Proof of Love
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Proof of Love
Proof of Love
Hi there everyone,
We are continuing our series tonight, Am I Really That Bad?. Our walk through the book of Romans. Tonight we’re going to spend some time in a really important part of this book. You see tonight we’re going to go through what happens when things get tough in our lives, why this happens and in part how we deal with it. Life is sometimes a struggle right? Like we all go through moments where we are like why did that really happen? We go through trials and struggle through situations. And there are times where we think it’s too much for us but we manage to get through. I know in my life there are moments where I look back and I’m like how did I get through that. And I find that the only answer that I have is that God was able to guide me through it. I know that probably sounds a little mystical and airy fairy but I’ve found time and time again that this rings true in my life.
I’ll share a story with you. About 5 years ago now, I’m sitting at my desk in my office building and I get a call from my mom asking me to come to her office, which was only a few blocks away from me. She tells me over the phone through tears that my step-dad was in an accident and we needed to get to the hospital right away. I drop what I was doing and rush over and we get into my mom’s car and we rush to the hospital. When we get to emergency we find my step dad lying unresponsive in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him and probes everywhere. We are told by the doctor in emergency that he was in a motor cycle accident and hit his head very hard. I remember being numb in the emergency room and praying that my step dad would be able to wake up and recover from this. Over the course of a day and a half we watched and hoped that things would change. After about a day and a half we had to say good-bye to my step dad as they turned the machines off that were keeping him going. This trial is something that I’d never had expected for my family to have to go through. And I remember while we were going through this that God brought the bible verse that we are going through tonight to my mind and it was incredible because I also had others who were in my church share this verse with me as me and my family as we were navigating this incredibly tough time in our lives.
The verse we have to look at tonight is , “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
my step-dad woke up one morning, doing his normal routine of getting ready for work. He said good bye to my mom and brothers and was on his way to work. Later that morning I get a phone call from my mom telling me to
6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”
Paul who is writing this passage is no stranger to trials and really tough sucky moments. You see the guy who wrote this book spent a ton of time in jail, he was persecuted for his beliefs, he didn’t have an easy run at life and so when we says that when we run into problems and face trials that we can rejoice, he’s speaking out of a real place. This is a very tough space to be in. To rejoice when we are going through difficult times. To find joy in the midst of suffering. And guys I know this doesn’t sound like it makes sense. But we will find that there is a rhythm to all of this that Paul wants us to understand and take from this. I know in the midst of what my family was going through that it didn’t feel like a moment to be joyful. There was no joy in seeing someone that you love die. And I want to clarify this a little. I don’t think Paul is asking us to not feel the pain of the trials that we face. I think it is healthy to grieve and to have emotions and to feel things. When we spend time looking at our feeling it allows us to work through the situations that we have. I don’t think Paul is telling us to push aside those feelings.
Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.
What I think he’s asking and encouraging, is for us to consider, that when we are in these moments, that they help to produce in us the ability to endure. What Paul is saying is that when we face tough times that we get tougher and we develop the capacity and ability to withstand the other times in our lives where we face trials.
Then Paul goes on to say that this endurance pushes a stronger character. Generally we all want to have a good character and so Paul is saying that these trials in our lives, helps us to strengthen this. This also produces in us hope. And this hope that Paul is talking about is the hope that we have when we believe in Jesus. When place our trust in Jesus and we let Jesus be our hero that we have a hope that he will take care of us, of our situations. This is the hope that I was able to cling to while my family was going through this trial with my step-dad. That God knew what was going on in our lives and that even though this awful situation was taking place that God was telling me that things would still be ok. And I knew that because I know how much God loves me. We are told throughout the bible that God loves us and he loved us so much that he would give us Jesus to live on earth, to die on a cross and come back for each one of us. tells us, “16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
And guys I believe that this is the point of our series in Romans. We gave this series the title “Are We Really That Bad?” because yes we are. We all mess up, we all say things, do things, go through things that aren’t good. But our stories don’t have to stop there. We don’t need to be defined by these things. What I’ve learned, what your small group leaders have all learned and believed is that Jesus can and does step into our lives and into our stories. And it’s when we believe in him, that what Paul is talking about in this passage can take place. We know that we experience the ability to endure, the development of character, and hope while we go through trials because of our faith in Jesus. Guys outside of this our outlook is bleak. Outside of Jesus there is no endurance, no confidence, no hope. The world tells us to give up. But Jesus encourages us to hold on, to keep going. Because of what is to come.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave* his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
And what is to come is what Paul ends this with. He shares that we are made right in God’s sight, we are saved from our situations through Jesus. Paul says that Jesus is the answer. He says that we can rejoice, we can have hope in the midst of trials because of Jesus and what he did. While we were watching my step-dad die I had hope that Jesus would take care of my family, I had hope in the words of Jesus that if anyone calls on his name that they would be saved, that even though we have to face death that there is hope when we place our faith, and trust in Jesus. Paul doesn’t say that hard times will end in our lives when we do that. He knows that we will continually face difficult moments. We will face moments in our lives that will suck. But when we’ve placed our hope and trust in Jesus our outlook changes, we find that we can rejoice in the fact that Jesus is in control of our life, that our story isn’t over yet.
* 3:16 Or For God loved the world so much that he gave.
A verse that I’ll end with, because I just love how it sums up what we’ve talked about. That these trials that we face will produce endurance, strength of character and hope. And this is what we are to look for. The verse is , “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord.”
Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.
Guys when we give our lives to Jesus, when we pray and accept him God will reveal to us that the things that happen in our lives aren’t to harm us. They are designed to ultimately give us a hope and to propel us into our futures capable of handling whatever life will throw at us. But our responsibility in this is to surrender our lives to Jesus, to say to Jesus that we know we can’t do it on our own, to ask him to take control and to guide our stories. Guys I believe that when we do this we are able to get through the trials of life.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord.”
Let’s pray.
Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.
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