Confidence and Courage when we are Convinced we are Secure in Christ (Romans 8:31-39)

In a world that often feels unstable and uncertain, many people respond with fear or discouragement. In this message from Romans 8:31-39, Pastor Chris Teien explains why believers can live with confidence and courage because their salvation is secure in Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds us that if God is for us, no accusation, hardship, or suffering can separate us from the love of God.  

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18811321

Key Points:

1. God Is For Us – Romans 8:31-32
 Paul reminds believers that if God is for us, no opposing force can ultimately defeat us. God proved His commitment by giving His own Son for our salvation, showing that He is actively working for the good of His people.

2. Our Salvation Is Secure – Romans 8:33-34
 Believers are justified through faith in Christ. Because Jesus died, rose again, and now intercedes for us, no accusation from Satan or anyone else can condemn those whom God has declared righteous.

3. Hardship Cannot Separate Us from Christ – Romans 8:35-37
 Trouble, persecution, danger, and suffering are real parts of life in a fallen world. Yet Paul teaches that these trials cannot break the believer’s relationship with Christ. Through Him, we are more than conquerors.

4. God’s Love Is Unbreakable – Romans 8:38-39
 Neither death nor life, angels nor demons, present circumstances nor future fears can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:

Pastor Chris shares a childhood illustration of riding roller coasters to describe life’s unpredictable ups and downs and how believers ultimately wait for Christ to set them free into what comes next. He also reflects on a faithful believer who faced terminal illness with courage and continued pointing others to Christ until the end of his life.

Notable Quotes:

“Courage begins with knowing that God is on your side.”

“If God is for us, no opposing force can overturn the salvation Christ has secured.”

“When the truth of justification settles in the heart, courage begins to grow.”

Actionable Takeaways:

Remember that your confidence comes from God’s promises, not from circumstances.
 Rest in the truth that your salvation is secure through Christ.
 Stand firm in your faith when facing pressure, opposition, or uncertainty.
 Look for opportunities to encourage others with the hope found in Jesus.

Scripture References:

Romans 8:31-39 – The believer’s security in God’s love
 Romans 5:1 – Justified through faith and at peace with God
 John 3:16 – God’s love demonstrated through Christ
 1 John 4:9-10 – God’s love revealed through the sending of His Son
 John 16:33 – Christ has overcome the world
 Psalm 118:6 – The Lord is for me, I will not fear
 1 Peter 2:24 – Christ bore our sins on the cross
 1 John 2:1 – Jesus intercedes as our advocate

Keywords:

Romans 8 sermon, nothing can separate us from God’s love, God is for us, justification by faith, Christian assurance, overcoming hardship, faith in uncertain times, Christian hope

Challenge:

When life feels uncertain this week, remember that if God is for you, nothing in all creation can separate you from His love in Christ Jesus.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Courage, leading with courage in an unstable world. The world has become very unstable. And there are different ways that people decide to deal with it. Some people see trouble coming and they're like, well, the whole world could fall apart, so I better just buckle down and keep to myself. Don't want any trouble. Stock up the rations and the supplies because who knows what bad things are going to happen next. Just leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. And other people are like, let's see what we can do to make a change. Let's see what we can do to make a difference in the world. And that's good. We need more people like that. And Christians, Christians that commit to pray. They commit to pray for peace. They commit to pray for God to work and for world peace. And what we really need to do is we not only need to pray, but we need to step up as Christians to be courageous leaders when bad things happen and people look to us to help them through prayer and through encouragement and through scriptural encouragement. Let us be the ones that are the courageous leaders in the unstable world that help lead people to Jesus and hopefully help them to grow in their faith. It's interesting as you hear about these things that this could really go two different ways. Radical Islam could take over the world, or Jesus could take over, and a lot of Muslims could come to Jesus and need to be discipled. And there could be a great wave across the world and across the country of new believers in Christ. And we need to be ready to help them to grow in their faith, to disciple them. I had a thought on the way to the graveside memorial service yesterday for a lady that was in a nursing home for a bit, and I shared this at the graveside memorial. Is that when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in amusement parks. One summer in particular, I had basically the pass to go to the amusement park whenever I wanted to, and I spent a lot of time riding roller coasters. And in the old days, they didn't have hydraulics where the bar would lift up by itself. You were strapped in, and then somebody had to come unlatch you. And you would go the roller coaster rides, the ups and downs and everything, and the exciting ride, and then you would sit there for a few moments while you waited for the worker to come along and set you free so you could go on to the next thing. And I was thinking that sometimes, a lot of times, our life is like a roller coaster. It's got ups and downs and exciting things and scary things, and you just never know what's round the corner. But then when it comes to the end, you just sit there and you wait for Jesus to come, set you free for what he's got for you next. And sometimes those people in the waiting, those people in the waiting just need to be patient because they just need to be confident that Jesus is coming to get them and something better is coming. And I don't know how long our lives are. We could live to be really old or we could die. We just don't know. But we do know that Jesus is ultimately in control of the world, and that's what this passage is about, the end of Romans chapter 8. So we've been in Romans chapter 8 for six weeks now, and this is how Paul encourages the people. So let me just read the scripture passage, and then I'll get into it verse by verse. But it says, What then shall we say in response to these things? So this is the other things that Paul just said in Romans chapter 8, which you could actually listen to online if you want. But what shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died, more than that who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that is the encouraging passage that we have for today. So again, people treat difficulty in life in different ways, and I encourage you to grow stronger in your faith and more sold out to commit to Jesus. Some people in our society will start to have more reckless behavior, spend money like they'll never gonna have to pay it back, drink and do drugs more and do whatever else they want because they don't think they have a future. But usually the things that you fear are gonna happen don't happen. And the things that are cause you to be fearful and circumstances make a difference in your behavior. If the weird world, if the world feels stable, people feel confident. If things begin to shake, confidence begins to fade. Kind of like the stock market. But we have this courage in Christ. We have this courage in Christ. Courage begins with knowing that God is for us. Courage begins with knowing that God is for us. Paul is promising us that nothing can overturn our salvation, nothing can defeat the victory Christ has secured, and nothing can separate us from the love of God because we are more than conquerors. So we are called to lead with courage. So the first thing we have to realize and know is that if we have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, if we are truly saved, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, please talk to me afterwards. We have a How to Find God New Testament out there that can walk you through it. And I would love to tell you about how important it is that you realize that we are sinners in need of a savior, that Jesus Christ came, lived among us, taught us how to live, purposefully went to the cross to be the sacrifice for our sins. Three days later, he rose again, showing that he had victory over death and promised that all who believe in him, who place their faith in him, would not perish but have eternal life. And we suggest that maybe you go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to forgive your sin and to come into your life and save you, and that would be a good thing. So talk to us about that. We want to help you to grow in your faith. If you've done that, we want to help you to grow in your faith. All right, but to know that God is for you, to know that God is on your side, to know that you are secure in Christ, to know that what Paul has written in Romans, I mean all of Romans actually. But okay, so what shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, who do you think is against you? Really, when you think about it, who do you feel is against you? So maybe your work, your co-workers or your boss doesn't understand being a Christ follower and they're against you. Maybe your teacher or professor or somebody is against you. Maybe your parents or parents don't understand. You following Jesus and they're against you. Satan is against you. There are many people that are against you. And that makes a difference maybe in how you choose to speak out for the Lord, how you choose to live your life, what you choose to do and not do, but if you know that God is on your side. If you seek to please the audience of one, if you do everything you can to follow and serve Jesus and make an eternal difference, you will have joy, you'll make an eternal, significant mark on the world, and it will be a good thing. You'll be rewarded for it in eternity with Jesus in eternity. Jesus loves us so much, God cared about us so much that again it says, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? God cares about us so much. He cares about us so much that he's given us all of these things if God is for us, if God is actively working on behalf of his people, which he is, that he's not distant, he's not neutral, it's not that he doesn't care, he is actively committed to working for our good. And when we look at this, who did not spare his own son? I think about Abraham in the Old Testament and how he was supposed to supposedly sacrifice Isaac. And he did, he was willing until the angels said, Don't lay a hand on the boy, don't hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son. And so God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Life can be difficult, life can be hard, and Jesus warned us that it would be difficult and hard. In Psalm 118, 6, it says, The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? Again, I've mentioned the Fox's Book of Martyrs, which is like a list of all these people that were persecuted for their faith and what their experience was. And repeatedly you see the Holy Spirit was there to comfort them and help them. So Jesus didn't promise that if we came to Christ that our lives would be easy or just blessed, but they can be difficult. John 16, 33, Jesus says, I've told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. We have this trust in the Lord, we move forward in the Lord. And when we think about God, he didn't spare his own son. Instead, he gave him so that we can be eternally bonded, to be eternally adopted as children of God. And that is an exciting thing. That is a wonderful thing, that Jesus is the substitute sacrifice to cover our sin. And when we live in that way, it makes a difference. It makes a difference in how we live. John 3 16, we know says that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God is on our side. God cares about what we do and how we do it. He cares about the days of our life, he cares about the troubles that we go through. First John 4 9 says this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I love that that we might live through him. So we're not just gonna live on our own and do our own thing, but to live through Christ and the power of his Holy Spirit. We can't live the Christian life on our own. It's too hard. We can't do everything on the list. We're not good enough. We're not perfect enough, but we can through Jesus. We're constantly changing, we're becoming more and more like Jesus. Hopefully, you could look back on your life, maybe last year or 10 years, and see how much you've changed, how your heart changed, how your mind changed, how you're more in tune with the things of Christ and the things that he wants in you. And that is a good thing. When difficult times come, when hard times come, God might want you to be the messenger, to tell people about how Jesus loves us so much, how God spared his own son, how God is for us, and they can put their faith in him. And that would be a wonderful way to be a leader, a wonderful way to live your life, a wonderful way to spend your life, to spend your life. Now, I don't think we've faced any serious persecution in any recent times, but it could be coming. You don't know what's happening next. You read on the news, difficulties, persecution, people dying for their faith in other places. And I think that if it has come to be our time to lay down our life for Jesus, that the Holy Spirit's going to give us what we need to get through with confidence and boldness and assurance. All right. But Paul doesn't stop there. Knowing that God is for us leads to another question that naturally follows. If God has declared us his own and given us his son for us, then who can accuse or condemn those whom God has justified? So courage grows when our salvation is settled. When we know whom we have believed, when we know that we are truly saved, and without a th with a no doubt, without a without any kind of doubts, to know that if we were to die right now, we'd go to be in the presence of Jesus. If we were to spend our life, we are good. We are good. We know where we're going. A great man of this church, I won't name him, but as he was soon to die, said that God had been very good to him over his lifetime and that he was very thankful. He was in pain and he knew he was about to die, but he was confident that he knew where he was going, that he had Jesus. And just like riding a roller coaster, I hope when it comes to be the end of our days, we're like, it was a good ride. Praise God. Maybe I could have done better, but he was great in my life. And I'm so thankful that I had Jesus in my life, and I can't wait to see him now. What an exciting thing. So who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. So a charge is like a legal accusation, like when you get served with the papers and told that you have to go to court and appear before a judge. That kind of charge being brought against you. And Paul's like, who's gonna who's bringing any charges against you? Of those against those whom God has chosen. The word justifies, to justify means to declare righteous. It is a legal term describing the moment when a judge announces a verdict of acquittal. The accused person is declared not guilty and accepted as righteous before the law. So God Himself is the judge who renders the verdict. When someone trusts in Jesus Christ, God declares that person forgiven and righteous because of Christ's righteousness credited to him, declared righteous. Romans 5:1. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So justification does not mean that believers have never sinned. It means that Christ has paid the penalty for sin, and his righteousness is counted as ours. Because of that, God declared us forgiven and accepted. So verse 34. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. It seems that in a spiritual battle that Satan wants to do everything he can to make us feel guilty, to remember our past, to remember our past sins and imperfections. But when we know that we are not condemned because Jesus Christ took care of it. Jesus Christ was raised. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, and Jesus Christ is interceding for believers. So I think we talked about that in previous weeks. But 1 John 2 1, dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. So our salvation, our standing in Christ isn't based on us being perfect. We need to know that because when the time for us comes to step up and be courageous leaders, we might not be feeling it. There are certain days when you're doing everything right. You listened to the right music, you did your devotions, you did some scripture memory work, you've been doing everything right, and you're just feeling really good about your faith because you're just checking all the boxes and getting it all done. And there's other times where you're just not feeling it, where you're not, maybe you're not doing that. Maybe you backslid a little bit. Maybe those things aren't perfect. And then all of a sudden you're called to step up and lead, to share your faith or whatever. But you remember it's not you. Your salvation message isn't. I figured it out and I got my life together, and I did. I started to live perfect, and God was really impressed. And he's like, hey, you know what? I want you on my team. You're the kind of quality person we're looking for. No, usually it's not that at all. Usually it's like my life was a mess. I heard about Jesus. I didn't even think I'd qualify. But then I prayed that Jesus would just forgive me and help me to change, and he did. He did, he transformed me into a different person, and I'm not perfect at any means, but I keep growing, I keep learning. God keeps doing wonderful things. When I fall, he helps me get up. When I feel guilty, he helps me to understand that I'm truly forgiven. And that is a good thing. But Satan will try to condemn you, he'll try to accuse you, he'll try to say, You're not good enough. You're not good enough. Just sit down, be quiet. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. And if you lived in a small town, Satan would be like, Everybody knows what you did. And that can be a thing. But you just own it and say, I did that, and that was wrong. Jesus forgave me. I'm a new person. Romans 4 25. About Jesus, he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification, so that we would be proclaimed not guilty, so that we could have a relationship with Jesus Christ. When the truth of justification settles in the heart, courage begins to grow. If God has declared us righteous through Christ, then we are no longer living under accusation. And we can face the world with confidence. So Paul continues his argument. Paul continues his argument, courage endures hardship with confidence. Courage endures, endures hardship with confidence. Paul continues his argument, even if no accusation can condemn us before God, another question remains: what about the hardships and suffering that believers experience in this world? Could those trials separate us from the love of Christ? You know, when bad things happen, if you read the book of Job, and bad things happen, your friends might come along. Some of those friends in Job actually, maybe they weren't the greatest friends, but they'll start to say, dude, what did you do to deserve this? There must be sin in your life. God wouldn't do this if this must be his discipline, this must be his punishment because you did something wrong. And that's not always the case. Sometimes God does discipline us, but other times we could be doing everything right and still have the hardship, still have the persecution, still have the sickness, still have the difficult thing in our life, and we might not know the answer why until we get to the other side of eternity. But this is a sinful, fallen world, and many of us struggle with sickness and difficulty. But again, Romans 8:35 says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? To separate means to divide, sever, or remove something from a relationship. So Paul is asking whether anything in life has the power to break the believer's relationship with Christ. So let's look at some of these words. Trouble refers to intense pressure or distress that squeeze a person from all sides. So to undergo struggle, trials, temptations, suffering, or affliction. Hardship refers to difficult circumstances where life feels constrained or restricted to endure agony, not knowing which way to turn or what to do. Persecution refers to suffering that comes specifically because of your faith in Christ, to be abused, mocked, ridiculed, shamed, mistreated, ignored, neglected, harassed, attacked, or injured. Famine and nakedness refer to extreme poverty and deprivation. A famine to have no food, to be starving and have no way to secure food. Nakedness, to be stripped of all clothes and earthly comforts, to be bare, having all earthly possessions taken away. Danger, to be exposed to the most severe risks, to be confronted with the most terrible dangers to one's body, mind, soul, property, family, and loved ones, and sword to be killed, to suffer martyrdom. And again, I mentioned this, I think, last week or the week before. In 2 Corinthians 11 23, Paul said, I went through a lot of this stuff, and I'm not going to read the whole passage, but he talks about in that passage that he was whipped, that he faced death again and again, that he was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked. He faced danger. I like how this reads here. I faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I faced danger from my own people, from the Jews as well as the Gentiles. I faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. I face danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I've been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I've shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Yet Paul insists that none of these hardships has the power to separate us from Christ, and none of these hardships compare to the glory that's going to come when we know Jesus. As it is written, For your sake we face death all day long. We are He's actually quoting from Psalm 44, 2 that says, But for your sake, we are killed every day, we are being slaughtered like sheep. And it's describing suffering that God's people had gone through, even while they remained faithful to him. And Paul used it to show that hardship is not something new in the life of God's people. Sometimes God is most glorified when we go through the most difficult things and we stay faithful. So I don't think he's doing it to be mean or because he finds it entertaining. But sometimes when we go through difficult things, when we go through difficult things and we stay faithful to Jesus, that glorifies God. And people take notice of that. People take notice of those Christians who are faithful, those Christians who even martyred, those Christians who gave their life. Sometimes that makes the church grow. Sometimes many believers come to Christ when that happens. And again, Jesus said in John 15, 20, Do you remember what I told you? A slave is not greater than the master. Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. Life can be really difficult. We can be ridiculed, we can suffer at our workplace, we can suffer. I mean, if you run for office, people might not vote for you because of your faith in Christ. But the thing is to have the courage to stand up and do what's right and let God sort it out. To do what you know it's right. I always like to think about the best way to live is to live blameless. I always like it when I've done everything that I can do to make sure that I blameless, that you couldn't blame me because I didn't do anything wrong. I love to live that way. So not that I always live that way, but it's a good, it's a good principle, it's a good idea. But leading with courage in troubling times means refusing to let hardship define our faith. So I had a friend who had brain cancer, and he was faithful through and through. He tried to lead the nurses and the people doing the chemo and all that stuff to Christ. He had great hope and faith in Christ. And I remember when he went into hospice in his home, he died as one of our church ladies was singing Jesus loves me to him. But he died with great faith, and it made an impact on many people who saw that and the way that he lived his life. And so now he's on the other side of that. Now he's on the other side. No more sickness, no more pain. Someday a glorified body. And I think that's the kind of stuff that is reward worthy, where Jesus is like. Well done. Well done, good and faithful servant. But Paul moves from endurance to victory. The next verse explains that believers do not merely survive hardship. Through Christ they share in a victory that is greater than the trials themselves. Courage knows that we are more than conquerors. More than conquerors means that you are totally victorious, that you didn't just win, but you are surrounded by winners, and everything about it is wonderfully good. In all of these things, so in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The phrase in all things refers directly to the hardships Paul just listed in the previous verses trouble, persecution, danger, suffering. They're all real experiences in the life of believers. Paul doesn't deny that. But victory is something believers experience and they are more than conquerors. The Greek word Paul uses for that is the idea of victory with overwhelming triumph. It's more than simply winning a battle. It means gaining a decisive and overwhelming victory. And that's what we have in Christ. We have overwhelming victory in Christ through him who loved us. Gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the death and power of evil has already been secured through Jesus Christ. So that helps us to go through our life and be better leaders. That helps us to know that we are already on the winning team. That helps us to know that whatever we are experiencing is just temporary, that there are great days ahead that we will be able to enjoy all of what Jesus has for us through eternity, even when the world falls apart, even when the part of the world that we live in gets difficult. And then we move to the great conclusion of Paul's argument. The great conclusion that Paul is convinced, courage is convinced, our relationship with Christ is unbreakable. And so Paul says, I am convinced. I am convinced. Are you convinced? Are you 100% convinced that you are on God's team? Are you 100% convinced that God is for you, that God is going to get you through this life, even if you go through all of those difficult things? Because Paul is convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities. Let's look at that for a second. So nothing in life or death. So those are the two things that scare us the most, right? How are we going to live this life and what happens when we die? We do everything we can, most of us do everything we can to avoid dying and to preserve our life, and to do everything we can to make sure that we protect our life. But Paul said in Philippians 1.21, I think it is. Hang on a second. Philippians 1.21, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So to have that confidence, to know that we should put Christ first in our life. I'm convinced that neither death nor life. For the spiritual realm, the spiritual realm about spiritual powers. There's spiritual battles in the world, temptation, deception, fear, and spiritual opposition are real experiences. Ephesians 6.12 says we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. And to know that they cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing in time can separate us, the present nor the future. So the present includes everything we face right now, the pressures of daily life, challenges in our family, struggles in our culture, and the uncertainties surrounding us in the future, everything we fear might happen, economic uncertainty, global conflict, political tension, personal loss in the unknown circumstances of tomorrow. Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it says in Hebrews 13, 8. And nothing in all creation, nothing in all creation. So neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Think about height or depth. The tallest mountains, the deepest oceans can't separate you. So life on Mars can't separate you from the love of Christ. Anything else? And then he finishes it off. And anything else. So it's kind of like one of those legal things, or one of those job descriptions that say this is your job, and anything else we ask you to do, and anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So to know that we have that faith, to know that life matters. What is more? I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. In Philippians 3, 8. I'm going to read a story and then we'll be done. But just to think about the things that we've gone through in the series, to know that in the past six weeks we've looked at learning that in Christ we can be free from guilt. Then we learned a new way to live through the Spirit. Then we saw that believers live from a secure identity as children of God. And then we were reminded that even in difficult seasons we can live with hope. And last week we learned that we can live every day with God's help. Well, today we learned that because of Christ, God is for us, our salvation is secure. Hardship cannot defeat us. Christ has already secured the victory, and nothing can separate us from his love. But I was I'd read a bunch of different commentaries and a bunch of stuff, probably like a hundred pages for each message or so. But I read this story in the Stephen Cole commentary, and I just want to read this. That should just take a couple minutes. A Vision Beyond Borders newsletter told of a brother in an unnamed, closed Buddhist country in Southeast Asia, who is committed to take the gospel to every Buddhist monastery in that country. Several years ago, he and a friend were headed to a village to share the gospel when they offered a ride to a woman walking along the road. She invited them to her home for a meal. After dinner, they showed her the Jesus film, and some neighbors came over and watched it too. Some of the neighbors then called the police, and the evangelist went to prison for seven months. After he was released, he excitedly reported, You'll never guess what God did. He allowed us to go to prison to bring the gospel to the prisoners. We shared the gospel with 180 prisoners, led 20 to faith in Jesus Christ, and baptized eight in prison. One of the converted prisoners has now led eleven men to Christ in that prison. Later, the man was arrested again and had many opportunities to witness, including sharing the gospel with the prison warden. He said he feels that God has given him a prison ministry. This person has turned everything upside down that some Christians would say, well, it's just not worth it. I don't want to go to jail. It's just not worth it. That's just too harsh. What is God doing? Why would God allow me to go through that hardship? But actually, the hardship that he went through was the key to opening the doors for him to fulfill his ministry and the things that he really wanted to do. Where is your ministry? How are you involved? What are you willing to give up or to endure so that you can share the love of Christ and make an eternal difference? So those things are so exciting. So again, because of Christ, God is for us. Salvation is secure, hardship cannot defeat us. Christ has already secured the victory, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Let me pray. Jesus, I thank you so much for this encouraging word from the end of the book of or from the end of Romans chapter 8. Lord, I pray that you would take some of the words that I said and let them plant like seeds in the minds and hearts of these people. I pray that out of this group and whoever might listen or watch, that you would raise up courageous leaders ready to make a difference for Christ. I pray that we would be prepared if there was a great revival and many people came to faith in Christ and just wanted to know what to do next, that we would be ready to show them and to tell them and to live out the Christian life before them. Lord, we pray for great things to happen in this world. Lord, we pray that we would just be able to live through you, Jesus, and in you, and that you would bless us. So we just thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.