[MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning. Anybody here go to the Balloon
Fiesta this morning first? Any hands up? One did. Is that it? Any more? Oh, a couple of you guys did. Good. Enjoyable? Yeah, you know, where we
are here, at Osuna Campus, when you come down Osuna
for the first service, the balloons today were
right around this area. And as they were
going up, I couldn't help but think and look forward
to what Paul wrote about in Thessalonians,
"the Lord Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, voice of the archangel the
dead in Christ will rise first. Those of us who are
alive and remain will be caught up together
to meet the Lord in the air." I'm looking forward
to that ride, even if I don't get a
balloon ride before heaven. Would you turn in
your Bibles, please, to the book of Romans
Chapter 8 verse 28. We have been in the book
of Romans for 17 weeks. And we are now in
Romans Chapter 8. And we are looking at one of
the most famous verses ever, "and we know that all things
work together for good to those who love the Lord
and to those who are called according to his purpose." Let's have a word
of prayer together. Father, we are all experiencing
different things in our lives. Know exactly what
those things are. We may be sitting next to
someone who is in deep distress or he or she are flying
high because something great happened to them. But Father, we pray that
whatever things we are dealing with, we would walk away
today with confidence that we serve a caring
God and our lives are in Your steady hands. We pray, Lord, that our
faith would increase and, that because of that, our
lives would be on firm ground. In Jesus' name, amen. Life sometimes feels haphazard. It feels random. It feels like it
doesn't make sense, you don't know why
you're going through what you're going through. You don't know why
a loving God would allow you to go through
what you're going through. You just don't get it. There was a man who lived in
a flood zone and a flood came. He was down in Louisiana. As the waters were
rising and there was a mandatory evacuation,
he decided to stay put. So he climbed up on top
of his house on his roof. The waters were getting
higher up to his ankles. And a neighbor came by in
a little rowboat and said, I'd love to give you
a lift out of here. And the man smiled and said
oh, no, I trust in the Lord. I'll be fine. So he stayed. And the waters rose a little bit
higher and a little bit higher up to his waist. And a man in a motorboat
came by and said, I'd love to give you
a lift out of here. And the guy goes oh,
no, God is faithful. I'm trusting Him. He's going to provide. So he went off. And the waters kept rising
higher and higher up to his chin. He's now on his tiptoes. A helicopter came
in, swooped down. The pilot let a rope
down and announced, grab a hold of the rope. I'll save you. And the man looked up and said,
nope, don't need any help. God's got this covered. So he was treading water
now for a couple of hours. When he finally died
and he was in heaven, he complained to God. And he goes, Lord,
I don't get it. I had such trust in You. What went wrong? I don't understand. And God said, yeah, I
don't understand either. I sent you two boats
and a helicopter. Aren't you glad that
God never says yeah, I don't understand, that
God never says, oops, God never declares, uh-oh? That's not part
of his vocabulary. Romans Chapter 8 Verse 28-- and we're going to look at 28,
29, and 30, but principally 28-- is one of the most famous
verses of scripture ever penned. Most of you know it by heart. It has brought
comfort to millions of believers for centuries. This one verse will help
you go to sleep at night when nothing else will. Oftentimes, I've just repeated
that to myself in dark moments. In fact, it always makes the
list of the most popular Bible verses. I looked at a list
recently, this week, of the top 10 most famous
Bible verses to Americans. Romans 8:28 was number four. It always makes that list. However, preaching on a
famous verse of the Bible can be a little
intimidating, simply because everybody knows it. They've already internalized
it, they've memorized it. You know its meaning. You've applied it to your lives. But I found that it can be
very rewarding especially if you treat it like
it's a precious jewel. And we're going to
look at Romans 8:28. And we're going to just
turn it around slowly, letting it catch the
light, so to speak, of God's glory on each facet
of truth, word for word. It is an important verse
because not all things are good. And to say all things are
good would be a fallacy. It is wrong to say, for
example, the death of a child-- that's not good. Cancer is not good. Suicide is not good. War is not good. Terrorism is not good. Rape is not good. Sex trafficking-- all of
those things are not good. But and yet the
verse says, "and we know that all
things work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to his purpose." We have before us, in
Verse 28, a Grand Canyon of scripture with incredible,
breathtaking views that covers absolutely
everything in life. RA Torrey called Romans 8:28 "a
soft pillow for a tired heart." Isn't that a great description? A soft pillow for a tired
heart-- how many times have we rested our souls on the
promise in this verse? Someone once said, "if
the whole of scripture were a feast for the soul,
then Romans Chapter 8 is the main dish." And I would add to that and
say Romans 8:28 is the entree, it's the main feast. Now, let's kind of go
back and get our bearings. The theme of
Romans, we have seen is the gospel, the
righteousness of God, and the meaning of the gospel. The first few chapters
however, plummet us downward. It reveals the wrath
of God before it reveals the grace of God. So in chapters 1, 2, and 3,
Paul consigns the entire world as being unrighteous under
God's judgment, religious and non-religious,
Jew and Gentile. Then chapters 4 and
5 gives us the fix. The. fix is faith. That if we simply
believe like Abraham-- he was the prime example,
he believed in God. It was accounted to him
for righteousness therefore a person who believes
is justified. That's the theme of
those two chapters. Then chapters 6, 7, and 8,
there is no condemnation. We're adopted children
of God by faith. We are free from the law. The law doesn't
make things better. It makes things worse. And now we're at
the very pinnacle. We're like at the
top of the mountain and we're looking
over this panorama of the comprehensive
view of the care of God, how much God cares. I've called this message the
steady hand of a caring God. And we're going to probe this
verse, all three of them, but primarily Verse 28. And I want you to notice with
me six facets of God's care, six facets of God's care. Number one, the
certainty of God's care-- look at the phrase, the
first part of it, it says, "and we know." Stop there-- "and we know." There is a ring of definiteness
in Paul's language. He's not scratching
his head going, well, I think, I hope, maybe. He goes, "and we know." Kenneth Weist, the Greek
scholar who translated the New Testament in one of
his versions also was a contributor to the NASB,
said this should be translated this way-- "and we know
with absolute knowledge." We know it with
absolute knowledge. 32 times in Paul's epistles
he uses this phrase, "and we know," Five times
alone in the book of Romans. And we know-- that's the
certainty of God's care. Now, there's a lot of things
in life we don't know. The Bible says that. For instance, in
Verse 26 of Romans 8, Paul says we don't always
know how to pray as we ought. Also, we don't know why
certain things happen to us. Remember in the Old
Testament, one of the prophets named Habakkuk who
wondered why God would allow the things to
happen to his own countrymen. And he said, "how long,
O Lord? " How long, why will you be
silent over this? Why is this happening? Also, James Chapter 4 says,
"for we do not know the things that will happen tomorrow." The patriarch Isaac
declared, "I do not know the day of my death." Jesus said, "you do not know the
day or the hour of your Lord's coming." So there's a lot of things
the Bible says we don't know. But there are certain things
we do know or we should know. And one of them-- and it should never be a
question in our minds-- is that God loves
us, God cares for us. 1 Peter Chapter 5:7, "cast
all your care upon Him because He cares for you." And so Paul begins this verse
speaking about God's care, "and we know." Listen, dear believer,
never abandon what you do know because
of what you don't know. There are certain
things you don't know. You can't figure it out. You can't see why. But then there are other
things you do know. During those times, gravitate
and hold on to the things you absolutely know, even when
there's other things you don't. You can be a no-so believer
rather than a so-so believer. You can be a shouting
Christian rather than a doubting Christian. You should be an exclamation
point and not a question mark with your head bent over. We don't need hope so, think so,
maybe so, perhaps so salvation. We need a know so salvation. This is certain. You can lay your head on
the pillow of the certainty that God cares for you. That's the first facet. Now we take this
gem of Romans 8:28 and we twist it a little bit. After the certainty
of God's care, we have the comprehensiveness
of God's care. Because notice what
he says, "and we know that all things
work together for good." I cannot think of a statement
that brings more assurance, more joy, more confidence
to the Christian than this. Now, be careful. He does not say we know
that all things are good in and of themselves. Because that would be
an absurd statement in view of natural
disasters that happen, human tragedies that occur. Nor does the text say that God
will keep us from bad things. I know that that is a
teaching in the faith-teaching community, that God loves you
and he won't let anything bad happen to you, and that
if you're a Christian you'll always have
health and prosperity, and he'll heal you
from every disease. If that were so, you would have
people converting to Christ for all the wrong motivations,
all the wrong reasons. And the Bible never
promises that. Notice again, it does not
say some things work together for good to those who love God. It'd be easier, perhaps,
to believe it if it did. It doesn't say that nor does it
say most things work together for good. Nor does it say all good
things work together for good. Nor does it say all prayed about
things work together for good. It says all things. The Greek word
[GREEK],, all things. And guess what it means? It means all things-- "all things" literally
actually means all things. That is, there are
no qualifications. There are no limitations. There's no confinement. The point he is
making is nothing is beyond the overruling,
overriding scope of God's providential care. I love how George
Mueller put it. George Mueller, I've told
you about him before. He ran several orphanages in
Bristol, England all by faith, didn't have always
financial-- the wherewithal to run these things. But he was a man of great faith. Of Romans 8:28, he said in 1,000
trials it is not 500 of them that work for the believer's
good, but 999 of them and one besides-- his way of saying all things. Now, what is included
in all things? Of course we know
it means all things. But what's included
in context here? Well, remember back in Verse
17, we covered that last week when we were together? He said, if we suffer with Him
we'll also share in His glory. So it speaks of suffering
in the present world. Down in Verse 23, Paul
writes, "we ourselves grown within ourselves
as we are waiting for the final
redemption of our body." So we know it
includes all things like suffering in this
life and the groaning that comes because of it. William R Newell writes,
"dark things, bright things, happy things, sad things,
sweet things, bitter things, times of prosperity, times
of adversity, all things." But don't misread the verse. The idea is not
that all things just happen to work out
for good on their own. The idea of this
verse is behind the all things is a God who
is the prime mover, who is causing all those things. In fact, the new
American Standard Bible translates it that way. "For we know that God causes
all things to work together for good." That really is the
sense of this verse because it's in the active voice
and it's in the present tense. So it speaks of an
ongoing activity that is orchestrated by God. The verse would be
better translated, we know with absolute certainty
that God, on an ongoing basis, is causing everything to be
working together for good to those who love God. So it's not a statement of
fate, that things are just going to work out on their own. It's a statement of faith,
that God is providentially overruling in all
things for his plan. Here's a related verse, another
famous verse in scripture, one you love as well, Proverbs
Chapter 3 verses 5 and 6. "Trust in the Lord
with all your heart and lean not to your
own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your path." Doesn't matter what's
going on in your path, what obstacles are on
your path, if the path is straight or twisted. He will direct your path. Most every one of us
has heard of PTSD. It's been popularized over
the last 10, 15 years-- post-traumatic stress disorder. It's something that
happens when a person is exposed to a traumatic event. Sometimes they will
experience that and they will exhibit
certain behaviors based upon that trauma. And so it's called
post-traumatic stress syndrome or disorder. But the world of psychology has
tapped into another condition they're talking about now. They call it PTG,
post-traumatic growth. And what they have
noted is this is a positive psychological
change experienced as a result of adversity. And it is due to a shift
in thinking and relating to the world that is the
result of a traumatic event. According to this
field of experts, 2/3 of trauma
survivors experience PTG, post-traumatic growth,
whereas only a small percentage actually experience
post-traumatic stress syndrome, PTSD. So their point is for most
of us, adversity is healthy. It's good. It changes the way we think. We grow as a result. Now, you add to that
psychological condition the truth of this
verse, that there is a personal God behind it
all orchestrating those events, directing our steps in
our path, all things, you have a great
place of confidence. The certainty of
God's care, we know. The comprehensiveness of
God's care, all things. Let's look at a third facet. Let's turn that
diamond a little more. The cohesiveness of God's care-- he said, "we know that
all things work together." Stop there. Work together, two words, one
word in the Greek language, sunergeo, sunergeo. If you're trying to write
that down, I don't know why. But sunergeo is the word from
which we get our word synergy or synergism, sunergeo. Synergy, it's the
interaction and cooperation of two or more things. It is the working together
of various elements to produce a result
greater than the sum. So it's not that you just have
all these random things that happen. It's that God superintends
the mixture of all things. So it's the right combination. Here's an example. A few weeks ago, somebody did
me a great, wonderful honor of giving me home-grown
tomatoes from their garden. I brought them home. And after church,
after third service I cut into a few of
them and I ate them. They were delicious. But I put poison on them. I didn't die. Well, we wouldn't
call it poison. We call it salt,
sodium chloride. But do you know that sodium,
in its pure elemental form and chlorine, in its pure
elemental form will kill you? It's poisonous. However, in the right
combination, sodium chloride, it's actually beneficial. It enhances taste. It brings out the flavor. It could kill you in one form
but in another combination form, it can be beneficial. God can do that. There are certain things in
life in and of themselves are evil, horrible,
bad, terrible. They're not good. But in God's chemistry
lab, when He puts it in the crucible of omnipotence
and He mixes it just right, He can give it back to us and
it's actually healing, helpful. So Paul can say we know that
all things work together. That's God's chemistry. Now for a moment, I want you
to compare two worldviews. One is from an Old
Testament guy named Jacob. One is from this New Testament
guy named Paul the Apostle. Jacob and Paul had
similar experiences. Bad things were
happening in their lives. Jacob had his son kidnapped. He thought his son was dead. That was Joseph. There was a famine
going on in the land. His boys were misbehaving. He had a lot of
bad things happen. Paul the Apostle also had
bad things happen to him. He was falsely
accused, put in prison. He was in Caesarea Prison for
a couple of years, then went to Rome, was facing
a trial before Nero. He had all sorts of
bad things happen. Jacob, when the bad
things happened to him, this is what he said. "All things are against me." When all these things
happen to Paul, Paul said, "all things
work together for good to those who love God." Two different viewpoints. I've met a lot of believers
who live where Jacob lived. Everything is against me. Everybody's out to get me. Things aren't turning out right. Or all things work
together for good. What's the difference? The difference is a
perspective based on eternity. Romans 8:28 must be interpreted
from the eternal perspective, not the temporal perspective. Because you're looking at
what's going on around you-- I don't get this. I don't know why God will
allow this to happen. There is a law of physics
that basically says energy in the universe is never lost. It is always transformed from
one state to another state. I think it's the same
way in human experience. I think nothing is
ever lost entirely, that God uses it to
accomplish His purpose. Most all of us have
heard the story of Jim Elliot, the missionary
to the Auca Indians. Now, here's a group
of missionaries who planned, and
prayed, and strategized, and had a heart to reach
these people down in Ecuador. And one day, a mission team,
Jim Elliott and four others, went out to share the gospel. They were all killed. They were all murdered. When that happened-- and it
was pretty significant news-- their sacrifice seemed
like a senseless tragedy. It looked like a total
waste of human life. That's because they
were interpreting it, not in the light of eternity,
but just temporarily. However, in God's chemistry
lab, there was a purpose. You see, each one of
those tribespeople eventually came to
know Jesus Christ. The gospel was planted
into that tribal culture and to this day is thriving
in that tribal culture. Several years ago I
actually met the man who put the spear into Jim Elliott. He's a believer. He's the leader, or he was. Now he's in heaven. Now, just picture
this, in heaven right now is Jim Elliott, those
four other missionaries, and the murderers of them
all around the throne of God, looking back at the event
and probably saying, it worked together for good. Don't you agree? Romans 8:28 must
always be interpreted in the light of the eternal
perspective, not the temporal. So the certainty, the
comprehensiveness, the cohesion of God's care-- let's turn that diamond
a little bit more-- the culmination of God's care. "And we know that all things
work together for good." Let's consider those
two words, "for good." Notice what it doesn't say. It does not say, and we know
that all things work together for our comfort. Because they don't always. Certain experiences
are very uncomfortable. It does not say we know that
all things work together for our ease, or all things work
together for our prosperity, or all things work together
for our physical health. Know this, though, God is always
working toward a supreme good as God defines good-- as God defines good. 50 years ago, a young
woman at the time named Joni Eareckson who
is now Joni Eareckson Tada was paralyzed in a diving
accident in the Chesapeake Bay. For 50 years, she's been
chained to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. She's an ardent, vibrant
believer in God, in God's plan, in Jesus Christ. Her faith is not shaken. She was asked the question, why? Why does God allow suffering? Now, I'd want to
hear her answer. Wouldn't you,
somebody who's been a quadriplegic for 50 years,
why does God allow suffering? Listen to her short
but profound answer. She said, and I quote,
"God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves." That's profound. "God allows what he hates to
accomplish what he loves." The Christian is not naive
about suffering, and pain, and heartache, and tragedy. We know what Jesus said. He said, "the rain falls
on the just and the unjust. The sun shines on the just
and the unjust alike." Job, who suffered greatly,
said, "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away." We know we're not automatically
healed as Christian believers. We know that sometimes God
calms the storm for us. But usually, He calms
us in the storm. Most typically, He lets
the storm rage around us. But He keeps us calm. Jerry Bridges writes, "God never
allows pain without purpose in the lives of His children." He never allows Satan,
nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending
person to afflict us unless he uses that
affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes
to work together for our ultimate good, the
good of conforming us more to the likeness of His son. Did you hear that last part? God has a goal, conforming us
into the likeness of His son. I want you to read
it for yourself. Verse 29, "for whom
He forknew, he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of His son." Why is this
happening to me, God? I want to make you
more like Jesus. That's why. I want your life to be sweeter,
and richer, and better, and deeper. And so that's the good. I look back on every trial. And I believe God had
my highest good in mind. There's parts of it I
still have questions about. There's some black pixels
on the screen for me. And I go, what's
up with that thing? Why that part of it? I don't get it all. I don't get it all. But I'm OK with that. You know what James said? He said, we should
even get to this point, "count it all joy,
brothers, when you fall into various trials." Oh, come on? Who do you know that does that? I'm so happy I'm
going through a trial. Why would you be
excited about that? Because God has got
something up His sleeve. Count it all joy when you fall
into various trials knowing that the trial of your
faith produces patience. Let patience have
its perfect work, that you might be complete
and entire, lacking nothing. God has something going on. I've always loved
the illustration of a simple bar of steel. A bar of steel worth $5, if
you make it into horseshoes, is now worth $12. If you take the $5 bar
of steel and make it into needles, hypodermic
needles, sewing needles, it's now worth $3,500. When you make it into balance
springs for fine watches, that $5 bar of steel
is now worth $300,000. What makes a $5 bar of
steel worth $300,000? What increases the value? I'll tell you what-- heat, beating,
twisting, more heat, more beating, more twisting. And the more it goes
through those contortions, the more valuable it becomes. I think, like us, what
makes us more valuable? The trials of your
faith produce patience. Let patience have
its perfect work. So that is the culmination
of God's care for good. Let's twist that diamond
a little further. Let's look at Verse
28 from another angle, the condition of God's care. And we know that all things
work together for good. Here's the condition. Here's the audience, not
just to anyone and everyone but to those who love God-- I know that most of you do-- to those who are called
according to His purpose. You see, we can't take
Verse 28 and just quote the part of the
verse we like, "we know that all things
work together for good." Because that's not what it says. It's given to someone. It is to those who love God, to
those who are called according to His purpose. In other words,
it's for believers. That's just a simple
definition of a Christian. It is the definition
of a Christian from two different directions,
the human direction, those who love God, the divine
direction, those who are called according to His purpose. God's definition
of a Christian is you're called according
to His purpose. Our typical definition of a
believer is we love the Lord. The fact that we love
the Lord is proof that we are called
according to His purpose. But it's the same truth from
two different directions. He's simply
describing a believer. Now, Romans 8:28, there are
so many biblical examples of that principle proven true
in so many different lives. I was going through the
scriptures this week. And I thought of
several examples. I thought of Noah, Jacob,
Moses, Esther, Job, David. I thought of the census in the
New Testament Book of Matthew. I thought of Paul's
arrest and trial. I thought of Barnabas and
Paul in their conflict with each other in
the book of Acts. All of them, you can take
an insert Romans 8:28 and you can see it. But I'm going to leave you
with three examples that show Romans 8:28 three
different ways, all of them very famous examples-- two out
of the Old Testament, one out of the New. Number one, Joseph-- Joseph was a young man
who was misunderstood, who was the victim of
jealousy from his brothers, who had bad thing after
bad thing happen to him. Sold as a slave
to the Midianites. Knights Midianites sold him to
the Egyptians, placed in a home as the servant,
falsely charged of rape by Potiphar's wife, thrown into
pharaoh's prison, left there-- bad, horrible things happened. But when he met his brothers
at the end of the story, when they came before
him and he revealed, I'm the guy you sold
years ago as a slave, and they started
shaking in their boots, like we're dead meat. He said this, "as for you,
you meant this for evil. But God meant it for good
to save many people alive as it is this day." That's Romans 8:28 in
the book of Genesis. "You meant it for evil. God meant it for good to
save many people alive as it is this day." Here's the fruit. Here's why all those bad
things worked together to be really, really good. Because the truth
of the matter is, though they were bad,
evil things that happened, if Joseph were not
a slave, he never would have interpreted
pharaoh's dream, which means he never would
have been raised up in leadership to be the second
most powerful man on earth. Those bad things
that happened were synergized by a loving, caring
God so even Joseph could say, I know you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. That's the first example. Second example is when the Jews
went into captivity in Babylon. Babylonians came into
Jerusalem, sacked the temple, destroyed the
temple, burned it with fire, killed people, took
several of them captive, thousands of
them captive to Babylon. It was horrible. It was evil. It was wicked. Jeremiah wrote a letter
to those captives. He wanted them to know
God's heart behind it all. And he wrote these words,
"I know the thoughts I have toward you, says
the Lord, thoughts of good, not of evil, to give you a-- to give you a-- future and a hope." To give you a future and hope. You know that verse. You love that verse. Do you realize the
context of that verse was when all thee evil
things were happening, God wanted them to know he's
got something up his sleeve. He's going to work it
together to give them a future and a hope. So Joseph, captivity. The third example,
which is, to me, the best example of
all of Romans 8:28, is the cross of Jesus Christ. What could be worse
than killing God? That's the worst day
in human history. Falsely accused, kangaroo
court, put on a cross, bleeding, stapled to a Roman
place of execution. Yet it was the best
thing that ever happened. "For God so loved the world
that he gave His only begotten son, that whoever
believes in Him would not perish, but
have everlasting life." In fact, Peter, writing of
the event of the crucifixion, mixes in one verse both human
responsibility and divine sovereignty. He writes in the book
of Acts Chapter 2, "Jesus, Him being delivered
by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you
have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and slain." Yes, there is a culpability
that you have in doing this. It was wrong, what you did. However, God for-ordained it. He knew about it. He planned it. He gave His son. And Jesus gave His life. And what was so bad happened to
be so good for those of us who believe that that's enough. Faith in him is enough to
get us from Earth to Heaven. John Stott wrote these words,
"I could never believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of
pain, how could one worship a God who
is immune to pain?" Then he says, many
times in Asia I've been into Buddhist temples. And I've looked at that huge
statue of Buddha in repose-- his legs crossed,
his hands together, his eyes closed with sort
of a restful little smile. Obviously detached,
obviously aloof from all the pain in the world. And he says, I see that. And then I close my eyes and in
my mind, I look to the cross. And I see Jesus hanging
in agony and misery, with spikes through
his hands and feet, and blood coming down his face. And he said, that's
the God for me. Our sufferings become more
manageable in the light of a cross, not a
Buddha in repose. He felt it. He experienced it. He knows how
something so bad can become something so good
for those who trust in Him. That is Romans 8:28. Now, there's one final facet I
want you to look at in closing. I've given you five. The sixth is the
continuation of God's care. I want you to see
a big scope now. Look at verse 29 and 30. And we'll just
briefly look at it. "For whom he forknew,
He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His son that He might be the first
born among many brethren." Moreover, whom He predestined,
these He also called. Whom He called, these
He also justified. And whom He justified,
these He also glorified. Now we get a wide
panorama of God's care. Now we get the big picture. We go from eternity
past to eternity future, from predestination and election
all the way to glorification. These are the five golden
links, you might say, in the chain of
God's sovereign care. Look at them. He forknew. He predestined. He called. He justified. He glorified. Those five conditions take
you from eternity past to eternity future. But get this, four of
them are past tense. One of them hasn't happened yet. He forknew us. He knew us in advance. He predestined us. He chose you in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He called you. That was the day
of your salvation. You said yes, you
received Christ. He justified you
when that happened. We've talked all
about justification. But look at the last one. Whom He justified,
these He also what? Glorified. Well, guess what? That hadn't happened yet. You're not glorified. I'm looking at you. You're not glorified. Hadn't happened yet. I'm not glorified. You can see this. This is not glorified. But God writes
about it past tense. Why? That's how sure He is
that it's going to happen. Your glorification
is as certain to God as Him choosing you before
the foundation of the world, and electing you, and calling
you, and justifying you. The next step, glorification,
done deal to Him. So that is the
continuation of God's care. It didn't just stop with the
trial you faced last week. It's going to happen. And He'll continue to
display His care forever. There was a father and his
son putting a puzzle together. The son, the boy,
looked at the puzzle. There were dark pieces
and light pieces. There were big pieces
and small pieces. And he was trying
to figure it out. And he couldn't do it. He quit in frustration. His father came in
whistling, smiling. Put the puzzle
together in no time. Little boy, still frustrated,
said I don't get it. How could you do it
and I couldn't do it? The Father said, I knew what the
picture was like all the time. He said, I looked at
the front of the box. I saw the picture
and the puzzle. Son, you only saw the pieces. Right now, you might be
holding a pretty dark piece of your puzzle. It's a dark pixel on the screen. I don't know why this piece. Where does this go? Why would God allow
this to happen? He sees the whole picture. Are you OK with that? The question you need
to answer in leaving is, are you OK with
knowing that He knows? You don't know. You can't figure it out. But He's got the
big picture in mind. Are you OK with that? Because Job, who lost family,
and health, and bank account was OK with that. He wasn't OK with the bad stuff. But he ended up by saying
this, "though you slay me, I will trust you." I don't get it. I don't understand it. I don't know why. But I don't need to know
why as long as I know You because I know
that You care and I know that all things
work together for good to those that love God. And Lord, I love
you and I trust you. And though You slay
me, I will trust. That's where we
must leave whatever we're dealing with today
as we leave here today. Father, we do that. We close in prayer. I'm saying that we
don't understand all that has happened
or is happening to us. We don't know why. We understand that there might
be a purpose in certain things. But this? And because we don't
know, we are talking to the only one who does know. We certainly never
want to abandon what we do know because
of what we don't know. We know You. We know You care. We know You love us. We know that with
that certainty. We can rest. Father, I pray
that we would grow, that at the end of
the trial that we're facing, that there would be
PTG, post-traumatic growth, not just because of a natural
psychological phenomenon of readjusting to
the world around us, but readjusting in
faith to the God who is overseeing all things. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and let's sing
together an anthem of worship. [MUSIC PLAYING -
HILLSONG UNITED, "TOUCH THE SKY"] You find
me here at your feet again, everything I am. Reaching out, I surrender. Come sweep me up
in your love again. And my soul will dance
on the wings of forever. And my heart beating,
my soul breathing, I found my life
when I laid it down. Upward falling, spirit
soaring, I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground. Thank you for being
with us this morning. We love you. See you next week. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
