WEBVTT 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:25.679 Today's reading is in Romans chapter 8 vers 26 to 30. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:44.320 And a question for today is who is God making us to be more like it says likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:49.759 But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groundings too deep for words. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:59.759 And he who searches hearts knows what is it what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for those saints according to the will of God. 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:08.319 And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:19.280 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:24.640 And those whom he predestined, he also called. 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:33.280 And so reads God's word. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Well, welcome to you if you join us while we were singing. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:36.640 My name is Mark. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:42.480 I'm one of the leaders here at uh at City Church, and you're very welcome here with us. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:53.120 Uh, do turn up Romans chapter 8, uh, just those four verses, uh, verses 26 uh to 30, either in uh a Bible or uh on your phone. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:56.000 You can look that up so that you're able to follow along with us. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.840 This is our uh penultimate week in the book of Romans. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:09.520 Uh, we'll conclude uh this section next week as we finish chapter eight, and then actually we'll not pick it up until the until the autumn time. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:18.319 Uh chapter eight, uh, today and next week, uh, throw up some questions uh around God's sovereignty and things like predestination and other fun stuff like that. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:20.800 Uh questions that will ultimately be answered in October. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:23.360 So I'm going to take the time to work out the answer to those. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:30.000 And uh and so you can come back if you cannot wait uh until then, you can come and talk to me uh afterwards. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.599 But we uh we spend the summer time uh going through the psalms. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.280 We always have done. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:42.000 This is our normal practice, and so we're picking it up uh again in two weeks' time in Psalm 76. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:52.639 We start in Psalm 1 and we do eight to 10 Psalms every summer, and uh that is our our summer schedule going through the the song book, the book of emotional outpouring. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:03:02.159 We've been in quite dense, um uh quite kind of philosophical, theological doctrine uh over this last little while. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:19.439 And so it's good just to take a kind of even just a brain break uh and go to a style of literature that is much more poetic uh and much more um uh I'd say uh what would you say, well, emotionally engaged in one sense, not that this is not that this is not. 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:26.879 Um last week, if you were here, uh the question that we were kind of wrestling with was well, is it is it worth it? 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:30.400 Is it worth being uh a follower of Jesus? 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:40.560 And unsurprisingly, perhaps, we concluded that the answer to that was yes, and we give and looked at two major reasons for that. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:56.159 The first was that uh, well, the reason why it's worth being a follower of Jesus is because God uh doesn't make you a slave, he makes you a son, that we're adopted as his children, sons and daughters of the living God, not merely his servants. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:05.199 And and we looked at maybe actually you relate to God like uh like a servant would a master, rather than a child would a uh a father. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:22.560 And the other reason uh that we saw why it's worth following Jesus is because all of the suffering of this world will one day give way to glory, and the suffering of uh that we go through has to be said in the context of the the glory that's so that awaits us. 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:28.959 That's what Paul says uh wonderfully in verse 18 of chapter 8. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:41.759 And this week flows from those reasons insofar as that we might ask ourselves, okay, well, I see that it's it's worth keeping going as a follower of Jesus. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:50.560 Uh, it's worth becoming a follower of Jesus, but it's a bit like standing at the base of a mountain. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:57.759 You say, okay, uh I see that it's going to be worth climbing up that mountain and getting to the to the summit. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.399 It's worth going on the hike to the top for the for the view. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:12.720 You've convinced me, Mark, that the uh that the vista that I will that I will see once I reach the summit is is worth it, that I that I won't regret it. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:23.839 But as you're lacing up your your hiking boots and you're getting ready for that walk up the mountainside, you're you're putting your pack on your on your back, and you've kind of got this niggle in your mind. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:27.839 You're thinking, well, yeah, but will I will I make it up? 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:34.160 I understand that it's worth beginning the hike, but will I make it to the summit? 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:40.959 Will I get to see the great panoramic view from the top? 00:05:41.439 --> 00:06:04.480 Perhaps what's worse is you you look out to the distance, out over the sea, and you can see just right on the horizon, there's there's some dark clouds, and you think, well, if the if the wind blows the wrong way, they're gonna be over here while I'm on the mountain, while I'm on this journey of following Jesus, there's gonna be a a storm that that comes in. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.399 And what's that gonna do? 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:08.720 Is that gonna mean that I'm not gonna make it? 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:11.360 Is that gonna mean that I'm gonna have to turn back? 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.560 Am I gonna be lost on the on the mountainside? 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:24.160 And so you begin to to feel anxious and to to say, well, I don't know if I'll if I'll make it, I don't know if I'll maybe I'll give up before I reach the end. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:31.360 Can I assure you that every follower of Jesus at one time or another asks themselves a question like that? 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.560 The kind of will I make it sort of question. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.680 My faith right now, it feels it feels weak. 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:39.279 I'm not sure that I can go on. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.560 And maybe that's exactly the place that you're you're in. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.680 How can I be assured that I will make it to the end? 00:06:48.720 --> 00:07:00.480 When the storms batter me on the mountainside of that journey of faith, having told me that it's that it's worth it, how will I know? 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:02.720 How can you encourage me? 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:08.720 What reasons for hope are there that I will make it to that great summit? 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:15.600 And that's where Paul pivots in these last, or in these next rather four verses. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:25.920 He gives us some confidence for the journey, some some hope, some encouragements that actually, yes, it is worth it, and you will make it in the end. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:31.920 Let me give you three reasons that I think Paul uh lays out in this text. 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:40.959 The first reason why you can have confidence in this journey of following Jesus is this that you don't travel alone. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.240 You do not travel alone. 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:49.120 Rather, you have the help of God's Holy Spirit. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:51.680 Have a look at verses 26 and 27. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:08:05.519 Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes, that is, he prays for us with groanings too deep for words. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:18.560 And he who searches hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:27.040 One reason that we can have confidence in our journey as followers of Jesus is that God has not left us alone. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:44.399 The Father has adopted us, the legal papers are signed as we saw last week, and he is on his way to take us home, and in the meantime, he has left his spirit with us to help us. 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:49.120 Who does the spirit help here? 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:54.720 Well, the spirit helps all those who groan. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:05.200 Last week, far too briefly, really, at the end of the of the sermon, uh, we looked at how creation is groaning. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.519 The creation itself, the whole cosmos, is longing for something. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:18.559 It's longing for the day when God would renew all things, when death and suffering and pain and sadness would one day come undone. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:24.960 And then Paul says that we ourselves, who have the Spirit of God, we groan. 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:39.440 We who have our eyes open to see that this world really isn't meant to be this way, and that the that this isn't all that there is, that there is a uh a new creation that we're journeying towards, that one day will come. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:45.840 And while we wait and experience the brokenness of this world, we groan, don't we? 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:53.200 We feel the the anguish and grief, we long for things to be made different. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:58.879 We groan in in sickness, we groan in sadness, we groan when in pain. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:13.440 I was thinking about this uh just this week as I was preparing this, and I have the sense that when I get when I get bad news, um, I don't I don't tend to cry, not immediately. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:20.320 Um what I think I do, and you can ask Philippa whether or not this is true, is I think I go around sighing. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:21.919 I sigh a lot. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:34.879 I remember um a friend mentor, the man who married Philippa and I, he he passed away not long after we were married, and he was he was a dear friend uh to each of us. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:48.559 And I just I remember that being a season of just sighing, just thinking of Mike, and even now uh as I was writing this, thinking again of Mike and the blessing that he was and finding myself sighing. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:11:02.879 Do you ever find yourself just sighing deeply because of something that is something that's going on in your heart that you can't quite articulate? 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.000 Something that's kind of inexpressible. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:11.120 And the best way to articulate it is in a sigh, in a groan. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.200 There's a wordless longing there. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:22.240 What has Paul got to say to us in those moments? 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:24.320 You see his encouragement? 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:25.360 His encouragement is this. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.519 He said God hears your sighings. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:35.840 That the spirit knows exactly what to do with wordless prayers. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:38.240 Isn't that an encouragement? 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:48.480 The spirit knows exactly what to do with wordless prayers, those longings that well up within us, and we don't even know how to put them into words. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.039 But the spirit helps us on our journey. 00:11:52.320 --> 00:12:04.879 And he knows the mind of God, and God knows the spirit, and the spirit is able to take those wordless longings and pray for us. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:07.679 And why do we need this help? 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:12.559 Well, Paul tells us that the spirit comes to help us in our weakness. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:20.399 Don't you sometimes feel weak and you don't quite know what way to turn, what the best choice is? 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:29.600 You don't quite know how best to follow God, or even if in this moment that you want to, you don't quite know what to ask for. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:30.720 What does the Spirit do? 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:33.759 The Spirit helps us in our weakness. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.559 Do you see how tender this is? 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:44.320 How warm, how beautiful this is. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:53.519 That God our Father, who has adopted us, who is on his way to bring us home, he knows our limitations. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:58.720 Think of the Psalmist who says that uh that God knows our frame. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:00.720 He remembers that we are dust. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:02.879 How strong is dust, really? 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:09.600 He remembers that there are times when we we feel so at the end of ourselves. 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:21.919 He knows that there are times because of our finite strength and finite knowledge and finite wisdom, that we simply do not know how to move forward. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:24.799 And our Father knows that. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:27.200 And he helps us in that. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:35.840 In our weakness, God does not sit back and simply say, Well, you've got to figure it out. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:41.200 Work it out and come back to me when you've realized what it is you really want to ask for. 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:44.720 You know the way I don't if you ever had a cat. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:51.679 You open the back door to the cat, and the cat stands with two paws inside the house and two paws outside the house. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.399 You kind of look at it and go, Well, are you coming in or you're going out? 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.240 Dogs don't do that, dogs just run in, right? 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:03.279 But a cat will just kind of stand there and we say, Well, hurry up and make a decision. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.360 God's not like that. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.759 And we're not like cats because they're evil anyway. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:20.320 He comes to us even when we don't know what to ask for. 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.679 The Spirit comes alongside us, tender and caring. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.120 He interprets our groaning. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.039 Do you know what do you know what that means? 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:41.440 That means that you have a God who doesn't just see you in your groaning. 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:44.000 He understands it. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.320 He understands it more than you do. 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:53.840 He knows what you mean when you sigh through the day, even when you don't. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.840 Moreover, I think there's even more help to be to be gleaned here. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.279 It's that the spirit helps us when we don't know how to pray. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:06.960 Do you see that in verse 26? 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:13.279 For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit intercedes for us. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:20.639 You ever pray prayers and you look back years later and you think, actually, I'm really glad that you didn't answer that prayer? 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:23.360 Yeah, yeah, the few of you have. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:34.960 Maybe you have prayed a prayer along the lines of um, please, Lord, let me let me pass this exam, let me pass this year. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:40.639 Don't let me fail this year and have to and have to repeat it. 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:50.879 And then you do fail, and you do have to repeat, or something happened, and that failure hits you, and you kind of look and you think, well, why did why didn't God answer that prayer? 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.240 Wasn't that a right sort of prayer? 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:01.120 And then you look back some years later and you think, oh, actually, that was the best possible thing. 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:06.720 That was the best possible thing for me, because what that did was it it taught me how to fail. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:12.799 It helped me learn resilience, a kind of dependence upon uh upon God. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:21.200 Yes, he didn't answer that that particular prayer to pass or to succeed in that moment, but but he did something far more wonderful. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:23.919 And I'm actually quite glad in retrospect. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.399 It wasn't fun in the moment, it was painful. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.200 I'm so glad that God didn't answer that prayer. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:36.720 Or you pray, Lord, please don't don't let this relationship end. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:38.480 I love this person, please. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:40.720 I want us to be for together forever. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:45.919 I I want to to be in a relationship uh with this with this person. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:54.320 But then the relationship does end, and you you're attempted to think, well, God, God, why did you why why have you caused this pain? 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:56.240 Why have you let me experience this? 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:57.600 Where where were you? 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.240 Why haven't you answered this prayer? 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:09.920 Then a decade later, you're married to someone else, you've you've fallen in love with your absolutely besought of it. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:15.039 And you look back at your previous relationship, you're like, God, I'm really glad that you didn't answer that prayer. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:16.640 Ah, again, see? 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.720 Because of because of what I have now. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:29.839 We don't really know what to pray for as we as we ought. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:33.680 But there's a groan behind those prayers, I think. 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.160 There's a groan, there's a longing behind them. 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:50.720 The the longing, the groaning uh to succeed in the person that God has made you to be, the groan, the longing to love someone and to uh and to pour yourself out to them and to provide for them and to love them. 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.839 That's those are legitimate longings. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:57.359 Yes, you didn't pass the exam. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.359 Yes, you broke up with that person. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:00.640 But do you what happened? 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:07.519 God heard the longing, the groaning behind those prayers, and he answered that. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.359 You see, and here's the point. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:19.359 God will always give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:20.720 Let me say that again. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:25.359 God will always give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything. 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:37.519 And so we can look back at what we think are unanswered prayers and realize, oh no, they've been asked, they've been answered in a far more perfect way than I could have ever imagined in that moment. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.799 I thought that the best thing for me was this. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.079 But actually, God was doing something else. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:52.160 He was hearing the groaning, the longing behind the presenting issue, ask, and he was meeting that. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:54.880 And the Holy Spirit helps us. 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.960 He understands the groaning, the longing, even better than we do. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.279 He prays for us, not against us. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:09.519 He's with us in our weakness, in our groaning, in our ignorance when we don't know what to pray. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:20.400 And so the first reason why you can have hope in the journey as you continue on, seeing following Jesus is worth it, is that you are not alone. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:26.720 God, the Holy Spirit, is with you, praying for you, even when you don't know what to ask for. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:41.359 The second reason, and there's three this morning, the second reason why you can have confidence, why you can have hope in that journey is this that even your sufferings work for good. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.599 Even your sufferings work for good. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:51.680 The Spirit takes our prayers and prays for us in line with God's will. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:59.200 And here we begin to see well what God's will is. 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:03.279 God's will is good, or sometimes they say the good. 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:08.400 I think the good is slightly more helpful for our understanding. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:09.920 But you see it, verse 28. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.000 Verse 28 gets put on calendars. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:17.839 People uh uh people love to uh to meditate on it and take it out of context. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:19.359 Let's remind ourselves of it. 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:26.559 We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:33.440 God is at work in all things for what? 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:39.599 For good, for the good of those who love him. 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:44.480 Again, let's unpack this a little bit more. 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:47.599 First, who is doing the working? 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:49.279 God is. 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:11.599 it just worked itself out. 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:13.680 It all just kind of came out in the wash. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:15.519 No, no, no, that's not what the verse says. 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:21.839 What the verse says is that God was working in all of those things. 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:31.599 So Christians are not determinists, insofar as we think that God has kind of wind up the world and stuff just shakes out for good. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:39.839 No, no, he's actively working in all things for the good of those who love him. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:44.240 What about when things go wrong? 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:49.200 Is God working in those things for for good? 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:51.039 Yes. 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:57.200 Suffering, pain, failure, loss, sickness, grief. 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:04.400 Even The mundane things, plans not working out. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:08.319 They're all part of the all things. 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:13.680 How many things is God working through and in in your life for good? 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:14.720 All things. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:17.839 It doesn't say he's working in all of the positive things. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:24.160 Sometimes the uh uh the bad things uh creep up and they kind of blindside God, they kind of take him by surprise. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:28.400 And well, but he's trying to kind of stack up more good things than than bad. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:38.720 He's working really hard to make sure that you only get good things, but sometimes a little bit of suffering, a little bit of grief that kind of slips through the cracks, and you know, God can't help it. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:44.640 You know, there's what seven billion people on the planet, you know, it's gonna finally slip through the cracks somehow. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:45.279 No. 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:54.319 He says that all things, even suffering, evil, pain, used by God to achieve his purpose, the good. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:00.240 God doesn't send evil, nor does he condone it. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:13.839 But in his good and sovereign care, in his majestic power, he is able to use those evil things for good. 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:17.680 You see two major examples of that uh in the Bible. 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:20.400 Let me very quickly give you an Old Testament one and a New Testament one. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:22.160 Old Testament one's Joseph, right? 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.799 Of technicolor dreamcoat fame. 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:28.799 Uh he is hated by his brothers because he's a bit of a jerk, right? 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:39.279 Um, and his brothers, uh, because his father favored him more than others, uh, they sell him into slavery and they tell Jacob his father that he's dead. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:46.240 He gets sold into slavery in Egypt and ends up um working for a man called Potiphar. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:53.920 His wife falsely accuses him of sexual assault, and he is put in prison, languishes in prison, uh, for years and years and years. 00:23:54.079 --> 00:24:03.519 And through God's working, he is given a series of dreams which cause him to be elevated in the Egyptian court so that he becomes second in command to Pharaoh himself. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:15.039 And as second in command to Pharaoh, he administrates the agricultural input and storage of Egypt so that people are saved through a famine. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:38.400 When the famine hits, uh, his brothers have no food, and they come down to Egypt because they heard that uh that the Egyptians had had some sort of foresight, and they they'd stored up loads of food, and so they go to buy grain to make bread, and and they they meet this man in Egyptian dress, and the man recognizes them as his brothers, but they don't recognize him. 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:53.119 And so they bow down before him, and uh uh and uh Joseph blesses them with food, and eventually he reveals his true identity to his brothers, and his brothers are terrified, they think, well, this is the end of us. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:57.519 They look at what we did to our brother, and now he's got way more power over us. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:00.240 And do you know what is what Joseph says? 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:12.799 He says, What you intended for evil, you actually intended evil, what you intended for evil, in selling me uh into slavery, in telling my father that I was dead, they had evil intent. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:23.359 What you intended for evil, God intended for good and for the saving of many lives, those who are alive today. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:32.720 That God worked even through the evil intent of men's hearts to bring about the good, the saving of many lives. 00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:35.039 What's our New Testament example? 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:40.240 Well, our New Testament example, brothers and sisters, is the cross of the Lord Jesus, is it not? 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:43.440 Who was intending good on that dark day? 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:49.680 I'll tell you one thing, Caiaphas and the Jewish leadership, they weren't intending good, they were intending evil, weren't they? 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:54.240 In their kangaroo, their kangaroo court and their false accusations of the Messiah. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:55.839 Was Pilate intending good? 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:56.960 No, he wasn't. 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:00.799 He was a Roman middle management, wanted to keep the peace. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:07.039 Uh, and and so he corrupts his political leadership by sentencing this man to death. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:08.000 What about Judas? 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:09.599 Was Judas intending good? 00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:13.519 No, in his greed and his avarice, he betrayed his friend. 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:22.240 All the way along, people were intending evil on that good Friday. 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:24.240 Who was intending good? 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:25.519 God was. 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:28.480 The saving of many lives. 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:29.759 Look around you. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:43.759 That even in the darkest event, the most corrupt, the most shameful act in all of human history, that God would come as a man and that we would murder him, God was using that to save the world. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:44.640 Do you see? 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:56.000 That God, in his sovereign care and his mighty power, works in all things for the good of those who love him. 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:09.680 And so, can I encourage you, when you're tempted to say something like, no good can come of this, this text would like to differ. 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:26.720 Maybe it is that actually you need to meditate on a truth like this and allow it to do battle with the fears and anxieties in your heart. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:34.799 Because even when life seems to have gone wrong, God still has your good in mind. 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:40.400 Now, let me be clear and give a word of warning. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:45.599 Who does God work all things for the good of? 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:49.359 Well, we see it there in verse 28. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:55.920 Those who love him and are called according to his purpose. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:18.000 You see, the sad reality is that for the person who is rejecting God, who is not a follower of the Lord Jesus, even the blessings that they experience, even the good material, God might be blessing you materially, might be blessing you relationally, but you're not a follower of Jesus. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:19.680 Let me give you a caution. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:23.519 Even the blessings do not work for your good. 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:28.240 Because they're causing you to forget God. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:32.079 They're causing you to think that you do not need him. 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:41.599 Be very wary of when God gives you everything that your heart desires, but not himself. 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:57.279 I've been skirting around it up until this point, but right now we need to address this question of well, what is the good that God is working for? 00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.799 Well, let me say that it's not just simply some generalized happiness. 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:10.480 God does not promise you as a Christian more happiness, more ease, more health, more prosperity. 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:13.519 No, those things may come your way. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.720 And when happiness visits your house, thank God for it. 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:21.200 But God has something far deeper, far richer, far more glorious in mind. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:23.359 And it's spelled out for us in verse 29. 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:25.440 Again, have a look at it with us. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:31.039 For those whom he foreknew, he also be predestined for what? 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:34.400 To be conformed to the image of his son. 00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:40.960 What is the good that God is working in your life for? 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.480 That you might be conformed to the image of his son. 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:53.200 That is, God is working in all things, the good and the bad, so that you might become more like Jesus. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:30:04.480 The good that God is supremely concerned for is not necessarily a change in your circumstances, but a change in your character. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:14.640 This is why he is able to work in all things, even things of suffering, even pain, he uses to do what? 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:26.480 Well, to deepen faith, to grow dependence, to build resilience, to strengthen resolve, to clarify hope, to fuel prayerfulness, to make us more like Jesus. 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:44.960 You see, in the short term being selfish and having all of your selfish desires met, it sounds great, but in the long term, it will destroy you and it will make you not a very nice person to be around. 00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:52.640 No one wants to be around the person who is who only ever gets their own way. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:57.119 So short-term good, long-term bad. 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:01.119 The opposite is true of our difficulties, of the suffering that we feel. 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:09.599 Short-term bad, there's plenty of uh in the Bible and certainly in the book of Romans, where God, where God acknowledges the pain is actually painful. 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:16.960 The suffering is actually hard and difficult, but long-term good. 00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:20.480 Suffering gives way to glory, as we saw last week. 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:25.279 You see how transformational this can be as you view your sufferings? 00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:30.880 Let me quote you uh just a couple of lines from a man called Jonathan Edwards. 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:41.599 Jonathan Edwards is an American pastor round about the uh the early 1700s, and and he says this uh on this particular text. 00:31:41.839 --> 00:32:07.599 He says that we may look down upon the whole army of worldly afflictions and see them as under our feet, and look upon them with slight and disregard, and consider that however great they are, however numerous they may be, let them all join their forces together against us and put on their most rueful and dreadful habits, forms, and appearances. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:14.720 Let them spend all of their strength, vigor, and violence with endeavors to do us harm. 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:19.680 It will all be in vain, Edward says. 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:33.759 Every trial, every grief, every pain, the Christian is able to look at it and say, the lower you lay me, the higher God will raise me. 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:34.400 Amen. 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:35.519 Amen. 00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:47.519 The more you wish to destroy me, the more that God will remake me into the image of his son, to make me more like Jesus, to be about that eternal good. 00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:52.079 This is the second reason why you can have hope for the journey. 00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:57.839 That God is working for your good even in suffering. 00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:10.559 Thirdly, finally, the third reason why you can have hope, why you can have confidence in that journey this morning is that God will bring you home. 00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:12.720 That God will bring you to the end. 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:14.960 Verses 29 and 30. 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:23.440 For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:32.960 And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:36.960 How do we know that we will make it to the end? 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:48.720 How do we know that we will ascend the summit through every storm and on that last day look out upon the panoramic glory of the goodness of God? 00:33:50.079 --> 00:34:06.079 Well, the answer here is that because God has forged an unbreakable chain wrought in eternity before the world began, which stretches on to the eternity before us. 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:12.559 That chain has several links. 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:14.639 Let me spell them out to you. 00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:16.639 They are all interconnected. 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:19.199 You cannot have one without the other. 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:27.440 All those that God foreknew, we'll unpack that in a second, all those that he foreknew, he predestined. 00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:28.639 That's the first link. 00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:31.679 All those he foreknew get predestined. 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:32.639 Next link. 00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:36.000 All those that he predestined, he calls. 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:42.800 All that he calls, he justifies, and all that he justifies, he glorifies. 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:44.880 Do you see what he's saying? 00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:50.480 Actually, you can cut out the middle link, so you need to say, All those that God foreknew, he glorified. 00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:59.119 All those that God knew in eternity past, he glorified in the new heavens and the new earth. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:09.679 He does not say that God, that those that he foreknew, he predestined. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:23.920 Some rejected the call, some went their own way, some even some slipped through his fingers, some changed their mind, and and then those who were left, he glorified. 00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:24.880 No, no. 00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:29.119 Those he foreknew, he glorified. 00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:35.119 Those who he chose before eternity passed, he brought through to the end. 00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:38.320 Not one is lost. 00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:41.920 All that the Father gives to me will come to me, says the Lord Jesus. 00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:45.679 And all those who come to me, I will never drive away. 00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:47.360 John 6.37. 00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:49.280 And what does God mean? 00:35:49.679 --> 00:35:52.559 Or what does Paul mean that God foreknew? 00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:56.960 You know, we'll get just do some easy things right at the end of the sermon, do you? 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:00.559 Let me tell you what this does not mean. 00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:07.280 This is what you might have been told in youth group, uh, and perhaps kind of still hold on to. 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:22.880 This does not mean that God somehow looks down the corridor of time and sees who it is, will freely respond to him, and so he predestines them. 00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:32.639 One of the reasons why that's not what it means is because that's not how foreknowledge is used in the Bible. 00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:37.679 Foreknowledge is not simply God's ability to see the future. 00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:42.559 Rather, it is it's a relational term. 00:36:42.719 --> 00:36:48.800 It's best understood as those who God set his love upon. 00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:51.039 Those who he chose. 00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:58.559 Those who he set his love upon, he predestined. 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:05.440 That is, that God chose to love you before you were ever born. 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:10.400 God set his love upon you before you ever did anything to earn it. 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:15.280 And from that love, he predestined you. 00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:28.079 Predestined here in this context, just means that God set a plan in motion that we might come to know him as our Father, the one who has set his love upon us. 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:33.280 And in the fullness of time, that plan unfolds in our life. 00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:42.000 And he speaks to us, he calls us, and our dead souls come alive, come alive. 00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:48.000 I want you to see, I want to try and impress upon you actually how beautiful this is. 00:37:49.440 --> 00:38:01.840 That God does not put a general call out to all humanity and say, Well, anyone who's willing, if you'd like to come, I'd love to have you. 00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:04.000 The door's open. 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:06.159 Does anybody want to come in? 00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:08.559 That's not what God does. 00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:11.119 It's far more intentional than that. 00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:20.320 It's that he loves you personally, it's that he loves you by name, that he has chosen to set his love upon you specifically. 00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:33.760 His plan is in effect, whereby all of your experiences, all of the things that you choose by your own agency, that they might be used by him to bring you to himself. 00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:38.719 And that he calls you by name. 00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:54.239 So as you accept the invitation to a Bible study, as you accept the invitation to come to church or to go to dinner with that Christian friend, or to fall in love with that person who's a Christian, and there's something intriguing about them that you want to get to know more of. 00:38:54.400 --> 00:39:07.519 And you voluntarily choose to be in that person's life, or you voluntarily choose to go to that Bible study, you voluntarily choose to be here this morning, and all the while you never sought him, you would never choose him. 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:25.599 Suddenly, his voice comes screaming through the darkness of your soul and floods your soul like light filling a dark cave, and you hear him calling your name, and he speaks to you and he says, Live, and in that moment you cannot stay dead anymore. 00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:28.880 That is the effective call of God. 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:32.480 And those who he calls, he makes a child. 00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:40.239 He makes them a child legally by justifying them, by forgiving their sins and bringing them into his family by adoption. 00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:45.840 And one day, one day, not too far from that, one day, he will change you. 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:52.079 He will transform you into something more beautiful, more magnificent than you could ever possibly imagine. 00:39:52.960 --> 00:40:00.079 All sin, gone, all shame, gone, all fear, gone. 00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:02.880 And did you notice the tense? 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:06.880 Right at the very end of verse 30. 00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:08.960 Those who he predestined. 00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:11.599 Yeah, okay, that's that's that's a long time ago. 00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:18.000 Those he called, yeah, he called me to himself 20 20 years ago, and that's when he justified me. 00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:22.719 Those who he justified, he also glorified. 00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:23.440 Do you see? 00:40:23.599 --> 00:40:24.960 Do you see how wonderful this is? 00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:27.360 It's glorified is also past tense. 00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:28.000 Do you see? 00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:30.639 It's not, and he one day will glorify you. 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:32.800 No, it's as good as done. 00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:42.400 That as he set his love upon you, that's how certain that you can be that he will bring you up that summit, that he will bring you to the end. 00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:47.760 And so he can put it in the past tense because it's as good as certain. 00:40:54.960 --> 00:41:03.039 And so our Christian experience, from our vantage point, we think, but yeah, I I said yes to the invitation to church. 00:41:03.440 --> 00:41:08.000 I I asked my questions in the Bible study and and pursued the answers to who Jesus was. 00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:12.320 I I asked him to forgive my sin and to change me. 00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:16.400 Yeah, but look back. 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:28.079 You ever have this experience that you look back over the course of your life and you see it with new eyes, you think, oh wow, God was working in that, and I didn't even realize that he was. 00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:32.079 All because he loved me, he knew me before I loved him. 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:36.880 He was looking for me when I had never thought to look for him. 00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:40.639 He saved me before I even realized that I needed saving. 00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:43.119 In love, he called me. 00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:47.679 And all those he called, he brings to glory. 00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:54.880 This is the assurance that Christ will hold us fast. 00:41:55.199 --> 00:41:56.079 This is the beauty. 00:41:56.320 --> 00:41:57.840 People think, oh, predestination. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:00.000 Oh, are you a Calvinist? 00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:02.559 Yes. 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:07.679 Only insofar as that's what I think this text is teaching. 00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:12.320