God Is For You

In this episode, Ross O’Hair and Mark Fields unpack the rich truths of Romans 8:31-39. They discuss how God’s love and provision empower us to navigate life’s challenges with confidence and hope. From the assurance that God is for us to the eternal security of His love, this conversation will inspire and encourage you to live boldly, knowing that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Listen now to discover how God’s provision and presence are woven into every moment of our lives.

Key Verses:

Romans 8:31-39: “What then shall we say to these things? 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 with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Quotes:

“God is not just with us—He is for us. That changes everything about how we face life’s challenges.”

“What if God doesn’t want to change your circumstances but wants to change you through them?”

“No person, no event, no sin can separate a believer from God’s love. That truth transforms how we approach every difficulty.” 

Key Points:

1. God’s unconditional love ensures we are never separated from Him, no matter the difficulty.
2. Our feelings may deceive us, but we can rest in the truth that God is present and for us.
3. The Holy Spirit and Christ both intercede on our behalf, giving us the power to overcome trials.

Outline:

1. Introduction (00:00)
2. Scripture Reading (00:49)
3. God’s provision: He is for us, freely gives, justifies, and intercedes (02:26)
4. The significance of God being “for us” and the power of His love (04:46)
5. God’s provision explained in the Roman context: assurance amid persecution (06:33)
6. Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us, emphasizing divine involvement (08:20)
7. God’s presence: nothing can separate us from His love, even in trials (09:48)
8. Trusting God’s presence in uncertain outcomes: overcoming fear and anxiety (12:42)
9. Practical encouragement: relying on God’s love amid daily failures and temptations (14:59)
10. Conclusion and Major Takeaways (17:16)

Theme Music:

Here Forever by Adigold Inspiring by Peacock Music (all rights and licensing from Envato elements)

Hosted by: Ross O'Hair Participating Staff: Mark Fields Scripture Reading: Ben Brezina, Corrie O’Hair Edited by: Ross O’Hair and Ben Brezina

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Have a question or comment about this podcast? We want to hear from you. Email us at [e-mail]

Interested in more?  Get the (00:03):
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Have you ever felt alone in life?
Felt that during a difficult time in lifethat you were navigating that all by yourself
and trying to figure out what to do on yourown?
Maybe you wondered where God was or what hewas doing in the midst of that isolation.
Or maybe you felt defeated in life, and nomatter what you've tried to do, things just

(00:23):
seem to be falling apart around you.
Well, in today's episode, we will coverthese questions and much more as we delve
into the heart and love of God for us.
My name is Ross O'Hare and I'm your host.
And joining me on today's discussion is Markfields.
But before we get to today's episode, let'stake a few moments and listen to the
Scripture.

Corrie O'Hair: Romans 8:31-39. (00:49):
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"What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?

Ben Brezina: He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he (00:58):
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not also with him freely give us all things?

Corrie O'Hair: Who will bring a charge against God's elect? (01:07):
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Ben Brezina: God is the one who justifies. (01:10):
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Who is the one that condemns?

Corrie O'Hair: Christ Jesus is he who died? (01:14):
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Yes, rather.
Who was raised, who is at the right hand ofGod, who also intercedes for us?

Ben Brezina: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? (01:22):
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Will tribulation, or trouble, orpersecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
danger, or sword?

Corrie O'Hair: Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. (01:33):
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We were considered as sheep to beslaughtered.

Ben Brezina: But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. (01:40):
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Corrie O'Hair: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor (01:46):
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things present, nor things to come, norpowers, nor height, nor depth.

Ben Brezina: Nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in (01:57):
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Christ Jesus our Lord."

Ross O'Hair: All right, Mark, how are you doing? (02:16):
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Mark Fields: I'm doing good. How are you, Ross? (02:18):
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Ross O'Hair: Good. Good to have you back. (02:19):
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We are in part six of Romans 8.
We've made it all the way through Romans 8.
So how does Paul wrap up Romans 8 for us?

Mark Fields: Oh, wow. Ross, there's just a lot in here to unpack, and there's so many lists of things (02:26):
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that can separate us and such.
But to simplify it, I want to give anoverview and separate it into the passage
into two categories.

Ross O'Hair: Okay. (02:38):
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Mark Fields: One is what God is doing for us or his provision. (02:38):
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Ross O'Hair: Okay. (02:41):
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And the second category is in what can neverseparate us from God or His presence.
So let's run through the list and let's talkabout God's provision.
Yeah. Verse 31 it says God is for us.
Now this passage begins by asking arhetorical question.
If God is for us, who can be against us.
And we have seen this in the chapter thatGod is continually with us.

(03:02):
And then we saw His Holy Spirit iscontinually working in us.
Then we saw in 8:28 how God uses all thingsto work in us for our good.
Now we see that not only is he with us/inus, but he's for us.
And that little preposition for, that has awhole new dimension to me in God's
involvement in my life.
Yeah, it really does.

Mark Fields: I mean, Ross, if you had a tough challenge ahead and I said, "hey, Ross, I'm with you" (03:21):
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Now that would encourage you.
But if I said, "hey, Ross, I'm with you andI'm for you." How would that sound?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. I mean, well it would sound a lot better - when I hear that word "for," it (03:31):
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definitely changes the tenor of what you'retalking about.

Mark Fields: Mhm. And God is fighting for us. (03:36):
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He's pulling for us.
He has our best interests at heart.
And he can work in and through and around usto accomplish what he wants.
And in comparison to God, who can be againstus?
Does it matter?
I mean, to use a basketball analogy, if youwere having a pick up game of two on two and
you had LeBron James with you, who does itmatter who's on the other side?

Ross O'Hair: Exactly. (03:56):
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Mark Fields: Well, you might get think of another guy, but anyways, if you have him for us, then it (03:56):
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doesn't matter who's on the other side.
No one. Can anyone or anything defeat us?
No.

Ross O'Hair: Well, and you know, I think of a lot of Old Testament verses where it says, like, I think (04:05):
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of Judges and Gideon, where God promises tobe with him, or I will be with you.
And even when you hear that, it's like,okay, he's with me.
That's great. And it obviously that haspower.
But you're right. When he says God is forus, it literally says he's not only just with
me here, but he's on my team.

(04:26):
He's with me right here.
And I love that. I mean, it's such a great,powerful additional step.

Mark Fields: Yeah, that awareness has really meant a lot to Linda and I in the last four years. (04:31):
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I don't know, four years ago, the song TheBlessing came out.
It was very popular, but at the end theyjust kept saying, he is for us, he is for us,
he is for us. And that encouraged us bothduring my journey that I talked about that
he's fighting for us intentionally.

Ross O'Hair: Yes, exactly. (04:46):
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Mark Fields: All right. So then in verse 32, we see that God freely gives us all things. (04:47):
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The basis of this promise, of course, isthat he has already given us his son, and by
paying the ultimate price for our salvation,he proves that he is willing to do all that
is necessary to freely gives us freely, notbegrudgingly, not based on our efforts, but
based on his ability and generosity.

(05:08):
Now, some other verses that come to mindwhen I talk about freely.
Matthew 10:8 says, "freely you havereceived, freely give." 1 Corinthians 2:12
says, "he freely gives us all things." Andeven James 1:5 it says generously, but "if
you lack wisdom, ask and he'll freely orgenerously give you the wisdom." So he's not
holding back. He's not saying "hey, if yoube a good boy, if you eat this cookie or

(05:28):
whatever, I'll give you some more." He'sjust ready to supply.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So we've talked last week about the situation there in Rome for these Christians. (05:32):
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What's Paul's purpose?
I don't know if we can crawl into the mindof Paul at this point in time, but what's his
purpose in talking about God's provision tothem at this time?

Mark Fields: I know. I think it's trying to remove the conditionality that we have in our mind, (05:45):
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starting with verse 1, which we'll talkabout later.
There's no condemnation.
There's nothing that's holding back God'sfull support and provision for you, and he
freely gives it to you.
And so when you realize that in the moment,in the pain, the persecution or whatever, and
I know their circumstances were very severe.

(06:06):
But if you can hang on to the fact, God,you're with me, for me, freely given to me,
everything I need for this moment.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. When it gives up that list, it's like, not death or life or principalities or (06:12):
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powers, you know, it's like it's goingthrough all these things that, you know, they
probably had this list in their mind islike, I'm being persecuted by the Roman
authorities and this person and I could die.
And it's like all of these things that are,wow.
But Paul's trying to come in and say, God'snever going to leave you despite anything

(06:32):
that may happen to you.

Mark Fields: And that's all they had to hang on to in those tough moments. (06:33):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. Okay. Great. (06:35):
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Mark Fields: All right. The next thing he provides for us is he justifies verse 33. (06:36):
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And we've covered that back in Romans 5.
But it merits repeating.
One amazing thing that God has done isdeclare us righteous.
And I can imagine again in the middle of apainful event, you may be thinking, well, the
enemy is certainly going to attack you.
This is your fault. This is becausesomething you've done and God's now
condemning you because of your righteousnessor whatever.

(06:59):
Um, but these are things we can never do forourselves.
We can't justify ourselves by anyaccomplishment or amount of good works.
So on the basis of Jesus's death,resurrection, and our decision to receive it
now, I'm completely righteous and worthy, Iguess is the right word to receive all that
God wants to fully provide for me.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. And I love how it focuses on God's love. (07:18):
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You know, obviously he's providing for youin those moments.
And and things may not work out in life.
There may be - you might die.
You might have principalities and powersthat overcome you or take you.
But God's love for you, I mean, in thatmoment, like his provision of his love and
his presence with you is incredible.
Like, you can't overstate that.

(07:39):
And obviously, that's what they needed tohear in those moments going through such
tribulation.

Mark Fields: Yeah. And nothing can take that away. (07:44):
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I mean, death is temporary, right?
And you're passing right into his presenceat the other side of that.
And you can't lose these.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. It's a very eternal perspective, as opposed to the momentary affliction that's (07:52):
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going on.

Mark Fields: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The last provision there is in verse 34 that Jesus intercedes. (07:57):
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He is right there with the father taking ourprayers, our needs, even what we don't name
to the father. And remember back in verse 27where it says, the Holy Spirit is interceding
for us. So how does that make you feel,Ross?
I mean, God's for us, the Holy Spirit andJesus are interceding for us.

(08:17):
That's the entire Trinity right there,actively working on our behalf.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. I mean, you think about times where you've gone through something difficult. (08:20):
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You know, I talked about Corie's accidentand being in the hospital.
You talked about your cancer.
And it's like sometimes you just don't knowhow to pray.
You don't know what to say.
You're, like you said, breathing in Jesus and breathing out help.
Like, sometimes it's all you can do.
And knowing that God is interceding for youand that he's for you and that he's fighting

(08:42):
with for you, that is, at the end of theday, the only thing you can rest on.

Mark Fields: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because sometimes we don't feel like he's providing and we feel (08:45):
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otherwise like he's not even there.
But this is true.
We can claim this and get our feelings outof the way or in spite of our feelings.
Say God, I claim this to be true, that youare here fighting for me and Jesus is
interceding for me. And that brings uscomfort.
That brings us hope.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. For sure. All right. (09:05):
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You said there were two categories.
So one was God's provision.
The next one.

Mark Fields: Is God's presence. (09:09):
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So to believe and walk confidently in thesetruths, we need to be assured that there is
nothing that can separate us from God,nothing that can create a distance between us
and God. So yeah, let's look at the list ofwhat can never separate us from God or the
love of God. All right, first of all, who'sagainst us?
No one by comparison.
So we don't have anyone getting in betweenme and God or anyone that can overcome or

(09:33):
overpower God.
Who condemns us?
Nobody and no one is our judge.
God does and he's already judged our sin onJesus, in Jesus on the cross.
So he doesn't condemn us.
He's not against us.
He has already judged our sin.
And who will separate us?
Now, let's look at that list.
"Who will separate us from the love of God?"No condition, no situation, tribulation or

(09:54):
distress or persecution or famine ornakedness or peril or sword.
And again, the Roman Christians, they facedthese tragedies.
It was very real to them.
And we don't necessarily go through these.
But you might.
But we go through similar difficulties - again cancer, car wreck, illness, house burn
down, lost job, financial difficulties.
We do go through these trials andtribulations.

(10:16):
Do we feel like God has left us in thosetimes?
Do we feel like at least he moved away alittle, maybe turned his back away in
disgust? Or he got distracted and he's overthere working on a war in another place in
the world. Sometimes we feel that separationbecause it's so painful and so difficult.

Ross O'Hair: So my question that would piggyback then is, you know, a lot of times our feelings do get (10:32):
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in the way, especially when we're goingthrough difficult things.
And I mean, that's a natural thing.
You know, humans feel things.
And when you're going through very painfulexperiences that can - I mean, that's a
natural reaction.
And I guess this goes back to a lot of whatwe've talked about in multiple times is how
do we put the feelings or not rely on thefeelings and rely on the truth when the

(10:57):
feelings are so real?

Mark Fields: I know, I know. (10:58):
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Again, that's the time where you have tolean into God's goodness and say, God, I
believe, but help my unbelief.
Or you look to his provision for even tohave the wherewithal, the courage, the
concentration. I don't know what you callthat word, but how do I lock in to what I
know is true even when I don't feel it?
And then may remain in that moment as he cannow start to change my attitude, change my

(11:23):
regard, relax me a little bit.
And so that I can find peace in him.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. That's great. (11:26):
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Mark Fields: Here's an analogy for that. (11:28):
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Suppose you're a four year old child in alarge room and you can't hear anything but
different strangers voices.
And what's your fear factor going like rightnow?
You're in a dark room. Well, let's say thelights are out to all the lights go out.
Then in the dark you hear a voice.
It's Mom or Dad's voice, someone next toyou, and they say, I'm right here.
Take my hand. Just hold my hand and I'llwalk with you to the door.

(11:50):
We'll get out of here until we find thelight.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. How do you feel now? (11:52):
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Yeah. Yeah. Much safer.
Yeah.

Mark Fields: And when we can listen to God's voice. (11:54):
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He said I'm right here.
I've got you. And I'll walk you throughthis.
I'm with you and I'm for you.
You've never left you.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. I think the biggest thing As you're telling me. (12:02):
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That example is.
I think what brings it out is we don't knowwhat the results of any situations are going
to be. And so I think there's that anxietyand fear that come from that.
And so again, you're going throughdifficulty and you don't know how it's going
to end because it could end in the worstcase scenario.
We don't know. We're not guaranteed anythingelse.

(12:23):
And so I think in that moment, it's - if wethink that our situation and it's working out
the way we want the pain to be gone is theonly way that God can show us his love, then
when it doesn't, we're going to be in a realtough spot.
Does that make sense?

Mark Fields: Yeah. (12:41):
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Ross O'Hair: As opposed to if our outlook is, hey, this is a really difficult situation, But the only (12:42):
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thing I am guaranteed is that I canexperience God here and now, regardless of
what happens, then maybe our perspectivechanges as to not necessarily outcome, but
our experience in that moment.

Mark Fields: Yeah, I've heard this question posed and I've used it with people sometimes. (13:00):
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What if God doesn't want to change yourcircumstance?
What if he wants to change you?
And then he that peace comes,

Ross O'Hair: Right (13:09):
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Mark Fields: Confidence (13:09):
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Ross O'Hair: Well, I think when maybe even when you hear change you, it's like, oh, he's doing (13:10):
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something to you. But I think what you'resaying is like, no, he wants to communicate
to you that he's here with you, that heloves you and that he wants in that moment to
experience life with you, even thedifficulty.

Mark Fields: Yeah. (13:23):
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Ross O'Hair: Regardless of the outcome. (13:23):
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Mark Fields: Yeah. Change your regard toward the situation. (13:24):
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Right?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, exactly. Okay, great. (13:27):
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Mark Fields: Yeah. Ross, another thing that's in play here is he says that not even principalities or (13:28):
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powers will separate us from the love ofGod.
And we know from a connection to Ephesians6:12, he's talking about the spiritual
forces.

Ross O'Hair: right (13:39):
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Mark Fields: So not even Satan or the enemy or his forces can separate us. (13:39):
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But we know that he's active.
We know that he's wearing us out with lies.
See, He's left you. There you go.
You did it again. You're all alone.

Ross O'Hair: right (13:51):
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Mark Fields: And so not even those voices and not even that presence can separate us from God's (13:51):
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love.

Ross O'Hair: Well, once again, he's like a roaring lion, crouching around, waiting for that moment (13:55):
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when you're in pain to try to convince youthat God's not good, that you know that he's
not trustworthy. So, yeah, I mean, there'sthat spiritual warfare that goes along with
this too, a lot. Yep.

Mark Fields: So my experience of realizing this truth and the power of it, again, is not in any big (14:08):
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tragic or difficult event.
It really gets me in the day-to-day, itty-bitty things.
The occasion that convinced me of thesetruths was in my own sin, or stubbornness, or
selfish behaviors, or sometimes even in justthe temptation of it.
And you could call this a failure on mypart.
And I hate to fail.

(14:29):
That's one of my biggest lies.
One of my biggest needs is I need to beeffective.
I need to be successful.
So I hate to fail, even in a mind consciousact of disobedience or stubbornness or
whatever. And now I'm my own worst critic.
So I've set a high standard of myself also.
So this is where the enemy wants to wear meout and really attack me.
And so when I used to sin or I would beatmyself up, not forgive myself, and feel like

(14:53):
God was a million miles away, or like dad,he would shake his head and just kind of turn
away a little bit like mhm mhm mhm.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. The disappointment. (14:59):
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Yeah.

Mark Fields: The disappointment. (15:01):
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Ross O'Hair: Right. (15:01):
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Mark Fields: And I hate to disappoint anybody especially God. (15:02):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (15:04):
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Mark Fields: Oh sometimes I feel this during the temptation. (15:05):
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I haven't even sinned yet.
But I felt like a failure for even being soweak to be tempted.
And that's another one of the enemy'stactics.
So I felt like God judged my weakness andmoved away and turned his back and
disappointment. Ah, but then I learned thetruth that God is right there with me in each
moment, even when or as I sinned.

(15:26):
And that changed everything.
I saw myself in this moment as a conqueror,able to learn, able to overcome, able to
receive his provision and be aware of hispresence.
And then I gained that confidence toovercome the temptation or work through the
failure that I just had, and recover quicklyand get right back into an awareness of his
presence in my life.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. I mean, that makes really a lot of sense practically, because, again, each of (15:46):
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those moments are real to every singleperson.
Everybody has temptations and failures, andwhether it's a critical spirit or an unkind
word, all of those situations are real tous.
And when we face them, it really does helpto know of God's provision and presence in
our lives as a means to overcome those, andto rely and depend on God in those moments.

(16:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think the other thing that really standsout to me here before we end is all of these
verses end with all of the list andeverything that we're talking about, all the
persecution, the justification that he talksabout how no, we can't be separated from
Christ is it comes down to that verse, is - nothing, no created thing will be able to

(16:33):
separate us from the love of God.
It's like he's he's concluding thisincredible chapter here with this finality of
trying to communicate to us that God's lovefor us is never ending, perfect, absolute,
and always pursuing us.
And I think that's just an amazing thing tokind of wrap up this chapter with.
I don't know. Do you have thoughts aboutthat?

Mark Fields: I don't know whether to call this poetic symmetry, but it starts in verse 1 with (16:54):
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"there is therefore now no condemnation."And we talked about that in the first episode
of there's no separation.
There's no sense of it. Now we end with thevery near closeness of God's presence, of how
nothing separates us. So, I think Paul andthe Holy Spirit, through Paul, has wanted to
hammer that into us.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (17:13):
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Mark Fields: He's always there with you. (17:14):
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He'll never leave you or forsake you.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So what's a major takeaway here for this last section? (17:16):
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And I guess for all of Romans 8, what wouldbe the major takeaway here?

Mark Fields: Well, God promises his continual provision and presence. (17:22):
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He's always for us, always giving to usfreely.
Jesus is always interceding for us.
God will never leave us or turn away fromus.
Nothing can come between us and God's love.
No person, no event, no sin can separate abeliever from God, and we can overcome our
fear and have the confidence tooverwhelmingly conquer any situation in our

(17:45):
lives. And this is possible all through thefinished work of Jesus Christ.
And Romans 8 has said over and over, and theHoly Spirit will be right there assuring you
of that, helping you believe thattransforming your life in that and
sanctifying you through that.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, that's the biggest thing. That's my takeaway from all this, that as I've listened (17:59):
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to you is, you know, I think the more weunderstand and rely on God's love for us, the
more that we will lean into him in thesedifficult times and we can't just muster up,
hey, I want to love God more today.
It's like God is also the one who'sconvincing us more and more that he's

(18:24):
lovable, that he's good, that he's for us,that he's with us.
And so a lot of times we can really rely on- be like, God, i mean, I'm not convinced
today of this. This situation is difficult.
Help me be convinced.
And that's his job. And I love that, becauseit takes the onus off of us to try to muster
up enough love or enough faith to crosswhatever battle we're facing as opposed to

(18:48):
hey, this is God's job to convince me and tobe here for me and to show me his love.

Mark Fields: And he freely goes above and beyond what's necessary. (18:51):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah, exactly. Well, Mark, thanks again. (18:54):
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I mean, six episodes for Romans 8.
I know there's a lot of work. I reallyappreciate it.
I learned a lot. I really do appreciate it.
So guys, thanks so much for listening.
This again is Romans 8 wrap-up here.
We're going to pick up Romans 12 next week.
Each of the staff is going to teach onesection of Romans 12.
And so I hope you guys are looking forwardto that.

(19:15):
We'll see you next week on the Living inJesus podcast.