TIME OUT with Pastor Ben Talley - Romans 8:28 29

Romans 8:28-29 and the Promise to Those Called According to God’s Purpose

Morning family, all you believers out there and maybe, maybe unbelievers, my name is Benjamin Talley. I am the associate pastor at Witten Memorial Baptist Church. I just wanted to take a time out in the morning to spend some time with you and spend some time in the Word.

Today's Word comes from Romans 8, 28 -29. So one of the great promises of the Word, of God's Word, it says, We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

Foreknowledge, Predestination, and Conformity to the Image of Christ

For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. So there's a lot of things that you could get from these passages, but I just want to focus on a couple of them.

Hey, Dina. One is, it says that we know all things work together for those who are good and those who are called according to His purpose, called. There are, there is one call that goes out, He is calling all men everywhere to repent and come to His Son, come to answer the call of His Son to repent and believe in the Gospel.

And so everyone who answers that call is a saint, right? This is a promise to the saints. So He says He works to the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. So a lot of people say, well, this is a promise that God works all to the good.

That's not what it's saying. It's not saying that God works all to the good. It's saying that God works all to the good to His saints and those who are called according to His purpose. The other thing is that He works through the bad, through the bad things that are going on now.

You know, there are a lot of bad things that are going on now, but He works through it. You know, we easily accept good from God. We easily accept the good things that come from God, but why not calamity?

You know, Limitations talks about this, Moses talks about this. You know, if bad things happen, God can work through the bad as well as the good. Why could He not? You know, think about baking a cake.

You know, you have all the ingredients, right? Flour, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, you know, things like that. Those individually are not good. You can't eat flour by itself. You can't eat salt by itself.

You can't eat vanilla by itself. Those things are bad to eat by themselves. But when you take them together and you eat them all together, you put them all together and make a cake. Those things all together make a cake, and they're good.

You know, cake is delicious. So that's what we're talking about. God takes all the bad and the good and puts them together and makes something good. So that's the first thing. So you think, in His purpose, what is good in what's going on now?

You know, what is the good in this? Well, it shows us in verse 29, what is the good in this? What is the good in what's going on now? And it shows in verse 29, what is that good? It says, for those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

Well, that is the good in what He's focusing on in verse 28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That's what His focus is.

That's what the good is. In everything that He's doing, He is working in us to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's the good. That's what He's bringing out in every situation. In every situation we go through, He is working in us to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Encouragement to Bear Fruit for God’s Glory

So as you go throughout your day, I want you to focus on that. Be reminded of that. No matter what you go through, remember that God is working in you to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

And that good is that He is taking all the bad and the good and working in you to conform you to the image of His beloved Son. So I love you, and I pray that you be encouraged today, that you be motivated today to bear fruit for His glory and for the furtherance, the advance of His kingdom.

Praise God. Praise God.