There is love, there is the legal rights, and there is the affection and the nurturing, but there is something that cannot be there that is here when we look at what we have in the relationship with God. And we then take on the very nature of God. We become the sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ in this way. God, in his spirit, begins to flow in our veins and muscles. The Holy Spirit is God's essence of God in us. And we begin to take on the divine nature, as Peter puts it in 2 Peter 1. We acquire that divine nature of God. This is what the process happens, and this is what begins. So God has not left us alone to ourselves. He is with us in a relationship that is very close, very intimate. It is a family relationship. He loves us, and He is interested and concerned for us. This is what Paul is saying, and it develops then into a complete relationship. We go back to verse 1 of chapter 8. Again, backtrack just a little bit. Paul writes this, and this helps us to understand what verse 31 is telling us. In verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ, Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. No condemnation. God is for us. God has made every possible means by which we can succeed spiritually in the very purpose of our lives. That's what's critically important there, and this is what Paul is saying. In chapter 5, in verse 1, Paul uses a term that we stand in this grace, and that adds another dimension as well.

We do stand in God's grace once we are justified, once He has forgiven us of our sins, and we receive that Spirit. It is a standing that is never taken away. We're not separated from God in that way. When we stand in His grace, there is no condemnation. That doesn't mean that there is no sin. It does not mean that there is no obligation to obey and to walk righteously before God. But when we do sin, it's not like God then is so displeased with us that He kind of unplugs us. Like we would unplug a lamp from the wall and the light goes out until it's plugged back into the source of power.

That's not how God works with us. When we do sin, we still stand in His grace. He doesn't unplug us from a relationship. He does expect us to repent. We must acknowledge or confess our sin. But the relationship doesn't change with God. No more than it does with a relationship in a family that works together where the parents love the children. Sometimes, as we know, children mess up.

They break the family rules. They do something wrong. And there may be punishment. There may have to be some type of punishment that will fit the problem. But the love of the father or the mother doesn't really change at heart. There may be irritation. There may be frustration. My mom and dad had a lot of frustration with me through the years of my childhood.

But I don't think I ever had any moment where I doubted their concern and their love for me as they showed it to me. Well, God looks at us and He doesn't remove His relationship, our status. He certainly doesn't remove His Spirit. We stand in that grace with God, and that never changes. God's never going to pull the plug on us in that way. And that's what is so critically important in this way. Now, with that as a background, let's go back to verse 32.

Let's go back to verse 32, then, of Romans 8. Since God is for us, who could be against us? It says that in verse 32, He did not spare His Son, but delivered Him up for all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? He who did not spare His Son. The Father did not spare Jesus, who had been the Logos, the Word, who became flesh, dwelt among us, was with God, dwelt among us as Jesus, and was the Son of God. He didn't spare Him. The intent, the plan, the purpose was that He would be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

And He was delivered up for us all. That's what Paul says in verse 32. Now, that phrase in itself, we could speak on that all day long. God did deliver Him up. There was, if you will, something that the Father had to do.

He did give His only begotten Son, as we know, that whosoever would believe on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. But the Father delivered up the Son for us all. That was an event. That was a moment. That had to be done. And because of that, again, it shows the relationship that He wants with us, because He has experienced something that is the ultimate as well in the sacrifice of His Son. And as we think about that moment, and we tend to dwell very deeply upon that when we prepare to take the Passover service every year, when we think about the suffering and the death of Jesus Christ, and we think of those moments when He did hang near death.

And it is good at times to think what the Father did Himself think at that moment. And whether with the darkness at noon and a localized earthquake that happened there in Jerusalem and the opening of tombs, and even people coming back to life as the Gospels account, you get the sense that that was just kind of like a little bit of the finger, a little bitty pinky of God reaching down to kind of shake a localized moment, in a sense saying, I could do a lot more, but I won't.

I could do a lot more, but I won't. Because that had to be done. He had to deliver Him up for us all. And so with that, God has learned, He learned.

And He experienced something as well, just as Christ did by what He went through. Back in verse 10 of Romans 8, it says that we are saved by His life. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells within you. The Father delivered Jesus to become the Christ, and in giving His Son, He gave everything.

He will then give back to us what we need in this life, in our daily needs, to succeed in the very mission for which Christ came and the very purpose for our human existence, which is that vision of sons of glory to be brought to pass.

God will give us what we need in our daily lives.

And this is what Paul has come down to show in this grand statement here.

And it comes down to the indwelling of the Spirit of God within us, the very power by which He raised up Jesus from the dead. He had to deliver Him up in order to make that possible.

Now, as we think about that and we understand this, realize this is not a formula that we're talking about here today for physical success.

We can read all kinds of books that are available to us today on how to succeed in business, how to succeed in some type of specialized aspect of life if we want. And there are just literally thousands and thousands of book titles that talk about success. Success is a big business today. And success is important. We don't want to fail at whatever we might put our hand to do. But what Paul's talking about is not a formula necessarily for physical success. What he is talking about is a path to spiritual success.

This is a path to how we acquire the divine nature and how we succeed at the very mission that God has called us to be and to be a part of. And that is His sons, in that relationship with Him, to understand fully what it means to address Him as our Father and Christ as our elder brother, and to recognize we are heirs with Christ of the glory and all things that are His.

And it is to be shared with us because that's what God is freely intending to give to us, all things. So it is a formula for spiritual success. And again, that's what I seek to help a person who is coming to the point of baptism in their life to recognize what they are asking for. I get to teach the fundamentals of belief of the United Church of God at our Ambassador Bible College. And as you know, we have 20 different defined fundamentals of belief.

And every year I get to walk the students through those in detail. And this is about the seventh year, I think, or eighth year that I've done that at ABC. And I learn a great deal every time I go through. I tell people at times, we've got 20 fundamentals of belief. If we choose to add any more official fundamentals, that's the business of the ministry. That's fine. But for my part, I don't really don't need any more fundamentals of belief.

I've got 20. To me, there's a lifetime of study right there. And it's a matter of just drilling deeper into each one to understand each one. And again, if the ministry decides to add 21 or 22, that's fine. We'll cross those issues if we ever come to them. But we've got 20 good ones. And I've got, I don't have that many more years to study those and to learn them.

But when I take students through baptism and sin and the law and explain these things to them, I try to help them understand that this is more than just dry doctrine. There's application here. It really does pay off in your life to let those laws, that teaching, all the word of God, to be written on your hearts. Because as we get on with our life, there will be challenges and matters that we go through, where we are going to have to draw back on a well of spiritual knowledge and understanding in order to deal with a time of trial, a setback, a difficulty.

This stuff is practical. This stuff is not just dry doctrine. These are words of life that help us to understand the very keys to the relationship with God. So when I get the opportunity to counsel someone for baptism in some of the classes, I just want them to be sure that they understand what it is that God is taking them through, as we all should, as we all should. And realize what God brought us through at whatever point in your life when you made that commitment. When you went into the waters of baptism, and you came up out of that, and the minister laid hands upon you and prayed for God's Spirit to be given to you, what that means is very real.

And it has eternal consequences. And it is the beginning of our path to spiritual success in the relationship with God to which we have been called. And that's what Paul is bringing out here. And I sometimes get that feeling, as I said earlier, as one commentator who I like to read says that Paul must have just been pacing across the room back and forth, dictating this. You get that feeling that he had something he had to get out.

And as God's Spirit moved him to the production of what we call the book of Romans, there was something that he had come to understand that moved by God's Spirit to have put down into writing for us. And so this is the path to a spiritual process that leads to success, and it boils down to acquiring the divine nature of God. So we therefore have everything available to us.

This is what Paul is saying. Everything is available to us here to live successfully in this life as a son. That means we then have the help, the power to be able to express love, joy, patience, and long-suffering in our lives. We have that power available to us. So let's go back to verse 33. What does Paul say then? Who then, he says, will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. As a result of this, all of this being made available to God, or to us, through by the Father who delivered up his own Son, who then, in verse 33, shall bring a charge against those whom God has chosen. No doubt each of us have had people in our lives who have spoken against us, slandered us, behind our back, to our face, in serious situations, semi-serious situations, and even in trivial situations. We've all experienced something like that to one another.

People have accused you. I've had people accuse me or say things about me, and it's never fun. Nobody likes to be spoken ill of. When you hear about it, it, you know, makes you feel bad. Sometimes it's because of your relationship. Sometimes it demands a response. But we've all had that. Sometimes those accusations are false. Sometimes they might be true. But if they're done in a spirit that seeks to undermine or to even to destroy us, that's very serious. Satan is called the destroyer in one of his names.

He is called the accuser of the brethren. When Paul says, who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? We don't like that when it happens to us. We should be very careful that we don't let ourselves get into a situation where we may cause or be on the end of accusing someone, joining with somebody that might want to condemn or judge. We have to judge righteous judgment. But let's make sure that we fall very, very far short of a spirit of condemnation when it comes to our relationships with people.

Because in the very next verse, verse 34, Paul says, Who is he that condemns? Who is he that condemns? In other words, that's at a realm and a level beyond us. He said, 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.

Now, this speaks to the great truth that Christ is our high priest. He is our intercessor. And he is at the right hand of God, and he does intercede for us because he was tempted in all things, yet without sin. He understands fully the frailties of life, the human experience. He lived them. He dealt with them. He met them each, one, and he overcame them.

He was never overcome by any. He did not sin. And yet he understands those temptations. And therefore, as he is there at the right hand of God, he intercedes for us. This is also telling us that God never condemns us. We have statements from Jesus Christ that through the Spirit, he, Christ, is our comforter. He intercedes for us. He goes alongside to help us. Christ, as I said, is our advocate, our high priest.

And before God, we are never condemned. And that is something to think about. This is a very important meaning about this concept of grace. I spoke earlier, looking at Romans 5.1, we stand in this grace. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Grace is an all-encompassing subject that speaks to the character of God.

It speaks to his relationship with us. It speaks to his kindness, his care, and his concern for us. It speaks to our unmerited pardon of our sins. We're in the process of putting together a booklet in the United Church of God on the topic of grace, to explain it from a biblical, theological, correct method, but also to get the dimension of understanding grace that speaks to this very matter here of our relationship with God. And the fact of how we stand before him in a relationship that does not change, is never altered.

When we get this booklet out, it will be kind of a first for us in the Church of God, to be real honest. I can't recall that we ever had a whole booklet talking about the subject of grace. But grace is embedded in virtually every scripture of the Bible. You can preach a sermon on grace from the Old Testament. You never have to go to the New Testament.

You can preach a sermon on grace from the book of Romans, from any part of the New Testament. As I say, it is embedded in all the entire message of the Bible about God's care, love, and concern for us.

And it is more than just a theological topic about unmerited pardon. It speaks to God's kindness and attitude toward us, and it speaks to the very nature of a person who can actually live up to the name of grace.

I don't know how often the name grace is given to a little girl baby these days. Anybody heard of a little girl named Grace in recent years? I hope so, because it's one of those names that used to be used quite a bit and then kind of went out of fashion. I had a couple of aunts in my background named Grace. And he used to put, you know, customs change and names that we give to children change as well. But, you know, I used to know a lady who, she was a wife of an elder, one of our elders, and her name was Grace.

And she died, unfortunately, of cancer about 25 years ago. But she was just one of these women that exuded her very name. When you talked with her, she was kind and warm and loving and concerned about you. And you just, you basked in a relationship for the moment with her. And I remember thinking when she did die, I said, if there was anybody that ever lived that lived up to the name of her name, Grace, it was this woman.

And the grace of God is something that is all-encompassing for us. We stand in that. Not to sin. Not to go on in life as slaves to sin, but as slaves to righteousness, if we understand it fully. Because God rescues us for incommodation by His death and by His resurrection. And from His heavenly throne, He exercises all the rights that He has to save us, to intercede to the Father for those whom the Father draws.

And so we must never forget that, and we must understand that in our life. God does not condemn us for that. And so as we look then here in verse 34, Who is He then who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. And then in verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble, hardship, persecution? Look at verse 35. He mentions three things there. Tribulation and distress or persecution? You know, we can face any of these at various times. We can have troubles. We can have hardship, economic setbacks, illness, matters that deal with us. At times we can even deal with persecution that will come. Sometimes because of our faith, people will lose a job.

Sometimes people will lose the affection within a family, and even perhaps a marriage because of their stand for the faith of God. That has happened. So there can be troubles and hardship and persecution.

We will face those in the world that we have to deal with. And so Paul recognizes that, but none of them separates us from the love of Christ. We draw on that love even as we meet any of those challenges that are going to come. Then he goes on and he mentions famine or nakedness. All right? Stop and consider these two points for a moment.

Famine and nakedness. We could be hungry. We don't have a lot of, at least for our brethren in the church, we have a social network in the church, and certainly we have a larger social network in America today that can alleviate a great deal of deprivation and the loss of certain things.

Through insurance, through social services, through family, and even through our church family, we endeavor and can do a lot of things to alleviate hardship, such as that would fall under the broad terms of famine here or nakedness. In other words, a loss of something. A person might lose a home and a fire in a flood, in a tornado. We can mitigate a lot of that loss in many different ways today in America. That's a testimony to the wealth of our nation and to innate goodness of many parts of our country, either governmental, social, charitable, religious, family.

There's a lot that works at times when these things happen. That doesn't mean that there's not suffering, but we can alleviate a lot of that. And we all recognize so much of that. My stepfather-in-law died earlier this year. He was a veteran and he lived a number of years as an amputee from an industrial accident. But through the Workman's Compensation, Veterans Administration, he was able to compensate for a lot and live a full life.

It was amazing even in his case what the Veterans Administration provided for him to be able to continue to live in his home, not to speak of my own mother-in-law's ample and generous care in his years as well. But the point is, there is a lot in our networks that we tap into.

And God always promises when we look deeply into his Word that we will have enough to meet our needs. David said, I've never known a man, a righteous man, to go without.

A righteous man, he said, will rise up seven times. And Christ made certain very direct statements about providing for us in his Sermon on the Mount. Those things are there. God always promises that we will have enough to meet our needs. He goes on here and then he goes beyond and says, or peril or sword?

Danger. Sword. Now, that gets a bit more direct. We can read in history, as well as in Scripture, about people, Christians, people, men and women of faith who died for their faith. The book of Hebrews talks about that. We can read the stories of history. There are times when people have had to die for their faith. Even today, when we look at the current world situation, the Middle East, with Islam, and clash with the Christian world in the areas such as Iraq, and other areas where there's been strife, and the driving out of hundreds of thousands and even millions of Christian population in recent years, we see people who have died for their belief. We look at ourselves and we look at the securities that we have in the United States and the blessings that we have because of where we live. Those are rather alien to us. Those of us in the Church have no doubt experienced milder forms of persecution, but I don't know of anyone who has gone to the sword for their faith in our Church. Let's be honest, as you and I shop at Costco, we're not likely to die for our faith. Think about that. I shop at Sam's because there's not a Costco in my neighborhood. We live in a midst of it. You walk through Sam's or Costco aisle, and the wealth of this country just falls off the shelf at us. And the security and the abundance that we have, and we're all grateful for that. But we're not likely to die for our faith there, are we?

Now, I don't know what God has in mind for His people. I know what the Scriptures say about times of tribulation and persecution at some point prior to the return of Christ. But when that happens, God will provide the strength of any who will have to go through that. What I'm saying is this, so that when we read a verse like this, we should also probably go over to Hebrews 11, verses 35 and 39, and also read that.

Because there we find unnamed people of faith who suffered for what they believed. And the lesson for me is that we should be very careful that I, Darris McNeely, and you, avoid complacency and irreverence in our lives. Be thankful for what we have. Let's try at all costs to avoid complacency. And let's read these verses and appreciate what peace and security God has given to us and recognize that even though nothing is going to separate us from that love of God.

Now, let's go on to verse 37. Verse 36, it says, as it is written, For your sake we are killed all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. In all of these things, Paul writes, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We are more than conquerors through all of these things through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.

Here Paul begins to unroll again another series of events that he said nothing is going to change in this life, in that relationship that will cause us to fail in our spiritual calling. Neither death nor life. We will live our lives in faith. And as God grants each of us the ability, we will die in the faith as well. And we hope for that, and we look toward that. And we should determine that nothing in this life will cause us to fail in that spiritual calling that we have.

We seek to live this life for the rest of our lives. This is what I always stress with a young person, especially with a year stretching out ahead. You are saying to God, I say, that you will live this way of life for the rest of your life. And you must understand that. And we do, and we must. That nothing will cause us to fail in that.

He says, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. There's no evil principality. There's no evil power. God reveals that we are very real in this world. That's going to stop us from succeeding in the plan that God has called us to. God reveals through Daniel, through the Apostle Paul, that there are very powerful spirits that war over our heads and behind the scenes. Paul says that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against spiritual powers and wickedness in high places. I just took students through the book of Daniel chapter 10 and showed them that what Daniel chapter 10 shows us is that there are powerful spirit beings of the demonic realm that control the events of history that are never written about.

Never studied in the history books. Never found in the headlines of our stories today. But there are very real spiritual powers that do govern and do influence the human world. And they, even at a level, will seek to thwart the plan of God and even the lives of the people of God. But Paul says there's no angel or principality or power. Nothing present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth.

There's no created thing that is able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's what he is saying here. No power, nothing present in our own life, nor nothing that can come around the corner next month, next year, that by itself can separate us, nothing from the heights nor from the depths. Nor any other created thing, verse 39, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is a very powerful passage that shows what God's purpose is to bring us to the end result as the Son of Glory, an heir with Jesus Christ in His purpose and in His plan.

We serve a God who intends to bring many sons to glory. He will do His will, and He is going to make it possible, and we can succeed. And He's given us all the tools. Here in a few verses at the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, God gives us the means to achieve true success on His terms for His purpose in our lives.

Now, if we want to be a success at some sport or some occupation or some other endeavor in our life, there are courses of study. There are programs and plans to go through to be a success, and there are principles and guidelines and rules to follow that can certainly help us have a high level of probability that we can succeed in other fields. And wisdom and understanding will allow us to access and tap all of that. But when it comes to the spiritual calling that we have been given, the relationship with God through Jesus Christ, which is the single most important relationship that any human could ever be called to attain to.

That is our calling to accept the sacrifice of Christ, to have our sins forgiven, to then receive the very power of the Spirit of God, and to enter into a relationship with God as a Father, Christ as our brother, and to have an adopted process take place.

Whereby the very essence, the very DNA of the Creator of the heavens flows in us. That is the power, that is the calling, that is the mission that Paul has laid out here. And here in this passage, he tells us that there is nothing, nothing of a spiritual nature, nothing of any part of this physical life that can separate us from God's intent to bring us to that end.

And the key is the Spirit of God. This is a great passage of Scripture. This is one of the great manuscripts of history ever written. Because it transcends human history, human experience, it is the very Word of God, transmitted through a humble servant named Paul, who came in his life to understand something that he had been schooled in, but then had it all turned upside down and revolutionized by an experience where he came to see and understand. Jesus Christ of Nazareth resurrected. And then his whole life was transformed as well by the very power of God. And he took great pains physically to allow himself to be used as an instrument of God to let this be brought out before us. And he writes here to the disciples in Rome, people he's not even met yet, to lay out what God has done to further the plan. Very interesting to think about that. He was writing to a group of disciples in Rome, the very heart of the Roman Empire, the very heart of the beast, the very heart of where Satan had set his power at that time in Rome through his leader, a man who bore the name of Augustus and Caesar, a combination of a political religious office that Scripture tells us a great deal about. And that's where there was a group of people who would understand what Paul was writing here. He had even met them at that point. And he was giving them the blueprint, the plan, to show how God superseded all that they were walking among in the streets of Rome and seeing at the height of that empire. Paul understood that there was nothing in those pagan temples, there was nothing in that pageantry and the power and the might that Rome was that could deter God from bringing his plan to pass. And he lays it out in an epistle in a book, a letter called the Book of Romans. Paul shows God has put in place the means to make a spiritual success for those who are led by his Holy Spirit.

So, we are the sons of God. This is what Paul shows. Secondly, we stand in his grace. Thirdly, no one condemns us. That's encouraging. That is the blueprint for your success. Let's understand that, let's appreciate that, and let us live in that way and be motivated by that continually.