Chapel – Clarke Kennedy
Hi, welcome to our continuing spring, summer chapel series. I'm Clarke Kennedy, and I currently work in the counselling department here at Tyndale. So I've been asked to speak on a passage that has been particularly meaningful to me, and I thought I would just start this, this podcast episode by reading through Romans 8:31 to 39, one of my favourite passages from the Bible. So, I will be reading from the New Living Translation, and you can follow along with me. So starting with verse 31.
"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son, but gave Him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us who God has chosen for his own? No one, for God Himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one. For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God's right hand, pleading for us."
Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, for your sake, we are killed every day, we are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us. And I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I just love that passage. It is so, it is so reassuring to have this passage that points us towards, just the, the overwhelming love that Christ has for us. And it just got me thinking about how comforting it is to have a God who never leaves us, never forsakes us. And as a counsellor, as someone that works with clients, every day, who are struggling with with really tough situations, really, really challenging things that they go through in life. I'm reminded of this passage, and I look back on my own life and think about the times when life felt very uncertain, where worries for tomorrow, my fears were just very overwhelming. And it felt like I didn't know where to turn. I didn't know what was going to happen next. And despite those fears, God carried me through those moments. And I can look back and see how He was there the whole time. Just providing me with His perfect peace, which surpasses all understanding. And it got me thinking about all the attributes of God, as I read through this passage. And I thought I would just kind of go through some of those attributes, that we can look to as a source of strength, a source of peace, a source of hope.
So one of the attributes of God, that I find reassuring is His omniscience, His ability to be all knowing. And in Isaiah 46, verses nine to ten, it talks about how God knows the end, from the beginning, from ancient times, to what is still to come. And I think about how reassuring it is to know that God does know the future. He knows my future. He knows your future. And during times, when, especially during the pandemic, looking back on the last few years, things felt very uncertain. The world had a lot of chaos, and even now, if you look in the headlines, there's so many things you can look to that can cause us anxiety, and uncertainty, but being able to just rest in the fact that God is all knowing, and that he has the future mapped out is, for me, a very reassuring thing.
Another attribute of His, is his ability to be merciful. He's infinitely compassionate. And that reminds me of Romans nine, verses 15 to 16. Which says, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, it does not therefore depend on human desire, effort, but on God's mercy. And I just think about how amazing it is that we serve a God that has such a great love and ability to be merciful on us, despite our sins, despite our shortcomings.
Another attribute of God is his ability to be faithful. Which reminds me of Second Timothy two, verse 13, which talks about, if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown himself. And that makes me think back on times in my life, where I could just see the hand of God, Him moving in my life, being there, through the ups and the downs, and just remaining faithful, when so many things in life are changing constantly. It's, it's amazing that we serve a God that we can rely on.
Another attribute of God that is very encouraging to think about is that he's omnipotent. He's all powerful. And going back to the passage that I've read at the beginning, Romans eight, you know, it talks about how there's no power in the sky above or below, that can separate us from the love of God. And just meditating on that is, is, is really amazing. There's nothing that exists in the universe that can separate us from the power of God's love. And just to think about the amazing power that God has, to create the universe, to create life itself. Yeah, and I'm just amazed by the beauty of His creation. I'm someone that loves nature, that is my my happy place. My grandpa owns a really beautiful farm, an hour, around an hour north of Toronto, and I'm always just amazed by how many different species of birds, even just exist in Ontario, and all the different variety of wildlife. That's something I thought a lot about during the pandemic. And another thing I love to do is gazing at the stars. And if you ever just look at the stars, and try to comprehend the vastness of the universe, it really blows your mind. At least it blows my mind. And that's the same God who, who loves us, that's the same God that wants to have a personal relationship with us. And that really makes all of my problems feel very small. When I look at the stars, when I look at the, just the power of of God. And I hope that just dwelling on these attributes of, was, was encouraging for you. I know it was for me. I read that that passage, Romans 8, so many times, but every single time I read it, something new jumps out at me, and it's just such a beautiful, beautiful passage, and I always go back to it when I feel anxious or I feel overwhelmed because it really really just helps me focus back on, on, on the love of Christ and how nothing can stop it.
