Chris McCurley: Thank you. after 8 verse 28 tonight. I just want to read it for the basis of our discussion. Paul writes, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Can we start a petition to have this verse removed from greeting cards? It makes me cringe when I hear of someone who has lost a dear loved one and they receive a card that has this verse printed on it or it makes a shiver run down my spine when someone who has endured a loss is approached by someone who says, well, know, Romans 828, everything happens for a reason. We've got to do better than that. Romans 828 does not convey the idea. that everything happens for a reason, and no matter how bad or how tragic or awful that thing is, it's really good if you just sit with it long enough. So let me get this straight. A man and woman are praying for a child. That child finally comes. And at five years old, perfect bundle of joy is experiencing headaches. And so they take her to the doctor and it's discovered that she has an inoperable brain tumor. And so over the next few months, this husband and wife watch their precious little girl pass away right before their eyes. Or maybe there's a young man who just finished his first semester of college. He's on the dean's list, things are going well, and he's driving home for the holidays, and a drunk driver crosses the center line, hits him head on, and he's killed instantly. And now mom and dad are faced with that loss and reeling from that experience. Or consider the mother of three who's doing her best to raise her little family for the Lord with little to no help from her husband. And finally one day he comes home and says, I don't want to be married anymore, I found someone else. Or the mother who is stricken with cancer just as she's trying to raise her little family. And so based on Romans 8.28, I'm supposed to believe that all of those scenarios are good, in fact, if you just think about it long enough. If you sit with it long enough, these are really good things in disguise. I'm supposed to believe that somehow these scenarios are all a ⁓ blessing in disguise. Let me get this straight. You're telling me that cancer is somehow a blessing from God? A young girl being raped is somehow a good thing in God's eyes that... You know, 9-11 was really a good thing, part of God's wonderful plan. And I've heard things like this, from Christians no less. And if it's true, well, you can have it. You can save them for somebody else, because I don't want any part of it. But the twisted translation of Romans 8-28 is everything is good if you wait long enough. And nothing could be further from the truth. And that's why I've included this verse in this series, because it's been twisted and contorted and manufactured to mean something that it was never intended to mean, because we need to stop suggesting that God causes all affliction to occur. God did not cause Satan to rebel. God did not force Adam and Eve to partake of that forbidden fruit, just as He did not kill Abel. He didn't build the Tower of Babel. He didn't drive the nails through Jesus's hands and feet. just as He didn't sign off on those terrorists flying those planes into the Twin Towers killing thousands? He doesn't give people cancer. He doesn't kill small children because He needs another angel in heaven. That's not the God that we serve. Does He permit these tragedies? Yes. Does He approve of them? No, not necessarily. Does He generate them? No. I know you're probably thinking, well, there were times in the Old Testament, Chris, where God afflicted people with tumors or that He caused bad things to happen to people. And that's true. But if you look at those scenarios, you see a benevolent nature in God trying to work out a plan to bring people into compliance. So even in those tragedies, there was a benevolent nature to them. But to pin every tragedy, every evil, every awful thing that happens on God is to tread on some very shaky soil. The idea that no matter what happens to me, it's God's will is ludicrous. And the knowledge that unexplainable tragedy, the notion that unexplainable tragedy, even rooted in evil, can somehow be traced to God and His glorious plan for your life is just not in line with the Bible. So you know how I'm a stickler for context. So if we want to get the context of Paul's words in Romans 8.28, we need to back up, don't we? So let's start reading in verse 26. says, the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom He predestined, He also called, and these whom He called, He also justified, and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. Tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword. Just as it is written, your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That gets my juices flowing doesn't it yours? Romans 828 is about God's providence. Providence is one of those tricky theological words that we hear a lot but we don't know much about so let's talk a little bit about providence. It's about what God can do and even the most adverse of conditions. It doesn't mean that everything that happens to us is necessarily good. It just means that God can work good out of those situations because God is in the details. know, Romans 8.28 is really a promise and we need to see it as such. That no matter what I deal with in this life, no matter how bad it gets, tragedy will not God's ultimate eternal purpose is going to be realized. really the key to understanding Romans 8.28 is further back in Romans 8 and verse 18 where Paul writes, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us. So with Christ, Victory is a guarantee we cannot lose. In fact, we've already won. are victors because we overwhelmingly conquer and God is the great equalizer. He is in control. So the battle belongs to him. And therefore we have the blessed assurance that no matter what the fate that befalls us is, we win. So the thrust behind Paul's message is not everything is good, even if it seems bad. Now the message of Romans 8 is that there is a silver lining that no matter how bad things get, I have a hope in a Savior, in a rescuer, in a deliverer, who of course is Jesus Christ. There are things that happen to us in this life that are not good. And you can't make them out to be good no matter how hard you try. There are things that happen to us that are pure evil. There are things happening in the world right now. that can be traced back to pure evil. And we've got to stop giving God the credit for the devil's handiwork. Because we know that he is alive and well and active in our world. Now, some could blame God and say, well, why does he let this happen? And there are some things that are mysterious that we may not always understand and will not understand in this life. But again, to pin everything on God, even evil and pure wickedness, is to tread on some very shaky soil. We live in a fallen world. And we have to admit that maybe everything does happen for a reason and maybe that reason is because you're dumb and you made a dumb decision, right? Am I the only one that's been in that boat? I can't blame anybody else. I made a dumb decision. And then we have to admit that there's some suffering that just can't be explained. That we just don't understand. Many people have bought into this idea that every minute detail of their life is carefully orchestrated and they are never to blame for their choices. The fact that they live in a fallen world is never considered. The truth that Satan is working on this earth is rarely acknowledged and God gets the credit for all of it, good or bad. We need to stop giving God the credit for the devil's handiwork. Everything may happen for a reason. There may be a cause for everything that occurs, but that reason is not always God-motivated or God-powered. When my kids were younger, we would often go on vacation to Florida about every couple of years. And because it was so far away from West Texas, we'd a lot of times drive to Arkansas and stay with my mother-in-law. And then we'd get up the next day and drive the rest of way to the beach. And when we'd go that route, we would drive by the Nissan plant. I believe it was in Canton, Mississippi. And if you've ever been by it, it seems like it's a mile long. And that's probably not much of an exaggeration. It's a really long plant. And you think about it, if you were to pull over to the side of the road and watch a Nissan car get made, what would you see? If you were just to watch the process, well, you would see a truck bringing in the component parts, and then you would see a car pull out at the end. But you know as well as I do, there's a whole lot that goes on inside, right, that you can't see behind the walls. So all you can see is the parts go in and a finished product come out. But you don't see all the inner workings that are taking place on the inside. And that's much to what Romans 8.28 is speaking to. You don't get the full picture when you just judge the end by the beginning and vice versa, right? There's a whole lot that goes on in between. God is behind the scenes and He is working something beautiful in all these details that we just don't understand at the time and maybe we can't see. But one thing I know about Providence, is you often don't recognize it as providence until you walk through the door. Many of you can speak to this. You walk through that door and you look back ten years later and you say, ⁓ yeah, that's what that was about. Now I see God working there. And some of it, no matter how much clarity you have ten years down the road, you still don't come around to the fact that it was good because it wasn't. But you see that some good came out of it, right? You see that something positive was created from a tragic situation. And God can make sense out of what doesn't make that much sense. He takes those raw component parts and He turns them into something beautiful, something useful, because He is a divine designer who can make something functional out of the tragedy and turn it into a purpose. But we'll never grasp this if we only judge the end by the beginning, because there's a whole lot that goes on in between. And many of the things that make no sense in isolation are in fact working together to produce something good in our lives. When Paul wrote, we know that God calls us all things to work together for good, he's talking about a divine strategy. The word that he uses there for work together is sunerjan. It's where we get our word for synergy. And we know what synergy means, right? It's working together. It's teamwork. It's working together for a common goal and a good result. And so Romans 8 28 is referring to a divine strategy that exists even in our darkest moments. Even when tragedy befalls us and we feel like we're walking through that valley of the shadow of death and we don't know if we're ever going to get out of it, we can rest assured that God is going to get us out of it, that God is working behind the scenes. There is a good that can be produced from even the worst adversity. In fact, sometimes that ultimate good cannot be produced unless we go through. That dark valley. I mean. Think about the different defeats in your life. What are they? Maybe a divorce? Maybe the loss of your spouse or loved one. What are the different defeats in your life? Maybe a difficult diagnosis, maybe some other tragedy that was unexplainable and still is unexplainable. Maybe an addiction. Think about those different defeats in your life. And for those of you who are somewhat removed from them, Think about where you are now versus where you were at the beginning. Some of you are shaking your head, nodding your head yes, because you know what I'm talking about, You've seen some growth, you've seen some maturation, you've seen something good being produced out of that. Some of you haven't seen that yet because it's too fresh, and I get that. And some of you have come a long way and you realize, yeah, yeah, there was some good that God brought out of that, but that wasn't good. And that's not what I'm suggesting. Whatever the tragedy was, you can't make it good. It wasn't good, it won't be good, and no matter how hard you try with the power of positive thinking, it's not going to be good. But many of us can admit that there's been something good that comes out of it. That maybe we drew closer to God during that time. Maybe we drew closer to our loved ones. We developed a stronger faith, perhaps? If you're like me, I get very comfortable in this life. And I can feel settled and forget that I'm a sojourner or a pilgrim, right? I forget that I'm an alien or stranger and I get settled and feel like that I'm a citizen here and I set up shop and I feel like this is my home. When, as hard as it is, we have to come around to the thinking that this life is preparation and it's training, isn't it? Above all else, that's what it is. And so whatever it takes to get me to be more like Jesus, then I've got to try to use that, right? It doesn't mean I have to like it. I certainly wouldn't pray for it. But at the same time, I can use it, right? because it really doesn't matter where you're at right now. The only thing that matters is where you end up. And how you get there really doesn't matter. as long as you get there. And it may be defeat is exactly what you need. I think about Joseph when I think about Providence. mean, he's the obvious person that comes to mind when you consider Providence. I mean, if anybody had a reason to just throw their hands up and say, you know what, this whole God thing is not profiting me any and I'm mean, sold into slavery by his siblings, know, is betrayed by Potiphar's wife. He ends up left in prison a couple of times and he rises to prominence in Egypt, second in command. And I want you to notice what he says toward the end of his story in Genesis 50 and verse 20. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. In other words, God was at work and despite Joseph's brothers' evil intentions, this is providence that even in adverse circumstances, God was working to bring about a good result. Notice that Joseph doesn't say, well, you know, everything happens for a reason. You know, it's all good. It wasn't good. Nothing that he went through was good. But what resulted from it was more than good. Because God can work in spite of someone else's evil intentions. His goodwill and purpose will be accomplished no matter the situation or the circumstance. That doesn't mean that everything that happens to you is good or necessary. I mean, the first man to be appointed king over the Israelites was a guy named Saul. And he was the perfect man for the job, or at least the Israelites thought he was. Tall, dark, and handsome. He was brave. was courageous. He fit the mold of what they wanted. God tried to tell them, you don't need a king. You have the best king. But they wouldn't listen. And so he relented and gave them what they asked for. And it was a big mistake. God knew it would be. But he had to teach them a lesson. And if you remember that story, Saul turns out to be ⁓ less than what they expected. And then in Hosea chapter 13 verse 11, the prophet speaks on behalf of God when he states, I gave you a king in my anger and took him away with my wrath. And through the prophet Samuel, God warned the Hebrews that they were making a big mistake. He told them that dark days were in their future, but here's the critical point that I don't want you to miss. God was not responsible for the wicked, stubborn temperament of Saul, and nevertheless, God used Saul to bring about King David, who would also bring about, eventually, the Messiah, the greatest king. In other words, God was working through Saul toward a higher good. And we could go forward with many other examples, but the theme of Romans 828 is not that everything happens for a reason. Romans 828 is about God's providence. It's about what God can do with even the most adverse of circumstances. And again, that doesn't mean that those adverse circumstances were really good. You just don't have the right perspective. Not at all. It's just that God is working behind the scenes to bring about a certain good. Romans 828 is a promise that no matter what I have to deal with in this life, no matter how bad things get, that tragedy doesn't triumph, that God's ultimate purpose will be realized. And I think a big part of understanding all of this is defining good. How would you define good? When we talk about God working things out for good, what would you say good is by your definition? Well, a good marriage, good kids that are well adjusted, a good home, a good car, kind of the American dream, right? But the Bible doesn't really define good that way. And sometimes our definitions and God's definitions of things are two completely different things. Our good and God's good are often different. We want happiness that comes from the temporary. And He wants righteousness that comes from the spiritual. So when Paul says that all things work together for good, He's not saying that all tragedy and suffering in life are good. He's not saying that these things will always produce a better set of circumstances. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But the tragedy and the suffering can make us more like Jesus. And that's the ultimate good, isn't it? I'm not going to try to get you to reframe your thinking in just one sermon, but if we could walk out of here tonight trying to come around to the idea that this life, as good as it is, is a training ground. Therefore, don't get too comfortable, right? Because you have a better home awaiting you. And sometimes we get so comfortable here that we can't see that. And yes, tragedy in whatever form it may come is difficult. But if it helps us to be closer to Jesus and more like Jesus, then ultimately, that is quote unquote good. It's kind of like the gentleman who had suffered with ⁓ leukemia for many, many years on earth. mean, for like 25 years, he'd struggle with this disease, on and off chemo and all these different kind of medications and treatments. And he dies and he ends up in heaven, of course. And he has been there for like 10,000 years. And he meets a guy that he knew and was friends with here on earth. And the friend asked him, you know, so how's it going? And he said, well, it's great. mean, I've been here some 10,000 years and I'm going to be here for eternity and it's the best and I can't believe that I was even scared to get here because it's awesome. And the friend says, well, like didn't you have it pretty rough on earth? Like you, you live many years, probably more years than not while you were suffering. And the man says, Oh yeah, yeah, I guess it did. It was hard for him to even recall it. because that was just a blip on the radar screen. 25 years, 30 years compared to an eternity, 10,000 and more. You've got to have the long haul view in mind as hard as it is and recognize that you're not here very long. So make it count and let God use those difficult circumstances to prepare you, to train you, and to get you closer to Him. I was watching the March Madness on, I guess it was Thursday, that Arkansas played. made sure that I was... No? Yeah, they played Hawaii. ⁓ on Thursday and if you watch that game two minutes in you knew who the better team was and that's not because I'm a Razorback fan. ⁓ You they'll probably get killed against Arizona but against Hawaii it took two minutes to realize that they were the better team. And they had fun you could just see and I've always said this about our team this year is that when they're having fun they're hard to beat and they were having fun and they just they rolled all over. Hawaii couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. couldn't guard a flagpole. as Arkansas was en route to routing Hawaii, you could see that there was kind of blood in the water and they smelled it and they just piling it on. they were playing with so much confidence and I thought that should be us, right? So often we don't play with confidence because we've been defeated and we've been knocked down. But you do understand that you win this whole thing, right? That in the end, you're victorious. And so you can live like a winner right now. You can live victorious. You can play this game like a winner with all the confidence of knowing that not only does the devil not beat me, he doesn't even have a chance. This is not even a fair fight. You're not the underdog. You overwhelmingly conquer. You don't just conquer, you overwhelmingly conquer. It isn't even a fair fight. There's a gentleman who came to his preacher. He had just lost his son and he was livid at God, angry with God. And he comes in and he says to the preacher, where was God when my son died? And the preacher wisely responds the same place he was when his son died. God knows what it's like to lose a son. He knows what it's like to experience loss. And He is there even in our deepest, darkest moments. He is with us. There are some things that we don't know. There are some things that we can't explain or comprehend. We don't know why some good people suffer terribly. We don't comprehend why babies get sick and die or why a young teenage girl is raped and killed. We don't understand why some good people get cancer. We will never be able to explain the unexplainable. And sometimes in our zeal to protect God, we feel like we have to provide an answer. But many times we lose credibility when we feebly attempt to justify the mysterious ways of God. We don't have all the answers. And God doesn't need us to protect Him. He's not fragile. He can take care of Himself. It's probably better to say nothing than to speak about things we know nothing about. But here's what I do know. God is in control. And that should be enough. We may not have all the answers, but we know who does. We know who is in charge. God knows what He's doing and we know Him. And therefore, we can plow forward with the knowledge that someday all of these defeats are going to culminate in victory, right? This is good time to say, Amen. Yeah. So I want you to walk out of here tonight as a winner. And I want you to hit your week as a winner. Not playing defense, but playing offense. and understanding that you have the confidence that all of this is going to work out in your favor. It's tough now, but we win. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we love You. We thank You so much for loving us. We are so hopeful for a home with You. May we never get so comfortable that we miss that. May we take this life as an opportunity to draw closer to you and to be more like Jesus. So that when you return, you say, well done, thy good and faithful servant. May we enjoy a wonderful family reunion in heaven someday. And God be with us as we face different tragedies and adversity in our lives because they're not easy. Far from it. It hurts. It's difficult and sometimes we feel like we can't go on. May we be there for one another to pick each other up. Help us God to serve you in the best times and in the most difficult of times. We love you and it's in your son's precious name we pray, amen. Steve's got a song for us, if we can help you tonight, why don't you come as we stand and as we sing.