“Yes, God is working even in that” is the comfort and encouragement of Romans 8:28
• As everything around us swirls in confusion & pain and difficulty… God is on the throne, in love, working…
Things can get real tough… as things don’t line up the way that we had planned or anticipated.
• Then before you know it, it feels like at times we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. & it’s heavy!
• Flip over to Galatians 6:1-5
APP: In our church we are surrounded by hurting people.
• Physically hurting. Emotionally torn up. Financially buried.
• You might say, “I didn’t know that.”
• But guys, shouldn’t you, shouldn’t we be actively trying to find them out? Praying for discernment to serve them?
• I know it that many say it’s the pastor’s job, the pastoral staff, the leadership… that’s their job.
• You’re right it is… to some degree.
• BUT it’s NOT JUST the pastor’s job, it for all of us.
• We’re all called alongside of each other to help.
NOTICE in Galatians 6:5, there is the exhortation to bear your own load. At first it seems to contradict what Paul just said.
But there’s a difference.
The BURDEN in v5 refers to a ‘soldier’s pack’ while the burden in v2 refers to a person ‘taking a hit in the chest’!
So everybody is to bear their own burden, their daily walk with the Lord but when somebody is blindsided or falls into sin…
• We’re to come alongside of them and carry the load with them.
APP: This is an important distinction here…
FIRST, we all have responsibilities that we are to bear on our own, our ‘soldier’s pack’. Bear your own burdens.
NOTE: We should not be people who are always trying to get someone else to carry our pack but those who are spiritual
• Carrying our own load while watching out to help others in need.
APP: Occasionally folks in the church will have their own burden and then some huge heavy situation on them as well…
• We should love them enough to say, “I see it’s heavy for you, I see that it’s bringing you down and causing you to wander off.”
• “Let’s pray. Let me help you.”
AND AS WE HELP… one the wonderful gracious tools in God’s Word in tough times is Romans 8:28… a pillow to rest a weary head.
• Read through it…
• Let’s break down this glorious verse together…
#1 - WE KNOW – Paul uses this phrase some 32 times in his writings.
• He uses a tense that says: We KNOW THAT WE KNOW.
• There is certainty & confidence in what we know of God!
NOTE: Christianity isn’t a philosophy or a few good teachings.
• It’s a certainty! We are connected to Jesus Christ!
• It’s a certainty! Every Word of God brings life to us!
• There are certain things that we know 100% to be true.
God loves us! He cares. God is tremendously faithful and will never leave us or forsake us. We know it… by teaching & experience!
NOTE: It’s true too, that there are things we just don’t know.
• We don’t have every answer we’re seeking right now.
• Especially in relation to the pain, the problems, and sorrows.
• But it’s important that we not give up the things that we know, for a few things that we don’t know.
OK… so the circumstances might not change, and you’re finding it impossible to rejoice in the trials…
• But you can, I can rejoice in the Lord!
• Turn over to Philippians 2.12-18
• One of the greatest evidences of our relationship with Jesus is seeing His joy lived out in & through us.
I don’t always understand the trials. I don’t always see the hand of God working behind the scenes. I don’t always get it!
• BUT I go through them, and I trust in the Lord, and I believe in whom I haven’t seen… and His joy becomes my joy.
• And here in Romans 8:28 WE KNOW that God is at work.
#2 - ALL THINGS – Don’t read this SOME things or MOST things, or JUST ABOUT ALL things.
• But the truth is God is at work in ALL THINGS in our lives.
• His work in and through our lives is ALL ENCOMPASSING!
• Now Paul isn’t saying that God will keep you from pain, but that even if you experience pain, God will use it in your life.
APP: IF YOU REALLY DON’T BELIEVE this, if you REALLY don’t think this is true, I bet those around you can tell.
• If we spent some time with you, we’d learn how you’ve become very mad & bitter & upset.
• We’d see how your relationship with Jesus has turned into anger and frustration over some of the ALL THINGS in your life.
• A root of the problem is that you don’t believe that God works all things together.
• You have that ONE THING that you just wonder, how can this one thing work for good. Friend… just wait & watch.
Psalm 27:14 (NKJV) 14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Psalm 37:7 (NKJV) 7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Psalm 130:5 (NKJV) 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.
Watch as God weaves it into the fiber of your life. It’s not fate or destiny, but the personal care of a loving God!
#3 - WORK TOGETHER – Like the recipe we looked at last time.
• Each ingredient is needed… but in right amounts, mixed in the right way, with the right amount of heat and time.
• God is working together the ingredients that sum is greater than all of them individually.
• Who wants to eat a cup of straight flour? YUCK?
• Who’s ready to drink 6 raw eggs? DISGUSTING.
• Who’s ready to drink a cup of unsweetened lemon juice?
• But together… having a piece of that lemon sponge cake!!!!
GOD takes the good… the bad… the neutral things in our lives and works them together… in measured quantities with an end in mind.
#4 - FOR GOOD – God has your highest good in mind!
• Turn over to Jeremiah 29:11
• Sitting captive under the rule of Babylon, God encourages.
• God says, I know my thoughts toward you… they are good.
• I love you and this time in Babylon will turn out for good.
AND IN YOUR LIFE, MY LIFE… IT’s FOR GOOD.
• I’m going to use that. You’ll be better because of it!
It’s to pause right here & remember the key of thankfulness.
• Turn over to 2 Corinthians 4:7ff (key on v15)
• Thank you for being in my life, working things together for good, caring for me, never leaving or forsaking me… I love you!
• And I thank you!
#5 - TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD & ARE CALLED.
• This promise is not for everyone, but only those who are saved.
NOTE: The unbeliever looks at life, watches the news, and sees randomness and chaos.
• So they try everything they can to control.
• They rely on the sovereignty of self.
• But believers see purpose and the sovereignty of God!
• There is purpose in your trials, if you know Jesus Christ.
Jacob learned this truth… the hard way.
• He had to go the long way around to understand it.
• We find Jacob in a time of life where he is reaping the harvest of mistakes from his younger years.
• Joseph was gone. – Reuben was disgraced. – Judah dishonored.
• Dinah was defiled. – Simeon in prison. – Rachel was gone.
• On top of all this, a severe famine threatened the family!
But there was more… there came the demand from Egypt that young Benjamin must appear before the governor!
• Hearing this… Jacob wept!
Genesis 42:36 (NKJV) 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.”
But he was wrong… Not only were the things in his life NOT AGAINST HIM… neither was God.
• We make that mistake too when we conclude God is not in all the situations surrounding our lives!
• These things weren’t AGAINST HIM but for him.
• Those things, and many more, were in the hand of God being worked out for his good and the good of his family.
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.
