(The question that’s asked is based on our opening Scripture text)….. But first let me interject an “all things” personal insight…. I AM A TOOTH… that’s not all I am, but that is a component of me… I AM A TOE, again that is not all I am, but that is a component of me….also, I AM A HIP (of course I also think I’m hip) but again, that’s not all I am, but it is a component of me…..Believe me, when I broke my toe, injured my hip, and had an abscessed tooth, all of me was all about those things.
When God deals with the sum total of me, He takes all that is me into consideration, the events and experiences of my past, my present and the future He intends for me. He considers all the maze that is me as He works and plans to bring me into compatibility with His plans.
So, here’s the scripture I open with….Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”.
How we view life depends on where you’re looking….Thepsychologist says: Look Within!...The opportunist says: Look Around!.... The optimist says: Look Ahead!....The pessimist says: Look Out!....God says: Look Up !
This scripture text in Romans has served as a spiritual gyroscope, giving balance and hope to many believers. If you take it separate from the verses around it, there is still a great well spring of belief for a positive outcome in all the situations we find ourselves in as we live out our daily lives.
God does not just show up one day after you have gone through all your mess, and decide that we can turn this around. God was there at the beginning, He will be there at the end, and He is there at every point in between. There is no point where He is not….
He never forgets the critical places where we missed it, but He is constantly re-calculating the path so we can still arrive at our destiny.
While we were at Virginia Beach, I had my GPS up and running and giving me directions to a location I wanted to get to. At a couple of intersections I deliberately went the wrong way to see what Google would do. As soon as I made the wrong turn, Google had recalculated my direction to get me there…. That’s what God the Holy Spirit is doing right now for you…. You missed it, but He has already come up with a new route to get you there…. Don’t give up, just listen for new instructions from Holy Spirit…..
Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Your free spirit. (He can restore your joy by bringing you into what He originally intended and allow you to celebrate that original purpose, no matter where you have ended up in your journey) Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are seen”…. We refer to this as calling the things that are not as though they were…. What we see was once invisible, until He made it visible… So we look at what was once invisible that we can now see, and we believe for things that are still invisible….
I am recalling today, when Winnie and I were first married…. We were on Merrit Parkway, coming out from Meriden Connecticut, and stopped to see some model homes, set up on the side of the highway. One home caught our eye. It was an A-frame Ranch with a large front area with fireplace, then a wing in back with 3 bedroom, family room, kitchen, dining area and laundry room. We walked through the model home with stars in our eyes…. Then, we got a folder with the plans and picture of the finished house and put it in our hope chest. This would be our future home, though we had no clue how we could ever afford it. Nine years later, we were asked to pastor our first congregation in that exact same home. The large, A-frame front area seated about 100 people and the full basement became the children’s area. It was located in an exclusive community of Doctors and Lawyers, which we could never have afforded, it was the first home in the neighborhood, on the highway, near the off ramp of the expressway… ( commit your way unto the Lord and He will bring it to pass)
Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Our soul is our conscious state of being… so David is saying that God is restoring his awareness of Himself in relationship to His God. That God is taking him from self-consciousness to God consciousness… to be “God inside minded”
If you view your life with God consciousness, then no matter what happens, it is a good season for beginning something or ending something…. It is a good season for planting or for harvesting…. It’s a good season for holding on or letting go!!
How do you pray when you don’t know how to pray? Romans 8:26 tells us that there will come times when “We know not what we should pray for as we should”. Without Holy Spirit, helping us who is our “paracletos”, we are short sited and lean towards the feelings and desires of the self life…. Because of this, it is often impossible for us to separate our current experiences and circumstances from the way in which God is bringing us to His desired outcome. So we get focused on the circumstances, and we miss the way God uses to get us to His will and his intentions for those situations.
I think of the original Superman television series with George Reeves. Each week as the series began, our favorite super hero would confidently posture himself, legs spread, fists on his hips, chest pushed forward, while he stared down the barrel of a gun. As the bullets bounced off his chest, Superman would smile, with no thought of retreat. Then something strange would happen that defied any explanation. It just didn’t fit the opening scene! Once the rounds were spent, the bad guy, in desperation, would hurl the gun at Superman, and (are you ready) the caped super hero would duck!!! Superman, the invincible, the man who was fearless in the face of oncoming bullets, would cower to avoid being hit by an empty gun!
Just like Superman, how often do we cower and duck at things that shouldn’t intimidate us at all. It’s like Samson, who could rip off the gates of the city and carry them up a mountain, but he was putty in the hands of Delilah…. I remember in the Marvel comics, the man of steel could fly so fast, he could go back or forward in time…..Did you realize you are a time traveler…. When I read verse 28, I am made aware that God created us as time travelers….. While the most brilliant minds have sought to invent a means to travel back and forth in time, God has already accomplished this brilliant feat, by His Spirit in us.
We are able to revisit the past and salvage and redeem it according to
Ephesians 5:16 “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil”.
Colossians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without Christ, redeeming the time”.
In both of these scriptures, the Greek word for Redeem here means“To change the point of origin”…. “To rescue from loss”…. “To ransom the past”…. “To complete what is unfinished”… “To set free from the affects of the past”….
The “all things work together”…. Of Romans 8:28, gives us the concept that present opportunity is connected to actions of the past So that what has been done is not lost, but can be redeemed, as we connect with what God desired and intended in the first place.
Jesus said I am the “Alpha and Omega”, the “Beginning and the end”…. He said that He is not only the answer, but He is the way to the answer, when we don’t know which way to go…If Jesus was there at the beginning of all of our experiences, and all things are possible with Him, that tells me that just because something happened, it’s not a done deal…. Cast in concrete, or unchangeable….
Here’s an amazing scripture…..John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which You have given me: for You loved me before the foundation of the world”.t
This tells me that if Jesus was and is in our past, we can join Him there and take care of some unfinished business. It tells me that if Jesus is in our future, then we can know what the future holds…..and banish fear and doubt….
Here’s a case in point…..Abraham was a time traveler, just like you are….. He was called by God to look at the stars and the sand and then he was told that his decedents would be in the multitudes, God named him “The father of many nations” when he had no children, and his wife Sarah was barren. (His present situation did not determine his future outcome)
In Exodus 2:10, Moses did some time travel at a burning bush. He had been second in line to the throne of Egypt, lived in luxury and splendor, and had whatever he desired. Now he was in exile from the place he had grown up in…. blacklisted, and living in the desert. God shows up and shows him the future…. He is going to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt, and he is going to confront the most powerful person on earth, the Pharaoh and lead them into the promised land. (His present situation did not determine his future)
How about Genesis 16:11.. Hagar, the concubine of Abraham was pregnant and gave birth to a son. Sarah was barren, and in her jealousy she sends Hagar out into the desert (get out of my sight) Hagar and her son are about to die in the wilderness, when God allows her to do some time travelling and shows her the future of her unborn son, gives him a name, rescues her and sends her back to Abraham. (Her present situation did not determine her future) Sometimes your future and your destiny is attached to who and what you’re connected to….
Certainly in these three cases “All things” were considered as God worked out the details of their lives….
I said last week that we want restoration without demolition taking place first…. I remember there was a church that voted to build a new building on the site of their old building which was much too small. But they wanted to keep the old building while they built the new building! They wanted restoration without demolition….
In our lives, we want to see change and at the same time we want things to stay the same as they are….
We think, “if all things work together for good”….. then why did this have to happen?…. Why did I have to go through that?
If we go to Romans 8:26, we find this… “The Spirit “helps” our infirmities… (I know you’re used to seeing Holy Spirit as a Dove, but remember that He is the third God person in the Trinity, He’s not the bird king….. So anyway, the Greek word for “Helps” is “soon-an-tee-lam-ban'-om-ahee” which means (to complete what is incomplete, to take hold together with us, in other words…in it to win it ) So, The Spirit helps our “infirmities” this word in the Greek is “as-then'-i-ah” (…feebleness of body or mind, weakness, barrenness, disease, lacking in knowledge or power, moral or physical frailty)
God can use whatever you have been through and wherever you are, to get you to where He intended for you all along….. Holy Spirit is the first responder in all of our desires and longings towards God and His plans for us…..
If you have said “I can’t”, or “There’s no way”… or “I’m not able”…. Be sure to add “YET”….. (say this with me)
I can’t, yet…. There’s no way, yet…. I’m not able, yet…..
It is not a question of “are you able?” But the real question is “Are you available?”
Romans 8:27 says “He searches the heart”….. If you’re a hypocrite that is not good news, but if you are a sincere Christian, nothing is more comfortable than that God searches the heart, and you understand why the scripture says that before we call He will answer…. Because He searches the heart….
It’s easy for us to misunderstand the situation but God does not…..For He not only understands the matters of our heart, but He understands the multitude of emotions and forces that shake us and move us… Because He’s been there in the skin we wear! He was misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned, treated unjustly, and had his reputation ruined, and his closest friends turn against him…
Speaking of how easy it is to be misunderstood…..A woman was trying hard to get the catsup to come out of the bottle. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her four-year-old daughter to answer the phone. She answered the phone and it was the pastor and the little darling said, Mommy can’t come to the phone right now. The pastor asked the girl, “are you there by yourself”…. The girl said, “No, my mom is here but she has been hitting the bottle." (Only God could understand and search out the meaning of that!)
I want you to notice something else, In Romans 8:27 it says “He knows what is the mind of the Spirit in us”… You must understand that our spirit is designed to hear what the mind of the spirit in us is…. The intellect and the soul, are designed to take care of the things of man…. But the spirit is designed to take care of the things of God (thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven)
I don’t need Holy Spirit to tell me when to brush my teeth, when to eat, when to pay my bills or when to go to the bathroom…. These things are the things of man…..
Holy Spirit will teach me the things of heaven that God is bringing into the earth…..My spirit will bear witness with His Spirit…. That means I can hear the mind of the Spirit, so that I can come into agreement with the Spirit of God….
I said this last week, Let me say it again…. The natural man takes matter and makes energy, coal, wood or gas to heat and cool his home, fuel to operate his car, food that his body turns into energy or physical strength….
But Holy Spirit working within our Spirit, teaches and guides us into a supernatural process, where we pray, believe, confess the word, and by the energy of faith we see physical substance come into being. Marriages are restored, bodies are healed, resources are released, income is provided, and circumstances are changed!
In ourselves we may fail, but when we tap into the mind of the Spirit, and the Divine energy, which is communicating with our redeemed spirit, His mind, His desires, His plans and intentions never fail…. We just need to get on board!!!
It is then that “All things work together for the good of them who are the called according to His purposes”!
The words “work together” are synergeō in the original text…. Which means to be in harmony with, to have shared resources, to have common desires, to act as one….. Since God cannot fail, when we are in synergeo with Him, we may experience some circumstances and situations that are definitely not what we would have chosen, but we will not fail!
And what is synergeo? It is what happens when you put two or more things together to form something brand new that neither one could form separately.
It’s what happens when my wife goes into the kitchen and makes a big pot of Sweet Baby Stew. She puts in the potatoes, the carrots, the celery, the onions, the cabbage, the spices, the meat, and a few other secret ingredients I know nothing about. What comes out is the best stew I’ve ever had. Now left to myself I would never sit and eat some of those things separately. But in the Sweet Baby Stew they combine with all those other ingredients to produce a tummy filled with delight. That’s synergy–the combination of many elements to produce a positive result.
If you struggle with Romans 8:28, the alternative is Fate,Chance, Kismet, Ying and Yang, some vague higher power, The impersonal forces of nature, Kay sara, sa ra, mind over matter, or whatever else….
Even the Buddhist can only go so far with Zen…..A Western woman was in India, studying with her teacher. She was riding with another woman friend in a rickshaw, when they were attacked by a man on the street. In the end, the attacker only succeeded in frightening the women, but the woman was quite upset by the event and told her teacher about the incident. She asked him what she should have done: “what would have been the appropriate, Buddhist response?” The teacher said very simply, “You should have entered your inner Zen place of peace and tranquility, then with great compassion whacked the attacker over the head with your umbrella as hard as you could.” (So much for your inner place of peace and tranquility)
Faith is not pretending, it is believing….It is acting, speaking and behaving like it has happened until it does. It is believing that God has done it, simply because He said He would….. The Bible never asks us to pretend that tragedy isn’t tragedy or to pretend that our pain isn’t real. The point is, we are lifted up higher to see the active involvement of God all through our lives in every challenge we faced. Is Paul saying, “Whatever happens is good in itself"? No.
Is he saying that suffering and evil and tragedy are good? No.
Is he saying everything will work the way we thought it should if we just have enough faith? No.
Is he saying that we will understand why God allowed that tragedy to come? No. Sometimes we are guilty oftrying to explain the unexplainable.
Suppose I have an accident and wreck my car. (this is just an illustration, I’m not confessing this, and I declare that I am accident free, and hazard free) But suppose when I take this (non-existent wrecked car) into the body shop, the man says, “Friend, you haven’t had an accident. Your car has just been rearranged.” So I turn and look at the cracked grille, the crumpled fender, the twisted bumper, and the shattered windshield. Then I say, “Buddy, you’re crazy. This car isn’t rearranged. This car is wrecked.”
You see, the auto body man, isn’t seeing the wreck, he is seeing the restoration and when I release the car to him, he is already writing up and estimate to determine the parts and cost of returning it to it’s restored condition. He hands me the estimate so I can see what he is going to do to return my car to it’s original state!
What, is Paul saying here in Romans? He is making a declaration about the unexplainable mysteries of life, a declaration that reads, “Quiet. God is at work here.” How? We’re not always sure. To what end? That He may bring Good, and not evil into your life. Because we must come to the place that weunderstand that God’s values and our values and God’s timing is not my timing, in the many twists and turns of life. So, does that include the worst that happens to us? Yes. Does that include the things that hurt us deeply? Yes.
Does that include the times when we are heartbroken? Yes.
Does that include the times when we sin? Yes.
Does that include the times when we doubt God? Yes.
Does that include the times when we curse him to his face? Yes.
He is always at work to bring His good outcome into our lives.Whew, that’s a relief to see!
The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but He has come that you may have life and that more abundantly!
God is at work in our life right now. And Yes, we are all rough, uncut, unpolished in some places, and God is patiently doing His work in us. So see the mess and we make a good confession based on the best outcome when restoration is completed in us.
And here is the bottom line, that good thing which He is bringing us to, is what we will look like, speak like, and we will act like as we look more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:29 “For whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.
Let’s make a good Confession of the best outcome concerning the message today, Amen?!….
Lord Jesus, may I come to understand, that blessings are everywhere, if I will choose to look for them. May I know that my attitude will affect the outcomes which I expect and that challenges are often gifts that You have sent to me in disguise. May I trust that most things will get better and improve with time, because I will not be the person then, that I am right now. Because of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in me, I can trust that my instincts & gut feelings have value, and are an extension of Your stirrings within me. Your word gives me assurance that a positive attitude based on Your character of mercy, grace and love, will always cause everything to go smoother because You are working things out for my good and Your glory, every moment in my life. May I come to See that you have placed me in Your body with skills & talents that You can use, to be a positive influence on many people. May I come to value each moment of every day because each is a blessing to be enjoyed and treasured. Lord, may I value each person as unique & important to You. Thank you that each moment of my life has meaning and purpose, far beyond what I can see and understand at any given time. May my spirit be open and accepting, of those things which I might not otherwise understand or accept. Renew my spirit with each opportunity and the challenges that expand my skills and awareness and open up areas and abilities in me as I move through each new experience. I seek to walk in Your blessing and favor as I move into the future You have chosen for me. Allow me see and grasp the possibilities which arise each day. I greet whatever awaits with vibrant faith and inner joy. I realize that at times I must forsake the comfortable and familiar, in my quest for the best, for you have made my life, an adventure of discovery and you have gone before me to prepare all my tomorrows with the blessing of new places, new things, new friends, new opportunities, and new challenges..
Thank You in Jesus name,
Amen
