Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Who Told You That | Week 1
Romans 8:28
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. Romans 8:29-30
1. THE PROMISE.
I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. Romans 7:19-20
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son Romans 8:29-30
2. THE PROCESS.
God will permit what He hates to accomplish that which He loves. - Joni Erickson Tada
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Philippians 1:19
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:3
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50:20
Synergy = the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18
3. THE POWER.
- HUMBLE YOURSELF.
- FOLLOW JESUS.
Discussion Questions:
What’s something other people call “good” that you secretly think is not good at all? (Think pineapple on pizza, watching golf, or sand in your shoes at the beach.)
Romans 8:28 says God works “for the good.” How do you usually define “good” in your own life?
Coffee takes time to brew; growth takes time too. Where do you struggle most with waiting on God’s process?
How does remembering heaven as the ultimate “good” reframe the way you handle struggles here and now?
What are some practical ways you can rely on the Spirit this week instead of your own power?
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All right, everybody, welcome to church. I'm glad you're here. It's going to be a good day. It's already a good day. Just tell that person sitting next to you I'm glad you're here. That's awesome, awesome, awesome. It's good to see everybody in the house of the Lord, and today we start a brand new series called who Told you that? And we're going to dive into that in just a second.
Speaker 1:But I want to say, if you are new to Relate or if you are, maybe you've been around for just a little bit of time but you're still checking it out or if you're new watching online today, I just want to let you know that it matters a lot to us that you chose to worship with us. You chose to spend this time with us, and we're thrilled. We're always thrilled to see God doing something in somebody's life, and I know that can be for you today as well. As we open up God's word. As we open God's word today, I know it will change us and it will work in us. And the series that we're getting ready to dive right into today with week number one is I always feel like every series is like a continuation of the last one and hopefully it's doubling and it's going to another level. That's my hope and my prayer for you that we continue moving forward in our faith. And if you are a note taker which is hopefully everybody in the room we are a note-taking church Pull out your notes, pull out your phone or your tablet or your paper or your clicky binder or whatever that looks like for you.
Speaker 1:We're going to dive right in to this series, and the idea for this series is this that there, how many of you have a favorite Bible verse in the room? You can. Some of you won't raise your hand because you don't want me to call on you so that you'd have to quote it in front of everybody. But you do have some favorite verses that you stand on, that you believe in and that they're your go-to verses. And this series is kind of taking some of those verses that might be your favorite verse and, looking at it, hard enough to say there's some context here that we might be missing. Because here's the danger is that we have verses that we just quote, we use, we hang on to them, we believe in the meaning behind it or the promise, we love it, but then we get frustrated because we're looking at it wrong or we don't see the actual context of what it's saying. So over the next month or so, let's just dive in and we're going to probably have more scripture than usual.
Speaker 1:Although I always try to give you a lot of scripture, I want us to really press in to what the Bible, god's Word, means for us in context. It's a dangerous thing to take it out of context and then we get frustrated because it's not happening the way we think it ought to. So to kick us, and then we get frustrated because it's not happening the way we think it ought to. So to kick us off and to start us off, I brought, as you can see, coffee and today, I think, the parallel between the idea of coffee, because coffee for many of us represents, like, the promise of a perfect day, the promise of getting started, and you get that smell, the aroma of the best day ever, the best start to everything. And if you don't have the coffee, what happens? You feel like something is off here, something, I'm missing something.
Speaker 1:I like coffee, but in the way that I like coffee it's nowhere near the way my wife loves coffee, like it's two different things for us, so for her you can't not have coffee. I could skip coffee if I need to. In fact, somebody came up to me this morning right between services, and Scott told me you don't need coffee, you just need, and he held up his energy drink and said that's all you need, right there. There's something special, though, about the smell and the promise that a good cup of coffee brings, and so we've had several different coffee machines, coffee makers, drip coffee All coffee is good. Raise your hand if you love coffee, or if you're a coffee person, good, good, good, good, then this is the right message for you today. This particular machine, I'll just tell, tell you we're not selling it, so it's Nespresso. If you do or don't recognize it, this is the best coffee maker that we have ever had at our house.
Speaker 1:I think if I don't get an amen as strong as that for everything else, then I'll know where I need to work on your heart, brother, this is a great, like the idea of it, and sometimes, for me, like the image and the promise, of coffee is not exactly what I actually get when I get the cup of coffee, and so today we're going to look at that just a little. And, by the way, this is my mug here, my Texas coffee cup, which is ready to go. So we're going to keep that in position. But I want you to keep this in mind that for every promise of a cup of coffee there's also a process, like there's things that have to be done to pull off that promise. There's a process behind the promise and even beyond the process. I can go through all the process, but if I don't plug it in and it has some power, then the promise doesn't come to pass. I can't go through the process because I haven't reached for the power, and so it won't work.
Speaker 1:Today, the verse that we're going to unpack, the verse that we're going to be camping out at today, is Romans, chapter 8, 28. And a lot of you could probably quote it right now off the top of your head, but we're going to read it together. Would you guys read this out loud with me as we put it up on the screen, it says here we go. As we put up on the screen, it says here we go, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. We could just stop right there.
Speaker 1:And yes, I love that verse. It's such an amazing promise. It's my favorite verse. It may be your favorite verse ever, but here's the problem with verses like this. That's such a powerful promise. It's such an amazing promise that we can often just use it as like a lucky charm. Or if I'll just quote it enough, or if I can just believe it enough, then it'll happen. Listen, here's the problem. God's word and God's promise is not a lucky charm. It's not a wishing well where if we'll just stand on one foot and throw the coin just right and believe the right thing and cross our fingers and it's not that kind of thing. It's a promise from the creator of everything that loves us, our father. But it's not a mantra that we repeat. It's not a set of magic words that we need to try and get just right.
Speaker 1:And what happens when we start thinking that way is it's almost like the coffee we're like. Hold on, why am I not enjoying my coffee? Yet I came over here and looked for my coffee and still empty, says Nespresso. Where's it at? Come on coffee, where's my coffee? Where's my promise? God, you said I stood in church and said the prayer two weeks ago. What happened? My life? I'm not. This don't look like a promise. It's really easy to just start thinking, hey, what happened? And we can start resenting God and our frustration, like God. What happened? And we can start resenting God in our frustration, like God. You said.
Speaker 1:The problem is we're looking at it out of context, we're looking at it wrong, we're claiming it wrong. So I want us to back up a little bit and unpack the verse. We're going to start in verse 26, romans 8, 26, and I'm going to read it to you. It says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. In other words, right off the bat we see that God knows more about what he wants for us than we do. The Holy Spirit knows more about God's plan for our lives than how often do we feel like we're in the dark. And the Father, who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will, like God has a will for us, and if we can get aligned with that will, then something amazing happens.
Speaker 1:Then we arrive at our favorite verse In context. Watch this. It says and we know that God causes everything to work together for good, for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. But we're going to keep reading, for God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his son. Everybody say like his son, like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Notice how God has an agenda. Our agenda can often be misaligned or misinterpreted or out of sync with God's agenda. And having chosen them, having God chose us, he called them to come to him. You're seeing God's plan beginning to come into focus here. And it says having called them, he gave them right standing with himself and having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Speaker 1:We love to think about that. Okay, I want to have a he's work, all things for my good, god, that's good. And also, make me give me glory. Those things sound good. But if we don't take it in context that it doesn't, it doesn't land right, well, there's, there's more in there than that. We can't just refine it down to oh, make my life good, I'll take a better life, okay, so here's where we're going to start. We're going to start with the promise. And what's the thing we love about this verse? The most the promise is, the good. It's going to work. All things for the good. I want a good life. I want his good for me. So what is the good? What is the good that God wants for me? Because, honestly, if we went around the room and I asked you, hey, what is good for you? Your answer might be different than your answer. It's probably different than your. We go all the way around the room. We'd all have a different version, a different definition, a different good. So who's good are we looking at? Who's good should we take? I can tell you my definition of good.
Speaker 1:For example, I grew up learning to love to go to the beach. How many beach people do we have in the room? And I could probably say how many people hate the beach? And that many people or more would raise your hand, because there are people who love the beach and people who hate the beach. I love going to the beach. I grew up, I could spend all day, I could sleep on the beach. I don't need a tent, I don't need it. You just put me on the beach. Well, what about all the bugs? They're, they're just bugs. It's just nature. I'm okay with the bugs. What about all the sand that gets everywhere? I love the sand. I'll just dig me right into the sand. You put me in the sand. I don't need a shower. I'm happy to be dirty all day and just go get in the salty water and then the sun, and then we would go all day.
Speaker 1:After church, we would leave church and stay all as late as we could. We had off on Mondays and so we'd talk a bunch of people to. Angela and I when we were first married, we'd talk a bunch of people into going to the beach with us. We'd barely have any food because we'd bring our fishing poles and then we'd catch fish, put them right onto the fire and then cook them right there on the beach, and to me that's beautiful. We're like 45 minutes from the closest restroom. We're 45 minutes from anything it doesn't like.
Speaker 1:I don't care if it's California or if it's Florida or if it's Galveston, doesn't matter to me. A beach is a beach. Some of you say, no, it's not. We don't have to agree. I like the beach. It's my story, so I get to tell it, however I want. The beach is amazing, but you might be that person that says I need a restroom, I need a shower, I need food on standby, I need a waitress or a waiter who can I need all those things. I don't.
Speaker 1:But that's kind of the way we are with God's promise, that we take God's promise and we put it into our context. So it must mean the kind of thing I'm going to have somebody who takes care of me and I'm going to have my preferences and I'm going to have all the things that I need. But when God says he's working everything for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, what good is he actually talking about? Of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, what good is he actually talking about? John Stott said that Romans 8.28 is surely one of the best known texts in the Bible. On it, believers of every age and place have stayed their minds. It's been likened to a pillow on which to rest our weary heads. It's a comfort, it's a stability that we lean to and a promise that this is God's promise. This makes me feel so good about my life. I can look at all the bad things that are happening in my life and just imagine all the good things I know are coming. But what's the good, maybe you think? Good is? It's almost fall, everybody, it's almost Christmas time. We get to go shopping at the mall. Some of you I heard whoo, that was one person. Everybody else was like no sir, not good, not good. So what is God's good? Let's look at it and let's just stop for a moment and look at what Romans is.
Speaker 1:To begin with, if you've never read through the book of Romans, read it. It might not be the first thing you stop on. If it's your first Bible first reading. Go to Matthew, mark, luke and John, but then go into Romans, acts and Romans and start to look at what it's like. Digging in deep Like this is the high points of the gospel, of what it means to follow Jesus, what God wants for me in our relationship. Romans unpacks this in a way that almost no other chapter in the Bible does.
Speaker 1:Not just the Bible the Bible tells us this incredible story of God's plan for us but all the books that Paul writes and trying to explain to the churches of the New Testament on how do you actually live out the gospel? How do you live this relationship in God's plan for you? If you take all of the great amount of stuff that Paul wrote, romans is like the highest of the high. Romans is like the Himalayas, like now we're going up onto the mountain and we're going somewhere, we're going to a high place. And if you take all of this mountain range of incredible things that were written then Romans, chapter 8, is like the Mount Everest. It's like the peak or the pinnacle. It's this climax of God loves us.
Speaker 1:In fact chapter 8 starts with. There is therefore now no condemnation Like if you read the entire chapter, you're going to see so many of our favorite principles and ideas and the foundational stones that we stand on in our faith that God's not here to condemn me. He loves me, he's giving me grace. The whole book of Romans gives us this picture of what grace looks like. And then the end of chapter eight gives us that nothing can separate us from God's love. Nothing can not height nor depth, nor there's nothing can separate us from God's love.
Speaker 1:But what is the definition of what it means to be good? If we back up one chapter into Romans, chapter 7,? Paul is kind of struggling with the idea. Even Paul, who's giving us this picture, is kind of struggling with what and how to do good, how to live that good life. In chapter 7, verse 19, he says this I want to do good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway. What is wrong but I do it anyway.
Speaker 1:I think it's fairly safe to say that good is tough. Good is one of those things that I'm not sure we can even be trusted to decide what's good. I'm not sure we can be trusted to decide what's good. If you look at the parable or the old story of the Midas touch, the guy wishes for the ability. I want everything that I touch to turn to gold. And then eventually, what happens? He can't even eat because everything is gold. We will choose what's worse for us thinking we're choosing good. It's even more exemplified in the study that was released not too long ago from all of the since the year 2000, there have been now over 1 million overdose deaths.
Speaker 1:People looking for good People. I want a good time, I want to feel good, I want my life to I got to get away from all of the struggle and they reach for something that they think will make their life better. They're chasing something that they think is good but inevitably leads to death. Inevitably it gives them the opposite of what they're looking for. You might think, well, I'm not a drug addict, but still we choose wrong things over and we have a tendency, as humanity, to make as many bad decisions as we make good. Hopefully we do make some good decisions. Hopefully we listen to God and we pursue and follow God enough to be where he wants us to be. But ultimately we have to find and land on what his good for me is, and I think that's the starting place for this study, and that is.
Speaker 1:We just read the next verse. Of course, he works all things for the good of those who love him and they're called according to his purpose. But verse 29 gives us the answer, the definition that we're going to hold on to, for what is good for me? What is God's good for me? His definition is this. In verse 29, it says for God knew his people in advance and he chose them to be like his son. That's it. That's the good.
Speaker 1:If you want to know the good that God wants for your life, God wants you to be like Jesus, and you might have woke up this morning thinking I got to get to church so my life will be better. I got to get to church so that God can do something in my life. And if your version of good and his plan for your life is anything other than him making you like Jesus, then we've lost the picture. Then we're chasing a good that's just fleeting. So let's keep digging just a little bit.
Speaker 1:So, now that we have a definition, we have the promise and we've narrowed it down to this is God's promise. He wants to make me like Jesus. Behind that promise is a process. There's the details of okay, god's saying I got a plan for you. We love to say that, but it's wide open. It's like God's got a plan for you. God has a purpose for your life. That's the promise. But that's wide open if we don't define it. And the definition is God saying I got a plan for you and it's to make you like Jesus, like he was the firstborn among sons, but there will be many to follow. We get to follow in Jesus' footsteps and become like him. Now you're starting to think I don't know if I want that. That's the deal.
Speaker 1:So the details often get obscured in the pain and the trouble of life and we lose the story that God has for us. There's a lady named Johnny Erickson Todd. At 17 years old, she had an accident and she dove into the Chesapeake Bay into a shallow area and she broke one of the bones in her neck and she became a quadriplegic for life. Stuck in a wheelchair. She wrestled and fought with why is this happening to me? And finally now she tours around the world and God has touched her life and she's found a relationship with God that she never had before. And she said this that God will permit what he hates to accomplish that which he loves. There's some things in your life that you think, god, how could you do this? How could you? I thought you had a plan for me, and yet God will allow the things that he hates so that he can get you to the things that he loves.
Speaker 1:Because this process is a process of painful things. It's a process of I got to let some things sharpen you. I got to let some things make you stronger. I've got to let some things develop you. Everybody say the word develop. How about even invite? Just say this to God God develop me, not as many of you said, that, so many less. It's hard to say God, develop me, god use God, use me, god, make me, mold me, shape me.
Speaker 1:That's the picture of a father that is a potter, who is crushing the clay and making it, and if it messes up then he's got to crush it again. And yet that's a hard. Surrender is a hard thing. When you actually have to surrender and Johnny said this I'd rather be in a wheelchair knowing Jesus than on my feet without him. It takes a lot of development to get to the place where you can say that out loud. And so the danger is that Romans 8, 28 becomes this little pat on my own back Well, hey, everything's going to be better. Perk up, brother. Everything's going to get better. Can I tell you that that is so minimizing what God is actually promising us. If we take Romans 8, 28, and we just kind of give each other a thumbs up and it's the thing that maybe it was on your grandma's wall and it was knitted into a doily, maybe, or maybe it's the thing that you have on a bumper sticker or on your phone. You have this picture that reminds you, hey, it's going to be. You're going to have a better day. If we minimize the promise down to just it's going to get better, then we've missed the point. So what are the details? I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:Every time I approach this machine, I have to realize that there's a process in it and I can't just walk over and get my coffee. But the details matter, and so the first thing I've got to do is I'm going to fill it up with water. That should be enough. That should be enough, and I'll put the lid on. Now we take this little pod I can't tell what. The Cafe Joyou. Yes, yes, yes. Then we're going to close this, then we're going to close this, and then we're going to lock it.
Speaker 1:And it looks like it should be working, but there's no power. Okay, we do have power, but it's thinking right, it's trying to decide whether it's going to work. Oh, it looks like it's going to go now, but I'd like it to hurry up. Isn't that the process in life? What happened to the process here? I would rather not have a process. I would like to just be able to pop the top and get my energy drink. It's going. Can you hear it? Yeah, smells really good up here. I don't. By the way, pastor Jason tried to steal this cup of coffee in the first service.
Speaker 1:I'm willing to wait. We're just going to wait on the process, because I think the point is there's a process for life and even though we don't like to wait, it looks like it's almost done, often slower than we want it to be. But even whenever that part is done, what do we need to do? I need to get the recipe right here, so we're going to pour in some sugar and then we're going to pour in some cream and I don't have a way to stir it Mm-hmm. There's a process to it that requires us to take our time and wait on the. If we get ahead of it, then it doesn't work. If we put the wrong step in the wrong order, then we don't get the promise. And so how do we walk out the details and the development of the process? Because for God and his promise for us, it's different. For every person it looks different, the process might look different, but ultimately the goal is the same. We don't like to wait on the details. In fact, we hate waiting on the details. I won't tell you exactly how old I am right this moment, but I will tell you this In 1988, we had no cell phones and we didn't have the internet, and so those of you who were alive in those days, you know that there were a lot of things in life that we didn't know the answers to.
Speaker 1:If we were remembering a song in a conversation, oh yeah, I remember that song, what was the name of that song there was. Sometimes we just had to walk away from a conversation and we did not know the answer. You couldn't ask someone or look it up somewhere. I think it goes something like this and everyone said I don't know what you're talking about. That doesn't make any sense. That's not even a real song.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, you can look it up in two seconds and know the answer. My kids cannot imagine not knowing something because you could just look it up. The process is different. Whenever I was in 1988, I was almost 10 years old but we couldn't. Just if we went to the store looking for something and they didn't have it, we just didn't have it, you didn't. Just there were some things you couldn't get. Oh, can't get it right now, maybe one day.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, if there's something anywhere on the planet, you just go on your phone, and then not only can you order it right then and there it's probably going to come in just a couple of days. You could track it and watch. I got my tracking number. It's coming. It's on a boat, it's coming across the ocean, it's been shipped. I'm going to have it in another week and now it's in my city. It's not here but I can track it. And now it's not just in my city, it's out for delivery. This guy's. I'm watching out the window. Where is this guy at? I'm going to drive around the neighborhood and see if I can find him.
Speaker 1:We want the tracking number, but with God and with the process that he wants to put us through, you don't get a tracking number and so often we just give up. God, I thought you had a process for my life. You had a promise. Where is it? I need a tracking number, god. I need you to show me where I'm at in this process because, listen, trusting God is saying I don't need a tracking number. I don't need you to give me all the detail. I don't need all the details, god. I just need to know that you're working. This verse says he's working all things together for my good, because of his promise, because of his purpose, because I love him and I'm in his plan. It's not giving up. It's trusting in the process. It's trusting his purpose for me. But his timing is not my timing and the amount of time and the length for this process might not look the way I want it to.
Speaker 1:2 Peter Peter describes it this way in chapter three with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. In other words, god's not slow. You think he's slow. That's how I translate that the Lord is not slow, as some would say. As some understand slowness, you all think God's not moving. God's not moving, god's not working. Where are you at, god? I'm ready for my coffee. You made me a promise. He's not slow. Instead, he's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance, to come into alignment and surrender with his plan. There are pieces of the puzzle that we don't have, but if we'll trust the one who is working, his timing is not our timing.
Speaker 1:Joseph, at any given time in the life of Joseph in Genesis, you might think, oh man, this is going terribly. God gives him a promise I'm going to use you. And then, just that quickly, his brothers all betray him and throw him into a pit. Just that quickly, his brothers all betray him and throw him into a pit. What happened? I thought we had a plan, I thought we had a purpose. I thought we had a promise.
Speaker 1:It'd be really easy to say God, my life is going so bad right now. Wait a second. And then things start looking up. He starts working in Potiphar's house and then Potiphar's wife lies about him, he gets thrown in prison. We could say the same thing. What happened, god? And then, just when things look good, some people from the palace are in prison, they get released, don't forget me. He gets forgotten in prison. So just when everything looked like it might turn around and I'm sure, joseph, like all of us, god, if you could just get them to do what they said they were going to do we're hanging on that next milestone or that next prayer request or that next thing that we think will make our life better, and we can't believe that God won't answer our prayer.
Speaker 1:But God has a process and at the end of that process for Joseph's life, through the ups and the downs, through all of the things that look like things were lost. Watch what he says in Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20. He gets to speak to his brothers who had originally betrayed him and thrown him into the pit and sold him into slavery. He tells his brothers but as for you, I'm not going to hold it against you because you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is today, like in order, like so that today could happen. God, let all those other things happen, so that something amazing to save all of our lives. God, let us walk through some really bad things. But so often we want to throw God out the window when the bad things start to happen and God's saying just hold on a second, you got to go through this to get to the other stuff.
Speaker 1:So how does he work the things that together works all things together for the good? That word together is the Greek word synergeo and it's where we get our word synergy, and I'll give you the definition, for synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances or other agents. That could be people, could be problems, it could be circumstances and situations, it could be the process that God has you and all these things that don't look good. It could be people in your life that God's put into your life that you don't think is good, but when they come together, something amazing happens. Those things come together to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects, meaning essentially that two plus two equals not four, but six or five or more than they would separately.
Speaker 1:When we come together as the church, the body of Christ, what God does with us is that I might come together, able to bring about one thing, and you might have a whole nother set of circumstances. But when we come together and God puts us together maybe it's in a small group or a team or sitting next to each other on a Sunday morning, worshiping God together, putting our lives together it doesn't matter all the problems that we carried in with us. God produces an effect that's greater than the individual. Maybe you have some problems that are the same. Thing happens Whenever we put them into God's hands. The synergy begins to happen, the synergeo. A great example is salt, the element, the chemical makeup of salt is sodium chloride, two elements put together. Sodium can be dangerous, chloride can be dangerous, both toxic. But when you put them together, they make something that's very good. We can be worse than we are together.
Speaker 1:This also works when I'm encountering a situation that doesn't God. Why are you putting me through this, god? Why am I here? Why did you tell me to connect to this? Why did you send this person to me? Why did you ask me to do this? Why are things the way they are? But if I can look at those circumstances and say, okay, god's putting things together that don't make sense. But once they get together, they make something altogether different. What you meant for evil, what looked like it, was for evil. What looked like it was painful and hurt, all of a sudden it was for my good. God did it on purpose and he may not have created it, but he allowed it. And ultimately, what is the good leading toward? What's the end result?
Speaker 1:Whenever he talks about glory us being glorified with him what is that? That's not me being glorified on earth, or you being lifted into a position so that you could rule over nations. No, that's God's ultimate glory for us is evident. And when you read the whole chapter, I'll pull just a couple of lines that point toward. One line says consider that the suffering of this present time, like in contrast to it, not this present time, like where he's taking us. The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits, waits for what Creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Like things are corrupt, we live in a world that's broken, that is full of sin, but ultimately we'll be glorified and go somewhere. That's not the whole creation. Groans and labors with birth pains, like there's something, something more that he's taking us toward. And ultimately, what is that? It's not an answered prayer or a better version of the life that you're living right now. It's not just God. If you could just get me to that next checkpoint, that next milestone, that next achievement marker. No, the ultimate glory that he has for us is heaven marker. No, the ultimate glory that he has for us is heaven. He's gone to prepare a place for us and he's preparing us for that place through the process of sanctification, the process of being glorified, step by step, line by line, glory to glory.
Speaker 1:And whenever we get too focused on the current surroundings or my environment or the situation that I'm in and let it give too much, it would be like checking into a hotel and then just deciding okay, I can't live on this bed and this nightstand and this desk and this chair. I'm replacing all the furniture in this hotel. Let's go to gallery furniture and just buy all new. That's insane to think that you would go to a hotel and replace all the furniture. Because it's temporary, I'm only going to be here for a minute, but the same is true for every other thing in our life that we get so hyper-focused on, we get so intent on. I got to have this. I can't deal with this. It's so painful. Listen, it's just temporary. Tell that person as kindly as you can, sitting next to you. It's just temporary. Maybe you know what they're going through. Tell them again. It's just temporary.
Speaker 1:Our eyes should be set on heaven. Romans 8.18, 18,. He gives us the answer and he says for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. In other words, he's taking us somewhere better, and it's not this earth. And if I think God, if you'll just make all things in my life work together for good so that I'll have a good life, that's not the life he promises. He promises to walk with us through this life and into better things. But Paul, sitting in prison, says other things to us that he'll take us through prison. He'll take us through pain. He'll take us through the struggle. We can overcome the struggle, but I got something better for you at the end. That's the real promise. And so how do we live that out every day? How do we walk it out? How can we take the puzzle piece that's handed to us? By the way, I love puzzles. When we go on vacation, a lot of times at our house we have puzzles out. When the kids are over, we do puzzles. Since they were little kids, we did puzzles and the puzzle.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, what happens is, if you're looking at the picture, we set this up next to the puzzle so we can see what we're doing. You keep in mind the bigger picture, otherwise it's really easy to just get locked into a color. Well, this must be like someone's face or something. It looks like it might fit over into it's someone's arm or something. And if you can't look at the bigger picture, it's so easy to just get hyper-focused on the puzzle piece.
Speaker 1:And the real danger of a puzzle piece is that whenever we get handed a painful piece, we get handed a struggle and all of a sudden. It doesn't make sense. What do we want to do? We start looking for the bigger picture to be comfort. We start looking for the bigger picture to God. You just if you could just get me a better car, if you just get me a better house, or if you could just get me a better marriage, if I could just get out of this one, or if I could just get to a better church, or if I could just. We just start making our prayer requests about achievements and the next milestone in the picture that we want to see. Maybe it's something comforting, maybe it's something relaxing or something that we've always dreamed of, when in reality, the bigger picture is the image of Jesus, that God's taking us towards his image and he's taking us toward heaven. So don't make this verse about something that it's not, don't make it so small that it's insignificant, and it's just a saying that we say it's not, it's the peak of what God wants for us.
Speaker 1:And finally, I'll close with this, and that is that number three, we can have the promise and if we're willing to go through the process, it doesn't matter if there's no power. So where is the power? Where is the power that powers this promise? It's very easy. In this chapter Romans, chapter 8, 19 times Paul tells us that the answer is the Holy Spirit. 19 times the Holy Spirit is mentioned. So we cannot do this without being plugged into the power. We can't do it without the Holy Spirit. So how do I rely every day to wake up in the morning and start relying on the Holy Spirit? How do I rely on the Holy Spirit to help me see the bigger picture, to help me go through the process, to help me let the sanctification, all those little details, those painful little things that don't make sense, how do I rely on the Holy Spirit to take me through it? It's not hard, it's not a secret, it's not a mystery, it's very simple. And so I'll give it to you in two things. Number one to rely on the Holy Spirit. You just have to humble yourself Over and over.
Speaker 1:The Bible tells us in James and Peter, that God opposes the proud. God opposes the proud. I don't want to have pride and ego and my own desire, my own picture, the thing that I'm pursuing, my preferences to be the thing, god. That's the ultimate goal. No, god, I need to be so humble that God can do anything, that I can follow him, whether it's painful, whether it puts me with people that I want to be with or takes me away from people that I want to be with. My prayer should be God, I'll go wherever you want me to go, no matter who it puts me with or takes me away from God. I'll live however you want me to live. Whether I have money or don't have money, whether you're filling my bank account or emptying my bank account, I'm following you, god. God needs humility.
Speaker 1:The sad part is that if you're looking for prideful people, all you really need to do is go to church on Sunday morning, because the church is full, full. I wish I could come around the room and tap every one of us on the shoulder, myself included. Too much pride, you think. Well, I'm not really a prideful person. You are, I am, we all are. You think. Get to the next part, pastor shard, because I don't really need this part. This is the part you need. God opposes the proud. Who needs god's plan when we have our own plan? Who needs god's desire for you when you have your own desires for you? You got to empty yourself if you want to be full of the Holy Spirit. How can we hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit? If we're the loudest opinion in the room, we think that well, I've been going to church for a long time. Pastor John already heard all that.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of Christians who would like to call themselves mature, but ultimately I would call them overripe, so full of ourselves. We got to do better. We don't trust anybody, we don't believe anybody, we don't listen to anybody because we have all the answers. We have to be walking in humility, be walking in humility. Humility is the beginning of the fear of God. And number two we have to ultimately be following Jesus, because that's where the Holy Spirit's leading.
Speaker 1:The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God leads us. It's Jesus said that the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is coming, like I'm going away and there's another that will come. And John, he's telling the disciples about how the Holy Spirit will help them and he says this he will glorify me. The job of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. He works us through the process of you looking like you right now and transforming us into the image of Jesus. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. So he's going to get from Jesus and hand it to us, hear it from Jesus and speak it to us, and if we're listening, if we're pursuing Jesus, if we're pursuing the image of Jesus in every area of our life, then the Holy Spirit can lead us and work on us, and work us through sanctification, so that he can be glorified in us, he can be magnified, he can be revealed in us.
Speaker 1:Would you stand up on your feet? And I want us to take the close of this service. I want us to just, number one, humble ourselves. In a minute we're going to come back and say a prayer and align ourselves with his purpose, but would you just take a minute and begin to ask God to forgive you of being full of pride, to figure out what it looks like to bow your heart in worship, to bow your thoughts and put your agenda on the shelf and put it aside, say, okay, god, I'm going to let you lead in my life, I'm going to let you lead me and I'm going to follow you and I'm not going to follow myself, my desires, my preferences. So let's worship for just a moment before we pray.
Speaker 1:I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Come on Sing. I sought the Lord. I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered. I sought the Lord and he. He heard and he answered. That's why I trust Him. I called the Lord and he heard and he answered. I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered. That's why I trust in, that's why I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. You'll never fail. You'll never fail. Jesus, he will never fail.
Speaker 1:So two groups of people in the room. Number one is the one that you've never surrendered your life to. You've never humbled yourself and said God, I need you, take my life, it's yours, and so, if that's you today, I would invite you, encourage you. Why not let today be the day where you give your life back to the one who made you, put your life in the hands of a loving father, the potter who will make us and use us and put us to use for the greatest purpose of all? It's a simple prayer of faith. The Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and we're going to say that prayer in just a moment. But there's another group of people in the room that maybe you have been following Jesus for a long time. Maybe you've been caught in your own plan and it's time to just surrender back to him. Okay, I don't need all the details. Instead of focusing on where you're going, we should be focused on who we're following. So if that's you, today, it's time to realign your life with him. We're going to say this prayer together, and I would invite everyone in the room and those watching online.
Speaker 1:Would you say this prayer with me. Dear heavenly father, I choose to follow you today. So today I humble myself. Take my pride, take my ego. I won't follow anyone but you. So forgive me of my sin, forgive me for going my own way. From this day forward, I choose to follow you with all of my heart and all of my strength In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Would you put your hands together? We serve a good God who has good plans for us, and we're going to continue to walk those plans out. I'm looking forward to seeing you at a small group this week or at the serve day on Saturday. I'm going to invite the prayer team to join me at the front. If you want to pray with someone before you leave, if you have any kind of need, you want to stand in faith with another believer who will pray with you and invite the presence of God into that situation, I'm going to invite you to come forward. Otherwise, we'll see you next week. God bless you.