Kristi's Favorite Verse! Romans 8:32 - God Our Provider

Hi, Victorious Living family, I'm Christi Overton-Johnson and I'm your host of more Victorious Living and also the publisher of Victorious Living Magazine. I love coming on these videos and getting to catch up with you, share a little bit about my life, but also share the importance of God's Word and the lessons that I've learned over the years and am learning now. You know, a lot of times people ask me this question and I ask people a lot, especially when I'm interviewing for the magazine, I always ask, do you have a verse that really speaks volumes to you? And of course, there's so many, but is there one that really jumps off at you and that's really been one that you always go to? And I am going to settle in today and answer that question with Romans 8, and it's not necessarily a verse, but it's a whole chapter and it is one of my favorites. I almost changed right when I got ready to say Romans 8 to Proverbs 3, where it talks about trusting in the Lord, but this is the reason why I can trust the Lord. And it's a scripture, Romans 8 is a whole passage about God's love for us. We are posting a video, I don't know if it's already out yet or not, it'll be up soon if it's not, but on the love of God. In February is the love month, and so we're doing a video, our whole team is going to share about the love of God and what they've learned about the love of God and maybe some of the misconceived notions that they've had about the love of God over the years and we hope that you enjoy it. But I wanted to spend a little time because I only get like four or five minutes on that video and I always go over, I always get in trouble, but I said, hey, I get a little extra minute or two because I'm the founder and no one can say anything, but on these videos, I could go longer. And I wanted to revisit the topic of love and revisit just the goodness of God with you because it is something that we can never talk about enough. And so today I want to share with you my favorite verse and it's Romans 8, 32, since he is talking about God, did not spare his, even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?

Right there, that verse, it's simple, it's a question, it says, I keep wanting to go with God is for us, who could be against us, that's another one of my favorites. That's in 8, 31, but 8, 32 says, since he, talking about God, did not spare even his own son, that's talking about Jesus, but gave him up for us all, that's talking about John 3, 16, which a lot of people say that's their favorite verse, that God so loved us that he gave his one and only son that if we would believe in him, we will not perish, but have everlasting life. That's a great verse too. But this is summarized in that because it's saying that God didn't even spare his own son, but he gave his life, he gave him up for us all. So all means all, it means you, it means me, no matter what you've done, no matter what I've done, no matter what we've thought, no matter what we've seen, no matter what's been done to us, nothing can separate us from that love. And God loved us so much that he gave his son for all of us. And the Bible is so clear, it's not when we got it right did God go do that. He died for us before we were even born, knowing all the junk that we would do, all the things we would say that were wrong, all the judgments we would make against people, the dirty thoughts we would have, or the actions and the way we abuse our bodies or others. And God knew all that, yet he gave up his son's life and Jesus came and gave up his life willingly. You know, yesterday I was, I finished the last chosen episode. I don't know if y'all had the opportunity to watch those. I believe they're on the Pando app. They are phenomenal. And I just finished, I think it was season five, and the last episode is where Jesus is kissed by Judas, and it's this betrayal of a kiss. But moments before that scene is the scene where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives there. And I've had the opportunity to be there

and to sit for a minute and to look across at Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, which you go down, I believe it's the Kidron Valley, and then you see the city wall and the gates, and it's just, it's amazing. And I thought about Jesus there praying in the garden, knowing that any minute they were going to arrest him, knowing that any minute Judas was gonna come. Jesus knew what Judas was gonna do. He had already said at the Last Supper, he had already said, one of you here is gonna betray me. One of you here. And so he knew. He told Judas, go quickly, go do what you gotta do. Go do it. And so Jesus is there praying in the garden and he wasn't looking forward to the cross. And the scene in the Chosen just really showed the agony that Jesus was in going, you know, Lord, God, Father, if there's any way that this can pass from me, that I don't have to drink this cup, this cup of suffering. It's bitter. It's gonna hurt. Not just the physical pain, but he was getting ready to take on all of your sin, all of my sin. And God was actually gonna have to turn his face

because he can't look on sin. And so Jesus knew he was getting ready to take on all the sin of the world. Think about how bad, you know, if you've been walking with God long enough, or if you've got any type of conscience, when you do something, how bad you feel. Imagine every sin, every sinful thought, action, everything in your whole life is piled onto Jesus, as well as mine, as well as your roomies, roommates, or all the guys in the dorm or the ladies in the dorm, including all your children and spouses and partners or whoever, all at once of every living person that would ever be on the face of the earth. Imagine what he was feeling. And he was kneeling and he's like, I don't know if I can do this. Now, it doesn't say that in the Bible, but he does say, Father, if there's any way that you could make this cup pass from me so I don't have to drink this cup of suffering, would you do it? But not my will, but yours be done. My Father who art in heaven, he says, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so Jesus willingly gave up his rights. The Bible says he could have called 10,000 angels. He could have breathed on Judas, breathed on those soldiers,

the whole legion of soldiers, hundreds and hundreds, regiment, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of soldiers that were there with swords and shields and I don't know, knives. They didn't have guns, I don't think, back then. So they're there. He could have stopped it, but he didn't. God sent his son, gave up his son for all of us while we were yet sinners. So that verse right there sums all that up in Romans 8.32. And there's the questions. Since God gave up what was most precious to him, his son, he didn't even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not? This version says, won't he also give us everything else? Another version says, will he not give you what you need? So for me, this verse is talking about the goodness of God, the gift of God, the love of God, for God so loved all of us that he gave. He gave what was most precious so that we could have life. And if he did that, if he's already given up what is most precious, won't he give you everything else? How much easier everything else will be. Now, what is everything else? Well, it's everything else. I'm not trying to be smart, but I'm just saying, it's everything that you could ever need. He created the world. He created the world with us. Words. Let there be light. He still has a voice. He still has words. He still has

power. He can speak life into your situation. Do you need restoration in your mind? He can do it. The Word of God says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And in this Word of God, I see Him healing people with mental disease. I see Him healing people with injuries, with blindness, with being deaf, being lame, sick, having infirmities, being oppressed by the enemy. Do you need freedom from demonic oppression? Jesus is your answer. He gives us all things. Anything that we need. Anything that we need. Will God not give it to you? Yes, the answer is yes, He will. Whatever you need today, tomorrow, a hundred years from now, even though we won't be alive then, if you're watching this, ain't none of us gonna be alive a hundred years from now. God will give you whatever you need. And that leads me to another one of my favorites. I wasn't gonna do this, but it is Philippians 4, 6 through 8, where it says, God says, be anxious over nothing. And that, this is why I love Romans 8.32 so much, because it brings in some, so many of the other verses up. God's already made the ultimate sacrifice. Will He not give you everything else? Yes, He will. So we can do what Philippians 4, 6 through 8 says. And what that says is, don't be anxious over anything. Instead, tell God what you need. Talk to Him about everything. This is the Christi Overton Johnson version. The K-O-J-V, not the King James Version. Let me turn it to you. So let's see how much I can say by memory. I want to encourage y'all to memorize Scripture. So Philippians 4, 6 through 8 says, be anxious over nothing, but pray about everything. Tell God what you need. Give Him thanks for what He's done. Then the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Did I get it? Let's see. Don't worry about anything. This is a different version. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He's done. You get an A so far? Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything you can understand. Other versions say the peace that passes all understanding. Like you cannot understand it. His peace will guard your hearts and mind as you live in Christ Jesus. So the reason we can go do that is because we can trust that God's already given us what is most precious to Him. Therefore, I can trust that He's going to give me everything else. So I

can go to Him boldly before the throne of God, which is what Hebrews says, boldly before the throne of God, and I could tell Him what I need. It says, don't worry about anything. Pray about everything. Tell God what you need. What means the littlest, little, tiniest little thing that you can think of? You know, sometimes we don't want to go to God and ask for something because we feel like, one, we don't deserve it. Well, you're right. None of us deserve it. We also feel like we shouldn't bother God, that maybe He would not care about... He's too busy. I hear that. He's too busy. Can I just say that God knows the very hairs on the top of your head. He knows everything. He created you. Like a good father would care about the things his children care about. I care when my kids are hurting, when they're disappointed, when they didn't get the thing that maybe they should have gotten or the opportunity or they got hurt or they're, you know, they're frustrated. I want to jump in and I want to fix that and that's God. Like, He cares about everything and He says, He doesn't say in Philippians 4 to come and tell me the big things. He says everything. So we carry, you know, if you start holding on a bunch of little things, they start piling up and then you got a big, big bag of little rocks and little bag, a bag, big bag of little rocks is just as heavy as big rock and God wants you to put all of them over onto Him. Give them to him and then take your hands off and trust him. And then he says, so tell him what you need. If you need, like, Lord, I need, I need a relationship with my children. I need you to heal it. Not get my kids to talk to me, okay? There's a lot of layers there. It's, Lord, would you, here's what I need. I need my kids to know you. I need my kids to be responsive to the heart of God. I need them to be healed. I need me to be healed.

I need us, Lord, to have a restored relationship in you. See those layers? You're using the word, you're praying for healing, you're praying for people. Trust me, if people truly know the Lord, if your children, my children, if our spouses, it's our mothers and our fathers and our brothers and our peers, truly love God and know his love and experience it, and we find healing for ourselves, we will come into alignment, naturally, because the heart of God will be your heart and their heart, and it'll bring us like a magnet together. And so tell God what you need, but, you know, like Jesus, Jesus knew, God knew better than him. And in the scene in the chosen, when he's down on his knees, and I was expecting him to have the drops of blood that the scripture says come off his face and hit that rock. I think when he wiped his brow, I think there might've been some on the napkin, but, oh, I don't even know where I was going with that. Oh, what were we talking about? Oh, but he was saying to God, I trust you, Father, I trust you. And so that's what we're doing when we're thinking of Romans 8, 32, we're like, God, I trust that if you would give me what was most precious, that you're gonna meet this need.

I trust that you know better than I do, and you know what I need, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I trust that you can take care of my relationship, that you can take care, Lord, I need you to handle my case. I need you to work in the heart of the judge, Lord, to give me exactly what you desire, and I'm gonna trust that. Father, I need you to give me strength today to endure prison life. I need you to touch my body. Father, I hurt. God, I'm lonely. You see, you pray about everything. And then what happens when you, if you give him that, he gives you peace, peace. So what is it that you need today? According to Romans 8, 32, he will give you, he's already given you what's most precious to him. He will give you everything else that you need. Can he do it? This is when you say, yes, he can. There's a song that Phil Wickham sings. He goes, when I say God is good, you say all the time, when I say all the time, you say God is good, when I say God is good, you say, when I say all the time, you say, there you go, we just sang together. Yeah, so God is good all the time.

God is meeting your needs all the time. Here's one of my, another one of my favorites, according to his riches in Christ Jesus. I think that's in Philippians. Let me see if I can find it. I'm so, I should title this, not Christie's favorite verse, but Christie's favorite verses. Oh goodness. Where is that verse? I don't know. Here's another one of my favorite. He who began good work in you is gonna finish it. And that's Philippians 1, 6. That's a great one. I think 2.13 is a great one, if I'm not mistaken. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. So if you, what is that verse telling you? He doesn't just say, hey, I want you to do this. And then all of a sudden you decide, hey, I wanna be sober. I want to live a life where I'm not gonna recidivate and come back to prison. It says that he doesn't just give you the desire, he gives you the power. So you're not on your own. So here's what my encouragement is. I've shared a bunch of verses here. I was just gonna do the one.

But Romans 8 is a great one to read. But study the word of God and make it your word. Make his word your word, because there is power in this word. And when the enemy comes at you and says, God's not gonna listen to that. No, devil, yes he is, because God tells me to come boldly to his throne of grace, where I'm gonna find the help that I need. That's what it says in Hebrews, devil. And let me tell you this, he tells me to pray about everything. So he does care about this. And he's gonna give me his peace, so, and it's gonna guard my heart and mind, so you just go on with your bad self. Yes, he does, devil, care about this, because God is gonna give me whatever I need, because he's already given me what is most precious to him. So you gotta know the word to be able to go at the devil when he comes at you and stands your ground. And that is what Jesus did in the garden, not in the garden, in the wilderness. Remember the devil comes after him, he's just throwing scripture at him, because the devil knows some scripture, but he twists it. He twists, he started at the very beginning in Genesis, twisting what God said. And he was trying to do that with Jesus.

Hey, Jesus, throw yourself off this mountain. Doesn't it say that, God will catch you when he lets you stomp your toe against a stone and all this stuff. And hey, turn this stone into bread. Doesn't it say man should not live by, what did he say? I can't even remember. Anyway, sorry, y'all, I'm getting old. I turned 56 this month, February, yay. I'm just, my goal is just to love Jesus more every year and to look more like him every single year. I may get a little more wrinkles. Things might get, we just got back from the eye doctor and I've decided that God lets your eyesight go. So when you're looking in the mirror, you don't see all the things. So anyway, well, I hope that you've enjoyed this. I hope that you have a favorite verse and I wanna encourage you to share that with our team. Call our ministry line, 352-478-2098 and share with Mr. Pat, your favorite verse. But let me tell you this, Mr. Pat is one person and there's some, many people, not just some, but many who call and then they call three or four or five times a day. And as much as we would love to take your call three or four times a day, we just can't. I know some people in some places might get one call, some get unlimited on their tablets. Well, Mr. Pat, we don't have a call center yet.

I am believing that God's gonna give us a whole ministry team and line where people can take calls 24 seven. That is really a dream of mine because we know that there are moments when you need to talk to somebody and we want that to happen. But Mr. Pat, often he's on the phone with somebody and he can not only talk, but maybe five, 10 minutes, 15 at the, you know, if you really need that much. But we have to limit those to once a week. And otherwise he can't take the other calls from other people and he can't take our partner's calls who are also calling to make donations and support the ministry so that we can keep doing this. So just be, we do want you to call, but just be mindful of that. And if he doesn't answer the first time, do try back, but maybe not 20 in a row because it's distracting to him when he's trying to speak with somebody and it kind of interrupts the ministry. So just keep trying. And if he can answer, I promise that he will. It is, he is just loving speaking with you all, men, women, hearing your stories, hearing how good God is. And as he'll tell you, when we take those calls, we can't talk about your case. We can't reach out and call loved ones or send relayed messages.

That's not what the ministry line is. It's a true ministry line. It's there to minister to your heart, to be, give you fellowship, to encourage you with the word, to pray with you, to hear your request and also to hear your praises that you would have for the Lord and maybe answer prayer. So yeah, take advantage of that. Write to us. We have a Spanish team, an English team, and we're hoping to start getting these translated by a Spanish team here in Greenville, North Carolina from Gateway Church, and we're very excited about that so that you'll have the opportunity to, so tell your Spanish friends, your Hispanic friends, tell them to download Off the Pando there. and I'm not sure if it'll be on the other tablets, but the MP3 format of the Spanish version. So we're super excited about this opportunity. We're starting, we're trying to start adding some PDFs that have verses on there and little study guides on these videos. So we hope that these additions to our studies will benefit you and enrich your journey. We have some visits coming up in February. I'm going with J.C. Almanza to Perryville and I'll be at Central Arizona, at Central Prison. And I'll also be at a youth juvenile facility. I'm super excited about that. In March, we're gonna be in South,

near Houston, South Texas. We're trying to get into Estelle, is that right? Estes, Estelle, something like that. We're trying to go there and Spring Path and something that starts with a C. I don't know, if you're in that area, in Houston area in South, you know, that region, let us, let your chaplains know and have them call Mr. Pat because J.C. Sheridan and myself and Mr. Pat are gonna be out there in March and we're trying to set our schedule. So if we don't get you in March, we will come back, but we're really trying to expand in Texas. I'm looking forward to some North Carolina events. We're gonna be at Eastern, February 23rd. We've got May, end of May, around the 20th, 21st. I'm gonna be down in South Bay, I think. And I'm gonna go in some with Jack Brewer's foundation, excited about that. So listen, we've got a lot going on. We're hoping to return to Pennsylvania again and New Hampshire. Listen, we love you guys. And if there is an opportunity for us and some of our team members, I can't go everywhere, but we've got lots of team members that are ready to go and would love to visit your facility and visit the men and women who live there. So have your chaplain call Mr. Pat, 352-478-2098.

Don't forget to share these videos. Remember how much we love you. We do this for you. And I hope that you recognize that. Pray for us as a ministry. We have recently launched some local jail teams here in Greenville, North Carolina at the Pitt County Detention Center and are getting people trained also to go into prisons and just sought after some blue cards yesterday for our volunteers. So really trying to build a team, build a writing team on the outside. We need lots of donors on the outside. We just really, we just pray for us, pray for us that people would see the work, recognize the humanity behind bars, because God sees you and we want the world to see you too. And we want the world to support not just our ministry, but ministries like ours that are serious about going in and loving and holding, not holding your hand, I don't want to sound weird, but just, you know, we all need someone to walk with and also re-entry programs and things like that. We need people to know your needs. And that is one of the things we work diligently to do when we're out speaking about prison ministry and sharing our magazine. We're trying to bridge a gap between the incarcerated and those living in the free world

for them to recognize God's love for you and your gifts and your talents and the need for them to support outreaches so that you can live a victorious life and touch this world in a mighty way. And I know you can, because you're a champion. And I don't know if anybody's ever told you that, but you are, and you are worth everything. Remember Romans 8, 32, you are worth everything to God, even what was most precious to him, his very own son. And he loves you so much that whatever it is that you need, and only he truly knows what you need. So that's where you got to trust him. Trust his timing, trust his heart, trust his love. And let me close with a prayer. Father, I thank you for these beautiful men and women. I thank you for their love for you. I thank you that many today are just seeking and they have found this video. And God, I just am thankful that you are drawing them to yourself. I ask you, Lord, to help them to know you, to serve you, to make you known. Help them, Lord, to fall in love with you in a way that they never dreamed possible. Help them to know you. and understand the love of God, how deep and wide and long and high it is. And may they experience your power, your healing touch. Give them your peace that passes all understanding

as they share their heart with you and tell you what they need. And thank you for what you've done and what you will do. In Jesus' name, amen. We love you. We'll talk to you soon, bye-bye. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. Or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098. Or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.