Don’t Miss Out on the Benefits!

Imagine you ate out at a certain restaurant and the following day mention your dining experience to a co-worker who asks, “What did you think of the dessert buffet?” You look at him quizzically and respond, “What dessert buffet? We didn’t have dessert.” He then looks at you with a pained expression and says, “You missed out! They have all sorts of cakes, pies, ice cream and the best part is, it’s included with the price of the dinner!” If that actually happened, you would be pretty let down, to say the least. You had every right to eat all kinds of fabulous sweet stuff, but you didn’t know it was part of the meal.

There are a lot of believers who have the same experience with Christianity. They have the idea that the only benefit which comes from believing in Christ is eternal life. And so they often go through this life with the attitude that they have to give up a lot of fun stuff they’d really like to do in order to not disqualify themselves for heaven. In other words, life as a Christian on this earth is a drag but that’s what Christians have to put up with.

This Sunday we’re going to be studying one of the most powerfully encouraging chapters in the Bible – Romans 8. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul describes with a contagious enthusiasm the benefits we have today, right now, as followers of Jesus Christ. You’ve heard people say, “You can’t have the best of both worlds.” That’s not true! With Christ, you can.