Sermon Central
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God Is For Us Series
Contributed by Dr. Jerry N. Watts on Oct 6, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This passage gives us 3 ways in which we see that "God IS For Us."
GOD IS FOR US
* Don Moen is a name which is well known among modern day musicians. He has written some of the most beloved and sung songs of our time. As a writer/producer/publisher, he and the team at Integrity Music developed and released Worship projects for choirs. One of those was entitled, “God for Us”. Did you realize that in His sovereignty God is actually “FOR” us?
* God is actually for everyone of His crown creation (that would be you and me), even those who don’t know Him, don’t want to know Him, and don’t care about Him. For those God’s desire is found in 2 Peter 3:9. It is God’s desire that all men come to Christ and be saved. He is even for those who reject Him. He sent Jesus to forgive sin, remake us, and give us life both abundance and eternal.
* He is also for those of us who KNOW Him, have a relationship with Him, and believes in His Son Jesus. And that is what Paul is writing about in Romans 8. He is having a “believer to believer” conversation and it seems he is offering encouragement believers who need encouraging in the face of trials. Let’s look at the many ways God let’s us know He is FOR US.
1. God’s Provision for us – God provides everything we need. When God created Adam, Adam needed life and God provided His own breath. When you and I were in sin and needed forgiveness, God provided a Savior in Jesus. When our soul needed stirring to come to faith, God provided the Holy Spirit. When we accepted His offer of salvation, we needed a helper to guide and direct us, once again, God provided the Holy Spirit.
a. The Spirit’s Availability – Verse 26 says in part, “In the same way the Spirit also joins to us help.” When we come to Jesus in faith, God provides the Spirit to be our counselor, guide and friend. He is always available. He is available to be our comforter, our conscious, as well as our counselor. He is one that will never mislead, misinform, and misdirect you. You can lean on the on the Holy Spirit for every decision you make. He is always available to help us in our “weakness.” I will remind you of what the Bible says, “In our weakness, He is strong.” He is available to help us make good decisions, to join hand in hand and heart with heart with us, & even more,
b. The Spirit’s Assistance – Have you ever thought about what the Holy Spirit, which God provides us, does regularly for us? He “intercedes.” Candidly, one of the things we miss is that our minds are finite while God is infinite.
* This means we don’t have the concepts, let alone the words, to pray and ask for exactly what we need. Yes, we can express some things in “earthly” language, but the Spirit of God in us speaks to the Son of God (at the right hand of the Father) and by the time our request gets to the ears of the Father it has been completely clarified. But it doesn’t stop there.
c. The Spirit’s Assignment – Please don’t miss this concept. God has provided a way of salvation for us and then He has given to us the Holy Spirit to be available and give assistance to us, but it’s not just any assistance. The Holy Spirit has a divine assignment, “to keep us in the will of God for our lives.” Now, think about this; the very part of the Godhead which has been given to us to keep us in God’s divine will is the very part of God which many believers discount. Is it any wonder that so the church and believers have lost influence in our culture? But listen, God is still for us. He wants us to get with the program and appropriate the Holy Spirit to help us in our lives. But God’s provision is not all He has for us.
2. God’s Progression for us – Another concept which God gives in His word is that “He is for us so much that He gives us a process or a progression which leads us through this life and gives us hope for tomorrow.” Progression can be a good thing (if you are headed right). Years ago, we were collecting money to build a building. We put a visual aid up in the worship center, kind of like a thermometer (I guess every church has done this). Each week, we made it a part of our celebration time to raise the “temperature” on the thermometer. When we make progress, life is good. Verse 28 is one of the most familiar verses (which is often misquoted) in the Bible.
