In All These Things, More Than Conquerors
First B Jackson
2016-07-31

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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All of you this morning. We got lots and lots of visitors because y'all are here. It's it's only two after. It's y'all are here. Would you stand up and join us?

Florine's gonna lead us. We'll accompany him.

As always, I'm very thankful to be here. It's a privilege to worship together as a church and to feel God's presence. Amen? You know what I would like to do? I would like to give you few seconds.

Will you please, in your own mind, would you say, Jesus, I'm here to worship you. I'm here to fill your presence. I'm here to be happy with my brothers and sisters in your name. I'm here to fill your presence. Will you please speak to my heart?

Please, God. Touch my mind, touch my heart, and help me to have a great time in your name. Amen. Let's let's enjoy our time with God. Amen?

I'm so thankful that my coworker Jordan is here. I'm sorry, but I have to say it. May God bless you. God is good

we seek your kingdom first we hunger and withers refuse to waste our lives our your kingdom's power reaching the near and far no force of hell can start your beauty changing hearts you

Oh, God is so good. Amen.

Amen. I think we got another one. Oh. Or we've got announcements. Sounds good.

Y'all have a seat. I'll share the announcements with you this morning. In second service, we do two songs first. Here we go. Summer nursery is available downstairs.

If you've got a squirming little one that you want to take downstairs, you're welcome to. If they're squirming, don't worry about your neighbor, okay? If you want to keep em up here, keep em up here but there is a summer nursery available downstairs, zero to five. New nursing room is downstairs too if you need that. Monday nights at First B is on.

So, meal, music, and a message. Tomorrow night, that's Monday night, every Monday night, we meet and it's in the fellowship hall down the hall here. 06:00 in the evening, meal, first, music, then a message. There is a multi church cookout for young adults. It's going to be held down at River Crossing, Tuesday, August 9.

So, it's not this week but next, Tuesday, August 9 at 7PM. They're asking to bring lawn games and something to share and they'll grill. The meat will be provided. So, that's going to be fun. Multi church gathering and for everything else, if you have a bulletin, if you don't have a bulletin, you raise your hand, somebody will bring you one but in your bulletins, everything else that needs to be announced will be.

Is there anything I forgot? Anybody? Kyle Knutson, thank you very much. Men's Horseshoe Tournament is Tuesday. Mike Park.

Just a few blocks up. Kelly up this way from five to 07:30, you say? 05:30. 05:30? Fantastic.

Horseshoe tournament.

Did you say free food? Yes. Just wanna make sure. Thank you.

Alright. Alright. Would you stand and greet one another then? And we'll bring it back together with another peppy song.

Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. Oh, I love this. I love this. Let's play one more time in death. I love it.

And on and on and on it goes. That's true. The love of God. For God's I know you we know this verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

What a great news over there. It's so simple, but it's an amazing good news. Amen.

We're

gonna sing holy holy, but it's not like the typical holy holy song. So this I I really love to sing, honestly. But on the other side, I feel like my job is to mess up Carl's songs. So please follow me. Okay?

What a beautiful song. Please follow me. I don't like to say that, but please do. Amen. Thank you.

You know, I just find out this morning that Carl never played this song actually, but this is his work, so I just follow him. Speaking about Carl, I love Carl. I love pastor Ray. They are my they're the best people that I I know. So, let's pray let's also pray for the worship for the for today, and, also, I would like to pray for Carl too.

Heavenly father, thank you so much for the privilege that we have to be here. I'm thankful that you are here. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the the good Holy Spirit that's kind of whisper in my mind, in my heart that I'm yours. Will you please bless us and help us to have a great time in your name?

Please bless pastor Ray as he's gonna preach. Help us to receive the good news. Help us whatever we do to have a good time in your name, in Jesus. And, also, I wanna pray for Carl. Will you please bless him and his family?

We miss him, and we love you. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. Amen. God is good.

Amen. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. I can get, if I can get the frontline team to come forward, thank you. Would y'all pray with me? God, thank you for this beautiful morning. I thank you for this gathering, for this congregation, these people gathered together in your name, lord.

I was reminded this morning that wherever two or three are gathered together in your name, there are you in the midst. Lord, we know that your presence is mighty and strong to save and it's here with us this morning. So, lord, for those among us who are just dragged here, brought here, don't know you. God, we pray that this would be a good time of introduction to sweet sweet spirit and God, I thank you for giving that just like Florine prayed. That Holy Spirit that's sweet and whispers in our ears.

God, we thank you for everything that you provided to all of our resources and at this time, we take some time to give back a portion of what you've given us, acknowledging that every good and perfect gift is from above but lord, also willing and wanting to extend your good gospel and the peace, comfort, joy that it provides to those places that are the darkest and the most hopeless. Whether they be here, in this town, in this state, or to the uttermost parts, the ends of the earth. Lord, would you take these offerings and these ties that we put in the plates? And would you multiply them to do your kingdom's work and build your kingdom not only here but in this whole, on this whole globe. In Jesus name, we ask your blessing humbly.

Amen. Well, good morning. Good morning. I last week covered all things I felt like. I went through eight full, almost full chapters of Romans at one time and one sermon and my seminary professor said, never apologize, never apologize.

It's hard not to, honestly. There was eight chapters of Romans at one time but a lot of positive response from you and some of you that I I know when you heard this, oh there's no way that we can do that. Today, we're going do 11 verses. All things, these things, and all these things. Last three paragraphs in the in chapter eight of Romans and so, I want to just hit bullet points from last week.

How about this? These are bullet points. I'm not a bullet point guy. I'm a long narrative guy. If you're here last week, you know that.

Gospel prescript in chapter one mentions the gospel. It is about the gospel. The theme is, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Actually, there it is. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

That's right off the bat in chapter one and then, right after that, the next verse, it goes into God's general indictment of all humanity. So, there's this great and glorious gospel and then immediately, it descends into the valley in one eighteen and it goes up through three twenty. Actually, chapter two is God's specific indictment against both Jews and Gentiles. Not in that order. Verdict, entire world is guilty.

That's a deep valley right there. The entire world, every human being declared guilty before God, rightly so, and justification though at the very end of that chapter three twenty one, justification is spelled out and it's spelled out that it is by faith. That's good news. It's not by what you do or have done, it is by what you believe. So, justification by faith is spelled out.

At the end of chapter three, chapter four is God's justification. That's a theta for y'all, Theos. God's justification is illustrated with Old Testament examples using Abraham primarily but also David. So, that's chapter four. He's it's just the facts about how Abraham and David looked to God.

That's gospel oriented too. Chapter five was the results of being justified by almighty God, being made right, being declared righteous, results of justification. Therefore, we have peace with God that we've been introduced to grace and we stand in grace. That's good news. Results of justification and the results of condemnation are included.

Good news, presupposes bad news. Will it be Adam or will it be Christ with whom you identify? You will be identified with one of those two either with Adam and that's the default position or you will be identified with Christ because of what he's done on the cross. So, that's the gospel. That's chapter five.

Chapter six, there are three commands in there. I didn't actually preach it this way but looking back over it, I wish I had. So, know this, reckon this, and yield. Those are the three commands and know that you died with Christ. Actually, the way that I preached it was believers are dead to sin but alive to Christ.

So, know that you died with Christ. Your sinful nature, your old man put it to death, mortified. He'd say in another book. Know that you died with Christ. Now, reckon that to be true.

Frame it in your mind that this is the truth. Now, I should live that out and yield to righteousness. That's what chapter six is about. Chapter seven is our relationship to the law of God. We cannot be justified by it but what does it have?

It says that it awakens in us sinful desires and then he goes into that conflict with indwelling sin at the very end of that chapter 14 through 25 in chapter seven and then we get to chapter eight. Praise God. Chapter eight, the great eight. There's no condemnation in Christ. Now, struggles, yes, there are struggles but Paul says that the struggles, the trials, the tribulations, the hard times of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

So, that's the short version of last week's sermon and I did it in a minute and a half, okay? Two minutes maybe. Anyway, if you look at it, gospel is all over it. Now, there is a dark spot from about right here up to about right there and I said, 118 to 03/20, it's dark but it shows the truth about humanity. So, the gospel was presented before that and then is over and over and over presented after that.

Now, we're up to Romans eight twenty eight through 39. I ended with verse 28 last week. All things is the way this one starts off and you can tell how far along we are in the sermon because Imma go in that order. All things, these things, and all these things, okay? It's heavier weighted at the front.

All things. Romans eight twenty eight says, and we know there's certainty there. We are sure of this. The grammatical structure, there's no doubt about this and we, Christians, know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Now, a lot of times will blackout the latter part of the verse but if I stopped right here and we know that God causes all things, would that be true?

That's a difficult question. He's not the author of sin. He's not the author of temptation. He does not cause us to sin. He does not cause us to rebel against him.

So, no. In that sense, it would not be true. You need to read this phrase this way and we know that God causes all things to work together for good. It's all one thing. It has to be read together.

They're not nearly as many words in the Greek but it's to make it make sense. Actually, a wooden translation of eight twenty eight I used last week is this, we know, moreover, that to those loving God and this is retaining the original order of the words. We know moreover that to those loving God, he is working all things together for good. To those who according to his purpose are being called. Amen.

I like that. That he is working all things together for good. Says that he is almighty God and he can take whatever trash the world throws at him and turn it into something good, okay? It does not harm free will and it does not harm his sovereignty. And this passage is one that people go to from both sides of their argument about whether human free will is bigger and better or the sovereignty of God is bigger and better.

It's a hard thing when you get to anything that has to deal with something that's outside of our finite scope but this one can be sure of it. We can know this that he is working all things together for good. Amen. To those loving God and to those who are according to his purpose being called. Okay?

Are you with me? Back to where we were and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. Just that in itself, I'm going to introduce you to a guy right here. If you don't know this theologian, Rudolf Otto, he's from Germany, born in late eighteen hundreds and went up through the mid nineteen hundreds. He wrote and he wrote a book called The Idea of the Holy.

I love his he he invents words sometimes and he popularizes them. If you look on Google, if you look up a word you don't know, a lot of times it'll have usage and the usage of the word numinous before this guy was almost nil. Like, there's no usage at all But he popularized the term numinous, and I like it. Numinous, he defined this way. Of course, he he's German and we're speaking English, and he defined it in Latin, but he defined it as Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans.

Mystery that is at once terrifying and attractive. Fascinating, good, gracious, loving, but also that type of power is terrifying. Actually, CS Lewis quotes him in The Great Divorce and a couple of other places, and he pulls up this concept of numinous. That which is holy is wholly other. It's completely different than we are.

It's hard for us to imagine, and I said when it gets outside of our scope, Rudolph Otto would name that numinous. It's outside of our scope but if you look at this and know that God has the power to change the nature of things to the place that he's going to work it together for the good to those who love him, who will retain him in their knowledge, who will go to him as first chapter says, to those who are called out according to his purpose, he has the power to change everything bad that happens into positive and good. That's tough. That's terrifying if you don't love God. If you believe that there is a god but you rebel against him, it's terrifying and so that's Otto's idea of the holy is about how it is a power that is beyond your scope.

It is holy other. Anyway, this I I love this passage. I had more fun this week preparing this than I had, well, way more than I had last week preparing that one. 29 says, for though those whom he foreknew, we'll stop right there. Foreknew.

He foreknew. What does that mean? Oh my goodness. We're dealing with the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Do you believe that God knows things that are going to happen before they happen?

Yes or no? It is very biblical to say yes. Yes. There is such a thing right now as open theology. It's a fairly new movement and open theology would say, no.

God does not know everything that's going to happen. I think that's hogwash but just it's out there people, okay? Open theology. He did foreknow. Now, does that mean that he caused it to be?

He's not the author of all things. He's not the author of everything. He's not the author of sin. He's not the author of temptation. He's not the author of your rebellion if you're rebelling.

He foreknew? Yes, he does know who's gonna choose. He knows So, it gets worse, okay? Okay. Here we go.

For those who foreknew, he predestined. If I stop right there, that is a walking out moment for some people right there. He predestined. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

Nope. Not going to have any of that. God's not charged. He didn't make me a robot. I'm not, okay.

It doesn't actually stop there though. The passage does not say and I will say again, this is written to Christians. It's written by a Christian to Christians. So, this is supposed to be a comforting passage, not a terrifying passage. It is terrifying if you're not a believer.

I have to say that. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. It doesn't stop there. Predestined. He did not say, He gives a choice.

It is an effective call. It's a hard one. For those whom he foreknew and you have to read this altogether too. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. Praise God.

So, who is he talking about right here? Who is he talking about that he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son? Well, if we go right back up here to those who love God and to those who according to his purpose are being called, Those are the ones that he predestined into the image of his son. Those who love God are called according to his purpose. Okay?

Are you with me now? Still with me? Hardline Calvinist and Hardline Armenians are probably both going, But there's a balance there. There's a biblical tension that must be maintained. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

Now, he's, has he promised that he will sanctify us? Now, we have to surrender our will to his but has he promised that he will sanctify us? He has. He says that it's the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us as we surrender our will to his. He predestined them to become conformed to the image of his son.

Actually, the to become, anytime you see an italics in the New American Standard, it means they provided those words to make it make more sense, okay? That to become is not actually there. It's he also predestined conformed. Okay, that's easier to read. He predestined them conformed to the image of Christ.

Are you with me still? Okay, it's heavy stuff. Good stuff though. He also predestined conformed to the image of his son that speaks of God's sanctifying influence on what he has earlier in the chapter called his adopted sons and daughters. So, his adopted sons and daughters get to look more and more of a family resemblance to their older brother Christ.

This is what he predestined. Those who will trust him and accept his challenge to believe, he will predestine, he will conform, I should say, into the image of his son. Praise God. That's an amen moment, folks. So, that he, Christ, would be the firstborn among many brethren.

He gave his life a ransom for many. All things and we know and those that he predestined, he also called and those he called, he also justified and those these that he justified, he also glorified. This is a done deal. It is fact. If we start talking about things in the future and things in the past and things in the present, that is a very human way to look at things.

God himself is the author of time. He created the whole time space continuum. The smartest folks we have just go, it's warped. When we think about time and space. But God is holy other and completely outside of time.

Christian, you are already glorified according to Paul right here. The ones that he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, he also called and you accepted the call. Those whom he called, he justified, made them right, and those that he justified, he also glorified. These, who are these? These are those who love God, those called according to his purpose, those whom he foreknew, those he predestined conformed to the image of his son.

That's who. That is. Amen. That's the first part. So, that's the all things part.

We're up to these things. But these things is the way the second paragraph starts off. There are three paragraphs going through today. So eight thirty one to 35, after that glorious good news, after this big concept just about outside of our human ability to hold on to and grasp or outside of it, not just about, outside of it. It demands a response.

Paul starts off with a question, kind of a rhetorical question. He says, so, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Amen. So, the woman caught in adultery.

Jesus has this woman that's caught in adultery. The Pharisees bring her to him and they say, the law says, we get stoner. We have to stone her. The law says, we must stone her and Jesus says, well, let him who's without sin cast the first stone. Now, Jesus himself was without sin and could have cast that first stone.

Did he? No. All of the accusers left and Jesus being the one without sin said, go and sin no more. Graciously, forgiving. If God was for that woman, who was against her?

Who stood against her? The law stood against her but he stepped in. Justification is by faith. Amen. Christ knows what he's doing.

If God is for us, who is against us? I want you to answer that today on your own. If God is for you, then who can be against you? The rest of the chapters really going to try to answer that question. It's going to make a list two or three different times.

It'll make a list of how how is this going to go? If God is for you, who is against you? Don't matter. Almighty God, Numinous, Mysterium, Tremendum, Ephesians, he is attractive and gracious. He tells us his way and he loves us.

And we can love him back because he loved us first. He's made the effective call. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son. Think about that.

He did not withhold his own son. Eternally in communion and eternity past. He did not spare his own son, that relationship, the closeness by which all other relationships are judged. But delivered him over for us all. For us all.

Christians. He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over us for us all. How will he not also with him along with Christ freely give us all things. Are you with me? Ain't that amazing?

That's a promise of an inheritance with Christ. All things. All things comes up again by the way. That's nice. Highlight that.

He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him, with Christ, freely give us all things. Now, who will bring a charge against God's elect? Against those that love God and are called according to his purpose. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God's the one who justifies. He's just said this up here, by the way. If God's for us, who's against us? Now, who's gonna bring a charge against God's elect? Can you name anybody?

Will it be political? Will it be criminal? Will it be who can bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who's the one who condemns?

A group of religious leaders, Pharisees, and that adulterous woman's case. Who's the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes, he's rather he's the one who's raised. He's at the right hand of God and also interceding for us.

He knows. Who he's praying for? The ones who love him, the ones who are called, accept that call. He also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

It's a good question. From all over, this is really, really good news. Will tribulation which we've been promised a couple of times already in this book and throughout the ministry of Jesus. No. Tribulation will not separate us from the love of Christ.

Will distress how we feel about our tribulation? Separate us from the love of Christ. No. Well, persecution. Actually, persecution always makes the church stronger.

You don't fake being a Christian when it's unpopular. Will famine? No. Will nakedness? No.

Will peril? Paul had been through all of these things. By this point, he's writing from Corinth. He had given the list to the Corinthians of all this and he's been through all of these things. Well, peril.

No. How about a night and day out in the ocean? Three nights. How about three different times shipwrecked, bit by a snake twice, all of that? No.

He keeps on preaching. Will sword which eventually ended Paul's life. Will that separate him from the love of Christ? No. And he's saying that seven years before it did in his life.

Didn't separate him from the love of Christ though because what he has is beyond temporal into eternal. Now, Romans eight thirty six, the next thing is kind of a backing up with Old Testament. It comes from Psalm forty four twenty two. As it is written, for your sake, we are killed all day long and we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That might seem a little bit out of place for you.

A lot of the people in this church that Paul was writing to, they were Jewish flavored Christians and they know the Old Testament well. They know their Psalms very well like we Southern, you know, I'm from the South. I know the Baptist Seminal. Pretty doggone well. The Psalms were Israel's songbook and this is one of the songs.

We have heard with our ears, oh God, our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days and days of old. Oh, it used to be so great. You drove them out of the nation, you drove out of the nations with your hand but then you planted, you afflicted the peoples, and cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did they, their own arms save them, Lord, but it was your right hand, your arm. It's not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. And the light of your countenance because you favored them, our old ancient ancestors.

You are my king, oh God. Command victories for Jacob. We want some of that power. Through you, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we'll trample those who rise up against us for I will not trust in my bow nor shall my sword save me but you have saved us from our enemies in the past and have put to shame those who hated us and God we boast all day long and praise your name forever.

Selah, let that ring out. That sounds like, oh, it used to be so great and you were so good but it's kind of saying, things are not that way anymore. So, Psalm 44 is where we get that line back in 836. I'm getting to that. But you have cast us off and put us to shame, Lord, and you do not go out with our armies the way you used to.

You make us turn back from the enemy and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. The other side's winning, Lord. You've given us up like sheep intended for food and you've scattered us among the nations. You sell your people for next to nothing and you're in and are not enriched by selling them. Why are you doing this?

This doesn't make any sense to me. This outside of my scope. I can't understand God. You make us a reproach to our neighbors. They're making fun of us.

A scorn and a derision to those all around us. You make us a byword among the nations. A shaking of the head among the peoples. My dishonor is continually before me and the shame of my face has covered me because the voice of him who reproaches and reviles because of the enemy and the avenger. These folks are feeling beaten down, downtrodden.

They feel like things used to be better. It's a better time to be with God a while back. You might feel that way. All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten you nor have we dealt falsely with your covenant. We still believe.

Our heart has not turned back nor have our steps departed from your way, but you have severely broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or if we'd stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake, we are killed all day long. This is someone who is willing to hold on to what they believe no matter what.

Yet, for your sake, lord, we are killed all day long and we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, when Paul brings out this line, they know where it comes from and they know how they're feeling. They're Christians in Rome under an emperor that is not a Christian. Awake, why do you sleep, oh Lord? They're calling out.

Earnest plea to God. Arise and don't cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the ground.

Arise for our help and redeem us. Why? For your mercy's sake, not because we deserve it, not because of what we have done. Redeem us, lord, for your mercy's sake. They're begging for God's grace.

And Paul uses that right before he gets to all these things. This is the last paragraph right here. So, all these things, yet for your sake, we're killed all day long. We're counted as sheep for the slaughter, Paul says. He knows that the times are bad when he's delivering it.

And then he can still say this, 37, but in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Amen. Christ is him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death which like I said, Paul did eventually die this death. So did Peter, so did all of the disciples.

So did many, many countless hoards since then. I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities. Now principalities is a nice fancy word. It really means rulers, our case, where the beginning and the end. It's it's it's in the case of Rome, it was this guy.

It's a grumpy looking dude, isn't it? That's Nero. And Nero took over in, I think, fifty four AD, and he was the emperor until sixty eight AD. Paul was writing this in '57, so three years after he took reign. When Nero was 20 years old, he took over at 17.

And in '64, Paul died in Rome by the sword according to tradition. His head was cut off under the orders of this guy, Nero, the guy who fiddled while Rome burned, probably set the fire. Most historians agree, he probably set the fire, and then he blamed the Christians. Bad dude. So when Paul says, I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, that guy, nor things present in that day.

Those are things that are just as they are right now, nor things to come. That is whatever the future may hold, obviously. Nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing. Satan, created thing. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.

Amen. Which is in Christ Jesus our lord. Amen. This ought to be a rousing moment. This, if you read this, this is the antidote for watching the news, okay?

I have been blown away. I've been watching the news more than I usually do on this little thing. I've been kind of paying attention. I'm not worried about it. I wrote a few notes this week.

Here they are. Oh, actually, I've got a story to tell too. What time is it? Yeah. I I thought, you know, presidential election, you hear so much about it and I I had a nightmare last night and this is no joke.

I wrote it this morning. I was thinking, I've heard so many people say, what could be worse? What could be worse? What could be worse? I've heard that a lot.

Read it a lot. Oh, it's this against that. I don't care what you believe. I don't care who you vote for. I'm glad it's not me.

That's what my nightmare was, is that I was one of the candidates. I am so happy it's not me. It could be worse. So I've got another story. So when we were in Mexico, I met some folks this morning who've been to the place where we were in Mexico.

And we had a team down there, it was about 45 people on the team, young college age students. And I might have told this story to some of you before because it's a big deal. There was a time where the toilet in our little apartment off the back of the kitchen started backing up. And so it was obvious something was wrong. We tried a few momentary solutions and it was obvious that it kept coming back.

Something's wrong. That tank's gonna have to be emptied. And so we called a pump truck to have him come out. Pump truck. And he said, can't do it.

Sorry. He tried for a couple hours and said, can't do it. Too many solids. Oh, yuck. That's what he said.

So we're gonna have to empty this thing, like by hand. We're gonna have to physically empty a septic tank. Now the septic tank was 10 feet long by almost eight feet wide by this deep. Yeah. We had five gallon buckets and 45 people on our team that had been there to build.

They were building, laying foundations and block and all sorts of stuff all day. And about 01:00 in the afternoon, it started raining, and it started raining like it rained last night, like crazy downpour rain. Not not any lightning, but just crazy rain. And as it's raining and just everything is soaked, This is a good time to empty that thing. Cleansing rain.

So it starts raining like crazy. We build a little dam up so that the water would not fill in the septic tank that we're trying to empty, and we took about seven or eight five gallon buckets to begin with, tied ropes around a hook, hooked the handle, dropped the bucket down in there, somebody had to push it down in there and lift it up. And we emptied thousands and thousands of gallons, I don't know exactly how many, five gallons at a time. And those workers that were on the team just showed up and this was their week, you know? What had happened is it had silted in.

So there's a little pass through at the very bottom of this. There's a pass through that's about that tall where it can go into another chamber. And so we had to get it down to that to see what had happened. Sand had silted into our system and it filled up past the pass through, and so it was just backing all the way up beyond that. Horrible stuff.

So as we're doing that, as we get started, the team starts singing, whistling while they work, dumping this stuff. It took hours. It took a long time. One bucket at a time. One bucket at a time.

Keep on going and just handing them in a little ant line out into a farmer's field next to us. And we dumped all of that. Got down to the bottom and then they had to start digging in the sand with shovels. They got all the way down to where it was completely empty, completely clean. At the bottom of it, somebody had had the forethought to write, and all things give thanks.

In the cement on the bottom, It can always get worse. Oh my goodness. So, that I I thought of that this week. What's going to separate you from the love of God? Nothing.

That is the one of the worst things I've ever seen and was daunted by the task but you know what? That team still tells that story. I'm telling it today. They sang the whole way through it and they were able to look and in all these things, whatever it is, no matter what. Overwhelmingly, we're conquerors through Christ, him who loved us.

Nothing can separate us from the love which is in Christ our lord. Now, we're going to stand if you would. This is a rousing moment. I've got a little trouble downstairs. No, I'm just kidding.

No. Would you stand with us and sing Amazing Grace and follow Florine? You

know, that sounds like Romania, honestly. We have the same problem over there, but I'm not gonna tell you the story. I'm so grateful again to be here and to sing praises to God. Amen? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch a wretch like me.

Oh, that's floating right there.

So, I have a very Pauline benediction for you today. Rejoice always Pray without ceasing. And in all things, give thanks. It doesn't say for all things, give thanks. There are plenty of bad things that are hard to be thankful for but in all things, give thanks.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That's first Thessalonians five sixteen to 18. To a group of Christians, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and all things give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Lord, would you give us the presence of mind to do just this this week.

Amen.