Sermon 09-20-09

Jeremiah 1:4-8                                                                  Romans 8:26-39

“Spiritual Process”

As we start our second year together……

We are entering a time called processing together, we need to do this as a church in order to move forward. We are going to have an all church meeting next Sunday to discuss our financial reality and situation. We are going to look at our church’s history and at our identity, together. We are going to look at our church size and at our organizational structure, together. But today, we are going to start with ourselves, we our spiritual process, a process of comfort, affirmation and assurance of our faith in Jesus Christ.

PRAYER

Last Sunday we talked about the different types of prayers and Paul is saying here we don’t know who to pray…v.26

Perhaps sometimes we do not know what to ask for, or what God wants for

us personally or as a church community, because “we do not know what the will of God is, we need to seek it  through our prayers.” ( B, YearB, pg.420)

Here is an illustration.

One day a mother found her young child kneeled by his bed, as she listens, she realized that he was reciting the alphabet over and over again. A few minutes later the mother asked the child, what you doing, “I am praying, I am giving God enough letters so he can put my prayer together. He knows what I want to say.”

In studying this text I find assurance, it gives me the strength to believe that nothing can separate me from the love of God, even in the toughest times. What do we hold on to in the difficult times in our lives?

Verse 27 reinforces our assurance by “recalling that God knows what is in the mind of the Spirit and that the Spirit intercedes according to God’s will. Despite the weakness of humankind and its sense of isolation from god and longing for God, what Paul conveys here is a deep interconnectedness between God, God’s spirit and God’s creatures.” (idem).

 “We know that all things work for good for those who love God.” V.28

“God is the one who designs, desires, and brings about good. God is able to use even those things which reflect the depth of human weakness and turn them for the good.” (idem).

Let’s take a look at this Spiritual Process:

“First, we are called, we are called to be children of God, adopted into the family of God, through Jesus Christ. John 1:12, affirms it: “… all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave them power to become children of God.” And I John 3:1 states: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are!

What an affirmation!!

Second, we are foreknown, selected or picked, by God even before our birth, and we are called according to his purpose for a purpose. A clear example is found in the reading of Jeremiah. God said to him: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, selected you, for the purpose of being a prophet to the nations.”

Third, we are predestined, meaning that we have been appointed or chosen from the beginning of creation to have favor and grace before God. Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians with these affirming words: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world…” Ephesians 1:3-4a.

Fourth, we are justified by faith. We are right with God, and accepted as we are through Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is through him that we are connected to God. Not only that, but also Jesus intercedes for us to God as our defense lawyer. In Christ we are justified, we are forgiven and in him we find reconciliation, in other words, in Christ we make things right with God, or we find ourselves in the same page with God.

Fifth, in Christ we have the assurance that we will be glorified or overvalued

for eternity. Here on earth we are transformed into the likeness of the character of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. After death, we will be transformed into a ‘more magnificent form.’ ”  (Mc Millan Dictionary, pg. 438).

         (Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, pg. 528).

“What then are we to say about these things? If God is with us, who is against us?” v.31. We know that “…good and evil are so present in our life experiences (and in our world) that we can identify the reality of both. We also know that the divine power of God reinforce the good in such a way that we become confident that we will be able to overcome the evil against us.”

          (idem)

Who or what can separate us from the love of God? Nothing!

Not difference of opinions or personal views, or a deficit budget, or a re-organizational structure, not even our own identity as a church, should separate us from each other and much less from God’s love.

We are conquerors, we are survivors, achievers, doers, brave and courageous people, faithful followers, and risk takers. 

We are more than conquerors,

We are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

“Not only are human actions unable to bring about separation from the love of Christ, but even those powers which go beyond our human understanding cannot separate humanity from God’s love.” (B. Year B, pg. 421)

This is our assurance! “If we remain faithful, just like his disciples did, there is nothing in heaven or on earth, in time or eternity that can separate us from God’s merciful love.” (IBC, idem)

In Christ we are called, selected, chosen, justified and glorified, let us hold on to that truth, and let us do it together as a body in search for spiritual healing! Amen!