Well, today we're wrapping up a series we started a little over a month ago called Wonderful. And we've been going through the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you're new to church, by the way, if it's your very first time here, very first time watching, and I say we're going through Romans, and you're like, I don't know what that is. It's one of the letters in the New Testament, and don't worry, you're not gonna be behind, you're not, it's not gonna go over your head for a few reasons. Number one, you're smart. Number two, God has created you with the capacity to understand Him. That's just the truth. You have been created by God with a deep capacity to understand spiritual things. You'll be amazed at how fast things click. But we've been going through this letter in the New Testament called Romans. It's a very deep, very comprehensive explanation of who Jesus is and what he does for us and what life connected to him looks like. And we just so happen to be at the very end of chapter 8, which might be the climax of the entire thing, maybe even the entire New Testament, depending on who you talk to. It's a powerful, powerful section of verses. And it begins with this question: What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? That's how this section starts. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? And then what it does is it asks several questions. And typically what you do when you read this part of Romans is you just blow past the questions because you want to get to the end of Romans chapter 8, which is this battle cry, rallying sort of declaration of who we are in God's eyes and what he's done for us, and it's awesome. But what we've done is actually taken each question really seriously and looked at it very carefully. Because if you can answer these six questions, questions like if God is for you, who can be against you? And if he didn't even spare his own son, will he not give you everything that you need? Who dares accuse you if God has chosen you? Who dares condemn you if God has declared you to be innocent? Those are the kind of questions we've been going through. If you can answer those questions, if you've got a strong understanding of those questions, you have an incredibly mature and secure faith. And I think it's vital for us to understand that God intends you to be incredibly secure about who you are in Him and about where you stand with Him. Where you stand with God matters more than where you stand with anybody else. Everyone in the world can be against you. We talked about that the first week. Everybody in the world can be against you, but if God is for you, if you have right standing with God, it doesn't really matter. But it's vital that we have security in terms of where we stand with God. Some of you right now, you're sitting next to someone maybe you've been married to for decades, and you have a very secure relationship with that person. And you know that they love you and you love them. But you need to understand that that relationship, as strong as it may be, is nowhere near as secure as the relationship you have with the Father. That is not to make you insecure of that relationship. So don't like squeeze their hand and be like, we're good, right? You don't have to do that, okay? But just know that the most secure relationship you have on this earth, the most passionate love someone on this earth feels for you, does not even begin to compare to the security that you have with God the Father if you belong to Jesus. Some of you are sitting next to parents, and your parents love you. Or you're sitting next to your children, you love them, and you know what you would do for them. And as secure as that relationship is, it does not even begin to come close to how secure your relationship with God the Father is. But very often, as believers, we struggle with an insecurity in terms of where we stand with God. And in some moments, we're confident, we're like, I know God is for me and he loves me and he's pleased with me, but then sometimes we have this weird, this weird tendency. I say weird, it's not weird at all, it's normal. We have this tendency to question Are God and I okay? Is He okay with me? Are we in a good place? Because we struggle, because we fail. And a voice comes into our head and it accuses us. And it tries to get us to believe that maybe we're we're on thin ice with God. But that voice is not the Father. That voice is our enemy. The accuser, we talked about that a few weeks ago. Never confuse the voice of the accuser, which is Satan, with the voice of the Father. The Father affirms. Our enemy accuses. So today we're gonna we're gonna jump at the very last question. This is powerful. And so I want to go ahead and just open up to Romans chapter 8, verse 35. This is what we've all been waiting for. This is the moment, this is where it gets big. And so you you have permission to cheer. Not that you need it, but there are some scriptures that it would be appropriate to cheer. Don't fake it. Don't cheer because you have to. But if you get excited when we read this, feel free to express it. That's all I'm saying. All right? Romans chapter 8, verse 35. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death, as the scriptures say, for your sake, we are killed every day. We're being slaughtered like sheep. No. Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. There you go. Now it makes it pretty clear there, what can separate us from God's love? Nothing. But then our minds can be like, but what about these things? What about my mistakes? What about my failures? What if my life is falling apart? Is that a sign that God has has abandoned me? He's not with me, even though it says definitively, no, no, nothing can separate you from God's love. We struggle sometimes to hold true to that, at least to hold tight to that. But again, my hope today is that we walk out of here and make a commitment in our hearts to never question this again. Now it's interesting how this ends because it actually kind of brings us right full circle back to the very beginning of Romans chapter 8, which says, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation to those who belong to Christ Jesus. So Romans 8 begins by saying there's no condemnation to those who belong to Jesus, and then it ends by saying there's no separation for those who belong to Jesus. But I want us to explore this. I want us to really go deep into this today, to ask some tough questions so that we have that security we're meant to. So I want to start with this. Do you belong? That's the question. That's the one we're starting with, anyway. Do you belong? It says that there is no condemnation, and then we know no separation of love for those who belong to Jesus Christ. So do you belong? Have you ever been in a situation in life where you just you know I don't belong here? This isn't I shouldn't be here. Anyone ever see the movie Wayne's World? And anyone kind of want to date yourself and go, yeah, alright. Yeah, Abs, you can clap for Wayne's World, I guess. It's a good movie. Yeah, someone's like, I love that movie. Um so there's this scene in the first Wayne's World movie where they get backstage passes to this concert, and they're like VIP tickets that they've clearly never had. And so when it's time to go backstage, they've like got these tickets and they're like holding them up to everyone, like, we belong here, we belong. Like, we have look, we have these. And then they go and they're talking to the band, and then if like five minutes into their conversation, they just fall under their knees and go, We're not worthy, we're not worthy, like, we don't belong here, you know? Have you ever had a situation like that in life where you felt like that? I've had a few, and and this, by the way, is a story. If you've been at his hands for a while, I've told it. I don't care. I'm gonna tell this story once a year until I die. And I actually, in my my Google Docs where I keep all the messages I've given, I will search when is the last time I told this story, and I look for keywords, I'm like, oh cool, it's been eight months, I'm good. So one once per year average, I'm good. Um years ago, when when Megan and I had had yet to have kids, and so we had this thing called free time. We could go, like, what do you want to do today? I don't know, we'll figure it out. Um I've always been a big basketball fan, and I was a passionate fan of college basketball, and and especially Duke basketball, just been part of my life since I was a kid, and and so I uh I would spend my free time writing articles online about different college basketball things, and then I would submit those articles to different websites, and and over the years I started to have some articles get picked up, and it was kind of a snowball that happened really fast in 2009. And all of a sudden, I have some articles that get picked up by some pretty big websites, and and I got a phone call one day, and this was in late February, mid early February of 2009. And this phone call was from a guy who was high up at this one website that I would write for occasionally. He said, Justin, CBS has reached out to us, and CBS wants to contract our writers to cover the conference basketball tournaments this year. And we want you to be our ACC guy. ACC is the Atlantic Coast Conference, that's where Duke plays, North Carolina. Some Georgia Tech, any Georgia Tech fans here? Yeah, Georgia Tech. You know, it's it's tough being a tech fan. It's tough. But you're it's a great school. It's a great school. If your kids go to tech, by the way, you're gonna do great. You're gonna your future is secure. Uh, but if they play on the sports team, maybe not. I don't know. Um sorry. But like, you know, a lot of teams from around this area, Florida State, lots of teams. And so what was crazy about that is earlier that year, I had actually seen that the conference tournament was gonna be happening in Atlanta. I wanted to buy tickets to it, looked at the prices, was like, no, can't afford that. And Susan, who is one of the pastors here, had said, you should pray about that. And I did it because she told me to. But I felt really weird praying for tickets. It just felt like, God, you're he's so big. God, could you hook me up with some tickets? So then I get this phone call, and they're like, hey Justin, we want to pay you to go cover the tournament. And I was like, Well, what does that mean? And they said, Well, you'll have press passes. You will be you will be CBS, and and you're gonna sit press row, and then you're gonna have access to all the players and the coaches in the locker rooms, in the press conference rooms, you're gonna get to go and talk to them, and your job is to write an article after every game. And so I go from like praying for tickets to now I'm getting paid and I'm there, and it was it was amazing, but you want to talk about feeling like you don't belong? I mean, like, I just I'll never forget, just pulling up, and all these other people who like they knew where they were going, and I just sort of pick someone, like that person looks like they know what they're doing, and I just walked with them confidently, like, I hope they're going where I'm going. And I show up to this window and I say my name and and I say Justin McTears, CBS to get my press credentials, and I was like half expecting them to be like, you're not on the list, and I probably would have been like, Yeah, that makes sense. I'm I'm gonna go. I don't I don't belong here, right? That that's that's okay. But they give me this press pass, and I'm like, this is this is awesome. I go and and there's this area where they have all this food set up, but I don't really know if it's for the press or just like certain people and coaches, and so I'm kind of like hanging back, like I want to eat it, but I don't know if I'm gonna get in trouble. And so I kind of wait until a few people start eating, and I I walk and I grab some food, half expecting security to walk up to me and being like, What are you doing? Put that down. I'm like, I'm sorry, never been here before. But I'm just faking it. And then I'll never forget like a classic moment was I got to interview uh who at the time was like a hero of mine, Coach K for Duke. And I'm interviewing, I'm face-to-face with Coach K. And if you're a college basketball fan, a basketball fan, you know he's a very divisive person in many ways. Um he's you either love him or you hate him, but we can all agree he's known for a few things. His warmth. Um he just has a warmth about him, and he's just he's just a very, he's very handsome man. Um, you know, he's just he's got one of those personalities where just his face makes you feel comfortable with who you are. Right? So here's the thing: if you if you're a basketball fan, if you're not, you won't care about this. He's like 6'1, by the way, which you don't expect. And so I'm sitting there and I get to interview Coach Kay, and I ask him my question. And I say, you know, Justin McTear, CBS, and I say, the question, ask it. And he goes, I don't like that question. And then he moves on and calls on somebody else. Like, that's that was my first, that was the moment. I had this moment with him. Um, but it was crazy because I'm I'm around all these other people who are like, they had journalism degrees and they've done this for years, and I just got a phone call a week ago and is like, hey, you want to do this? And I said, sure. And the whole time I'm there, I had a blast. Duke won the whole tournament. I'm in their locker room as they're celebrating. It was amazing. But the entire time I had this just pervasive feeling, I shouldn't be here. I don't belong here. At any moment, someone's gonna tap me on the shoulder and go, and I would go, yeah, alright. Makes sense. I felt like that the whole time. And I even did it the next year, and I still felt that way because I was like, I just don't, I don't feel like I belong. I'm sure we've all had experiences like that where you feel like I don't belong, I know I'm here, I know that things look good, but it just something inside of you has an insecurity. But I want us to understand that you should never, ever, ever feel like that with God. You should never, for a moment, if you're a Jesus follower, feel like you don't belong with God. And if you ask, well, well, how do I how do I know I belong? Like, how do I know? There was a young man that I was having lunch with a couple years ago, and this is a guy that's very involved in our church and serves and he has a heart for God, and he is one of those people that you spend time with him and you just know that God is so pleased with this person. Sometimes it's funny as a Jesus follower. You can be very confident in how God feels about someone else, like it's obvious to you that God loves them and is pleased with them, but you can be very insecure about yourself at the same time. And so he was just expressing that he didn't feel close to God. And he just didn't feel like he and God were in a good place, and and he was very insecure at the time, and just sharing with me, just really being honest and saying, I just I feel like I'm a disappointment, like I'm not doing the things I'm supposed to do. And he's going through this list of of why he feels insecure about his standing with the Lord. And I had to just cut him off at one point and say, I have a really simple question for you. And it's the the question that comes next. I said, Do you do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe that he is your Lord and Savior? Do you believe that he died on the cross for you? Do you believe that he's God's Son? Do you believe that his sacrifice on the cross was enough to cover your mistakes and failures and your shortcomings? And he looked at me and just with a resolute expression. Yes, I believe. And I'm like, all right, you're then you're good, you're you're good. I'm not saying there aren't moments where we recognize that we need to make adjustments in life, but but it's one thing to make adjustments to be the best version of yourself. It's another thing to know where you stand with God. My children, all of them, need to make major adjustments to be the best versions of themselves. Okay? And I need to make major adjustments to be the best father that I can be on a daily basis. That does not change the standing that we have with one another. Belief matters to God. It's very important to him. And it's really interesting because right now, in kind of uh where church culture or Christian culture is sort of heading in the last 10, 20 years, there's been this sort of in uh the theology circles is called deconstruction. There's been this deconstruction movement to deconstruct our faith. And look, there's some aspects of church that need to be deconstructed, but not nearly as many as some people believe. And what's happened as a result of some of this deconstruction is the the idea of faith and the necessity of belief has come into question. You find more and more people who say that, you know, belief in faith is optional. That you don't even really have to believe to have a right standing with God. And the idea is almost that like asking people to have faith is just it's too conditional, and that's foolishness. God's love for every person on this earth is unconditional. God's love for you is unconditional. But there is a condition by which we enter into his love, and that's that's called faith. It's belief. And that's it. Like if people ever want to get baptized and they're talking themselves into it or out of it, and like, I don't know if I'm ready, I'm like, well, do you believe? Yes, then you're ready. Because it's not a finish line, it's a starting point. Belief is the only requirement. But belief, it matters to God. It'd almost be like this. Think about if you won the lottery. And I know since we're all Christians, none of us even play a lottery, right? We wouldn't do that. Um, but like if it gets high enough, like I might. Um, you know, because you just I'm at the gas station, might as well. Uh but you know, if if you won the lottery, and I'm I'm I'm not even sure how it works these days, but like I'm picturing the old days where like a on the local news, like, we're going to the Powerball now, and they read those numbers. If you were sitting there holding the winning ticket, when that last number got called and you're like, it's a match, you are, you would say probably, I'm rich. I've got it, I won. But you still have to go and redeem the ticket.

Right?

You'd actually you'd have to go and turn it in and be like, hey, here's my ticket. And then they would be like, wow, ding ding ding, and I don't know what streamers come down, confetti, I'm not sure what happens. Uh but but you would, that's what you would have to do in order to receive that fortune that is yours. And no one on earth would be like, you mean I have to go redeem the ticket? That is ridiculous. Like, that's just too much. That's too much to ask. The money should just show up at my door. They should know that I have it, right? You would be like, that's a very tiny, tiny condition for receiving what you want. What I'm trying to say is that God's love is unconditional. But there is this very small condition by which we enter into his love. Or at least enter into our experience of his love, enter into a relationship with him. And it's it's just that's all it is. It's all show you some scriptures. Matthew chapter 5, verse 11. This is Jesus talking. That matters. Actually, I'm gonna go to a different one. I apologize. Let's go to John 11 40. Jesus responded. Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believed? There's an if there. But it's not a big if. He didn't say, hey, didn't I tell you you'd see God's glory if you believe, and if you prayed 10 times a day, and if you went to church every single Sunday? If you read your Bible every day, okay, if you learned the words to the worship song, so you don't even have to look at the screen with the lyrics, if you could close your eyes and sing all the worship songs, then oh, and if you would also give 10% of your income, if you just do all those things, then you would see the glory of God. That's not what he says. He says, Didn't I tell you you would receive the glory of God? You would see the glory of God if you believe. John chapter 6, verse 47. I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes will have eternal life. John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, even they rejected him, but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. If you believe in Jesus, you become a child of God. Just because you believe. John chapter 3, verses 16 through 18, Jesus talking again, for this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Everyone who believes. And God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. Now, as to the last part of that statement, we talked about that last week. We had a really, I think, interesting conversation last week about judgment and all that comes from that. And if you're if you're curious about those things, you weren't here last week, listen to the podcast. Hopefully that answers a lot of your questions. But I think it's clear in these teachings, and by the way, that's not the only four. I could pull up a dozen more, wouldn't be hard. Belief matters to God. But here's why I'm saying this. Do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus? Because it's this simple, guys. If you believe, you belong. If you believe, you belong in the family of God. And your standing in God's family is secure. There is no condemnation for you if you believe in Jesus Christ. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have been adopted as his own son or his own daughter, and now there is nothing, and I mean nothing that can separate you from the love of God because you believe you belong. You don't just belong to God, you belong with God. That's powerful. You don't just belong to him, you belong with him. You're part of his family. He calls you his son, he calls you his daughter, and he likes you. He doesn't just love you, he likes you. Like he's proud of you. I'm that dad who makes other people watch videos of my children. And I don't care. And I know when I make someone watch a video of one of my children that they don't care that much. I just do. I like to beam over my children. If my daughter dances and I capture it on my phone and I'm at be talking to someone like, hey, check this out. And I'm really not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me. Right? You ever think that God. Beams over you. Like, I'm not, I don't think they have iPhones in heaven, but if they did, would it be weird for you to picture God the Father like grabbing some random angel and being like, hey, check this out. Look what they look what they did. This is awesome. And then angel's like, and he's like, I don't care. That's my kid. I mean, I I know that's a silly thought, but do you believe that you belong to God and you belong with God? Because he says clearly, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you belong. And because you belong, there is no condemnation, there is no separation. And then it goes through a lot of things. Like, for example, let's go through it. What about trouble or calamity? It said, does it mean if we have trouble or calamity that God has abandoned us? No. No, not at all. Not even in the slightest. Now, we we happen to live in a time where there has been this thing uh that's often called the prosperity gospel. You may have heard that phrase. And it's this very uh it's a very kind of American, although it goes all over the world, but it's sort of originated here in many ways, that uh the way you know that God is pleased with you is that everything is going well. Right? And I mean I heard a pastor one time say that he knew that God loved him because he always gets a good parking spot when he goes to a store. It's like I hope that is not what you're banking on, you know. Because then all handicapped people would have like assurance of faith, because they always get the best spots. You don't know if you should laugh or not. That's an uncomfortable moment. It's okay. Like, I hope that's not what you're banking on is like those those circumstantial things. But but that idea that, oh, we know God is with us because it's going really well. Have you ever read the Bible? I don't know where the idea that God's favor is manifest when things go smoothly comes from. It's definitely not scripture. Because in scripture it seems like his favorite people that he blesses the most. Just ask Jesus, hey, things don't seem to be going very smoothly. The absence of problems is not the same thing as the presence of God. And so if you're going through trouble or calamity, my son, my oldest, watched me as I wrote these today, and he said, What's calamity? I'm like, that's like that's like bad trouble. It's like the worst trouble you can have. Everything's falling apart. Does it mean that he no longer loves you and he's not with you if you're going through trouble or calamity?

No.

Not at all. Because you can look and find story after story in scripture of Jesus and many others who were so favored by the Lord, and yet they dealt with trouble all the time. And God was right there with them in it. So trouble, calamity, no. What about this one? It says, what about persecution? If you're being persecuted, does that mean that God is no longer with you? And the answer clearly is no. This is what I was gonna read earlier, Matthew chapter 5, 11. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you're my followers. Be happy about it. Be very glad. For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. I actually enjoy it when we get a negative rating on social media. Because our rating is too high. It's 4.9. And Jesus would never have gotten above a three. There's just no way that would have ever happened. And so, and I'm being, I'm half joking. But but there was a time in my life at a younger age where I was so worried about what people thought. And if anyone ever said something that wasn't true or it was an exaggeration, I felt this intense need to defend. And the more time goes on, the more I realize, oh my gosh. If people misunderstand me or say things about my faith that are untrue, I'm in really good company. Because they did that to Jesus. They lied about him. They said Jesus was demon-possessed. I mean, he's God. And they said he was as opposite of that as you could be. And Jesus, if you if you read that conversation, it doesn't seem to bother him that much. He's not all worked up about it. Because when you're persecuted because you follow Jesus, that is not a sign that God isn't with you. Jesus says, be happy about it. In fact, be very glad. What about this one? What if you're hungry or destitute? You know, and again, this kind of connects to this prosperity gospel idea that this would be being poor. And it's very easy for us, again, to believe that if God is with you, then everything, there's just lots of zeros at the end of your bank account. And maybe. And for many people that that is the case, where they're blessed financially. And God's with them. And he's favored them, and that's awesome. And very often he calls those people to be very, very generous. So before you're like, I want to be one of those people, just have that conversation with the Lord. But when I go to Guatemala and visit our family down there, and those people that we work with, poor isn't even a word that begins to describe their life. And yet you cannot help but be around them and know that God is so pleased with these people. And he is so proud of them. And he is with them. And they see God show up and do things. I remember Mimi, who's the one who leads the ministry in Guatemala we work with. I remember the first time I met with her, and she told the story about these children, these siblings, or three of them, who showed up one morning, and they were very hungry. Very hungry. And and all they had were some eggs, but they they didn't have uh at the center, they they didn't have any gas left in the propane tank to be able to cook the eggs. And so she prayed. And then she she asked her person, the cook, will you turn the tank on? Will you see if you can fire up the little grill thing that they had there? It's very rudimentary. And she said that the lady looked at her and said, We haven't had gas for days. She said, Please just check. And they turned it on and it caught on fire, and they were able to cook those eggs for those children. And that's it was like three eggs. But that's a miracle, right? That's a miracle. And so if you're hungry or destitute, if things aren't going well for you in in material ways, it could be for a variety of reasons, it could be everything from bad luck to poor decision making. But it's not because God has abandoned you. Not at all. It goes on. It says, what about danger or or even death? If you're in danger, if you're next on the line, or even if you're facing, and this is weird to us to think about, but in some places in the world, this is life. I mean, if you're a Christian in Afghanistan right now, this is this is what you're dealing with. If you're in danger or or even facing death, does that mean God is no longer with you? And the answer is clearly not. Now, this is where it gets really interesting, and I want to take just a really quick little little side side trail here. We'll come right back, we'll wrap up. There's this moment that happens on the cross with Jesus that has has been discussed, and sometimes we form a theology, a way of thinking about God around this to explain this. And it gets us off track a little bit because it seems like God turns his back on Jesus when Jesus is on the cross. And so Jesus actually says, Matthew chapter 27, verse 46, at three o'clock, he cries out on the cross with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabak Tani, which means, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And so maybe you've read that, maybe you've heard that. How many of us are familiar with Jesus saying, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And sometimes we read that and we're like, man, that's intense. God turned his back on Jesus. Now I am not God, and I cannot tell you exactly what is going on in God's mind, but I do not believe that God for a moment turned his back on Jesus on the cross. And the reason I believe that isn't just because that's a that'd be a thought I don't like having, but it's because Jesus is quoting scripture when he says this. In fact, he's quoting Psalm chapter 22, verse 1, the very first verse in Psalm 22 says, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Now in their culture, the the Psalms were titled whatever the first line in the Psalm was. And so Jesus on the cross, with this group of Jewish people around him, when he said, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Their minds growing up, being familiar with this, would have would have hyperlinked to what we now call Psalm 22. Let me read you some scriptures from Psalm 22. This is very interesting stuff. Psalm 22, verses 7 and 8. Keep in mind this was written centuries before Jesus. Centuries. Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads saying, Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him. If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him when Jesus was on the cross. The religious leaders mocked him. And they said, Hey, if God is with you, call out to God and see if he'll come and help you now. The very same thing that is mentioned in Psalm chapter 22, which was written centuries before. Psalm 22, 14. My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax melting within me. This is very interesting. Because when you're crucified, you're nailed to a cross, you're hanging there, and very often, not to be graphic, but very often when they would take people off of a cross, their arms would be several inches longer because they had their arms had come out of joint from hanging there. And it says that when Jesus was pierced on his side, that blood and water came out. And that is an indicator medically that something had happened in Jesus' heart. He didn't actually die, he didn't bleed to death on the cross. It's like his heart gave out, his heart broke. And it says here that my life is poured out like water, and my heart is like wax melting within me. Psalm 22, 16, my enemies surround me like a pack of dogs, an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. Now, what's really interesting is that when David wrote this, when Psalm 22 was originally written, we to this day have no idea what he was talking about in his time. Crucifixion had not yet been invented. There was no known torture or method of execution that existed in David's day where you would pierce someone's hands and feet. Didn't exist. But just imagine you're you're a Jewish person, you're familiar with these things, you're sitting there, Jesus is on the cross, and he says, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And your brain instantly goes to Psalm 22, and you're looking at what's happening and you're going, Oh my goodness. It was talking about him. This was talking about this moment. God did not, in my opinion, turn his back on Jesus at all. Why? Because, really simple. Nothing, and I mean nothing, separates us from the love of God when we belong to God. Nothing separates God, the Father,'s love for his children. Nothing at all. Trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, if you're destitute, if you're poor, if you're in danger, even if you're facing death, that does not mean that God has abandoned you because he doesn't abandon his children. What separates you from God's love if you belong to Jesus, if you believe nothing? And we have to believe this. We have to walk out these doors, or if you're watching from home, we have to turn off our screens when all is said and done and go, I know that nothing ever will, nothing ever can separate me from the love of my God. I know that I belong for one simple reason: I believe. And because I believe, I belong, and nothing can get in the way. And let me just throw a few other things out. Worship team, you can make your way up. What about your failures? Can your failure separate you from God's love? No. And you might be here and you might be thinking through all your mistakes and your problems and your struggles from this last week, from your life. And you might wonder sometimes, like, like, have my failures mounted up? Is it a pile that's so high that maybe it's just too much? We've got to be really careful. It's good to take our issues seriously and work to grow and move beyond them. But we can't give ourselves too much credit. You are not good enough at being bad to outweigh how good Jesus is at being good. Does that make sense? Like if you took all of your sins, your struggles, your failures, and you put them over here and you weighed it, and then you took the goodness of Jesus, his righteousness, his holiness, and the weight of what he did on the cross for you, your mistakes, your failures don't even begin to outweigh what he's done. What about this? What about not just your failures? What about your feelings? This is where it gets really hard. Because if God promises us, promises us he will never leave us, he will never abandon us, but he never promises us that we will always feel like he's with us. He promises us that he's with us always. But he never once promises that if you follow him, you'll always feel like it. And we've got to remember, guys, that our feelings are not the same as God, and God is not a feeling. Years ago, I was at home and I was I was doing something in a room uh in our basement. I had some music on and some headphones, and I was by myself in the house, except for my oldest, who at the time was four. And Megan had gone and she had taken our newborn daughter somewhere, and so he was taking a nap in another part of the house. I was in another part of the house with with headphones on, all of a sudden I hear a noise. And you know, to hear it when you've got headphones on, it's gotta be really loud. And so I take the headphones off and he is screaming at the top of his lungs, and it's like a kind of scream I've never heard from him before. And I run up the stairs and he is just in the living room, panicked. Because what happened is he woke up from his nap and then he he couldn't find us. And he had he gone everywhere in the house except for where I was, yelling for mom and for dad. And he couldn't find us, and you know, he's four years old at this point in his life, he's never been alone ever. And a fear and a panic overtook him that he was abandoned. Now, was his feeling legitimate? Yes. Was his feeling intense? Absolutely. But was the reality of the situation that he was alone? No. Just an aloof, absent-minded father, that's all. Right? The opposite of God the Father. See, his feeling didn't match reality. And the truth is, God promises us that he will be with us always, but he doesn't promise us that we'll always feel it. And that gentleman I told you about earlier that I'm having lunch with, and he said he felt far from God. He said, I'm just not feeling close to God, but but God is so much stronger than your feelings. And if you elevate your feelings to the level of truth that when you don't feel it, when you don't feel close to God, that to you means that God must not be there. That can't be. That's a recipe for disaster. Because your failure, your feelings, everything else we talked about, we have to remember nothing can separate guys. Nothing means nothing. Your sins, nothing. Your feelings of anxiety and insecurity and all the questions and thoughts you have, those are legitimate. Wrestle with God, pray about those things, talk to people, but they don't matter. Because they cannot separate you from God. Nothing in this world or in the world beyond can ever separate you from the love of God. So it's time for us as Jesus followers to be really secure about that. More secure than we are about anything else in this world. More secure than we are about the love that other people have for us, more secure than you are about your job, about your career, about your health, about anything else, any decision that you've made, you've got to be unwaveringly secure about where you stand with God. Because if you believe you belong, you belong to him, you belong with him, and you will spend forever and eternity basking in his glory, sharing in his glory, living in relationship with him. He will never look at you and say, you know what? I've had enough. I'm done with you. That will never happen because he has said yes to you, and he doesn't lie, and he's taken your sins and he's put them as far as the east is from the west. That's what scripture says. Scripture says he's trampled them under his feet, he's thrown them into the ocean. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God if you believe, and if you don't believe, believe? Like, maybe believe, right? If you don't believe, like I would suggest right now being a great time to go ahead and fix that. Because he believes in you. You take all of the founders of all the different major faiths in the world, you put them right here, and you said, Hey, will the one of you that has the highest opinion of humanity step forward? Jesus would be the only one to take that step. So I choose believing in the one who believes in you. The one who came for you, the one who lived for you, who died for you, who rose for you, the one who right now is seated. Scripture says at the right hand of the Father, interceding and pleading on your behalf. Believe. And if you're waiting to take a step in your faith, maybe you're here, maybe you're watching, and you've been in this sort of holding pattern for a while, and you feel like you need to take a step, but you're wondering, maybe I'm not good enough, maybe I'm not there, it's time to take that step. It's time to believe. Commit right now in your heart, give your life to him, put your trust in him. Go sign up in the lobby to get baptized. Do it next week because you belong. You're meant to belong with God, and all you gotta do is believe. And if you believe, nothing can separate you. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you so much, Jesus, for this church, for this family. Lord, thank you for all that you're doing in this place. God, you're doing such amazing things. You're meeting so many people's needs. You're using us to make a big impact in the world around us and beyond. But Lord, at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is a relationship with you. So, God, give us confidence in where we stand with you. Give us security in where we stand with you. And help us enjoy it. Help us bask in your love for us. And I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.