God's Purpose For Us

Alba 2-20-2022

GOD'S PURPOSE FOR US

Romans 8:26-30

Purpose, it is important in life isn't it. You find it everywhere. There is even a website called onpurpose.org. Its founder and CEO, Tom Tippin made the following statement:

“We believe in putting purpose before profit. We're a community that helps you find your work in the world: work that matters and work you care about. We believe that only by doing this will we have a chance of solving society's most difficult problems.”

They have a Pathfinder Programme which they say “is designed to enable you to live a more purpose-led life... in this shorter, online course you will use the principles of design thinking to help you create a life and career with intention and purpose.”

That company is located in England, France and Germany though, so it may not be helpful to give purpose to those of us who live in America.

But there is One who has a purpose to provide what we truly need.

The Lord God has purposed several things that meet us in our need.

We find the things that reveal the purpose of God in our text for today, Romans 8:26-30. Lets read:

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28 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. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

These verses show that God's purpose is to provide good for those who love Him and are the called. So what does it mean: called according to His purpose? I think the context of this statement provides the answer. First we see...

1. God's Purpose is to Give Us Power for Our Weakness

Verse twenty-six says the Spirit helps us in our weakness. The Greek word translated “helps” is used only one other time in the New Testament in Luke 10 when Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her.

This word help means to bear a burden. So when the Spirit helps us in our weakness it means that He shoulders our burdens with us.

The implication here is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t just take the burden off of us completely and carry it Himself. Instead He offers to bear the burden with us and lighten our load.

Let’s admit a sobering truth—we are saved in weakness. We are not saved because we have something that commends us to God. We are not saved because we are able to make ourselves desirable to God.

We are saved in weakness. Romans 5:6-8 speaks of our condition: “For when we were still without strength, (In other words while we were still weak) in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The power salvation does not come from within ourselves. It comes by the grace of God through the cross of Christ.

And sadly, weakness continues to mark our path through this darkened world. We are susceptible to giving in to temptation, and very much aware that we are sinful beings.

The Spirit of God has a lot of work to do if we are to succeed in this pilgrim walk. I suspect that I’m not speaking only for myself. I imagine that too often each of us feels inadequate to be able to stand firm as we should.

When our life is compared with the Living God we see how weak we are. 1 Corinthians 1:25 reminds us that, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.

In the verses just before that one, in I Corinthians 1:23-24, the apostle Paul says that though we are weak, God has given a source of power. It says...

“23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.