He Will Never Stop Loving You | Senior Pastor Luke St.Clair

The Bible in the book of Romans chapter number eight, such a powerful, powerful chapter. And I just want us to begin in Romans chapter eight in verse 28. And then for the sake of time, we're going to move further into the chapter towards the end. Romans chapter eight, verse number 28. I want to say how much we love and appreciate each of you today. And thank God for all of you that are here. And if you are a guest here, we are so thankful that you've come to worship with us. Amen. I believe the Lord has touched us in a very special way here today. And I don't believe that he's finished yet. Romans chapter eight in verse 28. And I want us to read this verse together out loud. Could we do that? And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Do you believe that this morning? Praise God. I want us to go to verse number 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sohrer? As it is written for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay in all these things, we are more than conquerors. Somebody say that with me again. We are through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, somebody in this room needs to be persuaded. That neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you believe the Word of God, would you give him thanks for his Word today? Hallelujah. For just a few minutes this morning, I just want to tell you this more than a title, more than a sermon title. I want to tell you this. What I believe is the heartbeat of God in this hour. He will never stop loving you. You may be seated in Jesus' name. I want to spend just a couple of minutes here and we'll get you out, but the Holy Ghost is moving in a very special way right now. There's a touch of the hand of God in this room. I believe that somebody is going to leave here different than you walked in the doors today. Amen. I believe somebody is going to leave here different than you think. Praise the Lord. This chapter is perhaps taken out of context as much as any chapter in the Bible. I've heard people quote the verses that we read today beginning verse 35 and say that this is living proof through the Word of God that you cannot be lost if you have known him, that if you have known of the goodness of the Lord and you have been saved, that there's nothing that can ever separate you from God. But this verse does not say nothing can separate you from God. It says nothing can separate you from the love of God. This is a powerful, powerful tool for you to understand in this chapter. He said, "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" Everybody in here say, "Who?" "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" Understanding the context of this, and I've heard people try to preach this and make a big deal out of the word "who." The word "who" in the Greek is the word "TIS." It's a very small word, but it is quite broad in its direction. This word that is translated in the English "who" "TIS" actually is synonymous with "who, which or what?" "Who, which what?" He can mean at any time, "who, which or what?" Which could separate us? What could separate us? Who could separate us? What that means to us is there is nothing or nobody. When he makes the first statement, he says, "Who could separate us?" And then he immediately goes into what things? He goes from who to what? Immediately. He said, "Who can separate us from the love of God?" And then he immediately goes into the what or the which. And he said, "What is it? Is it tribulation? Is it going to be tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?" He said, "None of those things are going to separate us from the love of God." And then he takes it a little bit deeper. He said, "I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, somebody help me preach in this morning, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate." I love it because he said, "There's not an angel that can do it. There's not a devil that can do it. There is no power in heaven or earth that can separate you from the love of God." Now, atheists don't know what to do with this, but I have a message for every atheist. He loves you. And there's nothing you can do about it. You can hate him. You can despise him. You can reject him, but the very ones that despise and rejected him were the ones that he was shedding his blood for. He didn't shed his blood for us because we were perfect. He shed his blood for us because he loved us. You wish what can separate us from the love of God and the answer is nothing. You can't. He loves you. Well, I've made a lot of mistakes. He loves you. I'm not where I need to be. He loves you. My life is a wreck. He loves you. Now context in the Scripture is so very important. It's so valuable that we understand why he is writing this and who he's writing it to. The first thing you need to understand, the answers are given to us to some deep questions in the very beginning of this book, of this letter to the Romans. People walk what they call the old Roman road and they lead people down this road of confession and they say that you just confess in your heart and you believe that you're saying. Well, the first thing I want you to understand is that Paul was not writing to people who needed salvation. He was writing to people who had already been born again and that answer is found in the beginning of this letter when he says to the saints in Rome. These are to the saints. He says to these people who have been born again, nothing shall separate you from the love of God. But what is the purpose and understanding that nothing could separate them from the love of God? And I believe the answer is found in verse 37 when he said, "Nay and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." What things? We find that answer in verse 36. "For I say, we are killed all the day long and we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." So I want you to understand very clearly these were not people who were trying to decide whether or not they were going to serve the Lord. He was addressing a group of people who were existing in the Roman Empire but they had committed to serve the Lord and they were going to walk with the Lord and he was telling them, "Even if you are slaughtered, even if you are not slaughtered, even if you are not slaughtered, even if you are martyred, I want you to understand that even death itself cannot separate you from the love of God." There's a message that Paul is trying to get to these people who more than likely many of them in Rome were crucified, were martyred for their faith in God. But he wanted them to understand that just because you go through a trial, it doesn't mean he stopped loving you. The devil is a liar. The devil is the father of all lies and he wants you to believe this morning that because you have come to a hard time because you have not got your healing yet because you have not got your answer yet. The God does not love you but I've come to preach in this house. Never. I don't know what I've done wrong. I don't know what I've done to offend God. I've got so many problems and issues in my life. Paul said, "Let me just go ahead and fix that for you before you ever walk as a lamb before the slaughter. You got to know when you go in. He loves you. You got to know before the trial starts. He loves you. You got to know before there's ever a question and you need an answer. He loves you." I'm preaching to somebody this morning that your entire life you have felt like you had to work to be loved. You felt like you were a man. like you had to convince somebody that you were worthy of being loved. You felt like it's taken your whole life to figure out what do I have to do to make people love me. Well, I want to tell you that the very opposite of that is true with God. You may have spent your whole life trying to convince somebody that you're worthy of love, but you could spend your whole life trying to convince him that you're not worthy of his love and it's not going to do any good because he will never stop loving you. He doesn't love you because you're good. He doesn't love you because you deserve it. He loves you because he's God and it is nature. And I want you to understand that he loves you as much in your failure as he loves you and your success. I spent a lot of time in my life traveling on the road and when I'm away from my family, I miss them. When I'm not with my family, I long to be with them. Thank God, things changed in my early ministry when I would travel overseas in the very early years of that. The internet was just kind of becoming a deal. You know, it's just really, they were finally getting some, when we got $56.00 that was like the World Change. It was just amazing. You would sit down and click the dial up there and you hear that. And you just knew when you heard that sound that you were getting ready to, how many of you remember I am? Instant messaging. You knew that you were getting ready to talk to somebody and then it got better and better and then Skype came along and we got to Skype and video and I remember being in the Philippines and I could not wait to talk to my wife and to Lauren and I was so excited about it and that little grainy screen came up and I was like, "Oh, that's so amazing. We get to see him." And they really kind of looked like a broken piece of art but it was better than nothing because it was just grainy. But when my granddad started going to the Philippines in the '60s, they were lucky if he would get to make a phone call when he got there just to say, "I made it." Times have changed but I'm trying to get to a point this morning to help you understand of why the devil wants to lie to you and the devil wants to tell you things that are not true but my point is simply this. It is possible to be loved by God and be separated from His presence. It is not the judgment of God on your life to be separated from His presence. It's your choice. Can I say that again? It's not like God is judging you and that's why you're separated from His presence. It's because you chose to be separated from His presence and you're choosing does not make Him love you any less. When I am separated from my family, I don't love them any less because we're not present together. But it's my love for them that makes me want to come back home and be with them. Before a couple of goofballs shut our whole world down, you were able to go to an airport and you could walk all the way down to the gate. Anybody here older than never mind. Remember that? I remember when I was a kid we'd take the preacher, my granddad, whatever the airport. We didn't, like there was no TSA. You just went and we'd walk all the way down to the gate and I'd stand at the window and I'd cry because he was leaving and I'd watch the plane back up and watch the plane take off and I'd watch all the heavens. It was a cool deal. It came home, man it was awesome. You come home and they'd be standing there with a sign. I saw a sign the other day, it was so funny. They said, "Welcome home from prison." It wasn't real. They were just embarrassing their fans. They'd welcome home from prison, I was like, "Sweet." But there's something about it. When you love somebody, you can't wait to see Him again. You can't wait. I remember all through my children's lives, one of the hardest parts of what we do was the leaving. I've had many mornings in my life where I would walk down the hallway. It was early and dark, you know, five o'clock and leaving to go catch a flight. I'd walk in and my babies would be laying there sleeping. My heart would just get overwhelmed because I loved them so much. I'd lean down and give them a kiss. If Lauren knew that I was there, it's scared to death. I'd walk in her room and she'd go, "I didn't have you." I'd lean down many times, they don't even know that I'm there and I'd just kiss them on the forehead, put my hand on and say, "Lord, be with my babies. Take care of my home, take care of my kids. I can't wait to come home seeing. Every now and then I'd get an open eye to look at me." I'd say, "I love you. I can't wait to see you. I'll be home just a couple of days." "Okay, Daddy. Love you." Seeing a couple of days. And I want you to understand, when I walked out of that room, I was not in their presence anymore. It didn't change my love for them, but I wasn't with them. The Bible said that you can taste of this heavenly gift, but there are two animals that the apostle Paul used. And I think it's very interesting. He said, "But when you have tasted of this heavenly gift and then you walk back to the life that you used to know." He said, "It's like a dog returning to its vomit and a pig wallowing in the mire." Now, I know you think that's gross. But I want to tell you something so beautiful about that. Now, there's a really powerful principle there that I wish had time to preach. But if you'll notice, both of those animals, dogs and pigs, they have their offspring in letters. Sheep have them one at a time. And that's why I'm a shepherd and not a farmer. Because I don't have to have a big litter of people every Sunday to think we're doing something for the Lord. I want to tell you, he don't just love me like a like a hog. He loves me with a heart of a shepherd like a lamb. Because he's not a farmer, he's a shepherd. He's a shepherd that loves him. But I'm going to tell you what's powerful about that is when Paul draws that picture. He said, "I couldn't get any more gross a dog returning to its vomit. A pig wallowing in its mire. And he still loves me. You kidding? When I go back to my vomit and I go back to the hog wallowing in the mire, he still loves me." And he tells the story in Luke 15 of the protocol in the pig pen. Now, when he came back home, his daddy took up running to him and embraced him. That's what the love of God looks like. Now while you're in the pig pen, daddy's still home pacing. Yes, you're separated. Yes, you're away from him. But he loves you so much that he can't wait for you to come back home. I will say God created man in his image. And after he created man in his image, they chose God didn't choose. They chose with self will to eat of the very thing that God told them not to eat up. And so there was a consequence for their choice. And the Lord expelled them from the garden. They were separated from his presence. But if you think for one minute that that old serpent has told you the truth, that because they were separated from his presence, that they were separated from his love, you have been lied to. I want you to understand that it broke the heart of God when Adam and Eve went outside the gate of that garden. And God had to put that flaming reminder there for them to say, you can't be back in here right now. You can't do it. And people want us to believe. The doubters want us to believe that that was God cutting humanity off. And there was no way back to it. But I've got good news for you. That whole Old Testament from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all the way through Malachi. And into the book of Matthew, that's not just history. It's not just Jewish history. It is a story. It's a story about how man messed up and man walked away from his presence. But the Lord from Genesis to Malachi is working on a way and he's working on a plan. And the prophet Isaiah got a preview. He said, you're going to have a son and he's going to be called a man you will. God with us. Notice that. He wants you to be with him. He is God with us. He didn't just leave us. We left him. And he said, I'll come be with you. God with us. I wish I had time to preach the story. I was really excited about it. But if you get in John chapter 4, the Bible said that Jesus came to a well. And there was a Samaritan woman there and she came in the middle of the day. came in a. time where nobody else was going to be there. She was ashamed. She didn't like the way that people treated her. But Jesus knew when he was walking with his disciples, he said that he must needs go through Samaria. Is it Lord? Are you sure? He said, "Don't you worry about it. You go get lunch." And he went to the well and he sat down and this woman came walking that had a story. She came walking to the well and he said, "Give me the drink." The woman said to him, "How is it that you being a Jew would ask me for something to drink because the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. But this woman was about to find out. He wasn't just like any other Jew." He didn't play by the same rules that everybody else did because while other people hated you and you had done them wrong, you can't make him stop loving you. Jesus answered and said, "If only you knew the gift of God, this is John 4 and 10. He said, "If only you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, give me the drink, then you would have asked him and he would have given you living what." She said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. How in the world are you going to access living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob which gave us the well and drank their of himself and his children and his cattle and Jesus answered her and said, "Whosoever drinks of this water shall never thirst." I can't hardly preach this and keep it together. "Whosoever drinks of this water shall never thirst again but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give them, they will never ever thirst. There's going to be a well spring of water that is springing up unto eternal life." And the woman said, "Sir, I want this water." Jesus said to her, "Will you go call your husband? Whoa, here comes the brakes. I knew this is where it was going. He must have heard. He must know somebody got to him. He's not really here to help me. He's here to make fun of me." He said, "Go get your husband." She dropped her head. She said, "I don't have a husband." Jesus said, "You said well that you have no husband for you had five and the one that you're with right now. He said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your husband." Jesus said, "You're with your You've been looking for love in men you that five of them and the one that you're with right now He don't love you because he don't even love his own wife He's left his wife to come be with you. He's using you and he's abused you Everything that you said is absolutely unequivocally true you said it right and the woman said to him. Sir It's the third time she said sir. I Proceed that you are a prophet watch her language change. He just went from sir to profit sir I Proceed that you are a prophet our Father's worship in this mountain you say that in Jerusalem is a place where mentioned worship She said you as in the Jews. That's what they said But Jesus said to her. He said woman you believe me. He said the hour is coming When you're not going worship in this mountain Nor in Jerusalem. He said you worship what you don't even know We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews But the hour comes and it's happening right now When true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and a truth for the father's Seek a sense to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth the woman said unto him I know that Messiah Comeeth which is called the Christ look what happened he went from sir to profit to Messiah He went from sir and acquaintance To a prophet something spiritual To the Messiah that came for her This is so beautiful He knew her story Before he ever got to the well He knew that the man she was with wasn't hers He knew that she had had five husbands But this is the beauty of this story He came to the well anyway Jesus didn't come to the well and hopes to meet a good Jewish woman that he could testify to he came to the well Because he knew she was coming to the well He came to the well because he knew she would be at the well Jesus came because of a messed up woman Jesus came because of a woman with no answers. I'm here to tell you you can't scare him away You can't push him away. You can't intimidate him away your problem. Stunned intimidate him He will never stop loving you