Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed 08/05/18

Intro:

• In the fourth grade, my teacher read to us great book each day for around thirty minutes.
• One of my favorite books she read was a Gary Paulson tale named Hatchet.
• That book’s overarching story is about a teenage boy having to survive in the Canadian wilderness.
• But how did he get there in the first place?
• The teenager, a child of divorce, was flying to visit his dad. The pilot had a massive heart attack en-route.
• Realizing his predicament, the boy could keep they plane in the air with the control stick. He figured out how to radio for help, but never heard anything back. Finally as fuel was running out he had to try to land the plane.
• Without a much greater mastery of the controls the best he could do would be to point the plane towards a seemingly safe break in the trees and hope for the best.
• After a harrowing landing in a lake, the teenage boy had to learn to survive with little to nothing which included a hatchet.

Hook:

• Just image how overwhelming that teenage boy must have felt having to take the controls of that plane. As thrilling as that might be, in the circumstances, I am sure that was a seat he would rather not sit down into.
• Nor would it be a joy in those circumstance to have to learn to start a fire build a shelter, and learn how to catch, gather, or kill food to eat.
• The circumstances, the seat that young man had to assume in the plane and in his life changed his perspective on reality greatly.
• Today as we examine these verses from Romans eight, I want to demonstrate the perspective from four different seats that can change our perspectives equally as great.

Message Points:

• Paul begins this section of Scripture with a question. He asks in my translation of the original language “What therefore shall we say about these things?”.
  • I find the NIV’s broadening of this question helpful.
  • Notice that it uses the phrase “say in response”. As Josh Mcdowell entitled his book, when we are confronted with the evidence for God’s work in our lives, that is Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
  • So again what are the things to which we must respond?
    • We are not condemned because of the work of Christ to free us to live according to the Spirit.
    • The Holy Spirit empowers us to live according to God’s desires as one of his children.
    • The Spirit is also there for us in the midst of life’s suffering.
    • God promises through the Spirit to complete the work to conform us to the image and purpose of His Son, no matter what.
  • If we were to respond broadly, just trying to describe our emotions or feelings those of us who are believers might say that we feel peace in knowing that our God works so hard for us, and will never abandon us.
  • Paul responds with the phrase “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
    • This phrase begins with a small conjunction that we translate as “if”.
      • That conjunction is often used to pose a question.
      • So Paul asks another question to respond to his first question, which introduces a rhetorical device called a diatribe, intended on summarizing and proving Paul’s point.
    • Then of course he asserts the condition that “God is” modified by the prepositional phrase for us.
      • In this little prepositional phrase is the difference between life and death. The content of this phrase makes the difference between a believer and an unbeliever; peace and turmoil.
      • If you are an unbeliever in the room you probably do not like the idea that God exists, but you like even less the idea that God is in driver’s seat of life. You may even insist that there is no God because you want to be in the driver’s seat of life.
      • On the other hand for those of us who are believers, we have come not only to admit God’s existence, but his power over all of life FOR our good. We have come to enjoy and celebrate that God is in the driver’s seat of life.
• That is our 1ST seat this morning – The driver’s seat. The person in the driver’s seat must defend (8:31).
  • Consider the second part of Paul’s rhetorical question. He utilizes the phrase “who can be against us?”
  • The word against is a preposition that implies movement or activity directed at those of us who believe.
    • By choosing this preposition, Paul is not saying that we have no foes, distractions, or suffering in life.
    • What he is saying is that any movements against those who are Christ’s will ultimately and eternally be defeated.
  • When I began to drive, in one of the first lessons I received, my dad told me I needed to be a defensive driver.
    • A defensive drive is one who must constantly be aware of everything that is going on around the car.
    • The defensive driver must change his or her speed, direction, and other factors to avoid problems.
  • Now scale up what it means to be a defensive driver, and consider what it means to drive our lives.
    • Can we be constantly aware of everything that goes on around the car?
    • Can we always change our part in a situation to avoid problems.
    • Without having to scale to the ultimate level of the driver of the universe, you can already see that even the most astute and capable humans cannot be constantly aware or able to change our role in situations.
    • All of us have to sleep sometimes, and what a terror it is to think that we have fallen asleep at the wheel of life.
  • But if God is the driving force in the universe and in our lives, we can have peace in knowing that He is aware of every problem and able to deliver us from any trouble.
    • Psalm 121:3-4 says, “He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
    • The phrase “let your foot slip” is a euphemism for perish and be separated eternally from God and those who love Him.
    • God does not promise that we will avoid all times and seasons of trouble, but he does promise that nothing in this life will keep us from the destination of Heaven He drives us to reach.
    • If God drives our life, He defends us against getting off course. And friends there is such peace in knowing that no matter what, my life will never waver from the course towards Heaven and life with my Savior.
  • So friend, just consider the destination your life is driving towards?
    • Maybe you are headed towards the isolation of a life lived for your own selfish ends.
    • Perhaps you are headed towards the despair of a life controlled by unabated worry and anxiety.
    • You may even be headed toward the wrath of conflict at work, at home, and inside.
    • But it does not have to be that way! Change who drives your life friend and I promise your course and destination will change as well.
• Verse 8:32 then picks up and gives us another rhetorical question that builds on the case for who we should have driving our life.
  • Paul picks up with the phrase “He who did not spare his own Son”.
    • This of course refers to God, our Father.
      • I have heard about stories of parents of missionaries who did everything they could to convince and even stop their children from going oversees as missionaries.
      • Just imagine if God the Father had opposed the mission of Jesus to save sinners like you and me. With all the power that created the universe, He certainly could have prevented Christ’s incarnation, and eternally split the Trinity into some sort of divine schizophrenia.
      • The relationship in the Godhead would be forever broken and we as sinners would be forever condemned.
      • But God the Father, as a loving and caring parent of His own Son chose to bless and empower His son’s mission to save sinners.
      • God in a fatherly way so loved all of us that He willingly gave up Christ to His rescue mission on earth.
• As you might have guessed we now consider the 2nd seat in life: The parent’s seat. (8:32)
  • Parents, how many of us would allow any of our children to be sent on the kind of mission God the Father sent Jesus to accomplish?
    • Far more painful and excruciating than thinking of my own suffering in a similar situation is the thought of my children being sent into harm’s way.
    • But how much easier would it be to send a child to rescue another one of your children and bring that child home?
    • Even if you are an unbeliever or a wavering Christian, surely you can see that God the Father, by affirming Christ’s mission and sending him to us proved that he loves us as his own dear children.
  • Notice now that Paul continues to ask “will he not also, along with [Christ] graciously give us all things?”
    • By laboring to make the point that God loves us enough to affirm and send Christ to rescue us, Paul logically extends the metaphor.
    • It only makes sense that God would now treat us as precious children, providing for our every need.
  • So in the parent’s seat we must provide.
    • Think about the first time you realized the lengths to which your parents sought to provide for you.
    • If yours was a similar experience to mine, you began to realize how much your parents provided for you when you sat down in what once was their seat.
      • Perhaps it was when you started doing the chores they did for you.
      • It may have been when you started having to work and pay bills.
      • If you have children of your own, you certainly feel the pressures of being in the parent’s seat at the table.
    • When we sit in the parent’s seat, we must provide. Sooner or later we will all sit in the seat of a provider.
      • Parents provide for needs that must be met – food, shelter, clothing, and much more.
      • Parents provide instruction, direction and comfort.
      • Parents also provide an example.
      • But parents we must be careful not to think that we must provide totally out of our own strength and supply.
    • That is why all over the Bible it tells us to be careful, to test, to examine leaders before we entrust them with leadership.
      • As we nominate deacons today it is important for us to talk about this warning in Scripture.
      • 1 Timothy 5:22 tells us “do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure”.
        • Laying on of hands is the biblical way of showing that one has been set apart to lead.
        • Did you notice how it said that if we set someone apart to leadership, not fit to lead we share in their sins?
        • We know that no person is going to be the perfect leader, so every leader will sin sooner or later.
        • The implication here is that we are looking for some quality to convince us to entrust people with leadership.
      • What is it that we are looking for in those who would lead God’s church?
      • We are looking for the same thing that makes someone a biblical parent rather than a biological progenitor.
      • The best parents see their role as humble stewards. Listen to the words of Psalm 127.
        • Unless the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain.
        • Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
        • It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to his beloved sleep.
        • Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
        • Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
        • Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
        • He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
      • While I do not have time to fully expound on this Psalm, notice just a few things that pertain to our discussion today.
        • Children, and people to care for is a gift from God.
        • Children, and people to care for are not to be kept but released as arrows.
        • God does not give us children or people to think that we must anxiously provide for every one of their needs.
        • God gives us children as a reminder that He alone can give his beloved sleep. This is implies that God provides rest and peace.
    • Take a moment and lets ask, am I the sole provider in my house, my family, my life?
      • If you sense an overwhelming feeling of anxiety, and the thought that you must do everything, provide everything let that serve as a warning to you.
      • None of us provides everything for ourselves. We can provide only what our Father provides for us.
      • When we are in distress or trouble, we do not have to turn to our limited supply but to our Father, who has a limitless supply of what we need.
      • That is what a biblical parent and leader will do. They will teach others to turn to God to provide for their needs.
      • If God our Father, gave us Christ, he will certainly give us all that we need.
• The final two verses lead us to consider the 3rd seat to consider: The seat of an advocate (8:33-34).
  • These two verses place us in the courtroom.
    • Verse 8:33 Asks who brings any charge against God’s chosen ones.
    • While the natural answer would seem to be no one, Paul instead answer with the phrase “It is God who justifies”.
      • That action of justifying remember is God, not covering up our wrongs or ignoring them, but telling us that because Jesus paid our debt it is “just as if” we had never sinned.
      • Think of it this way. Charges of sin and a conclusive case were brought. The verdict of guilty was issued by God. The sentence of death was given. But into the midst before the sentence could be carried out, Jesus substituted himself for us. He chose to pay our debt so that we might be free.
      • That is justification.
    • For this reason when we read verse 8:34 and see the question “Who is the one who condemns?” we should not leap to the conclusion of the most current edition of the NIV and supply the words No One.
      • Those words are not in the original text. The question is immediately followed by the name Christ Jesus.
      • Romans 3: 26 is a great help here. We are told that God passed over sins to “show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
      • The word in the question translated as “condemns” could also be translated as “judges”.
      • So get this picture. We are being told that God sits in the regal robes as the judge of all the universe. After declaring the verdict of guilty and the sentence of death, instead of leaving the courtroom, disrobes and comes to the bailiff ready to pay the fine he just declared.
      • That is why when we read the rest of verse 8:34 it takes pains to tell us that Jesus died, was raised and is not seated at the right hand of the Father.
      • Jesus took the seat that none of us could take for ourselves. He became our advocate. On our behalf, he interceded for us, satisfying the wrath of God against sin and establishing a relationship of peace with God.

Conclusion:

• This leads us to the final seat we must consider. That is the seat of a follower.
• If we try to control our lives, we will ultimately end up worse than the young man in Hatchet. We will not merely wreck our lives we will discover that we cannot survive eternity without Christ.
• God is the driver of life. He is the provider for our every need. He is the advocate that satisfies wrath and establishes eternal peace.
• We must take the seat of a follower. So today will you follow Jesus?