INTRODUCTION,
A $75 basketball in my hands is playing a pickup game in the church gym. A $75 basketball in the hands of Michael Jordan is a world championship and an NBA MVP.
A $900 set of golf clubs in my hands is spending $25 for a green fee and an afternoon of frustration. A $900 set of golf clubs in the hands of Tiger Woods is over $6,000,000 in annual winnings.
A $50 football in my hands is playing catch in the park. A $50 football in the hands of Dan Marino is a future a Hall of Fame quarterback.
A hammer and nails in my hands is a misguided home improvement project. A hammer and nails in the hands of Jesus Christ is the glory of God and the salvation of mankind.
It makes a difference whose hands are at work. And according to our text today, for those who love God and place things in his hands, ... things work out for good.
This doesn’t mean that all circumstances are good in the Christian life. But it means that even the most difficult of circumstances, when controlled by God, can work out for our good.
We are looking at a series entitled “God’s Treasures”. Those unique gifts from God which emphasis his love for us. We have looked at Forgiveness, The Holy Spirit and Hope and today we turn to the idea of Our Security in God’s hands.
When you think of security today what comes to your mind?
Financial Security – this kind of security gives us options, we can go places, we can buy things, and we can enjoy the good things of life if we have financial security.
Homeland Security – Security which gives us protection against terrorist, our government is spending 100’s of millions on this type of security
Social Security – a monthly check to help supplement your income in your golden years
Security of Health
Security of Serenity – that all of your life is working out just as you had hoped for and planned.
Webster Defines SECURITY – as the freedom from risk or danger, the freedom from anxiety or something that makes us feel safe. Lets look at those again “security thoughts” again
Finance – can be fleeting
Homeland – since 9/11 we realize we are not always secure
Social Security – not very much is it?
Security of Health – bodies are changing
Security of Serenity – a phone call or a knock at the door can change that instantly.
SO WHERE DO WE FIND OUR SECURITY?
There is only one place – In the arms of God
Warren Wiersbe - There is no security in things. In fact, things are deceptive: they appear to be satisfying and lasting when they are actually temporary and unable to satisfy the deepest needs of life. ... Certainly, God wants us to enjoy the blessings of life. There is nothing spiritual about sitting grimly in a corner and saying, "These things will not last anyway! Why enjoy them?" God wants us to enjoy his good gifts, just as we want our children to enjoy what we give them. But he does not want us to depend on things--He wants us to depend on Him.
God wants to provide for us a security that comes from trust him. Today I want us to see the benefits of his security and how we can live in a world full of insecurity.
READ TEXT ROMANS 8:28-34
1. A Promise if Given
Paul begins in verse 28, saying we know that all things.
The word “know” conveys an idea of absolute certainty. It is not something we wish or hope for but we can know this without a shadow of a doubt.
All things God works for the good
The text does not say God causes all things to occur. The Bible tells us he does not cause sin and evil. Rather God is constantly working things out for good. The idea is that the Lord is using everything that comes into our life and working it out for good. We may not be able to figure out the why and how of a particular situation we are going through, But God is crafting it, molding it and shaping it to turn out to be good.
The promise is given to certain people.
Last part of verse 28 reads he is working things out for the good for who? Those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
The idea is not that God is this benevolent Grandfather trying to make everyone happy, but there are a group of people to whom he is actively working in their lives. THOSE WHO LOVE HIM AND ARE CALLED BY HIM. The promise has two distinct conditions
Called by him – Invited by Him. (banquet) God has always been calling for those who would come to him.
Jesus told a parable about the calling nature of God with a great feast.
Peter told the audience at Pentecost, God was calling them when he said – The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call." Acts 2:39
UNDERSTAND THE FIRST PART OF OUR SECURITY COMES BECAUSE GOD IS CALLING (INVITING) US TO BE WITH HIM
We respond to his calling by LOVING HIM. What does it mean to love the one who has called you? Love for Jesus is not simply to say you love him. It is far greater. Oswald Chambers Love for the Lord is not an ghostly, intellectual, dreamlike thing; it is the intensest, the most vital, the most passionate love of which the human heart is capable.
Cal Thomas said Love talked about is common, but love demonstrated is rare.
Since God has called us (INVITED) us how do we demonstrate our love for Christ? God is working things out for Good if you display the following traits of Love for God in your life.
First, godly love longs for personal communion with the Lord. It was that desire which led the psalmists to proclaim, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1–2), and “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth” (Ps. 73:25). David prayed, “O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; my soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips will praise Thee” (Ps. 63:1–3). Speaking for all faithful believers, the sons of Korah exulted, “My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house! They are ever praising Thee” (Ps. 84:2–4).
Second, genuine love for God trusts in His power to protect His own. David admonished fellow believers: “O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves the faithful” (Ps. 31:23).
Third, genuine love for God is characterized by peace that only He can impart. “Those who love Thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps. 119:165). As believers, we have a divine and secure peace that the world cannot give, possess, understand, or take away (John 14:27; 16:33; Phil. 4:7).
Fourth, genuine love for God is sensitive to His will and His honor. When God is blasphemed, rejected, or in any way dishonored, His faithful children suffer pain on His behalf. David so identified himself with the Lord that he could say, “Zeal for Thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me” (Ps. 69:9).
Fifth, genuine love for God loves the things that God loves, and we know what He loves through the revelation of His Word. Throughout Psalm 119 the writer expresses love for God’s law, God’s ways, God’s standards, and all else that is God’s. “The law of Thy mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72); “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (v. 97); and “How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (v. 103). David testified: “I will bow down toward Thy holy temple, and give thanks to Thy name for Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth; for Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name” (Ps. 138:2).
Sixth, genuine love for God loves the people God loves. John repeatedly and plainly asserts that a person who does not love God’s children does not love God and does not belong to God. “We know that we have passed out of death into life,” the apostle says, “because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14). “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (4:7–8). In the strongest possible language, John declares that “if someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (4:20–21). In the next chapter he declares just as firmly that “whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments” (1 John 5:1–2).
Seventh, genuine love for God hates what God hates. Godly love cannot tolerate evil. The loving Christian grieves over sin, first of all for sin in his own life but also for sin in the lives of others, especially in the lives of fellow believers. To love the world and the things of the world is to love what God hates, and John therefore solemnly warns, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Eighth, genuine love for God longs for Christ’s return. Paul rejoiced in the knowledge that “in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).
Ninth and finally, the overreaching mark of genuine love for God is obedience. “He who has My commandments and keeps them,” It is amazing how many Christians treat God’s commands life a Restaurant Buffet, picking and choosing commands like one would pick items off a food bar. Obedience to God is tied both to love for God and love for fellow believers.
Although we are commanded to love God and fellow believers that love does not and cannot originate with us. Godly love is God-given. “Love is from God,” John explains, and therefore it is “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:7, 10). We are able to love only because God has first loved us (v. 19).
Friends you can be secure in knowing God is working out all thing s for good because he called you and you responded to that call by loving him.
2. Why is the promise made?
God has a purpose for working things out – He wants to do something in your life.
WHAT? Look at verse 29, For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. The reason God is working things out in your life is not that you will have a happy life or that you will live a stress free life, but that you will be conformed into the likeness of His son.
Conformed to the likeness of his Son – God is working things out, so that you will be like his Son – The word conformed is the same word where we get “MORPHED” that is to change from one thing to another. We are being changed into the likeness or image of his son. WHY?
HERE IS WHERE THE SECURITY COMES - that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. The LB puts it this way - should become like his Son, so that his Son would be the First, with many brothers.
The first what? What did Jesus do first? He conquered the grave, never to face death again.
Friends security is not – financial, Serenity or protection true security comes for God himself. For those he calls and those who respond in live are conformed to the image of God and are secure from the bonds of death
Notice the formula for our security – vs. 30, And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Again the living Bible makes it so much clearer. And having chosen us, he called us to come to him; and when we came, he declared us "not guilty," filled us with Christ’s goodness, gave us right standing with himself, and promised us his glory.
There is our security
Chose us
He called us
He declared us not guilty
Filled us with Christ’s goodness
Gave us a right standing
And promised us his glory
What a difference Jesus makes in your life. For if you have not responded to his call, not demonstrated your love for him. Then there is no security for you. You are lost and it is in the insecurity of being lost that you find a life of misery and heartache – but all of that can change today.
Vs. 30 says he gave us a right standing by taking away our sin. Everyone of us will stand before God, the question is what is your security on that day? Have you responded to his call, if not will you. He wants to work things out in your life, but he will only if you respond to his call and in turn love him – Love is to be demonstrated
Demonstrate your obedience today.
