This morning's scripture reading is found in Romans 8, 28 through 39. If you're using one of the Bibles underneath the chair in front of you, that can be found on page 1119. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? 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 give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that who was raised to life, it 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 a sheep to be slaughtered. No, in 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, and all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The word of the Lord. Thank you, Janae. Over the last few weeks, if you have been with us here at UPC, you know that we have been looking all the entire month at Romans chapter 8. If you haven't been with us, we do have a website where you can listen to some of these messages, so I would hope that you could do that. But the series that I have been preaching, I have entitled, Finding Easter in Your Basket of Disappointment. And I deliberately chose that title because I know that a lot of us are going through times of trial. We do have a basket of disappointment. But the message of Romans 8 is that there are lots and lots of things about which to be joyful. And of course today we come to Easter Sunday in which we have the greatest joy of them all to be found in Romans 8. We are going to look today at yet another, and this is the last installment on this series, yet another reason that we can find joy even during times of difficulty. I'm going to use this morning, not only the scripture passage, but a film. I'm going to show you several movie clips today. I know a lot of you are like me, like movies, and a lot of movies teach spiritual truth. So this morning I'm going to show you three clips out of a movie called, What is the movie called? Yeah, Martian Child. Thank you. Martian Child. How many of you have seen it? I didn't think many of you had, but it's a good one. You should watch it. It stars John Cusack, one of my favorite actors. John Cusack plays a writer by the name of David Gordon, and his wife unfortunately passed away a short time, maybe a couple of years before the movie opens. And in this movie, here's the plot. David Gordon is thinking about adopting a child. He's thinking about adopting a child. So he talks to a friend of his who happens to be a social worker. Her name is Sophie, and Sophie tells David about a little six-year-old foster child named Dennis. The thing is, Dennis is different. He's very different. He believes he's from Mars, hence the name Martian Child. Dennis spends most of his daytime hours inside of a box. The reason is that he thinks the sun is going to damage his skin. So here's one of the opening scenes of Martian Child in which a little girl named Esther comes up to David Gordon and tells him some interesting facts about little Dennis. Let's watch. At least I think it's coming. Give it another little push. There we go. What's your name? Esther. I'm Esther. I know who you are. You do? You're the man who's Sophie called about Dennis, but you don't want him because your wife's dead. Who told you that? Dennis. You a friend of his or why? No. He's a weirdo. He doesn't have any friends. You don't? Where is he hanging up? He's in the box. He doesn't come out until night. Why does he do that? The sun. He hates the sun. Why does he hate the sun? I don't know because he thinks it's too sunny. Right. I don't know where we are. It's in the box. This movie touches on a universal theme. It's universal. Every one of us needs to know that we are not weird. It's the search for significance, the search for meaning and value and purpose. We all need to know that, don't we? That our life has meaning and value, that we mean something to somebody that there's a purpose to our work, to our life, to our education, to our gifts and passions and callings, to our family life. We need to know that there's an overarching or a transcendent purpose for which we exist in this world. We need to know that we're getting somewhere, that our life counts, and that we'll leave a legacy of some kind, to our children, to the world. The problem is, so many things in life seem to conspire against the sense that we are valuable. So many things in life seem to go wrong. Some of you have lost your job. Some of you wake up every day dealing with disease or disability or an addiction of some sort. Some of you are in a marriage that's not working. Some of you feel that your prayers go unanswered and you wonder, where is God? Some of you feel like you're unattractive to other people. That nobody really wants to be your friend. They're just being polite to you. And so you've concluded that your life doesn't matter. Maybe other people have value and purpose, but not you. You're like Dennis. You're different from everybody else. Everybody else is special to God, but you, you're expendable. You're ordinary. The word ordinary is what we call something of little or no importance. Something that we might as well throw away, like an old piece of worn out clothing or something like that. Is that how you feel this morning? Ordinary. If you do, you know what you do, you pull away from people. You pull away, you hide in a box, you play a role, you put on a persona, but you hide your real self from other people. Maybe even from your family, from your friends, definitely from God. I want you to know something this morning. You're not ordinary. You matter immensely to God. You say show me, prove it. You're from Missouri, the show me state. Prove it to me, Mike. Show me that this scripture passage or something else in the Bible tells me that my life really does have value and meaning. Okay, I will. Better yet, I'll show you in Romans chapter 8, three reasons why you can believe that your life matters to God. Three reasons. Let me give them to you first and then we'll look at them one at a time. First, God is your sovereign lover. Second, God's your gracious defender. And finally, Christ is your risen savior. So we're going to look at sovereign lover, gracious defender and risen savior. Let's begin with God being your sovereign lover. Look at verse 28 of the passage that Janae read. Verse 28 is probably one of the best love verses in all the Bible. I suspect that many of you have memorized it. Many of you have used this before. You've referred to it in times of difficulty. It is very, very useful to say the least. Look at verse 28. Paul says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. One morning in 1992, I was living up in easily South Carolina. I was pastoring a church up there and I got a call early one morning. The kind of call you never want to get. It was a doctor on the other end of the phone, a doctor in an ER in the local city. And this doctor told me, past her one of your parishioners was in a car accident this morning. We tried to do everything we could to save her, but she's gone. Her husband is here and he's asking for you to come and be with him. Turns out that this man whose wife got hit and killed by a garbage truck was one of our best friends, one of the elders in my church up there. His name is David Hall. He and his wife Melanie had four kids. The oldest was about 14. The youngest was around six, maybe eight. Now he was going to deal with life without a wife. I went to the hospital and sat with David for a while and then he had to get back home and gather some things. And so I'll never forget in my life driving my car with David Hall in the back seat looking at him in the mirror. And David had three words to say the whole trip. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. Now why could he say that? And he didn't just say it. He meant it. David experienced the sovereign love of God in a way I hope none of you ever will. But all of us must one day come to believe that God is sovereign. Why could David say that because he believes the Bible? That's why. The Bible teaches that God is in control. I know we say that a lot, but it's so true. That's what sovereignty means. God is in control. He's the designer, the architect, the project manager of this entire universe. Ephesians 111 says that he works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Not some things, not most things, not the good things. He works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. I don't know. And you don't know what God is doing most of the time. He's got a plan that sometimes makes absolutely no sense to us, but it's a perfect plan. This truth means that there's purpose to your unemployment. There's a goal in your cancer. There's a transcendent reason for your disability. It's ultimately a good purpose, a good goal, a good reason. Are you still not convinced? Look with me at verses 29 and 30. Speaking of this sovereign love of God, verse 29 says, for those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. Oh, I wish we had time to look at every one of those words. This is like a six-part sermon series right there in one verse. But if I could with you just look at that one word for new in verse 29, for those God for new. You know what most people think? Most people think that that simply means that God knew ahead of time that they would believe in him. It means so very much more than that. Notice that the verse says, those God for new. It doesn't say that he would for know something. He says those God for new. He didn't merely know that you would do this or that or that ahead of time. He knew you ahead of time. He said his love. That's what the word no means. He said his love on you ahead of time. If you love Christ this morning, you know what? Christ said his love on you a lot longer ago than you said your love upon Christ. In fact Christ loved you before time began. He for knew you. That's what for knowledge means. Ephesians 1.4 says that he chose us in him before the creation of the world. You Martians. Yeah, he chose you. You wounded, flawed, broken people. He chose you ahead of time. You who often try to run away from God, God pursued you. You who even still hide from God at times. God revealed himself to you. Isn't that so contrary to the way we human beings work? We operate completely different from that. We choose people on the basis of something good they do. Do you remember what it was like on the Sandlot, right? When you chose teams? You remember the comment, don't pick him over there. That skinny kid. Don't pick him. See God works very different from that. We choose people on the basis of things like their looks or their great resume or they have the right family connections or a lot of money or charisma. Not God. God loves you because he loves you. He loves you because he loves you. He loves you in spite of yourself. Let's go back to the movie, Martian Child. I want to show you another clip in which David Gordon goes back. He was thinking about adopting this little dentist. Well now he goes back a second time. He's still unsure so he's still thinking about it. He wonders if he's capable of adopting this special kid who thinks he's from Mars. In this scene you're going to meet the woman I alluded to earlier. Her name's Sophie. She is a social worker and she's going to talk with David a little bit more about Dennis. Let's watch. Anybody in there? Watch someone. Those really help cut out the glare. In your ongoing battle with the sun, you're welcome. It's to see you. Very nice to see you actually. emotionally abused. He's classified as heart attack. He's never had a family of his own. Right person for me. I'm just a writer. He's a lot of doctors. That's what you mean it. That's not what he needs. At least tell you what you're thinking. There's an old hymn that goes like this. My Lord I did not choose you for that could never be. My heart would still refuse you had you not chosen me. God is always at work. We see this. He is always at work even in the hard things of your life. He's preserving you in ways that you don't even realize if you're his child he for loved you. He elected you. This versus teaches that he called you. He justified you. He glorified you. In other words, your glorification is so sure Paul can even talk about it as if it's already happened. He glorified you. This means that your life matters to God. But Paul goes further in this text because he says not only is God your sovereign lover, but also he's your gracious defender. God is your gracious defender. Look with me at verse 31. This verse says, what then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? You know about Dwight Howard, right? Dwight Howard, where's number 12 for the Orlando Magic? Wonderful starting center for our home team. Let me tell you some stuff about Dwight Howard. You know, in the eighth grade one of his resolutions was to be selected as the number one pick in the NBA draft one day. He was by the magic in 2004. He's been an NBA all star for the past three years. He has one of the top field goal percentages in the NBA and the most rebounds in the NBA. In one game earlier this season, he put up an insane triple double. Some of you know what that means. 30 points, 19 rebounds, 10 blocks in one game. Get this, Dwight Howard is six feet 11 inches tall. His wingspan is seven feet six inches. His vertical reach is nine feet three and a half inches. A regulation NBA goal is a rim rather is ten feet. He can almost touch the goal. We hear in Orlando might say, if Dwight Howard is for us, who can be against us, right? And that's been true. We're doing great again this year. With Superman on our side, how can we lose? This text says that God is for you. Listen to that again. God is for you. God is for you. You who are suffering. God is for you. You who feel lonely and misunderstood. God is for you. You who wonder how you're going to make it. God is for you. How do you know that? Because of what we read in verse 32. He says, he who didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give, graciously provide, graciously give us all things? Paul is arguing here from the greater to the lesser. It's like this. If somebody gave you a piano, don't you suspect that they would throw in the piano stool? Of course. It's unthinkable. Not to give you a piano stool when you give them the piano. If God has done the hard thing for you by giving up his son, then he will certainly graciously give you all things. What are these all things? Let's not make any mistake about it. There's a lot of teaching out there that's not right. Those who believe in the health, wealth, prosperity, gospel say that the all things are anything and everything that you want. It's not what Paul is including in the all things. Sometimes we don't get what we wish for, do we? We would love the all things to be healing to our body. Sometimes it is. We would love the all things to be a better marriage or a better job or a better relationship with our parents. And sometimes it is, but a lot of times it isn't. God sometimes says no. Sometimes He says maybe later. But sometimes God gives us better things than those things we want to be the all things. Things like justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification, things that we've learned about here in Romans 8. Things like patience, he wants to give you forgiveness, the ability to empathize with other people, character development, those are the all things that God gives you. See, you're not ordinary. In light of God being your gracious defender, your life has value and meaning. You matter eternally to God. God is for you, but God goes further. Paul tells us in this passage that not only is God your sovereign lover, your gracious defender, but third and last and especially here on Easter, Jesus Christ is your risen savior. Jesus Christ is your risen savior. Look at verses 33 and 34 of our text. Paul says who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus who died. Listen to this, more than that who was risen to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Paul says here that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is even more evidence of God's love for you than his death was. The resurrection of Christ is even more evidence of his love than his death. Why is that? Well, it's because if Christ had merely died for you, you would still be in your sins. There would be a dead body in that tomb over in the Holy Land instead of a risen savior by the throne of God in heaven. Paul says the exact same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. See, the death of Christ was the payment for your sin. But the resurrection of Christ from the grave is like a receipt where God hands to you and says the debt is fully paid. Look, there's nobody. Christ is alive. He rose from the dead. The sacrifice was accepted at the bar of God. The father's wrath is fully satisfied. Your record is spotless. Your conscience is clear. God says to you on the basis of the resurrection, go free. Go free. And the fact that Christ has been raised up from the dead means that he is in heaven right now praying for you. Think about that. The judge of all the earth is your prayer partner. That's why you don't need to dread judgment day. He's praying for you every day. If you're in Christ, your judge has become your prayer partner. The judge of all the earth. That's what it says in verse 34. He is at the right hand of God interceding for you. What more do you need to know to be convinced that you're dear to God? What have we seen this morning? We've seen the sovereign plan of God. We've seen the cross. We've seen the empty tomb. God loved you before time began. He gave up his son for you. Jesus is praying for you right now in glory. Even if you face death all day long, as it says there in verse 36. Even if you're considered as sheep to be slaughtered, you are of exquisite value to God. The conclusion that Paul comes to after he looks at these wonderful truths is in verse 35. Who will separate me? Who will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? And Paul goes through a long list of things that might possibly drive a wedge between you and God. Things like trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, on and on the list goes. Verse 38 talks about death and life and angels and demons, the present, the future. Nothing says Paul. Nothing internal or external will be able to separate you from the love of your God. The mistakes in your past won't do it. The depression that you struggle with won't do it. Your unemployment won't do it. Your bad family background won't do it. And all these things you are more than conquerors. Your overdrawn bank account won't separate you from God's love. The recession won't do it. The world won't do it. The flesh you struggle with every day won't do it. Devil himself won't do it. No in all these things you, says Paul, are more than conquerors. Nothing you do right can make God love you more than he already does. Nothing you do wrong can make God love you any less. That's how secure you are. Let's go back to the movie, Martian Child, one more clip that will put the little icing on the cake. At the end of the movie, and we're going to skip all the way to the end now, at the end of the movie, Dennis believes that it's time for him to go back to Mars. But what he's really coming to terms with is the fact that he was an abandoned child. So he climbs up to the top of this observatory where he imagines that the mother ship is going to come and rescue him and take him back to Mars, but his father, David Gordon, goes after him. So listen, look and see what happens. Why do you want to be? Because they were stupid. Whoever let you go, those were the stupidest beings in the universe. I mean, they were so dumb they couldn't even see what was right in front of them. How could they not see how extraordinary you are? How big your heart is? I'm not even that smart and I can see it. It's so obvious. I mean, you're the easiest kid in the world to love. Well, to me, you know what I think? I think you love me too. He says, ever, ever, ever, ever. That looks an awful lot like the gospel, doesn't it? Jesus put it this way. He said in John 10 verse 28, no one can snatch you out of my hand. It's God's word to you. No one can snatch you out of his hand. He will never leave you. God will never forsake you. Can I be honest with you this morning? There's one condition. There's one condition. You have to give your life to him. You know, many human beings think that they can find meaning in life and purpose apart from God, living independently of God. I meet a lot of people who think that life can be found apart from a relationship with God. And so they seek their value. They seek significance in things other than God. They think having lots of money will do it or having a lot of friends will do it or looking good or being successful will do it or having a head full of knowledge will do it. And so they continually seek these other things besides the living God for the value that they so desperately need. I want you to know this morning that the only thing the only thing that will enable you to find what you were made for is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So here's what I want you to do. If you look inside your heart today and you say, you know, I have never really gone to God before. I've never really gone to him, honestly, and told him that I really, I really, really need him to be the center of my life. If that's how you feel that you've never really gone to him and said that you've sinned against him, that you've got to get right with him and that you really want to be cleansed and forgiven and been set and be set free. I've done that. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to do it today. Go to God. Go to God and talk to him. He's got open arms. He's welcoming you and wants you to talk to him and telling those things. He'll give you a new life. He'll enable you to see that you are not ordinary. You have value and meaning the purpose that God's made you for. If you are a Christian this morning, here's what you need to do. And I do too. Believe you're not ordinary. Your life has immense value. You've been you've been created for a God given purpose. And so stop holding back. You know, stop living halfway as a Christian. Some of us are still hiding in a box. We don't know that we're really secure in the arms of a loving God. And so we're hiding ourselves from God and living just sort of halfway. Maybe we have one foot out of the box and we're trying to do what the Christians do to be good Christians, but we're not really living enthusiastically for God. Give yourself fully to him. Give yourself fully to him. Here's what I'd like to ask you. In what area of your life are you living halfway? Is it in your financial life? Is it in your relationship with your spouse or your kids or your parents, your friends? Is it in the areas of holiness that God has called you to? You're holding back and don't want to go full distance with God. Go ahead, do it because you're secure in his hands. The hands of your sovereign lover, your gracious defender, your risen savior. The one who loves you so very, very much. Let's pray to that Lord. Father, I thank you so much for giving us this reminder today that we're secure. Thank you that you're our sovereign lover, our gracious defender, our risen savior. Thank you that we do not need to worry that anything's going to separate us from your love. Thank you, Lord, that we are not ordinary, that we do have value and meaning in your sight, that you've died for us and risen for us. So, Lord, enable us, we pray, by grace, to live fully 100% for your glory. And I pray, Father, that if there's somebody here today that doesn't have the assurance that they're yours. I pray that they will pray something like this to you today. Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I know I need to be forgiven. I turn from my sins and trust in Christ. I believe he died for me because I desperately need a relationship with you. And so here and now I give you my life. I come out of the box. I come out of hiding and commit my life to you. I want to follow after you the rest of my days. Lord, if there's somebody here that would pray that prayer, I just thank you that you're such a forgiving God. Your grace is new every day. Your love is new every morning. And so we pray that you'll flood that person with your love and grace and remind him that there's always hope because of the resurrection. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.