Romans 8:31-39

Ultimate assurance! We have incredible assurance that nothing can separate us from God's love. Thus, if God is for us, then we need not fear anything such as trials, troubles, problems, setbacks, highs, lows, the devil or even death! There should be no reason in your life to keep you from growing in His love and living the triumph full Christian life, full of passion and conviction serving for the glory of our Lord! No mater what you have been through or will go through! This is the passage President George W. Bush quoted and used as the basis for his sermon on the 'National Day of Prayer' a few days after the terrorist attacks on America. This passage is special to me because this is the verse God gave me when I proposed to my wife and the verse that we both look to as the theme for our marriage and walk with Christ, especially when we go though the hard-hitting set backs that life throws at us!

· These things, all that distracts us from God is irrelevant! It is a display of His grace to us sinners and our circumstances.

· Who can be against us? What may thwart us from Christ? NOTHING! But the reality is these things can and will destroy your faith. The ability to keep Christ in your view and secure your faith in His assurance will be the means to prevent your failure of faith!

· Did not spare His Son, this is about how true love is made real. When we have a grasp on our relationship to Christ, then we shall not be afraid to ask too much in prayer. Thus with the Father, the Son and the Spirit all for us, we are not alone, and nothing can separate us from that love and connection.

· Delivered Him up, Christ was brought into punishment as sin free for us sinners! He died for us, He has forgiven us, He has the power and authority for us (Isa. 53:6-10; Matt. 20:19; 26:15-16; 27:2).

· It is God who justifies, God has already pardoned our charges against us! We have no opposition or frustration, even the devil cannot stop God's plan for us. We cannot justify ourselves by our will or means!

· The difference between Satan's condemnation and God's conviction is, that condemnation takes us away from God, literally pulls us away, making us feel unworthy and rejecting God! Conviction makes us desire to get closer to God, and recant our bad deeds, to make us right.

· Jesus pleads our case before the Father, so we are convicted and not condemned!

· At the right hand of God, right hand was the main poison of presage and power for a prince or a servant of a king (Psalm 110:1).

· Intercessor, means advocates in behalf of. Jesus is the intercessor for us in Haven and the Spirit is the intercessor in us in our hearts (1 John 2).

Have you realized that nothing can separate you from Christ? Have you considered if this truth is rooted in you? If so, you can live a life of contentment even in stress, so you can respond to life with gratitude with trust and obedience!

By the power of the Spirit empowering us we can model the character of Christ. We can be positively responsive to others, because God is concerned with how we are with one another as well as how we are with Him. Because we confess our faithfulness on Sunday, but on Monday our confession is gone! We desire God to be a blessing machine, while we are impatient and disrespectful to what He wants us to learn. Faith and assurance must be in our living God by way of His working in you!

God wants you to know what it means to live a righteous life, by modeling the character of Christ. We also need to be aware that God is more dethroned by Christians than by the world. Because we confess our faithfulness on Sunday, but on Monday our confession is gone! We desire God to be a blessing machine, while we are impatient and disrespectful to what He wants us to learn and grow in Him.

Questions

1. What has been the most exciting event in your life?

2. How would you characterize yourself hopeful and cheerful or cynical and negative?

3. Martin Luther said that 'predestination' is the heart of the church, so why do you suppose predestination has caused so much controversy in theological circles when Romans is pretty clear on it?

4. What can separate you from the love of God?

5. If God chose us, justified us, glorified us, redeemed us, is for us and not against us; then why do we worry?

6. How can God's perseverance of us give you assurance, in comfort and hope?

7. Last week the greatest disaster inflicted on US soil occurred. If you were one of the people running from the World Trade Center as it was collapsing, how would you have handled it; emotionally, what would you be thinking, and what would your prayers have been?

8. If you are in a major disaster or a personal crisis, how could this verse be real to you?

9. Would you rather be convicted and not condemned, or condemned and not convicted (think carefully)?

10. What does it mean to you to receive no condemnation?

11. What causes you to feel unworthy and rejected by God?

12. What helps your desire to get closer to God?

13. How can you live a life of response to God's incredible love with gratitude along with trust and obedience?

14. What can the world and Satan do to us and who we are in Christ? Even when disaster befalls us, our ultimate reality is Heaven to come, not our work or life that we have now. How can this give you hope to be a person with stronger trust and perseverance in Christ?

15. Even when disaster befalls upon us, our ultimate reality is Heaven to come, not our work or life we have now. How can this give you hope to be a person with stronger trust and perseverance in Christ?

16. Read John 14:23-27 and Rom. 5:5. How can this 'True Love' be made real?

17. When we have a grasp on our relationship to Christ, then we shall not be afraid to ask too much in prayer. Why or why not is this true?

18. We are not alone, and nothing can separate us from that love and connection we have with God. How can this be applied with more passion and conviction to the church boardroom?

19. The best is still to come, the life we have in eternity. Does this give you hope, why or why not?

20. What can you do to live a righteous life, by modeling the character of Christ? When, how? How will God's love for you fuel you?

No power on earth or in the universe can conquer God in us!

©1998, 2001, 2004, Rev. Richard J. Krejcir, Discipleship Tools www.discipleshiptools.org