Things We Can Know In Our Weakness

It's good to see all of you here today and what a blessing to be able to gather together, worship God and through song and then to worship Him by listening to his word. Why don't we go ahead and begin, our time in the word by looking to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we, we stand in need of Your touch this morning, We, we thank you for Your, your love and your grace and communing, communicating to us through your word.

But we, I, I keenly feel, Lord, that I, I can't communicate your word as is necessary without your spirit's enabling. So I ask that your spirit would, would perform a miracle up here and allowing me to communicate in such a way that everyone here is hearing exactly what the spirit. Once communicated. And work in every heart that's here, Lord, so that your will would be done.

In each life, every person. Here the number of hairs on their head. everything about them and exactly what their need is. Some in this room, Lord, need encouragement, some need to be challenged, and some need to be saved.

There are some in this room. Lord, that were they to die today, they would awaken in hell. And I pray, Lord, that You would help them to see that salvation does not come to a person. Just by attending church or by listening to sermons.

There are many thousands in hell who have heard thousands of sermons. There are many in hell who have preached thousands of sermons. Salvation does not come by hearing the word. It comes.

By humility and brokenness and, A quickening, an awakening work of your spirit in the heart of a person. That begins to bring them to life that they would see their sin and their poverty. Their inability to save themselves. And that through your spirit that they would turn their gaze upon Jesus and say, he is the savior for me.

And if there are those in this room that have never experienced this working of your spirit in them, you would Help them to see what they need to see. of their own bankruptcy, and that they would see as never before the riches of Christ, the riches of your good heart towards your people. And that they would come running to you this morning. For those of us that are your people, Lord, we believe, but we believe so selectively.

Teach us to believe more fully than we do and use your word. To take us further on this journey of faith. May every person here, including me, hear everything that the Spirit has to say through your word to the church. We just surrender ourselves to you, Lord, with a spirit of expectancy as to what you intend to do in our midst in the coming moments.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, for a time of study in God's word, we've been away from one standpoint. From our series through Romans 567 and 8, a journey to the heart of the gospel.

But in another way, we've been in this series all along over the last few weeks. And we have stopped inside of verse 26, and Paul's confession that we do not know how to pray as we should. And we have joined him in that and opened our hearts to the Lord and asked him to teach us how to pray, as is necessary. so we've been here at this spot over the past 5 or 6 weeks, but we come back this morning to verse 26, and my goal today is to look at verses 26 through 28.

And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Things We can Know in our weakness. Things we can know in our weakness. Are you guys hearing an echo? No?

OK. It's just me. are you hearing voices like in your head? It's just me, apparently.

OK. Things we can know in our weakness. I thought about titling this Things we can know in our Ignorance. Because that's actually more appropriate to what we're talking about, but that would seem confusing.

So things we can know in our weakness. one of the key words in this section of Romans 8 is the word know. K N O W and two of the occasions where we see this verb no is in verse 26 and 28. and it's interesting in verse 26, Paul speaks about his weakness, our weakness, and he confesses saying we do not know.

But the same Paul that confesses his ignorance and incompetence in verse 26 is the same one that two verses later in verse 28 says, we know. And so in this section, we have a wonderful balance of a man willing to confess his weakness, and his ignorance, what he does not know, and at the same time willing in the context of his weakness and what he does not know. He knows some things with absolute certainty. And he's like, there's some things I don't know.

And I am a weak man, but in my weakness and in my ignorance, I do know these things. And I want to speak and confess them aloud. One of the things I've been thinking about this week a lot is that, one of the most telling things about you and me. is what is it in our moments of weakness and ignorance that we do know for sure?

And in our moments of greatest weakness, and our moments of where we're just feeling utterly incompetent and ignorant. What is it that we fall back on and say, at least I know this. At least I know that this is true. I'm not so much interested this morning in what when you're feeling smart.

What to be true when everything's going great, and you're in God's word, doing Bible study and learning a gazillion things and that are exciting you. And then you get up from your Bible study, and you're going throughout your day. And this happens, and that happens, and that happens. And you're like, yep, that makes sense.

Everything in my life is making sense right now. And whatever it is you're doing, you're feeling incredibly competent to do that. I'm not really interested in what to be true in those moments. What we're talking about is in those moments where something happens to you, and you are absolutely leveled to the ground.

You're devastated, you are reeling from something that has come your way, you are exhausted from spiritual battle. And truth that once came easily to you and that you formerly had no trouble believing seems to be elusive, and it's slipping from your grasp. And you're wondering what in the world do I know with certainty. In those moments of profound weakness and battle and exhaustion and ignorance, what do then?

What in those moments are one of the most telling things about you and where you are in your journey with the Lord. Few examples, John Newton, who was a pastor, he's the one who wrote the song Amazing Grace. He lived to the age of 83. He was still preaching at the age of 80.

He was almost blind, could barely read his sermon manuscript that he would preach from. His eyesight was so bad that he would have a helper standing at the pulpit with him. Imagine this. a helper would be here at the pulpit with him.

And as John Newton was preaching his manuscripted sermon, the helper would be there to say, wait a minute, you missed this line, or you've already read that, move on. Some of you think I might could benefit from something like that, but But there was one occasion when he was about 80 where he came to a line in a sermon on the manuscript and it said, Jesus Christ is precious. And he spoke it according to the manuscript, and then he spoke it again, and his helper said, Mr. Newton, you've already said this twice.

You need to move on. And Mr. Newton got a little offended and he said, I know I've read it twice and I'm going to read it a third time. And he thundered the words Jesus Christ is precious.

A little over 2 years later, he passed away, and as he was fading quickly, his mind was going and a friend came to visit with him and the friend came out from his time with John Newton and said to other people, Listen to what John Newton said to me when I was visiting with him. And here's the quote. He said to his friend, My memory is nearly gone. But I remember two things.

That I am a great sinner. And that Christ is a great savior. I, I don't know much of anything anymore. I do know this.

I'm a great sinner. And Christ is a great savior. You learn a lot about John Newton by observing what he knew. When almost all else had faded from his mind.

And he was an utter weakness. Another example is Job. who had everything going for him, a godly man, great family, incredible wealth, highly esteemed, but He ended up losing his sons and his daughters, and he lost all of his wealth on a tragic, awful day. And eventually the devil was allowed to touch his body and his body was covered from head to toe with sores that Job was left alone, itching and scraping with broken pieces of pottery.

To make matters worse, his wife came to him and said, Curse God and die. To make those matters worse, he had some comforters who came to him and said, Job, let us comfort you, brother. This is all happening to you because there must be some sin in your life. And so our counsel is acknowledge your sin, and maybe God will take this away.

Job viewed their comfort literally as persecution. He uses that word to describe their ministry to him. It was not a ministry of comfort, but a ministry of persecution of this man, adding insult to injury. But in his moment of weakness where I'm sure he's left with so many questions and uncertainties and And truths that at one point came easily are now slipping from his grasp.

Listen to what he says. He says, God has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my intimate friends have forgotten me. Those who live in my house, and my maids consider me a stranger.

I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I have to implore him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife.

I will resist the temptation to say something here. My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me. I rise up and they speak against me.

All my associates abhor me, and those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me, pity me, oh you, my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does?

And are you not satisfied with my flesh? Are you not satisfied with the suffering that you see me in? To go adding to that with the words you speak. Now listen to what he says.

Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were included in a book. That with an iron stylus and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.

And at the last he will take his stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh, I shall see God. In his moment of greatest weakness, And ignorance. He says this I know.

I know that my Redeemer lives. Let me tell you what I fall back on. I don't, I know almost nothing else anymore. I do know this, that I have a redeemer, that he lives, and that at the last day he will take a stand on the earth.

And after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh, I shall see God. This is one of the most remarkable Old Testament statements of theology regarding the afterlife, and even the physicality of it. You find nothing else like this anywhere in the Old Testament. You have to wait for the New Testament to see anything like this again.

And it came wrenching from the heart of a man. Who knew almost nothing else. In his greatest weakness, he falls back on this and says this, I know to be true. One other quick example is David in a time of trial in his life, he says to God, Be gracious to me, oh God, for man has trampled upon me, fighting all day long.

He oppresses me, my foes have trampled upon me all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. All day long they distort my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They attack, they lurk, they watch my steps as they have waited to take my life.

But he says, you have taken account of my wanderings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This, I know.

That God is for me. What is That truth or those truths that when all else seems to elude your grasp in your moments of weakness and ignorance, what is it that you go to and say at least this, I know. There's one other example that we find actually in Romans 8 in our passage this morning, whereas I've already mentioned, we have the apostle Paul, confessing weakness and confessing ignorance. In verse 26, he speaks of our weakness, and he says, we don't know.

We don't know. And yet, though he is confessing weakness and ignorance, In that very same context, he is also affirming and confessing aloud what he does know with certainty. And we find that in verses 26 and following. Let's read the passage together.

Verse 26, he says, in the same way, the Spirit 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.

The way we're going to frame things this morning is there are 5 things that Paul knew to be true in the midst of his weakness and ignorance. And let's try to understand what those are and join him. And the things that he was certain about in his moments of uncertainty. The 1st 3 of these are reviewed, but they'll bring us back up to speed and then help us understand the connection of verse 28 to what precedes.

The first thing that Paul knew to be true in the midst of his weakness and ignorance is that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. He says in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. We have learned something weeks ago that should be very precious to us, and that is that That for those of us that are saved, we still have many, many weaknesses.

some of those weaknesses, others know about, some of them we're embarrassed about, some of them we think surely God will move away from me and want nothing to do with me because of these areas of weakness. But we've learned that the Spirit is not disgusted by our weakness. He's not irritated by our weakness. He's not put off by our weakness.

Think of those areas of weakness in your life. If you were to name the top 2 or 3 greatest areas of weakness, The Spirit is not irritated or put off by the presence of those weaknesses. He does not run away from you or move away from you, because of those weaknesses. What we have learned is that the Spirit sees those weaknesses and you and me, and he is attracted to them.

He moves towards us in those weaknesses and says, I'd like to help you with that. The Father has sent me into your life. To be your helper in this exact area of weakness. He moves towards our weakness.

A few weeks ago, we had a brother in the Tuesday morning man forum confess weakness to his brothers. And We called a man blitz on the guy and And a sign up sheet went around the room and guys signed up for every day over the next two weeks. And every day over the next 14 days at 4 o'clock, pretty much every day there was at least one brother going over to this man's house to just read the word and pray with him. That is a picture.

Of the movement of these men towards this brother in his confessed weakness is merely a picture of what the Spirit does in our lives. He moves towards us and says, I'd like to help you with this, and I'm fully equipped to do so. There's a second thing Paul knew for sure and confesses to be true in his weakness and ignorance, and that is that the Spirit intercedes for us. He says in verse 26, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Paul is saying, what, I, I don't know. I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to pray, as is necessary. But I know that I'm covered with perfect prayer.

Because in this area of weakness in my life, the Spirit is continuously interceding and praying for me. He is praying with perfect understanding of me and my weakness. I don't even fully understand my weaknesses. I think I might.

He says in the Book of Corinthians that, I judge my heart, but I'm not thereby acquitted. Only God knows my heart. So we think we understand our weaknesses, but who knows, maybe that's just a symptom of a deeper weakness. And then maybe that's a symptom of a deeper weakness.

Who can search out the human heart? The Spirit of God fully understands all of our weakness. He prays perfectly to the Father. Regarding those weaknesses, he prays with groanings too deep for words.

In other words, he prays with perfect passion for us in our weakness. If we could hear the Spirit praying for us, and hear the words he speaks, we would say that's it. That's it. That's exactly what I need prayed for me.

Thank you, Holy Spirit. He's praying for us at all times. There's a 3rd thing Paul knew for sure in his weakness and ignorance. And that is that God knows the mind of the Spirit.

God knows the mind of the Spirit. He says, and he who searches the hearts knows there's that verb no again, what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to God or according to the will. Of God. We saw that this word know doesn't just mean God knows the mind of the Spirit because he has to.

I'm omniscient. I have to know the mind of the Spirit. No, this speaks of an approving knowledge of. He knows the mind of the spirit the way that the Lord in Psalm 16 knows the way of the righteous.

He knows the way of the righteous approvingly, and he blesses and grants success to the way of the righteous. And so for him to know the mind of the Spirit means he approves of everything that the Spirit is expressing of his mind to the Father, the Father approves of it and seeks to grant success to the mind of the Spirit as it is expressed in prayer. And so though we might find ourselves in weakness and, and ignorance, and there's much that we don't know, we can know that the Spirit is here to help me with my weakness and my ignorance.

He is praying for me in a way that I could never articulate with a passion.

I could never Give expression to, and I know that God knows approvingly the mind of the Spirit as the Spirit prays for me. I know that as the Spirit is praying for me perfectly with perfect passion, perfect understanding, he's praying according to the will of the Father. And so as the Father hears the prayer of the Spirit on my behalf, the Father rejoices and says, that's it. That's it.

That's exactly what I want prayed to me. Spirit, you are asking exactly. What I want to do. That is according to my will for this child of mine, who finds himself in weakness and ignorance.

Paul in his weakness and ignorance knew these three things to be true, but there's a 4th thing that he knew to be true, a 4th and a 5th, and we find these inside of Romans chapter 8, verse 28. Listen to what he says in verse 28, and we know, there's something else we know. 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. A lot of people have memorized Romans 8:28, rightly so.

most people who have memorized Romans 8:28 have not taken the time to memorize Romans 8:26 and 27 that lead into 28. And that's fine because there's a lot in Romans 8:28 that stands on its own to bring wonderful perspective and comfort. But I think it's healthy for us to understand the connection of verse 28 to what precedes. And let me go ahead and state the fourth thing that Paul knew to be true.

We're going to break this verse 28 into two parts. The 4th thing that he knew to be true was that God is working all things, literally, the Greek text says into good for those who are his people. the connection of verse 28 to what precedes is this, that, we and our weakness and ignorance, we don't know how to pray as we should. The Spirit prays for us perfectly, flawlessly.

And the Father hears what the Spirit is praying, and approves of what the Spirit is praying on our behalf and our weakness. And the Father responds to the prayers of the Spirit by causing everything to work together. Into good. And in other words, Romans 8:28 is the answer to the Spirit's prayer that we are receiving all the time.

We know based on verse 28, that in every single circumstance, everything, guys, let's not be selective, everything and all things, God is always doing something specific in direct answer to the prayers that the Holy Spirit prays for us and everything. so when we're confused and bewildered and God seems to be delaying an answer, In that he's doing something even in his delay in direct answer to the Spirit's prayer. He's doing something good in us when we're on the receiving end of wrongdoing, when we experience hardship and trial and even tragedy.

or even the blessings that come our way, we can know that inside of absolutely everything good and bad, and even the evils that are done against us, inside of everything, God is always doing something in direct answer.

To the prayer of the Holy Spirit for us. In fact, we can say that the only reason anything is ever allowed in our life is allowed solely because God has decided that He can allow this into our life and through the circumstance. Weave that together with other things and thereby do something in answer to the prayers of the Holy Spirit for us. He says, we know, we know with certainty that God works.

God is always working, guys, always working. He works all things together literally into good. He takes this circumstance and that, and this hardship and this trial and this blessing and, and he works it all together into something good that he is doing in us. Now let's be careful.

When Paul makes this affirmation, he does not mean to say that all things are good. Paul is not saying that everything that ever happens to us is good, so we don't want to say that. One writer says this does not mean that all things are good. They are not, and to call evil good is a grievous error under any circumstances.

It means that for those who love God, no evil may befall them that God cannot use for their growth. And His glory. Evil may happen to them and does happen to them, but there is no evil that ever happens to them that God is not. working together with other things in order to accomplish something good.

God is not the author of evil, but he has allowed that into our day, into our life, whatever we are encountering, and we can be confident that he is doing something in us and through us and for His glory, even in. that wrong that is done against us. Let's also add one other caution and saying that God works everything into good. Paul is not necessarily saying that it's what we think is best.

That, when God is working everything together for good, that we would all automatically look at that and go, wow, I think that's best. guys, if we're really honest, we would disagree with God a lot. Right? If, if somehow God came to us and said, what, I'm going to give you sovereignty for the next year.

And I know that you want everything to work together for good. Who wouldn't want that? I know that you want that. So I'm going to let you orchestrate and craft your own life over the next year.

and work everything together for good. I guarantee you that every one of us would come up with a plan different than what God would come up with, right? and we would, we would pretty much steer clear of trials and difficulties. No one would wrong us.

No one would misunderstand us. No one would ever violate our rights. No one would ever cut us off on the freeway. because, and we, and we think, well, I want to be holy, and I would be incredibly holy if none of these things ever happened.

And we would steer clear of certain people. and we'd be feeling good about how we've worked everything together for good, and our plan for working all things together for good would look dramatically different than God's. In fact, God is the only one who has the right to work all things together for good. Eve in the garden decided, what, I think I can do that.

So I'm going to work everything together for good, for me and Adam. And she came up with her own plan and brought disaster on. Herself and her husband joined her and that they both brought disaster upon themselves and all of their descendants, including us. God is the only one with this right.

And so in saying God works everything together for good, he's not saying necessarily that we would necessarily have come up with that plan or that we in the moment think that's best. In fact, we're probably sometimes asking God why, why would you allow this? If you love me, why would you allow it? And it seems so wrong.

And how can good come from this, but 1020, 30 years later, we can look back and see that God took this and that and the other, and he wove it together and he produced something good from that hardship. Think of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. And how God wove so many things together. Jacob had a number of sons and he favored Joseph over Joseph's brothers.

That's a bad thing, right? So that's evil. Joseph's brothers hated Joseph as a result of that. That's a bad thing, right?

they then sold him. Into slavery. That's a bad thing, right? It's just not, not a good thing to do to a sibling, to sell them into forced, slavery.

he's taken down to Egypt and he's hired by Potiphar and God seems to bless him. He's faithful. That's a good thing. But as a result of that, blessing and the favor God placed upon him, he caught the eye of Potiphar's wife who wanted Joseph to be immoral with her.

And so, She basically insisted that he do so. That's evil. He said, No, I can't commit this sin against God. That's a good thing.

But because of that good thing that he did, she did a bad thing and accused him of attempting to rape her. And so he was arrested falsely and thrown in prison. That's a bad thing. But while he's there, he's a good prisoner, God.

God is with him. God favors him, and he's very responsible. That's a good thing. And because of that, the head prisoner puts him over other prisoners and entrusts them.

Hey, take care of these prisoners for me. And among those prisoners, because of Joseph's faithfulness, which is a good thing, there was a former baker and butler to the Pharaoh that had fallen out of his favor. He got angry with them and had them thrown in prison. While Joseph is overseeing them.

One morning he comes in to where they were and they're depressed. He says, What's the matter? And they're like, we both had dreams last night and we don't know the meaning of them. And he says, Well, the interpretation of dreams belongs to God.

Tell me what your dreams were, and I'll give you the interpretation. And so the butler shares with him his dream and Joseph says, I'll tell you what this means. It means you're going to be restored to Pharaoh's favor and everything's going to go great. You'll be working for Pharaoh again.

And the baker says, Wow, that's great. Here's my dream. What does it mean? And Joseph said, Well, you're going to die.

Your, your fate is going to be the opposite. And That's exactly what ended up happening, and Joseph said to the butler, Hey, when you're restored to Pharaoh's favor, can you remember me and tell him about me? After the butler was restored to Pharaoh's favor, Sometime thereafter, at some point, Pharaoh had a troublesome dream, did not know the meaning of it. And this butler remembered Joseph.

There was no one to tell him the interpretation, but the butler remembers Joseph, and he says to Pharaoh, I knew a man in prison. Who told me everything that came to pass in my life. And Pharaoh said, Bring him before me. And Joseph comes and tells Pharaoh the interpretation of his dream.

Long story short, by the end of that day, Joseph was out of prison and second in command of the land of Egypt, and shepherded that country, that whole nation, through 7 years of plenty. And then 7 years of famine when the famine hit and became especially grievous back in the land of Canaan, which was affected by the famine also, they needed food and so Joseph's brothers came to Egypt in search of food. Long story short, reconciliation ended up occurring, and Jacob and his 75 relatives ended up moving to Egypt and thus the lineage of the Messiah was preserved.

We are all today living in the good.

Of what God did through Joseph thousands of years ago. God took a bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, good thing, bad thing, good thing, bad thing, bad thing, and he worked it together into something ridiculously good. And I am sure Joseph and Jacob. and Joseph's brothers at the end of their life could look back and just marvel at The goodness of God, the sovereignty of God, who took all of this mess and he wove it together into something astoundingly beautiful and good.

The most awful day in human history from one standpoint occurred 2000 years ago when the greatest evils that have ever been committed in the history of the world occurred at the crucifixion of Christ, with wicked hands coming together. They crucified Christ. They punched and they slapped and they blindfolded and they mocked and they ridiculed and they crushed a crown of thorns upon the brow of Jesus and they stripped him of his clothes and they tied him around a stone and they lashed him again and again and again.

And falsely accused him, falsely found him guilty and crucified him unfairly.

It was an incredible act of injustice as evil was unleashed upon that day. There were thousands upon thousands of acts of evil all done on that day. And yet God worked all of that together. Into good.

And through that event, Salvation has come to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of millions of people ever since. Today we all live inside of the good. of how God on that day worked everything together for good. So you would think that given what we say we believe, and our salvation is based upon, we would think that Christians of all people are the most capable of looking at circumstances and saying, well, I have a God.

who's able to work everything together for good, even the evils that are done against me, or those that I love. We have a God who's able to take all things, and he is always working in all things, and he works things together for good, for our good, for the good of others, and for His glory. If we believe the gospel like we say we do, Then we have to believe this. And yet often Christians, when Hardships and trials and difficulties come sometimes even around unsafe people, we're the loudest whiners.

We fall apart worse than nonbelievers do sometimes. Do we really believe The gospel In Romans 5, look at Paul's perspective. He, he's talking about justification and how, man, I've been justified by faith. I got peace toward God.

We've got this face to face relationship and I'm also inside of this grace in which I stand all day every day. He's enjoying that. And he says, and because of this, we exult in this reality. And then the very next verse, he says, and not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations.

You might think, what in the world does tribulation have to do with justification? I'm expecting some theological treatise on the subject of justification. And yet here he is talking about troubles, trials, and hardships. Paul would say it has everything to do with justification.

Paul says, we exalt as justified ones in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. what Paul is saying? He's saying, because I am a justified one, God's grace is always abounding towards me to such a degree that I can say this, that even when difficulties, trials, and tribulations come my way, The things that hurt me.

the things that leave me wounded.

That caused me to experience pain, even when tribulation comes my way, because I'm a justified one, my God, who's my justifier. He subjugates every trial, every hardship, and he forces every one of them to do good to me, to yield up some good to me. He forces all of my trials, he subjugates them and forces them in some way to pay tribute to me. And so even in my hardships, God is involved in specific ways and answering the prayers of the Holy Spirit as he prays for God to do a good work in me, of conforming me to the image of Christ.

Just in summary, basically, As one writer says, not one detail of our lives, not one. And guys, we, all of us would say, yeah, I believe Romans 8:28, but we're selective in our belief in this. We're like, yeah, I believe this, and we apply it easily to some things, but then there are some things in our life where we're like, man, I wish that wasn't in my life and my life would actually be pretty good if it wasn't for this. But the assurance here that Paul was able to cling to in his weakness and ignorance is that not one detail, not one single detail of our lives works ultimately for evil to the people of God.

In the end, only good. will be their lot. what, you may see a lot of that good in your lifetime. you may not even see it though in your lifetime, but you'll see it in eternity.

And when we're in eternity, we'll realize God was weaving this tapestry that actually extends into eternity, and the good that he was working all things into is so far away beyond any of the suffering, the pain that we experienced. Paul had this mindset, that's why in 2 Corinthians 4:17, he could say our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond. All comparison. We're going to be blown away in heaven as we get a clear view of all the good that God was doing and working.

In us There's a 5th and final thing that Paul knew for sure. We're we're just going to be able to look at this in passing, and his weakness and ignorance. He knew this to be true, and that is that God's people are those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. He says, 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.

Throughout the New Testament, there are various ways that Christians are described. sometimes they're called Christians, sometimes believers, sometimes sheep, saints. you can make quite a list of all the ways that Christians are described and the labels that the New Testament places on Christians. In this verse though, Paul uses two descriptions to describe Christians, the people of God, and that is there are those who love God and there are those who are called according to His purpose.

those who love God, Christians are people who love God. this love does not emanate from themselves. It comes from, it's inspired by an experience of His love for them. Don't walk out of here and try to drum up love for God.

I got to love God. I gotta love God. So doggone it, I'm gonna love him today. Don't do that.

You will love God if you experience His love for you. If you allow the Spirit to pour out his love inside of your heart, if you keep the cross front and center, In your focus and you are enjoying the love of God for you in Christ, and day by day you will find yourself loving God in return. So God's people are those that are experiencing His love for them, enjoying and living in the good of His love for them, and in response they find their hearts welling up with increasing love for Him.

Paul says in Corinthians, anyone that does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let them be accursed.

If someone does not love Jesus, let them be damned. Christians are people who love God with a love that is inspired by an experience of His love for them in Christ. He also describes God's people as those who are called according to His purpose. Let me just make a couple of quick comments about this.

And saying that God's people are those called according to God's purpose, what Paul is saying is that our salvation does not originate from us, but from God. It is originates, from God, and because it originates from Him, it's unshakeable. It's not dependent upon our performance from day to day, but also Paul's language here indicates that in saving us, God saves us into God's purpose. He saves us from ourselves.

He saves us from our purpose, our puny, petty purposes, and saves us into his purposes. There are some who preach a gospel nowadays, wherein basically they, they draw attention to the dreams and the purposes and the desires that are in the hearts of people who don't know Christ. And they basically say believe in Christ, and God will save you in such a way that will bring to fulfillment your purposes. He will, if you want to be self-actualized, believe in Jesus Christ, and God will help you to fulfill your purposes.

But Paul would preach a gospel wherein he would say, the purposes that guide you from day to day, that's your problem. That's what's getting you into the trouble that you are in before God and often before men. If you live your life according to your own purposes, you are a danger to yourself and a danger to other people. And you'll never be right with God.

God wants to save you out of your purposes, into his cosmic purposes, to where God does not orbit around you, but you are saved to orbit around him. And to get caught up in something far more grandiose and fantastic. Than you simply living for yourself. This brings us full circle because it's, people that are living according to their own purpose each day.

And then something happens that they don't understand and they're like, well, that's not working out for my good, according to my purposes. But people who love God, and they're like, really, what I want more than anything else is for God to be glorified. I love him because of the love that he's shown to me. I want his purposes, whatever his purposes are, I know they're good.

I may not understand them. But God's purposes are always good. And I want his purposes to be realized. And it's those people that are then able to look back at their circumstances and say, what?

I don't have a whole lot of trouble believing right now, that though I don't have all the answers, God is always working all things together in my life for good. That are consistent with his sovereign will and his good purposes for me and for others. In our moments of weakness and ignorance, we can join Paul in saying, I may not know a lot. But I know these 5 things are true.

And I'll hang my hat on these right now. Let's bow our heads and look to the Lord. If you're here today and living life according to your purposes. Listen, as CS Lewis would say, you're just building little sand castles.

On the shore when there is an amazing adventure at sea that is available that you can't even begin to dream of right now. God wants to save. All of us from Life according to our own purposes. Into something that is cosmic in its scope, that is eternal.

That will bring glory to him and bring the ultimate good to us because God's glory and our good never are in conflict, ever. Rise up, oh men of God, the songwriter says, rise up, oh people of God, be done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength. To serve the King of kings.

Let's pray together, Father, we Thank you for your word. We are but tampering with the fringes of the glory of what's in this passage, and Take these few loaves and fish that I've brought this morning and just multiply them, Lord. Just do miracles in all of us. Open our eyes to see the glory of these things.

If we could just believe, what we're talking about this morning, Lord, what a difference it would make in our marriages. In our homes, in our lives, in our battles with sin. The chains that would be broken. God, we, we need you to actually do a miracle of enlightenment in us.

We, we can't, we can't make ourselves see these things. Perform mighty explosions of insight in this church body that we would see and believe. And dare to believe the fullness of what's actually true of us in Christ. Those that are here, Lord, that are on the outside looking in.

Lord, just move in their hearts with your love. Call them In a saving way to something greater than anything they've lived for up to this point. People that live for themselves are merely living for a dying thing. They're dying.

But to live for someone who's eternal and for a cause that is cosmic and eternal in its scope. And then to live life day by day, not consumed with self, but with you. Lord, save them into that. Through your Holy Spirit.

We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord. We ask that you would receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. With these offerings, we give ourselves to you in Christ's name. And all God's people said, Amen.