Session 13 – Romans; Romans 5:6-11: Mark Lanier, 08/24/25

Romans 5:6-11 - God's Love & Reconciliation (Mark Lanier)
===

[00:00:00]

Introduction & Opening Prayer
---

Bernard: All right, so I'm getting ready for class and I am trying to figure out what on earth. I should try and, and do with the passage of Romans that we have today. And here's what I decided. Everybody who is either in here or watching via the internet has some reason they're doing it. And I've tried to figure out all of the different whys that may be out there.

You may be watching it or you may be here because it's what you do on Sunday morning. You [00:01:00] just, you go to class. This is your class, so here you are. But there's a why behind that. Why do you go to class? Some of you may be watching this because you need a good nap.

I met Nathan from Louisiana. He says he watches these on the internet. I thought he's got the no need for Ambien. He's got that taken care of. you know, you, you may be watching this, on the internet. I occasionally find people who watch it because they want to know what I'm up to, and they think that in my legal life, and they think if they watch this, they'll figure out some little angle on me.

So if you're watching. There's one, just pay real close attention you, you may be here because you just needed something this morning. You just feel depleted or you're, you're in a place of anxiety and you [00:02:00] thought, well, maybe if I go to church, it'll make a difference. You may be here 'cause you're being polite to someone who ask you to come.

You may be here because your spouse will be a lot nicer to you if you'll go to class with her or him. I don't know what your why is, but I'd ask you to try to think about it. Why are you here? And then I want to ask you the next question, which is, what is God's? Why you're here, because God has you here as well.

You say, well, I drove myself. That's okay. He's behind all of that. God has you here for this class. Romans five, six through 11. He's got you here for a reason or a set of reasons. And I'm concerned that I do a good [00:03:00] job. I meet your wises, but I really want to meet the Master's wise. And that's been my prayer as I've prepared this class, and that's why I want you to join me right now and we're pray specifically for the Wise Lord in the name of Jesus.

I ask you through your spirit, would you please help everyone here either present by live or present through the internet. Everyone understand your voice for them. In this passage of Romans, we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So here's the way I'm teach the class today. I'm do it on three different points.

In a sense. I'm gonna first say, do we find our why in Romans five verses six through nine? Then I'm gonna say, do we find [00:04:00] our why? In Romans five, nine through 11. Now somebody out there is pretty sharp allie's here. She's sharp. She's gonna say, or someone's gonna say, well, wait a minute. You've done nine two different times.

You got five nine up there, and you got five, nine down here. Is that because you got up two early? No, it's because in verse nine I'm gonna make two different why points. So just bear with me. And then the third thing we're gonna do is see if we can find the why in Romans five 11. So those are the things that we're gonna do.

That's your roadmap for the class, but unusual for me. I'm gonna break this roadmap apart a little bit. Because each of these sections, I'm gonna try and do the same three things in each section. I wanna look at the text, and after we look at the text, I wanna give you a song. [00:05:00] And then after I give you a song, we're gonna do the points for home.

Within each of the three. Why's are the three texts? Okay.

Romans 5:6-9 - God's Love Demonstrated
---

Bernard: So now you're all ready to go. And we're gonna start with Romans chapter five, verse six. Now, um, uh, I, I referenced Allie. Allie is, I've known since she was like, longer than she can remember, and she said to me, she said, okay, what are you teaching this morning?

I said, Romans five verses six through 11. She said, well, I better go sit down and I'll read Romans one through four really fast. And I said, NA, na, you're okay. And here's the reason why. Romans five verse six starts out with four. While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly and the English translates four in the Greek, it's the [00:06:00] word gar.

Gar in the Greek is not a fish. Gar in Greek is a word that is a conjunction and it means for, or you could translate it sense or indeed or then in other words, Paul, in beginning this verse six is already referencing something back to what he's already said. So we as we try to understand for while we were still weak, need to understand what the for or the sense or the indeed or the then is.

And I think we can best do that if we remember where we've been thus far. This is not, I'd said last week I would do a 10 minute review. Dale Hearn emailed me and said, that went longer than 10 minutes. You can set your clock. If you're [00:07:00] watching Dale Hearn, this will be like less than five, but it's very important we understand what the four is referencing.

Paul has written a beautiful work and in the very first chapter verses 16 through 17, he has what in classical. Or rhetorical or re rhetoric. Rhetorical writing would be called a pro. A pro A pro.

Could, um, could I indulge? Does anybody have a water Pro? Presidio? does. It's, ah, just throw it. I can't. I heard him. You know what would happen? Thank you brother. Yeah. You'd have to finish teaching. That's what would happen, mark. Thank you. Um, alright, so Paul's got his pro Sidio, [00:08:00] which is, a um, uh, kind of an overview statement.

And it is this, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the death of Christ. I'm not ashamed. Jesus died for my sins. That's God's power to save everyone who has faith it. It's the Jew first, but it's also the Greek because in the death of Christ, in that gospel, in that great news that he died for us, in the death of Christ, God's righteousness is revealed.

It's uncovered. It starts with faith. It ends with faith. And we live by faith. And Paul starts out saying, that's what I'm writing to you about. That's the whole book in a two verses, the whole letter in two verses. But he goes next into some depth and he starts out by [00:09:00] saying, Hey, everybody's going to hell by God's principles of judgment.

If you just wanna look at how God judges you, you, you, you're perfect. You're fine. You're not perfect. You're doomed. That's the way it is. And that's the curse, and that's the desolation that was there. And if we rely upon our own ability to perform. And to meet God's expectations, we dismally fail. And anybody who believes that they are successful in pleasing God by the way they live is deluded because you are a sinner and sin is at enmity with God.

It is an enemy of God. God is pure righteousness. Sin is not. And so, [00:10:00] but for chapter three, verse 21, where Paul sticks in, but now a righteousness, a true righteousness has come to us, but it's not by anything we are doing. We are actually made righteous by the death of Christ. He took our sin upon him and he satisfied the wrath of God and those who are in Christ have been born again just as he is resurrected from the dead.

And that's where Paul moved, starting with 3 21. And then as he moved into chapter five, he said, Hey, by the way. This salvation, this righteousness, this justification, this status you have with God comes with benefits. These, this is not something that's [00:11:00] just out there. This is something that that comes with real here and now benefits, and this is the start of Romans, chapter five, where we were last week.

And so Paul says, we have an objective, factual peace with God. We are not enemies, we are not sinful enemies any longer. He said it in in chapter five, verse one. Since we've been justified, we've been declared righteous by faith. We have a peace with God through the death of Christ. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So all of us have a peace and it's a true peace. We can set aside sinners dread that says, God doesn't love me. I'm too sinful because he does [00:12:00] another fringe benefit. We have access to God. We have a, an introduction to a royal audience. We can come into the very presence of God through Jesus Christ and his death.

We actually can approach access not just as a VIP introduction to God, but a, a way of approach. It is through the death of Christ, we can approach the savior. And this is Romans five, two. Through him, we've also obtained access by faith into this grace this, this cross of Christ in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God We can.

Paul says fringe benefit, boast. [00:13:00] Or rejoice in suffering Philippes in the Greek and that word translated suffering. It can be used in classical Greek to refer to the pressing of grapes for wine. That pressure. It can be the, the grinding of grain, that pressure of two heavy stones. It can be a tourniquet.

All of these things being pressed in a crowd. The suffering word is a word that deals with pressure, with intense, that, that oppression that you feel, that suffering, that weighs you down, that seems to crush the very life out of you. It's used to talk about the, the, the bondage and slavery that can be there.

It's used to talk about economic oppression and, and how you feel squeezed economically, [00:14:00] how you feel squeezed emotionally. It's that suffering that, that, that would send most people to bed for a week. But Paul says that we can rejoice in it. It's a fringe benefit because we rejoice in sufferings knowing that that suffering is gonna produce in us endurance.

It's not. Look, the whole world suffers. We live in a suffering world. That's the price of sin. So we live in a suffering world, but for the believer in Christ suffering has a silver lining. It produces endurance. It makes us strong and race ready, and that endurance will produce in us character and that character will produce in us hope.

And that hope will not let us be ashamed because God's [00:15:00] love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that's been given to us. We have the presence of God in our hearts and minds. And that transforms suffering and it transforms everything. These are the fringe benefits and when we read this and we see that God's love has been poured into our hearts, somebody Paul reasons maybe may be hearing this saying, well now how do I know that's true?

How do I know that God's love has been poured into my heart and that's what precedes the for, for while we were still weak. We know it because while we were still [00:16:00] weak. At the right time. Christ died for the ungodly.

This is indeed our sense since look at it. We know God's love's been poured into our heart because of what he did and when he did it. You see, Christ died for weak sinners. He didn't die for good. People said, well wait a minute. I'm a good person. No you are not. Jesus said, call no man good. You compare you to God and he ain't so hot and neither am I.

Luther said that the best human deed is tainted with at least a little bit of selfishness. Y all know. [00:17:00] I had an anniversary with Becky last week. I went all out. I mean, I did it. Okay. Surprise dinner presents. Why? Because I love her. Sure. Was there at least a little bit of selfishness in it? You darn toot.

And there was.

Look, my wife and I are so, so competitive. One of the things we do every year is try to be the first one to tell the other one happy anniversary. And so I was, um, thinking, you know, she's awake, I'm awake. If I call her, she will see that it's me calling. And she will say immediately into the phone before she says hello or good morning, she'll say, happy anniversary, [00:18:00] because I get up hours before she does.

So I've, I've been gone. Okay. So I'm thinking, but wait a minute. I know where one of my daughters is right now. So I go find my daughter and I said, can I use your cell phone?

She said, why? I said, I need to call your mom and wish her a happy anniversary. She says, well, don't you wanna do that on your phone? I said, it's a long story. I just need your phone. So she hands me her cell phone. So I'm punched in. Becky answers with, oh sweetie, I love to hear from you first thing in the morning.

I said, happy anniversary. She said, you rat.

That is not fair. That should not count. [00:19:00] Um, we're not good people. We've got selfishness oozing out every poor, but Christ died for weak sinners.

Uh, the word weak here. Asthe in the Greek asthe. Um, in fact, that weakness disease, myasthenia ravitz comes from athenia myasthenia ravitz weakness disease. Uh, it's straight outta that Greek word. But anyway, that, that, here it can be a physical weakness, but Paul's here talking about moral frailty. You and I are morally frail.

Go back to um, Tolkiens Lord of the Rings. He took his [00:20:00] concept of the ring that makes you disappear from an old Greek tale, a myth. Of a fellow named Gaje and Gaje had a ring, and if you put the ring on you not only disappeared, but you, what you did could not be traced to you. And that ring became all corrupting because even the most righteous person, if they could get away with something, with no accountability ever, oh, it might just be something small.

But righteous, we are morally frail people, and every civilization of humanity that's ever been understands that it is part of sin. So here we are. We are still weak at the right time when Christ dies for the ungodly and that word for ungodly. Aase is the word. [00:21:00] It's someone who's, it's, it's, it's not a, oh gee, there's God, and then there's ungodly.

It's a bad word. It's a word that you're irreverent. You're impious. You're a blasphemer. One of the questions I get asked most from young people especially is, what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that unforgivable sin? Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is when you tell God, I'll have nothing to do with Jesus and you mean it, and you live it for your entire life because the Holy Spirit comes to bear, witness to Jesus.

This is, we were irreverent, impious and ungodly. By the way, if you want the forgiveness of Jesus, you're not blaspheming the Holy Spirit by definition.

Christ dies for the irreverent impious, morally frail, ungodly people. [00:22:00] That's what he did, and he did it at the right time. Yeah, two different Greek words for time used in the New Testament. Kairos is more of a chronology, like what day is it? What time of day? But this is not, uh, Kronos. This is kairos.

Kairos means a propitious moment at just the right time at that propitious moment. Christ died for. The ungodly, and Paul uses this word hoop pair here for four and hoop pair can do multiple things. He doesn't use anti, which would be just in the place of, but he uses hoop pair because it's got a dual meaning here.

It means on behalf of, as well as in the place of, in other words, Jesus died in our place. And he died for our benefit. [00:23:00] So he's not a, he took the death. Uh, I see Charles Mickey's here. Uh, Charles, when we were in college, Charles was our college minister and he said, I want you all to know this song. He paid a debt.

I did not owe, I owe a debt. I did not, I could not pay Christ Jesus. Okay. I forgot the song, Charles. You know, Christ Jesus. Something to take my place, stand away. But it was a good song and it, I got the gist of it. He died in our place, but he also died for our benefit. Paul's making both of those points.

Paul wants you to know that God's love triumphed where human power failed. You are frail, you're a sinner, and that's when God chose to die. That was the propitious moment. He didn't wait for you to say, I'm ready to [00:24:00] be yours. I'm ready to call you. Lord, I want my sins washed away. No, he died before it ever even entered your mind.

He died for Peter. When Peter denied him three times, he died while we were weak, morally frail and ungodly. And then Paul says, look, one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Maybe for a good person, one would dare to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ. Died for us.

We've gotta pause here. And I don't mean to make this a Greek lesson, but that's my degree, so you've gotta suffer with me. God shows soon. Histamine is a compound word in the Greek. Soon. Histamine is, [00:25:00] histamine is to stand and, and soon means together with, and it's got an idea of of, of two things standing together.

But in the process of that, with the full semantic range of meaning. In other words, there's a lot wrapped up into that word shows. And here are the two ideas I want you to get from Paul. It is a way to demonstrate or show, but it's also a manifestation. In other words, um,

I'll do it with a picture. The demonstration God is actively proving. Or showing, demonstrating his love through a concrete historical act. The fact that Jesus died, that historical act is in the present tense right now for all of us. An indicator of showing God loves [00:26:00] you. You can't doubt it if you see what he did for you.

You should not doubt it when you see what he did for you. It shows it. It demonstrates it, but it goes a step further. This word does the way Paul's using it. It's also a word that is a manifestation because Christ on the cross embodies God's love. It's making something visible about God's character, who God truly is.

It is a, not just a demonstration to us of his love, but it's a manifestation of who he is. This is the passage like one John four 10, uh, John three 16. God so loved the world. These, this is the love. This is who God is. It's also a demonstration. He loves us because of [00:27:00] who and what he is, not because of what we are.

God shows his love and, and, and the way Paul wrote, he's got AU here. It's an emphatic his. If we were doing one day, I want to translate the emphatic Bible where we put emphasis where it is. This should be bold, printed, should have stars, his love. Paul's like pounding the table on that one. God shows his love for us.

He's got an intense love for you.

While we were yet still sinners, he died for us. Since, therefore, we've now been justified by his blood. This we have been justified. This is an accomplished fact. [00:28:00] It's happened, been justified. We have been declared righteous and holy. We have been forgiven. Since therefore, we've now been justified by his blood much more.

Shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. This is an accomplished fact and it has happened by his blood. Um, the Greek here, in tow hamalto is, um, the Greek Inn. It functions a bit like a Hebrew bait. For those of you who may want to know Hebrew or know Hebrew, it means by means of we've been justified by means of his blood.

That's what he said from Romans 1, 16 17, the Sidio and everything. Since it is by the blood of Christ, it is by the death of Christ that we've been declared righteous. And then look, oh, oh by the [00:29:00] way, This is, um, this is the meaning of so many passages of scripture. This is Jesus saying, I am the way we're justified by his blood.

This is Jesus saying, I go now to prepare a place for you. He's going to the cross to prepare a place that's not meaning. Jesus is going to heaven to bang one of our granddaughters. Um. Was talking to, uh, another one of our grandchildren, uh, and the other grandchild was four years old, and the other grandchild said, what's this about Jesus?

You know, talk to me a little bit about Jesus. And I'm listening in and one of our granddaughters says, well, he's, uh, Jesus was God, come into the world. And that's, that's the Christmas story. And then he grew up and he died. Um, and then he was resurrected from the dead, and that was a long time ago. [00:30:00] Now I don't really know what he's been doing since then.

When Jesus said, I go now to prepare a place for you. I'm sorry for all of the songs that are wrong, but he wasn't saying. I'm gonna go up to heaven and start building your house. He already said in that passage in my father's house are many rooms you're, no, he's not up there building something. Jesus, the carpenter went up to heaven to build me a mansion.

I've got a mansion up over that hilltop. Um, it it, that's not what he's, when he said, I go now to prepare a place for you, he means I'm going to the cross. That's how he prepared the place for us. He is the way you got, you [00:31:00] gotta have your sins forgiven. He's gotta do that. That's how he prepares a way for us.

Great song. Elvina Hall wrote these words sitting in the pew of the Methodist Church in Maryland, 1865 Civil War's. Just over. See if you know this song. Uh oh. See if I can play this song. Uh, okay. We're not playing the song. You're gonna have to sing it.

I hear the savior say, thy strength deed is small child of weakness. Watch and pray. Find in me thine. All in all, Jesus paid it all.[00:32:00]

Lord. Now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper spots and melt the heart of stone

All.

For nothing good have I, whereby thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb.

Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed [00:33:00] it wide as snow and when before the throne, I stand in him complete. Jesus died. My soul to save my lips shall still repeat. He did pay it all and all to him I owe, which is a point for home that God's love triumphs over human failure. Your failure and my failure, and if your why this morning is you need to hear that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Please hear you Don't measure up. You never will on your own. We measure up because we have the righteousness of Christ. Given to us, not earned. And that's the why of Romans five, six through nine.

POINTS FOR HOME - Romans 5:6-9:

[00:34:00] 1. God's love triumphs over human failure - Christ died for us while we were still weak and sinful, not because we deserved it.

2. God's love is both a demonstration and a manifestation - it proves His love through the historical act of the cross and reveals who God truly is.

3. We measure up through Christ's righteousness, not our own - we are declared righteous and holy through His blood, not through our own efforts.

**POINTS FOR HOME - Romans 5:6-9:**

1. God's love triumphs over human failure - Christ died for us while we were still weak and sinful, not because we deserved it.

2. God's love is both a demonstration and a manifestation - it proves His love through the historical act of the cross and reveals who God truly is.

3. We measure up through Christ's righteousness, not our own - we are declared righteous and holy through His blood, not through our own efforts.

Romans 5:9-11 - Future Salvation & Reconciliation
---

Bernard: [00:35:00] Now let's pick back up with verse nine again, and let's look at something else here. Since therefore, we've now been justified by his blood much more, shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

That's future tense. Shall we be saved? Yes, there's a future tense sense of salvation. We have been justified. We have been declared righteous. We are good with God if our faith is in the Christ Jesus, but we still haven't arrived and he still got some work to do with us. This is the sense of First Thessalonians one 10.

Um, it's, it's, um, the, the same sense of what Paul's saying here, and it's worth looking at. One Thessalonians one 10[00:36:00]

that we wait for his son from heaven. Whom he raised from the dead. Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come see. There's still wrath coming and we still have some sense of needing God's protection. God's salvation. There's a sense in which it's eschatological is the theological word. It's in the future as well.

It's not just here in the present right now. Now this is interesting little construction. Just side note here, so you can feel like you really read the Greek much more. Polo Malone much more. He does it again in the next verse, in verse 10. So let's look at [00:37:00] that. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more Polo Polo Malone.

Much more now. This is an interesting construction. This is a Hebrew construction. It's a rabbinic way of arguing. Paul is going Rabbi on you. Um, this is a

Kumar. It is, um, that means light to heavy. It's our is arguing except Paul's flipped it, but. I don't, don't, don't get lost in the details. It works both ways. Paul's using it in a heavy to light way. But here's an example. If you can lift 200 pounds, surely you can lift 50 pounds. See, it's, it is [00:38:00] like, if, if you can do this, surely you can do that.

And it, and, and Jesus does the same thing. Jesus uses this over and over. I pulled two examples of it for you, but Matthew six, uh, 26 is Jesus using the same, um, rabbinical arguing. Um, he says, um, don't be anxious about your life. What you will eat isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing.

You know, and, and then he goes into the birds of the field, and if the father loves those, how much more does he love you? It's that same rabbinical arguing. If it's this, how much more Now? This is what Paul's saying, then he's saying, while we were enemies, while we were hostile to God. He is dying for us.

He's [00:39:00] reconciling us to him by the death of his son. Don't you figure afterwards he's gonna take care of you. Do you think he did that just to let you fritter away?

No. And so he says, having been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved? Future tense. And then he does the same thing here. Now that we are reconciled, we shall, shall we be saved. It's a future tense. This is the idea that God will complete the good work he began in us. Paul says, in Philippians, we shall be saved.

So I got a song for you because it's a song that puts into my generation speak the theological idea. It is on Amy Grant's Straight Ahead album. [00:40:00] Now that's the album, and I'm gonna show you the album cover, but I showed you a Keith Green album cover last time, and I played a different song than the one on the album, and so I got scolded afterwards.

So I'm warning you, the name of this song is Not Straight Ahead. That's the name of the album, but here's your song. See if this one will play.

What we.

When. On all our compromising and he appears [00:41:00] he'll draw near by his

glory.

For we shall

what we saw. But not all that we'll see tomorrow when we lock the door on all

clear and be.[00:42:00]

What we were before,

when.

Holy

near[00:43:00]

his

glory.

When he,

his glory.

It is a profound recognition that when we give our lives to the Lord, he changes us. We're justified, we're saved the Holy Spirit and dwells within [00:44:00] our hearts. And yet it is so frustrating because. We recognize more than ever how we fall short, how we continue to have issues and problems, and, and we've gotta deal with temperament, and we've gotta deal with frustration and impatience, and we've gotta deal with selfishness and we've gotta deal with, with the traps and snares of different sins, and you're acutely aware of it.

And if that is your voice and that is your why you're here today. Then you need to hear the message. He loved you enough to die for you. Don't you know much more. He's going to save you in the end. He's going to take care of you. You are not yet what you will be. Now, he's not gonna let you Waller in your sin.

He's gonna try and move you along and you may feel like you're not making any progress. And it is that way someday. [00:45:00] But you'll wake up one day and you'll look back and say, I'm not where I want to be, but I'm nearer. And when you're doing well and you sense that, remember all credit and all glory goes to God because it isn't you or me, the morally frail ones who are pulling that off only by the strength of his spirit.

And that's your, if that's your why. Then just know God's not finished with you yet. Much more shall we be saved. It will happen.

POINTS FOR HOME - Romans 5:9-11:

1. God will complete the good work He began in us - we have been justified by Christ's blood and will be saved from God's wrath in the future.

2. Reconciliation transforms us from enemies into friends - through Christ's death, we are no longer subject to God's wrath but are His beloved friends.

3. [00:46:00] Jesus is our answer to every need - He cares enough to die for us and always answers our prayers, even when the answer is no or not yet.

Let's do our last verse then. Romans five 11. The verse is fairly simple. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we've now received reconciliation.

More than that in, in the, the Greeks. Literally. Not only that, um, more than he, he's, what he's doing here is what Coach Max, it's piling on. That's what he's doing right here. He's just piling on. He says, Hey, I'll give you some more. Not only that, I got more for you. Much more than that. We also rejoice [00:47:00] in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This word rejoice kalai or kalai. Kalai is, it's an interesting word. It's translated by the English standard version, rejoice, but typically you're gonna see it translated as boast. Or glory or be proud of. We can boast about God, we can be proud of God, we can glorify God. We can rejoice in God through Jesus, through whom we have received reconciliation.

Now this is something we rejoice, we boast. We glorify in this [00:48:00] because we have received reconciliation. That word reconciliation in the Greek alga is, is changing someone from an enemy to a friend. We who were morally weak, who were subject to God's wrath, who were sinful, who were. Impious who were the worst have been transformed by God into his friend by the blood of Jesus.

He said, you're my friends. He says, greater love has no man for than for a friend to die. I'm dying for you. You are my friend. You are not God's enemy anymore. You know that passage in John three, that's maybe the most famous passage in the New Testament, John three 16. Remember what it says. [00:49:00] God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him won't perish.

God so loved the world. He gave his only son that whoever believes in him won't perish, but will have eternal life. Look at how the, that chapter ends. It ends the very last verse of that chapter. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not. Kuo is the Greek word there for obey. It means to hear and respond, to come under.

Whoever does not come under the sun, will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. It's already there. Her, it remains. The wrath of God remains. But not for those who walk in the Lord Jesus [00:50:00] Christ through him. We aren't subject to wrath anymore. We're friends. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said The best way to get rid of an enemy is to turn him into a friend.

God has turned you into a friend. I got one more song for you. Let's see if this works.

You better know this song.

What a friend have in Jesus

all our sins and.

Everything[00:51:00]

what we

need.

Think about these stories. Oh, because we do not care

everything,

have we?

The trouble

we should.

Can we find a friend so[00:52:00]

knows our every week.

It the Lord.

Precious.

Do thy de for

to the Lord.[00:53:00]

Take and.

She keeps singing. We're out of time. But that may be your why. You may be here because you know Jesus is your friend. You wanna learn more of him, or you may be here because you need a friend and you need to lean into him. Lean into Jesus your friend. Pray to Jesus your friend. He cares. He cares enough to die for you.

I said, well, he doesn't seem to be answering my prayers. Well, he always answers prayers. Now, sometimes his answer is no, I'm sorry. Sometimes his answer is not right. Now, [00:54:00] sometimes he's at doing something else that's of a, of a, a bigger picture than you're able to see, but it's never that he doesn't love you and he doesn't care and he's not listening.

And so we take to the Lord in prayer, we, we go to our friend in our need, and we can know that. If that's your why, then Jesus is your answer. In fact, for all of these, this is God's answer. It's Jesus crucified. God loving you in demonstrable. And real ways.

Closing Prayer & Blessing
---

Bernard: Let me bless you in the name of Jesus and we will be through this week.

Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus for you to bless everyone in here. I repeat my prayer, Lord, please answer their why and let them know. Bring them to a place [00:55:00] of commitment for with you, and then confirm those committed to you, your love and your friendship. And your care. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.