Morning Message Text: Romans 5: 1-5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Morning Message:
The search for peace: We pray every week for peace in this world realizing that only God can bring true peace. What we really long for is peace in our souls. As Christians we understand that God can give us that peace, but even with that knowledge, we find peace elusive. I find peace in my prayer time when I can forget about my worries and just focus on God, but that is not easy to do. Most times, at least for me, when I am in prayer, I have my list of people and things that I bring to God. Most of those things, when I think about them, move me out of a peaceful frame of mind. In other words, I bring them to God, but I can’t seem to leave them there. I find peace in laying my troubles before the Lord, but as I leave my prayer time, I pick them right back up and take them with me. When we do that, we forfeit the peace that God wants to give us.
As I wrote this on Wednesday, it had already been a very un-peaceful week. Tina and I spent Sunday, Monday, and most of Tuesday at the hospital; her more so than me. I am not complaining; all I had to do was sit there. When you spend any time at all in the hospital you find that it is not a very peaceful place. I have heard people say that they go to the hospital for a vacation from the rest of their lives; I have to wonder how bad the rest of their lives must be, to think that the hospital is a vacation. It’s awful there. Between all the different people in and out, noises of every imaginable kind, people screaming, and a phone that rang every two minutes with a tele- marketer on the other end, and we didn’t even ask for the phone to be turned on. In my frustration I finally unplugged it. One good thing, if you are the one waiting, is that you have plenty of time alone with God if you choose to take advantage of it. Tuesday night one of my dogs passed away; she was very sick because of diabetes; she was blind but still enjoyed her food and had some quality of life until her last two days. She died peacefully on her bed in her sleep. People ask, do animals go to heaven? I hope so; I have had many pets that I would like to see when I get there.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have peace with God? We would like to think that God, who is loving and kind, is at peace with all mankind, but that is not true. You can only have peace with God if you have accepted the forgiveness that he freely offers you by accepting and believing in Jesus. Let me make this perfectly clear. People will say to me all the time, “I don’t believe in salvation through Jesus, but I get along just fine with God. I follow the commandments and I am a good person; I even pray to God; I believe in him.” No, you don’t! If you believed in God, you would believe in his Son and accept him. And, apart from the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus, you are at war with God because you are still covered in original sin. God cannot look upon sin, so how do you think that he can see you or hear you when you are covered in it. This world, this nation, needs true, born again, Christians. Satan is waging war on humanity, and fake, godly people are aiding and abetting the enemy; so they are at war with God.
How many of you ever boast in the hope that you have in God? Now, I don’t want you to be an obnoxious Christian, but we need to boast about the salvation that we have found and the Lord that we serve. We must stop being ashamed of Jesus and start freely boasting about him. You have a hope that others have not yet discovered. Tell me this, if you discovered a cure for cancer, would you keep it to yourself or share it with the world? If you discovered the fountain of youth that would allow anyone who drank from it to live forever, would you keep it to yourself? You have found so much more than that in Jesus; with whom have you shared it?
Verses 3 & 4 are telling us that Christians can have joy in tribulation because we know that God is transforming us. When we trust in God’s word, we know that God is using all things for the good of those he loves; that’s us if we have accepted Jesus. We can face the difficulties of life knowing that God is moving us—moving us from suffering to perseverance, from perseverance to character, and from character to hope. The journey is not easy; Jesus never promised us easy. But the journey, with and for Jesus, is worthwhile. Each time that we go through tough situations, if we go through it with Jesus, we grow and learn to perseverance and we build character, and we learn how to hope. We find peace in hope and hope gives us peace.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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