What Are the Five Questions that Open You to Abundance Like No Other?

It happens almost every day now.  Sometimes it comes from the backseat.  Other times, it hits me in the bathroom or right before he goes to bed.    Most of the time, I handle it fine. 

But it’s gotten tougher.   He fires ones that flummox me.  I have no idea how to answer.  

This week, it happened at Target.  I was picking out a pouf, you know one of those bathy sponge things and out it came.   Daddy, why do they call it a pouf?  I didn’t know.  I had no clue.  (By the way, I googled it – Pouf means puff in French, because I guess that sponge looks puffy in a French sort of way.) 

But sometimes, those questions I can’t google.  I have to struggle with them or simply admit I don’t know.   And all his questions have made me ask.  Do I ask enough questions?   And as I look at the words we’re about to hear.  I realize.   These questions at least, I don’t ask enough.  But when I did this week, they changed not only the way I look at my life. They changed the way I look at this church.  And if you ask them, they will change you too.  What are these questions?   Here God shows the way.  Let’s listen and hear what God has to say.   

Romans 8:30-39

In these questions you just heard, God offers you a new perspective, a perspective that changes everything.  What is God telling you?  God is telling you just how much God is for you.  In fact, that’s the first question, Paul gives you. 

If God is for us, who can be against us?  Think about it.  That’s a great question.  If God is for you, who can be against you?   Can anything, anyone, stand against you if you have God standing with you?  Sheesh.  Talk about an ally. 

But too often, we don’t believe God is really for us.  So, we try to do things that we think will get God’s favor.   But do you get what God is telling you here?  You don’t have to do anything special to get God’s favor for you.  You already have God’s favor right now.  

Now, God is not for everything you might be doing.   When it comes to my son, certain things he does I am definitely not for, like his ploys to extend his bed time as long as possible.  But do you know why I’m not for that?  I’m not for that because I am for him.  I want him to wake up refreshed and renewed, to get the sleep he needs.   And I will always be for him.  I will always be in his corner.  I will always want the very best for his life.   And if I, a limited, flawed guy, can be that way, how much more is God for you, for me?

Actually, you don’t even have to answer that question, Paul goes on to tell you the answer in question 2.   “God, who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with Jesus, graciously give us all things?”   How much is God for you? God gave you God’s very life in Jesus.   Nothing can top that.  So, if God gave you that, do you really think God’s going to withhold anything for your life.  And remember Paul is writing to a church going through terrible times, persecution, suffering, but still Paul says this.  Why?  Paul knows what God did in Jesus.   He knows.  If God didn’t walk away there, then God will never walk away.  And in the end, God’s generosity always wins.  In the end, God’s generosity will give you everything.   

But God won’t just be there to make provision.  God will be there to defend you.  Do you see that question? “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?”   Not only does God not ever accuse you, God defends you.   And that’s important, because you have an accuser.  That’s what the Bible calls Satan, the accuser.   When you hear a voice accusing you, you are not hearing the voice of God.  No, God stands as the one defending you.  And who do you think is going to win that case?   When the accuser hits you, just say.  Talk to Jesus.  He’s my defense.  Deal with that.   

But Jesus not only defends you, Jesus prays for you.  Every moment, Jesus lifts up words on your behalf, praying the best for you.  Sometimes, I get nervous when I hear people are talking about me.  But here God tells me, in the Trinity, God is talking about me all the time, talking about you all the time, how to see you blossom and how you can become all we created you to be. 

And all those questions lead you to the big Kahuna, the best question of all.  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”   Then God goes on to tell you all the things that you think do separate you.  But God says.  Don’t you get it?   None of that will take away my love.   CorrieTen Boom, the Nazi death camp survivor put it well.  There is no pit so deep that Jesus is not deeper still.   God’s love is always there for you, in every moment, even the hardest moments.   It is true.  There is no pit so deep that Jesus’ love for you is not deeper still. 

But sadly, we live in a world where too many people don’t know that, that God is for them, always giving, always defending, always plotting how to bless them, that nothing will ever take that love away.  Nothing.     The church I serve, First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, gets that.    Long before I came, it was telling people how God is for them.

That’s why decades ago, this church started feeding the homeless on the corner.  The city didn’t like it, but we knew Jesus did.  Jesus wanted these homeless to know he was for them. His love had not left them behind.  And that feeding forced this city to do more to provide for those folks in need.  It led to the growth of Jubilee, to the coming of Broward Outreach, to the ministry of Share A Meal.

And when over 40 years ago, Ginny Gray discovered young families couldn’t afford a decent place to care for their children, to give them the early education they needed, she led this church to be for them and to start a preschool.  Who would have thought that little ministry with not even 30 kids would grow to be over 5 times that size?

It’s why 12 years ago we stepped up with our synagogue neighbors to care for HIV orphans in Haiti.  Few folks were willing to deal with those kids. The care seemed too complicated, the risks too great.  But we knew God was for those kids, and we needed to be there too.

Last year when 12 seniors died during Irma at Hollywood Hills, we discovered with our partners at Bold Justice that nobody, nobody was doing spot checks on nursing homes in our county.   We stepped up and said to our public leaders.  That has to stop.  God is for those seniors, and we are for them too.  And because we stepped up those spot checks are happening, making sure seniors get the protection they need.

And over a decade ago when Jeannie and Gayle asked us to baptize their daughter, we said yes.  We wanted them to know we were for them.  We didn’t see a label.  We saw a loving couple with a newborn child.   And when we elected Jeannie as a deacon, and Brian and Carlos and most recently Jason as elders, we didn’t see labels then either.  We saw people gifted and called by God to serve.   And because too many people didn’t know that God is for everyone, gay and straight alike, flew a rainbow flag.

  

This church because long before I came was proclaiming in word and deed these words.   If God is for you, who can be against you?   Who will separate you from the love of God?  And may this church never stop proclaiming that good news.  And know that good news is there for you.  Let those questions root themselves in your heart.   So, in your darkest days, you can remember God is for you.  There is no pit so deep, that Jesus’ love for you is not deeper still.