More than Conquerors

Okay, Romans 8. Verse 35 through 37 is where we're going to spend most of our time this morning. Let's start by looking at verse 31. Rachel, would you read for us? My voice is a little bit Would you read verse 31 through 39? Just kind of get the context of where we're at this morning. So 31 through 39, would you read for us, Rachel?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creative thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Okay, great, thanks. So we're going to look at 35, 36, and 37 for our time this morning. So we see that 35 starts off here with, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And so the idea here of separate is to divide or to part, to pull apart or to put asunder. And the love that's being talked about here is the agape love referred to, and it's the unconditional love which Christ has for us. The agape love that His love for us isn't conditioned upon how we act or how we respond to Him. It's that unconditional love that He has for us. So, who shall separate us from the love of Christ starts off in verse 35.

So what we have here is a rhetorical question, and it's going to expect a negative answer, and it makes it a second-class conditional clause. A couple weeks ago, Roger talked about the rhetorical question expecting a positive answer, and that was going to be a first-class conditional clause.

But here we have this rhetorical question, who can separate us from the love of Christ? we know that no one is going to be able to separate us from the love of Christ. In no situation, no circumstance will ever be able to separate us from the love of Christ. And so, who shall separate us from the love of Christ could also be said the same way. Who shall separate us from the Christ who loved for us is a subjunctive our subjective genitive clause, and so it can be read, and I thought that was a good insight there as we look at this verse. Who shall separate us from the Christ love for us?

So what comes out of this when we look at it this way is this. The emphasis is not on what we do to maintain our love for Christ, but on what God has done in Christ to bring us into a relationship with Him. I thought that was really critical. Who will be able to separate us from the love of Christ? So is it talking about separating us from our love from Christ or from Christ's love for us? See, that distinction, I think, is critical. can be able, no one or no situation or no circumstance is going to be able to separate us from what God has done for us in Christ, through Christ, to bring us into a relationship with Himself.

Any thoughts or questions there? Nothing is going to be able to tear us apart from that. So because of what God has done, no one or anything will be able to separate us from Christ's love for us. Believers are so deeply positioned in Christ that nothing can divide us from his unconditional love. Something that maybe we take for granted sometimes. But if we really were to sit and stop and ponder that, this truth I think it has real profound impact in our lives to know that God is continually loving us. Rach, I know that she loves me and I know that she loves me a lot, but There might be times where I do something to her where I'm like, boy, I wonder if she's mad. I wonder if she's upset with me because of what I just said or what I just did.

You see? So, we can have confidence. And the point is, we can have confidence in God that we can't have in other people. Because God's character, because God's love is unchanging and is never ending. So I think as we consider that, it really is pretty profound. Thoughts? Let's look at slide two. So what he does next, nothing, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And so he goes into seven examples of things that cannot separate us from Christ's love. He goes through this list of seven different things.

Tribulation, which is simply affliction, pressure or pressing together, distress or narrowness, Persecution, the idea here is to put to fight or drive away. Famine or hunger. Nakedness, lack of sufficient clothing. Peril or danger. And then finally he says sword, meaning death by the sword.

So he uses these seven different things as an example of what these things cannot separate us from the love of Christ. As I looked at them, there's nothing tricky about them. They're there, they're straightforward. Things that he's putting up for example to show us that nothing can separate us from Christ's love.

So then he goes into verse 36, just as it is written. And where was this previously written? Here he quotes from Psalm 44 in verse 22. Just as it is written, verse 36, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Coming from Psalms. For thy sake we're put to death all day long.

For whose sake is referred to here? Yeah, pretty easy question. Okay, we'll get to that in a minute. I'm going to develop that point of tribulation and trials that they were going through at that time a bit. And kind of the question is, where is the love of God, right, when these things occur? I wasn't really going to go there, so we can go there now. Well, we don't have to.

God's so loving, why are people starving? Why do people die in the war? And what gives us a rest if this statement is true? Where does our rest come from as we look at that? I mean, we all go through some afflictions and tribulations, distress, persecution at times, for sure. Famine or hunger, not very often. Nakedness, not very often. That's right. Peril or danger, perhaps. Sore, rarely, but it does.

But I mean, the issue is, where, despite all those things, where does our comfort and rest come from that we believe that that's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here in our country, we may not have nakedness or some of these things, but there are other parts of the world that believers go through those things. We're going to talk about that in a couple of minutes.

I mean, but our rest comes from God's Word and what He has revealed and who believes. That's right. That's true. That's right, that's right. We're positioned and tucked in eternally in heavenly places. Therefore, even death itself is an exemplification of God's name, Christ's name. And we do believe that. That's right, that's right. And we believe it, particularly in Romans, where nothing is perceived.

I think that the rest in these different situations that we go through. We don't experience all of these like you pointed out, but we do to a degree some of these. I think the rest comes by faith in God's revealed words of the prior statement. Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Nothing. Nothing can. No circumstance that we find ourselves in, no person that might be confronting us for whatever reason, nothing is going to be able to separate us because we know that we are so deeply positioned into Him and in Christ, then blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, we are accepted in Him. Nothing can separate us from that.

You know, too, if even believers, if they don't understand that these are spiritual blessings that we're blessed with, we're blessed with all spiritual blessings. Because a lot of believers, when they start going through some of these things, If they don't understand how that can be happening, because aren't we blessed with all these blessings, then we must not be believing enough, or we must not be good enough Christians, or whatever.

I mean, I have friends who, as soon as they're being pressed together, you know, the pressure is on, they think something's wrong. They've done something. God's punishing them for something. Yeah, where are those blessings? Or if they're financials or not. I'm not being blessed enough. That's the problem here. Because you have to have a view that you're blessed with spiritual blessings.

If we live here, these things are going to happen. Because we live in the fallen world. We're going to get to it in a minute. As the world hated Christ, the world hates us. Therefore, we experience some of these different things that are looked at here. And it's by His great grace that He brings us into this atmosphere. Yeah. Nothing we deserve. Absolutely. It's by grace. If we deserve anything, we deserve quite the opposite. Talk about what we deserve. We deserve just the opposite. But He chose in His divine plan to bestow His love and His grace upon us. But so often these votes, this vote particularly, is so flippant in the way it's shared that the foundation is affirmed.

Yes, yes. We are put to death all day long. Margaret, you mentioned this, and the idea here is of constant danger of being put to death, and this happens all the time. Present, indicative, passive. I want to look at this here in kind of two phases. One is in the immediate context to the reader at the time that Paul was writing to, and then I want to look at it as we've talked about here for the past five minutes, the context to our own lives, how we go through some of the list here that we have before us. So we're put to death all day long, considered as sheep to be slaughtered, And the idea here is counted, reckoned, or numbered, destined, or regarded to be slaughtered.

This is interesting, the same word is used in Romans 6.11. We looked at that word reckoned or counted to be slaughtered. And also in chapter 8 here in verse 18. You see there it says for I consider or I reckon on. Same word there that's used. to be sheepish.

So what do you think Paul is talking about in the immediate context? This is where I think he's going. The Christians, who Paul is writing to, were experiencing difficult things. They were going through some very real type persecution that is being referred to here in this verse. Let's just take a little bit of a journey through Acts, and I think this is what Paul is contextually referring to to the readers who he sent the letter to in Rome. So, chapter 7, verse 54 through 60 of Acts. Okay, but now they heard this. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And behold, I saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of the young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen, as he called upon the Lord. and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against him. And having said this, he fell asleep."

So, when we read back in Romans, is tribulation going to separate us from the love of Christ? Is it distress, or persecution, or famine? I think this persecution that was happening to the believers in the early church is contextually what Paul was referring to. A little bit more of a journey here.

In chapter 8, chapter 3, there, Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women. He put them into prison. Chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, Now about that time Herod the king had laid hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword. Back in verse 35 of Romans 8, is the sword going to be able to separate us from the love of Christ? James experienced death by the sword here.

So this was real stuff that these people knew of and that Paul was writing about. If we continue on in chapter 12, talking about Herod, and when he saw that it, meaning what he did to James, pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. And now it was there in the days of the unleavened bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God." imprisonment and persecutions. And Paul himself was stoned and left for dead. We can read that over in 14 and verse 19. But the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

So this is what's, I think, in the immediate context being talked about. Paul wrote Romans in 57 AD and the temple was destroyed in 70 So persecution was taking place, as we just read, and more was on the horizon. So I think the immediate context, that's what Paul is referring to here. as Art mentioned, that the church has faced lots of persecution throughout the centuries. It wasn't only something that happened in the early church, it has happened throughout all the centuries.

I want to just make a mention of this as we're looking at it this morning. I'm going to read an article, and this article comes from International Release, which is a voice for the persecuted church. And this is a story of some folks in China and a house church activist attacked by the police.

It says, seven police officers made an unprovoked attack on a prominent Beijing house church activist and his mother as a pair walked near the 2008 Olympic Village. We know the Olympics are going to be there next summer. Human rights lawyer, Hui Wengie and his 70 six-year-old mother were kicked to the ground and taken to the Olympic Village police station for questioning. When Hua asked for his mother to be released, he was beaten repeatedly and had cold water. poured over him the next day, which was January 27th.

This is pretty recent stuff that I'm reading here. This is five weeks ago. Hua's wife, an evangelist, received a phone call from the police informing her that he had been sentenced to a month's detention and there has been no official written notification to date. according to China Aid. RI sources have not reported on the whereabouts of his mother.

So persecution is going on and I mean we know that. But I think it's important as we're looking at a verse like this. Is tribulation or distress or peril or sword or nakedness or famine going to separate us from the love of Christ? No, it's not. We saw it like in the early church in Acts and it's happening today as well.

About Four years ago, I think it was, I went to China and was helping to teach some leaders from the underground church. And so what we did was we flew in to China and landed kind of midday and then in the middle of the night we got in this van and laid down in the back of this van and they drove us to this building. I have no idea where it was. And so they drove into the building and they closed down the door behind us. And we got out of the van and we went up to the fifth floor of this building and the van left pretty quick. And then we stayed there for five days. We didn't look outside, didn't open the curtains. The curtains were shut. They were drawn on this building. We didn't open the curtains for a week and we talked to about 30 national leaders from the underground church in China.

Those people were experiencing what we're talking about here in Romans, in chapter 8, being distressed or narrowness. He felt closed in, in that building. They were experiencing a narrowness of life, and they had to get food, and so what they would do is By pairs, they would go out once a day and get food for that day. And they had rotation of how that would take place. And I don't know if you've ever been in a building or didn't look outside for five days, but boy, by the fifth day, I was really wanting to see outside. And they were there for a long time because they wanted to learn God's Word, because they wanted to be equipped. to teach others and to be better leaders of the underground church in China. They gave it up. They were experiencing tribulation. They were experiencing distress.

And so, I saw that, you know, and so it makes it real in one's mind of what's going on. And we had some English literature under the podium, so if the police came, we would, you know, kind of shove our Bibles aside and break out the English books and act like we would have been teaching English. And so that was real, live stuff. A couple of months after we left, the police raided that very building and that very facility and that very group of people.

They split it up, they busted it up, and several of the people that were there with us in that group went to jail, went to prison, because they were in that place studying God's Word illegally. It's happened, and I think that's what, in the context, what Paul was talking about in early church, and there's people in churches today that read this in a very literal and in a very real way.

But our difficulties come in different ways, like what we have talked about. John 15, 18-19 says, as the world hated Christ, it also hates believers. So we're going to experience difficulties and situations in a little bit of a different way. Also, I mentioned previously that we live in this fallen world and therefore we experience different difficulties.

So what are the tribulations that we go through? Boy, the list is endless. It might be people that are difficult people that are in our lives. Co-workers or friends or neighbors. Who knows what the difficult tribulations that we might go through. We're all living in fallen bodies. Our tribulations and difficulties might be physical things that we're going through. What are the distresses that we're going through, the persecutions?

Bob said we don't experience famine too much, and I agree with that. We do pretty well, I think, with food and clothing. We aren't, I think, rocking. I don't see anybody coming to church half-dressed. We're all looking pretty well with our clothing situation.

But we do go through of the various difficulties in our lives. So the point is, as we talked about earlier, by being rock solid in our position in Christ, whatever the difficulty is that we might find ourselves in, and we've probably gone through some this morning. I know that we went through some yesterday, and for sure we went through some this past week. I mean, you went through this time with your brother. There's a tribulation, and a trial, and a distress. But that cannot separate you from the love of Christ. And that's something that you can go to the mat on.

And every one of us here, if we were to go around the room and say, boy, this happened this week, or this happened this morning, or this happened yesterday, we all have them. Different ways in our lives. Verse 37. And all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. So verse 37 kind of even takes it to the next point. Not only can nothing separate us from the love of Christ, I mean, that's a wonderful truth in itself, but he goes a step further. We overwhelmingly conquer through these things. You're like, wow. This was enough. This was great. But this is like heaping greatness upon greatness. So what are all these things referred to in verse 37?

What do you guys think? I think the notes are pretty fine print, so if you're looking at the notes, maybe you're having a hard time seeing them, so don't cheat. So what do you think? In all these things, we overwhelm when we conquer. So what do you think all these things are referring to? Okay. Meaning tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, famine, peril, sword. Any other thoughts? No? Okay. What I did was this.

I had kind of a heavenly or spiritual list, and I also had an earthly, circumstantial list. So, you're right, but you're going to be part B of our list. So, what we're going to do is this. Spiritual or heavenly things, I think, need to be included in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer. So, as we look at this, and this picks up back in verse 26. In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer. Let me read through the list.

The Holy Spirit interceding for us. God causing all things to work together for good. We are called according to His purpose. His purpose for us is conformity to Christ's image. We are predestined, called, justified, glorified. God is for us and no one can be against us. Christ was delivered up for us. We have been freely given all things. No charge can be brought against us.

We cannot be separated from God's love." That's not a list of things that are going to be working together for good and causing us to exceedingly conquer the situation or circumstance that we might find ourselves in. spiritual wealth that is there, that God has put at our behalf because of His grace, that is working to cause us to exceedingly conquer.

Just contextually, what the scriptures have laid forth. And then if we were to look at the circumstantial or the earthly things, as Rachel pointed out beautifully, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, any trial or suffering that we go through in this life. Any other thoughts? What all these things might be referring to? Could he be referring to what he's about to say in the next few verses?

Sure. Yes, neither height, nor depth, nor angels, principalities, things present or things to come, powers. Yeah, nothing can separate us from the love of God. We're just in Christ Jesus. Sure. Yeah, good point. If we leave this morning with any doubt in our mind that we're defeated, something's wrong. If we leave with any doubt that anything can separate us from the love of Christ or that we can be defeated and that we can't find Christ to be a victory for us in the middle of difficult circumstances, if we leave with doubts of that in our mind, then we're missing what the Lord intended by the scripture, I think. It's an act of faith. Exactly right. You've got to believe in what it is that God has revealed in his word. You've got it.

So we overwhelmingly conquer. I'll just talk about this for a couple of minutes. So the idea here of conquer is to win a victory. overwhelmingly or more than. So we have these prepositions here. So what does it intensify as a verb? So the verb is to conquer, but we have overwhelmingly or more than conquer. So it doesn't just say conquer, it says we more than conquer or we overwhelmingly conquer. So in a sense here we have this super victor. The Lord is describing us as this way. Jim, I really love the key things here. To me, overwhelmingly conquered short sides this.

What does more than conquered mean? I mean, it puts it on a whole different plateau, doesn't it? Overwhelmingly conquered, that's like a 72-0 victory on the football field. Overwhelmingly conquered the opponent. But here, this is more than conquered. That's right, that's right, that's right. More than conquered. It takes you into another planet.

Our mindset is either you conquer or either you don't conquer. But we're talking about we've conquered but we've more than conquered. So the Lord communicates that to us as we believe in his revealed word. No contest. That's right, no contest. The idea is a lopsided victory where the enemy or the opponent is completely routed, gaining or surpassing the victory or hyper-conquerors.

Just trying to put some terms to this so we can kind of get our minds around it a little bit. So, what does it mean to overwhelmingly conquer? Hey, the Lord's telling us and we're going to believe it because He's written and revealed it to us that we that we are more than conquerors. So what does that mean to us? What does that mean? What does the Lord mean by that?

Let me see if I made note of that. I don't know if I did. You have that there, Dave, in your Bible? Okay. You know, I didn't look that up. Marga, I should have looked that up. Yeah. Because we're conquerors through Him. That's right. It's not because of us, but it's because of Him. We're not doing the conquering. He's doing the conquering, but because we're in Him, we are then the conquerors. That's right. So, I just was wondering if that's a, which I'm assuming it is, a completely past action, where it's passive on our part. Because of his, we're in him, he's working on our behalf, sure.

Jim Knifehurst at our 2nd Corinthians 2.14. Now, thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ. Yes. Okay, good. Yes. always causes us to triumph.

Again, I like to get this thing down to what does it mean that what you just read there, what does that mean to us in our daily lives as we go through situations, as we all have done and will continue to do, what does it mean? That we're going to be more than conquerors, no matter what circumstance comes, what does it mean? You've read a great parallel, cross-referenced verse, but how does that translate into our own lives on a practical basis? and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our pain. So our victory is not in the way we think about something, the way we plan and outline an agenda to overcome it. It points to inward, doesn't it? It doesn't point to the outward.

It's amazing that even though Our own belief may be faulty, the victory is there. If you look at the Old Testament, God's favorite thing to do is to take incredibly ridiculous odds and create victory out of it. So that outsiders or people looking from the outside can look in and say, well they didn't do it. It was God's power that did it.

So I think in our lives, it impacts us because it's a change of perspective. Because when you step back and you look at the situation, you go, boy, in the grand scheme of things, this is really just not as important as I feel it. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Thank you.

Okay, so is this talking about an outward circumstance of conquering or an inward spiritual conquering? Bob, you know, he communicated that perfectly. We're talking about an inward conquering. We're not talking about a change of our difficult circumstances that we might find ourselves in, as nice as that might be. And that might happen. And if it happens, hey, praise the Lord, no one's going to complain about it. And it does happen from time to time, great, no problem. I love this example in Acts chapter 16 in verse 22-25.

So what we find here is Paul being persecuted. And so the crowd rose up together against them and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had been afflicted with many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet and stocks.

But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. So this, to me, is a beautiful example of Paul and Silas going through, I mean, they'd been beaten, they were thrown into jail. What's their response?

Praise the Lord. Now, because of walking by faith, And the faithfulness that they knew of God, the character that they knew of God, they knew that nothing was going to be able to separate them from God's love. Because they knew that, because they believed in that, because they knew their position in Christ, therefore that brought praises to the Lord.

So it was an N-word. Now it's interesting that Right after that, there was this great earthquake and they were released from jail, which is cool, too. Not only were they inwardly experiencing the joy of the Lord despite their circumstances, because they were walking by faith in the Spirit, but then they were released from jail as well.

Do you like what you're saying there? You put a little aspect in there, too, that it's a downward from our position, who we are in Christ. It's not really inward towards our faith. You know, it has to be, it both has to be on Christ, right? Sure, absolutely. So, resting in our position, is what you're saying? And looking down from our position to our condition here on the earth? Sure, yeah. Because you can't look down unless you believe that's where you are. That's right, that's right. Okay so, no matter what situation we find ourselves in inwardly, we are super victors.

And what I mean by that is not, you know, not being self-focused. I'm not trying to say that by N-word. What I'm trying to say is that the fruit of the Spirit is N-word. Love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and gentleness, and self-control, and faith. That's what the Lord is doing in our lives, N-word. So, as we're walking by faith, resting in our position, the fruit of the Spirit is going to be evident in our lives. no matter what it is that we're going through on a daily basis.

Yeah? Isn't it more of a reckoning thing to be a Supervictor? Sure. To look at the victory that's already there. That's right. And saying, wow, that's the reality. Yeah, that's right. Rather than thinking, oh, I'm a Supervictor. Because of what he's already done? because of the victory that he has already gained, and because we are in him, therefore we're just walking in what has already been accomplished for us. It's a reckoning.

Sure, yeah, good point. comes from that, is what people see on the outside, who are unbelievers, or even believers, when we're going through those circumstances, and we have that, as Gail said, that reckoning. So we believe that, and that's what people then see on the outside, and they go, wow! That person at work or whatever, and they're going, I wonder how they're going through that circumstance like that. That's what people see. That's the epistle within their hearts. We talked about that over the weekend. I mean, that's the epistle, as Hal always talked about. That's what people see. What's the epistle they see from those circumstances?

And that's why the Lord has those circumstances working all things for good. for the glory of Him to shine through. Yeah, yeah. And then people say something, and then, okay, wait a minute, it's not us, it's the Lord. And so we can direct all the glory to Him, and it's an open door to share of Him. Okay, so, how is this conquering possible? It's what we're talking about, okay, and it's the last part of this verse.

It's through Him who loved us. It's not because of any ability of our own. It's not because we're able to muster up this inner peace despite what we're going through. It's because of Him. He loved us. It's because we're walking by faith in Him and we know what it is that He's done for us. As we walk by faith and rest in what God has done for us and is doing for us, we will experience inward spiritual victory no matter what situation we find ourselves in.

I want to just end our time this morning with the idea here that all things are through Him. They're not through us. I can tell you some things that are through me, and you don't want to know the things that are through me. And I don't want to know the things that are through you. But we want to know the things that are through Christ. And that's it. That's the only thing that we want to know. So I gave out some little stickies to some of you all this morning. And so, let's read through these verses here. The focus and the thought is how all things come through Christ.

So who has John 1.3? Just read it out.

John 1.3. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. All things have come through Him. Who has verse 7 of that John 1? Through Him, all men are going to believe. Okay? All men might believe, none are going to. Through Him, all men might believe.

Who has chapter 3, verse 17? The world through Him, it's through Him, might be saved. Who has Acts 13, verse 39? And by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified Okay, so by him, same thing, through him, talking about justification, through him comes justification. Who has Romans 5, 9? Okay, we're saved from wrath, how? Through him. Ephesians 2, 18, who has that one? Amy? Through Him we have access to the Father through one Spirit. So it's through what it is that Christ has done.

Philippians 4.13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Okay. Can you read it again? Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Yeah. I think that I think that Flippians 413 is different. Yeah. OK. OK. That is. Yeah. Yeah.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So how is it? It's not through us that we're able to do all things. I'm going to flop, but it's through Him. The focus isn't on us, the focus is on Him. It's through Him. Colossians 1, 19 and 20. You guys have it.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, I say, Through him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Okay, through him to reconcile all things to himself. Okay, and then finally 1 John 4, 9. You have that one, Donna? in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him.

Yeah, we might live through him. I'm talking about spiritually, that we would be able to enjoy the abundant Christian life as God intended it to be enjoyed. How? Through our own abilities, or through our own efforts, or through him? It's through him. As we're walking by faith, and dependence upon him, we'll be able to enjoy life as God intended it to be.

Not being separated from the love of God, but enjoying being more than conquerors despite what it is that God has done for us through his love for us. Let's pray. Lord, thanks for our time this morning. Thanks for your love which we cannot be separated from. Thanks that we are positioned in you and therefore we are more than conquerors because of what it is that you have done on our behalf in the past and present and you're going to continue to do in the future. So we believe in that and we rest in that and we rest in you. In your name we pray. Amen.