MORE THAN CONQUERORS

MORE THAN CONQUERORS Sermon for Installation of the Rev. Richard Gibbons Romans 8:31-39 October 28, 2007 Dr. Walter A. Ray Thank you for inviting me here today. Being your Interim Pastor has been one of the great highlights of my life. You are a wonderful people, and I love you, and have been praying for you every day...90% of the time! The installation of your new Sr. Pastor, the Rev Richard Gibbons is an exciting and significant occasion!! Members of Presbytery, friends, thank you for coming today. George Wilkes, it is great to see you again—you are a loving, caring Executive Presbyter, and I count it as one of my blessings to have worked with you. I heard a rumor in California that your new Pastor from Scotland has been called Sweet Cheeks? Is that true? I don’t know if we have identified the first person to say “sweet cheeks” in Richards presence. If you know who it is, please let me know – just curious. Since I invested 2 yrs, 5 months, and 11 days of my life as your Interim Pastor, I am very interested in how your new pastor is doing. So I have asked many of my inside secret contacts, how is Richard really doing? Here is what I learned. TERRIFIC!!! I thought about, would you want me to preach this morning in Scottish, or in English. Richard, I have listened to some of your sermons here, and I want you to know that “the dominant language” in the next life is not going to be Scottish, it is going to be Southern Californian. So I decided to speak in Southern Californian this morning. I am preaching on a text that I give to you for your future as a church with the Rev. Richard Gibbons, and with the rest of the great staff that you have here!! Our TEXT is: Rom 8:37, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” For your future as a church, and for each one of you personally. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him…” What did Paul mean by the words “In all these things?” Go back to Romans 8:28. It says: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” Can anything keep us from this? Can anything prevent God from working good to those who love Him? What about fires?

What if your house burns down? Could that separate you from the love of God? There have been many fires in California this past week. The Malibu Presbyterian Church was destroyed. I saw it being burned to the ground on TV. It was a truly frightening and tragic sight. About 500,000 people were evacuated from their homes because of fires nearby. The devil says, if your house burns down that separates you from the love of God, in fact, that proves that there is no such thing as “the love of God!” Because how could a loving God permit such things to happen? The devil argues that because people suffer, because there are fires, and wars, and illnesses, there is no God, because if there were a loving God he would not permit such things to happen. But the Bible says, because there is evil does not mean there is not a loving God. The Bible says that in the midst of evil and painful things which happen, there is a God, and “we are more than conquerors through Christ.” I don’t know how to fully explain this why a loving God permits evil but it has to do with the fall of man, and that we are living in a fallen world, so that according to Romans 8:22 “the whole creation groans in travail and pain until now.” We live in a fallen world where people do bad things. Marion Jones admitted recently that she was on steroids when she won the five medals at Olympics, three gold and two bronze. Who was hurt? Many say, WELL, SHE ONLY HURT HERSELF. Not true! Think of all the people she ran against who lost to her. She admitted to using performance drugs for at least two years. We are in a world filled with scams. Sin hurts a lot of people…we are all subject to the sins of others…we need protection. The Bible says that with all the evil we face, we are more than conquerors through Him, through Christ. So yes, if our house burns down, if we become seriously ill, we are still more than conquerors through Him. Look at our text again: Paul did not say “in some of these things,” but Paul said “In ALL of these things…”!!! It does not say “nothing” shall separate us except if our house burns down!!! Nothing shall separate us, except a serious illness or loss. The Bible says in ALL these things, no matter what happens, “we are more than conquerors!” Look at our text again: Why did Paul say MORE than conquerors? Why not simply in all these things we are conquerors? Because we are MORE than conquerors. This word MORE is very significant. We are more than victorious over every trial…we are MORE than able to deal with every challenge that comes into our lives… we are MORE than able to deal with

mental anguish and distress of any kind…THROUGH HIM..not in our own strength!! And so I ask the persecuted saints of the ages, has your God been able to deliver you? And they respond with great joy, Yes, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And then I look down upon a lions’ den, where many Christians in the early centuries suffered terribly, but they held on to their faith in Christ, and I ask these afflicted children of God, has your God been able to deliver you? And with one voice they cry out: oh yes, we are more than conquerors. We call this den of lions the valley of the shadow of death. And I ask these saints of God, was your God able to deliver you? And they respond in a great symphony of music, "Yes, Christ removed the sting of death.” He delivered us, we are more than conquerors. And suddenly I hear a joyous sound and I look upwards and lo, myriads of immortal souls gathered and they are singing out, Hallelujah to our God, who by the resurrection of Christ delivered us. We are more than conquerors. There will come that great day when we meet our Heavenly Father, and He runs to us, and embraces us. And in that long embrace we shall be able to see and understand that, ‘YES, IN ALL THESE THINGS we were more than conquerors through him who loved us!" And so I say to this congregation, to this staff, to you Richard, for your future days, we are more than conquerors… We are expecting the promised crowns of glory, and we will be amongst the multitude of shining ones before the throne; we are looking forward and longing for the time when we shall be like our glorious Lord, for we shall see Him as he is. So then, live for God, live with the desire to serve him with all your heart. The enemy cries out, “oh you poor deluded follower of Christ, look at your suffering, your loss, your illness, look at the wars in the world! God doesn’t care about you!” Faith replies with a louder voice, “Nothing can defeat us. Nothing can separate us from Him!!! We are more than conquerors in Christ.” Amen.