Romans 8

Let's go to the word of the Lord, to Chapter 8 of the Letter to the Romans and I also encourage, well, I give a welcome to our brothers who visit us this morning as well, as Gregory did, I add my own word of welcome. We are delighted to have all of you.

We welcome you this morning if you're visiting us, and we hope that you feel right at home with us.

We hope you feel welcome and we remind you that we always have a small refreshment, a simple reception at the end of the service next to the elevator, where you can stop by and meet one of the smiling brothers of the hospitality ministry. So we invite you to be a part. Go over there, without any shyness. We are not going to charge you, we are not going to ask you for your Visa card or anything like that. Above all, we want to greet you and let you know how happy we are to have you with us.

Chapter 8 of the Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. Why do we say 'letter'? I am now thinking of the brothers who do not know much about the Bible. Letter because the Apostle Paul wrote many times to his churches, which he had founded, as treatises, scriptures where he explained aspects of the Christian life. They were not in themselves personal letters, although they included personal elements, but rather letters of instruction for how they should educate themselves in the Christian faith.

So we are studying the letter or epistle to the Romans, that is, those Christians who lived in Rome, both Jews converted to the Gospel and also from other nations, including Romans who had converted to the Gospel. The beautiful letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans has to do with salvation and its nature. The emphasis is that salvation is by God's mercy, by God's love, by grace, not by works that we do, it is that we are saved.

So, in Chapter 8, interestingly by the way, before you read, you'll remember that several months ago I actually started and preached about three sermons based on Chapter 8 of Romans. My intention when I started preaching was to just stand there, preach on a wonderful Chapter, once and it turned into three sermons. And from there the idea was born, wow, why not preach on the letter to the Romans. Me, I haven't usually preached a book, and wow, I got myself in big trouble because Romans is a very meaty and very deep and complex letter. So what I did is then I kind of started in the middle and went back to the beginning and now about 3, 4, or 5 months later I'm at Chapter 8 where I started.

But if you're like me, I don't even remember what I preached last Sunday, I just want in light of everything we've read and learned, now visit Chapter 8 of again, so that we can better appreciate it. I myself appreciate Chapter 8 of Romans much more now, after having forced myself to study the previous Chapters more deeply. Because, again, the Bible is total, no... it is a system and each thing depends on the other. If you know the whole, we will never know it totally, but if you know the essentials you can better appreciate the other parts.

Here in Chapter 8, verse 1, I'm not going to read the whole Chapter, Paul says:

“Now then, always remember, that 'well' indicates what? , which is connected to something that has just been written before- .... Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..." Say amen. That's good, right?

“.... those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible for the law, inasmuch as it was weak through the flesh, God sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin, condemned sin in the flesh so that the justice of the law might be fulfilled in we who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit...”

We will end there because this is simply a passage representative of everything else in the Chapter. Remember that in Chapter 7 the Apostle Paul has developed that thought that the law is simply, although it is good in its content, that is, the Jewish law, the commandments of God, although they are good, but in reality they are not capable of justify man, on the contrary, the only thing they manage to do is two things: 1) point out man's inability to save himself through obedience to the commandments, because we all sin, we all fall, we all fail, we all violate the law of God. And the only thing that could get us into the Kingdom of God, if it were by our own works, would be a perfect life, which no human being is capable of carrying out. So therefore the law only serves to point out to us, you cannot be saved by your own good works.

Secondly, says Paul, strangely the law, or the commandments often serve to exacerbate and intensify the tendency to sin in us. Because? Because the forbidden, as I said last Sunday, always tends to fascinate human beings and when they say, 'don't do this', it's like, wow! The meat says, oh, I want to do it to see how it feels. No? There is a fascination with the forbidden, with the sinful, the hidden, the hidden in the human being.

The more taboos there are around a behavior, the more appetizing, the more attractive it becomes. So, in a sense, the more commandments God gives people, like instead of helping them, it makes them stumble, and that's precisely God's intention.

Now again, why that? And Paul in Chapter 7, in the second part, the final part of Chapter 7, talks about himself, about his drama that is representative of the drama of every human being. Because? Because there is in us a tendency to violate the law of God. It is as if there is a secret law within us, there is a dimension that on the one hand, we want to do good, we want to obey God, we want to be good, we want to behave well, but there is another law within us that inevitably leads us to sin, and when we go to see, we already violate the law of God and we fall and suffer, but it is already too late. That is human nature, and all that he says in Chapter 7, for example:

“... so wanting to do good, I find this law, that evil is mine. Wretched that I am, it says in verse 24, Chapter 7, who will free me from this body of death?....”

And that is why the law cannot save man. The commandment, religion, moral commandments, are not enough for us to have peace with God. Someone had to come to pay the debt that we have contracted. Our insufficiency had to be covered by something or someone and that person is Jesus Christ. He paid the price for our insufficiency. He assumed as a form of flesh that had to be crucified, killed and he went up to the cross, and in his flesh, in his body, he paid all the debts of all of us. Amen. That's what Chapter 7 says.

So, that's why in Chapter 8, take a look. In Chapter 7 Paul ends with a very frustrated tone, ".... wretched me, who will free me from this body of the dead because I am bound by sin?..."

But then in Chapter 8, Chapter 8 is designed to comfort us, to calm us down, to reassure us, to tell you, look, it's true, you're a scoundrel, but you know what? There is a solution to your problem. That is why Paul says: "...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

In other words, once we have admitted that we have failed, that we have sinned, that we have offended God, we can be calm because if I am in Christ Jesus, if I have received Jesus as my Lord and savior, if I have accepted him as my propitiation for sin, God says, don't worry, I'm fine with you. For you there is no condemnation, there is no death penalty, there is no jail because I have forgiven you through my son Jesus Christ. What wonderful security is that!

Now, being in Christ is something very complex. What does it mean to “be in Christ”? Well, he adds here "....those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit..."

In Chapter 8 there is going to be a very strong insistence between living in the flesh and live in the spirit. How do you know if you are in Christ? Because of your priorities and where is your mind and where are your interests and where is the emphasis of your life. Being in Christ means that the material world, time and space, the things of this life are no longer as important to you as they were before. And a mature Christian, a Christian who is in the spirit, can be measured by how much attention he gives to things, the cares of life, and how much attention he gives to things of the spirit.

That's why Paul says, "those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit..." In verse 5 he goes on to clarify that what is walking in the flesh? He says: "..... because those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who are of the spirit about the things of the spirit, because to be occupied with the flesh is death, but to be occupied with the spirit is life and peace....”

The person who has truly had a profound encounter with Jesus and who now lives by the spirit and in the spirit of Jesus Christ, is a person who ideally already lives here in the earth, well, because he has nothing else left, but he knows that he is a pilgrim and a foreigner on his way to the heavenly homeland. It is here in the land of passage.

That is why the Apostle Paul, if you read in the Epistle to the Philippians, is in that epistle, imprisoned, possibly he does not know if he is going to get out of jail, because they are going to possibly execute him, but he says you know what, brothers? Me, if they kill me, you know what? Better for me because I am going with Christ. And what I live on earth, says Paul, I live simply because I am useful to the cause of the Gospel, but in reality, I would like to die because I know that dying in Christ is much better, because it is being in the spirit, is to be in Christ Jesus. And that is what allowed Paul to look with great equanimity at the possibility of being executed, and of being in jail and going through all the troubles of the ministry, it is because he no longer cared so much about the things of this world.

And, to me, Pablo means that. In another passage he says that "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." It also says that "....your life is hidden in Christ Jesus." He says that "you are no longer yours but you belong to another".

How many here can we say....? Do not raise your hand, that we truly live for eternity, we live for Christ, that what matters to us is advancing the Kingdom of God, that we say, well, look, and my talents, my gifts, my time, my body, my money, everything that is for the Lord, that is for the Kingdom of God; I am going to keep what I can, I am going to live, I am going to enjoy what I can, but if there is a need in the Kingdom of God, I am going to say present. Amen, because that is what matters most to me.

How many of us can live like this? Because it is the only thing that guarantees that we can be truly filled with the power of God and be able to enjoy the resources of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 9 says, “.... but you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, if the spirit of God dwells in you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ it is not his, but if Christ is in you, the body is truly dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness..”

We have to ask the Lord, Father, every day, help me to live more for you and for your ways, for your kingdom, may my priorities always be in the heavenly homeland. That is what it means to die in Christ, to die to the flesh, to die to sin, to die to the law.

The person who lives like this, God says, I am happy with you. I approve of you, there is no condemnation for you, there is no anger for you. You have escaped from that condemnation that awaits those who do not know God.

That is, when you have given your priority to the Lord, and have set your heart on things of the spirit, you are blessed, you are free from condemnation. So one of the benefits of living in the spirit is freedom from condemnation.

So, in the second part, in the Chapter, right there, in that Chapter, in verse 14 it says, here comes another section of the Chapter, it says: “.... because all those who are led by the spirit of God, these are children of God...."

Here an important idea is introduced and that is that when you die to the flesh, when you die to the world, you die not only to dead religion, to the condemnation of sin, to all these things, but now you receive a new condition. Before you were a son of wrath, a cannon fodder, damnation awaited you at the end of your life. Now you know? You receive a new status, a new title that is son of God or daughter of God.

What does the Apostle John say in his first Chapter in the Gospel according to Saint John? It says: “to all those who believed in him, those who received him were given power to be made what? sons of God....”

You go from being a bastard or a slave of the flesh and sin to being an adopted son of the Kingdom of God. God now adopts you as his son, he calls you his son. He no longer calls you a slave or rejected.

So that's wonderful, isn't it? It says, ".... for you have not received the spirit of slavery to be again in fear...."

The person who lives pure religion and religiosity is a person who has not known joy of the Lord, the joy of the spirit. He is always busy, trying to please God, to do something that will make him acceptable before God. And Pablo says, you know what? When you receive spirit within you, that confirmation that you are a child of God, that gives you freedom, it gives you confidence, it gives you security.

There is another passage where he says, "...where love is, there is no fear, because perfect love casts out fear..."

When one knows that it is right with God, one can be calm, one can sleep peacefully, one can look at death with equanimity. There are a lot of people who don't want to die, you know? And they think about death and they begin to shake and sweat, they are afraid of dying.

I believe that the Christian is not afraid of death, he does not live in fear, because he already knows that everything is fine with God and when he leaves here he enters the heavenly homeland, he enters a life completely better. That is what allows us to look at death with equanimity and laugh in its face.

As Paul says, O death, where is your sting? Where, oh grave, your victory? They took it away. They removed the claws, the nails to death. We do not live in fear because we are right with God, that is why we are no longer slaves to the commandments and religion, but we are free in the Lord.

It says, "... ye have received the spirit of adoption, -verse 15- by which we cried, Aba,..."

I have heard, when I was in Israel A few months ago, I heard the little boys, I could make out at least that word, Aba, speaking to their dad. It means like daddy, daddy. For a Jew to say “Daddy” to God, that was impossible, because the idea that the Jews had of God was this God who made the mountains tremble, the God that Moses saw, right? Fire, brimstone, lightning and sparks and tremors and thunder. And that was the concept that the Hebrew had of God. Christ changed that concept and now we can confidently approach the Father, we can get on his knees and kiss him and cling to him because he has adopted us, he has received us as his Father.

There is a famous photograph of John F. Kennedy, the well-known president of the United States, in his big presidential office, meeting with a group of great dignitaries, and there were his two little children, getting into and playing in the office with him, and that photo became famous all over the world, because it was like a family scene taking place in a very official and very grand environment, right? These little children entering the office of the president of the United States, but who was also their father. Glory to God.

Guess what? You can come confidently to the throne of God. You can tell the angels, excuse me, and the archangels, forgive me that I have to talk to my Dad. Hallelujah! Say glory to God. Amen.

Why? Because we have received the spirit of adoption. We have a title that says son of God, daughter of God, there is no longer slavery, there is no condemnation for us, we have received an adopted title. I mean, that's the second element, right? First, there is no condemnation, you can be calm, you can be sure. There is no death for you either, because God has given you life through the spirit of Christ, but there is no slavery either, because you are now a son of the King and a son cannot be a slave.

In verse 16 he says: “...the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God...”

There's the thing. I hope, brother, that you can hear that voice within you, of the Holy Spirit that tells you, daughter, son, you are adopted, the devil cannot come to condemn you and accuse you because the Lord has already set you free. Do not allow Satan or your own bad conscience for works done in the past, or whatever, make you think that you are not a child of God. You are a child of God as long as you want to be a child of God in Christ Jesus, you are a child of God.

I was talking with a person from here in the congregation, I don't know if he's here, I'm not revealing any confidence, this week, and fighting with this dear brother who loves the Lord so that he believes that he is a son of God, that there is no demon that can separate him from the grace of Jesus, that he is not a corrupt being, that he is not a despicable being, that he is not a demon possessed person because if there are impulses in him to love the Lord, and fear of not pleasing him, that means that the Holy Spirit is telling him, I am inside of you. Because if he was comfortable with sin and didn't have any doubts, then yes, I would worry. But while one feels like pleasing God and wonders if I'm pleasing God or not, that means the Holy Spirit is working in your life.

The spirit of God bears witness. Let us not allow, brothers, that the psychological or the emotional take away from us that security of trust. When you feel, and if you are a child of God, you are a Christian, you have received Christ as your Lord and savior, and you feel a voice within you telling you, God does not love you, God does not love you, you offended the Lord, you are useless, etc. Rebuke her in the name of Jesus for that is not the voice of the spirit of God. That is the voice of your psychology, it is the voice of your emotions, it is the voice of your past or it is even the voice of the devil, making you doubt.

The security of the believer is by faith, not by emotions. Amen. You are going to get up one day, and you have a headache, on Monday morning, you are depressed because there are 5 days left until the end of the week, and you are going to feel like a sinner, you do not know if you are saved, you think you are leaving going to hell, you don't know if God loves you or not. Don't worry, put that aside, say 'I am a daughter of God, I am fine'. The spirit within me, although my flesh and my emotions deny it, my spirit says, 'I am a daughter of God because I have received the spirit of adoption.' Ok, so let's not doubt that.

I mean, we also received spirit of adoption, you know what? If you are a son, it also means something wonderful for you, that you are also what? Heir. Glory to the Lord. It will not be like in the case of us that what our children are going to inherit are our debts. No. When you inherit with God, you inherit all wealth and all spiritual blessings, heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. That one does have money, brothers. That one has the atoms with which the paper with which money is made is made. imagine.

That is, what is wonderful is that, that you know that you have as a child of God then, you have a bank account that you can draw at any time. You have God's blessing. You have resources in heaven. It is very important that you and I understand that. We have an inheritance as children of God.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, Chapter 1, a passage that I always refer to, Paul prays that believers would know, in Chapter 1 verse 18:

"....so that we may know what is the hope that God has called us and what is the richness of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

You are rich. Tell your brother next door, 'I am rich, I am rich', tell him like this and believe it in the name of Jesus even if the Visa card says otherwise, but believe it. You are rich, you are rich in the Lord if you dare to believe it and to live in that way, to ask the Father to come confidently. The Bible says "...you did not receive, because you did not ask..."

You have to move with that confidence. You have to ask the Lord to transform your mouse mind into a lion mind. Amen. Don't live thinking there about a little spoon. No, take the biggest ladle and help yourself because your Father has a lot to give you. Trust in the Lord. Start great things. Keep big dreams. Cultivate great visions. Dare to visualize a full life. Do not think that your children are going to be inveterate criminals. No, think they are going to be doctors, they are going to be doctors, they are going to be teachers, they are going to be social workers. Don't think the negative. Don't be always thinking about thunder and lightning and storms. Think that God has good things for your life. Change your way of thinking and that will change your way of living. Expect good things and good things will come to your life.

Many of us are like those gadgets in the bathroom designed to attract bad odors and because we have bad thoughts, bad expectations, we continually attract bad things. They are passing us, they crashed our car, we got sick, we lost money, whatever, why? Because there is in us a subconscious expectation that something bad is going to happen. And if we have a little moment when we feel happy, we feel guilty because we feel happy. We are so badly programmed.

And God says, Change the program. You are a son, there is no condemnation for you. There is no slavery for you. You have a great inheritance so look towards life. I believe, brothers, in that, the magnetic attitude, the attitude, the expectation of good that attracts good. The sense of well-being that I am a daughter of God. Tell yourself that from time to time even if they think you're crazy on the road, on the highway: I am a daughter of God, I am a son of God. I am not a slave. God has given me an inheritance. I am going to receive good things from my Lord because I no longer live in the flesh, I live for the spirit and I live in the spirit of life of Christ Jesus.

That's why it says here, “....we are heirs –verse 17- heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ….”

Now here's a part that we don't He likes us a lot, he says "...if we suffer together with him..."

So we got off the bus quickly, right? ".... if we suffer together with him so that together with him we may be glorified..."

Remember that there are several occasions in which I have pointed out to you that not everything is just beautiful, beautiful , good, sweet, soft in the Christian life. There is also a price to pay. Paul says that "....I want to know him and I want to know him in the power of his resurrection and in the power of his sufferings too..."

One must die in Christ to be able to resurrect in Christ. One must die to the flesh, in order to enjoy the benefits of living in the spirit. That is, remember that whenever suffering is going to come into your life because you are identifying yourself with Christ, so the same journey of Jesus will also be repeated in your life. There are going to be times when God, in order to prepare you for what is coming, is going to have to tighten the nuts a little here and there. It's like those braces they put on children to fix their teeth, right? All of us are like children so we have our teeth out when we get into the Gospel. We are ugly, we are unpleasant to God and the first thing God does is sends you to the spiritual dentist. She tells him, put some braces on them and they squeeze you and from time to time God comes and squeezes you a little so that you can finally have that beautiful smile that will characterize you as an adopted son of God.

And that's how it will happen, from time to time God is going to have to tighten the nuts a little bit, make you suffer a little bit, get on the treadmill so that you lose a few pounds of fat, to may you be more 'like Christ Jesus' each day. You have to suffer a little.

There are many of us, brothers, who in order to free ourselves from the slavery that we have within us carnal, we are going to have to be crucified, we are going to have to sweat sin. There's no way that's the case. But look, submit to God's operation. Submit to the surgery of the Holy Spirit. When you leave there you will leave purified, blessed, strengthened, giving thanks to God because he subjected you to his discipline. Do not worry. Tell him, Father, I need to sweat this sin. Stick me in your oven, but make sure it doesn't come out too toasty either, ok.

But don't be afraid of God. Give yourself to the Lord and ask him to do his work in your life, and he will do it. Because you have to identify from time to time with the sufferings of Jesus so that you can become like Christ.

Remember that we have to go through the same process. Christ was crucified and God raised him up. Likewise, when you are crucified, God will raise you up as well. God knows what you need. Submit to the discipline of the Father. Tell him, Lord, treat me because I want to be glorified together with Christ Jesus.

That idea of being glorified as it touches the mind of the Apostle and enters another section of this Chapter 8 that begins in verse 18 and is that it makes him meditate on the future glory that we are going to receive because he kind of stumbled upon this concept that we are glorified, and that makes him make a mental association with the glorification of the believer at the end of time.

Then, verse 18 says: "....For I have certain that the afflictions of the present time are not comparable with the coming glory that is to be manifested in us...."

Here is another more positive element of security that the Christian who is in Christ Jesus has and it is this idea, brothers, that one day our bodies are going to be glorified. One day we will be redeemed from all the evil that is in this world, one day we will enter a dimension where there is no crying, there is no illness, there is no suffering of any kind, there are no more wrinkles, but rather Christ has already healed every tear of us.

Here in the world we are going to suffer from time to time. You see, because many times we preachers like to leave people very happy and we only tell them the good things about the Gospel. Now, God does not say that you will not suffer in this world. You are going to pass your predicaments, you are going to have your problems. You are going to, from time to time, fail in the Christian walk, you are going to suffer from illnesses. But you know what? God says, don't worry, one day I will dry every tear from your eyes.

This allows the believer to go through the problems of life with more equanimity, with more security. While we are in the world, brothers, we will have affliction. Remember that the fact that you are a Christian does not exempt you from sin, does not exempt you from suffering, does not exempt you from illnesses and difficulties. But the Lord's design is that one day all that will end. While you are here you spend it with joy, with joy, because you know that you have already won the victory. No problem in this world has the power to ultimately take away the joy of the Lord.

He says: "... I hold for certain that the afflictions of the present time are not comparable with the glory to come."

When you leave here in the world suffering with different situations, think about what awaits you: blessing, eternal life. That is what allows us, for example, when we lose our loved ones to feel peace, even though we feel some pain, but we know that they are enjoying the presence of the Lord, because there is no comparison. We think of the sufferings of our loved ones here, their limitations, their imperfections, and when we look forward we see them already redeemed in the Lord, healthy, joyful, young, happy, perfected, and that is also what awaits you.

That is what gives us the confidence and joy of being members of the Lord's family. Know what? This state of temporary imperfection and suffering is not only typical of us, the children of God, but even creation itself, the world we inhabit, is corrupted in the same way. We are like great princes who are now forced to walk as if we were ordinary workers, and the creation is the same too. The creation that we inhabit is not the creation that God made. It is an impoverished creation. It is a creation that also awaits the day of its redemption.

That is why Paul says here, “....for the ardent longing of the creation –verse 19- is to wait for the revealing of the sons of God, because the creation was subjected to futility, not for his own will but because of the one who subjected it to vanity in hope, because creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption to the glorious freedom of the children of God, because we know that all creation groans together, and stands together. with labor pains until now....”

Do you understand brothers? That is why it is so difficult in this world to have a perfect life or to say that we escaped unscathed from the sufferings and troubles of this world. Because we are in a world that is inherently, inescapably imperfect and designed to trip us up and bring us some kind of suffering. The poor creation cannot do more. It's like asking a person who doesn't know how to cook to cook you a nice plate of food. He's going to tell you, I can't, I don't know. Creation cannot give you anything good. Human life cannot give you perfection.

So as long as you're in this world, know that you're going to have problems, you're going to have difficulties. It's like those mirrors in amusement parks that you stand in front of, and since they're damaged on purpose, they make you look fatter, smaller, skinnier. And you say, that's not me. So is the world in which you live. The world you live in is a crooked world. There are going to be problems, you are going to have problems with your husband, your children are not going to be as perfect as you would like, jobs, every job is going to have its problem. Forget.

Each marriage will have its cross. Each body is going to have its degree of discomfort and suffering and imperfection and disease. That's how it is. Everything that this world gives brings problems with it and part of the joy of the Christian is learning to live with equanimity in the midst of that imperfection. And the imperfection that we ourselves have within ourselves.

I believe, in fact, that a mature Christian is a man, a woman who is surrounded by imperfection including his own, but has developed an attitude full of grace, love, mercy, peace. Few things bother him, few things drive him crazy, few things lead him to rebel or protest or create problems, because he already lives with his sights set on eternity. He knows that this world offers nothing, this world is a problem and he lives it because he has to live it, but his gaze is set on that day when his life will be redeemed, when the world will be redeemed and he too to enter into fullness. of your inheritance which you have in Christ Jesus.

God encourages us, calls us to rest in him, because this world is completely fallen, it is completely imperfect. The last thing is verses 28 to 37, I think it is, the last section of this Chapter 8. I've run through it because it's very, very material, where this is one of the most famous passages there is in all of Scripture, brothers, where Paul ends with a big, big victory declaration for the Christian. This kind of sums up everything else. And actually ends the theological section of the Epistle to the Romans, from then on Paul will go into other matters, but there he ended all his discussion about salvation and all this and what he goes into is rather in another aspect, two topics : one, the election of Israel and another, the life that we have to live as Christians in our daily behavior.

But Paul ends here by saying: “... And we know -verse 28- that all things work together for good to those who love God, that is, to those who are according to his purpose. called....”

In other words, that kind of says it all. Everything that happens in your life, any situation that comes into your life, if you are in Christ Jesus I want to let you know that all of God is using it to bless your life, even if it seems impossible, because there are situations in our life that, look, if they tell us that this is for the good of your life, we slap anyone in the face at that moment, you know? Never tell a person who is going through a trauma, oh, this is for your good, because your head is going to be ripped off many times. He waits for the scare to pass and then tries to explain to them what that means.

But in reality, objectively speaking, brothers, we can be calm, if we are in Christ Jesus that God is managing so that every situation we go through ends up working for the good, even the bad ones intentions of the devil for making you stumble, even the errors of your flesh, even the bad intentions of your enemies, even the diseases that may come to your body, even the financial reversals that may be in your life, even the marital failures. Everything, my brother, my sister, God says, if you are in my Son, I am going to make sure that this malignant, perverse, crooked world, impoverished by sin, works for your benefit and for your blessing.

That is why we need that perspective from God, to tell him, Father, change my way of interpreting the events of life so that I can always see the golden background that is in all my experiences. Everything that happens in your life, ask God, how can I take advantage of it? That is what redeems the pains and tragedies of life. When you are going through a problem, ask him, Father, you have told me that everything that happens in my life will somehow work for my good, what good can I get out of what has happened in me? life?

If it is a disease, perhaps God is allowing that disease so that you can be more humble and can, in the imperfection that it brings to your body, remember that after all, who are we? If you don't want to get old and have wrinkles on your face or gain a little bit of weight or whatever, say how can I be more humble through this?

If there are debts that are growing and you don't know how to pay them, say, Lord, how can I learn to waste my money less or to tighten the economy of my life more so that I can live more within the limits of my finances?

If it is a betrayal by a friend, ask the Lord, Father, how can I learn to depend less on people and to know that every human being sooner or later betrays, makes a mistake, acts unfairly and not depend so much on the friendship of men and depend more on you?

If it is a marital problem ask the Lord, Father, how can I be a better husband or wife to my spouse? What are you telling me through this difficulty, what can I change to make my marriage relationship better and how can I learn to live more for you and less for human situations?

Any situation, brothers, any problem, if you got a bad grade on the exam, Father, how can I learn, perhaps to study a little more or simply to know that although now I failed, but that in next time you are going to give me a better grade, and that I have to learn to trust you and not give up when things are not going well for me at the moment that I want them to go well?

Because sometimes God wants you to develop patience through trials, to develop faith and say, no, I'm not going to stay down. I'm going to get up and I'm going to keep going. Because many of us give up too quickly and if something doesn't go well, we already get depressed and quit. Many of us have a long trail of projects started that we never finish, because we never build persistence.

Now, in Christ Jesus, God tells you, look, when you fail, get back on the horse and move on, because I want to form in you, a man, a woman who knows how to stay in things that undertakes God can use everything that happens in your life for good, even that great trauma: if you were sexually abused, if your parents mistreated you, if you lived in poverty when you were a child, if you couldn't study even though you wanted to, you dreamed of achieving something. All these things God can use to make a better man, a better woman of God because those things can help you to be a better counselor, a better counselor to someone, to have more mercy on others.

Brothers, he who is in Christ, in other words, cannot lose. He who is in Christ cannot fail because God has arranged for everything to redound to blessing and good.

I end with verses 37 to 39 of Chapter 8, “....but in all these things we are more than conquerors....”

Say, more than conqueror, I am more than a conqueror through him who loved us, Christ Jesus. Everything that can happen in your life, God makes you more than conqueror. God has made you a son, he has made you free, he has made you an heir, he has made you more than a victor and he has also made you a person who learns from everything, takes advantage of everything, in everything he can grow and be better every day.

“.... therefore I am sure 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 created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Glory to the Lord. Give the Lord a big round of applause. Hallelujah! Amen, amen.

Let's stand up, brothers. I hope that this morning you leave here with this great security. In the first 7 Chapters of the epistle to the Romans, Paul has been talking about the dangers and vicissitudes that human beings face, all the traps that exist in the world. It is a sinister world, but the one who is in Christ Jesus comes out more than victorious in every situation.

We have a Father who has said, I have adopted you and no one will snatch you from my hand, no demon, no accident, no cataclysm, no flood, nothing can separate you from my love, says the Lord. I have you sculpted in my hands and you are like the apple of my eye.

So, brother, dwell in that security. For those who do not know Christ there are problems, there are uncertainties, there are things that will have no explanation or redemption, but for the child of God everything has a solution, there is hope in everything, never despair. Never give up hope because God always says, there is a solution, there is a way out. I'm with you. Even the terrible wounds of the past, I am going to turn them into something good for you.

Father, help us to dwell in that security. Help us to be confident that we have a benevolent Father, a loving Father, a Father full of mercies, powerful to make sure that we always get an A on the exam, that we always get out of all our troubles and troubles.

Thank you for the work of Christ Jesus. Thank you because there is no condemnation when we are in him because the law of death through religion and sin no longer applies to us but we have life in him, we have redemption, we have adoption, we have inheritance, we have a relationship with our Father, we have a condition of adoptive children, we have the hope of a redeemed, glorified life, a new body, a world where we will live where there are no dangers, where there are no beasts that threaten us. Thank you that we can dwell confident in Christ Jesus.

We adore and bless you, Lord. thank you. I want to ask if there is anyone this morning before we leave.