Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video

2024-03-22 | Romans 8:28-32 | The Winning HandAt times, ideas you’ve never before considered breeze across your mind and suddenly the mundane becomes utterly profound. You fall deep inside the thought and realize you’ve been unwittingly slow playing your cards all along. Do you know what that means? That is when in a card game you are conscious of holding the winning hand and yet you represent yourself in all ways as if your cards are merely pedestrian. You are keenly aware you’ve won, but you want your opponents to believe otherwise so you can draw them in further, tempting them to commit a larger stake, all so you can win more of their chips. This play does not work well in matters of the Spirit. And that is because no one would slow play things of God intentionally; there is no upside in knowing you hold the winning hand and acting as if you’ve lost. If you did, you are guaranteed to lose, and so does everyone around you who needs to witness what winning with the Lord looks like!

One such matter of prominence in which you might have unintentionally slow played your hand is divulged when you unexpectedly realize that your cards hold the secrets of the universe, the words of the living God who created all things. For so long you’ve treated the Bible casually like any other app on your mobile device, or any other book in your collection of stories. Then your eyes suddenly open and you reconsider the nature of the “cards” you hold in your hands, and just how life-altering it would be if you actually played them. You couldn’t lose! No one would slow play these cards deliberately, if they truly comprehended the strength of their hand.

Another such region of darkness is exposed to the light when you live life, plodding along as if you are infected with some type of deficiency or lack—a losing hand. And then you abruptly experience the revelation that God would not leave you with any insufficiency—proven by one undeniable fact. The price He paid to make sure you had everything you need was the life of His only begotten Son. If He was willing to pay that much to ensure you have the winning hand, how on earth can you imagine under any condition that you don’t?