Romans 8:28-29
Purpose #3: You Were Created To Become Like Christ
Growing through tough times
Introduction
A. Sometimes life is easy
B. Sometimes we learn, grow, and laugh the whole entire time
C. Let me give you some good advice, enjoy those times!
D. Those times will not always be there
E. Those times will come and go
F. But the question becomes Are you growing trough tough times
G. Let me show you this video of some people who are going though a tough time
H. (Show Bonnie Witherall)
I. Tough time for all of them huh?
J. But yet noticed how there are handling it
K. They are moving on and learning from it.
L. Today we are going to look at how to grow during tough times
M. We are going to examine the verse that always gets quoted to us when we are facing a difficult situation.
N. Romans 8:28
I. We know
A. Explanation
1. Have you ever thought of live with out Jesus
2. I have.
3. I do not like it
4. It scares me completely
5. Knowing what the Bible says “All of sin and fallen short of the Glory of God”
6. And the wages of sin is death. Understanding that I have sinned countless of times
7. That would leave me with no hope
8. Life would not have any meaning
9. I would live in a constant state of terror
B. Application
1. But here is the thing, get this “We know”
2. We know we have hope
3. Our hope is not based on positive thinking…
4. Our hope is not based on wishful thinking…
5. Our hope is not based on Natural Optimism
6. Our hope is based on the truth that God is in complete control of the universe al all time, and he loves us
C. Illustration
1. When I was flying this week into Chicago. I admit I was a little scared. See I like to be the one in control. When I am in the car, I am driving about 90% of the time. I like the control. I feel more comfortable. But here I am in a plane having to put my hope in the Pilot
2. I know the pilot has to go through extensive training
3. I know that they have to check everything out on the plane before we take off
4. I know they have backup systems just in case
5. But it is scary to have to completely trust that pilot to get me there safe
6. But our hope in God is real. There is no scary part in it
7. God in control folks
8. Not only is he in control, he loves us
9. Now that is the person we want flying our plane
10. Because we know… because we have that correctly placed hope, we can proceeded with the rest of the verse
II. That in all things
A. Explanation
1. How many of you have ever said, “What good can come out of this?”
2. Let’s be honest, I believe we all have said that time and time again
3. We know that God is Holy, Psalm 99:9 tells us that
4. We know that what we do is not always holy
5. We know that we make mistakes,
6. WE know that we sin
7. We know when we do not do the things we should do
B. Application
1. Here the good news, God’s plan for your live involves “ALL” that happens to your
2. Death of a loved one, illness, debt, disasters, divorce,
3. God takes “all of them”
4. And what He does with them is amazing
C. Illustration
1. Think about it folks, God up there hanging on the cross, the cross does not mean as much to us today as it did back then, how about picturing an electric chair.
2. When He was on that electric chair, he did the most wonderful act of taking all the “Bad” in this world and making it good
3. Because of what he did, we have salvation
4. Think about it, he took the bad, and make it Good
5. He did that for “All” things
III. God works
A. Explanation
1. There is a popular world view out there called deism
2. In fact, many of our founding fathers on this country, including Thomas Jefferson, were deist
3. Now deist believe God Created the Heaven and Earth
4. They do not believe in evolution
5. However, they believe that once God created the Earth He sat back, and is still resting
6. They do not feel that he has any active role in the Earth today
B. Application
1. That is not true
2. See if you believe that God is love, if you believe that God loves us
3. Your quickly see that God is still operating in our lives
4. He did not put us on autopilot
5. He does not sit back in watch us on TV
6. He still is in control
C. Illustration
1. How many of you have ever played Sim City? It is a game were you basically get to plan a whole city. You zone property, you created hi-ways, make sure everyone has power, raise and lower taxes, control pollution and try and design the best city.
2. When I am playing, I will build a city and find areas that could use improvements. Maybe traffic is not flowing well, maybe we need more parks, and so I will improve it. Now improvements come at a price, there might already be something really good there, maybe the highest populated commercial zone, I will completely destroy it in order to make it better
3. God is much the same, he sees the sim city that he created, and will continue to work on it, to make it better.
4. Just like the Sims on the game can not improve the city by themselves, we can not improve ourselves apart from God
IV. For the good
A. Explanation
1. Guess what folk, everything in life is not good
2. There will be stuff in your life that happens to you that will not be good
3. Much of what happens, is evil
4. You can not sit there and say it was good for the world trade center to be blown up by terrorist
5. That was not good, that was bad
6. You can not sit there and say that is was good for those who were a part of Columbine, and were shot by there fellow classmates
7. That was not good, that was bad
8. Understand not everything is good
B. Application
1. God is in control
2. God will take those bad situations and make them good
3. God will take things that happen that to us seem horrible, and use it for growth.
4. Because of the World Trade Center disaster, we had people turning to God asking God to help them,
5. WE had prayer meetings popping up like crazy
6. We had people showing God’s love at a time in this countries History when we need it the most
7. In columbine, we had a girl named Rachel shot for being a Christian
8. You know what that did, it causes a memorial service, were 30 of Rachel’s peers came to know Jesus Christ! (Go read the book “Rachel’s Tears”
9. Was it good that Rachel was shot? NO! Did God make use all things for Good? Yes!
10. Understand this does not mean these situations were Good
11. It means that God is in control
12. God is at work
13. And He will make all things good
C. Illustration
V. Of those who love him
A. Explanation
1. WE have a little qualifying statement
2. Of those who love Him
3. If someone is dead set on not loving God
4. If someone is set on “doing his own thing”
5. That good that God promises us, will not happen
6. God makes it clear in this little phrase that it is only applicable to those who love Him
B. Application
1. So how can you make sure that you love Him?
2. Follow His commands.
3. Admit you are a sinner
4. Ask God to forgive you of your sins
5. And Ask God to come into your life and control your life
6. If you are hear and have not done that, I ask that you come and talk to me or one of the Elders now, or after the service
C. Illustration
VI. According to his Purpose
A. Explanation
1. WE have another qualifying statement here
2. According to His purpose
3. We often go wrong here
4. People will tend to stop following God because of misunderstanding of this phrase
5. We think we know what is best
6. We think we know what should happen in every situation of our life
7. Many of us would like to play God
B. Illustration
1. In the Movie “Bruce Almighty” the main Character played by Jim Carrery, basically gets fired, having problems at home, just having a horrible time. So he complains to God and says that he could do a better job then God could
2. So he gets to be God, as the movie goes along he realizes how hard it is to be God
3. Eventually he gives up control, and Let God be God
C. Application
1. Things will not always happen the way we wish they would happen
2. Things will not always go the way we wish they would go
3. But here is the thing: God has a plan
4. God has a reason
5. Turn to Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
6. See God is in control
7. God has His reason
8. God’s has Purpose!
Conclusion
A. Tough times are not a time to stop growing
B. Tough times are a time to stand and fight
C. Let me give you an example on how to do that.
D. (Show faith in the midst of fear)
E. They used a horrible situation, understand it was horrible
F. And choose to keep on growing.
G. So we come to a couple of questions?
a. What difficult situation am I going through?
b. How can I grow in spite of this difficult situation?
H. I want you to think about those questions
I. Maybe some of you are not going though a difficult situation right now
J. If you are not, REJOICE! (However, you will someday face one)
K. If you are, maybe you need to turn it over to God
L. Maybe you need to let God handle it
M. Maybe are here today and need to stop sowering in your own pity and ask God how to grow from the situation
N. If that is you, come up here to the relationship restorer
