Title: God at Work
Text: Rom 8:28

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago life isn't always fair. Things don't always turn out the way we expect them too or want them to. Life is full of ups and downs, bump bruises, mountains and valleys. Sometimes the other team wins the big game, the other person gets the job, sometimes the job is just not there any more. Sometimes when you think you are on top the bottom falls out, when you think you have things figured out you find a dead end.

It just for these situations that God has given us one of the most reassuring promises in the Bible. It is the assurance that regardless of what you are going through God is at work in and through the circumstances of your life.

Paul was very specific when he wrote this verse making sure we know to whom God gave this promise. It is a promise to believers. Believers are identified by Paul in two ways: Those who love Jesus and those who are called.

Calling refers to the action of the Holy Spirit in calling individuals to repentance and faith. It is another affirmation that the initiative for salvations is always from heaven downward. The Shepherd seeking the lost sheep.

The called are those who have responded in faith to God's offer of grace and have entered into a relationship with Him through Christ (1 Cor 1:9). The bible affirms those who have come into a relationship are those who love Him. We should again remember that love is not simply emotional attachment or feelings, it is a giving relationship. The Bible says we love Him because He first loved us additionally believers are identified as those who love one another. John explained that love is manifest through obedience in his gospel. Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. " (NAS) So we understand this promise is given to those who have been called by grace, followed by faith and demonstrate love by obedience to Jesus Christ.

Verse 28 begins with the words, "And we Know." Often when we look at this verse we fail see the importance of those words. As believers, ". . .we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to {His} purpose." (NAS) There are a great many things in life that are uncertain and do a great many things we don't know. But this is not one of them. Paul says this we know for certain.

We know that "God works", or is at work, in our lives. God is ceaselessly, energetically and purposefully active on our behalf. He is not the unknown watchmaker who sets things in motion and then takes no interest in what happens. He knows, he hears, He listens and He works.

He works for our good. "God causes all things to work together for good. " Some reject this idea because they believe it is unrealistic. But Paul didn't say that God makes all circumstances in our lives good circumstances, but that God can and does bring good out of bad. We've all heard the sayings make the most out of what life gives you, or if life gives you a lemon make lemonade. That's exactly what God does in our lives, if we let Him.

When I say "if we let Him" I mean that when things go bad we have two choices: we can either turn to God in faith and dependence or we can turn away from Him in anger, or disgust or pain or whatever emotion we might be feeling. When we turn away if doesn't stop God from working things for our good, but it makes it harder for us to realize and experience the good that God brings about.

We don't always understand what God is doing, or how He is doing it nor do we always welcome it. But we know that in all things He is working towards our ultimate good. One of the reasons we know this is because we are given examples of it in Scripture. Take for instance the life of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his own brothers. But God used that cruel act and brought about good. After the death of Jacob his brothers were worried in Gen 50:15, "they said, 'What if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and pay us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!'" (NAS) But Joseph understood that God had accomplished good from his situation.

Gen 50:19-2019 But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? 20 "And as for you, you meant evil against me, {but} God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. (NAS)

Similarly Jeremiah wrote to the Jews in Babylonian exile, after the destruction of Jerusalem, "I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."' (Jer.29:11). The same harmony of human evil and divine plan had its most conspicuous display in the cross, which Peter attributed both to the wickedness of men and to God's set purpose. (Acts 2:23; cf. 4:27f.).

There is a praise hymn we sing that says "our God reigns." God reigns over all creation. He is not limited by my circumstances, nor bound by my circumstances but His is involved in all my circumstances. If you are a believer God is involved in every situation and circumstance of your life, good and bad. You are never alone.

God is not confined to a particular place, nor a particular event, or particular time. He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. That means He is everywhere at all times, He is all knowing and He is all powerful.

David understood this truth. Listen to his words in Ps 139:1-16:

1 O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known {me.}2 Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar.  3 Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all.  5 Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me.  6 {Such} knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is {too} high, I cannot attain to it.  7 Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?  8 If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.  9 If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,"  12 Even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike {to thee.} 13 For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb.  14 I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.  15 My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, {and} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.  16 Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained {for me} when as yet there was not one of them. (NAS)

Most often it is the hard times that teach us the most important lessons about faith.

Here we have both [morfee] (grk 3444) and [eikoon] (grk 1504)used to express the gradual change that takes place in us until we finally acquire the likeness of Christ. This change is inward and not merely superficial conformity. (from Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament)

In 2 Cor 3:18 Paul wrote: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. . ." (NAS)

God's ultimate goal for us is to make us like Christ. "As we become more and more like Him we discover our true selves, the persons we were created to be." (LAB note Rom 8: 29) How do we become more like Him? By submission and obedience to His will.

While some believe that verses 29-30 mean that before the beginning of the world God chose certain people to receive His gift of salvation, others believe that God foreknew those who would respond to Him and those He then marked for salvation. I believe neither is correct. "In the present context predestination and foreknowledge are not concerned with election to salvation." (Mounce, NAC, vol. 27, p. 189). But, what is evident is that God's purpose for us was not an afterthought. God planned in eternity, before the foundation of the world was ever laid, that those who responded to the grace He freely offered through Jesus would also be brought into moral conformity to the likeness of Jesus, whom He sovereignly determined would be the Lamb who would die as an atonement for sin and who would rise from the dead that we might have eternal life.

There is a wonderful song we sing that says, Because He lives I can face tomorrow, because He lives all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future life is worth the living just because He lives.

We know Paul wrote, "that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to {His} purpose." (NAS)

Our hope may be unseen and it is not yet fulfilled as it will be, but it is not uncertain. We know that Jesus is Lord of all. Lord of all my circumstances, all my trials all of my life if only I will let Him. Will you surrender your all to Him, will you give Him your heart?

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