(# 292) Romans 8 - Christianity Requires Full Persuasion

Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.  Barah Ministries teaches the Word of God from God’s perspective and not from the human perspective.  We want to know what God has to say to us though His Word, because we’re convinced that God knows exactly what He’s talking about.  And our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Christianity Requires Full Persuasion

 

When we look ahead a bit to Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 38, Paul’s first three words in the Koine Greek of the New Testament indicate “full persuasion.”  He says, “I am fully convinced.”  As I was reading that this week I thought of the members of this congregation, resident and non-resident, here at Barah Ministries.  I wonder how many of you are in a state of full persuasion.

 

You see, as I look around the room we’re in right now, I see renderings of our new church on the wall, the future home of Barah Ministries.  Yesterday I talked to a man who has helped others secure funding for capital projects like this.  One of the things I told him is that with the exception of the deacons of the church, Denny and Larry, I don’t think there’s another soul in the congregation who REALLY believes this project will come to pass.  In fact, there are people who have left the church who have said to me, “Barah Ministries is never going to grow.”  I guess they weren’t fully persuaded.

 

I mean no insult by saying that you might not be fully persuaded.  I just know people.  We need to see it to believe it, rather than realizing that in God’s plan, you’ll see it when you believe it.  Having something come to pass out of nothing requires full persuasion.  The apostle Paul says it this way in Philippians, Chapter 3, Verses 12 to 14…

Philippians 3:12

Not that I have already obtained it (the items in Philippians 3:10…that I may know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death), nor have I already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

 

Philippians 3:13

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but ONE THING I DO: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead…

 

Philippians 3:14

…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

The past does not dictate the future, except for those who think so…and that is why the mass of humanity lead lives of quiet desperation…we believe that we are doomed to our present mediocrity…our present situation…but I say NO!  Paul indicates a single mindedness here…ONE THING I DO… everything in God’s plan is singular and single minded and focused.

 

I feel like I owe this new facility to those of you who have hung in here…to those of you who have moved here…to those of you who contribute here…and I am quite single-minded about it…and if I am the only one left at the end, it will still be built to the glory of our God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

James warns us about those who refuse to believe…James, Chapter 1, Verses 5 to 8…

 

James 1:5

But if any of you lacks wisdom, and some of you do, let him ask of God the Father, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and wisdom will be given to him.

 

James 1:6

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

 

James 1:7

For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord…

 

 James 1:8

…being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

 

James makes several accusations throughout his letter concerning those who are double minded.  We live in a time when people are so passive, they don’t believe anything is possible.  It is a double-minded time…a time of doubt… a time of confusion…all thoughts the world system sponsors and we willingly adopt, perhaps to save ourselves from the disappointment that comes with caring for someone and commitment to something.  I do not share the world’s viewpoint. 

 

I look forward to the day when people will pass our facility and look on with envy and amazement concerning what can happen when your faith is single-mindedly placed in the Supreme Being of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and when none of your confidence comes from the opinions of people.  In Second Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 3, Paul describes the brainwashing of the world…

 

Second Corinthians 11:3

But I (Paul) am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

 

Welcome to a place to worship with a Pastor that is fully persuaded about what the Lord is able to do with a small group of powerless people through the simplicity and purity of confidence in Him.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

INDESCRIBABLE

Chris Tomlin

 

The opening song for this lesson is INDESCRIBABLE by Chris Tomlin, a song that points to the possibilities our God is able to bring to pass.

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father…we may as well call you the Father of the Impossible Dream… because You are completely able to do anything…thank you for giving us Someone in Yourself whom we can trust with our impossible dreams and with our single-mindedness…

 

We count on You to deliver us in all the things we are unable to do…and we expect the victory in all those things that the world claims are impossible… give us the endurance to persevere until the absolute confidence we have in our total victory through Your deliverance shows up…Father reward our full persuasion…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name... Amen.

 

Let’s begin this lesson by giving you a chance to make an offering…

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

In just a moment we’ll welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall to take the offering.

 

Second Corinthians, Chapter 9, Verse 7 says…

 

Second Corinthians 9:7

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

 

Let your choice be your guide as you give this week…and don’t forget that

your church needs help during the summer months, too, when you get vacation brain…

 

Please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

Colossians 3:1

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, and you have, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

 

OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Christianity Requires Full Persuasion

 

We press on in our study of Romans, Chapter 8 with the next two verses… Verses 36 and 37…

 

Romans 8:36

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.”

 

Romans 8:37

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us unconditionally.

 

In Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 31 to 35…we are forced to the conclusion that God’s unconditional love for us is real.  Paul asks us a series of rhetorical question…WHO will separate us believers in Christ from the unconditional love of Christ?  WHAT will separate us believers in Christ from the unconditional love of Christ?  The answer is a loud and resounding NOTHING!  Yet the troubles of the Christian Way of Living are real… tribulation, distresses, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.

Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 36 makes it clear that even thought God loves us unconditionally…as part of that love he trains us…

 

Romans 8:36

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.”

 

Without the training of these things…tribulation, distresses, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword…no victory!  How many of us have been deceived into thinking that we are going to get the Crown before the Cross?  How many of us think, today, that life is just going to hand things to us without the effort…without the sweat and the blood it takes to succeed.  And truly none of us are able or willing to push ourselves to the level of intensity required to be great.  It is tribulation, distresses, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword that push us.

 

Verse 36 starts with, “Just as it is written,” a reference to an Old Testament passage in Psalm 44.  In the passage, the Psalmist complains that God’s people are suffering even though they have remained faithful…and after reflection, the Psalmist concludes that suffering must be for God’s sake.  Psalm 44, Verses 17 to 26…

 

Psalm 44:17

All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

 

Psalm 44:18

Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way…

 

Psalm 44:19

Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.

 

Psalm 44:20

If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange god (idolatry)…

 

 

Psalm 44:21

…would not God find this out?  For He knows the secrets of the heart.

 

Psalm 44:22

But for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

 

Psalm 44:23

Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?  Awake, do not reject us forever.

 

Psalm 44:24

Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?

 

Psalm 44:25

For our soul has sunk down into the dust; our body cleaves to the earth.

 

Psalm 44:26

Rise up, be our help, and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.

 

How does it feel to go through these things…tribulation, distresses, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and a sword?  It feel horrible…it feels like hell on earth.  It feels like we are “sheep constantly being led to the slaughter.”  Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 36…

 

Romans 8:36

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.”

 

Christians face death all day long in Satan’s kingdom.  The Koine Greek of the New Testaments says, “We are being killed all day long.”  In the first century, for many of the Christians it was physical death…for Christians today it is a mental torture, an anguish, a pressure that is almost unbearable.  Everywhere we look…total depravity…in relationships…in families…in government…we can’t wait to see which goofball of the evil empire gets the next crack at completely ruining our country…destruction of our military, dismantling of our constitution, perversion of our family structure, and the tanking of our economy are not enough… next it will be our safety…we are being softened to give up any way of protecting ourselves.  And here we sit, like passive frogs in cold water, not noticing the changes around us and the destructive power of these changes on our lives…men have become absolutely passive to the point that it drives women absolutely crazy because women are being forced to take roles in the family and in society that they absolutely are not equipped for and that they don’t want…at the point… while men sit around playing their video games instead of leading…and these men don’t notice the deterioration of the world around them.

 

Yes…we are being slaughtered in the mentality.  And we willingly comply.  Yet God allows it for our good.  Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 11…

 

Second Corinthians 4:11

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

 

We are constantly reminded that in human weakness, divine power is at its greatest effect.  We are slaughtered daily so God’s power can deliver us daily, over and over again, to total victory.

 

Let’s take a music break.

 

MUSIC BREAK

HOW EXCELLENT IS THY NAME

Larnelle Harris

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Christianity Requires Full Persuasion

 

Many people think, when they see Christians suffering, that we actually are the ones who induced the suffering, mostly because people think suffering happens because of our sins.  We are not suffering for our sins…Hebrews, Chapter 10, Verses 11 to 14…

 

Hebrews 10:11

Every (Levitical type) priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins…

 

Hebrews 10:12

…but the Lord Jesus Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God the Father (an indication of finished work)…

 

Hebrews 10:13

…waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet (a present from God the Father).

 

Hebrews 10:14

For by one offering the Lord Jesus Christ has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

 

We have the full acceptance of God the Father as perfect, holy and blameless in His eyes ONCE and for all time because of what Christ did at the Cross.  Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verses 7 to 12…

 

Second Corinthians 4:7

But we believers in Christ have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…

 

Second Corinthians 4:8

…we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing…

 

Second Corinthians 4:9

…persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…

 

Second Corinthians 4:10

…always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

 

Second Corinthians 4:11

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

 

Second Corinthians 4:12

So death works in us, but the resurrection life works in you.

 

Why is it that it is constantly being made clear to you that the Pastor is nothing?  So that it can also be clear to you that the message is everything.  God wants you to be single minded.  In the Pastor’s human weakness is divine power manifest.  And believe me, if you become a Pastor and you are not fully persuaded, you’ll quit.  You get “burned out.”  Second Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verses 5 to 7…

 

Second Corinthians 7:5

For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.

 

Second Corinthians 7:6

But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus…

 

Second Corinthians 7:7

…and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.

 

It is amazing to me how when we go through the toughest trials, God always moves resources in place to give you a word or a touch or a perspective that keeps you going through the hell fire.  Thank you to all those who play that role for me…the human sanctuaries who live the Word of God and don’t just talk about it…refreshment from the most unlikely of sources…

 

Through our suffering the Lord is training us in a character pattern… Hebrews, Chapter 12, Verses 4 to 11…

 

Hebrews 12:4

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin…

 

Hebrews 12:5

…and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons…“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him…”

 

Hebrews 12:6

“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”

 

Hebrews 12:7

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

 

Hebrews 12:8

But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

 

Hebrews 12:9

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

 

Hebrews 12:10

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

 

Hebrews 12:11

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

 

I guess the conclusion we can make about being killed daily is that God allowing this is the ultimate sign of divine love…God the Father had this love for His Son…and He has the same love for us.  Are you fully persuaded?

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

The Most Important Decision of Your Life

Matthew 22:42

“What do you think about the Christ (the Messiah)…?”

 

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.//For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

 

John 10:9

Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, (maybe you will and maybe you won’t you have a choice) he will be saved, and then he will go in and out and find pasture.”

 

Luke 23:42-43

And the repentant thief was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”// And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

 

CLOSING SONG

HOW GREAT THOU ART

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION

 

We pray that You protect our steps as we go out into the world, Father…and that you keep us on the narrow way, completely dependent on You and Your Guiding, Mentoring Spirit…we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

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