1. Romans 8:28 is meant to be a comfort & encouragement to us.
• It’s like a soft pillow to rest a weary head.
• Yes, God is at work in this. Yes, God is using this somehow.
• Yes, God cares about me. Yes, God hasn’t forgotten me.
BUT… I know that it’s not always that comforting to hear this verse when you’re in the middle of a trial, a testing.
• The pain is so intense, that these words seem a little shallow.
• If YOU only knew what I was going through.
• If YOU only knew what I was feeling.
Friend, it’s because we don’t know what you’re going through that we reach out to God who does.
• Grasping throughout His Word for encouraging truths that help sustain you and carry you through.
• As we watch you go through pains we reach for that powerful pillar of truth to share with you… God is at work.
NOT EVERYTHING goes our way… we know that. We understand it.
• This word is full of sorrows & difficulties.
• Some folks experience more than others, but we all face them.
• Our Savior faced them and if we follow Him, we will too.
Romans 8:18 (NKJV) 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
LOOK WITH ME AT 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18
• Oh how tough times cause us to lose heart!
• Oh how tough times cause us to lose sight of eternity.
• But notice, they are but for a moment, working FOR US.
• Mark that, trials WORK FOR us not AGAINST US.
• And how do they WORK FOR US? God is in control.
Maybe you heard the story about a lost dog… His owner ran this simple advertisement in the newspaper:
``Missing: Brown dog with three legs, blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, broken tail. Answers to Lucky.’’
• Poor guy. There’s no purpose for all of that in him.
BUT TODAY we’re reminded of God’s promises to us.
• His promise to us is that He is working together for good everything that comes into our lives.
• The goal is to be made more and more like Jesus Christ.
• Nothing, absolutely, nothing is wasted by God.
THAT DOESN’T MEAN they are working together for our comfort, for our ease, for our continual happiness.
• NOR DOES IT MEAN that all things are good.
• BUT ALL things ARE working together for good and that’s the promise of Jesus aimed straight to our hearts and our minds.
• But it’s not a blanket promise. It applies to the ones that love God and live for Him.
• TO those… God is making us to be more like Jesus Christ.
• NOTICE v29, to be conformed into the image of His son.
It’s TRUE… not everything that happens to us is good.
• Some of them can be very bitter and sour and hurtful.
• For a believer, all these things work together by God’s great power to come out for OUR GOOD and HIS GLORY!
I have in my hand a COOK BOOK filled with all kinds of yummy and delicious recipes.
• There are dinners, lunches, a few breakfasts… and desert!
• Hmmmm desert. Who wouldn’t like a piece of yummy lemon cake now and then!
• But before we get to enjoy them, there is a process, a purposeful direction to take.
• There are ingredients:
6 egg yolks – 6 egg whites
1 tablespoon of lemon peel -- ½ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla -- 1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour
½ teaspoon cream of tartar -- ½ cup of sugar
¼ cup of lemon juice
1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
LET’S THINK THIS THROUGH… There are many things that are needed to make lemon cake. But by themselves…
• Well anyone want to eat a cup of flour?
• What to chew some butter, mixing in a little salt!? NO WAY!
• Drink the lemon juice straight. Chew on the lemon peels.
BUT what if we chose to not use the salt… I don’t like it.
• Or what if we chose to leave out the cream of tartar since it’s so disgusting by itself? Then the cake wouldn’t be!
GUYS, GALS, CHURCH FAMILY: God has a recipe for your life.
• God has a plan for your life.
• God will allow in measured quantities some things that you think are not desirable… unwanted.
NOTE: YUCK… what is this?
• Wouldn’t you like to pass on the RAW EGGS of life?
• Can we pass the sourness of lemons? Can we move on beyond the cream of tartar?
• We can’t pass on ALL the ingredients of life.
• The sour and sweet, good & bad… they come to us all.
BECAUSE GOD LOVES US, He’s working all things together for our good, for our best, for His will.
So often we read Romans 8:28 not ALL THINGS, “MOST” things.
• Sure, God is working MOST THINGS TOGETHER…
• OR God is working SOME THINGS together.
• But it’s true, God is working ALL THINGS for our good, to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Joseph understands this truth so well. His life speaks to us of a testimony of God working all things together for good…
• God’s recipe for His life had both its ups and its downs.
• Found in Genesis 37-50, Joseph’s life begins with His dad’s favor.
Jacob loved Joseph… so much so that he gave him a special coat.
• But His brothers hated him and threw him in a pit.
• From that horrible darkened pit, Joseph was then sold into slavery and ends up in a rich man’s home, Potiphar.
• Oh how successful he was in running Potiphar’s affairs that is until Potiphar’s wife takes a liking to young Joseph.
• She pursues him. He resists. He’s accused of raping her.
• Joseph then gets thrown into prison!
Can you imagine the struggle that could have come?
• IS this how your treat your kids God? Is this my reward for loving you, serving you, staying pure?!
• The recipe for his life included many sweet things.
• But there were also bitter & sour & caustic things.
• He wasn’t expecting a pit, prison, loneliness…
But we know the baker and the cup bearer come to prison too.
• Finally, after 13 years, Joseph is released to help the Pharaoh understand his dreams…
• He becomes Pharaoh’s right hand man!
YET anywhere along the way, bitterness could have easily set in.
• Joseph could have, at any moment, just said forget this!
• Nothing will ever change. Nothing will get better. I WANT MY LIFE BACK with my dad choosing me as his favorite.
BUT GOD SENT JOSEPH TO EGYPT. God was in it all!
• The path he was on was used greatly by God to get him to place of the palace. Flip over to Genesis 45:1-8
WOW… there is no bitterness in his heart, not even a little.
• HE calls his brothers close and doesn’t rub it in, doesn’t make them feel bad, he just forgives.
• Can u have that kind of heart w/ the people that have hurt you?
• You don’t really want them to pay do you?
• You don’t really want them to feel bad and be grieved and angry with themselves?
• All of those experiences will destroy their lives.
• You want them in a right place with Jesus.
What was the key to not becoming bitter?
• You sold me. You spent that money. You were happy when I was gone. You made our dad cry night after night.
• Who was really in it? GOD!
• You just think you sent me…
• But Joseph said 3 times… God sent me! (v5, v7, v8)
• Joseph knows… God sent me… God sent me… God sent me…
• You credit yourself with too much. God was in it all the time.
TURN OVER TO GENESIS 50:20
• You meant it for evil. God meant it for good.
• There is that end result God is after.
• That we might be changed, molded, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
• God is making us more and more like Jesus.
Not everything that happens is going to taste good.
• Some things are going to be very sour, very bitter.
• Some things that happen are very unpleasant.
• But when God works it all together in the right quantities and right amounts and right mixing and right heat…
• It always turns out your good and His glory!!!
Romans 8:28 is meant to be a comfort & encouragement to us.
• It’s like a soft pillow to rest a weary head.
• Yes, God is at work in this. Yes, God is using this somehow.
• Yes, God cares about me. Yes, God hasn’t forgotten me.
