God Will Work Things Out!

Let's start this off with an illustration.

One spooky Halloween night, a young man approached an old, abandoned house at the end of a deserted road. His friends had dared him to spend the night in this house that everyone knew was haunted. Tales of hauntings had been embellished over the years as kids repeated them at campfires and on late-night excursions. Whenever there was a full moon, they had heard the 3 previous owners of the house, who had allegedly died gruesome and painful deaths, walked about inside the house, moaning out their anguish and plotting their revenge on the living.

That Halloween night, the young man cringed to see that the moon was indeed full. Clutching his father's shotgun a little more tightly, he slung his bedroll and canteen through a broken window and entered the house. Finding his way through the cobwebs and trash to the master bedroom, he laid out his bedroll next to the fireplace, in the very spot where the owners gasped their last, terrified breath.

Several hours passed, but he was unable to sleep. He had a strange feeling that someone else was in the house with him. He felt for his shotgun at his side. The reassurance was small compared to his growing sense that he was not alone.

At midnight, he heard what sounded like footsteps. A few minutes later, he thought he heard something scratching the walls. Who or what could it be? Forcing his panic down, he waited until the sounds stopped. The silence was no comfort, however, and as he grew more and more anxious, he began to sweat. Within a few minutes the scratching returned and was followed by a low anguished moan.

Slowly and silently, he lifted the shotgun from beside his bedroll. Clutching the gun tightly in his hands, he strained to see through the darkness what had caused him such mortal fear. The boarded-up windows kept out all but the faintest reminder of moonlight.

Suddenly he saw them. Staring back at him from the foot of his bedroll, were two BIG hideous-looking eyes. Slowly he raised the barrel of the shotgun and tried to steady it with his trembling hands. BANG! What happened?

He shot off his big toes!!

Often times darkness keeps us from seeing clearly. Walking in the dark, it's very easy to stumble and fall, and to make bad decisions. We can end up shooting off our own toes. Christ warned us about walking in darkness in 1 John 1:8 - "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."

Sometimes life seems dark. Sometimes it seems that everything we do, we say, every event, every aspect of our lives - it's like shooting off our toes - we get scared, worried, living our lives in what seems like a losing battle.

Some things that affect us dramatically but yet we seem helpless to control include:

• Events in our lives

• People around us

• Occurrences that touch us

• Things beyond our control

• Things we can't be in charge of

Sometimes our world comes crashing down around us - we throw up our hands and say "What's the use? It doesn't matter".

Have you ever felt this way? I sure have. I've asked, "Where's God? What would God let something like this happen? Isn't God in control anymore?"

These are all fair questions. As a Christian, we need to question, to seek, to search for answers. But we must - in all things - search through GOD!! We must seek through God's word in order to find HIS ways - HIS answers!

God's word, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will comfort us, console us, instruct us, teach us, convict us, and love us. And as we search the scriptures, one of the greatest verses, one of the greatest promises found in God's word, is found in Romans 8:28. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His promise."

Dr. Reuben A. Torrey called this verse "a soft pillow for a tired heart". God has promised salvation for those who call upon the name of the Lord. Romans 10:13 - "For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." God has promised to supply His own their needs. Philippians 4:19 - "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." And God has promised that ALL things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.

Let's break this down a little bit.

I. "And we know..."

The word know implies something very obvious - it depicts a knowledge. A common knowledge of the Christian that is what the Holy Spirit makes real. WE KNOW, we have fixed our minds, we understand, we are aware, We Know....

It's more than education, it's more than just hope so it's more than ungrounded philosophy. We as Christians know, we know!

There's a story of a teacher with a group of 5th graders. She looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone here understand electricity?" One rather anxious little boy named Jimmy, halfway down the middle aisle, pushed his hand up in the air and said, "I understand electricity!" The teacher looked at him and said, "Jimmy, would you explain electricity to the class?" And he suddenly put his hand over his face, and he said, "Oh, last night I knew, but this morning I've forgotten." The teacher, with tongue in cheek, said, "Now this is a tragedy! The only person in the history of the world, who ever understood electricity and this morning he forgot it!"

WE AS CHRISTIANS KNOW!

"We know" is used 5 times in Romans. The word "know" is used 13 times. I've done some research, and I have found seven truths that a believer may know.

1. Jesus lives and he will remain.

2. Jesus is the Savior.

3. We have a heavenly home.

4. That Jesus is able to save us.

5. One day we will be like Jesus.

6. We have eternal life.

7. As we as Christians can stand upon God's promise because WE KNOW!!!

II. "We know that all things work together for good to them..."

All the providences of God are ours - His merciful providences, His afflicting providences. God in His providence works all things together for our good - for His children - CHRISTIANS - Those of us who have taken Jesus to be our Lord and Savior!!!

God works all things for our spiritual and eternal good. Either directly or indirectly, every providence - "ALL THINGS" - good and bad, bright and dark, sweet and bitter, easy and hard, happy and sad, prosperity and poverty, health and sickness, calm and storm, comfort and suffering, life and death.

Remember back in Genesis when young Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Remember all the terrible sufferings that he endured. Finally Joseph becomes the number 2 man in all of Egypt - his brothers come to him to buy grain and in Genesis 50:20, Joseph says to his brothers, "Ye though evil against me; but God meant it unto good."

I am confident that we as Children of God will be able to look back over our lives someday, and say "All of this worked out for our good!" Ol Job could say "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.." - Job 13:15

That is the kind of faith in God we need friend, We know that His is going to make things work out for good because He's the one who is motivating it. He's the one who is energizing it!

However we often cry out as the Psalmist did in Psalms 44:24 - "Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgotten our affliction and our oppression?"

We must have faith brothers and sisters. WE MUST HAVE FAITH THAT GOD IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS, AND THAT HE WILL DO WHAT HE PROMISES TO DO!!

We must be ready for the rain. There was this very long drought. The folks were losing their crops. So the church members asked the pastor what to do. The pastor said to go home, pray, fast and believe all week. Come back Sunday believing for the rain to begin. The congregation heard him, they fasted, they prayed, and went to church the next Sunday morning, but as soon as the pastor saw them, he was furious. He said, "Go away, the rain will not come. You do not believe!" "But pastor," they protested. "We fasted and prayed, and we believe!" "BELIEVE? Then where are your UMBRELLAS?"

We must believe, we must have faith that God will work together all things for the good of Who??

III. "Those who love the Lord."

There is a catch here, God's promises are never left undone. If we love the Lord - if YOU love the Lord - God promises to work all things together for your good.

Those who love God, this is the fraternity pin of the believer. This is the Mark of the Christian

LOVE IS THE MARK!!

The apostle Paul put it like this in 1 John 4:10-16

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and send his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

And the apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 1:8, "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

The thing that will bring joy and brightness into your life is the sincere love of God.

I need to make a distinction at this point - The love that is mentioned here in Romans 8:28 is distinguished from some of the other love that is talked about in scripture. For example, in Matthew 6:5 love is used to describe how the pharisees stand praying amongst the crowd. The word love here is "Phileo" in greek - meaning fond of, and affection for, or feelings - something you might have for an acquaintance. Not a deep personal love. And phileo love is used every time Jesus talked about the things the scribes and pharisees loved to do.

But the word love used in Romans 8:28 is "Agapeo" meaning a burning desire, a passionate love, deliberately letting go of your will to yield to someone else, embracing, life giving.

Where the Bible gives us lessons about love, the center of love is usually the will, not the emotions. Such love is a deliberate attitude, not an uncontrollable feeling. The Bible commands us to love, it commands us to act in a certain way, regardless of how we feel.

Phileo love is from the head, agapeo love is from the heart.

God promises to work all things together for our good, all things. WHATEVER IT MAY BE! WHATEVER COMES OUR WAY! God promises that they will, if we love Him with a passion, with a willingness to yield to Him. If we love Him that they will work together for our good.

Doesn't mean we will understand it all the time, doesn't mean we will like it. But we must believe, we must have faith that God is looking out for our BEST interest.

I want to close with this.

In the early days of our country, a weary traveler came to the banks of the Mississippi River for the first time. There was no bridge. It was early winter, and the surface of the mighty stream was covered with ice. Could he dare cross over? Would the uncertain ice be able to bear his weight?

Night was falling, and it was urgent that he reach the other side. Finally, after much hesitation and with many fears, he began to creep cautiously across the surface of the ice on his hands and knees. he thought that he might distribute his weight as much as possible and keep the ice from breaking beneath him.

About halfway over, he heard the sound of singing behind him. out of the dusk there came a man, driving a horse-drawn load of coal across the ice and singing merrily as he went his way.

Here he was - on his hands and knees, trembling lest the ice be not strong enough to bear him up! And there, as if whisked away by the winter's wind, went the man, his horses, his sleigh, and his load of coal, upheld by the same ice on which he was creeping!

Like this weary traveler, some of us have learned only to creep upon the promises of God. Cautiously, timidly, tremblingly, we venture forth upon His promises, as though the lightness of our step might make His promises more secure. As though we could contribute even in the slightest to the strength of His assurances!

He has promised to be with us. Let us believe that promise! He has promised to uphold us. Le us believe Him when He says so. He has promised to grant us victory over all our spiritual enemies. Le us trust His truthfulness. Above all, He has promised to grant us full and free forgiveness of all our sins because of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And He has promised to come and take us to His heavenly home. Le us take Him at His word.

We are not to creep upon these promises as thought they were too fragile to uphold us. We are to stand upon them, confident that God is as good as His word and that He will do what He has pledged.

If you have any questions about what you've read here today, please reach out to Pastor Steve.

Email: pastorsteve911@gmail.com

Phone: 660-327-1308