No More Doubt

Romans 8:32 | May 3, 2020

What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

• Staying home for 7 weeks?
• Going to school on Zoom?
• Staying home with your kids while they go to school on Zoom?
• Social distancing from your family and friends
• Social distancing from your boyfriend or girlfriend?

Or maybe the hardest thing you have ever done is:

• Not being able to get a haircut?
• Not being able to get your hair colored?
• Not being able to get a brush through your hair because you’ve been home for 7 weeks?

I came across a list of the hardest things in life from a group of people aged 5-75

• Math problems
• Moving to a new city
• Being a parent
• Going to school while working a full-time job
• Running backwards (39, man)
• Getting laid off from your job waiting on a flight for your job
• Ziplining (50, woman)
• Maintaining your weight (67, woman)

Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist and is listed often as one of the top 3 smartest people that ever lived.

For the last 22 years of his life, Leo Mattersdorf was Einstein’s friend and accounting adviser and one day Einstein told Leo:

Albert Einstein

The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes.

He was a very smart man. 

Academy award-winning actor Morgan Freeman once said:

Morgan Freeman

…what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing.

Every stay-at-home parent and child in the world right now can agree with stillness being the hardest thing.

Comedian Bob Hope was being interviewed once while he was eating some chicken pot pie and he said this:

Bob Hope

The hardest part of being ninety years old is answering all the questions about being ninety years old.

I guess when you get to be 90 you’ve earned the right to sing, “Chicken pot pie and I don’t care.”

But at the end of the day we all know that the hardest thing in the world is folding a fitted sheet.

Actually, the hardest thing that has ever happened in the world has only happened once and it cannot be repeated. 

And that hardest thing is the greatest power in the universe for every hard thing you will ever experience. 

Listen to that again…

The hardest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world is the fuel and the energy and the power you need the most for the hardest things you will ever deal with in life.

One thing – one truth – has the power to change your heart and mind and soul (and your attitude) no matter what is happening.

What is that one thing?

Let’s find out. 

Listen to Romans 8, verse 32:

32 He who did not spare His own Son,

God did not spare Jesus. 

What does that mean?

God did not spare Jesus from loss and discomfort and torture and pain and shame and horror and death. 

Take a second and do a little math on that. 

In your moment when you are feeling loss and discomfort and torture and pain and shame and horror and death and you are screaming out to God in the dark to make it all stop, remember that God did not make it stop for Jesus.

And Jesus kind of asked him to. 

Maybe an hour or two before he was arrested Jesus was walking in the garden at Gethsemane when he suddenly fell on his face and started praying – and this what he prayed:

Matthew 26:39

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me…”

It was going to be extremely hard to drink from that cup – it was a hard cup. 

That prayer from Jesus should encourage us because sometimes we beat ourselves up when we struggle with difficult things.

Life is hard and it hurts, and we do scream in the darkness.

And in a sense so did Jesus. 

And why was that cup such a big deal?

Why was drinking that cup so hard?

Have you ever heard someone being prosecuted to the “full letter of the law” or the fullest extent of the law?

We aren’t talking about a cup with Iocane powder in it.

The cup that Jesus was about to drink was slam full of the fullest letter of the law that exists.

In other words, it was a full and complete penalty. 

And remember who we are talking about here – this is Jesus of Nazareth drinking the cup of the fullest letter of the law.

And what do we know about Jesus?

Pilate was the political leader responsible for handing Jesus over to be executed. 

When court was in session over Jesus, Pilate’s wife sent him a message, and this was the message:

Matthew 27:19

“Have nothing to do with that righteous Man…”

Jesus was completely and perfectly innocent – he was not a criminal – and even people who didn’t follow him knew that.

When Jesus was crucified, he was set between two criminals and one of the criminals started mocking Jesus, but the other criminal rebuked him for mocking and shouted out:

“We are getting what we deserve, but he’s done nothing wrong!”

Even a hardened criminal knew that Jesus didn’t deserve to die on the cross.

And yet there was Jesus being crucified.

There was Jesus drinking that cup of the full letter of the law.

And the evidence against him was pathetic.

The testimonies against him were both inconsistent and false.

He could have easily appealed.

He could have fought for his religious freedom and protested that with the kangaroo court they had assembled the government was keeping him from going to church with his friends.

But for the most part throughout the whole process Jesus was silent – long before Morgan Freeman and other great actors Jesus was the perfect example of stillness.

Why?

Because Jesus knew that the cup of the full letter of the law had to be emptied – to the very last drop. 

And God knew that too.

If there was the least bending on the full letter of the law, then the full payment would not be complete – justice would not be served.

There couldn’t be any room for a legal loophole – this had to be dealt with once and for all. 

Unlike our approach to cleaning our garage this past month, God did not hesitate – he did not spare Jesus from loss and discomfort and torture and pain and shame and horror and death. 

Why?

Paul tells us.

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all,

That was the hardest thing that was ever done in the history of the world.

Jesus was perfect and righteous and innocent, but God did not spare him, and he did not save him, in fact he did the exact opposite, he delivered him over.

• Jesus didn’t stumble to the cross
• He wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time
• He wasn’t the victim of a government conspiracy

The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, by way of angry religious people and irreligious government officials delivered Jesus up himself to be crucified.

Why?

Don’t miss those two words – “for us”.

William D. Mathieson in his book “My Grandfather's War” tells of a veteran who was walking down the street of his hometown.

The man had an empty sleeve and someone passing by stopped him to thank him for his service and asked him how he lost his arm.

The veteran replied, “I didn't lose it. I gave it.”

Jesus didn’t lose his life – he gave it…for you – it wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t a conspiracy – it was the grandest display of love that has ever been given by a Father through his Son.

And that grand display was the hardest thing that has ever been done.

God delivered Jesus over for you. 

God handed over his perfectly innocent Son for you.

Jesus died so you could be set free from the full letter of the law.

Jesus drank the cup to the very last drop so that the penalty of your sin might be fully and completely paid.

Now someone might say:

• “I don’t buy all of this stuff about sin and needing to be saved.”
• “I’ve worked hard, and I take care of my family.”
• “I might not include everything on my taxes.”
• “But I haven’t robbed a bank or killed anyone.”

Okay, let’s evaluate those things for a second in a hopefully a helpful way.

Why do you exist?

Why are you here?

About 700 years before Jesus was born, God told the prophet Isaiah to write down these words:

Isaiah 43:7

“Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

No matter where you go to school or where you work or what you want to be when you grow up or what country you were born in or whether you drink regular or decaf or Coke or Pepsi or Sprite or Mountain Dew or God’s soft drink – water – none of those things define why you exist.

You exist to enjoy God and enjoy and reflect his glory.

So, if you aren’t enjoying God and glorifying God then you are functioning outside of why you exist.

And when you function outside of why you exist you are not free.

We say freedom is being able to do whatever we want – that is only kind of partially true.

You can be doing something that you want to do and not be free.

You can be living in your rights and not be free.

I was reading something this week that put it like this:

Is a fish waddling on the land “free”?

“Ha! I told those loser fish in my school that I wasn’t going to keep doing what I was told! They can’t keep me at home in that ocean. Look at me now! I’m free! But why am I so out of breath?”

Is a bird with its wings cut off “free”?

“Ha! I told those crows they couldn’t make me keep scavenging for food. They can’t keep me at home up in that tree. Look at me now! I’m free! Huh, I wonder what that furry thing with the big teeth is doing running toward me?”

• True freedom is not doing what you want
• True freedom is not doing what you like
• True freedom is not even freedom to decide for yourself

Your heart and mind and soul have been created with a pre-loaded reality about freedom and you can ignore that reality or kick against that reality or reject that reality, but that reality is this:

True freedom is enjoying God and glorifying him forever.

So, not perfectly, but if enjoying and glorifying God is not part of who you are then you are not truly free.

I came across this definition for freedom:

John Piper

Freedom…being able to do whatever you love to do and not regretting it in a million years.

If you wake up on the other side of death and realize that the hardest thing in the universe was not you being stuck in your house for a few months in 2020, but that the one, true God did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up so that you could be saved you will regret ignoring and rejecting that.

You will not be free forever if you reject the truth that Jesus drank that cup for you.

And not just on the other side of death.

• You will regret it today
• You will not be free today

How and why?

Look what Paul says next:

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Let’s go back to what we said earlier because it big time matters right now:

In your moment when you are feeling loss and discomfort and torture and pain and shame and horror and death and you are screaming out to God in the dark to make it all stop, remember that God did not make it stop for Jesus.

Paul is giving us a greater and lesser argument here.

I can never speak highly enough of my parents. 

They have always gone above and beyond when it comes to caring for me and my family and serving us and helping us.

They have done an above average job of cooperating with the stay-at-home orders, with only a few stray occurrences that have contributed to my rapidly increasing quarantine bald spot.

One of those was my 84-year-old higher health risk father driving 45 minutes from his house to my house this past week and coming into my house with a mask and gloves on to deliver a package of toilet paper.

Bless him – he just had to get out of the house. 

But imagine in 46 weeks when the social distancing guidelines are lifted, and we go visit my parents and I ask my son to go ask my dad to borrow a pen. 

Can you imagine my dad saying something like this?

“Holden, you lazy, good-for-nothing Fortnite playing punk, go get a job and get your own pen.”

If my dad would defy executive orders and medical guidelines to go to Sam’s to try and meet my family’s toiletry needs, I think he can handle my son borrowing a pen.

That’s the greater to lesser argument.

If the one, true God of the universe would not spare his own Son but would deliver him up as a substitute so that you could be spared and that you could be delivered up from everlasting condemnation and the horror of dying a death that never actually ends, then that God can be trusted to give you all things.

What kinds of things?

• Great toys?
• Great shoes?
• Great video games?
• Great graduation gifts?
• Great scholarships?
• Great jobs?
• Great spouses?
• Great kids?
• Great homes?
• Great cars?
• Great haircuts?
• Great stock returns?
• Great retirement?

No!

You might get those things and you might not. 

You might get a pandemic or a hurricane or a tornado that humbles you and reorients what you value most in life – at least we should hope for the kind of grace that humbles us and helps us see what is most valuable. 

And this will offend some of you, but when social distancing is lifted and when you are able to go back to work and school and sports and when the economy gets reaccelerated if you still do not know Christ then you will have nothing. 

Vance Havner

All that I need is Jesus, because all that I need is in Jesus.

How do we know that “all things” does not mean that Paul is saying God will give you cool Air Jordan’s and Nintendo Switches and the most expensive dresses from Altar’d State and top-of-the-line air fryers and the best accessories for your truck and all the yogurt you could ever want?

Because four sentences later he says this:

Romans 8:36

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

I don’t know too many of us that lay our heads down at night and say, “Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord will put me to death all day long tomorrow like a sheep being slaughtered.”

That just doesn’t have a ring to it.

It’s not a perfect, fluffy life we are being promised.

It is a perfect Savior we are promised.

A perfect Savior who was not spared but was given for us.

In the middle of your hardest moment in life, you can always say to yourself:

• “God did the greater, so, I can trust him to do the lesser.”
• “God not spare Jesus but gave him up for me.”

That greater and lesser is a big deal for all of us right now. 

Why?

Because what Paul is saying here is in the middle of a pandemic you don’t have to be an angry jerk mad at the government and stressed about the economy and you don’t have to be a fraidy-cat freak scared of getting sick or scared of not getting your hair colored before Mother’s Day.

You can keep looking at the cross of Jesus and say to your soul:

• “I will not be abandoned!”
• “I will not be abandoned!”

Dear Christian, no matter what hardship or heartache you face today or tomorrow or 10 years from now you never have to doubt God. 

Why?

Because he did the hardest thing ever – he did not spare Jesus so that you could be spared.

And because that is true so is this:

• God is for you!
• God is for you!
• God is for you!

Message by Dow Welsh |

May 3, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

 

 

 

So what is the hardest thing you have ever done? The hardest thing you've ever done may be the hardest thing you've ever done. Is his spin six weeks, seven weeks at home? Maybe that's it may be the hardest thing you've ever done is do school by Zoom on a computer. Now may be the hardest thing you've ever done is to be at home with your kids while they do Zoom at school on a computer may be the hardest thing you've ever done is right now. Having to social distance from your extended family to social distance from your friends may be the hardest thing for you. Is social distancing from your boyfriend or your girlfriend? Maybe the hard thing for you right now is not being able to get your hair cut. You know, maybe that's a real thing. Right now you are. Maybe it's it's not being able to get your hair colored. Or maybe it's not being able to get a brush through your hair because you've been at home for the last seven weeks. Maybe maybe your hair is just a thing. I mean, my hair is the thing we can all see that I came across a list of some of the heart of video action, some of the hardest things in life, and it's from people ages 5 to 75. So there's one person for every age. This is fantastic. And so here, just a few of the things that were mentioned. I think it was a six or seven year old girl, she said. The hardest thing in her life was math problems. Amen. Sister, I'm with you wholeheartedly. Somebody else said moving to a new city was a hard thing. Being a parent was a hard thing. Going to school full time and working a full time job was a hard thing. There was one guy, 39 years old, he said. Running backwards was the hardest thing he's ever done in his life. Okay, bless him. There's another lady. She told her story. She was 42 years old. She was at the airport. She's waiting to get on a plane for her job when she gets a phone call from her job saying that she had been fired from her job. Yeah, that's kind of tough. Another lady said. The hardest thing that she had ever experienced was zip lining. It was good, proud of her for doing it. Think she was 50 and then one lady who has really become a close friend, us. Immediately after I say this. She's 67 years old, and she said the hardest thing she has ever had to deal with in life over and over again is maintaining her weight. Man, I could feel that for sure. Yeah, Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicists. He's listed often as the top two or three smartest people that ever lived for the last 22 years of his life. Leo Matter Store was his friend and his accounting adviser, and one day they're in Einstein's house having lunch. And this is what Einstein said to Leo. The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes. Yeah, he was a very, very smart man. Hit the nail on the head without right. Morgan Freeman, an Academy Award winning actor, was talking once about what he had learned from other actors, and this is what he said. What I learned from the great actors that I work with stillness, that's all. And that's the hardest thing. Every stay at home parent and child right now would agree that stillness is the hardest thing. Bob Hope was 90 years old. He was being interviewed and he was, incidentally, eating some chicken pot pie while he was being interviewed. And he said this in the course of the interview. The hardest part of being 90 years old is answering all the questions about being 90 years old. Good work. I guess when you're 90 you have earned the right toe the same, you know, chicken pot pie. And I don't care. I'm not 90 Nothing that all the time. So maybe maybe that would work. At the end of the day, though most all of us know what the hardest thing is, right? We know the hardest thing in the universe is folding a fitted sheet. Hardest thing ever you've never done try today you'll lose your mind. Yeah. Actually, someone has said that the hardest thing in the universe has already happened and that it can only happen once it can't be repeated. And that one hardest thing is the greatest power in the universe. For every hard thing you will ever experience. Listen that again, this this one thing this one hardest thing. The hardest thing that's ever happened in the universe, The hardest thing that's ever happened in the history of the world. It is the one thing that is the fuel and the energy and the power for the hardest things you will ever go through in life. This one thing, this one truth has the power to change your heart and your mind and your soul and especially your attitude, no matter what's happening. That sounds like something. So what is it? Let's find out. Apostle Paul was writing to the folks in room and in Romans 8 32 He says this He who did not spare his own son. God did not spare Jesus. What does that mean? Well, it means that God did not spare Jesus from los discomfort, Torture, pain, shame, horror and death. He didn't sparing from those things. Now just stop. Do just a little bit of math on that in your moment where you are experiencing some sense of loss, discomfort, torture, pain, shame, horror or death. In that moment, when you are screaming at God in the dark telling him to make it all stop, remember that God did not make it all stop for Jesus and Jesus Kind. I asked him to an hour to before he was arrested, Jesus was walking through the garden in Yosemite and and he suddenly fell on his face and he started praying. And this is what he prayed. My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. It was going to be an extremely hard cup. It was It was, ah, hard cup to drink from. But this moment should be really encouraging to us because, see, we tend to beat ourselves up for struggling through difficult things. We tend to beat ourselves up when things get hard. But listen. Life is hard and life hurts and life is full of pain and we will be screaming in the dark sometimes. But in a sense, so did Jesus. So did Jesus. So what's so hard about this couple? What's the deal with this cup? Have you ever heard the phrase or or something like this? That person is being prosecuted to the full letter of the law. The fullest extent of the law. Well, this this cup that Jesus was facing was not full of I came powder Okay, that would be inconceivable. Know this Come This cup was a completely different cup. It's It's not a cup from a movie is not a cup from a TV show is not a cup from your cupboard. This cup was slam full to the fullest extent off the full law, the full letter of the law. To the fullest extent, this cup was slam full. In other words, this cup was complete and full and final payment. This cup was going to be emptied by Jesus. Now remember who Jesus is Remember, this is Jesus is going to drink this cup. That's the fullest extent of the letter of the law. So what do we know about Jesus? Well, Pilot was the government politician, the official who was responsible for handing Jesus over to be executed. And when the court was in session over Jesus, Pilot received a message from his wife. And this was the message Have nothing to do with that righteous man. Jesus was was completely innocent. He was righteous. He was not a criminal. Even people who didn't follow him. They knew that to be true. Jesus. When he was crucified, he was He was placed between two criminals. One of those criminals, he started mocking Jesus. The other criminal, though, rebuked him for mocking Jesus. And he said, This time he said, We're getting what we deserve But this man has done nothing wrong. You even a hardened criminal. I knew that Jesus did not deserve to die on the cross. And yet there was Jesus. There was Jesus being crucified. There was Jesus drinking the cup. There was Jesus receiving the full letter of the law, and the evidence against him was pathetic. I mean, the witnesses, their testimonies were inconsistent and false. Jesus had every reason to appeal his sentence. Jesus could have tried to fight for his religious freedom. He could have said, You know what? This is a kangaroo court you've assembled and you are illegally taking away my freedom to be a church with my friends. But throughout the entire process, almost exclusively, Jesus was silent long before Morgan Freeman and other great actors, Jesus was the perfect example of stillness. Why? Because Jesus knew that the cup had to be emptied to the very last drop. He knew it, and God also knew that it had to be empty. God knew that if there was one bending in the law, if just for a little bit of if any of the full extent of the law was was bit, that means the full extent of the law would not have been kept. That means the penalty would not have been complete. It means that justice would not have been served. It means that the penalty of my sin and your sin would not be completely paid. There couldn't be any room for a legal loophole. This had to be dealt with once and for all. Unlike many of us over the last few weeks, when it comes to cleaning out our garage or that junk room, God did not hesitate. I didn't hesitate. He did not hesitate to not spare his son from los and discomfort from torture and paying from shame and horror a death. Why? Why would God do that? Paul tells us. Look again in Verse 32 he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all. That was the hardest thing that has ever been done in the history of the world. Jesus was perfect. He was righteous he had never done anything wrong. And yet God did not spare him from being delivered over for crucifix. That God to the opposite. He delivered him himself. Jesus was not somebody who stumbled up on the cross. Jesus was not at the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus was not the victim of some government conspiracy through very religious people who were fighting for their religious rights through arrogant, your religion, irreligious government officials. God through those folks delivered up Jesus to be crucified. And again, we asked why. But don't miss those two words in the verse right there. Four us for us. We, um Mathisen in his book My Grandfather's War tells a story about a veteran in his hometown, and he was just walking down the street. The veteran had an empty sleeve. So my passing by went up to him and thanked him for his service. And he asked him. He said, How did you lose your arm? The veteran, very graciously look back at the man and said, I did not lose my arm. I gave it. Jesus did not lose his life. He gave it four. Yeah, and God, by all that we see in the scripture. We're looking at a moment where he has done something amazing. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a conspiracy. It was the grandest display of love from a father through his son. And that grand display that amazing display was the hardest thing that has ever been done. God delivered Jesus four. Yeah, God handed over his perfectly innocent son. Four You Jesus died so that you could be set free from the full extent of the law. Jesus died so that you would not have to drink the cup. Jesus emptied the cup every last drop so that the penalty of your sin would be completely satisfied and paid. Now someone might say, I don't believe in all this stuff. I don't believe in all this stuff about sin and needing to be saved. Look, I've worked hard. I've taken care of my family. I mean, you may not report everything on my taxes, but, you know, I've never robbed a bank and I never killed anybody, so I think I'm good. Okay, Let's let's take those thoughts and and try to think through them hopefully helpfully and strategically, with one question, Why do you exist. Why are you here? About 700 years before Jesus was born, God made sure that the Prophet Isaiah wrote these words down. Everyone who is called by my name and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made. I think on this No matter where you go to school, no matter where you work, no matter what you want to be when you grow up, no matter what country you were born in, no matter the color of your skin. No matter your political affiliation, no matter if you drink decaf for regular or coke or Pepsi or Sprite or Mountain dew or God soft drink water. No matter what you may do in life, no matter what things you may like in life. None of those things or things like that that I just mentioned. Define who you are. They don't define why you exist before the foundations of the world. God in his character and his nature established why you exist. And then, in the kindness of God, he created the world and all that is in it. He made it possible for you to be alive. and by his own definition as your creator, you exist to enjoy God and to enjoy his glory forever, to reflect his glory forever. So if you aren't enjoying God right now, if you aren't enjoying his glory, if you aren't reflecting his glory, that means in a very real sense you are not functioning for the reason that you exist. You're functioning outside of the reason you exist. And when we function outside of the reason that we exist, we're not free. We're not free. See, when we think of freedom, we think of freedom is being able to do whatever you want. But that's Onley kind of sort of partially true. I was reading something this week and I thought it was kind of interesting. It says you could be living in your rights and not be free. Don't miss that. You could be living in your rights. All of your rights are intact and yet you cannot be free. And this was the way it explained it. I love this picture. Is a fish waddling on the land free? You could see the fish right? I told his losers in my school that they could keep telling me what to do. It could keep me at home in that ocean. Look at me now. I'm free. I'm on my own. I'm free. But I am having problems breathing. I'm not really sure what that's about. I'm really going to work out good. Here is the other picture is a bird with its wings cut off free thing thing, right? I told those other crows, man, they can't make me scavenge forever. They can't keep me at home there in that tree. Look at me. Now that I'm free, I'm on my own. I'm free. But I wonder what that furry thing with the big teeth is running it? Yeah. See, we can have our rights and not be free. True freedom is not doing what you won't. True freedom is not doing what you like. True freedom is not even the freedom to choose to make the decision yourself. That's not even true freedom. Your heart and your mind and your soul have been created with a preloaded reality. Now you may push against that preloaded reality. You may kick against it. You may ignore it. You may reject it, but that reality is this true freedom can only be found by enjoying and glorifying God a ship. I know it sounds to simple. It's it's math that has toe have more to it. But it really is kind of that simple. So not perfectly OK, not perfectly. But if you are not enjoying God, if you are not reflecting his glory, if you're not enjoying his glory, if you're not glorifying him, then you are not really free. I came across a pretty cool definition of freedom. I really like. It goes like this. Freedom is being able to do whatever you love to do and not regretting it in a 1,000,000 years, if you wake up on the other side of death and you realize that the hardest thing that ever happened in the universe was God not sparing his own son but delivering him up for you. If you wake up on the other side of death and you realize that you will regret that you pushed back, kick back, ignored or rejected that you will get it and you'll regret it forever because you won't be free forever. You won't be enjoying freedom forever. You won't be enjoying that dream. Jesus drank that cup empty for you, but not just forever. Today you'll regret it today. You won't be free today. How? Why? Paul tells us. Listen to the next part of Verse 32. He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him, freely give us all things? Oh, things not quickly. Let's go back to what we said a moment ago because it's a big time important in our moment in your moment where you are feeling some sense of loss are discomfort or torture or pain or shame or horror or death in that moment. Don't forget that God did not spare Jesus from those things. And the reason that matters this because what Paul's doing, he's he's pointing us to a greater and lesser argument. I cannot speak highly enough about my parents. My parents have just been fantastic. They they have always gone out of their way to to care for me, to care from our family, to service, to help us in any way that they can, constantly looking out for ways to help us, and they've done a pretty good job of cooperating with the stay at home God lines outside of a few straight instances and those straight instances or why my quarantine bald spot is getting a lot bigger right now. And one of those is my 84 year old, higher health risk father showing up at my house this week with gloves and a mask to bring us a package of toilet paper. Bless his heart. He just had to get out of the house. But you know, that's my dad and looking for ways to help looking for ways to serve. So imagine, 46 weeks from now when the state home social distancing is lifted. Hopefully, that's not a true number. I'm just throwing that out. But But whenever the time comes, imagine that were visiting my parents and we drive the 45 minutes that my dad drove to bring his toilet paper and we go down there to visit it. And at some point I asked my son, Hey, go ask my dad before a pin. Do you think my dad is going to look at my son and say, holding you lazy good for nothing fortnight playing punk man, You know what? Just don't get a job and get your own pin. What is not to say that, right? If my dad is going to defy executive and medical guidelines to make sure our family gets some toiletries that I'm pretty sure he's going to be able to handle a pin. Okay, You see the picture here? Greater lesser. Greater. Lesser. So in this picture, if the one true God of the universe would not spare his son from being delivered over so that you could escape eternal condemnation so that you could escape the kind of death the kind of dying that never ends for all eternity, if God would do that and he can be trusted to give you all things if God has done the greater then he will do the lesser Now what it's all things mean. I mean, really, all things. I mean, when Paul says all things, man, is he talking about great toys? He come out Great shoes, great video games, time out. Great graduation gifts, great scholarships, great jobs, great spouses, great kids, great cars, great homes, great haircuts. You talk about great things like stock returns and retirement and and promotions and and all that and all those things. Is that what Paul is talking about? Not at all, not at all. Now in God's grace and mercy. Could you get all of this thing? Sure, but you might not. You might have a pandemic or hurricane or tornado that brings you low. That brings you to a point of humility. That brings you to a point where you have to reevaluate what matters. And hopefully we will, right? Hopefully when the when the hard things in life come, we will blow him off but will use them as an opportunity to really see what matters. To really see what what has ultimate value eternal, that so think about that in the context of now, if and when the social distancing restrictions are lifted and when everybody gets back to work and everybody gets back to school and everybody gets back to sports when the stock market starts growing again, when our jobs get better, when the economy is accelerated, when all those things get back to where we want them to be, where we're praying for them to be, where we desire for them to be when all of those things get back. If you still do not have. Christ, you have nothing of riel back. You have very valuable things, but you do not have the kind of value that matches the empty Vance Havner once said this. All that I need is Jesus, because all that I need is in Jesus. Yeah, I know it sounds hokey too many, but I can't say it any clearer than that. All you need is Jesus. Whatever. You have already balloon social media with this morning that you're mad or angry or frustrated or confused or wishing about none of those things for things that you need as much as you need. Jesus, all you need is Jesuss, because all you really need is in Jesus. So how do we know that all things from Paul does not really mean like anything we want? How do we know that all things doesn't mean that you're going to get some cool Air Jordans or you know that you're going to get a Nintendo switch, you're going to get the best dress that altered state, or you get top of the line air fryer. Or maybe you're going to get the best accessories for your truck or your Mustang or are all the yogurt you could ever want to eat? How do we know that's not what Paul necessarily means? Well, it's because of what he said about four sentences later, Romans 8 36 for your sake were being put to death all day long, were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. I don't know. I just can't see a whole lot of us, you know, getting on our knees of our bed at night, praying. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord will deliver me over to death all day long term, or Omar like a sheep being slaughtered. It just doesn't have a ring to it. It's not a perfect, fluffy life that we've been promised. It's not that we're going to get all the things that we ever wanted in life. It's It's not that. That's the promise. What we have been promised is a perfect safe here, a perfect savior in the middle of your hardest moment in life. If you are in Christ, if you are in Jesus, you can always say to yourself, God did the greater So I know he'll do the lesser. You can always say to yourself God did not spare his own son, so I know he can take care of me in this moment, regardless of what this moment is, because the cop has been emptied and the full letter of the law has been satisfied. The greater and lesser is a big deal for us right now. Why? Because here's what Paul's doing. He's kind of saying to us in the middle of a pandemic, you don't have to be an angry Turk. You don't have to be livid with the government. You don't have to be losing your mind over the stock market or the economy. You don't have to be a fraidy cat freaking out over getting sicker or afraid that you won't be able to get your hair colored before Mother's Day. See what Paul is saying. Is this that because the cup has been emptied because the full letter of the law has been satisfied because God did not spare his own son, There's never a moment that you cannot whisper to your soul. I will not be abandoned. If you're a believer, there is never a millisecond of your life that you cannot say to your soul. I will not be abandoned. Why is that true? It's true because God didn't spare his own son. I can't promise you that you won't have a hardship or heartache this week. But if you do or if it's nest next week, er or 10 weeks from now or 10 years from now, you never have to doubt God. Just hang on that for a second. Because I'm just telling you this past week I've had those moments where I'm like God, were you doing? My guess is you have to. But regardless of the hardship, regardless of the heartache, you don't have to doubt God ever. Why? Because he did the hardest thing. He did the hardest thing. He did not spare his own son, but delivered him up. Four. Yeah, And because that's true, this is all surgery. God is for you, dear Christian, in your moment of doubt your moment of hardship, your moment of heartache when you want to scream at God in the dark when you get through screaming at God in the dark screen to your soul. Because he did not spare his own son. He is for you. God is for you. God is for you. Best. The greater he'll take care of the lesson because he's for you.