In All These Things, More Than Conquerors

In one paragraph

This message worked through the final eleven verses of Romans 8, picking up where the previous week's survey of nearly the whole letter left off. Pastor Ray traced Paul's argument that nothing in creation can separate a believer from the love of God, and he closed with a benediction drawn from 1 Thessalonians. The sermon opened with a quick recap of Romans 1 through 8 to orient the room. The...

Read together

1. Romans 1:16 stated as the theme of Romans: 'I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes'
2. Romans 1:18 - 3:20 described as God's general and specific indictment of all humanity, concluding that the entire world is guilty
3. Romans 3:21 justification by faith is spelled out at the end of this chapter
4. Romans 4 God's justification illustrated with Old Testament examples, primarily Abraham and David
5. Romans 5 results of justification: peace with God, standing in grace, and the contrast between Adam and Christ
6. Romans 6 three commands given to believers: know you died with Christ, reckon it to be true, yield to righteousness
7. Romans 7:14-25 the conflict with indwelling sin
8. Romans 8:28 God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose
9. Romans 8:29-30 the chain of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification
10. Romans 8:31-35 rhetorical questions: if God is for us who can be against us, and what will separate us from the love of Christ
11. Romans 8:36 quotation from Psalm 44:22 about being counted as sheep for the slaughter
12. Romans 8:37-39 we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ and nothing can separate us from the love of God
13. Psalm 44 quoted and read at length as the source of the line Paul cites in Romans 8:36 about being killed all day long
14. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 used as the closing benediction: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray said that Romans 8:28 has to be read as one complete thought, that God 'is working all things together for good,' not that He causes every individual thing. How does reading it that way change the way you lean on that verse when something hard happens to you?
2. Pastor Ray described Rudolf Otto's idea of the 'numinous,' a power that is at the same time terrifying and attractive, and said that God being for us carries both of those qualities. When you think about God being wholly other and yet personally for you, which side of that do you find easier to hold onto, and which is harder?
3. Pastor Ray walked through foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification in verses 29 and 30, and said there is a biblical tension that both hard Calvinists and hard Armenians resist. Where do you personally feel the tension most, and how do you live with it day to day?
4. Psalm 44 is a song where God's people say they still believe even while feeling abandoned and beaten down. Pastor Ray said the Roman Christians Paul was writing to would have known exactly how that felt. Can you think of a time when you held onto your faith even though your circumstances felt like God had stepped away?
5. Pastor Ray closed with the septic tank story and the words written in the cement at the bottom: 'in all things give thanks.' He made the distinction that the verse says in all things, not for all things. What is the difference between those two, and what does it look like practically to give thanks in something rather than for it?