God at Work in Us
Romans 8:28-30 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 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. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Intro: Paul is writing to believers in Rome, both Jew and Gentile. Sometimes when we get to these verses we seem to forget where Paul was going in His teaching and encouragement to the Christians at Rome. We get off on the idea of the saints and the aints, as if God was playing eeny-meeny-miny-mo one day and randomly chose some people and rejected others. But Paul is affirming believers here who have trusted in Christ and are facing hard times, and are working out their cultural differences. He has already told them that nobody is good enough for God or for His heaven. But now in chapter 8, he wants to encourage them: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! You are not controlled by the flesh or natural earthly desires because you have the Holy Spirit living in you! And the HS confirms that you are a child of God and through Him you cry out, “My Father” or “Daddy.” And as God’s kids you are heirs of God with Christ, sharing His sufferings and one day His glory. The groans from your suffering are heard by God. Even the HS groans in prayers for you that there are no words for.
-What is Paul getting at here? God is at work in you, helping you become all He wants you to be, as His people! So as we look at 5 basic words from vv.29-30, realize that they describe the work that God is doing in His people. It should encourage us to know that God’s work in us is so much greater than our work in us could ever be! A few verses later Paul will indicate that God is for us! He’s working in us. Even when we don’t know how to pray, both the HS and Jesus Himself are praying for us! So let’s look at God’s work on our behalf.
1. God knew you before you ever took your first breath!
-Foreknown
-God sees and knows everything before it happens. He designed you to do life with Him! He saw your failures and weaknesses way before you ever knowingly messed up. Yet He loved you anyway.
Psalm 139:1-17 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in-- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
-God noticed you long before you had any self-awareness or desires or dreams or goals! More than that, He knew you closely. To be known by God is to be loved by God! Remember how Jesus responded to those who made a claim to know God, but didn’t do anything He said?
Matthew 7:21-23 21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
-If your faith is in Jesus, you can be sure that God foreknew you long ago.
2. God’s plan for you is to become like Jesus
-Predestined to be Conformed to the likeness of his Son
-Man was created in the image of God, but that image has been marred by sin. God not only knew you beforehand, but He gave you a destiny! He chose you to be someone who can represent His Son Jesus accurately. This is God’s purpose for you, which, by the way, He is bringing about!
-You may not see it happening, but He does! That is why v.28 says that He is working in all things to bring about His good purpose in your life – making you more like Jesus each day, through each trial!
-God is the master painter who uses the colorful events and even the darker shades of life to produce the likeness of His Son Jesus on the canvas of your life. To be like Jesus seems easy when things are going well, but as we are constantly reminded, things do not always go well. However, God is using all things to make us more like Jesus.
3. God has called you to embrace His life through Jesus
-Called – He has called you by name, He has called you to salvation and life with Him forever, He has called you to follow Him.
-This is no generic calling! God has called you to Himself! He has called you to do life with Him forever! V.28 speaks of those who are called according to His purpose. So we’re right back to our purpose or our destiny that God foreordained – that we would be conformed to the image if His Son – that we would be like Jesus!
4. God has declared you righteous because of your faith in Jesus
-Justified – made you right with God! Put the righteousness of Jesus on you!
5. God already sees the glorified you!
-Glorified – Here is the Implication: With our faith in Jesus, heaven is ours! We don’t have to wonder whether or not we will make it to heaven. Bottom line: If our faith is in Jesus Christ (and it’s not dead faith that’s all talk and no walk), then heaven is our home! Our main concern here on this earth is to take as many people with us as possible, not wonder if we’ll be allowed in! We are as good as glorified already because God knows those who are His and He decreed our glorification long ago. Because God saw us and knew us before we’d ever lived a day of our lives, He marked us as His very own. Is it because we were so worthy of Him that He chose us? No! There is nothing we can boast about that gives us an “in” with God! The greatest thing we have to offer to God is our own brokenness. If we think we’ve got it all together or just try to make it up as we go, God resists us in our arrogance. But when we humble ourselves before Him and recognize how much we need Him, the Bible says He will lift us up.
-So the language of glory in the Bible often refers to heaven. To be glorified can mean to be placed in the very glory and presence of God. Yet, we are moving from glory to glory right now as we do life with God and are being changed into the image of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
-If you are not being “glorified” in your daily walk with Christ (moving from one level of glory to another), how are we going to be glorified all at once when He comes for us? So in one sense, we are “glorified” when we put our faith in Jesus and are made right with God. Here’s what happens: 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
-We are not the source of this glory. Jesus is! And the closer we get to His face, the more His glory will be seen in us! The more we allow God to work in us and change us to the image of His Son, the more “glorified” we will be.
Close: So be encouraged today that God is at work in His church as a whole. God is at work in those around you! And God is at work in your own life. He knew you, He gave you a destiny to be like His Son, He called you, He made you righteous because of your faith in Jesus, and He put His ever-increasing glory in you, which one day will culminate when Jesus appears and you appear with Him in glory.
-I’ve been speaking primarily to those who are “all-in” with God this morning. You’ve chosen to answer the call to receive God’s forgiveness and follow Him. But maybe you’re not really sure where you stand today. I don’t say this to discredit God’s work in you. It is very possible that God has been working in you all along, but maybe you’ve never made a conscious decision to answer His call. If you’ve never responded to God’s invitation to share in His life and receive His forgiveness, then God’s work in you is somewhat limited. This is the same thing that Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3: “Nicodemus, you must be born again – [spiritually].”
-There comes a time when we all need to open the door wide to God’s work in our lives. If you haven’t done that yet, I believe you can sense God calling you to do so today. If so, will you do it? Will you invite Jesus to be the center of your life? He will forgive you, heal your life, and fill you with His life! He will make you come alive spiritually. He will shine His light into your heart and begin to change you to be like Him. If that’s you, would you respond to Him so He can get to work in you? [Bow heads, If you want to open your life to Jesus today, please lift your hand, pray with and for.]
