God is Not on Your Side

6 · Brief transitional application asserting that the sin of attempting to manipulate God is common among the hearers

And friends, oh my, this is more common than any of us want to admit.

7 · Establishes the theological diagnosis that the manipulative posture toward God operates in contemporary Christian life through the Prosperity Gospel framework — the transactional approach that treats spiritual disciplines as levers to pull for desired outcomes

Tim Chester in his commentary says this it is not uncommon to think that by coming to church each Sunday, reading our Bible each day and giving a portion of our income, we are doing our bit for God. And in return we expect God to save us from hell and help out from time to time in life, ensuring that we are comfortable or happy or whatever it is that we wish him to supply. This goes on in our own hearts, brothers and sisters. I've seen it this week going on at places in my own heart where it's like, I'm going to do this and if I do this, God will give me that. We're trying to pull the levers to get God to act in the way that we the core of this Let me speak frankly here. The core of this is at the core of the Prosperity Gospel. The Prosperity Gospel is sadly more common in our nation, in our city and in our own hearts than we want to admit. You may not be familiar with that term. Well, the Prosperity Gospel is any sort of so called Christian teaching that says if you do X, God will give you health, wealth, prosperity, long life. The other stuff you want, usually it's tied to financial gifts. If you will give X to prove that you love God, then God will give you everything you've wanted.

8 · Concrete application naming the Prosperity Gospel as a widespread threat in the congregation's context ('our nation', 'our city', 'our own hearts') and citing specific examples from Catholic and evangelical practice to demonstrate the spectrum of manifestation

And friends, let's be frank. This thinking, the Prosperity Gospel has infected our nation and our city and too often has its tendrils wrapped around our own hearts. And we got to be honest that this is a threat in here and out there. This is the water we are swimming in. It is. It is everything from, I'm going to just be really blunt, everything from a, for example, Catholic church promising that your relatives will have less time in purgatory if you will pay to light the right candle or pay for a special service and the evangelical pastor living a lavish lifestyle Promising that you too can live a lavish lifestyle if you will just give enough to prove your faith. There's a wide spectrum of here and friends according to the Bible and according to this text, it is, it is anti biblical. It's not kind of right, it's all the way wrong. And God as shown in this text cannot be used.

9 · Returns to the text (1 Samuel 4:4) to expose the absurdity of the Israelites' attempt by unpacking the narrator's description of God's identity — Yahweh, Lord of hosts, enthroned above the cherubim

And the text itself shows us how insane it is for us to think we can manipulate God. Because the people in verse four, it says they brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned above the Sherim. Meaning this, the narrator is contrasting these puny Israelites who lost a battle and then go, you know what we can do? Let's go try to manipulate God, who the narrator describes as the Lord. Every time you see the the word capital letters Lord, that means Yahweh. It means the I am who I am, the self existent one over all creation, the Lord of hosts, meaning the, the commander of angelic armies and the one enthroned even above the angels, that one. So you think you're going to go and start manipulating that guy into getting what you want? How foolish. How utterly foolish. And yet, friends, we need to look at our own lives and go, man. But that foolishness looks a lot like me at times. Davis, one of the commentators, says this, this, this passage repeats itself. He says, anytime the church stops confessing thou art worthy and begins chanting Thou art useful, right? Anytime we start to think, okay, God, I follow God because he's useful to my life. We've, we've drifted.

10 · Structural transition summarizing the first point and introducing the second major claim

First thing we need to understand, we got to remeat the Lord here. God cannot be used. Second, God cannot be ignored.

11 · Exposition of 1 Samuel 4:12-22, narrating the defeat of Israel's army, the capture of the Ark, and the deaths of Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas

Sadly and predictably, in the following verses, the army of the Israelites is defeated and the ark is captured. And then verses 12 to 22 ends the story of the house of Eli. Eli gets news and verse 16, this is this man who escaped says this, I am he who has come from the battle. I fled from the battle today. And Eli said, how did it go, my son? Verse 17. He who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines. And there also has been a great defeat among the people. And your two sons also Hophni and Phinehas are dead. And the Ark of God has been captured. As soon as he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel 40 years so tragically Eli and his sons are both killed in the same day through judgment. And it was deserved. They had disgraced the holiest places of Israel. They had condoned sin. They had literally gotten fat off of stealing from people, the land.

12 · Extracts the doctrinal principle from the Eli narrative: God cannot be ignored

And this text, then, carries with us a warning. We may need to remet the Lord here. The warning is this. God cannot be ignored. Sometimes we can be like Eli and his sons in chapter three or chapter two, thinking, I'm sinning and nothing's happening. I'm sinning, and so far, no lightning. I'm sinning, and I think I might get away with this until chapter four comes.

13 · Personal story of teenage foolishness ordering everything at Applebee's and being shocked when the bill arrives

Look, I learned this lesson the hard way as a teenager. I think every teenager learns this lesson the hard way. Because as a teenager, maybe you first pull in your first paycheck, right? Or you first get, you know, an amount of money. And your friends. I remember, like, as a teen, your friends would be like, let's go out and eat. Because it was like, we can. We have money now. We can go eat anywhere. So we'd go out, you know, to a restaurant or something, and we thought it was, like, a real fancy place, like Applebee's. We're gonna really splurge. And, you know, no more McDonald's for us. We are paycheck people. We're going to Applebee's. And so you go. And, you know, of course, the waiter, I'm sure, can spot you a mile away, you know, a group of teenagers, and they're like, you want some appetizers? They start telling you about the appetizers, and you think, man, my parents never let me get appetizers. Absolutely. I absolutely would like an appetizer. Bring me a round of your finest appetizers, you know, and then you order, you know, something on the menu you'd never order. Like, I have the money. I have money now. I'm a man of money. And I order, you know, whatever it is, and they come back around, and they're like, anybody for dessert? And you're like, absolutely. For years, I've waited to order dessert because my parents wouldn't buy it for me. And now I will order the dessert. Would you like a third soda? Yes, absolutely. You feel like a king at Applebee's. And then the bill comes at the end, right? And all of a sudden, you're reviewing the charges and you're going, there must be some mistake here. Whose bill is this? And you realize that you, from 30 minutes ago, felt like a king, and now the bill has come due at the end. Look, here's the reality. The bill for the house of Eli has come due in the end. And so the bill comes due for all who think they can rack up charges and the Lord never collect. Right? This is a hard lesson, but a needed lesson that, that God cannot be ignored. His bill will always come at the end. We will all stand before him. Therefore, we may need to see him differently than we did.

14 · Structural transition introducing the third major claim about God's character

This is who the Lord is. Third point. God cannot lose. God cannot lose.

15 · Exposition of 1 Samuel 5:1-4, narrating the Philistines' capture of the Ark and their placement of it in Dagon's temple

In chapter five, verse one, it says, when the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. Now we may be thinking, oh, no, this is not good. This is not good. We. The Ark of the Covenant has been captured. And what this, this Philistine nation is doing, they are. They are placing. They're doing one of two things, right? Not exactly sure. They're either placing the Ark near this. You know, imagine a big statue of an ancient God. And so the Ark is this metal box. And so they're placing it so that it seems like, ah, see, our God's way bigger than that box thing. Our God's way bigger than the box God. And so they may be trying to go, look how great we are. Or they are simply absorbing Yahweh or trying to absorb Yahweh into their pantheon of gods, meaning that they've got various gods and they're thinking, great, we'll just absorb this one. And now Yahweh works for us, not the Israelites. Ha ha, got another one. And you may be thinking, well, this is terrible. You know, there's no Israelites around who's going to rescue the Lord from this terrible, terrible situation. Look at verse three. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. So I love this. They took Dagon and put him back in his place. So imagine this. They've just defeated the Israelites. They just thought, okay, we are. We are utterly dominant in this region of the world. We even have their God, their fancy God that they say got him out of Egypt. We've got him now. He works for us. We've subjugated him. And. And they walk up to the temple, only to find this giant statue fallen over face down in front of the Ark of the Covenant. And their God is so powerless, they have to get some guys and Stand him back up. And you think, oh, oh, this is, this is not going the way they thought it was going. No, look at verse four. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold Dagon had fallen downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. Like, oh, he's back. And listen to this goes further. The head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. So day one, you're thinking, maybe there was a big bump, maybe there was an earthquake, maybe somebody knocked him over, maybe something happened. Second day, no mistake. In fact, a symbol of subjugation would be at times where enemy kings would defeat other kings and they would cut off their thumbs or fingers or hands as a symbol of I'm going to let you live, but you're utterly impotent before me. And so they walk up and these symbols of utter authority on the part of Yahweh are right there on the threshold of the table. And you're thinking, well, maybe they rolled the. No, they didn't roll. They got sliced off and placed on the threshold and Dagons lying humiliated behind them. Look, this, this passage is forcing us to see the Lord again. This is not a God that is wringing his hands and sweating and going, oh, what's going to go on with my plan? He never does that, that he's not worried. He's not breaking a sweat. He needs no Israelite army.

16 · Continues exposition of 1 Samuel 5, now verses 6-7, showing that God's judgment extends beyond Dagon to the people — tumors and terror afflict Ashdod

And look, it goes even further. Verse 6. The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, the ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon, our God. Do you see the irony here? The story starts with them capturing the Ark of the Covenant and they end realizing they are the captives and they're going, how do we get out of this?

17 · Illustrates the irony of the Philistine situation through O

It reminds me of this great old O. Henry story that I read in grade school. You may have remembered this as well, called the Ransom of Red Chief, where these two robbers, kidnappers, they, they go into a rich family's home and they steal their son. And they're like, haha, we're going to send a ransom note to the parents and say, you've got to give us like a million dollars if you want to see your boy again. But this kid, oh my goodness, this kid is the worst kid in the history of English literature. He is. He is precocious. He is unnecessarily cruel. In his words, he is mean. He's scary. He's terrifying. He's a handful. The whole thing just goes south for these kidnappers. And they finally hear back from the boy's parents. And the boy's parents say, we're going to reject your terms. Here are our terms. You will pay us to take him back. And so it ends with the kidnappers paying the family to take the kid back. That's what's happening here in First Samuel. The Philistines are going, how do we get out of this?

18 · Extends the exposition to show the comprehensive nature of God's judgment against the Philistines — not just tumors but plague, destruction of food supply, total annihilation

And make no mistake, the entire nation is being destroyed. There's actually references to a plague of rats that's probably going on at the same time. So tumors are happening, sickness is happening. Their food and grain are getting destroyed. They are getting absolutely annihilated and defeated by Yahweh, the King of the Covenant.

19 · Shifts from exposition to theological application by identifying a popular but problematic claim: 'God is on my side

Now, here's the challenge. Okay, let's just. I'm going to ask for your patience as I'm a little more frank with this next section, because too often we see the Lord as somebody that we can manipulate, somebody that we can kind of pull one over, and someone we can get to do our bidding that is not the God of First Samuel. Nobody's getting God to do their bidding. And. And often I will hear or see people say, especially in our city, that that God kind of unilaterally, God is on my side. God is on your side. And look, there is a sense that that is true. Right? We're going to get there in a minute. But there is a way more fundamental issue going on when we say something like, God is on my side.

20 · Establishes the corrective theological claim using Lincoln's statement and Joshua 5 as supporting texts

Abraham Lincoln pointed this out during the Civil War where somebody asked him, lincoln, do you believe the Lord is on the side of the north or the South? And he said this. My great concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God's side. You see this again in. In the beginning of Joshua, where they enter the promised land and they're about to go to war to conquer. And this angelic commander appears before Joshua. And Joshua sees this angelic commander and asks him, are you for us or for our enemies? And the commander says, neither. I'm the commander of the army of the Lord. Like, he's saying, look, look, my loyalty is not to you, Joshua. My loyalty is to the Lord. I'm on his side.

21 · Double-sided application extracting both warning and comfort from the exposition

Look, this passage both encourages us and sobers us. It sobers us because Anyone whom the Lord chooses to fight against cannot stand. And so if we set ourselves up against the Lord, if we're like, yeah, I'm going to run my life and God better get on my pa. No way. No way. But, friends, if we will be on the Lord's side, then Romans 8:28 is true of us. Romans 8:31 to 32 reminds us, if God is for us, who can be against us? But notice that verse is true not because we've convinced God to join our side, but because we have joined His. God cannot but prevail.

22 · Structural transition introducing the fourth major claim about God's character

Fourth, God cannot be less than holy.

23 · Pastoral warning signaling a difficult turn in the narrative and calling for the congregation's reverent attention

Now this. Oh, friends, we must approach this with fear and trembling because this chapter full of twists and turns has yet another twist and turn.

24 · Exposition of 1 Samuel 6:19, narrating the Ark's return to Israel and the shocking judgment on the men of Beth Shemesh

Because the. The. And you should go back and read the thing of the Philistines. Philistines. It is a comedy of errors. They're trying to figure out, how do we get the Israelites to take the thing back? And they're literally on a hill and, like, watching, praying that Israel will, like, take the ark of God back. And they finally let it enter the city. And all the Philistines are like, oh, my gosh, that long, terrible chapter is finally over. And all the kings of the Philistines go away like little children, relieved. But then upon coming back into Israel, you think, everything's going to be smooth sailing. Well, not so. Look at 1st Samuel, verse 9, chapter 6, verse 19. The ark goes to Beth Shemesh, this Israelite village. And it says, and he, God, struck some of the men of Beth Shemesh because they looked upon the ark of the lord. He struck 70 men of them. And the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. And then the man of Beth Shemesh said, who is able to stand before the Lord and this holy God? And to whom shall he go up, away from us?

25 · Exegesis of the Hebrew language in 1 Samuel 6:19, distinguishing between 'saw' and 'looked upon' to demonstrate that the Israelites were examining and mishandling the Ark irreverently, like a toddler playing with something sacred

Now, you might be shocked at this, right? We aren't these God's people. Why would the Lord strike down his own people? But the text tells us, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. Now, there is a word that could have been used here, which is they saw the ark. Meaning, you know, it would be impossible to receive the ark and not see it. That's not the word here. The word is they were messing with it in a sense. They were examining it. They were treating it not as holy. And reverently. They're like a toddler, you know, when you have a. Your, you know, your toddler has something in their hands and you're like, don't play with that. And they're like, why? You know, like, put that down. It seems as though that the Israelites are treating the ark of the covenant with that kind of lack of respect. And therefore 70 fall in a single blow.

26 · Cross-references 2 Samuel 6 (Uzzah's death for touching the Ark) to demonstrate that God's holiness and the judgment for treating it irreverently is not an isolated incident but a pattern in Scripture

Unless we think that this is just a strange isolated incident in the Old Testament, we'll see this again in 2nd Samuel. 2nd Samuel, chapter 6. The Ark is being transported from one area to another and somebody transporting the ark, the ark begins to fall and, and they stick their hand out and try to hold the ark up and they are struck down dead. And you think, what in the world?

27 · Extracts the doctrinal principle from the Beth Shemesh and Uzzah incidents: God is not partially but completely holy, completely separate from sin, completely just

Yes, we may not know who the Lord is because the reality is this. This passage reminds us that God is not mostly holy. He's completely holy. He's not mostly separate from sin. He is completely separate. He's not mostly just. He is completely just. And all things that are unholy or sinful or unjust cannot be in his presence.

28 · Uses R

R.C. sproul makes this great comment about the guy who sticks his hand out to steady the ark. He says this, that man presumed his hand was less polluted than the dirt.

29 · Pivots from God's character to the application for self-knowledge: these passages are meant to force us to see ourselves differently, to re-evaluate our self-perception in light of God's holiness

This passage and those like it force us to see ourselves again.

30 · Personal story of washing the car with his son and thinking it looked clean until he took off his sunglasses and saw the streaks and dirt clearly

Like yesterday I was, I had my 6 year old helping me wash the car and I began to think, actually my 6 year old's doing a great job. And you know, he's got the spray, he's got the soap, he's doing things, you know, we're inside, he's rubbing things off and I'm beginning to think, man, he is doing, I mean, honestly, way better than I would have expected for a six year old. I mean, he really is getting this pretty thoroughly. Like I can't even see any dirt on this. And I'm thinking, this kid's gonna make a killing as soon as he can like get mobile and get around the neighborhood. He's a prodigy of car washing. He's, he's killing it here. And so, you know, we're wrapping up, we're about to wrap up. And I realize, oh, like, it's not actually that bright over here. And so I take off my sunglasses and I put my regular glasses on and I look at the car and go, oh no. Like there are streaks everywhere, there's clumps of dirt still hanging on it. And I realize when you've got your sunglasses on, all the dirt kind of blends into the dark, you know, color of the car. And I don't see any of it. But as soon as I put my real glasses on it's. Oh, no, right. That is what happens for us in this passage. Because we all think, okay, well, we're way better than the Philistines. We all know some Philistines in our lives. We see them on reality TV and we're like, look at those guys. Those are terrible people. And we think we're doing great. Look at my life, it's all shiny. And this passage goes, put your glasses on. Oh my.

31 · Application calling the congregation to see their lives as they actually are — covered in sin's spots and stains, both commission and omission

Because the reality is this. If we saw our lives as they actually are, looking for spots and stains of sin, things that we have done that we shouldn't, things that we should do but have not done, they are all over the place. And the reality is this. God is not less than holy. God is loving. Amen. But he is also holy. He is kind. Amen. But he's also holy. He is merciful, yes, but he is all so holy. And we must wrestle with that if we are to see him as he is.

32 · Structural transition introducing the fifth and final major claim, signaling a surprising turn in the narrative

And five, number five, last thing we see about God, God cannot turn away from his people.

33 · Exposition of 1 Samuel 7, narrating the surprising resolution: after a 20-year gap, Samuel calls Israel to repentance, they put away idols, Samuel offers sacrifice, and God defeats the Philistines with thunder

Look in this passage of twists and turns. This is the most surprising twist. When we get to chapter seven, I'm going to read just a little bit of this because in chapter seven there's a 20 year gap between what happens at the beginning of chapter seven and what happens throughout chapter seven. But I want you to see the ending of this sort of ellipsis bracketed by the reference to the Ebenezer, which I'll explain in a second. So look at chapter seven, verse three says, and then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Asher from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the people of Israel put away the bales and the asharoth, and they serve God only. And so Samuel goes, and he begins praying. And before they go into battle, look at what he does in verse nine. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. Verse 12. And then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer for he said, till now, the Lord has helped us.

34 · Articulates the theological shock: given everything established about God's holiness, sovereignty, and Israel's sin, the expected ending is abandonment

The most surprising twist and turn of this long story is that after all of this, the Lord did not forsake his people. Right? When you line up all the things we've learned about God, that God does not ignore things, that God is completely holy, that God, nobody can fight God and win, that God's people had turned away from him. When you see all of that, what you should expect to see is. And then the Lord turned away from his people forever. But that is not what we see. Instead, the Lord sends a Savior for his people, even in the midst of who they are, in the midst of their sin.

35 · Exegesis of Samuel's three offices in 1 Samuel 7 — prophet (calling people back), priest (offering sacrifice for sin), and king (leading victorious battle)

Notice this, that it seems like, well, what's God doing? Things are terrible. The house of Eli is wicked. God has been preparing this young man, Samuel, and he becomes a man. And look at the three roles he holds in this text. First, he is a prophet that calls God's people back to him. He shows up and he says, here's the problem. You can't see yourself. You can't see the sin and the stain, but I can. The Lord can. Come back to him. Stop trying to get the Lord to be manipulated, to do what you want to do. Come back, be on the Lord's side, seek him. He calls him back his prophet. And then as a priest, what does he do? He offers this lamb, this young lamb. And what he's doing is, he's saying, we have sinned as God's people. Therefore we offer a sacrifice that the Lord's wrath might. Might turn aside from us. That. That this sacrifice would cover the sin of God's people. And then what does he do? Miraculously, he leads the strangest battle that ever existed in the Old Testament. While he's offering the sacrifice, the Philistines go, this is when we'll attack. And God, boom, throws them into a confusion. And Samuel's men, he leads the charge to destroy the enemies of God. Do you see this? Does this sound familiar?

36 · Completes the redemptive-historical move by explicitly mapping Samuel's three offices to Christ: Jesus as prophet calling us back, priest offering Himself as sacrifice, and king defeating sin, death, and Satan

This Savior, Samuel, is precursor to the Savior who will come one day. The man, Jesus Christ. Jesus comes as the prophet and says, here's your problem. Turn back to the Lord. Stop trying to manipulate God. Come join God's side. Not only is he a prophet, he is a priest. And not only does he offer a lamb, he offers himself for the sake of his people. This spotless man, Jesus, offering himself in the place of the. The impure and spotted people of God. And on the cross he goes and pays the penalty for their pollution. He is the one struck down. And then he rises as a king on behalf of his people, defeating sin and death. And Satan, who will lead God's people in victory forever. And all of that goes back to Samuel.

37 · Pastoral reflection and congregational invitation to worship — the preacher pauses to explain why the book is named after Samuel (he prefigures Christ) and leads the congregation into spontaneous praise

I used to think, like, why is the book named after Samuel? Well, this is one of the good reasons, right? Samuel is this precursor to the true and greater Samuel, Jesus Christ. And here's the good news. Yeah, I think we should clap for that man. That is awesome. Amen. Aren't you glad we have Sam? Such a savior, such a prophet, such a priest, such a king.

38 · Application making explicit the payoff of the entire sermon's argument: when we see God's holiness correctly (points 1-4), then the gospel (point 5) becomes exponentially more glorious

And here, here's the beautiful thing about this passage. Once we see God as he is, when we see him as our prophet, priest and king, it means so much more, doesn't it? Knowing the gap between our unholiness and his holiness. The salvation of God is wondrous and awe inspiring. Knowing that we should, we who have turned away should receive the just penalty for our sins, and yet God gives us mercy instead. He's both holy and loving, holy and merciful, holy and righteous. All of it somehow coming together on the cross of Jesus Christ. It's wondrous, it's glorious, it's awe inspiring, it's fearful, it's holy.

39 · Direct evangelistic application addressing those who have followed a domesticated, non-threatening version of God

And so, friends, I want to encourage you with a couple categories today. The first is this. If you, if you've today come in and gone, you know what? I don't think I have followed that God. There's some version of God that I've had in the back of my mind if he's this funny, you know, gentle, precious moments kind of God, and he's kind of a cartoon and he's just like, come give me a big hug all the time. And he's not threatening in any way. He doesn't disrupt your life. And I've kind of wanted to have more of that God in my life. I, I want you to see, friend, that God doesn't exist and that God is not the God of the Bible. But there's a far better God revealed here, a God who will help you see your deep need for him and then give you the solution to that deep need that you today may have to lay down trying to get God on your side. But here is the better offer of the gospel. The offer of the gospel is the that God invites you to be on his side. If you will come to him as Savior and Lord, you can be part of his side today.

40 · Final application for believers articulating the dual response of 'trembling confidence

And the other thing for us as Christians. Look, guys, this is, this passage has gone to work on me this week and, and I think the, the effect should be. If we get this text, it should be a trembling confidence in who got it. And what I mean by that is a trembling confidence. I think there are times in our life that we. We need to back up and go, man. I have not been treating God with the reverence and the holiness that he deserves. I. I've been trying to manipulate God. I've been trying to get God on my life plan. I have been thinking he doesn't see these areas of my life. And, and there is a real sense in which this God is not that kind of God. This is the God that we must tremble before. But here's the good news. Because of Christ, we are on his side. We are his people. And therefore there should be this bulletproof assurance that we have that you may think, man, everything in my life seems unstable and fragile and easily breakable. Friend, let this text re anchor you today. If God could defeat a nation with nothing more than a golden box, if he could defeat an army with a booming sound. The problems of your life are not intimidating him, right? He's not. He's not. Oh, man. What am I going to do in Jeremy's life? It just looks pretty tough down there. No, that's where Romans 8 lands on us. If God let that land. If God is for us, who can be against us? Can anything separate us from the love of God now? Friend, he fights for us and for you today.

41 · Closing frame transitioning from application to closing prayer

So let's stand. And I want to pray that God would allow these things.