"Making Nothing Out of Something" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 07.26.26

"Making Nothing Out of Something" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 07.26.26

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

The text this morning comes from Paul's letter to the Romans. I don't preach often from Romans. You see, my hunch about Paul's letter to the Romans is that Paul has been posed a theological problem. And here's the problem. If God made a covenantal promise to Abraham that all his descendants would be called the children of God, and God made that promise, and if we are to believe that God does not return back on his promises, and we believe that, what do you do with all that in the light of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ? In other words, in light of Christ, do we tell Sarah and Abraham, hey, great story, y'all guys. I mean, raising a kid at 102 years old, going through all that suffering to fulfill a promise. Wow. That's quite a story, but we don't need it anymore. Not in the light of Jesus Christ. Or do we say to Moses, Moses, thank you for wandering around in the wilderness for all your life, but that wall you carried, toss it out. Thanks for living your life, but now righteousness comes from Jesus Christ. We really didn't need your life at all. These are covenants, Paul. Does God go back on his promises? Yes or no, Paul. You see, Paul has a problem. And Romans is Paul's theological answer. And I suspect that's why I don't preach on Romans, because I dare not think that any of you got up this morning and thought, I wonder if God reneged on his promises to Israel. And if you did wake up thinking that, I've got a therapist that I can hook you up with, or a list of problems that are far more pressing. But oddly, Paul's problem isn't our problem, but oddly, Paul's answer is our answer. Our answer to a problem of making nothing out of something. Listen. From Romans 8, 26 through 39, hear the word of God. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words, and God who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not without him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charges against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long, we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced 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. And this is the word of the Lord.

unknown 4:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Now that was something, right? Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And most of the time, when it comes to nothing, we make it into something. For example, the other day I was walking my dog Bella, she's a golden retriever, which is a breed of animal that is insanely happy. I often read the headlines of the news to my dog, and she takes it all in with a smile. Joyfully ignorant. But as I was saying, I was walking Bella outside of our neighborhood and she squatted for a second. And at that very instant, a woman came out of nowhere walking across her lawn and said, I guess I'll pick that up. And I smiled and I chuckled because I didn't know what else to do. She said, I don't think that's funny. And I said, excuse me, but my dog didn't do what you think she did. She didn't do a do-do. She didn't, she didn't do a do-do. It just wasn't done. And I said, if it was done, I I would have picked it up. That's who I am. And she just scowled at me. And now I'm telling you about it. Because I'm not over it. Who does she think she is? I've offended her, and she's offended me. And now when I walk Bella by her house, I say, Bella, let's walk across the street lest we offend the wicked witch from the West. And Bella just looks at me. And she says to me, my dog, you are such an idiot. You're making nothing into something. Look, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad at it. My dog's right. I mean, if I die, I mean, when I die, I don't think at my funeral I'd like someone to say, today we remember Donovan and remember how he was accused of not doing the thing that he should have done, the doo-doo, because the dog didn't do? I don't want that brought up at my funeral because that's nothing. It's nothing in my highlight reel of my life. After all, I've ridden across Iowa two and a half times now. That's something. What about you? Have you got nothings that you've made into somethings? If you haven't done it yet today, you probably will. It could be as random as a car getting in front of you, cutting you off. It could be the sacrificing a friendship or family because of the politics of our day. It could be the biggest thing on your agenda right now, and in a month you'll look back at it and go, what was that all about? We are strange creatures. We get caught up into making nothings into something.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

And all our little nothings, we we we pray about it, we pray about it, we pray about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That's what my wife tells me to do when I'm at that interminable light out there. She calls it her prayer light. I've tried to make it into my prayer light. Dear God, I only have one life. Make this light turn green, please. And that's why Paul says the spirit helps us out in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought. That is to say, we often take nothings and make them into something. But the spirit intercedes with sighs, with groans too deep for words, taking our little nothings and making them into something, Lord Donovan needs some love. Donovan needs to find a bigger calling. You and I know that we spend way too much time making something out of nothing. But I think our greater offense is making nothing out of something. Really something. And we heard this morning something that's really something. Who will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? How about death or life or angels or rulers or things present, things to come, power, height, death, anything. No, nothing. Now that's something. We should all wake up in the morning with that on our minds and on our hearts and coursing through our lives. That apostle Paul, he must have been really something. Walking around the Mediterranean, seeing all the needs of the people. People who need, who need, who need a good word. People who need just a friend, people who need some love, people who need some grace, some forgiveness. And he starts with some great success, one church after another, after another, after another. What a gift to find community, to find love. And then he leaves. And then these congregations take this something and turn them into nothing, little nothings. And he has to write these letters, Paul does. And he gets into these little details. This little piddly stuff. Hey, will you stop trying to speak with special knowledge? And you two, will you just shut up and just start listening, please? And what have you done to the new members class? Circumcision? You can't be serious. What has gotten into you? And the church gets so small. And we have kept that smallness up. We do it well. We have taken noths, nothings, nothings, and made it our something. And it has almost wiped the church off the map. I gotta hand it to Paul. In his letters, he'll break out of all the small, piddly nothings, all the weeds, all the problems, and then he'll bust forth with something, with something amazing. He'll say something like Well he says it to that little church getting all confused in Corinthians. He'll say, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am what? Nothing. If I give all that I possess to the poor and sacrifice everything, but do not have love, I am what? Nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. It's really something. And for the church to have all this something that's really something and not use it, it would be like having a feast and keeping it away from a world that's starving. It's like having rivers of justice and keeping it away from people who are thirsty for it. It would be like having a key and holding it back from those who are locked up by fear or the past or their mistakes. Like having a raft and just watching people drown. Having your face be able to smile and not using it. Who would do that? We would. Her daughter got up to speak at her service. Listen to some of the words she said about her mom. They struck me as really something. Hear her words. Mom brimmed with joy. She savored every second. She gave more than she received. She gave of us her time, her total attention, her heart and joy. She made us laugh. She held us and cried with us. She played and never forgot how to play. She gave and gave and gave and gave and gave. She gave so many gifts, and the most precious of the gifts was her last to love and to be loved by her. She gave us her to take care of her, to watch and learn from her. In the last fourteen months of her life, it was her gift. She was a gift to behold. She swelled with gratitude for her precious husband, her growing family, her dearest friends, for every person on her medical team, for the joy of painting, all the kindred spirits it brought to her life. She celebrated every piece of good news, no matter whose news it was or how small it was. She cherished the beauty of each changing season of new life of her life, and in the face of uncertainty and fear, and in the face of hard news and harder news and the hardest news, her gratitude only grew. And her love only grew. Her love for us and ours for her and ours for one another. It grew and grew and grew and grew into a searing, soaring force that was undeniable, unshakable, eternal, divine. This is the gift she left us. This is the gift she left me. And it was the honor of my life to accept it. It is the honor of my life to have it now. To hold it, to carry it, to reveal the weight of it. And I promise I will.