Romans | Week 6 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

Paul wrote a letter to the most important city at the time that was kind of like the anti Las Vegas. Right? If Vegas' theme is what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,

Rome's theme was that what gets to Rome gets to the end of the earth, and Paul's been walking through in this letter that the the power of the gospel and that because of what Jesus do what Jesus did on the cross, you and I don't have to live these lives of sin that we can actually be set free. We've been looking at what is our relationship to sin on the other side of the the power of the gospel.

And in Romans chapter eight, he's gonna start to draw some conclusions

of who we are and the identity that we've been marked with as followers of Christ. So if you would, I'm gonna ask you. I know we just sat, but I'm asking you to stand to your feet with me for the reading of God's word. We're getting back to like our Catholic roots. Stand, sit, kneel, stand, sit, kneel. No kneeling. Just stand once with me. We're gonna read eight verses. Romans chapter eight verses 31 to 39.

Again, tradition, we would stand for the reading of God's word to to signify the importance of it and that it's not just a a textbook that we're reading, but it's the revealed word of God. So let's read our passage. We'll jump in. Paul says this, says, what then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He being God who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns?

No one. Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life. He's at the right hand of God and he is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution

or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No.

In all these things, friends, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Verse thirty eight and thirty nine is where it gets good, and we're gonna celebrate here in a second. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Can we give him a shout of praise in this place because he's good and he's worthy of our praise?

That is the word of the Lord. You can be seated. So father, this morning, we gather worshiping a God who is alive and is not dead. You are ruling and reigning at the right hand of the father and you have the audacity

to say that we are more than conquerors. So father, would you show us this morning what it means to live as more than conquerors. In Jesus name, all God's people said, amen and amen.

Again, Roman chapter eight when I was thinking about this series months ago, this was the chapter, this was the message that I I was fired up to get to because I think this is the turning point not just in the book of Romans but in our lives as followers of Christ. If we can get the truth of this message into the the bedrock of our soul, into the fibers of our being,

I'm telling you it can change everything about us. Paul Paul starts to kind of draw some conclusions of what it means to be followers of Christ and he says that we are we are more than conquerors. A lot of theologians and scholars argue that what he says here in verse 37

is kind of gospel, the good news of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago

summarized in one sentence. He says that knowing all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That we are positioned to be people who are more than conquerors. Now it's interesting that Paul would say more than conquerors. Right? Why doesn't he just say, hey, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we are we are conquerors. Like I would have been excited to be a conqueror. Right? But he says that we're more than conquerors and you're like, what even is a more than a conqueror? Like, it almost sounds like a grade school fight over dodgeball. Like, I'm I'm the best at dodgeball. Like, well, I'm the best bestest at dodgeball. He's like, that's not even a real word, bro. You can't triple stamp a double stamp. Right? Like, what what is Paul talking about? Why does he say what does he mean that we are more than conquerors? I I think that it's an important thing for us to see. Let let me illustrate what I think Paul is trying to communicate

with this truth that we are more than conquerors because a conqueror is one thing but more more than a conqueror is something else. K. Everybody knows that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. K. There is no debate. If you debate it, you gotta find another church. Alright? But but I am willing to submit to you that LeBron James is a pretty good basketball player. Okay? Top 10 all the time for sure, we can have that conversation. Alright? LeBron James,

I would say if you look at what he accomplished on the basketball court and off of it, he's a conqueror. Right? The the data is true. He's he's been a four time NBA champion. He's got 21 all star selections.

He's the most he's got the most all NBA selections of all time. He has top five in all his time to assist. He's the only player in NBA history to have 40,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 10,000 assists. He's been to the finals 10 different times. He's played 23 different seasons. He's the all time scoring leader both in the regular season and the postseason.

Off the court, the guy is worth over a billion dollars. What I do think is impressive as a guy that gets drafted in the NBA at, you know, as a teenager, 15, 16 years old, he he's he's launched into a stratosphere that most of us could never even imagine yet lives most of his life without public scandal and then builds an empire. It's safe to say the dude is a conqueror. Okay? He has conquered some things in this life. I wanna show you though who I think is more than a conqueror if LeBron James is a conqueror. Okay? I wanna show you a picture of four or five people that I would say are more than conquerors. Who's this you ask? Well, these are his three kids, his wife and his his mom. All people who have gotten a lot of the benefits of what he's accomplished without doing any of the work. Right? They've never had to make a three pointer. They've never had to recover from an injury. They've never had to overcome something but because of what their dad did on the basketball court, they've gotten to be the recipients of it. I think what Paul is trying to communicate is the idea is a conqueror is somebody who does the work and gets the reward. K? A conqueror is somebody that goes out, conquests something, win something, achieves something and because of what they did,

they they have earned the reward. Well then what is more than a conqueror? Somebody who's more than a conqueror, somebody who's done no work but because of relationship

gets the reward. Sound like anybody's children in the house of God today. Right? Do none of the work but they get all of the reward. Paul reminds us this morning friends, it's a foundational truth

to understanding who we are in Christ. We are not the conqueror but we are more than a conqueror and more than a conqueror, if you're ever gonna live as more than a conqueror, you gotta realize who the conqueror is. See, the bible says that God himself became one of us two thousand years ago. He put on skin and bones and Jesus lived the life that we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserve and when he conquered death in in one moment, he destroyed the power that sin has over us. He conquered literally

death, grave and hell and is seated today ruling and reigning at the right hand of the father. Jesus is our conqueror. Amen?

But Paul says that there's a path for you and I to be to be more than a conqueror. He will say this in first Corinthians chapter 15, but I thank God that he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I'm just here this morning to remind us friends when it comes to our our salvation,

our sanctification, our significance, our purpose, our calling, we are not the conquerors but we are more than conquerors. It's something that we we receive by faith. It's something that we inherit

that we have not earned but we are able to walk in. So here's the logical question that I go to. If you and I are more than conquerors because of what Jesus did on the cross, the logical question that has to get asked is why? Why does it feel like we're losing so often?

Why if Paul says we're more than conquerors, does it feel like we're losing in our homes? We're losing in our marriages. We're getting our butts kicked in the marketplace. We feel like we're losing financially. We're we're not taking ground in in our health. We're we're we're not advancing the kingdom of God. It feels like we are often losing. Marriages are are tense, homes are homes are hard, jobs are difficult, yet Paul would say friend you are you're more than a conqueror.

I wish this morning that I could tell you that if you give your life to Jesus, if you place your faith in his hands, friends, you will never have to overcome anything again. There will be no adversary any longer. There will be no struggle. You will walk in in abundance and you will never have to strive for anything. I wish I could tell you that that was true but anybody who's followed Jesus for more than two minutes, you know that just isn't that isn't a reality but there is something this morning I need us to lean into because if being a follower of Jesus is a life that doesn't mean we we we never have to face attack, it means that there's something that's there for us. Again, put in your notes this way that if being attacked is inevitable,

what Paul is saying is that being defeated is unacceptable. As a follower of Jesus who knows who you are, who realizes the power and the potential of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago, If if being attacked is inevitable, being defeated is unacceptable. We don't have to live lives of defeat.

We can through I think what Paul gives us some some advice here, some questions to ask. I think we can learn how to overcome all things, not just some things but but all things. There's four questions that Paul asked,

one of them he answered in the the nine verses that we just read. I don't know if you saw them but I think Paul gives us some insight. What do we do? What questions do we ask when we're in the middle of a spiritual attack to begin to reorient our minds to remind us of who we are in Jesus? Four questions this morning that I give to you who find yourselves today in the middle of a fight, in the middle of a battle. And I don't know where the the the war is waging in your home or in your marriage or in your life or in your finances or in your health, but I wanna give some of you a battle tactic today. Four questions that Paul gives us to ask when we're in the middle of an attack to remember

that we are more than conquerors. The first one that we read is what I would say is the opposition question.

Well, Paul starts with the very first question we've got to ask if there's a battle that's waging around us, there's a war that's being waged, the first logical question is is if God is for us, Paul asked, who can be against us?

And this is one of those questions that you could answer and say nobody and it's like our you know our battle cry that nobody can come against us because God is for us and greater is he who is in me than he who's in this world. Yes and amen. But I also think Paul is getting pretty practical here.

I think he's reminding us friends if we have any shot of getting into a position of victory in this spiritual fight that we're in which side point if nobody's told you you're in a fight, you're in a battle, there's a war that is that is raging over your home, over your over your integrity, over your identity.

There is a real battle that is happening as long as you think there is and I'm telling you, you're gonna continue to lose but for those of us who are willing to engage in this spiritual fight, the first question we ought we ought to ask, who we fighting?

Who we coming up against? I don't if you ever did in junior high, I was never much of a fighter but I would go and all my friends would get into fights and they would like pair off with who's gonna fight who and they try to pick people of like, you know, regular size like similar sizes and then they would just they would go and fight but the first thing you gotta figure out if you're gonna win a who am I fighting? And Paul goes, you gotta gotta realize that we need to understand who's coming against us. I think the bible talks about there being three enemies that are going to try to destroy

and oppose the life that Jesus died for you to live into. The first one is you. It's me. The first thing that the bible talks a lot about, the one of the greatest enemies that we need to learn to oppose is ourselves. It's our flesh. It's the carnal nature

that is waging or that is raging within all of us. Right? There's a story of a of of an Indian that goes and he asks his his grandfather grandfather

if there's this story that I've heard that there's these two wolves that are alive inside of me. One that wants to do what is right and one that is constantly pulling me to do the things that I I don't wanna do and he asked his grandfather which wolf is gonna win. He says the wolf that you choose to feed is the one that's ultimately going to win. Friends, all of us need to realize the Bible talks a lot about the flesh that we have being something that if you're not careful, will be the thing that destroys the life that you are ultimately wanting to live into. Paul says in Romans chapter eight verse 13, for if you live according to the flesh, will eventually

die but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will you will live. Because there's this thing in us that you gotta realize it is actively opposing the the more than conqueror life that Jesus wants you to walk into, that your flesh if you're not careful will pull you down a path of destruction

and death And there are times I'm in this season right now, I've got a a guy that's helping me with like nutrition and working out all this stuff and I'm counting all my macros and it's it's super frustrating. I don't do it most of the days and he gets mad at me but a lot of the times I do it, the most frustrating part when you go to MyFitnessPal and you scan something in there, you put one donut in there and you're like, dude, that's like all the calories for like the whole day. He's like, yeah, but put you could eat endless broccoli. I'm like, yeah, but who wants to eat endless broccoli? Like, nobody's excited about eating broccoli. And what's amazing to me that there's this thing when that we so clearly see in fitness that oftentimes the things that taste the best, they they make us feel and look the worst and I don't know why God designed it that way. I wish that broccoli tasted like donuts but they don't.

But here's the truth that that I'm learning in my physical body, this is the same thing about our soul is that what you what you feed is gonna continue to grow but what you starve eventually will die and that flesh that is in us, that is in all of us, that's for some of us right now is at bay, I'm telling you, you feed it, it will get stronger, but if you starve it, you you can also

kill it. The the flesh is one of the first things we need to learn to wage war with if we want to walk as victors and more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. The second thing that I think the Bible talks about that is actively opposing us, that is actively trying to stop us from living

the life that Jesus died for us to have is the devil in all of his demons. That there is a very real spiritual battle that is taking place. I think sometimes the greatest tactic of the enemy is convincing us that it's just it's just not real. It's not true. There is no such thing as demons and

the devil. We're gonna do a whole series in the fall talking about spiritual warfare because I think that that we've got to remember the bible says it's not flesh and bones that we wage war with but it's spirits and principalities.

That there's a very real spiritual battle that's taking place. I think so often when we think about the devil, we think about like a little picture like this, like, you're talking about the devil. It's this guy, you know, like it's the little cartoon character that sits on your shoulder and he's kind of mischievous.

I'm here to tell you, no, no, that's that's an image that Hollywood has sold us

and I think Hollywood is is complicit in in helping us think that the devil is just like this cute thing that really isn't that big of a deal. I'm here this morning to tell you that there's a very real enemy that is trying to destroy the life that Jesus died for you to have. Now, he's not as powerful as Jesus and you can walk in victory

that requires you to stop believing the lies of the enemy. You've got to realize who's opposing us. Satan himself is opposing us. He knows

that your salvation is secure. See, this is this is what the enemy is always gonna do. He knows he cannot touch the salvation that was bought by the blood of Jesus. It is secure. You can't lose it. The bible says that not one person that Jesus has in his hand will he ever lose. So your salvation is secure

but what's he gonna come for? What the devil's gonna try to take from you is not your salvation, he's gonna try to take your significance. I believe that Jesus wants every single person here regardless of what our occupation is to live a life of radical significance

that when we're done with this life, we breathe our last breath that we will be able to say, man,

finished the race well. I I ran my race. I pushed my chips all in. I I I was able to push back darkness and advance the kingdom that I was able to do something with the time that I've been given and I'm telling you what the enemy is gonna try to steal from you is your life of significance.

How's he gonna do it? He's gonna try to get you to to to destroy your integrity. He's gonna try to get you to to abdicate your responsibility to lead. He's coming for the life that Jesus died for you to have. We've gotta realize that we've got a very we've got a very real enemy.

The last one, the third enemy that I think the bible talks about that is opposing us is the world the world and culture itself.

I think we've got to remember especially as Christians in 2026 today, guys, goal is not to fit in. The bible has always said that we are in this world but we're not of it. I think so many Christians try to spend their times going like, hey, our goal is to be is to be cool and to fit in and to be to be hip and I'm here this morning just to remind us guys, the goal is not to be hip and to be hype, it's to be holy.

The invitation of following Jesus is one to death to yourself and if we can begin to learn, you will never you will never change, you will never impact, you will never reach a world that you're just trying to to look like. I just am convinced the people that are going to change the world are the ones who are willing to not to not look like the world. Culture is not your friend. We do not follow cultural trends. We follow the word of God and when we find ourselves in moments where culture and the word of God are at odds, we always submit our lives to the word of God going, no, no, no. We're gonna submit to the word of God not to whatever cultural moment is happening because again, every single one of us here this morning hear me. We are in a battle. There are very real there are very real enemies against us, I'm also here to remind you though the struggle may seem great, what Paul is reminding us is that we have a savior that's greater

and that he who is in us is greater than he who is in this world and you you don't have to lose the battle any longer. I love this language in Deuteronomy chapter 20, seeing the personal nature of God says, the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.

Paul asked the question, who who would oppose us? It doesn't matter who would oppose us because we have a God that is fighting for us and friends, if you find yourself this morning in the middle of a battle, let me just remind you, you are not you are not fighting alone. You have a you have a God in heaven that is waging war on your behalf. The second question that Paul encourages us to ask when we find ourselves in spiritual battles is what I would call the provision question.

He eventually gets to this question of provision that I'm telling you if you've never asked it, it's gonna it's gonna happen to all of us at some point. Romans chapter eight verse 32, we read this question, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?

See, Paul knows at some point you are gonna find yourself, I'm gonna find myself in a season where life is so crushing, circumstances are so overbearing that you will be tempted to wonder if God is still gonna come through for you.

I don't know if you've been there where the weight of financial pressure has been so overwhelming you were tempted to give up.

Well, God, don't know how we're gonna pay for these medical bills. I don't know why every one of my kids needs braces. Can one of them have straight teeth to the glory of God? Right? We need an orthodontist in the house of God. Right?

That sometimes like it just feels like it's overwhelming and when you're in the middle of that battle, you will be tempted to wonder if God is still good. Again, wish I had time to walk through all of the stories but there's an amazing one in the book of Genesis where we learn one of the names of God.

Why does theology matter? Why do we spend time walking through the book of Romans? Because a w Tozer says that what you believe about God is probably the most important thing about you. What you think about God will set the trajectory for the rest of your life. Then in Genesis, the book of Genesis, we learn one of these amazing attributes of God that records a story of a guy named Abraham, the father of the faith. Abraham eventually has a son of promise, a son that he waited almost a hundred years for and God asks him at some point to take that son Isaac to go up onto a mountain and to sacrifice

his son. This crazy request that is a whole sermon for another day but he gets his son to the top of this mountain, puts him on the altar, lifts his knife to to kill his own son and God stops him and the bible says that there's a ram in the thicket and God provides

a sacrifice. God never intended for Abraham to kill his son. He was testing Abraham and he was foreshadowing a day that would come one day where God would actually have to sacrifice his son and unlike Abraham, he wouldn't stop but for Abraham, he provided

a sacrifice and the bible says that we learn one of the names of God in the book of Genesis. You know what it is? The name of God that we learn in Genesis is Jehovah Jireh that the Lord is my provider. He's my provision and I'm here this morning to remind us those of us who find ourselves in struggles, financial uncertainty

that the God of the universe named to you is Jehovah Jireh. He is your great provider. He is your provision. I wanna show you the logic that Paul uses in the book of Romans to say here's how you can trust God when it comes to your stuff

because most of the things that we get stressed out in this life about, it's just stuff. It's it's houses and cars and and extra stuff and Paul's reminding us. He said if God provided his son and he secured your salvation, I promise you he will figure out your stuff. If God has made a way to to heal your soul,

why don't you trust him to heal your to heal your body? He starts by saying he's already provided a path for you to be reconciled back to the father by sending his son Jesus to die for you.

Why? Why would God give his best to to bring you salvation and then and then you get stressed out about your stuff? Paul is reminding his friends, do not believe the lie that God will not provide for you. He promises that he will provide for you. Now here's the tension though.

Jesus promises that he will provide our every need and so often the things that we get desperate for, they're they're wants. God never promised to meet our every want but he did promise to meet our every need. That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter four in this same God,

the same God who takes care of me, he will supply all of your needs from his glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

I just felt like I needed to encourage somebody today in the house of God to to lift your head again. I know it feels like these financial burdens are going to overwhelm you but you have a God in heaven that is your Jehovah Jireh and I promise you he's going to come through for you. Third question that Paul sets up in the book of Romans, the third question we've gotta ask more in the middle of a spiritual attack is what I I would call the accusation

question. This is the warfare that the enemy that we're fighting against wages him. The accusation question is found in verse 33 when he says, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? How do you live as more than a conqueror? You gotta realize that the enemy's native tongue is lies

and Paul says, who is it that gets to bring a charge against God's chosen people? He'll eventually answer the question and say, nobody. But you've gotta understand that most of the war that is going to be waged over your life is gonna happen in your mind. It's why we'll see in Romans 12 in a couple weeks that Paul is gonna teach us how to think differently. We have to learn how to put on the mind of Christ to take our thoughts captive, to learn to think differently.

Why? Because we are fighting an enemy that wages a warfare of deception and what is he often doing? He's taking accusations and he's hurling them at us

and I wish that it was just stuff from ten years ago but oftentimes the accusation he uses to stop us from living into the life that Jesus died for us to have are things that happened

twenty minutes ago. When you were in the car right here and you were cussing your kid out for being frustrating on the ride to church and then you're standing in worship trying to be in the presence of God and the enemies in your mind going, no. No. No. You know who you are.

This is still who you are. This is still what you struggle with and you will be tempted to think because you struggle with it that that's your identity. Again, this is why I think this message is so so paramount to our ability to live the life that Jesus died for us to have because you and I will always, we will always

struggle with this thing called sin. It will be unfortunately a part of our human experience. My my hope and my prayer is that we are we're getting victory over it. We're struggling with it less and less but until we are brought into glory, we are gonna struggle

with doing the things that we don't wanna do and not doing the things that we that we wish we were able to do but we have to remember that those things don't define us. They're true things about us sure

but they're not the the most true thing about us and you've got to realize the enemy knows the potential that God has for your future

and what he's gonna try to do is to stop you from walking into it. He's just gonna remind you of your past. All he's gonna do is bring up all the things that you've done, and I'm here this morning to remind you if you keep looking back on who you were, I promise you, you'll never walk into who you can become.

And as long as the thing that you focus on the most is the family that you come from, the story that you have, the thing that happened to you, the thing that you struggle with, the past all the things that are true. If that's what you focus on most, I'm telling you, the greatest thing that you are abdicating is your ability to walk into the life that is in front of you that Jesus died for you to have.

I'm not saying those things aren't true. I'm just saying they're not the most true thing about us. The bible gives us two titles for Satan. Two two names that Satan goes by in the scriptures. The first one is he's the father of lies.

His native tongue is deception and lying and then he also says that he's the accuser of the brethren. All all this tells me is you gotta realize that we are in a spiritual battle if we're gonna live as more than conquerors,

we gotta realize we're fighting a warfare of deception and he's gonna lie to you and he's gonna accuse you and you have to develop a bedrock foundation of who God is and who you are in Christ that are not based on your feelings but are based on the truth of scripture. I wanna remind us this morning. Here's what the scriptures say about us. This is Paul writing to another church in Corinth. He says in verse chapter five verse 21,

he says, God made him Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us. Again, he's rearticulating the gospel. God who was perfect became sin. Why? So that you might become the righteousness of God. That's not just a a platitude. What Paul is saying is that you who struggle with sin,

you've gotta remember you've put your faith in Jesus and Jesus two thousand years ago, he became sin. Why? So that his penalty on the cross would satisfy once and for all the wrath of God so that you can now become the righteousness of God. How does God see you?

Even when you struggle, even when you fall short, he sees you as the righteousness of God. That's the identity that you and I have to learn to claim. Not the things that we struggle with but the things that the bible says are the most true things about us. The one question that Paul asked and answers

is who gets to bring a charge against those whom God has chosen. He continues with his answer and he says it is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? Nobody.

Jesus Christ who died more than that, more importantly than just dying, who was raised to life, he's at the right hand of God and I wanna show you what he's doing. He's interceding for us.

This is one of those things that we've gotta begin to understand because I think so often what happens is we ride these emotional roller coasters in our relationship with God. Like when we have a week and we're killing it and we're like we're on YouVersion and we're praying for two minutes in the morning and we're just like, man, I did it every day and I went to church on Sunday even on July 5 when half the church wasn't there. I showed up,

we walk out going man, I'm the freaking man and God loves me and this is awesome and it's us and Jesus, flowers and rainbows like all things are amazing And then we have a week where we're not doing so great

and we go back to the bottle that we swore we wouldn't go back to. We we look at the website that we thought we'd gotten victory over. We get angry again. We we we we we don't walk in faith again. We we take back control in our finances and all of a sudden we would be tempted to think because we've had a week of weakness

that God's posture and his disposition towards us has changed but I remind you, I show you what Paul says in Romans eight. Here's what Jesus is doing right now on your behalf at the right hand of the father. He's praying for you. He's interceding for you.

He's he's waging war in the spiritual realm on your behalf and that's not conditional on what you've done. Friends, you've gotta you've gotta hear me. God's posture towards us doesn't change based on how our week does. So why?

Why do we change so much based on the week that we've had? My encouragement to us is to remember that nobody can condemn us not because of what we've done but because of what Jesus did. Here's the last question that ultimately I think is the most important one. All the other questions lead up to this one. This is what the enemy is ultimately coming after for every single one of us. It's the it's the love question.

Paul says this in Romans chapter eight verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, hardship, persecution or famine? Now I think it's funny, says nakedness like it's in there, I don't know why but it says then danger or the sword.

Here's what Paul gets at. What the enemy is ultimately coming for is to get you and I to ask the question, how could God love somebody like you? There's no way that God could love somebody with your past. There's no way that God could love somebody that that didn't just struggle with it but continues to struggle with it.

There's no way that God could love somebody like me. That that is the ultimate lie that the enemy is gonna sell you And if you believe it, if you start to entertain it, I'm telling you, you are already one foot out the door. And Paul reminds us that the love of God is something that is not based on feeling,

it's based on facts. And we this morning need to develop a theology of God that is not based on feelings but is based on facts. This is why theology and doctrine are so important. I I love that the presence of God will make us feel things and I think that feelings are a powerful

gift that God has given us and emotions can be a beautiful thing, but you've got to develop an understanding and a bedrock foundation of who God is that have that has nothing to do with feelings and has everything to do with facts. Again, just a fact that I submit to you. How how can I with 100% certainty stand up here and tell you that God loves you because he proved it? First John chapter four says that God God showed how much he loved us by doing something, by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

How can you know this morning that God loves you exactly as you are? Right in the middle of the mess that you're in because two thousand years ago, he stepped out of perfection, he stepped out of heaven, He put on flesh and bones and he literally lived the life that we could never live. He he was perfect. He was sinless

becoming the spotless lamb and then not just not just having lived the life that we couldn't live, he ultimately would die the death that we deserve and you have to understand for just a moment that God allowed his one and only son to go to the cross on our behalf.

I don't know if you've ever heard before that but the bible says that the death that Jesus died was not a it was not a quick one. It was not a fun one. It was not an It's not a way that any of us as we're thinking about how we're gonna exit this life would ever envision our story ending with. The bible says that he was beaten so badly

that you literally couldn't even recognize him. He he was beaten and lashed so hard that that the back of his entire skin was ripped off to the point that his bones were exposed and then after all of that, he was then agonizingly crucified on a cross with arm stretched wide,

had nails driven through his wrists and through his ankles through which he then would slowly suffocate to death over the next three hours and what would happen is is for a moment, God would turn his back on his son, pour out the entirety of his wrath upon his son who was being brutalized and tortured.

Why? So that I could stand up here this morning and tell you without a shadow of a doubt that God loves you. That he sent his only son to die on your behalf so that you can live a life as more than a conqueror.

He proved it to us. It's not a feeling, it's a fact that you can take to the bank and God wants every single one of us to get to a place in our lives that we at the core of who we are believe these last two verses that Paul says that I want you church to be convinced

that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is a life.

There is a belief system that we can get to that will enable us to live as more than conquerors

but at some point we gotta stop just going through the motions and we gotta really we gotta start to jump in and go, is this faith something that that really is who I am? Is this the most important thing about me or is this just a a box that I check? Because I'm telling you, cultural Christianity won't have any impact on your life.

But truly surrendering your life to Jesus, man, I'm telling you, it can change it can change everything. And I just want this morning for you to remember that God loves you more than you could ever possibly imagine.

I think sometimes in this life, we get these little these little shadows, these little whispers of of of just an inkling of what the father's love in heaven is like towards us. I remember sixteen years ago when when my daughter was born,

something shifted in me and it's interesting when like your children are born for those of you that have been in that moment, like, man, they come out and they're they're ugly and squishy and weird looking. They're weird colors and their heads are all deformed.

They look like aliens. We say that they're cute, but let's be honest. Most of them are not cute at least for a while, but there's something about it. You're like, man, I'm I'm just like obsessed with this thing, I'm giving my life for this thing. I remember that innate feeling that came over me.

And if you've ever had a kid, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you've ever walked through something where your child was struggling and there was nothing you could do about it, man, I'm telling you, there's nothing that's helpless as a parent. I'll forget. In 2019,

my daughter eventually became a 10 year old, and she came home from school one day, and she was just sick. But by the second day, we knew things were something was really, really wrong. So we rushed her to the ER. Eventually, they run a bunch of tests, and she slides into a coma. She literally stops responding to us. They they run a bunch of tests. Eventually, they do, a spinal tap, they come back, they tell us that she has it's called bacterial meningitis, really, really gnarly brain infection. Twenty years ago was a death sentence, and if they didn't die, they would wake up and be severely incapacitated.

And as she's sitting in this coma, this infectious disease doctor comes in and tells us, hey, here's the diagnosis. And then he tells us, whatever you do when I walk out of the room, don't Google bacterial meningitis. So what was the first thing we did? We walked out of the room. We googled bacterial meningitis,

and it was it was terrifying.

And I think the worst part about it was watching my daughter just sit there, and she was helpless, and there was nothing that I could do. I was like, I was trying to call every doctor, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter the resources that I had. It didn't matter the connections that I had. She was in a position where we just had to let the medicine work, and we needed our our our father in heaven who's a great physician to heal her. I remember sitting there in that position going, man, I I would do anything. I would give anything

to fix this. And again, it's a story for another day, but praise God, she's made a full recovery today. Now she's just a frustrating 16 year old because she's a 16 year old, but she's an amazing kid and she's made a full recovery. But I remember that feeling going, man, I I would do anything

to fix the situation that she's in today. And that love that I feel towards my daughter is just a shadow, the bible says, of the love that the father in heaven has towards me and towards you. Why this morning do you think that you could do something that would disqualify

you from being loved by God? Friend, I'm here this morning to remind you the bible says that you can be more than a conqueror, but you've gotta believe it. You've gotta start to live up to who Jesus says that you are, not down to the things that you struggle with. Here's my hope. Here's my encouragement on this July 5 is that you would walk out of here today remembering,

friends, you're not the conqueror. You don't have to be, but he is. Jesus is the great conqueror, and through him, you can be more than a conqueror, and that is good news. Amen. Let me pray for us. Father, father, I thank you that you invite us into a life on this side of eternity that is beyond our wildest dreams.

And father, it is not one that we earn. It is not one that we achieve. It is one that we receive by faith. It is an act of grace. And so father, I I pray that God you would you would speak to your people this morning, and I know that there are people who are here today who are in the middle of a battle.

And God, I know that you have them here this morning to hear this message so that they could hear through my voice your heart.

And that God, they would hear you tell them how much you love them, how you're gonna come through for them, how nobody can accuse them because you are the only one that gets to speak our identity over us. And so father, I pray that we would walk out of here this morning believing that what you say about us is true,

that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. It is in Jesus' holy and precious name all God's people said. Amen. And