Introduction

A couple years ago, the Arizona Republic published an article titled “Arizona Lottery: You can’t win unless you play… and play…. And play….” They explain in the article that the odds of winning the Arizona lottery are “nearly impossible to comprehend.” Only 1 in every 175 million people who play the lottery will have a shot at winning the Powerball grand prize. To put that into perspective, the odds of me becoming president, or being drafted by the NBA or being attacked by a shark are all significantly higher.

In spite of the astronomically poor odds of winning, Arizonans still line up behind convenience store counters by the thousand to purchase the tickets in record-breaking numbers. (Especially when I’m in a hurry to check out.)

Gambling is a big deal these days, but the lottery is more than just a game. The lottery is a whole way of looking at life. Many people figure if they can’t get ahead by conventional means of working hard and planning ahead and developing marketable skills then they’ll just try their luck and see if they can get ahead by chance instead.

Afterall, life is just one big gamble, isn’t it? Many people have the mindset that life is all just a matter of luck and chance and being in the right place at the right time. It’s a whole mind-set.

Other people throughout the centuries don’t think they are subject to chance but are under the control of some kind of cosmic fate. This group looks to the stars and reads horoscopes to see what cosmos is going to tell them next. Those who really believe in fate don’t have much reason to take initiative. They figure whatever comes their way will come their way – no matter what they do. There is a certain hopelessness and demoralizing futility that comes with this way of thinking

The Bible teaches something totally different than either luck or fate. The Bible teaches that God is firmly in control of all that happens on earth and in the rest of his creation. He not only sees the storms and trials we are facing, but He steers His people through them. He takes control of all events throughout the cosmos for the ultimate goal of unfolding his perfect will.

God’s care for His creation is often referred to as God’s Providence. His providence refers to His care of His people and His creatures. It underscores the fact that God’s overruling hand is at work EVERYWHERE in this fallen world. God’s providence (along with God’s goodness) is an underlying foundation of everything else that is taught in the scriptures.

The way the biblical writers spoke about God’s providence is so bold and demanding and unapologetic that it does not leave room to talk about it just half-way. God is not just kinda in charge. GOD RULES. HE REIGNS ON HIGH. Either God has a plan in the way He is ruling or nothing makes much sense in the scriptures.

As Christians, either we find ourselves as fully-convinced of God’s providential work in the world or we have to join the unbelievers and reject the truth of scripture all-together. We can’t just sort of believe Romans 8:28. Either it’s true or it’s not. There is no middle ground and there are no exceptions.

That means that God is working both the good things and the bad things together in the life of a Christian in a way that promotes our conformity to Christ and that also displays His glory. An unwavering confidence in God’s providential love is a powerful witness to the mind-transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

In the early 1740’s a ship was sailing from England to Georgia. On board that ship were 26 German Moravian missionaries – including men, women and children. During their journey across the Atlantic, a storm broke out. It may have look something like this: SHOW PIC

The English passengers screamed and panicked as the boat was tossed side to side, but the missionaries looked up and calmly sang together. One English passenger later asked the missionaries, “were you not afraid?” One of the missionaries replied, “I thank God, no.” Then he asked, “Were not your women or children afraid?” The missionary replied, “No, our women and children are not afraid to die.”

The astonished English passenger, who was asking those questions, was none other than John Wesley. Wesley at that moment realized that although he claimed to be a Christian, he lacked saving faith. Wesley was perplexed by the experience. The witness of the missionaries led to a period of soul-searching for Wesley and eventually to one of the most consequential conversions in church history. Those Christian missionaries where demonstrating the power of the gospel in the midst of a literal storm and their testimony was a critical influence on one of the greatest evangelists of all time.

So what made the difference? How did those missionaries come to the place where they feared nothing in the natural world? What makes a person unafraid to die?

Those Moravian missionaries were able to stay calm and even sing in the midst of a storm because they were totally convinced of the providential love of God. They genuinely loved God and were committed to the fact that God works all things together for good for those who love Him.

With that being said, I think it is important to explain this morning that the truth of Romans 8:28 does not apply to all people. It is not a universal truth. In fact, I have found that Romans 8:28 is possibly one of the most misquoted scriptures in the whole Bible.

Everybody seems to know this passage and so many are remove it right out of its context. People will often shrug their shoulders and with a resigned attitude blurt out, “O well, all things work together for good,” implying that this scripture applies to all people, in all situations, regardless of what they actually believe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let’s look together at what the verse actually says: “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

There is a serious limitation stated in the verse. The principle works for “those who love God” and for “those who are called according to his purpose” but the application of the promise does not extend past Christians in order to apply to an unbelieving world. Paul says, in effect, that if you don’t love God, you can’t claim this promise. So let’s take a look at the people who CAN grab ahold of this promise.

God works for the good of those who love Him – Romans 8:27-28, Ps. 84:1-2

In the Bible, “those who love Him” refers to those who have made an intentional commitment to live their lives for God’s glory. They have a deep desire for God. They are those who would say with the psalmist:

84 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

[2]

Love for God and for His Son, Jesus Christ, is often expressed in obedience to his word. Jesus said in John 14:21a, “21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” We have to be careful with this verse because on one hand, people who love God delight in keeping God’s commands, but, on the other hand, there are people who keep some of God’s commands, but do so apart from an authentic love for God.

Many people who reject God have a form of external righteousness. Driving Illustration: For example, let’s take a person who is driving a car at 55 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone on the freeway. There may be a number of reasons that motorist is driving the speed limit that have little (or nothing) to do with a genuine love for God:

Maybe he is driving the speed limit because he has a fear of getting a ticket and he wants to stay out of trouble with the Law
Maybe he is driving 55 because he simply likes driving 55. In fact he drive 55 in a 25 zone and in a 35 zone as well as in a 75 zone. It doesn’t matter how fast he’s supposed to be going, this person loves driving 55. It just happen that we caught him in a 55 zone
Maybe he’s driving 55 because all the traffic around him is going 55 and he’s being forced to do so
In each case, there is the outward appearance of external righteousness. It looks like this motorist is a law-abiding citizen. However, in each of these examples, the motorist was not obeying the law out of a genuine love of God. The good he was doing was not motivated out of a good heart

God weighs the actions of people in terms of both an outward conformity to the law as well as an inward motivation for keeping the law. In Romans 8:27, it says that God “searches hearts.” Love in the Bible never simply external. Love is not just duty or good works.

Love is setting our hearts on God so that the underlying desire of our hearts is to please God. A person who loves God could be demonstrated by a motorist who wants to drive 55 (and is thrilled to drive 55) because he wants to please God in the way he drives and in every other area of his life as well.

Martin Lloyd Jones made this comment about this passage:

“I believe that Paul had a special reason for using the term ‘love’ rather than the term ‘believing’ at this point. One of the best ways whereby we can decide [if] we love God is our reaction to adversity … there are many people … who … when trials and tribulations arise … they give up. They feel they have been let down.”[3]

Do you fully trust God in difficult times or do you wonder if He’s is really in control? People who love God and are committed to Him for who He is, are able to endure difficulty. Those who are using God for the gifts He supplies often bail out as soon as the trials come. In that way, trials are a good gift. Our reaction during the storms of life help to reveal if we truly love God or not. For those who love God, (and only for those who love God) there is a promise that all things work together for Good.

God’s promise to believers transforms their view of the good and bad things of life. – Romans 8:28

A few weeks ago, we looked at the incredible fact that the indwelling Holy Spirit intercedes for us before God the Father in the times when we do not know how to pray. The indwelling Spirit perfectly knows us. He perfectly knows the will of God and He is active in communicating our needs to God the Father so that our circumstances are folded into the working out of God’s will.

The promise that “all things work together for good” “for those who love God” completely transforms the way we face the good and the bad things in life.

Christians can face the good and the bad with gratitude and joy

Paul does not say that “all things work together for good” all by themselves. Here is where we see the miracle of God’s work in our everyday lives! God makes the factors of life, which would normally end badly, work out for our good and His glory.

Bible-believing Christians are not surprised that the world is not a nice place. They know that if we let the things of this world naturally work themselves out, they will not turn out well. Many people who ignore God’s Word are surprised by all the tragedies and difficulties in this world. Those who study God’s Word are surprised at all. We don’t expect things in life to work out for good on their own accord. God has to intervene if things in this world are going to work out for good.

We know that if we find anything working out beneficially for us, it is only because of God’s grace. When things work out for good, Christian’s never say, “Of course, that how it should be.” NO… they say, “that should have never worked out that way. Praise God for his grace!

Christians, who love God and who trust in His providence, are able to maintain a positive view of life in the midst of difficult circumstances without adopting a sentimental, naïve or unrealistic view of the fallen world we live in.

Christians can face the good and the bad without worry and fear

The fact that God works all things together for our ultimate good helps to remove general fear and anxiety when the storms of life begin to bear down on us. We are not depending on fate, luck or chance. Life is not a living lottery nor is it controlled by the cosmos.

We have a God who perfectly cares for His people. We can be confident in the fact that He uses both the good things and the bad things to further the good in our lives. The bad things that happen are not ruining our lives. God has a good plan.

Trials play a very important role in the lives of God’s people. God is actively teaching us and molding us and shaping us and humbling us. Life’s troubles are all part of God’s loving purpose for his people. He overrules the normally negative consequences of trials and supernaturally transforms those trial into something good in the lives of those who love Him.

So if it is true that both the good and bad things of life have a good effect on those who love God (because He is actively working against their naturally bad outcomes), it would also mean that those who do not love God are still subject to the fallen nature of this world. For the person who does not love God, there is no expectation that life’s negative circumstance will turn out well. They can fully expect that trials will turn out poorly.

Back in Romans 1:24, Paul talks about people who ignore God and who are rebellious towards God. Romans 1:24 says, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…” Here is the shocking truth behind that verse: Paul is saying in Romans that one of the worst punishments God gives to people is to let them have the desires of their sinful hearts.

God often punishes people by letting them have the desires of their sinful hearts

He punishes them by letting them have exactly what they want. That means that the so called “good” things of life turn out to be really bad things for those who don’t love God. Here’s why: people who reject God have the illusion that they are self-made people operating outside of God’s control. In doing so, they completely lose sight of the fact they are a dependent and mortal creature.

When an unbelieving heart experiences a string of successes and pleasures, it only reinforces the belief that they are in control and God is just an illusion or a myth. When they gain power, wealth or influence, it results in deadly, consuming sins like pride and over-confidence and self-centeredness. The “good things” they gain push them further into eternal death.

In an unbeliever’s life, “good” circumstances ultimately result in hardened hearts. Their successes delude their view of God, they promote a weak and selfish character and ultimately set-up that person for disaster either in this life or in the next. This is the reason why we see to many successful people train-wrecking their lives or committing suicide.

There is an old saying that “the same sun that melts the max, hardens the clay.” In other words, what makes a life “good” is not the absence of trials, but how a person’s heart reacts to trials. Turn to Deuteronomy 8. Let’s look at how the Old Testament illustrated the principle that God supernaturally uses trials – that would normally turn out very badly – for the good of His people.

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is reflecting back on how God continued to provide for His people after they escaped the bondage to the Egyptians and then faced the harsh conditions of the Sinai desert. Let’s being in verse 1:

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

God often brings trials into our lives to test our hearts and to develop a humble dependence on Him.

3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

God was helping his people know exactly where the ultimate good comes from. They were not provided for by the natural result of their circumstances. If God allowed nature to take its course, they would have all died in the desert. Instead, God intervened and used a normally bad situation to show his perfect provision for His people and their utter need for Him.

4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

God allowed the trials to happen to His people because of the fact he loved them dearly and wanted to shape and mold their hearts. In the midst of the trial, God was planning to pour out His good gifts and blessing in their lives.

6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

God did not lead his people into and through the desert for 40 years in order to bring them evil. He did it to bring them good. Sometimes the good work God needs to do in our hearts comes by way of divine discipline and refining. Skip down to verse 15

15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Application

All really means all!

God uses bad circumstances, other people’s sin and even our own mistakes and shortcoming all as tools to conform us to the image of Christ. In fact, if we love God, there is nothing we can do to ruin God’s good purposes for us.

A person who loves God cannot ruin God’s good purposes in their life.

Now sin is always bad. It is a terrible thing and we will often be hurt by its painful circumstances. However, God can use our sin, failure and shortcomings to teach us His ways, to make us humble and to give us an even greater love for Jesus – just like his used the shortcomings of the Israelites to demonstrate his love and power in the Old Testament.

It does not excuse sin or make bad things good, but it does show the providence of God. He can work through terrible circumstances to bring about a good work within his people. Just like the historical account we shared about Joseph last week, God can use the very things that men intend for evil to work out for Good in the lives of his people.[4]

It’s not important to change our circumstances, but it is important to change our heart attitude towards them. As we love God (who has called us to know Him as a perfect, good and loving father) he will work in and through our lives for our good and his glory.

Benediction

No matter how great the obstacles in your life, you can trust the providence of God.