"What Then Are We to Say? Jesus Intercedes for Us!"

SERMON SERIES:              “What Then Are We to Say?”
SERMON TITLE:                 “Jesus Intercedes for Us!”
SERMON TEXT:                  Romans 8:31-39
PREACHER:                         Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:                         February 9, 2020 (Boy Scout Sunday), at First UMC
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                What a week we’ve just been through.  If the political events weren’t enough to stress you out—one way or another—our congregation had two funerals, a life-threatening medical situation, and another hospitalization.  If you weren’t involved in those situations, how about this week’s wintery weather?  On Monday, the Utah State Highway Patrol investigated over 300 car accidents.  Then on Thursday morning, more snowfall meant extra work of shoveling, extra fear of slipping and falling, and maybe some self-imposed travel and activity restrictions.
                Our Troop #577 Boy Scout and Cub Scout families who are here today also know about extra stress.  No doubt, coming to this church service, which is outside your normal routine and above and beyond your usual duties, required some extra effort.  In addition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints officially stopped participating in the Boy Scout program at the end of 2019.  So, troops everywhere in Utah have been feeling the pinch of lost scouts and leaders over the past month or so. 
                One thing after another, life is full of challenges, isn’t it?  Life was like that back in Bible times too.  When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Rome during the first century, he talked about hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.  And, yet, Paul wrote, they didn’t have to be discouraged or overwhelmed.  In his great rhetorical style, Paul asked and answered the question, “What then are we to say about these things?”  Last Sunday we explored his first answer:  “God is for us!”  Today, I’d like us to consider his second answer:  “Jesus intercedes for us!”

Continue reading