Romans 8:26-39 - God On Our Side

Romans 8:26-39

Thus far Paul has let us know that we can be free in Christ, free from the slavery to sin, free from the inability we have to live the way we were created to live, but instead we are adopted children of God, belonging to God, and belonging to God’s family. We are not just saved from slavery to sin, but we are saved into a family, into a community, a loving caring family in which all of us have the position of privilege. We are not just all in the family, but we are all first born sons, co-heirs with Christ, all receiving the greatest portion, the full inheritance, the best that God has to offer. In this family no one is second, no one gets the cast offs or hand me downs. We are all first, we are all the favorite. We are together, we are united and we all receive all the privileges in God’s family.

The thing about being apart of a family is that we all belong and we all belong together. Being apart of a family is a wonderful thing. First of all it means we are not alone. It also means that we have others to help and support us. (It also means that we have someone to poke us continually until we want to scream and break their neck on long car rides but that is beside the point) Nothing makes my children happier than when we are walking down the street and we all hold each others hands, a string of four people all joined together, for them this is the essence of being family. It is when we are so obviously linked together like this, that they feel that we are truly a family.

As members of the family of God we all belong together. We are joined together and together we are who we truly are. We are children, brothers and sisters all apart of those who belong and to and are joined together with God.
As members of this family we have God as our parent, as our father, working on our behalf, striving on our behalf. God is not just about being up in Heaven being all holy and Godlike, creating the universe, keeping the cosmic laws in place and all that, God is at work on our behalf, on behalf the family of God, the children of God. God saved us not merely from sin, but saved us unto God’s-self, into a body, a community of those that belong to and are apart of the family, we are saved from the loneliness and self destruction of our lives apart from God into God’s family, in to THIS community, we are saved into relationship with God and with each other.

Because God has called unto God’s-self a community a family, God works for that family. Paul begins by explaining to us that although we as the people of God don’t always know what to pray for that because we are apart of this community and the Spirit knows that our deepest desire is truly for what God wants, for God’s greatest desires, that even when we are at a loss, and are not even sure what it means to align our will with the will of God, because lets face it most of the time we don’t know what is God’s best, the Spirit will take the core of our desire which if for God, for God’s best, to be aligned with all that God wants and desires not only for us as individuals, but for us as God’s Church and also for all creation, and the Spirit will speak on our behalf. The Spirit will speak in sighs too deep for words in groans that words cannot express. We are told elsewhere the all creation is groaning for redemption, groaning for all things to be set right. The Spirit joins in that groaning and deep sighing speaking on our behalf for God’s will, for all things to be set right.

The Church may not always know what being set right is, what being the people, the faith community, the body God knows we can be is. The Church may not always know what is God’s best for us. We may not always know exactly what the will of God entails or where it will take us, but even when we don’t know, even when we don’t know what to pray for or how to pray the Spirit of God, knowing that our deepest desire is to be the people of God we are called to be, to be the people of God, God envisions us to be, that our hearts longing is to live, act, move and be who we were created to be, will then pick up where we fail, pick up where our knowledge and our abilities fall short and pray for what we don’t even know how to pray for.

But that is not all there is, (at this point I almost feel like a car salesman) not only are we apart of the family, growing and moving together in relationship not only God but with each other, not only do we all have the rights and privileges of first born sons, all have the place of honor, not only does the Spirit of God step in and express our hearts deepest longing for all that it means to be truly shaped, formed and made over by the will of God but God will also step in and intervene on our behalf. God is working on behalf of this family, on behalf of the Church. God did not call us into this family and ask the children to fend for themselves. We are apart of a loving family with a loving father who works on our behalf, who does not self-servingly strive for merely that which benefit his life and his plans but we have a father who lives and seeks what is good for the family, who works and strives on OUR behalf, working to make all things work together for the good of us all, so that Church, the family of God can be who we are called to be, who God saved us to be.

God called the church into existence. It for the church that Christ died. It was the Church, the family, the children of God whom God envisioned and destined to exist from the beginning. God works and strives for the good of the Kingdom and in Paul that means that God works and strives for the good of all those who are children, for this family God has called into existence for the Church. Let me tell you folks, no matter how bad it looks. No matter how hostile our culture seems to be to the truth of the Gospel, no matter how many poor representations of God and what it means to belong to God prevail in our society, the Church, God’s church will never fail. God is continually at work, for the betterment for the good of those, those that gather and worship, for those who love one another and are marked by the love of the Lord God. No matter what is going on. No matter how bleak the future may look from the limited vantage point we have here, God will not let God’s church fail. God is always working on behalf of the family, for the children of God, for the Church, not just this Church but for THE CHURCH as it exists in all its congregations, bodies and forms all over the world. God is at work, the Church will not fail!

Nothing can stand against God’s Church and ultimately win. As long as we are God’s living, working and striving together to be the people, the Church God is calling us to be, as long as we are children of the most high, then God nothing can work against us will succeed. It is actually not so much that nothing can come against us, because believe me things do. But it is more that it does not matter what comes against us, because God is at work on our behalf, strengthening, teaching and guiding down the paths that she should go. God is at work on behalf of God’s family and God’s children and God will assure that his family will not be destroyed.
This does not mean that things cannot and do not move to work against God’s Church. Because believe me they do. But many of them do not come in the form we expect. The things that come against God’s church tend to not so much be people or outside institutions trying to destroy the church from the outside, but tend to be more subversive than that, the things that destroy churches are things like apathy, despair, despondency, distraction, a general feeling and attitude of hopelessness. These are the things that can threaten to tear a body of believers apart. These are the things that come against The Church. But it does not matter. No matter what comes against The Church, no matter what threatens to dismantle a community of faith God is still there at work. And if we are working together to love God and neighbor, willing to align our actions, our will, our desires with those of God, it is not so much that nothing can come against us, because things will. Things will come against this particular body of believers, but it won’t matter, because nothing can win when we align ourselves with God. God is working with us, for us, on our behalf, so that in truth nothing can succeed should it try to dismantle God’s church, God’s body, God’s community.

Nothing can separate God’s children, God’s beloved, God’s Church from God. We are a family and a family is always a family and like any true family nothing can really dissolve a family. A family can ignore each other, a family can feud, they can fight, they can move to the corners of the earth to get away from each other, but they are still a family, a dysfunctional family but a family none-the-less.
There are four children in the family I grew up in, four sisters, who grew up together. Let me tell you we drove each other crazy, and sometimes still do. We fought, we bickered, we called each other names and there were times in which we wished we could just be rid of each other, but through it all we are still a family. We have all grown up now and have all started our own families. We have all gone our separate ways. The two younger ones have set up house and home with in 10 miles of my parents house in Maryland but us two older sisters have wandered far and wide, my elder sister has live as close to my parents as North Carolina, but now lives in Utah, having lived for nearly a decade in Phoenix, Arizona in between. After having graduating from ENC I have lived in Kansas City, in a small town outside of Wichita, KS and now here. But no matter how far apart we live, or how close, we are all still a family. And nothing or nobody can take that from us.
With God is it is similar, but as with all things when it comes to God, so much better. Nothing can remove us from God’s family. As the family of God, as the body of believers, the community of faith, things may be difficult, we may become distressed by circumstances in the world around us, the world may rise up against us, we may loose everything that we hold valuable, we may be in danger, or threatened with death, there may be wars waged all around us, we may be separated by height or depth or distance, but none of these things can separate us from God. This is a family that can not be apart due to distance, this is not a family that can be torn apart by the actions of anyone from the outside. God’s family is united, joined together, sharing life, living in relationship with God and with each other. God is on our side, because we are united with God and with one another. WE are not called to be united with God and remain alone, it is not Jesus and me all the way to Heaven, we are each called out of our lives of sin and loneliness, out of being orphaned in our distorted, shadowy lives lived apart from God, love and community and we are saved into a family, saved into relationship, saved to be together. Part of living the way we were created to live, being who we are created to be is living in holy relationship, not just holy relationship with God (which is important) in relationship with one another, in relationship with the Body, with a community of faith, we were called to BE the CHURCH, to be God’s children together, no longer orphaned in our sin but united as a family.

The fact of the matter is that not only does God call each and everyone of us to be children of God, to love God and to love others, but we are called not only into relationship with the most holy God of the universe, but we are called to be in relationship with one another. We are called to be the Church working together, striving together, loving God together and loving this world, this city, this neighborhood together.

The truth of the matter is that God called US, The Cambridge Church of the Nazarene into existence and God called us to living in holy community with one another, living and loving and being the people of God, the children of God, the Church together, in this place, at this time. We are God’s church, we are God’s people. But it is more than that, God did not call us and leave us, God did not call us and the expect us to do this on our own, God called us and told us that as long as we are striving for God’s best, seeking the will of God in all things, even when we are uncertain, even when we do not know what it is God is calling us to, or who it is we need to be, as long as we are aligning our will with God’s and truly desire God’s desires for us as a community, then the Spirit of God will speak on our behalf, praying the things, that we don’t even know how to pray. And God, God, is working and striving on our behalf, and will not allow any force to dismantle the Church, the family God has called into existence. If we are truly being the Church God is calling us to be, allowing God to call us into existence, allowing God to make us the family that God envisions us to be, doing the work and the ministry God has called us to, God will not allow the distance between us, the struggles, the quarrels, the differing opinions we have, our own sense of despondency or despair, to tear us apart. We are united as a family we are God’s family and God will work to draw us together and move the work and ministry God has called us to forward. The future we have here in this place is one of unity and purpose, we merely need to join with God and be the people of God the children of God, the united family, God is calling us to be, together.