God's Master Plan: Our Real Best Life Now...

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While I was looking at this passage that we're going to look at tonight, which is very common, most of us know it,
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I was reading an article, and I want to share it with you now, and it just affected me, and I thought it directly related.
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It's very short. It tells the story of a man who grew up, I don't even know what country it is, but he grew up in a
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Muslim country, and he pretty much learned from, I don't know, five years old to live the
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Muslim religion, kill Christians, kill anything that's not a Muslim. And I just want to read this quick excerpt from that.
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His name is al -Damazi, and he became an expert at witnessing to Muslims about Christ.
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This was much later on when he became a believer. He also became a persecuted man. He is still persecuted to this day, 30 years after beginning his ministry.
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On February 9, 2004, a mob of 2 ,000 Muslims surrounded his home. They began throwing stones at the iron gates, guarding the home's entrance.
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They showered the home with rocks and smashed all the windows. When al -Damazi ran out to lock the gate, they screamed, kill him, even flies in this house should not go alive.
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Al -Damazi's downstairs neighbor walked outside the gate to restore peace, and they struck him with a machete, killing him.
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The man's wife shouted and ran to her husband. They caught her and killed her, too. Then they put the two bodies on a pile of tires, doused them with fuel, burning them both.
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Al -Damazi's, this is the part that I can hardly read it. Al -Damazi's children screamed, daddy, daddy, see what they're doing.
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This is what they do, he told them. Our turn is coming, so just be prepared for the worst.
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Al -Damazi's wife motioned to their children and whispered to them, if they're killing you, hold your
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Bibles like this, around your chest. You know it's difficult for you to claim Jesus as they're beating you.
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When they're killing you, just hold your Bible, that's a sign that you're telling them we have never changed.
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Then someone shouted, they've gone out the back, and then basically what happened is they ran out the back, and these guys actually jumped in their car and made it out the gate, so they actually escaped.
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Then three years later, 2007, Al -Damazi's oldest son was attending classes at his university when three
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Muslim men armed with machetes approached him. They called out his name. We have not come to rob you, they said.
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We have come to kill you because you are your father's son. The men killed him, and I won't say how.
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Then it goes on, Al -Damazi continues to minister to Muslims. I think to myself, wow,
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I mean that is incredible, and that's just one story among thousands that are going on in other parts of the world.
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When we were going through problems maybe two years ago, a lot of you here are familiar. We were kind of at a low point, out of work.
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At one point we were on food stamps. At one point I was working some, it was kind of almost like a stock boy kind of job, and this was after I flew planes for the
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Air Force for nine years. So a very humbling experience, and then so we've got no money left.
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We're living in a basement. Then we get a phone call two days before Christmas saying, oh, by the way, the house that you've been trying to sell for three years has flooded, 100 ,000 in damage, 3 ,000 miles away.
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And I remember people asking me, and certainly a lot of unbelievers, how do you get up in the morning?
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How can you, I don't think I could get out of bed in your situation. And I think to myself, the better question is how does somebody like this guy, this
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Al -Damazi guy get out of bed in the morning? How do missionaries, really soon -to -be martyrs like this guy, how do they continue to serve
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God under those kinds of circumstances? And my answer comes in our verse tonight.
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MacArthur says of Romans 8 .28, For Christians this verse contains perhaps the most glorious promise in Scripture.
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It is breathtaking in its magnitude, encompassing absolutely everything that pertains to a believer's life.
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This is precisely the reason I chose to preach on such a common verse. Some of you might be thinking, what's this inexperienced rookie going to tell me that I haven't already heard?
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I've heard this verse, I've had it memorized since I was a kid. And then
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I'd say, congratulations. Do you live it? That's what
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I'm after here. Because I can't tell you how many times I've talked to Christians through the years who tell me their problems with this hopeless look on their face, this helpless tone in their voice.
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They ask, why is God doing this to me? Or they wish it would just all go away or circumstances would change.
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I might expect something like this of unbelievers. But believers, I think what they really need is a shot in the mouth of Romans 8 .28.
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I won't come down here, but that's what I intend to give tonight. That's my hope. And they don't need to hear
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Romans 8 .28 glibly recited to them like we have a tendency to do.
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Oh, your life's bad. Oh, remember, all things work together for good. That's all nice. But I think what we need to do is we need to take it.
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We need to meditate on it. We need to think of the gravity of that verse and those words and let it actually transform us.
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This little verse, I'm convinced, will change your entire outlook on life if you really, really meditate on it.
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In Pastor Mike's style, let me put it this way. You show me someone who really understands and lives
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Romans 8 .28, and I'll show you someone who can have their comforts taken and praise
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God. I'll show you someone who can have their family endangered and even killed and continue to serve
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God with gladness. This is the key to living the Christian life. So I'll tell someone, don't tell me you have this verse memorized.
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Tell me you love this verse. You live this verse.
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So let's take a look at the passage again and be reminded, this tiny little verse with what
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I would call a Himalayan mountain -sized implication. Romans 8 .28, you can go ahead and turn.
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Not that you don't already know it, but we're going to look at the verses around it as well, so you might want to turn there. It says,
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose.
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We can't really look at this verse without looking at minimum at those directly before it, because really verse 28 and 30 are a conclusion to verses 18 to 27.
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But even before that, let's talk real quick about Paul's letter to Romans as a whole.
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We know you guys are familiar. The first half of Romans really starts with a comparison of the righteousness of God, the unrighteousness of man.
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Both Gentiles and Jews, all are condemned. Then halfway through chapter 3 to 5, righteousness through Christ, received by faith, and then accompanying fruits.
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Then starting in chapter 6, we see the result, what righteousness looks like, which is sanctification. We see freedom from sin.
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We're dead to sin, alive to Christ. We see union with Christ to bear fruit for him in chapter 7.
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We see the conflicting natures that we still have even for a believer in chapter 7.
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And then we begin chapter 8, which is our chapter, and it starts with no more condemnation for believers.
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Verse 5, we see new life, walking according to spirit, not according to flesh. We see verse 12, we're now under obligation to live for him, for the position we now have because of him.
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We see in verse 14 and 15, we're now adopted into the family of God. We now need to live like it.
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Verse 17, on this earth, the family of God suffers, Christ did and we must also.
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We will suffer as he did, and we'll be glorified as he was and is.
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This is what the Christian life is supposed to look like. We're to expect suffering. This is sort of the formula.
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We suffer here, we're glorified later. Our real best life now, like my title sort of implies, is to suffer more now for more glory later.
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It's all a matter of perspective, and we'll see that more in a bit. So that brings us to the passage we want to specifically look at, and I'm going to start in verse 18, and I'm not going to read it all for the sake of time, but scan it with me, verses 18 through 27, and try to note a theme.
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18, the sufferings of this present time. 19 through 20, creation anxiously longs to be out of this situation of corruption from the fall.
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22, creation groans, suffers pain of childbirth. 23, we groan ourselves, waiting for redemption of our body, our glorified state.
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24 and 25, we hope for something we cannot see. Even that is a frustrating place to be. So the general context here is a state of discomfort, suffering, longing, groaning, frustration.
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But we can be comforted. Why? Because God is countering all these things with a hope for the future.
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If you go back to verse 18, it says, it can't be compared to the glory that will be revealed.
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Creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 21, the creation will be set free.
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23, we know that our final adoption is coming. 25, we have hope. 26, we know that we can pray to God for help, and the
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Spirit knows what to pray even when we don't. And then sort of a crescendo, the most profound encouragement maybe in all of Scripture, is our verse,
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Romans 8 .28. And we're going to look at it again. And there's some variation with the different versions.
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You might see different word orders depending on what translation you're reading. NASB has something different from ESV.
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And then there's one big difference. There's all kinds of different opinions on whether or not the phrase,
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God causes all things to work together for good. But the ESV states it this way.
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I'll read it again. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purposes.
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In the end, as far as the ultimate meaning of the verse, it doesn't really change no matter which translation it is, whether you have
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God causes or not. We know there's no intrinsic power in elements themselves to really do anything.
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We know that God is causing those things to work together for good, whether it's directly stated or not.
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So the verse that we're looking at here, really there's only a few words, 16 Greek words to be exact in this verse.
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And our primary focus really is only going to be on half of that, maybe seven to eight Greek words.
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And they're simple. There's not really a lot of fancy Greek translation needed.
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It's pretty straightforward. But the force and gravity behind those words have super extreme implications.
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All things work together for good. We've heard it so many times that we're tempted to sort of blow over it fast.
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But even now, think about it, ponder it. Let it soak in for a minute. All things, all things work together for good.
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And they don't, it's not just all things, but they actually work together. And we're going to look at that in a minute.
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And then it's not, they don't just work together, but they all work together for good. They have a purpose. They're going for good.
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So each of these parts alone represent, I didn't know this was a real word until I typed it into my computer because I was going to use it anyway.
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And then I thought for sure it would give me the little red line. My kids would call it a ginormous truth.
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And it's a real word. So what I want to do is take each of these parts and try to expand them and mine the depth of each one of them.
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And what I'm going to do is I'm going to call it Three Qualities to God's Complete Control in the
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Life of a Believer. And here's my goal in prayer for you. By realizing the truth of this statement, you'll be forced to break out into uncontrollable praise and view the events and circumstances of your life as He does, no matter how bleak they might seem to you.
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So the first quality to God's complete sovereign control in our life is that it's completely comprehensive.
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Completely comprehensive. All things. The Greek term here, wholly together.
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It's one word. Wholly together in all ways, in all things, in all respects.
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Now we discussed the variations on what the grammar is. Is it God causes?
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So is that the subject? And all things is the object there? Or is all things a subject?
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Again, ultimately, it's God controlling all things. So what can we gather from this word?
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1 Corinthians 3 .22. You don't have to turn there. I'll read it. But we see Paul uses this word here. It says, So then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come.
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All things belong to you. A first point to note back in our verse is that there's no qualifier here.
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Paul is deliberately general. In this case, all is all is all.
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So by inclusion, all good things work together for good. All bad things work together for good.
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So what does this mean? We know that all good things work together for good. That's kind of easy.
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And in fact, I'm going to skip that because that's obvious. That's not that hard to understand.
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But let's think about the other side of that. All bad things work together for good.
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So that, you know, your mind might be, you know, if you haven't considered this before, your mind might be racing around thinking, wait a minute.
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Every instance in my life, every negative instance is working for good. So that meeting that I had with my boss where I just found out
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I was being downsized, you're telling me that's for my good. Yep, all things.
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Okay, so you're telling me that car accident that I was just in, so that I'm out of work for six months, you're telling me that that's working together for my good?
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Yep, all things. So the doctor's visit where I was just diagnosed with whatever, cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, you're telling me that that's working together for my good?
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Yeah. That's what the Bible says, all things. So that terrorist attack that killed 2 ,000 people, maybe my child was in there.
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You're telling me that that's for my good? Absolutely. Absolutely all things.
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And all other things, everything, every little thing, every big thing. That's the breadth of it.
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Now I want you to think about the depth of it. If this concept is right, think of the level at which
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God controls all things. We have a tendency to think of God influencing things when they have some big importance to us, like all things work together for good.
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I had this bad job interview, and I didn't get the job, but then a week later the other place called me up.
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I found out that job was better than the one that I was interviewing for. Yes, all things work together for good. Yeah, that's true.
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That works together for good. Or this sort of thing. I had an offer on my house, and I actually turned it down.
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And then they walked away. I couldn't believe it. I thought that they would give me another offer, and then a week later here comes somebody else, gives me a full price.
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All things work together for my good. Yep, they sure do. That's included.
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Or what about that college that your kid applied to, or you applied to, and they rejected you.
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You didn't want to find out that was even better than the one that kicked you to the curb.
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All things work together for good. Woo, yeah. Those are true.
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Those are included in all things. But that is such a shallow, incomplete view.
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God's sovereign on the molecular level. Think of it.
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Not just the big items. Not just those things that are on the prayer email. Not just the close calls from disaster, from car accidents.
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Not just miraculous healings. All things. God created atoms.
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Electrons work exactly as they do because God is making them act that way.
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So why do we find it so hard to believe that his hands in everything? Why do we limit him on what he can orchestrate and ordain?
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It seems we have a hard time with this concept, but really it's all over the Bible. Luke 12, 6. Are not five sparrows sold for two cents, yet none of them is forgotten before God?
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Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered. That's the level that God controls.
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That kind of level. Matthew 6. The birds of the air, the lilies of the field.
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He takes care of them all. In the Old Testament we have some examples.
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Very obvious ones, but they're worth talking about. Joseph. Probably the most famous example of all.
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And I'm not going to go through all the circumstances because we know them well. Sold into slavery by his own brothers.
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That's pretty bad. Goes to Potiphar's house. Gets accused of raping his wife.
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Goes to prison. Becomes the leader in prison. I forgot. He was leader at the other guy's house before he got accused of raping his wife.
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Then he becomes leader in prison. Then he tells the guy, hey, remember me when you're in front of the
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Pharaoh so that I can get out of here. Guy forgets. So two years more in prison.
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We see these highs and lows, highs and lows. What goes through Joseph's mind? But we see, looking back, that every single one of those events have been perfectly orchestrated from the start.
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And with that, I want to mention one thing. I want to sort of give a warning of one wrong way to look at the way
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God works in all these things. Some might say, okay, so God works all things for good.
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Okay, he works bad things for good. So basically, he just takes bad things that already happen that aren't really in his control.
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He just kind of takes those bad things and he works it all out to kind of turn. You know, he turns them around to make them good.
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Things that already happen outside of his control, he will do something after that to make some good come out of it.
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So he changes his plans to make those bad things good. That is a wrong view of how he works.
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We see in Genesis 45 .8, it says, now therefore, it was, this is talking about Joseph. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God.
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And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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We see in chapter 50, verse 20, it says, as for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good in order to bring about the present result to preserve many people alive.
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God ordained it. God purposed it. And think of the logic of this. If God is powerful enough to simply, you know, looking at that wrong view, if he can simply take a randomly occurring bad thing and turn it good, he's powerful enough to do that.
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Why would God not simply avoid the bad thing in the first place? It'd make our lives a lot easier. It'd be inconsistent to say that he could do the one but not the other.
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The truth here is that he wants the bad things. True sovereignty has
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God ordaining and orchestrating the bad things because he knows he will be further glorified through the bad things with the good things.
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Another example, Job. Obviously, you know, rich man had everything.
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God killed his family, took all of his material goods away.
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You know, he was afflicted. What was going on behind the scenes in all of that?
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God was talking to Satan. Job was being used by God to prove that his servant would follow, would actually follow him no matter the circumstances.
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Imagine, here's a concept for you, that you might be an instrument of God to display his glory through your trials.
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You and how you react to your trials may be an instrument that God is using.
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How do you know God's not talking to Satan right now about your situation? Could be.
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Jonah is another good example, but we won't go into it. But you think of how God orchestrated all that to happen. He wanted
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Jonah to go to Nineveh, and he made it happen. And he used not great circumstances to get him there.
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So looking back at the context in our passage, look at what he gives us as even more backup, just to really cement in the weighty truth that we got here.
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Verse 35, it says, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword?
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Down to 38, From convinced neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, things to come, powers, heights, depth, any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. Nothing can be for our bad. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which only bestows ultimate good on us.
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So there we see God's sovereignty in our lives, completely comprehensive, all things. Next, God's sovereignty in our lives is completely synergistic.
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Completely synergistic. And this is all things work together. Synergo is the
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Greek term where we get our word synergy, to cooperate, to work together, to work with one another, to interact or converge together.
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One lexicon defines it this way, to conspire actively to a result. And then the tense here, it implies where these things are currently working together.
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Good working with evil, bad working with good for the ultimate good. Obedience working with sin for ultimate good.
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Think of it this way. You have a medicinal drug. Any of the sort of ingredients might be poison in and of themselves, but then when you put them all together, they're a medicine.
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One example that I saw was, you know, sodium and chloride, or chloride, chlorine.
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And, you know, either of those things are poison, but you put them together and you get table salt. That's the sort of thing here.
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I look at God as sort of being kind of a master chemist, a master pharmacist. Sort of the ultimate synergy of ingredients for his ultimate greatest good.
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Pastor Mike hit on it this morning, which in and of itself was an amazing example to me of how
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God kind of, you know, his sovereignty worked with our passages, totally complementing each other.
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There is no chance, no coincidence, no serendipity, no luck, no karma.
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He used the term kismet, which I don't really know what that word means, but I assume it means the same thing as these.
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Like I said earlier, there's not one rogue electron that's not completely under his control, working together for his purposes and your good.
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There are many examples in scripture of God taking good with the bad in perfect synergy for his purpose. Remember Pharaoh?
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He hardened his heart, working with Moses' obedience. Two opposites, bad and good. Why? Romans 9 .17,
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it says, For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed through the whole earth.
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We mentioned earlier Satan's attempts to sort of spiritually destroy Job and working with Job's obedience.
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God used Satan for God's and Job's ultimate good. We even see
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Satan as temptation of Jesus. God's using Satan to sort of show us that Jesus would not sin.
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So we see God constantly orchestrating all these things and intricately entwining them for his ultimate purpose.
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So we see God's control in our lives, in our circumstances, is completely comprehensive, all things.
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We see that they're completely synergistic. They work together. And now let's look at the next piece.
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God's control in our circumstances is completely good. Completely good.
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All things work together for good. The Greek term here is agathon.
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I think that's where they get the girl's name, Agatha. It means good, profitable, truest kind of good, even a good that doesn't look good on the outside.
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And I like to think of two aspects of this good. Our good now and our good later, our ultimate good.
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So first let's look at our good now, this life. You might say, okay, I understand how suffering might pay off later with rewards in heaven, but I sure don't feel like my suffering's working for good for me now.
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How about this? Suffering or trials builds character. This is biblical,
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Romans 5, 3 and 4. It says, and not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope.
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So we see character building here as the ends that God uses, where God uses the means of tribulation.
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Thomas Watson, a Puritan, said this. He said, sickness often teaches us more than a sermon. I know you can think of times in your life when you've learned some serious lessons through adversity.
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Who hasn't? Another personal example, about four years ago, got out of the
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Air Force, high on myself. They used to call a zipper suit of sun gods, pilot, and you kind of controlled the base.
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You took out your plane. You're the boss man. Coming out thinking, oh, man, everybody's going to want to hire me.
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And I went to places, well, I'm looking at houses, moving back here. Oh, man, I tell you, the beautiful houses we looked at, it's almost funny to look back.
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Because I thought just for sure I was going to get this huge paying job. And sure enough, that never came.
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So we looked at so many houses in so many areas. Anyway, my point is, after what we experienced, after that, during the following few years, it taught me, it humbled me.
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It taught me a proper perspective on material things. We just wanted to have a house.
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We didn't have to live in a basement anymore. I mean, that's what we were satisfied with after three years down there.
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So that adversity, the trial, I wouldn't give that up. I mean, that was three years of awesome experience looking back.
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James 1, 2 to 5, and actually Eric Johansen is going to go over this one next week, so I won't steal too much from him.
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It says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
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And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. We see, so then it's really all about perspective.
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By good, do you mean only material good, money, stuff, comfort, health? If you watch most Christian TV, that's probably what you'll come away with.
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But are these things the best good according to Scripture?
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No. In fact, more often than not, money is really spoken down on, in the
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New Testament especially. Our spiritual maturity, our sanctification, our holiness, our character, growing these things in this life is our true good from God's perspective.
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One commentator says this, Everything in a believer's life will depend upon how he understands and accepts the fact of suffering.
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If he is to enjoy to the full the divine grace here and the glory thereafter.
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So suffering or trials builds character. Suffering or trials also shows us we're his sons. Hebrews 12, 6 and 7 says,
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For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It's for discipline that you endure.
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God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
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And then verse 11, All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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God disciplines. We may not always know at the time whether it's discipline or whether it's a trial for some other reason, but the net effect is bringing us closer to him.
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And that's the next one. Suffering draws us closer to God. Psalm 119, 67, it says,
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Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Verse 71 of 119, it says,
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It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. This is interesting.
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Deuteronomy 6, 11 and 12, it says, Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers,
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give Phil. In hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself that you do not forget the
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Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. We see
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God warning Israel that they shouldn't forget him when everything goes well. Why do you think that is? That's what we do.
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When things are going well, we're distracted. Our job, our house, cars, hobbies, life.
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Then all of a sudden what happens? Family members get sick. You get sick. Trials hit.
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Where do we run? Straight to God. What happened to all that other stuff that was distracting us before? Oh, it's gone.
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We don't care about that. Go ahead and turn to 2
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Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 15.
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It says here, For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
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Therefore we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
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So trials cause the renewal of our inner man. Again, this is sort of a temporal aspect.
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Keep on that passage. So we see some ways in Scripture that trials and suffering have positive effects for us in this life.
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Our good now. They develop character, they remind us we're His sons, and they draw us closer to Him.
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And there's many more things. Those are the three I picked. Now let's look at some of the eternal good that God's working in us since this passage transitions kind of nice into that.
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Verse 17, it says, For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison.
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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
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One commentator says this. He says, A staircase may wind, but each step is higher than the preceding one.
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The same guy says, The diamond setter cuts and polishes the jewel very long and thoroughly before its facets of brilliancy are visible.
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There are no bad results to God working in our life. There is no trial in your life that's the ultimate bad results.
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No matter what it is, if you're a child of God, there is nothing that will not turn to ultimate good in the end.
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So this begs the question, do you want trials? Carefully answer.
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Do you want your best life? Your total, ultimate, complete best life? If you don't want trials, maybe you have the wrong perspective on trials.
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Philippians 1 .29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.
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It has been granted to you to go through trials.
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We have no problem as good Calvinists holding... Oh, I said it. I said Calvinists. Sorry about that.
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As good Calvinists, we have no problem holding on to the grace of God's gifting us with belief, right?
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But how about persecution as a gift from God? Boyce calls it a token of grace.
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Do you really want a life of ease? If God's telling you that you're better off both in the present and in eternity if you go through some trials, in a sense, the more the better?
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Why do you think God motivates us by telling us to go after treasure in heaven? Think of it.
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Why do we teach our kids to save money, invest, let it collect interest and not spend it all now? Think of the concept in that.
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Why would we want a life of ease now and lose potential rewards later?
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Would God really be doing us a favor in granting us a life of ease and prosperity?
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I don't want my best material financial life or comfortable life now. I don't want to ruin it for myself later.
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So here's what I would say. Instead of praying that trials would go away all the time, how about we pray that God would be most glorified in our handling of the trials that God has sovereignly prepared for us?
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How about rather than moping in our trials, we have joy, like Scripture actually commands us to do?
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How about we actually believe what God directly states in no uncertain terms that all things are working together for our good?
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Why do bad things happen to good people? Because God wants even better for them.
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And the only way to get there is through what on the surface appear to be bad things.
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Pink said this in his book, Sovereignty of God. He said, Yes, give thanks for all things, for it has been well said.
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Our disappointments are but His appointments. To the one who delights in the sovereignty of God, the clouds not only have silver lining, but they're silver all through.
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The darkness only serving to offset the light. I like this.
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John Pipers called himself a seven -point... I'm going to say the word again. A seven -point Calvinist.
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One of his extra points is especially relevant here. I kind of like it. I like the way he puts it.
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He describes it this way. The seventh point, the best of all possible worlds. It means that God governs the course of history so that in the long run,
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His glory will be more fully displayed and His people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world.
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If we look only at the way things are now, in the present era of this fallen world, this is not the best of all possible worlds.
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But if we look at the whole course of history, from creation to redemption to eternity and beyond, and see the entirety of God's plan, it's the best of all possible plans and leads to the best of all possible eternities.
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And therefore, this universe and the events that happen in it from creation to eternity, taken as a whole, is the best of all possible worlds.
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So at the end of the day, for the believer, there are no ultimate bad things.
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Ultimate bad things. God has ordained every last circumstance for His perfect glory.
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But there I said it. Did you catch that part? There's one qualifier in all of this, and that involves the recipients. For who does this monumental promise apply?
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Those who love God, those who are called, in the verse there. This is for Christians only.
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We don't have the time to dig in too deep into the full meaning of these terms or the reason why they might have been written this way.
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But suffice to say, there are two perspectives that describe the same people. Those who love
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God. This is from our perspective. This is how we can identify believers. God uses this kind of language throughout
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Scripture to describe believers. I'll just run through it. If anybody's writing it down, here's some references where He uses the term.
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Exodus 26, Deuteronomy 7 -9, Nehemiah 1 -5,
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Isaiah 56 -6, 1 Corinthians 2 -9 and 8 -3. Second, promises for those who are called.
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From God's perspective, for one to love God, He must be called.
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God has foreordained these people that are included here. This is further described, you see, in verse 29 and 30.
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We see the chain of redemption there. We see in 1 John 4 -19, we love
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Him because He loved us. So from God's perspective, we are called.
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We're the called ones. How do we know what a called one is? Well, we love God. So we see there are two ways of describing
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Christians, believers. The scary side of this promise is the implied reciprocal promise.
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If you're not one of those who love God, one who's called according to His purpose, then all things will not work together for your good.
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In fact, they'll work together for your bad. Your actions and circumstances, they'll all lead ultimately to judgment and condemnation.
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Romans 2, 5 and 6 says, But because of your stubbornness and repentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to each person according to His deeds.
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How many times have you heard unbelievers quoting this first half of this verse with no idea that it has no implication or application whatsoever to them?
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Verse 29 and 30 make this even more clear as the chain of redemption is laid out there. If you're not a believer tonight, the only good that will come out of your existence is first you may be used as God's tool to create some good for a believer.
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We see Pharaoh with Israel's deliverance in that situation.
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Or ultimately, God's ultimate good will be served and He's going to be glorified in displaying
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His justice and wrath on you by your eternal punishment in hell.
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This is a hard reality. And if you're not a believer, I would implore you now, if you don't know, you've never bowed at the feet of Jesus, you've never acknowledged
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His standing as Savior, Lord, and King, and your total depravity and sinfulness before Him.
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If you haven't put your total faith and trust in His perfect life and death in your place and then
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His resurrection back to the Father's right hand, if you've not taken up your cross and followed
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Him, you need to do that soon. You even need to do that now.
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Right now you have no hope. You have nothing to look forward to and you can definitely take no comfort in this verse.
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But for the believers who are here, and I think that's the majority of us, the fundamental implication of this passage is that it's really the most incredible declaration of eternal security anywhere.
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All things working together for our good. That means nothing can work together for our bad. Obviously, we can never lose our salvation.
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That would be bad. Ultimate bad. We might struggle with sin. Even Paul did.
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We see that in chapter 7. But for the true believer, there's no more condemnation. Beginning of chapter 8.
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So obviously, there's huge implications here. This is pretty much all -encompassing. Passage, it's less a specific rule, per se, or a command for us to follow, but this really is a whole life attitude.
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There's a perspective here that sort of transcends specifics and melts into every area of our life.
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It's a mindset. It's a motto. No matter what happens, if you get the preceding chapters in Romans right, which means you're an authentic, genuine, bonafide child of God, you cannot fall away.
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You cannot, will not see death. You cannot, will not ultimately mess up. Anything and everything that happens in your life is
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God -caused and will be for your ultimate benefit. Think on this when you go to bed tonight, when you wake up in the morning, on your way to work tomorrow.
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Dwell on this for a while. I can't really think of a more incredible truth for transforming our attitude toward life and circumstances than this.
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And the reality is we have this. It says, and we know. And he backs us up by tying this truth to our very calling from eternity past, our predestination, so we can be conformed to the image of his
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Son. Verse 29 starts with for or because. Why do all things work together for good? Because it's part of God's master plan of redemption.
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The problem here isn't that we need to learn this truth so we can make it happen to us.
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We are living in this truth. We simply need to live and think as if we're living in this truth.
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We actually have it. We need to stop thinking of life on a secular, physical plane and break free into looking at things on an eternal, spiritual level.
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We need to stop thinking of life in a 2D sort of way. Look at it in 3D for what it really is.
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When we see that the physical circumstances serve a spiritual purpose, our attitude stops being, woe is me, and then it becomes, praise
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God, what does he have in store for me next? I joke with people and I say, bring it on.
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I mean, that's kind of, it's a dangerous thing to say, admittedly. But when we think of what we get out of that, how we can glorify
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God in our trials, our attitude ought to be that. Even if the next thing is just more refining for eternal treasure to be enjoyed only after death.
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Don't you want that? So is there any possible reason to do anything less than sing constant praise to God?
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If you're already there, you find yourself already basking in this reality, then I would encourage you to encourage those around you who are struggling with it.
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And I know some of us here, a lot of us here already have this. We already sort of think this way.
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But encourage others by it. And don't just casually run up and quote Romans 8 .28 to them, but live it, really live it so that they can see the decisions you're making are based on Romans 8 .28,
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and they'll see that. So the next time you have a situation, you go to work tomorrow, find out that you're on the next list of downsizing, or you go to the doctor's office, find out you've got an ailment, a cancer, or you've got nothing but pain to look forward to, or you have a loved one that's in one of these circumstances, don't start feeling sorry for yourself and asking, you know, what am
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I going to do? Or why is God doing these terrible things to me?
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Do what James tells you to do. Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. How?
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Because you know that it's all working together for your good. Your attitude ought to be this.
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What does God have in store for me through this? How is God going to refine me through this trial?
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Like Job says, But he knows the way I take. When he tries me, I shall come forth as gold.
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Don't we want this? I like how Barnhouse summarizes it this way, and we're closing up here.
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There is no will or act of creatures, men, angels, or demons, that can do other than work for our good.
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No dog can bark against us. No sinister power of evil can be against us. But all must be for our good.
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There is no phenomenon of nature, fire, flood, storm, earthquake, that can work us ultimate ill.
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The law of gravity cannot trip us up or cause anything to fall upon us unless it has first been sifted through the will of God's purpose for our good.
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Every experience of our individual circumstances, whether temptations or whatever concerns us, humbles us and forces us to rely on him alone, or him who alone can satisfy.
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All things work together for our good. Otherwise, the Lord would not permit them.
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About two years ago, another personal example. About two years ago, a close personal friend, business partner.
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His name was Tom. He was Christian. He was my roommate most of the way through my time in the
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Marines. He didn't have a tight grip on this truth. I got a phone call on a
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Tuesday, and he was frantic, and his wife had fell in an accident. She had become brain dead, and she was in all effects dead.
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Flew out there. Three days later, he was going to have to pull the plug on her. They had just kind of kept her alive because they heard organs were going to be donated, that sort of thing.
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So I flew out to Texas. My buddy, who's a pastor up in Oregon, flew to Texas from Oregon, and we met up with him on Thursday night.
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Considering the circumstances, everything seemed to be okay. He was talking about the future and that sort of thing.
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He had just pulled the plug on his wife that morning. He had three kids, by the way. Next morning, he got up, drove two hours away to a house that he had moved out of, and he took a gun and killed himself.
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Left his three kids behind after he knew me and my buddy are now in town to take care of things.
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He had no clue on Romans 8 .28, very obviously.
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Now, I want to contrast that to... You may have heard this story, but to a guy named
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Horatio Spafford who lived back in the 1800s. Some of you know it.
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In 1871, Spafford lost his son. Then soon after, the Chicago Fire broke out and ruined him financially.
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1873, he was going to travel to Europe with his family to go away from their losses.
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He sent them ahead while he dealt with the financial issues, and he was going to meet them shortly thereafter.
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Then the ship his family was on hit another ship. All four of his daughters were killed.
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His wife sent him a telegram stating she alone survived. He took another ship after that when he was on that ship passing where his daughters would have drowned.
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How did he respond? He wrote the words to It is well with my soul. He understood
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Romans 8 .28. I'll read two stanzas quickly.
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When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know, it is well, is well with my soul.
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Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
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So here's my prayer that you would look at your life, your trials, your circumstances in light of this passage and say something like this.
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God loves me so much that he saw fit to privilege me, to bless me, to gift me with this trial or circumstance, that I would have this awesome opportunity to praise him and gain treasure from myself in heaven and glorify him in a way
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I would not have had otherwise. So thank you, God, for giving me this opportunity to shine for you.
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I will serve you through it with praise and thanksgiving. I would not want it any other way.
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So I would say, say you know Romans 8 .28. Now live it.
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Let's pray. God, this passage is so familiar to us.
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We've memorized it. We've seen it lots of years, read it lots of times. But we have such a hard time grasping its concepts and living it.
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We just pray that you would help us to meditate on these monumental truths that you have throughout
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Scripture and especially here. Help it transform our minds and hearts.
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Help it influence our decisions. Help us be motivated to glorify you no matter the circumstances we're in.
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Help us to be thankful for every circumstance that you give to us, whether good or bad, because we know it's for our ultimate, ultimate good.
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We thank you for your sovereignty, that we know you're in control of every electron.
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We just pray that you would help us to live in light of that reality. In Jesus' name,