Lesson 40c

We are in Lesson 40. It may take another week even on this one. There's so much in here. And I'll just go through the passages again. I always like to kind of frame it in the whole passage because we take it piece by piece. So I like to try and get the whole passage so we get how everything fits together first. So Romans 8, 35 through 39.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing will be able to separate us. from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, I think we got through question five. We're on question six, but I did want, there's one, because we've kind of been through about being slaughtered, being put to death all day long, and all the trials that come up.

And there's a good one I meant to read last week, but we got kind of tied up at the end there. So, this was from 917 in the Hungry Heart. And again, I think it's gone through all these chastening and the trials and all these things that we went through in the first part of this verse, these verses, and this I think hit it really well. So it's 917 on the Hungry Heart. Our Father chastens us for our own profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

Hebrews 12.10. This is, I think, the money quote. We are not chastened because we deserve it, but because we need it. And there is no wrath in His child training.

Many have the wrong idea of the word chastening. We think perhaps that it represents God as having a big stick in His hand and knocking us about all the time. You have only to make a mistake and down comes the big stick. That, of course, is a totally wrong conception of the Father, and is not at all what the word means. The word chastening simply means child training, which has to do with sonship.

Sonship, in our Father's mind, is to have people who are reliable and responsible, who know in their own hearts what is right and what is wrong, and do not have to be constantly told and admonished. We should always look at our difficulties in the light of this training. It often seems that the life of a Christian is more difficult than any other life, and more troubles come to us than anyone else. Whether we recognize it or not, these difficulties and troubles which come to us are to train us for something and to develop in us the spirit of sonship, that is, to develop spiritual intelligence and spiritual ability in us.

One of the main purposes of the Father's dealing with us is to bring us into a greater knowledge of His Son. We never know anything about greatness unless we have a great need to know it. Therefore, we are brought into situations where we must know something much greater than we already know. This is why our Father brings His children into difficult circumstances, that they may learn how great their Lord Jesus is."

I thought that was perfect from what we're going through and all the things we've listed out in these verses. And again, I've mentioned many times, I've for a long time felt that, yeah, if everything's going really well and being blessed, that the Lord is just waiting to pounce on me, that when the blessings are there, he's just waiting for me to make one misstep and then he's going to get the big stick and whack me. And that's a totally wrong concept. And that's why I've always really liked these verses and how much they've helped.

He loves you and he's training you for greater things. And ultimately, as we'll see, from the verses prior to this, what's he doing? He's conforming us to the image of Christ. And that's why he brings us through all these things. So, again, I just think it's the misconception is that God is out there with a big stick. He's not. He has an eternal love for you, and everything he does to you and for you is in love. And that's the key to all these verses.

So, again, I thought that was a good summary of what we've gone through in these first parts of the verses. Question six, does the promise of verse 37 comfort you in light of what was brought out in verse 36? Remember in 36 we were considered to die and be slaughtered as sheep? So now, in verse 37, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. So, even that we're being put to death daily and we're like sheep to be slaughtered, what does this verse tell us? God's got our back. God's got our back. More than that, what did he just say? What is he saying in this verse? What is our position?

We're conquerors. Overwhelmingly conquerors. Not just we just made it by the skin of our teeth. This is overwhelmingly conquered through Him who loved us. The question is, which I bring up, do you believe that in the trials and tribulations of this life that you're overwhelmingly conquerors when the trials come up?

Doesn't that seem almost contrary? Only if I depend on Him instead of me. Exactly. Exactly. But it's almost, it's almost, you know, a dichotomy here of, you know, you're going through trials, but you're overwhelmingly conquering. It seems, wait a minute, I'm going through this trial, I'm losing.

No, you're overwhelmingly conquering because He loved you. He's doing something to chasten you, to bring you into conformity to Christ, to depend on Him in everything. Love conquers all. Love conquers all, and with His love. It strikes me that why did God put me in a position where I am being put to death, number one. And number two, what is it to abide in the conquering party? How do you do that? Good question. How do you do that? You don't, the spirit does.

But there's a more important thing that is the basis of everything. What is the basis of all of our life? Faith. Do you believe it? Do you believe he's chasing you for what? Just out of malice? These are important words. This is again, it's all by faith. Do you believe it? In terms of the specifics of faith in this case, what am I to believe? Is the focus to be that I'm overwhelmingly conquering through him who loved me? Or does it relate back to all of the information that I've learned over the last... since chapter 3? Question 11, I think.

I mean, the point that I'm making is that you can be pushed down by realizing that you're just a sheep heading to the slaughter. and you're going quietly, and you're wondering, am I going to avoid the end of the rope here, or am I actually going to, you know, get the end of that process? Do I just make a mental note that, oh, this is, I'm above all this? I think it's the realization of what all of these verses, but in particular, you know, in death, we're going to learn in the next verse, will death separate us from his love? So if I'm a sheep slaughtered, am I separated from his love?

No, not at all. Everything fits. And again, the chastening part I think is, we'll go back, and this is again question 11, how does this fit in all of this? Are we being conformed to his image? And all of these things are to draw us to him and to conform us to his image.

The purpose of these verses, I think, is to give us peace and the knowledge that you are going to be considered slaughtered every day as a Christian. And that's why reading The Hungry Heart is, you know, if you think you're a Christian and it's just lollipops and wonderful music and life is wonderful, you're wrong. Scripture doesn't teach us that. We have great peace, we have great joy, we have all this But it doesn't say that's without trials and child training. Faith says we've already been slaughtered. I mean, well, through the Romans 6, we've been crucified.

And why that? The point that I'm trying to make is I'm so attached to the world and its system that does it take crucifixion or slaughtering to get me separated? And in that process, Is he trying to encourage me that as that process goes on, you can live above it? Oh, yeah. I think these verses are meant to do the peace that surpasses all understanding. The other things that he's, you know, take my yoke upon me, you know, all these things, the peace, what we've also said, can the world offer you rest? No. How do we have rest?

We have rest in him, in the midst of a trial. That's why these are so important, and I think for believers it's incredibly important. Because when you go through the trial, you can either think he's got a big stick, he's forgotten about me. Or if I'm a normal Christian who's under some sort of law system, I think, where did I screw up? Or what can I do?

And that's the importance of all these verses right now. And I think that's why, again, question 11 and 12, basically, is why it fits in here. is that all these things he's gone through from six, seven, and now all through eight, what is the overriding thing?

He loves you. And that's where you get through all, you know, he loved us so much he crucified us. That was the best thing that could ever happen to us. Because now where are we placed into? You know, that's the beginning of Romans six. And then we proceed through all of the truths now that that he's laid out in in Romans eight. And now he's saying all of this, I love you. So then, the flesh, the sin nature, is slaughtered every day.

Right? Well, it's crucified. It's gone. But the fact that it's crucified is why it's slaughtered. We are no longer under the mastery of the flesh. Right. So now we have a new life in us. We still have the old man and the flesh, but I think the slaughtering is the daily removal of that dependency or anything relying upon the flesh.

I think you have to be careful right there, because I don't think the flesh was crucified. I was crucified. That's why I backed up a little bit there. I was the one that was separate. It's still rotting and rolling. That's why I backed up. The flesh wasn't crucified. I was crucified.

So that's why we still have the flesh. who is trying to get us to follow every day. Bruce says we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. We're not slaughtered right now, but we're all grouped in a group who are set to be slaughtered. Considered to be. We're going to be slaughtered. We haven't been slaughtered yet, but the flesh is going to die someday. These are the multi-leveled. You know, we're going to suffer today through these chastening.

And the world, remember one of the questions before is, what did they do to Christ? They rejected Him and they crucified Him. Where are we positioned? We're rejected. And they're going to do everything that they wanted to do to Christ to us. So, we're in the same position. So again, that slaughtering, that considered to be death every day, that's because we're in Him. In the world, we are rejected by the world. So it's both. We will be when our flesh is taken away. We're in line. That's a good way to look at it. Again, do you believe that in the trials that we are overwhelmingly conquerors? Remember what Paul just told us in, again, this is kind of when we dissect these things in the small sections and we look microscopically at these things.

But remember what Paul told us in Romans 8.18, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

So again, he's already said that whatever I go through, and he's been through all this, it's not even in the same zip code of what we're going to be when the glory is revealed. There doesn't even come a blip on the chart when we compare the glory that's revealed to us. These trials are nothing in comparison to the glory that is to be revealed to us. These are nothing. Probably in the midst of the trial you don't think that, but that's why he gave us these verses. In the midst of the trial, realize that you're overwhelmingly a conqueror, and these are nothing in comparison to the glory that's to be revealed to us.

Again, that gives the focus and the perspective to have the ability to go through these child training, or chastening, with the focus on Christ, that he loves us and he's conforming us to his image through this child training. That gives us that peace, rest, and comfort that he already promised us.

It all fits together. Now, would the foundation of that be because we have been crucified with Christ? That's where we're positioned. That's why we're in Christ. I would say it's because we're resurrected. Yeah, in Christ. Our position is in Christ. The crucifixion was to pay for the sins that we've done and to positionally crucify me. Yeah, but without crucifixion you can't have resurrection. Right, but that's what I'm saying. That was to pay for the sins and to separate us from our old Adamic men. 2 Corinthians 4 says, for we are 411. Well, let's start.

We're afflicted in every way, but not cross-perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about, in the body, the dying of Jesus. so that the life of Christ may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you."

Exactly the same. Exactly the same principle. And remember, you know, it's kind of interesting when you think, whenever it was a year and a half ago, a year and three quarters ago, when we started this class, Newell brought out a very important thing in the back of the book where he says about how the books are laid out in the Bible. It isn't chronologically.

Romans was the foundation and then each of the epistles build. He's building on what he said right here in Corinthians. He's expanding that same thought. And so he's building upon this. So this is just the, this is the foundation right here is what we're going through.

And each Paul will build upon what we're learning here in all of his subsequent epistles, which I, you know, I hadn't really thought about how the Bible was laid out. It isn't by chronological when Paul wrote them, it's by revealing a little bit more each time in each epistle. So again, that he builds upon what he's said right here. when he gets in Corinthians, in the letter to the Corinthians.

So the question is also, does this verse 37 say that we just make it by in trials, or when we are killed all day long, or a sheep to be slaughtered, we just barely make it through? Overwhelmingly conquer. So it isn't that you just barely make it through, it's that we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. So, what does it mean to overwhelmingly conquer?

No doubt. No doubt? In the trial, in the chastening? Good. He said we overwhelmingly conquer. What does that mean? Just what it says. Overwhelmingly. Or more than. We conquer. Over the top. What does it mean to conquer? We have victory. Good. They don't dominate. Good.

We not only have victory but life. We overwhelmingly conquer. We overwhelmingly conquer. Is that like Baghdad Bob? We're winning it. Bullets were flying by. As the bombs were blowing up. No, that's not like Baghdad Bob. We overwhelmingly conquer. We're on the other side of that one. Baghdad Bob.

So, Newell had it pretty good. He says, it is the come-off conqueror in every difficulty. It is to know that divine and therefore infinite power has been engaged for us in the conflict. It is the absolute confidence that this infinite and therefore limitless divine help is granted to us against any possible future emergency. It is to divide the spoil over any foe after victory."

And that was that from Isaiah 53, verse 12. The question again, which is very easy, is this through our own efforts? Just suck it up. Grid it out. You can do it. You can do it. Is that the attitude? At first, through Him who loved us. Through Him who loved us. That's the back half of the verse. Overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

You can't do it in our own strength, in other words. You can't. You know, that kind of goes back to, which I think about, maybe I don't want to answer this one. Is it, you know, for husbands and wives, when you look at what the husband's supposed to do, can you do that on your own? What's required of a husband? Ain't happening. It's only through the Spirit that I can do anything that I'm supposed to do as a husband. Same sort of thing here. any trial, if it's on my own, it's bound to fail.

I'll get through this a little bit. By faith we obtain this conquering through Him that loved us. Also note that this, in verse 37, it's through Him that loved us. It's the past tense. What does that mean? That's not a past, it continues. Uh, yeah, it's no, it's a, I think this is the error. Let me pull that up to this. He's talking about like, um, God said that he decided to love us and it dates back to that. Let me get this. Take a second to get that again. It's it's in the past. I have to see whether it's perfect.

Greek verb, it is aorist tense, past, and that makes sense. I just want to confirm what that means. It's aorist tense on this Greek active principle. So again, so it's in the past tense, it's aorist, which makes sense. I just want to confirm. So it's a, he who loved us. So it's a past tense. So in aorist, something that happened in the past, what would that point to?

The cross. The cross. And that's what Newell brings out a lot. It points all back to the cross. He goes through verse after verse that emphasizes God's love exhibited at the cross. So we're overwhelmingly conquerors through God who loved us. And how did he love us? Christ on the cross. To death. To death. Through Christ's death. You know, several of the past tense ones.

God so loved the world, John 3.16.

Hearing His love that God loved us and sent His Son, 1 John 4.10. Also Christ loved.

Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, Ephesians 5.25.

And the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me, Galatians 2.20. So this loved in the past tense, so we're overwhelmingly conquerors through God who loved us. pointing back to the cross.

And what does that mean? That means we were placed into Christ at that point, all who were believers. So we're overwhelmingly conquerors when we're in Christ. Does that mean it has ongoing abiding effects? No. This is the past act of Christ crucified for us. He loved us, loved us, past tense, by being crucified. And what that does is put us into Christ. We're overwhelmingly conquerors by what He did on the cross, what He did at the cross. The other thing ours does is state a fact. Yes, it's a fact. So again, this points back to the cross, that He loved us. He went to the cross for us.

And then by that, all the rest, our co-crucifixion, our placement into Him, our position into Him. Okay? I was going to say that As far as we know, all but one of the disciples is martyred, and every one of those guys were overwhelmingly conquering the whole time.

That's why in Romans 8.18, I consider this nothing. The trials I go through is nothing when I compare it to the glory that's going to be revealed to us. Is that the perspective we have when we go through a trial? You want the honest answer? The honest answer. I know what the honest answer is. I mean, if you're all honest, you'd say no. But that's why he gives us these verses, is to comfort us in those trials.

And again, the fact that it's in love, not because out of malice. It's out of love. That changes the whole perspective when you go through a trial. At least in my mind, with the Holy Spirit working on me, it changes everything when I realize that The two things, which we've learned in here earlier, that He's a sovereign God, He uses all things. He's a sovereign God, He's in control of it all. And that He loves us. Those two principles give me peace through all the trials.

I was thinking that if you gave the honest answer and said, well, I don't really... Well, you have to allow the fact that God has put you in a circumstance so that you can learn this. You know, it's like that one hungry heart said, if God is going to give you songs in the night, you must first make night.

Yeah, exactly. So I think it's a process where when you have a trial, you understand, oh, I see what he's doing here. So at the end of the day, I'm going to understand and actually know from an experiential standpoint that I am more than a conqueror. What is the basis of that at the end? I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. It ultimately, everything comes down to faith.

Do you believe that? And that's what he's working into us through these trials. Do you believe these things? Do you believe what he just said here? Well, by the fact that it's happening to a person, isn't that the truth that he believes? Well, your faith has to be tried. And this is the trial.

This is the trying, so that he can confirm in you or affirm in you, like Hebrews 11.2 says, the Spirit gave him witness that not only do you believe, but now there's a confirmation that your faith was not in vain. In Hebrews 12, now no chasing for the present seemeth to be joyous. 1211a. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised by it. Even through that we're more than conquerors.

That's how you get to be from an experiential standpoint. You learn that. But he's working out to believe it. Ultimately believe these truths that's true about you. You can't be persuaded off of them. No. Ultimately all this is do you believe what's true about you? What's already true about you? And what's already true about what God did, that's again the past tense. He loved us. Past tense. He died for us and placed us into Christ.

Is part of that more than overcomers because of the position that we've been given? Oh, it's absolutely. That's all of it. What position do we have outside of that? No position. So whether we do well in a trial or fail in a trial, that position Never changes, never changes.

This is conditionally the process of conforming us to the image of him. We already have the position. It's now conforming us to the image. He uses these things, which he's already said earlier in the chapter, he's conforming us to the image of it. How does he do that? Right here. Exactly how he does it. So, again, you know, again, when you We look at the trees through the forest or whatever. We look at the trees and we get all this. But when you look at the whole picture, it all fits. It all makes sense.

And again, the fact that we're in Romans, this is just the foundation. And we're going to expand on all this and all the different epistles as it comes up. But this is just the basics. This is the 101, Christianity 101. And if you start to understand these things, Again, you get all the rest of them, the peace, the rest, the comfort.

Because in a trial, you realize, God's in control of this. God's the one doing this. And He's chasing, He's child training me to do something, to get better. What is the better? The conforming to the image. So again, these are incredibly important verses. So, did you have something? Or just...

Oh, I thought you were Question 7, from verses 38 and 39, what is not listed that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? So, 38 and 39. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, give me an example of something that is not covered by this list. Nor any other thing. What isn't covered? Come on, all you legal scholars. Give me the loophole in here. Flesh. Flesh. Is that covered in here? What's the first thing? His flesh. That's not separating us. If you want, first thing here, death. Can't separate us. See a flesh. Okay? So, is there anything that you can think of that doesn't fit in these categories? Why is he convinced? We're getting to that. We'll look at a few of these things that cannot separate us from death.

First, death nor life. So Newell brings us out the significance of the order, death first, then life. And this illustrates the fear of death is gone. Do you fear death? No. It's the very first thing. Death before life. And so, in Hebrews 2, 14-15, Therefore, since the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their life.

The sting of death is gone. Gone. First thing, can death separate us from His love? No. So, now life. Newell stated it clearly. But just as death cannot separate us from this unchangeable love of God, neither can any circumstances of life do it. So, death can't separate us. Anything in life separate us from His love?

Any circumstance? Okay, next one. What about angels? Can they whoop us? Change anything in us? What about the bad angels, the ones who are thrown out? Can they separate us from His love? Oh, they can do us. We can do a whole bunch of stupid things. But we're looking at it from the other perspective, God's love. Can an angel separate us from God's love? None can separate us. So the other one, what is meant by principalities? What's a principality? They can't separate us from God's love. What is it?

Government of some sort. Government? Like an institution. Others? institutions in the spiritual realms. Spiritual realms, these are the principalities, like who is the principal of the earth and the air? The sun and angel. Satan and that, so... I think of it as levels of authorities in the spiritual realm. You know, like you have High commanders, middle commanders, low commanders, you know. Anybody. It's a level of authority.

But there's nobody in whatever level can separate us from, but these are more spiritual realms. There's anybody who can challenge us spiritually can never separate us from the love of God. So if you look at Ephesians 6, 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." So, that's about the realms. Nowhere in heaven or earth or any place, any spiritual realm can separate us from, any power level can separate us from the love of God.

Next one, "...nor things present, nor things to come." That's pretty good. Anything right now going to separate us from the love of God? What about in the future? In eternity? That's a pretty cool thing. We have an eternity with a God who loves us. The God of the universe. The God who created everything. The God who created every atom in my body. Forever. forever will love me." Well, you know, to a mature Christian, nothing in our present realm really matters. It doesn't matter. In Job's case, he lost everything. In his present days, he lost all his kids, he lost all his crops. Everything. Animals. Family.

And it doesn't separate him from God. Nope. God still loved him. God still loved him. You know, that's always the example. You know, that even though all those trials came to him, God still loved him. And again, he knew Job's heart, because he, and again, think of what happened. Did Satan just go and start beating on Job?

What happened first? He had to ask permission. Yeah. God's the one who set him up. But he knew his heart. And he said, I'll let you sift Job. But you can't take this. Yeah. Went up to him again. Well, you know, you're pampering him. He says, OK, well, you can do anything to his body, but you can't take his life. Right. But again, God allowed that, ultimately for his glory. And to a point. For a young Christian, I imagine losing some things would be devastating. It was to me, back 20 years ago. It was devastating. I got angry at God.

You know, but he still loves me. Yeah, still loves you. In the case of your family and what's going on now, he still loves each and every one of them, even going through those trials. And again, nobody in the present can separate us, nor ever in the future separate us from the love.

There isn't a new creature that's going to come and separate us from the love. There isn't something out there in the future that will separate us from his love. Nothing. So this gives us peace knowing that there is nothing now or in the present life nor in the eternity to come that can separate us from the love of God. So continuing on again, nor powers. Is there any power that can separate us from God's love? One translation says the forces of nature. Yeah. In other words, climate change.

Don't even open up that can of worms. I could go on for three days on that one. You know, it's actually sad to see, you know, there was a recent one, the woman who addressed the 16-year-old who addressed the UN. Her whole life is in shambles, shouting, The end of the earth is coming and all that you and I and everybody before her who's going to end up killing the world. And look at her. She's a mess. Yet that climate strike, whatever, to see all these kids who are just devastated by this. She's in a constant state of fear. That's the fear. And that, you know, puts it in great perspective for us who are believers. Do we have any fear of that?

By Him all things are created in heaven and earth and by Him all things are held together. Exactly. And that goes from the micro to the macro. From every cell in my body, every atom in my body to the universe that you see around you. Even the ozone layer. As much as it is, the hurricane, I just saw something, there was another hurricane or something.

Is he in control of that one? Oh yeah. And again, this fear of climate is because they don't have the peace of knowing Christ, being in Christ. Who's the one in control of all this stuff? Right. Wouldn't you say that all of these issues that he's mentioning here all have to do with fear?

Because, you know, we've had discussions about why is there such a high suicide rate in our society today? And it's because one of the reasons I think it is because we are constantly inundated with things to be afraid of. You know, the girl, the climate change girl is a good example. But why does a high school kid or a 30 year old guy or a 50 year old guy commit suicide? There's fear. Fear that somehow God doesn't love me anymore and whatever I'm involved in isn't going to work out because he doesn't love me. Well, I think that goes back to which I've used the example a hundred times is the Greenwood Village police who came in to when I was working at a consulting firm came in and they said all these rich kids and all this stuff, but they had suicides.

They have drug addiction. They have all these things. They had everything. They had all the money, houses, cars, latest of everything, but This secular cop said there's a hole in him. The hole is fear. And what is the fear caused by? I'm in this universe with nobody, you know? I got nothing. And I'm suffering through all this stuff, and climate's going to rock my world, Miami's going to be underwater, New York's going to be underwater, and I feel terrible. You know? I mean, all of these things, you have no, no, relief for the fear. That's right. And so you are in a world of hurt.

You know, it's like when somebody loses, like when we say about death, you know, and somebody loses somebody, how much more comfort do we have knowing that a believer when they die versus somebody who is not a believer? So is it fear of the unknown? Well, I think that's for somebody who doesn't know. Yeah, the fear of the unknown is much greater than the fear of the known. Does fear cause a lack of hope, or does lack of hope cause fear? Yes. Yeah, which came first, the chicken or the egg? I mean, both. The chicken or the egg first.

Without hope, there's no reason to live. Right. I mean, that's why I think they have no hope. The world's ending in five years. What do I do? I'm on a lifeboat that I can't get out of, and the lifeboat's going over the cliff. Well, you see, the very first admonition here is, can death or life? The hardest one of that is life, not death. I think it is. You know, death, you're out. One way or the other. A suicide person would think, well, I'm going to take me out to death, and I'm out of here. But the person says, no, I'm going to have to live this again. I'm really fearful of that. It's ultimately tougher, the life end of it. Especially if you're not a believer. You look at the news and you look at everything going on. What are you thinking? I've got no options.

You know, every Monday I play with two guys that have Alzheimer's. And the wife of the drummer, she's an actress and she was in a play at the John Henn Theater at Lowry. And this play was called Three Tall Women. And it's about life is a total bummer.

You might have had a couple thrills when you were younger, but you're going to die. The whole ending of this thing was the beauty is that it will end. Well, for a believer, that's true. Death is one... I mean, we're going home. But to a non-believer... I mean, that just tells the need for the gospel in a nutshell. That's where people are. I hope he didn't have to pay. I did it for the sake of the drummer's wife. But I'll be using this to help her understand the gospel, because that is the perfect open door. Oh my God. I mean, all these things we're talking about, if you don't have Christ, or know these truths, that's why, again, this is so important for believers.

I mean, otherwise, if the flesh is still knocking on your door, keeps dragging you into these things, you're going to be in the same boat. If you don't believe what's being said here, you'll be drawn down too. That's why I think some of these Christians are killing themselves. They're not realizing this. The very importance of these verses and what we're learning right here, they don't understand. They just see the dark side and they succumb to the flesh. But they'll still be going to heaven. They will. And that's ultimately what will happen. They get into this where they don't understand this.

Exactly what we're going through are in these verses. And they see just the dark side and the flesh is telling them there's no light. There's no hope. There's nothing. And again, don't believe this stuff. Believe that it's terrible. God hates you. God left you. That's the ultimate that the flesh is telling you. These verses tell you otherwise. One of the lines in this play was, and we know we cannot believe in the foolishness of a life hereafter.

Yeah, the foolishness, yeah. All right, well, if we can continue through some of these things. Continue on about Nor Powers. This is kind of an interesting one. Newell hits this pretty hard. I didn't think about this, but Nor Powers. So what does that mean? Like forces? Okay, like? Energy. Energy? Like, uh...

He hits us pretty hard, which was kind of surprising. Like, let the force be with you. Yeah, I mean that, uh, you're succumbing to a movie. So, Things like this, should believers be afraid of Friday the 13th? Only if Jason's alive. What about walking under a ladder? Do you walk around it just because? There's some practical things, but what about seeing a black cat run in front of you?

Knock on wood. What about knocking on wood? If making sense, you know, I confess, I've done that. Knocking on wood. He comes hard on that. I thought, wow, that hit home pretty hard right there. Knocking on wood. What does that say? It's all good. What does that mean? God's not in control. For now, it's okay. Something good happened. But what does that say? I mean, what does that really ultimately say? Your faith is in the wood, isn't it? Pretty much.

Back to the climate change thing, it's about what we affect, not what God is doing. There are these forces, or, you know, that I, you know, yeah, it's great. It's going to come true because I knocked on wood. How stupid is that? So that is legalism in action. If I do this, then God will do this. Exactly. And I catch myself doing that after reading this. It's like, oh, what am I doing? Can we talk later? Yeah. The elders want to see me now. Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for again these verses and how critical they are to our understanding of how you love us, no matter what. The child training that goes on, you love us, and it's not because we deserve it, it's because we need it. We need that child training in order for you to conform us to the image of your Son, and to just ultimately by faith believe what is true about us, our position in Christ, and then conditionally conforming us to that image of Christ. You're using all things, which we just learned about in this chapter, all things to work together. So again, all these things work together.

And the important baseline is the fact that you love us and that there's nothing you do out of malice and carrying a big stick. You love us. And again, we realize that that is for an eternity, from now through eternity. We can't be separated from your love and what comfort, what peace, what rest we have in knowing that, even through the chastening that you bring upon us.

So we just thank you for that. We, uh, we thank you for all of your word to us. And, uh, again, the indwelling Holy spirit who is convincing us of these truths. So we just thank you for that. We, uh, we just pray for Mike too, as he brings us the message next meeting. And, uh, again, that all that we say and do will honor and glorify you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen.