A New Security (June 8. 2008)
Title: A New Security
Ken Shigematsu 08 06 08
Text: Romans 8: 31-39
Big Idea: Nothing can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
When I was 7 years our family moved from London, England to Canada by ship.
We “sailed” from England to Africa then went through the Caribbean and then through Panama Canal and up the West Coast of North America on a ship called the Canberra--which was then the second largest ocean liner in the world.
One afternoon as 7 year old boy, I got lost on the ship. I was trying to find my way back to our cabin… but all the floors looked the same… I remember walking down hallways that looked like ours, finding doors that looked like ours that were locked, knocking on them… and either no one would answer or some stranger would answer… and I’d think, “ Oh, you’re not my mom… or dad…”
I remember wandering the hall ways of the ship and walking into the room where some of the staff were ironing the sheets… I remember asking, “Have you seen my mom and dad?” “No.” “Do you know what room they’re in?” “No.” “Me neither.”
Finally, I remember walking down a hall, turning, opening the door and there was my dad lying on the top bunk reading a book!
Whew!
What a relief!
I wonder if you ever felt lost as a kid because you got separated from your parents… maybe you were lost in the grocery store….
And maybe you felt distress as I did--or maybe you were having the time of your life!
But, if you knew you were really lost as kid that would no doubt generate a great deal of anxiety for you…
If we are child of God… what would likely create more anxiety than anything else in our lives would be the thought that we might be really separated from God…
Paul in the conclusion of his great chapter Romans 8, assures us that if we have given our lives to Christ, if we are a child of God—nothing—nothing in all the world can separate us from God…
Paul says in Romans 8…
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then can condemn? No one. 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." [a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Have you wondered if something could separate you from God?
Perhaps some of you have wondered if your sin could separate you from God’s love…
I recently heard my colleague Jade Holownia (our youth pastor here at 10th) share about how as an adolescent he had given his life over to Christ and felt such a deep sense of connection with God. He shared about how a few years into his new relationship with God, he no longer felt God’s presence. God seemed distant. Jade began to rack his brain to see if he had committed some sin that would create that sense of distance…
He thought back to a time (before he was connected with God) when he had pelted his neighbour’s house with rotten apples that fallen from his tree.
He confessed this to them and asked their forgiveness (but still felt this sense of disconnect with God).
Some of us here have wondered if some sin in our life has separated us from God.
For Jade it was pelting his neighbour’s house.
For some us here it may be… something else…
It might have been a sexual sin…
Or choosing to end a life…
Or some kind of integrity breakdown…
Paul says in Romans 8
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then can condemn? No one.
Paul is saying here that if we are God’s children, our past sins cannot separate us from God… Paul is saying if we are God’s children, God will not condemn us…. People may condemn us, spiritual forces of darkness may condemn us, our own conscience at times may condemn us but God won’t…
(That’s not of course to encourage us to sin, willful sin on our part will do damage to our souls and create a sense of alienation between us and God. But when we’ve struggled with sin and have failed… and maybe we’re struggling with some sin even now… if we are truly a child of God, God is saying that that cannot ultimately separate us from God…).
If we have given our lives to Christ, if we are a child of God, our past sins cannot separate from God.
What about our suffering?
When I was a boy I think I was 5 or 6 years of age living in London, England, I really wanted my mom to buy me this amazing red fire truck with a yellow, plastic ladder that actually would expand like this (show). But she ended up getting me a smaller fire truck with a ladder than didn’t expand. I was thinking, “Don’t you like me? What did I ever do you do to you?” (Looking back, it was good that my mom didn’t buy me certain things I wanted… especially as a Japanese boy, probably one of the most spoiled demographic profiles in the world!).
Sometimes, we feel that God is withholding something from us… and therefore we wonder if God loves us… if God has abandoned us…
Perhaps we’re sick or have sustained an injury and we wonder, “Why won’t he heal me? Has God abandoned me?”
Or perhaps we’re struggling in school or in our work life… we wonder, “Does God really love me?”
Or perhaps we long to be in a relationship…. (or out of one)… we wonder, “Is God present?”
Or we long for a family or community… we wonder, “Does God care?”
Paul here in Romans 8 in the context of telling us we cannot be separated from God talks about how those who are children of God will suffer….
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." [a]
This is important to note because sometimes we think that if we are suffering in some way, God must not love us. But the fact is our suffering may be the very sign that we are united with God because Christ suffered and experienced resurrection.
A story that perhaps you have heard me share at the Connections dinner with the newcomers involves St. Patrick of Ireland. Some years ago I was doing a tour of Ireland with my mentor. We were studying Celtic Christianity. When we were at the Mountain Crow Patrick, our guide shared a story about St. Patrick.
Apparently, when St. Patrick was an older man, he was baptizing an old chieftain who had given his life to Christ. Because St. Patrick, at this point in his life, was old and frail, he was using a spear as a kind of cane to support himself. As he was standing in the water with the chief, he repositioned himself so that he could stand more securely. He picked up his spear, placed it in a new place, and unbeknownst to St. Patrick, he speared the old chieftain’s foot, completely piercing it. The blood started to flow out of his foot and bubble to the surface, but St. Patrick was completely oblivious to this. He was explaining why Christ calls us to be baptized and then he looks down and notices the blood in the water. He looks into the water and notices he has speared the chief’s foot.
St. Patrick looks at the chief and says, “I pierced your foot with my spear.” The chief says, “I know.” St. Patrick asks, “Why didn’t you say anything?” The chief says, “I thought it was part of the baptism.”
It is true that part of our baptism into Jesus Christ means that we will suffer, and that suffering may be a very sign that we are God’s children… that we participating in the suffering of Christ…
So our sins and suffering can’t separate from Christ…
What about a sense of being separated from God—can that separate us from God?
The book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, chronicles the correspondence between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years.
In those letters we see that Mother Teresa for more than 40 years felt that God was absent.
That absence seems to have started at time she began caring for the poor and the dying in Calcutta, and — except for a five-week break in 1959 — never abated.
Two years ago I was speaking in Manila and I had an opportunity to meet with the Jesuit priest Thomas Green whose writing on prayer and the spiritual life have really blessed me. He told he had been experiencing the dry well in his prayer life for more than 30 years.
He knew that God was present, but didn’t feel a close sense of connection with God for decades… It was not as though he had not joy at all in 30 years. Father Green has joy, but he’s felt that God was distant for 30 years…
Sometime we don’t feel God’s presence… but even that feeling that God is not present cannot separate us from his love…
Finally what about death?
Can death, the final enemy, separate from God’s love?
Paul says a resounding, “No.”
Paul concludes Romans 8 with these great words:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing in all creation, Paul says, can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
It’s interesting that atheists like Stalin, Voltaire, and Nietzsche faced their own death with either horror or ignobly whereas those who know tend God face their with peace, equanimity, and even praise…
I remembering a staff person working at children’s hospice… saying sometimes, kids would say they could hear the voices of beautiful singing (that no one else could hear)—then die…
My mentor was telling me, several year ago how, leaders of Charlotte, North Carolina, invited his brother in law Billy Graham, to a luncheon to honor him. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, "We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you." So he agreed.
After wonderful things were said about him, Graham stepped to the podium and looked at the crowd, and said, "I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist… Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of each passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his other pocket. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat by him. He couldn't find it. The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.' Einstein nodded appreciatively.
"The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry. I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.' Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too know who I am. But, I don't know is where I'm going.'"
Billy Graham continued, "See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more stylish. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am, I also know where I'm going."
When we are in relationship with Christ, we can know where we going we can know that nothing can separate from the love of God.
On March 2, 1791 in his eighty-eighth year, John Wesley, who founded the Methodist church lay dying. His friends gathered around him, Wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, "Farewell, farewell." At the end, summoning all his remaining strength, he cried out, "The best of all is, God is with us," lifted his arms and raised his feeble voice again, repeating the words, "The best of all is, God is with us."
In life and in death, we can say, “Best of all God is with us.”
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca)
Pray:
Ken Shigematsu 08 06 08
Text: Romans 8: 31-39
Big Idea: Nothing can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
When I was 7 years our family moved from London, England to Canada by ship.
We “sailed” from England to Africa then went through the Caribbean and then through Panama Canal and up the West Coast of North America on a ship called the Canberra--which was then the second largest ocean liner in the world.
One afternoon as 7 year old boy, I got lost on the ship. I was trying to find my way back to our cabin… but all the floors looked the same… I remember walking down hallways that looked like ours, finding doors that looked like ours that were locked, knocking on them… and either no one would answer or some stranger would answer… and I’d think, “ Oh, you’re not my mom… or dad…”
I remember wandering the hall ways of the ship and walking into the room where some of the staff were ironing the sheets… I remember asking, “Have you seen my mom and dad?” “No.” “Do you know what room they’re in?” “No.” “Me neither.”
Finally, I remember walking down a hall, turning, opening the door and there was my dad lying on the top bunk reading a book!
Whew!
What a relief!
I wonder if you ever felt lost as a kid because you got separated from your parents… maybe you were lost in the grocery store….
And maybe you felt distress as I did--or maybe you were having the time of your life!
But, if you knew you were really lost as kid that would no doubt generate a great deal of anxiety for you…
If we are child of God… what would likely create more anxiety than anything else in our lives would be the thought that we might be really separated from God…
Paul in the conclusion of his great chapter Romans 8, assures us that if we have given our lives to Christ, if we are a child of God—nothing—nothing in all the world can separate us from God…
Paul says in Romans 8…
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then can condemn? No one. 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. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." [a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Have you wondered if something could separate you from God?
Perhaps some of you have wondered if your sin could separate you from God’s love…
I recently heard my colleague Jade Holownia (our youth pastor here at 10th) share about how as an adolescent he had given his life over to Christ and felt such a deep sense of connection with God. He shared about how a few years into his new relationship with God, he no longer felt God’s presence. God seemed distant. Jade began to rack his brain to see if he had committed some sin that would create that sense of distance…
He thought back to a time (before he was connected with God) when he had pelted his neighbour’s house with rotten apples that fallen from his tree.
He confessed this to them and asked their forgiveness (but still felt this sense of disconnect with God).
Some of us here have wondered if some sin in our life has separated us from God.
For Jade it was pelting his neighbour’s house.
For some us here it may be… something else…
It might have been a sexual sin…
Or choosing to end a life…
Or some kind of integrity breakdown…
Paul says in Romans 8
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then can condemn? No one.
Paul is saying here that if we are God’s children, our past sins cannot separate us from God… Paul is saying if we are God’s children, God will not condemn us…. People may condemn us, spiritual forces of darkness may condemn us, our own conscience at times may condemn us but God won’t…
(That’s not of course to encourage us to sin, willful sin on our part will do damage to our souls and create a sense of alienation between us and God. But when we’ve struggled with sin and have failed… and maybe we’re struggling with some sin even now… if we are truly a child of God, God is saying that that cannot ultimately separate us from God…).
If we have given our lives to Christ, if we are a child of God, our past sins cannot separate from God.
What about our suffering?
When I was a boy I think I was 5 or 6 years of age living in London, England, I really wanted my mom to buy me this amazing red fire truck with a yellow, plastic ladder that actually would expand like this (show). But she ended up getting me a smaller fire truck with a ladder than didn’t expand. I was thinking, “Don’t you like me? What did I ever do you do to you?” (Looking back, it was good that my mom didn’t buy me certain things I wanted… especially as a Japanese boy, probably one of the most spoiled demographic profiles in the world!).
Sometimes, we feel that God is withholding something from us… and therefore we wonder if God loves us… if God has abandoned us…
Perhaps we’re sick or have sustained an injury and we wonder, “Why won’t he heal me? Has God abandoned me?”
Or perhaps we’re struggling in school or in our work life… we wonder, “Does God really love me?”
Or perhaps we long to be in a relationship…. (or out of one)… we wonder, “Is God present?”
Or we long for a family or community… we wonder, “Does God care?”
Paul here in Romans 8 in the context of telling us we cannot be separated from God talks about how those who are children of God will suffer….
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." [a]
This is important to note because sometimes we think that if we are suffering in some way, God must not love us. But the fact is our suffering may be the very sign that we are united with God because Christ suffered and experienced resurrection.
A story that perhaps you have heard me share at the Connections dinner with the newcomers involves St. Patrick of Ireland. Some years ago I was doing a tour of Ireland with my mentor. We were studying Celtic Christianity. When we were at the Mountain Crow Patrick, our guide shared a story about St. Patrick.
Apparently, when St. Patrick was an older man, he was baptizing an old chieftain who had given his life to Christ. Because St. Patrick, at this point in his life, was old and frail, he was using a spear as a kind of cane to support himself. As he was standing in the water with the chief, he repositioned himself so that he could stand more securely. He picked up his spear, placed it in a new place, and unbeknownst to St. Patrick, he speared the old chieftain’s foot, completely piercing it. The blood started to flow out of his foot and bubble to the surface, but St. Patrick was completely oblivious to this. He was explaining why Christ calls us to be baptized and then he looks down and notices the blood in the water. He looks into the water and notices he has speared the chief’s foot.
St. Patrick looks at the chief and says, “I pierced your foot with my spear.” The chief says, “I know.” St. Patrick asks, “Why didn’t you say anything?” The chief says, “I thought it was part of the baptism.”
It is true that part of our baptism into Jesus Christ means that we will suffer, and that suffering may be a very sign that we are God’s children… that we participating in the suffering of Christ…
So our sins and suffering can’t separate from Christ…
What about a sense of being separated from God—can that separate us from God?
The book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, chronicles the correspondence between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years.
In those letters we see that Mother Teresa for more than 40 years felt that God was absent.
That absence seems to have started at time she began caring for the poor and the dying in Calcutta, and — except for a five-week break in 1959 — never abated.
Two years ago I was speaking in Manila and I had an opportunity to meet with the Jesuit priest Thomas Green whose writing on prayer and the spiritual life have really blessed me. He told he had been experiencing the dry well in his prayer life for more than 30 years.
He knew that God was present, but didn’t feel a close sense of connection with God for decades… It was not as though he had not joy at all in 30 years. Father Green has joy, but he’s felt that God was distant for 30 years…
Sometime we don’t feel God’s presence… but even that feeling that God is not present cannot separate us from his love…
Finally what about death?
Can death, the final enemy, separate from God’s love?
Paul says a resounding, “No.”
Paul concludes Romans 8 with these great words:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing in all creation, Paul says, can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
It’s interesting that atheists like Stalin, Voltaire, and Nietzsche faced their own death with either horror or ignobly whereas those who know tend God face their with peace, equanimity, and even praise…
I remembering a staff person working at children’s hospice… saying sometimes, kids would say they could hear the voices of beautiful singing (that no one else could hear)—then die…
My mentor was telling me, several year ago how, leaders of Charlotte, North Carolina, invited his brother in law Billy Graham, to a luncheon to honor him. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, "We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you." So he agreed.
After wonderful things were said about him, Graham stepped to the podium and looked at the crowd, and said, "I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist… Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of each passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his other pocket. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat by him. He couldn't find it. The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.' Einstein nodded appreciatively.
"The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry. I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.' Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too know who I am. But, I don't know is where I'm going.'"
Billy Graham continued, "See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more stylish. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am, I also know where I'm going."
When we are in relationship with Christ, we can know where we going we can know that nothing can separate from the love of God.
On March 2, 1791 in his eighty-eighth year, John Wesley, who founded the Methodist church lay dying. His friends gathered around him, Wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, "Farewell, farewell." At the end, summoning all his remaining strength, he cried out, "The best of all is, God is with us," lifted his arms and raised his feeble voice again, repeating the words, "The best of all is, God is with us."
In life and in death, we can say, “Best of all God is with us.”
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca)
Pray:
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