The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 19: Sovereign Grace

Episode Date: May 27, 2018

God's love for you is not measured by your circumstances, but by His sovereign grace toward you. To see His love, see the cross.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Everybody doing good? You're looking good. Happy Memorial Day weekend. There are two people that are willing to lay down their life for you. That is Jesus Christ and the American soldier. Amen.

Amen. And so on this weekend, we remember those that have paid the ultimate price. Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends. And those two things are not the same, the American soldier and Jesus. However, because of the sacrifices made by men. and women in uniform for the last couple hundred years. We are able to gather here in freedom and proclaim Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Amen.

And we were also able last week, really close to a military base, to gather at the beach and witness 426 people get baptized and go public with their faith. That Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. Amen. All right. Hey, grab your Bibles. We're in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and in Romans chapter 8 again we're doing 34 weeks in the book of Romans and we're doing an entire month just in this chapter and when we get to Romans chapter 8 this section of it has two of church people's favorite verses man favorite 828 everybody loves some Romans 828 all right that God works in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose some of you have a t-shirt with that bedazzled upon it or a coffee mug or maybe a you've

crocheted it somewhere and it's hanging up in your house. We love some 828, and then we love some 831. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? We love those verses. The problem is we usually pluck them right out of context, and we don't understand the fullness of what those verses mean because we don't read all the verses in and around them.

And so, like we often skip verses 29 and 30. because it's got scary words like forenew and predestined. You're like, I'm not predestine. I'm American. Okay, no, the Bible says you're predestine. We're going to talk about what that means in just a second. And so what we've got to do here is we've got to dig through all of eight so that we can understand the weightiness of that fun verse that we love,

that God works in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. So we've got to understand the context. And you remember where we started, week one, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. no condemnation. So when the enemy whispers that God is done with you, the reason he tells you that is because he is a liar,

and that's the only language he knows. And then last week, we spent the entire time talking about the reality that because of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross, we have been given the spirit of adoption, that we are no longer slaves to fear to fall back into, but we cry out Abba Father. And we ended last week with this, verse 17. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

And we love that part. And we wish that we could just put a period there. The problem with that is the Bible. The real God wrote the real Bible to real people living in real life. And that's not where our life ends. Because he says, And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided, we suffer with him.

in order that we may also be glorified with him. You see, this is the gospel, that the groaning comes before the glory, that the pain precedes the perfection that we will enjoy. And this begins the context for 828 when we get there in a minute, or 50 minutes. It's this, that he goes on to say this in verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time. You see, Paul knows the reality that we are simultaneously heirs of Christ and in a world full of suffering. And when Paul says, for I consider the sufferings of this present time, first century Rome,

you know what the sufferings of the first century Christians in Rome were? It was persecution. That Demetian and Nero would crucify people because they said they were followers of Jesus. that Nero gathered together a bunch of Christians one time, put them on stakes, and lit them on fire to light a party that he was having. These are the kind of sufferings that they were dealing with. Not just random bad things happening to good people, but because they said they loved Jesus, they were suffering. And in that context, Paul says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed. in us. He's saying that though this may be extremely painful compared to the inheritance I have

in Christ, compared to what we would call heaven, compared to the glory that I will experience, that I can't even compare what I'm going through right now. John Newton, the guy that wrote Amazing Grace, the way he described it is this, our present sufferings as compared to the glory that will be revealed in us one day. He said, just imagine, he wrote it about 200 years ago. He said, imagine, imagine that you're broke. Now, some of us don't have to imagine that, but just imagine that you're broke, and you find out that you have a distant relative, and they've died and left you an incredible inheritance, like a manor, a castle with cash and prizes that you couldn't even spend for the rest of your life if you tried to, that kind of inheritance. And so you got

into your carriage and you're on your way to receive the inheritance that is yours, and you get about a quarter of a mile from the manner that's going to have your name on it. And you see the servants and you see the bling, you see all that will be yours. And a quarter of a mile from getting there, your carriage breaks down. He says, who would get out of the carriage and from leaving the carriage to the inheritance complain about my carriage, my carriage, my carriage, my carriage, my carriage. This is how he describes this verse, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Verse 19, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. So if you want the theologically correct answer to why so much pain in the world, here it is. because in Genesis chapter 3 when sin entered the world sin is so evil sin is so destructive God is so holy and so just that sin fractured everything in our world that sin creates chaos in our world which means weather systems do not do what they're supposed to do and hurricane season isn't supposed to start for a week and we already got one stirring up and sometimes sometimes the weather doesn't obey and sometimes your cells don't obey and we live in a

broken in a chaotic world, not because of an individual person's sin, but because of sin in God's perfect creation. And so God, in his judgment, subjected all of creation to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. In hope. You got to underline this here. In hope, verse 21, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. The context for God works in all things is the context of suffering, is in the context of the bondage of corruption. It's in the context of the extreme pain and suffering that you and I will experience.

Because I'm telling you, with the thousands of people across all of our campuses here at 1122 this weekend, I know that there's a whole bunch of pain and there's a whole bunch of suffering and there's a whole bunch of why God, I don't understand. And if your life is going super awesome right now, I got really good news to you for you. It's going to get much, much worse one day. It is. The person you love the most is going to die unless you die first. Happy Memorial Day weekend. It's just true.

Jesus promises in this world you will face troubles of me. many kinds. So how in the world do you simultaneously hold the truth that God is good and God is sovereign and I am experiencing this kind of pain? This is what Romans 8 is talking about. How can God be in control of all things and love me and feels like my world has fallen apart? The best words that I've ever seen on this probably won't be a shock to you is

by Dr. John Piper. Later today, preferably not during the sermon, I want you to YouTube, Shane and Shane, though you slate me. Shane and Shane, they come here, they're coming back again for saturated this year. If you don't know who they are, maybe you didn't grow up around like church stuff, you should know Shane and Shane.

They are like staples in modern day evangelicalism. And somehow they're timeless. They were the same age when I was in college. I don't know how that happens. It's crazy, but whatever. I get older, they're the same. So the song, though you slay me, Shane Bernard, like the main singer, he lost his dad suddenly and unexpectedly. And in a great sense of anguish and pain, he writes this song, though you slay me still, I will worship you.

He borrows a lot of the terminology from the book of Job. And in this, if you YouTube that song, they took a Piper sermon called Don't Lose Heart and they pulled out an excerpt and they stuck it in the song. And here's what Dr. Piper said. He says, not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there, but all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain from the fallen nature or fallen man, every millisecond of your pain, every millisecond of your pain, every millisecond of your pain, misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that. I don't care if it was cancer or criticism.

I don't care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn't meaningless. It's doing something. It's not meaningless. And of course you can't see what it's doing. Don't look to what is seen. when your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you got cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out,

don't say that's meaningless. It's not. It's working for you in eternal weight of glory. Therefore, therefore, don't lose heart. But take these truths and day by day, focus on them. He's talking about the truths of Romans chapter 8. preach them to yourself every morning get alone with God and preach his word into your mind

until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for and I would add and that you would know that he is sovereign and he is good and we don't understand. I had breakfast this week with a man that I know and love dearly and eight years ago he walks through an unimaginable tragedy. I mean, the tragedy that every mama and every dad

praise to God, they never have to walk through. And it still doesn't completely make sense. And yet this very week, this very week, a couple that we baptized last Sunday just happened to bump into this dad this week, and they connected their salvation and their baptism this week with the tragedy that their family walked through

eight years ago. Now, does it make it any better? Does it make them feel any better? No, but it confirms this. It's not meaningless. That God is working a peculiar glory for all of those who suffer in the path of obedience. Listen, this is the context of Romans chapter 8. And if you are experiencing extreme pain, then what eight wants you to understand is this.

the deeper the pain than the greater the hope of eternal glory, that the reason that Romans 8 is going to dig so deep is because this skyscraper of hope needs a foundation that digs down deep and deep and deep to the sovereign love of God that's too great for us to understand these things. This is what he's talking about here. For the creation wakes in eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. You see that in hope. So don't lose heart. The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick that the creation itself will be set free from the bondage of corruption and obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God. And the rest of the chapter builds the case of hope. verse 22 for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth and every mama said amen until now verse 23 and not only the creation but we ourselves Paul says that the pains of childbirth are a picture of the pains that we are experiencing now

but every mama that's had more than one kid understands, is it worth it? And if you had more than one, your answer was, uh-huh, because I did it again. 2005, November 22nd, Gretchen was very pregnant. You can't kind of be pregnant, but you know what I mean. You know what I mean? She was about ready to pop. And we had one last appointment. I think it was a couple of weeks before her due date.

And I was like, all right, before we go to this, babe, you should just pack a bag because I don't think we're going to make it out of this. And she was like, and I'm rarely right about any family matters. But I was like, just please. And so she did. And so we go to the appointment and they do their deal. And they're like, yep, it's on. This thing is happening now. Go straight to the hospital.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. And I said, told you. And so we went. So we got there late and get all settled in. and the moment we get there, Gretchen orders an epidural. I'll have one epidural stat. Now, if you are the kind of mama that wants to birth your child in the bathtub or a kitty pool in your living room

and have your cousin help you tug it out, God bless your ministry, okay? No problem. Breathe and do all your stuff. But Gretchen has an entire theology on epidural built out. You see, pain and childbirth came as a result of sin, and then Jesus came to me. make all things new and blesses us with every good and perfect gift. So not feeling anything from here down is a gift of God, all right? And so I concur.

All the mommas are like, preach. Now, so you get in there and it gets going, and about 1 a.m. on November the 23rd, here comes J.P. And I don't know what I was expecting, but it was, it is not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It is, it is not. And Gretchen hates when I talk about this, but she's not here at this service, so whatever. So, I mean, there are people there with like NASCAR gear on. You know, it's like a pit crew, like face shields.

And it's like, what is happening, you know? And it's kind of, it's kind of hectic. And there's all this, you know. And then when the baby first shows up, man, I didn't realize, like, how rough they would be. Do you, you know, they just, like, pulled a kid out. And they're like scrubbing his face and sucking stuff out of his nose. and you're like, oh my gosh, what art, what are you doing? Then they put them there in the little like, you know, the McDonald's keep the French fries hot thing, you know.

And then they wrap him up and they hand him to you. And you, something happens in here that you didn't know you had the capacity for. Now, one of the happiest days of my entire life is when I was told I was having a boy. We went to the little, you know, the lady puts a little clear jelly on. her and it's like, whoa, and you're looking? You're like, I don't know, I'll never look for one of these. Is that it? Is that?

No, elbow. Okay, all right, what, what? You're looking. And she's like, congratulations, Mr. Martin. It's a boy, and I literally, I scooped her up. I picked her up. I picked her up. Gratio's like, put her down.

I was like, oh, my, woo, we got a boy. We named him Joseph Perry Martin the 4th. You understand I'm into it. You got these dreams, these aspirations. I call my daddy. Hey, daddy, I made a boy. He says, son, I knew you had it in you. That's what he said.

But at that point, it's kind of theoretical, but when they hand him to you, this love that I didn't know I was capable of just erupts. And people would be like, yeah, but don't you love your wife? Of course I love her, more than I can describe it. It's just different. It's just different. And then you remember if you've been through this a couple days later, they're like, all right, you guys ready to go home? Huh? Home?

No. No. No. No. You know we don't know what we're doing. We have no idea. Are you coming? If you come, then we'll go home, all right? Seriously, I took the car seat to the police department and said, y'all need to put this in right. That's what I did. They didn't know how to do it. Oh, awesome. I called Ryan Stone. Ryan, follow me home. All right? I made Stone come and follow me home. I drove home about 28 miles an hour. Why are y'all driving so fast? You know what I mean?

You're just crazy. And then you get home, you're like, oh, my goodness, this is happening. Then about four years later, I was on the mission field. Gretchen called me. She said, hey, listen, we're doing so good with one, we should just stick here. I was like, okay, cool, whatever. And then about six hours later, she called me. She goes, never mind, I'm already pregnant. All right, sweet.

So that's how that worked out. Then nine months or so after that phone call, Reagan Capri. Now, when I went back to the lady with the jelly, and we're looking, she goes, congratulations to Mr. Martin. It's a girl. And Gretchen said, you're going to be okay? I said, I will be. There's just a different level of training you have to go through as a father of a daughter.

And then we're back in that room, and I knew, I knew it a little better this time. I did not venture south of, I was north of, I was leaning over this way like Spider-Man, looking at Gretchen. Hey, baby, you good? You good. I'll be back here, all right. And then there's Reagan-Cupree, and same thing. It's rough, but I knew it was okay this time.

And they clean her off and wrap her up in that little burrito of beauty, and they hand her to me. There's just something about a little girl, man. you ask a daddy with a little girl. I don't know. I remember holding her thinking, I would die for you, and I would make somebody die for you. And the question every parent with more than one child asked going into this, because you experience this thing with number one,

and you literally begin to ask yourself, you never say this out loud, but you begin to wonder, do I have the capacity to love the second one like I love the first one? Like, did I use it all up on the first one? Because I don't know if I can do that. that again and will there be anything left for the second one and the answer if you're a second kid you already got issues don't worry about it the answer is yes yes it's crazy because love is an inexhaustible

resource it's like no matter how much love you pour out on that first one you can't help but pour out an equal amount of love on that second one and some of you're like two kids whatever you're so strong i got 11 okay god bless you then you really know it just kind of keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming. What if you believed that God loved you that much? It would change everything about you. That's what Romans 8 is about. What if you believe that God loved you that much?

Because Jesus says, and you fathers who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more can our perfectly heavenly father give to you? what is good. This is what that's talking about. It would change everything about you. And you go, yeah, but what about the pain I'm in? You don't, I don't understand. I think if you would interview my children when they were a minute old,

they would be like, that was rough. But as a dad, you would hold them, and you're like, I know, I know, I know. But it was producing for you a peculiar glory. I know that you can't understand it right now, but there is life after birth. and when we go through the pains of this world, even though we can't understand it, what Romans 8 is teaching us is that though our world may feel like it's falling apart,

he's still got the whole world in his hands and he loves you. What if you believed that God loved you with that kind of inexhaustible love, regardless of your circumstances? This is what he's talking about. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit. What this means is if you are in Christ, then the Spirit of God has been deposited in you,

and we get the first fruits. We talked about this a lot in the Before All Things initiative. First fruits just literally means when you got the first run of crops in, which means there's a whole lot more to come, but the first fruits are evidence to what the rest of the fruits are going to be. And so currently in our life, we experience, because the Spirit of God is producing in us, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. But we don't have the fullness of it yet.

We have the first fruits of the fruit of the Spirit. But there will come a day when we will have, in glory, an abundance of love, like more love than you can even have the ability to experience right now. and an abundance of peace, and an abundance of joy, an ever-increasing produce of joy over joy over joy. And he goes on to say, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption of sons. Now, if you read that, I know that some of you who pay attention, which we have several dozen of you, You're like, wait a minute, I thought last week the whole sermon was about us already being adopted, that we have been given the spirit of adoption.

So how can it say that we have been adopted and now we're eagerly waiting for adoption? You see, there's many places in the Bible. When you try to explain an eternal God in chronological order gets a little tough sometimes. So there's a whole bunch of stuff in the Bible that is already and not yet. See, we have been adopted. The deal is done. The price has been paid. Legally, you are gods.

And yet, we are not fully walking in the fullness of our adoption yet. Gresh and I have some friends who are in Africa right now adopting a son. He is theirs, but the process is still going on. So that boy is not experiencing the fullness of what it will mean to have American parents. Like clean water and a bathroom and some of those. kind of things. This is kind of where we are. We are in between. We already have been adopted, and yet we are awaiting our adoption. It's like this, in a horse race. Some of you know more about that and others. We'll talk about that at some other time. When the nose of the horse crosses the

finish line, they say he's finished. But is he finished? There's still a whole lot of horse left. That's what it's like. The moment you're justified, the moment you meet Jesus as your Savior, you have been adopted and yet we have yet to walk in the fullness of the blessing of the inheritance of the father that day is coming and so you may say well why why are we not walking in the fullness of it yet part of it is that you're just not ready I'm not ready let's look what it says it says groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies that's what we're waiting on Did you know that there will come a day when we are glorified and we will get a new and glorified body? Amen?

Now, if you're in your 20s, this doesn't even matter to you, okay? Because you're really into your body. Well, God bless you, all right? One day you'll be introduced to two things, all right? Time and gravity. They are not your friends, all right? You see, what's happening here is if God has this, if we are co-heirs with Christ and all that is His will one day be ours, do you realize in our current body, we don't even have the ability to fully enjoy what God would have for us?

I mean, the Bible says that you and I will be glorified like the sun. Not just the sun, Jesus, but like the sun in the sky, which means with our current eyeballs, if you saw the glory of God, most of us wouldn't even, we'd have to be like, hold on, let me get it in the right, okay, there, oh, too far, oh, too close, too small, too blurry. That's what I mean, because our eyes don't work good. You'd be like, is that the glory? I can't tell. your ears don't work that good.

And to all those with bad hearing, you go, what's that? Because you don't even have the ability with our broken ears to hear the angelic choirs making much of Jesus over and over and over. You see, God's got to redeem our bodies so that we would be able to enjoy all that he has for us. It would be like taking a beautiful Rembrandt or Monet and giving it to a kindergarten art class and they go, Huh. If God gave us the fullness of our adoption now, we don't even have the receptors to be able to understand it. You see, we need a new body. Why? Because ours are aging and breaking down and are a bondage to corruption. And the 40 and up crowd was like, no doubt. I'm telling you, man, I don't age well. Look at pictures of me from the day we planted the church. I age like a banana. I'm telling you,

not going good. Gretchen somehow is getting prettier. I am, I look like weekend at Bernie's. It's just, that's what's happening. I mean, I get fatigued so easy. You know what makes me tired? Preaching. Just standing up here. I'll get home and be like, I am spent. Grisci's like, what do you do? About 45 minutes, I walked around on a carpeted three by five thing, and I got to sit down. I mean, that's what happens. My feet hurt. At TPC, I followed Ryan Blom. He's a member here at 1122, plays on the tour, so we followed him. We thought this would be cool. Man, we got done just walking 18 holes, not playing, just walking. I didn't carry anything.

Nobody was chasing me. I'm just walking at a beautiful day with my kid and I get home. I'm like, I have to, I need a nap. You see, that is our decaying bodies subjected to futility, but there will come a day where God gives us the new, redeemed, resurrected body so that, so that we can fully experience. all that he has for us. Which this is such good news, man, because like when I was a teenager and people would describe heaven,

I would think, is that it? Because it sounds extremely boring. So we're just going to sing and sing and sing and what else? And the reality of this is like, no, no, no, no, no. No, God has yet to even give you the taste buds to experience the banquet that he has for you. That's what he's talking about here. And so he says, four, in this hope we were saved.

So if you were in pain, don't lose hope. Again, the Bible says in Proverbs, hope deferred makes the heart sick that God is good. God is in charge. And if you are in Christ, then God has an inheritance for you. And the deeper the suffering and the deeper the pain that you are in now, it is not meaningless. the deeper the pain than the greater the hope that he has for you. He says, now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes?

For what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Verse 26, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. Likewise. What does this mean likewise? This means that it says we wait for it with patience. Likewise. in other words, patiently the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

That when we are weak, when we are struggling, Paul wants us to know that you are not alone. That the Spirit of God has been given to you, especially in your times of weakness, and the Spirit of God is so patient with us, so patient with us. Isn't that such good news? Because it's at this point where the parenting analogy kind of breaks down a little bit.

Because it makes a lot of sense to me to understand. that God loves me even more than the love that is produced in me for my kids. But the patient thing? Are you super patient with your kids? I remember I was in Walmart one time, and I was in the quick checkout aisle, and this kid was trying to get some skittles or snickers or something. He kept bugging his mom, and his mom looked at him and said, would you just relax? And I thought, he's never going to understand the meaning of that word.

That's not how you use that word. And yet, God never screams relaxed at us. Every time I see the word patient in the Bible, I think about my T-ball coaching days and the patience required. And I've told you the story about the kids scoop into the dirt with his hat about a million times. This week on YouTube, I saw this, I almost showed it. I saw this kid who is, apparently he had a home run, and he's running home from third to home. The reason I didn't show it, it took four minutes and 27 seconds for him to go running 60 feet. And so he's running in slow motion.

Like the video's not slow-mo. He's just like this. I mean, really, and everybody's cheering and laughing and they're cheering. And, I mean, he's into it, man. Just legitimately, four minutes and 27 seconds. And then his coach comes along, you know, his coach, he's like, come on, buddy. And he's got his hand on his back trying to help him a little quicker. And the guy's like, God me, man, trying to run my home run.

And he moves and he gets back into it. And he just goes again. That's the spirit of God in our weakness. He is, patient. And he's like, come on, buddy. Even when we were like, get, what's what? Then he doesn't give up on us. He patiently works with us in our weakness.

And here's how. Here's how he does this. Even in our questions. Even in our, I don't understand. It says, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. Have you ever been there? When it feels like your world's falling apart, and you don't even know how to pray anymore.

like the divorce happened he's gone she died the court case is over and you're like what do i do now god here's what he says he says the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us do you realize that on two planes right now, if you were in Christ, you were being prayed for by God. The Bible tells us that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father and at the throne currently sits at the right hand and intercedes for you by name. That Jesus currently is praying for you by name. And concurrent with that, for anybody who is in Christ,

the Spirit of God is in you. And inside of you, the Spirit of God, when you run out of prayers and don't know what to pray and don't know how to pray. The Spirit of God prays for you in you with groanings that don't even make sense in words. That's how he's helping. For we do not know what we ought to. We do not know what to pray for as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he, this is the Father, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the same. saints, if you're in Christ, you're a saint. You hear that Catholics? We didn't even have to take a vote. The moment you surrendered to Jesus, you became a saint.

The spirit intercedes for you according to the will of God. Here's what this means. When it doesn't make sense to you, when your circumstances don't make sense, when you're crying out, whether it's with questions or I don't understand or why me, God, and you run out of words, and it doesn't make sense to you, the spirit in you, takes over for you in prayer. And he always praise the will of God. And the Father always gives the Spirit what he asked for.

In other words, God always says yes to God. Always. And he says right here, he says that the Spirit intercedes for the saint according to the will of God. And you know what? The will of God always is? The glory of His Son Jesus. So every single time, the Spirit of God in you

praise to the Father and he prays that the Son will be glorified. That God the Spirit prays to God the Father for the glorification of God the Son. Now here's the confusing part. And oftentimes we don't know how the Son will be best glorified. We just don't know. We don't know. Will he be glorified in your moving or staying? I'm not sure, but the Spirit knows.

Will he be glorified in you taking the new job or keeping your job? I'm not sure, but the Spirit knows. Will he be glorified in you living or dying? Our vision is too limited to understand the answer to that question, but the spirit of God knows. So if you ever find yourself, which will happen, when you find yourself in the place where you're like, I don't know the will of God. No problem, because the spirit of God in you is interceding for those times when you don't know. So you just pray, and even when you don't know how to pray, he takes over and helps you.

And then you just guess and you just go. This is what the spirit of God does in you. the way Paul will say it, the way Paul says it in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7, is this way. This is how the Spirit of God helps you in your weakness. I would highly encourage you to memorize these verses, Philippians 4, 6 and 7. I know there are two girls in my life whose life has been transformed by the power of the Word of God, particularly these two verses. I saw him go to bed one night with a lifetime of battling anxiety and anxiety attacks and that kind of thing, and then come out of their room the next day,

and all we could point to is the power of these verses in their life. It says this, don't be anxious about anything. Don't you love Paul? Hey, Paul, I'm anxious. He's like, okay, cool. Write this down. Don't. Thanks, man.

But he's going to give some instruction to help us out here. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. and the peace of God which surpasses the way I memorized it in the NIV the peace of God

that transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. In other words, when you are in a time of present suffering and you don't know what to do

and you don't know what to pray and you're overcome by anxiety, he says, bring it to God and even when you run out of prayers, the spirit of God, God, praise for you as the Spirit of God comforts you. That's what Jesus said the Spirit would do. And the supernatural thing can happen where the peace of God that transcends understanding,

man, the way I would translate is this. And the peace of God that makes no sense based on your circumstances will guard your heart and mind. You've come across people like that in this church. You look at the condition they're in. They've got cancer and it doesn't look good. They just lost somebody that they love more than anything. that their kids have gone crazy

and you go, how are you making it? And the person looks back at you and honestly they go, I don't know. I can't explain it. It's like I have this peace that just doesn't make sense. And he's garden this. And he's guarding this.

And that's what the Spirit of God does in our weakness. Now we get to the verse that we put on the coffee kettle. Now do you see how much Romans 828 means? This isn't a verse about just random stuff. It's a verse in the midst of the most painful times in your life that confirms that God is good, yet God does love us and God is in control. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I can do a whole sermon just on this. First of all, let me tell you what this verse does not say. This verse does not say, well, everything happens for a reason. I guess that's true, but sometimes the reason is because you're an idiot, and that's why that happens. Okay? God did not fail your class. You just didn't study, you dummy. That's just how it works.

That's just, I'm telling you, God didn't spend all your money on leases that don't make sense. You did, you idiot. That's how that works. But what this is saying is that God, in the Greek itself, God is the subject of this sentence. God is the acting and active agent in this sentence. That God works in all things, that God is working all things, that all things are controlled by God and he is working it. But it's not for everybody. It says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together.

for good. This is going to stain a little. If you love God and are called according to his purpose, if you believe that when Christ died on the cross that counted for you, then everything you experience all the pain, God will work for good. It may be in this next life before you experience that fully, but he is working all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And if you don't know him, if you don't love him, if you haven't surrendered to him, the good things and the bad things are not working for you. They are working against you. And so if you find yourself in pain right now when you ask, is this good? It depends. Are you in Christ? It's like a hospital visit. If you go to the hospital, is it good or bad?

What depends on the floor you go to? If you go to oncology, it ain't good. And the pain that you are experiencing there is leading somewhere. But if you go to labor and delivery, man, you show up balloons. And the pain that you're experiencing there leads to life. This is what Paul's saying. that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Now, you may look at this and go, well, how can this be?

How in the world could God use this tragedy in my life for good? Is it worth it? And I could talk to you about your specific tragedy, about your specific pain. Is it your fault? Is God just wearing you out? And I would say, skip all of that and go straight to the cross.

Go straight to the cross. We are a gospel-centered, cross-centered church. This is what we do. We try to point everybody to the cross. And think about this. If you never read to the end of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you didn't know how it turned out. And you were standing on Galgotha the day Jesus, the son of God, was crucified.

Don't you think you would have some questions? Don't you think you go, all right, time out, God, hold up. What are you doing? Are you in control? I am. Well, do you not love your son and love this world? It goes, actually, I love the world so much that I sent him. Well, I don't understand if you love your son.

I mean, I saw his baptism video, and the heavens opened up, and you did a cameo. Behold my son, in whom I love, in whom I am well pleased. So how do you explain that? If you love him and if you are in control, what are you doing? And the answer would be redeeming the world. redeeming the world. And we'll get to this next week, but if God did not spare his son for us, then will he spare good things for you?

You see, if you want to see God's love for you, don't look at your circumstances. Look at the cross. He is not out of control. That he has been planning this from before the foundation of the world. No matter how painful our pain, if you were in Christ, it is being purpose for your good and for the glory of God. And then the verses that people like to skip, but we don't skip. Verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, underline that.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. I love that one too, underline that. To be conform to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn. That word in Greek is prototoko. We get the word prototype. Do you want to know what your glorified body is going to be like? Check out the prototype. because there has been one resurrected from the dead and we will be conformed into his image.

That he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined, he called, and those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. You see, first and foremost, when you read this, you should understand that your salvation is assured in the love of God. Why? Because God loved you based on who God is, not on your performance. and when this chain, this chain, from foreknowledge to glorification cannot be broken, the way I like to think about it is this. It's like a locomotive of grace. And when the grace train leaves the station, the beginning of that thing is, in our experience,

the beginning of that thing is justification. The moment you surrender your life to Christ, then that train leaves the station, and every grace train that has ever left the station has always made it. it to its destination. And the caboose of that deal is glorification. And you can't you lose your salvation? First of all, because you didn't earn it, and it's God's, and God's never lost anything. Now, the words matter here.

The words like forenoon and predestined and called. And so there's a lot of people that are really uncomfortable with this doctrine. And so some people will say, well, I don't think these are the words that Paul, I know he said these words, but that's not what he meant. All right, we've been 19 weeks in the book of Romans. Does Paul strike you as a brother that uses a lot of slang? Does he strike you as somebody that's like just kind of dilly-dallying with words? Like when Paul calls you a fool, he's not like, what's a fool?

That's not what he's doing. So I think these words just mean what they are. To foreknow. For those whom he foreknew, what it means is not for knowledge like this thing up in your head. It means that God has placed his. is love on you. And if you say, well, where do you get this? I could give you about 20 verses on it.

I'll give you two. Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 and following, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus is not going,

what's your name again? Hey, do we have Ted in the book? Ted, I am so sorry. I don't know who you are. That is not what he's saying. God is, God is all knowing. This is relational terminology. That your salvation is not based on what you do for God.

It's based on what Christ did for you at the cross. It is finished. And to know that is to be in relationship with him. Here's the one that just seals the deal for me. Genesis chapter 4 verse 1. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived in Borrcane. There's knowing, then there's knowing. Know what I mean?

This is the language that God placed his love on you before. Ephesians 1 says before the foundation of the world. Let me tell you why this should make everybody exhale. This means there's no performance for God to earn his love. There's no tryout. that God pre-decided because he is love to place his love on you. And for all those he foreknew, he predestined. I know that people hate that word.

You believe in predestination. I'm a capitalist. You know, listen. Let me say it. Let me just kind of loosen up the terminology here and put it in 21st century kind of language. If I ask you this question, do you believe that God has a plan for your life? I don't know a human. It's like, nope, I think I'm just screwed.

I don't know that person. Do you think, if I were to say it this way, do you believe that for anybody that loves God, he has destined you for glory? You'd be like, yeah, preach on preacher. Okay, do you think he's making it up on the fly? Or do you think he's thought about it beforehand? I think he's kind of thought about it.

You mean like he's pre-destioned? Uh-huh. That's just what it means. That God saves you, you don't save you. This is not a big game of chess, and he's waiting on you to make your move. that God for loved you and has destined you for glory and for all those he predestined, he called. This is God's invitation to you, and the call of God is for you in this very moment right now.

And I know some people will be like, well, how do I know if I'm in? Do you hear my voice? In this very second right now, God is calling you to receive and step into the love of God. and if you've ever believed in Jesus, it was not because the preacher was articulate or funny or convincing. It was because for the very first time you heard the call of God in your life. Listen, man, on our encounter hunting trip this past year, we do this every fall.

In September, if you love Jesus and hunting, you should go hunting with me. Even if you don't love Jesus, go hunting. You'll probably love him by the time you get home. So there's this guy in the tree stand, man. Sitting in the tree stand with the devotion we're doing. And it's 5 o'clock in the morning. He's got his headlamp on. It's not good for hunting.

but it's good for Bible study, and he's sitting there, and he's reading Genesis 3, and without a preacher, without an invitation, without a gospel track. He is overwhelmed by the love of God in his life, and he just stands up and surrenders his life to Christ in the tree stand. That is the sovereign call of God on our lives. And right now, he's calling you if you don't know him. And for all those he called, he justified. That means that you were forgiven and adopted. And all those he justified, he glorified.

glorified. That means one day you will fully and finally be conformed into the image of God. That is the grace train of God's sovereign love for us. So here's the point. That God's love for you is not measured by your circumstances. Let me say it again. God's love for you is not measured by your circumstances but by his sovereign grace towards you. To see his love, see the cross. For God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, that Christ died for us. This is what, this is the heart of Romans chapter 8. So let me ask you, have you ever answered that call? Have you ever answered that call? In Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

And anyone who hears my voice, that would be the equivalent of anybody who hears the call of God in their life. anyone who hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. That's the way of saying, I will come in and know him and be in a relationship with him. And so how about you? How about you? Listen, I'm telling you, if you can hear my voice, God is calling you to enter into the love of God. Jesus wants you. Not to just fix you up, but because of who he is, because he is love.

and he's already demonstrated his love for you at the cross. The performance is over. The pretending is over for anyone, anyone who would believe you would receive the right to become children of God. Is that you? I would like to give you an opportunity to answer God's call in your life right now. To be justified. And for those who justifies, he will also glorify. Would you please bow your head and close your eyes?

And I'm not going to drag this out. I just want to ask you very specifically, are you ready to receive the call of God? Are you ready to understand that God loves you infinitely more than any parent on earth could love their child? And today, for the very first time, not based on your religious experience, that you're not rejected because of your rebellion,

that it's not about your performance, but it's about Christ's performance on the cross. if you believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. And today, for the first time in your life, that makes sense. And you hear the gospel call and you were ready to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Then just, I want you to raise your hand right where you are. I want you to say, God, here I am. I receive your call.

Put that hand up high. Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love us first. And God, I thank you that this is love, not that we loved you, but you loved us. and you sent your only begotten son as a payment that fully satisfies. That we could know you, not only a sovereign Lord, but as our heavenly Father. And God, I thank you that even today there is salvation in this place, because it is you who save. And God, I pray for every believer, every believer in our church.

God, I pray that we would understand that you help us in our weakness and that you comfort us and you can give us a peace that church. transcends understanding, and that you will guard our hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.