The Triumphant Spirit of a True Christian

So I'd like you to turn to Romans in chapter 8. The gospel of God is the very first verse in Romans. Romans 1 1 says the gospel of God. Gospel means good news and the gospel is explained step-by-step-by-step all the way up to Romans 8. How it affects us in our life and then after that it speaks about the body of Christ concluding with Romans 16 20 which says the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.

I want to speak today about Romans 8 37 to 39. Which is the concluding part of the personal gospel. The rest is about the body of Christ and Satan being crushed.

But if you have really experienced the new covenant gospel and I want to tell you something the vast majority of born again believers that I have met have not experienced it. I would say 90% have not experienced it. They are born again, their sins are forgiven but they do not experience Romans 8. They do not experience Romans 6 14 either.

But if you really experienced it, this will be your constant song of triumph in all these things. What are these things? Verse 35 tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. Sword means being your head being chopped off or injured.

Now if you look through that list, I don't know that any of us have experienced any of those things. Maybe a little distress but tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. But he says we are killed or put to death all day long.

A sheep to be slaughtered. That's how the early Christians faced. You know we have little ant bites.

I call them ant bites and we think oh we are suffering so much. Pray for me I'm suffering so much. Garbage compared to what these early Christians went through.

We need to stop feeling so sorry for ourselves and get everybody else to feel sorry for us. It's not a Christian way. In all these things these people said they were being put to death all day long and like sheep to be slaughtered.

This is how the early Christians lived for 300 years and these are our brothers and sisters. They are rejoicing in heaven today. So Paul says and we should be able to say these also.

In all these things we don't just conquer we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ who loved us. Our foundation is only one thing that I have a God in heaven who loves me immensely more than anyone on earth and he proved that love not just in words but by sending his son to die for us and to go to hell for us. Three hours on the cross Jesus experienced hell.

Why have you forsaken me? There's only one place in the universe where God forsakes people that is hell and you know when Jesus spoke about hell he said there was a rich man he called it a place of torment. He said can you get me a drop of water? That's why when Jesus finally at the end of three hours you know what Jesus said? I thirst. Why did he say that? Because he was experiencing the fires of hell for three hours just like the rich man in hell said I'm thirsty.

Jesus said at the end of the cross I'm thirsty. That is another proof that what he experienced on the cross was hell. So if you want to understand the love of Christ for you understand that he spent three hours in hell and because of this we overwhelmingly conquer.

The wonderful thing that happened on the cross was Satan was defeated thoroughly. I'm convinced verse 38 that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any creative thing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. My dear brothers and sisters if you cannot say those three verses every day of your life I want to say to you lovingly you're coming short of God's standard.

I'm not trying to get anybody under condemnation. I just want to say some of you should have been in the 10th grade by now you're sitting in the kindergarten or second grade. I'm just trying to challenge you don't sit so long in the kindergarten that's all I'm saying.

Move on that's exactly what you would say to your child if he or she was sitting in the kindergarten for 10 years. We should in each grade we should be one year. Move on move on.

Some of us have been believers for a long long time. Dear I want to invite you to this life. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit say Lord I don't want anything of earth to pull me down.

I want to be a totally devoted child of God and I tell you it will make your life different it make your home life different and I can say that my home life is a foretaste of heaven already. It'll be like that for you. Our children will grow up in the fear of God every one of them.

All your children will be saved and will grow up in the fear of God and be useful to the Lord. That is God's will for us. It doesn't mean we won't have as long as we live on this earth we have to suffer sickness and pains in our body.

The Apostle Paul himself had a sickness which he tried desperately to get out he he called it he said the devil gave it to him and he prayed and prayed and the Lord said no you that thorn in the flesh that he had the Lord never took it away he said because Paul I'm using you so much I've got to keep you humble otherwise you'll be puffed up. I want to tell you what you should really be afraid of not the devil definitely not he was defeated on the cross not death because death was conquered by Jesus Christ. I'll tell you what you should be afraid of.

Pride more than anything else and the sad thing is most believers are more afraid of the devil and of death and earthly sufferings and financial shortage more than pride. You know the first sin in the universe was pride it was not financial shortage it was not sickness it was pride and I believe it was pride that made Eve think that she knew more than God to go and reach out and take that tree of knowledge when God had said don't do it. Anything I do when God says don't do it don't lust after women and I do it it's pride absolute pride which causes you to lust with your eyes when you lose your temper and you don't seek to control it pride is the cause of it if you God Jesus came to lay the axe to the root of the trees and then the tree will stop producing fruit the fruit of sin will not come when the root of pride is cut that's why Jesus said you know he never told us to learn how to preach from him he never told us how to learn how to sing Jesus also sings we read in Hebrews 2 that he's the song leader in the church and just before he went to the cross he sang a hymn it says in the Gospels but the one thing Jesus told us to learn from him Matthew 11 29 learn from me for I am humble how many of you have come to Jesus and said Lord teach me humility he is the professor of humility we go to the internet many of us to learn so many things let me invite you who are so clever and so many other things to come to Jesus to learn humility learn from me think if you had to do some course which is essential those otherwise you lose your job they see you've got to go through this course for the next three months otherwise you lose your job how hard and strongly and efficiently we will study I want to invite you to seek to learn humility with greater earnestness than that because God's grace will come upon you then and it'll rain upon you and grace is the most powerful force in the universe I want it it will save me from the most dreadful thing of all sin so it says here also that none of these things can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and I thought of that this morning because many of you know my closest co-worker Ian Robson CFC started 50 nearly 50 years ago 49 years ago 49 years in one month almost in my home when just the two of us families came together because we were thrown out by the Baptist Church for preaching the baptism in the Holy Spirit that's how CFC started and when we started meeting we were just two of us to his families well early this morning the Lord took Ian Robson home to himself about seven hours ago but he went home triumphantly he was in great pain he was sick for a number of months and I was frequently in touch with him on video and praying and talking and it was very cheerful but he was in whenever he was in pain here to rest and he had a wonderful family that took care of him right up to the very end and then early this morning our time it is Sunday afternoon in India very quietly the Lord called him home but whenever I spoke to him twice I told him a couple of days ago I said Ian when you meet Jesus tell him this that I'm very thankful that he Jesus allowed Ian to be my co-worker for 50 years please tell him that and I believe Ian has already told him that so I'm very happy that he's told him that and he's rejoicing with him and I'm he's I'm sure he's met his wife who went to be with the Lord couple of years ago so I want to tell you a little bit about how Ian and I work together we were both very very poor we were extremely poor in the church started with very poor people almost everybody came by bus or by bicycle to the meeting Ian Robson himself would ride a bicycle and come to the meeting we couldn't afford anything because I was in the Navy I had a scooter two-wheel scooter which I rode for 40 42 years in India oh we couldn't afford anything else but we were happy and we struggled along financially but spiritually rejoicing on top of the world and God slowly added and for six years we met in our home and we were despised by others a lot of people despised us for preaching the baptism in the Holy Spirit and many others spread false rumors about us they they would publish tracks saying the head of the serpent was in my house the devil's throne was there and all types of thing we get the Lord told us keep quiet so that's how our work began and we rejoiced today when we see the work having spread through so many countries with so many churches and more than two three hundred elders that we have appointed to lead all these churches and the wonderful thing about all these two three hundred leaders of our churches is that not one of them receives a salary from day one neither Ian Robson nor me we decided to serve the Lord with whatever little we had and struggled along and we would not receive a salary not only that in all our more than 100 churches we never taken an offering for 50 years 50 years we never passed a bag around just like here we we saw in the Bible that Jesus sat next to an offering box where a widow came and put two coins and so we said we'll keep an offering box because Jesus is sanctioned that that's why in every church of us we have an offering box and also it's not very prominent you don't keep it up in the front door we keep front table we keep them some corner and the Lord has provided our need we don't have any sponsors but we have helped thousands of people who are in need widows orphans educating children in college and their parents can't afford it because our church leaders don't take a salary so the offerings that people put we have some wealthy people in our churches by Indian standards and all the offerings go to help the poor exactly like Jesus did so I want to say that it's been a testimony in India that those who despised us 50 years ago now see that God has done a work I say that to your encouragement when you start the Christian life don't worry if people misunderstand you your relatives of course my relatives and Annie's relatives Annie's relatives and all despised us so much they turned away from us and have been against us for many many years but Jesus said that also in his own house nobody believed in him so don't weep for yourself if your relatives turn against you just rejoice and leap for joy like Jesus said but the one thing I wanted to mention to you about you and you know some people called me today and said I hope you overcome your grief I said I don't have any grief to tell you honestly I'm rejoicing in the Lord as to where my brother is it's I had grief when he was in suffering pain and the tears I shed were not today but in the previous days when I was talking to him and he was groaning in pain many times in great pain that he had to take you know intravenous injections to overcome that pain so he was in a lot of pain the past few days and that that was the time I really felt sad and sorry for him but not today I'm rejoicing because it's he's in the presence of the Lord and what I want to say is a little bit about our work together we have first of all I want to we have worked together for 50 years nearly including the one year that we were in the Baptist Church it is 50 years more than 50 years he and I have worked together and here's what I want to tell you in all these 50 years we have never broken fellowship for a single day and I say that in the presence of Jesus who's here in our midst today the Lord Jesus knows that not for a single day and that's not because he just blindly submitted to me he would sometimes say brother Zach I don't agree with you there I said fine let's pray about it and talk about it and sometimes I would say okay and we'll do it your way sometimes he said Zach I think we'll do it your way I'm saying we work together not zombies he was not a zombie far from it but his different his ministry was very different from mine his personality was very different he belonged to a community called the Anglo Indians that means their ancestry somebody came from England there you know many people came from England to India because they ruled India so in Yin's ancestry one of his maybe grandfather or something was an Englishman and probably married an Indian and that's how they are called Anglo Indians and the interesting thing is we have number of Anglo Indians in India there are hundreds and thousands of them I come from a part of India called Kerala and in my knowledge I do not know in my entire life of an Anglo Indian and a person from Kerala working together in in peace in any church in the whole country we are completely different just like the Jews and the Gentiles you know how the Jews would get up in the morning and say I thank God I'm not a slave and I thank God I'm not a Gentile that was their attitude and the difference between Anglo Indians and the people from Kerala from where I come from is exactly like that many communities on earth are like that so much against each other they never work together they mind their own business and isn't it interesting that God took two of us from two completely communities that don't get along in the country and put us together to lead this church and to work together for 50 years and live in perfect peace to demonstrate the power of the gospel that not only forgives our sin but makes two people one and that has been a demonstration to others in our churches how unity is as important as forgiveness of sins that's why we used to have so many family meetings in our churches because we felt unity between husband and wife is another thing that's constantly being attacked by the devil everywhere and as we approach the end the attack on families is much more I tell you many of you probably have experienced it some way a subtle way the devil tries to come between you and your wife between you and your husband with a little misunderstanding some stupid silly thing that's worth nothing the devil magnifies it makes it big in your eyes and a distance comes between you and your partner how the devil makes fools of people who call themselves believers absolutely amazing I want to encourage you to turn around from that and say Lord I want to believe there's a better life possible and always the problem is that we blame the other partner I'm trying to do my best but she is not or he is not that is the height of conceit if the only person who could have said that is God I try to do my best but these human beings are so unresponsive if he said that that would have been correct but for you or me as a human being to say that about another human being that is the height of arrogance it is to put ourselves in the place of God to tell your wife or husband you don't understand me that's why you cause these problems you think only unbelievers talk like that it's not just words sometimes you can keep a distance from your wife or husband by a certain mood there was certain refusal to talk imagine if God treated you like that think of those stupid things we have done in our Christian life and think if one day I turn to the Lord and God says no I'm going to talk to you where would you and I be follow the example of Jesus treat others the way God has treated you so as I said Ian and I have been very different personalities when God called us together to God called him out of his job he was in the Indian Railways and I was in the Indian Navy and we didn't know each other till about a one year before we came together he brought us together and in Acts 13 we read about the first two people whom the Lord called to demonstrate that unity in ministry there were others who who were called by Jesus himself you know after the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit before the day of Pentecost you know at the Lord's table they were always arguing who's the greatest and everybody said everybody said all after listening to Jesus saying learn from me for I am humble and gentle they still were arguing who's the greatest everybody thought I'm the greatest and then the Holy Spirit came in baptized them in this fire of God and what is then that's in Acts chapter 2 and there was this powerful message anointed message where 15-minute message 3,000 Jews were converted I mean to convert one Jew itself is a miracle imagine 3,000 Jews getting converted there's a baptism in the Holy Spirit the anointing of the Holy Spirit it makes a tremendous difference that's what made Peter powerful and anointed and as someone has said they were it says here Peter stood up with the 11 in Acts chapter 2 that's how it should be the Acts 2 14 Peter took his stand with the 11 that means the other 11 said hey this is our spokesman we are not in competition with him everybody tried to push the other person forward and say we'll put Peter forward imagine you have a church where everybody's willing to stand back and push the other person forward I don't want any prominence let Peter have the prominence amazing and then when that chapter is over you see this unity there in Acts 3 1 I don't know you've noticed it Peter and John were going up to the temple now Peter and John were both fishermen but they were in two rival camps Peter was in his fishing in the same lake but not for the same team John had his team and with his father Peter had his team with his brothers but once they are baptized in the Holy Spirit is all that all all those earthly differences disappeared and the first thing you read is Peter and John that's the unity and then the time came to reach out to the rest of humanity this was only among the Jews and that we see in Acts 13 the first missionary journey that in the top of my NASB it says you're the first missionary journey this is the beginning of outreach to the rest of the world and it says here the Lord said to those people when they were fasting verse 2 while they were praying to the Lord worshipping the Lord ministering means worshipping the Lord and fasting fasting is a very important part of what Jesus taught the Apostles practiced and in the early days of our church in Bangalore we regularly fasted and prayed many people were baptized in the Holy Spirit in times of fasting and prayer but sometimes we had a national holiday and we never thought of going for a picnic we didn't have the money first of all thank God so we would meet together in my house nine o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon we'd fast and pray particularly that everyone would be filled with the Holy Spirit and we had wonderful times of prayer that brought us unity and many were filled with the Holy Spirit as well so here also they were worshipping the Lord and fasting you see how fasting comes every now and then in the New Testament in the Gospels and the Acts and while they were fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them this is the way God called us also Ian Robson and I also used to fast and pray numerous times for about six months prior to our being thrown out by the Baptist Church they were thrown out by the Jews and we were thrown out by the Baptist Church that's how they came together and that's how we came together but I remember those days when we fasted and prayed and said Lord we want you to meet with us because we are desperately needy he was a defeated Christian and I was a defeated Christian and we wanted to seek the Lord for victory because it was a dishonor to the Lord when a person calls himself a Christian and he's defeated in his life when his family life is in the same quality of life that the average non-christian has what if what gospel do you have to give to them so that's why we fasted and prayed and the Lord saw we were earnest and it went on for six months before the Lord met with both of us in a wonderful way and our whole life was transformed and then I believe as I look at Barnabas's temperament and Ian Robson's temperament and Paul's temperament and my temperament we saw that Barnabas and Paul were completely different in their temperament and those are the people God brought together I'll tell you what Barnabas was like that was not his name by the way I hope all of you know that this is not his name you read in Acts chapter 4 his name was actually Joseph Barnabas you read about Acts chapter 4 he came from a place called Cyprus an island called Cyprus and that is the place where we first went for their missionary journey also Acts 4 36 Joseph who was a Levite of Cyprian birth he was from Cyprus the Apostles he was called Barnabas because the Apostles changed his name Barnabas means bar in Hebrew means son bar nabas means of encouragement so bar nabas means the son of encouragement Acts 4 39 why in the world would the Apostles change somebody's name because they saw this man when he was filled with the Holy Spirit he would just go around encouraging people everywhere it's amazing to have that ministry and you know when Paul was console of Tarsus was converted on the Damascus Road and came and joined the Christians all the Christians say this guy's a spy he's a spy of the chief priests don't welcome him they kept him at a distance you know who went to call him Barnabas son of encouragement he went and welcomed Paul and say I trust you Paul and introduced him to the others and that's how Paul got welcomed into the church so that is a unique ministry Barnabas had and that was so necessary you know through the Christian life there's so much of opposition and problems we face in our life in our workplace in our home that we need many people many Barnabas's sons of encouragement those who have the ability to encourage people I'm sure all of you will acknowledge that you need encouragement you probably feel probably you face problems in your work sometimes you're married to someone who's not a wholehearted Christian or you live in a place or you work in a place where they're opposed to Christians we need encouragement there's nobody who doesn't need it every one of us needs encouragement I'll show you the verse that says that in Hebrews in chapter 3 don't think you're a weak person when you acknowledge that you need encouragement every one of us needs it Hebrews 3 verse 13 Hebrews 3 13 he says first of all verse 12 brothers take care Hebrews 3 12 it's possible that some of you can develop an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the Living God when you say evil you think of a man who's committing sin no the evil here is unbelief and evil unbelieving it's one word evil unbelieving heart that means the unbelief is the evil there and some pressure can come upon his person's life and he begins to lose faith is there a God in heaven I've been praying for so long for my child to be healed and it didn't get healed it died and that's the only child I have can you imagine of what a believer faces when they face something like that or especially when we pray for something for our children and nothing happens and we pray and pray and pray and pray and say Jesus cares for us and all that but nothing seems to happen then unbelief can come in little doubt a little distance from God you know you keep a distance as if you're trying to tell God if you don't answer me well I'm not going to be so close to you take care brethren that that unbelieving heart can make you fall away one day from the Living God therefore what's the solution verse 13 encourage one another how often every single day what a word that we need encouragement every single day so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin now you may say well I'm not falling away don't be satisfied dear brother sister let me speak very plainly if you are satisfied with not falling away you're like a kindergarten student who says I'm still in the kindergarten after 20 years but I've not failed I'm getting a hundred percent in math I'm getting a hundred percent in English I know I mean in the kindergarten for 20 years but I get a hundred percent every subject every year are you going to be happy with your child who's in the kindergarten every year and getting hundred percent hundred percent hundred percent you can boast my child's getting hundred percent which class is he kindergarten how long has he been there only 20 years that's how so many believers are the Christian life is a battle take heed that you don't fall away from the Living God so what's the solution encourage one another if you look back at our life many of us been very quick to correct to correct your husband to correct your wife to correct your children correct children needed I want to ask you how when was the last time you encouraged your child corrected if I ask you I'm sure all of you can tell me when you corrected your child when was the last time you encouraged your son or daughter I appreciated what they did praise them for something good when was the last time you encouraged your husband or wife not just in words but in some way here it says you got to do it daily well Barnabas was like that it had become part of his nature filled with the Holy Spirit not to be a great preacher Barnabas was not a great preacher but he was an encourager and Ian Robson was exactly like that everybody in CFC Bangalore will say he has spent hours and hours and hours counseling people individually when they're in need different people there would have been no CFC without him but Paul was very different I'm sure Paul also encouraged people you read some of his letters you find there is a lot of encouragement in Paul's letters but there's some very strong correction in Paul's letters too very strong sometimes you read it's his rebukes and here's one example they decided when they united to go to Barnabas's hometown for their ministry so they sailed it says they both sent out by the Holy Spirit Acts 13 verse 4 and they came to they sailed for Cyprus it says in verse 4 sent by the Holy Spirit they sailed to Cyprus that's Barnabas's hometown and when they came there they found verse 6 a magician called Bar Jesus verse 6 and there was a pro-council the leader of that governor of that place this man summoned Barnabas and Saul and Elimas the magician was opposing the pro-council from the faith trying to turn him away no no I don't believe these guys are preaching some strange doctrine and look what Saul does he turns to this man and says look at his language filled with the spirit he says you full of all deceit and fraud you son of the devil you enemy of righteousness will you never stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord now the Lord is going to smite you and you'll become blind for a time and immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand the result was the pro-council verse 12 believed do you think Barnabas would have done that if Barnabas had gone to this magician he did put his arm around him and say hey brother he's not his brother but he called me let me have a chat with you you know let's let's be a little mild about all this I mean let Paul speak nothing would have happened the pro-council would not have believed so you see how there was a need for that word of rebuke which solved the problem there in the church we need Barnabas's and Paul's that's the balance now I'll tell you why I say that because the church is a place where the glory of God has to be seen the same glory that was in Jesus the glory of Jesus is described in John 1 14 whenever you read the glory of God the glory of God in the Old Testament it was just a bright light and for many many years I used to think of the phrase the glory of God oh I want to see the glory of God a bright light I never seen one till I discovered that was Old Testament in the new covenant the glory of God is seen in people in Jesus where John 1 14 full of grace and truth where there's a beautiful combination of grace and truth is the glory of God so in Barnabas was the grace and Paul was the truth combined together was the glory of God that's how Jesus manifested it throughout his life you know for example here's the great one of the greatest examples of grace that Jesus manifested he would put his arm I believe he put his arm around many people lepers and blind people he would go out of his way led by the Holy Spirit to some place where some blind man was sitting or where there were lepers and he would heal them and he was always like that and the classic example is when they the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to him he said this woman was caught in adultery and the law says she must be stoned actually the law says you must bring both the man and the woman both must be stoned but they didn't bring the man probably that because the man was a friend of theirs they say we let him go but Jesus did not argue about that where's the man 1500 years before that day when the Pharisees brought the woman 1500 years before that day Jesus from heaven had spoken to Moses and said write down my law a man and woman who committed adultery must be stoned to death who gave that law Jesus from heaven now that Jesus is here on earth confronted with the same law that he gave 1500 years earlier is he going to keep the Word of God he says yes he was without sin throw the first stone everybody left except one person there was still one person standing there Jesus without sin and the first command was stone them to death the second command is the one who is without sin throw the stone and Jesus disobeyed his own command he did not stone her there's a verse in James 2 13 which says mercy triumphs over judgment this is the Jesus we worship he's not eager to stone us to death he's eager to save us and sometime when you think you deserve to be stoned to death remember that incident where the command says stone him to death and Jesus says no he says has no one condemned you the woman says no one and Jesus I don't condemn you either I hope you hear that word in your heart also I do not condemn you whenever you feel condemned go to that story in John 8 and hear the words of Jesus I do not condemn you I felt times like that in my life where I said Lord I failed you so badly and I hear Jesus saying I don't condemn you that has taught me to have the same attitude to other people but the same Jesus who would not stone this woman and who went out of his way to heal lepers and blind people and put his arms around them with that same arm he once took a whip and chased those who were making money out of the temple see John chapter 2 verse 14 Jesus found in the temple people selling oxen and sheep they were meant for sacrifice they were they were not selling them for to make a profit there for themselves they were saying these people need oxen and sheep to be sacrificed and we'll supply it here they don't have to go to the marketplace and get it we'll supply it in the temple itself of course we got to make our profit that's another thing and you have to pay more than in the marketplace because you got to go all the way to the marketplace and buy it and but if you want to get it here it's a little expensive but you got to pay for that and so many poor people were buying because they came from all over Israel to Jerusalem and they had to pay whatever the Pharisees charged for these items and they were making so much money the money changers are sitting with all that money on their tables and Jesus listen to this verse 15 he made a scourge of cords he didn't there was no rope available so he tells his disciples go and get some small bits of rope from here and there and then it took some time can you see this picture of the disciples going and buying little bits of rope wondering what they wanted for him Jesus takes he says these things are not strong enough and he sits there I pictures in my mind Jesus sitting at that temple and twisting it all and it says he made a scourge of cords have you ever thought of when you read the Bible do you use your imagination Jesus sitting there and taking all these little ropes that the disciple brought and twisting it all twisting and really strong rope and the disciples are wondering what in the world is he doing with this and remember this is the beginning of his ministry the previous thing is the marriage in Cana and this is immediately after the marriage in Cana right at the beginning of his ministry and it says he drove them all out of the temple I don't believe he whipped any man but he whipped all the sheep and opened the cages for all the doves and all to fly away and and the tables of the money changers he overturned their tables it says in verse 15 with all the money running I'm sure the children had a big laugh and were excited to see all this and said stop making my father's house a place of business verse 16 that is the other aspect of Jesus ministry one is the comforting aspect represented by Barnabas and the other is this the aspect of truth represented by Paul and John 1 14 says grace and truth manifest to the glory and in the Christian Church there's always been a need for grace and truth for the ministry of Barnabas and Paul and we don't claim to have been that same category as Barnabas and Paul but that was the temperament that Ian Robson and I had he was like Barnabas an encourager and I was like Paul ruthless and I wouldn't spare anyone but we work together and I'm very thankful that I had a co-worker all these years to balance me and he had a co-worker to balance him if either of us worked on our own CFC would have been destroyed long ago not because we lived in sin but because we would act according to our temperament why has God put you husband and wife together who are different so that there'll be a balanced development of your children at home learn to value one another Ian and I learned to value one another times sometimes he submitted to me and sometimes I submitted to him and that's how we moved forward and I'm very thankful that God brought him to be my co-worker it was not my choice it was God's choice and I'm very thankful that he could endure till the end and for 50 years and though he died with a lot of pain and I wept at that time but now when I heard this morning that he's gone to be with the Lord I'll tell you honestly I spoke to his children and I said I'm rejoicing and they're rejoicing too because they were so relieved that he's free from his suffering and he's gone to be with Jesus and he has thanked Jesus I believe for making me his co-worker with him praise the Lord for God's goodness I want you to pray for that family there will naturally be a certain amount of grief we can't avoid it when a loved one departs but it's a grief accompanied with triumphant like we read in that verse just now thanks be to God who makes us more than conquerors in every situation and and let me just show you this in closing did you notice what it says in Romans 8 I read through it quickly when it says here I am convinced verse 38 none nothing can separate us from the love of Christ what is the first thing mentioned Romans 8 38 death I am convinced that death cannot separate me verse 39 from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and I can certainly say that and that's though he's been my co-worker for 50 years and being very very close I can honestly say I rejoice in the Lord that he's rejoicing in the Lord's presence today that's the power of the gospel