It Will Work Out In God's Time

It will work out

By Russ Lawson

Aim: To help folks take a different view of the things that happen in life.

Theme: Learning to trust God…till the end...

Main Text: Romans 8:28

Introduction:

You may or may not know that I am a fan of Science Fiction/Adventure books, movies, etc. I was reading a Science Fiction Space opera book this week and was struck by one of the statements. It said: “It’ll work out in the end. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end.” (Leviathan’s trial).

That concept is hard for most folks to understand, much less believe, but none the less it is true.

I. Here is a major question for all of us: HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH LIFE?

I received the following story from a friend.

ILLUSTRATION: There was an interesting Sign on a storefront in Great Britain:

"We have been established for over one hundred years and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since. We have made money and lost money, suffered the effects of coal nationalization, coal rationing, Government control, and bad payers. We have been cussed and discussed, messed about, lied to, held up, robbed, and swindled. The only reason we stay in business is to see what happens next."

APPLICATION: So, How do you deal with life?

If we ever hope to make it through this thing called “life” then we are going to have to have the right attitude. I tend to think of life as an adventure, while I know folks who think of life as only something to be endured until something better comes along. Those folks never seem truly happy! They are always worrying about what bad thing is going to happen to them next. My wife and I have been married for 55 years and often talk about the great adventure it has been for us. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had our up’s and down’s, our have and have not times in our life, but I think it speaks to how we view life in general.

We have a faith in God that lets us believe that clouds do have silver linings and things do really work out for the good (Romans 8:28). Our faith allows us to see things differently from much of the world. We believe the promises we find in the scripture that God will provide for the necessities of our life if we make the effort to follow his word, (everything else we have is a bonus).

Jesus speaking in the “sermon on the mount” tells us in Matthew 6:25ff “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

Go ahead and read the rest of the passage, it’s powerful and will test your faith to believe it, but then that’s one of the purposes of life isn’t it? To test our faith and see just how much we really do trust God to keep his word?

So, How do you deal with life? Is it an adventure or a burden to be endured? On a movie title a while back were the words, “And the adventure continues!” (Remo Williams). It may seem strange, but I pray that for your life the adventure may continue or maybe more, and that you may view life as an adventure looking to Christ for your strength. Take a look at Hebrews 12: 1-2 about running the race to see what it’s all about..

II. HITTING A BRICK WALL!

Have you ever felt like you are hitting a brick wall in your life?

ILLUSTRATION:

I saw an interesting quote the other day. I don’t know who said it, but it is worth thinking about. It says, “Everyone hits a brick wall now and then; the trick is not to do it with your head.”

APPLICATION:

What is “hitting a brick wall”? It is American slang used to say, you have come up against a seemingly impassable obstacle. Each and every one of us comes against one of those every now and again don’t we? Our plans, our dreams or our goals just don’t seem to be going the way we had hoped. We run into problems, for which there seems to be no way around… the road is impassable. Well, what do we do? Like the quote said, “the trick is not to hit it with your head.” In other words, don’t let yourself become convinced that you can’t do it, that you can’t fulfill your dream or reach your goal.

One of my favorite stories is found in Matthew 14 about Jesus walking on the water. He comes walking up to the disciples who are about four miles out on the lake in the middle of a storm. The disciples understandable are scared to death, they think it is a ghost, a spirit, then Jesus tells them, “don’t be afraid, it’s me.” Then Peter, the impulsive one of the bunch says, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus says, “come on Peter.” Peter gets out of the boat and walks a little ways took his eyes off of Jesus and noticed how bad the storm was. His faith failed and he began to sink. Jesus saves him and all is well.