We Are On Our Way – Part 6 (Romans 8:28)

God promises to be with us through all of life’s trials and uses them to draw us closer to Himself. As Believers, we are encouraged that God’s power secures our salvation and sanctification.

It’s funny because we’re in this big section of Romans chapter 8, but the more we get into it, the smaller the the the study portions become, but there’s there’s a there’s a bit of rhyme to the reason of all of this and wisdom to the slowness.
And that is, as you’ll see today, one verse one verse now.
Before we move on to 2 versus 2030, we’ve got this one verse, which is one of the most famous verses in all of the Bible.
It is a verse that we started out last week learning that for many of us, we really did not understand what the verse actually says that the verse actually has 2 qualifiers, pre 2 prerequisites, that must be fulfilled before that verse can be actually activated.
Imagine having a Ferrari with no gas in it. What good is it? It’s good for nothing.
But if you put fuel in it, I guess you can go fast. Right?
If you put the fuel of the truth of Romans 828 into your life.
Now it’s gonna work for you. It’s not listen, this is not a fortune cookie verse.
This is not uh, some sort of a horoscope verse.
This is not a any kind of, uh, just, oh, pull it out.
Get out of jail free kind of verse. This is a verse, the exact opposite.
It demands 2 qualifications, but the blessings that come with the qualifications are awesome.
And by the way, a little bit of encouragement, all the qualifications come from the lord himself.
Romans chapter 8 verse 28. You wanna just read it together? All of us together. Here we go.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love god, to those who are the called according to his purpose.
Father in Jesus name, your will be done with that verse in our lives. And all god’s people said?
Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated.
You are now an expert in the points that we’ve been making after all of this time.
We’ve studied about the heartbeat of heaven.
That is what’s in the chest of the believer, spiritually speaking, our heart now beats with the heartbeat of heaven.
We saw that there’s the hope of heaven and verses 24 to 25.
The hope of heaven is not some wishful thinking. It is an assured reality.
God’s word is given to us, not to keep us in the dark, but to bring us into the light.
And that is the revelation of the knowledge of the hope that Christ has provided for us at the cross.
And then we saw, thirdly, the help of heaven. None other than the Holy Spirit himself, is the believers’ help.
How cool is that? The Holy Spirit himself. That’s why, listen.
That’s why, uh, you don’t need an angel to help you through the day.
Let’s let’s let’s be blunt.
You don’t need a positive confession to get you through the days.
There’s nothing wrong with having a positive attitude.
But you don’t need a drink either to get you through to the end of the day.
You don’t need a pill? Frankly, listen.
If you fell out of an airplane and landed on a deserted island and you were all alone and you felt lonely, I would understand the feeling, but if you picked up the Bible, you would learn from Romans chapter 8 that the Holy Spirit is with you.
On that deserted island. If you found yourself right now, or maybe you do find yourself right now in some foreign country in the world, and you’re having to go through this bible study as it were in a closet or under a blanket hiding.
Because you have no freedom. Know this.
The Holy Spirit is with you to help you all the way through to life.
It’s god, the Holy Spirit, who’s the help of heaven.
And then fourthly, and this is where we’ve been studying.
We’re looking in verses 28 to 30, but we’re focused on verse 28, and that is the host of heaven.
And when we talk about the host of heaven, remember, we’re talking about the power of god from heaven.
He’s the lord of hosts, the Bible says, and we opened up last time with this.
Heaven is working for us church.
Remember that if if you have your note taking, we saw these truths to be very self evident.
In verse 28, it says, and we know And we really stress the word no.
And we showed you the meaning of the word in Greek and Hebrew from the Bible, what the word no means.
And if you remember and, again, your notes should reflect this that the word here in Greek in Romans 828 is the word in the word means in the past.
Now we have seen. It’s all past tense. Now we have perceived.
It means to now have experienced or now we have the knowledge of to be witness to, to be able to testify.
I love this, to be able to be testify of having come to know.
In other words, Romans 828 when it says, and we know, we could say it this way, and we all have a testimony.
Because we’re Christians, we’re Christ followers, and we know it, and he delivered us from a previous life, this is what we can say.
We have a testimony. And that word don’t word goes on to me and that we have come to discover, which that word launched us right into a very key uh, Hebrew word, and that is the Hebrew word, and that is the word discover.
I ask Wednesday night with you, before we came out on stage, I asked the consulate general of Israel, uh, can you read to me this portion of Hebrews, uh, or, excuse me, Psalms, 4610, uh, just to make sure, is it still there in the Hebrew Bible that the word no be still and no that I am god is the Hebrew word yada.
And he said, yes. He opened up his Hebrew Bible. He said, it’s the word to discover.
And I said, is this correct?
That yada is to discover that I’m god in the middle of life’s situations.
And he says, that’s exactly what it means.
Your Bible from old to new testament wants you to know god in the situation that you’re living in.
And then we saw that the word things that the Bible tells us here that and we know that all things that word things is that Greek word, which means the very experience.
Every single one of you right now here or those of you watching are going through an experience of life right now.
You may even be a non Christian, and you’re going through life’s experience. That means something’s got your attention.
It’s either happy, joyful, painful, miserable. Doesn’t matter what it is.
According to the Bible, god wants you, the nonbeliever to come to faith in Christ, and he’ll take that pain, that sorrow, and he’ll convert that destruction into an absolute discovery moment that god is in it.
And he’s working toward you to get your attention.
Now for the believer, god is in our problems, And we are discovering that he’s got a great plan in all of the pain and all of the stuff we’re going through right now in life.
I wanna read you a quote.
I I’ve got several quotes today that if I’m true to the time, you’ll get them all.
And the first one is from Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones.
If you ever buy anything from Doctor Martin, Lloyd Jones, you’ll be making a great investment.
He’s now in heaven, which is awesome because he can’t change his mind.
He was a great pastor in London, England, tremendous man of god. Listen to this.
He says, It is to be noted that our text begins with a conjunction.
This means that the truth of this section is linked with what has already been set forth.
That means the previous verses of chapter 8.
As we have seen, the Holy Spirit dwells within the believer and makes intercession for him.
According to the will of god.
Thus, god’s holy spirit is directing each believer according to a predetermined and definite defined plan.
Same into that. Yeah. That is so true. That’s a 100% true. Be still and discover that I’m god.
That should be all of our marching verse for this life of ours. And Psalm 4610.
Very, very powerful. I wanna give you another quote, and it’s this by doctor Donald Grey Barnhouse.
By the way, you can listen to Doctor Barnhouse on YouTube. He’s a long time gone.
He’s safe to listen to also because he’s dead too. He’s not gonna change his mind or go woke.
He’s safe to listen to. Doctor Donald Gray Barnhouse said all things work together for the good.
Even what’s this? Even the fall of Lucifer in eternity past, was for the greater purposes of god to establish good.
Now, stop right there. Have you ever had somebody say to you questioning the nature of your god.
If your god’s so good, then why do you make the devil? You ever heard people say that?
If god’s so good, then why did Adam and Eve sin? We’ve all had people ask us this.
Listen to what Barnhouse’s answer is.
When he says, uh, picking it up, uh, a great question. They’re in the middle.
A great question does arise here. Did god create Lucifer or did god create Satan?
I’m gonna pause for a fact. I like that.
The answer is god created Lucifer.
It was Lucifer who chose to become Satan by the choice he made. That is brilliant.
Take a picture of that. That’s incredible. Our god can only do good. Well, then what about Satan?
Satan wasn’t Satan. Satan started out as Lucifer. Lucifer was created by god.
Technically, the book of colossians and the book of Hebrew says that The angels, including Lucifer, was created by Jesus Christ himself.
Well, then what? Then god made evil?
Nope what a free moral agent does with their liberty and freedom is on them.
That’s how you can have true worship. By the way, we had true worship a moment ago.
I hope you were getting into that because that was sweet stuff. God was blessed.
And when that happens, I mean, I can sense it, man.
When god is being ministered to, I get ministered to before I even get out
of here.
Love worship choice has been built into free moral agency.
And we know that angels have free moral agency, and, of course, we do as well, obviously.
But what a tremendous statement. I love the fact that Lucifer chose to become Satan.
In other words, he fell. So in 139, it’s a long one.
So in 139, I’ll start in verse 1.
I just this is all arguing that heaven is working for us, church.
Psalm 139 verse 1 says, oh, lord, you have searched me and known me.
That’s nice. You know am I sitting down? Am I rising up?
You understand my thought of far off?
You comprehend my path and my line down and are acquainted with all of my ways.
For there is not a word in on my tongue, but behold, oh, lord, you know it altogether.
You have hedged me. Oh, I love it. Think about god giving you a big squeeze, a big hug.
You have hedged me behind and before.
You laid your right hand upon me or your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain to it.
Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your presence? Awesome. Verse 8.
And if I ascend into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say surely the darkness shall fall on me. Have you ever been depressed?
You should write this down and put it on your mirror or whatever it takes. Verse 11.
If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me. What’s the answer to that?
Even the light shall be light about me.
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike to you. What does that mean?
That means that the fact that heaven is working in us and through us and with us that There’s no place that you, the believer can go without god’s presence being there to come for you.
The promises of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit into our lives and to guarantee at least 2 very wonderful things.
That is our salvation. Yes. Your salvation is guaranteed if you know where to look.
In the Bible, if you know, to apply it, that god keeps his word, and secondly, is our sanctification.
In other words, god’s the one who is are you guys awake? Yes.
God is the one who is at work to make sure that after you said yes to Jesus, that every day for the rest of your life, you make it to heaven.
That’s god’s business. I love that. Well, if it’s your business god, what am I supposed to do? Cooperate.
There is to be a well, I don’t know if she I shouldn’t say it that way.
There used to be a song that somebody used to sing Mary Rice Hopkins.
Anybody might remember from long time ago.
She used to sing children’s songs, and she had a song about cooperating with god, and she was calling all the kids to be a cooposaurus.
Because, you know, kids love dinosaurs.
So she she invented a Coiposaurus, and god is saying to us, why don’t you be a Coiposaurus?
Why don’t you cooperate with me? That’s all I’m you to do is for you to obey me.
That’s why Jesus said, if you obey me, you love me. And if you know god, it’s like, awesome.
Then tell me what to do.
If you don’t know god, it’s like, uh-oh, what are you gonna tell me to do? Oh, listen.
When you know god, it’s like, tell me more.
Because what he has to say is awesome, and it’s wonderful, and it’s edifying, and it’s life.
I wanna give you some of these guarantees. John 14 verse 16.
Jesus said, I will pray the father, and he will give you another helper.
That is the Holy Spirit that he may abide with you for how long? Ever. I’m gonna say it again.
For how long? Yes. The spirit of truth in the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Look at verse 18. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yeah.
The security of the believer.
God wants you to know that the spirit of god is with you all the way through into eternity.
John 16 verse 12. Jesus said, just before he went back to heaven, he he said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when he notice personal pronoun, he it’s not an it. May the force be with you? Yes.
How about with you? Not not me. I want him. You can have it. That’s the force. I’ll take him.
He’s the person. That’s who I want.
When he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak.
Is that awesome? And he will tell you things to come.
He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.
All things that the father has are mine.
Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you.
If any of you have ever struggled with the trinity, you should not struggle any longer after reading that passage.
There they are. One god manifested in three persons, god the father, god the son, and god the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is speaking, and it’s including the father and the son. Remarkable.
And notice all of that description applies to the eternal one. Ephysians chapter 4, verse 30.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
See, if the Holy Spirit is an it, you can’t grieve in it.
You can go outside and yell at a fire hydrant. All you want. It’s not gonna get upset.
You can scream and kick your car.
I saw I actually saw that going on last night.
We were leaving the concert, the wonderful Christmas concert that was here this weekend.
What an amazing job this incredible church did Wow.
John Burrows and his work and his wonderful performers.
It was incredible, but on the way home, there was, uh, a guy pushing his Tesla.
I’ve never seen this before. The battery was so dead. He didn’t even have emergency blinkers on.
And he was pushing it. And, um,
and we prayed for him.
Why did I oh, because he was grieved.
He was grieved. That his battery ran out. He was grieved.
You can you listen. He he might have been grieved that his battery being out, but, you you could call that car.
All kinds of names you want. It’s not gonna hurt its feelings.
You can only grieve a person.
Do not grieve the holy spirit by whom you were sealed? Here’s that security?
For the day of redemption. God’s gonna keep his words friend.
Amen.
And then Galatians 4 19 says, my little children, I love that.
My kiddos, for whom I, that’s Paul, the apostle speaking, labor, and birth, again, until Christ is formed in you.
That is your sanctification. God is at work.
And so in Romans 8 28, it says for we know that all things work. Together for good.
The word work here, mark it down.
It’s the word, ergon, and it means actions, behaviors, deeds, are doings, That’s what’s around us.
The word can also be translated regarding the designer that it’s crafted a craftsman using the tools to create or to finish his thoughts, to bring his thoughts into existence.
A designer. That’s that listen.
That’s a god attribute, friends, and that’s what you and I have been given by god.
You, remarkably, can take a thought that is invisible.
And you can either write it down, or you can speak it, or you can shape it, form it, craft it, sculpt it, Think about this.
We don’t think about this enough.
That is because you are an extension of the creative powers of god who said concerning you, the human being, I’ve made you in my own image.
That’s why you’re creative. Now you might say, well, I don’t have a creative bone in my body, Pastor Jack.
You’ve got something else. There’s evidence within you that god is real and that he has put his thumbprint on your life.
You need to respond to him. This word work implies that all things are, listen, activated.
What all things? Everything activated. And when the word of god, listen, when the word of god is applied to your life and your day to day living, it will grab you.
Every day. What’s tomorrow?
Monday.
Monday. I hope all of you are going to work tomorrow, and this day and age, you know, I don’t know.
Do people even go to work anymore? Seems like there’s a shortage of workers everywhere.
But let’s let’s hope you’re all going to work tomorrow. I’m not. Tomorrow’s my tomorrow’s my day off, today.
But here’s here’s the deal.
If you go to work tomorrow, Uh, whatever’s going on in your life, remember, from the moment you wake up, the Holy spirits desires to activate all things to be at work in your life for god’s good I wanna show you a clip.
We, uh, you’re gonna recognize, uh, EZ’s Wayne.
This is part of his great show that is just his millions of views. But, uh, it’s the Bible Bee.
And I and I want you to listen carefully. Please, everybody, don’t clap or anything.
Just hear it all the way out. Okay?
And, Think about this word, work and the Holy Spirit activating God’s word in your life on a day to day basis in every situation.
This is great. This is an important question right here. Okay? You guys are ready? Yeah.
When are you just gonna get it? Here we go.
Alright. Here’s your last passage. Both riches and honor come, Madison.
1st, that’salonians 4 verses 13 through 18.
Sorry. That had been correct. For the rest of you, Bethany.
Oh, for chronicles 29, 10, 13.
That is correct. Please be excited.
1st chronicles 29, 10 through 13. We’re for David bless the lord before all the congregation.
David said. Israel, I’ve fallen forever and ever.
9?
Oh, more.
It was the greatest, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the modesty.
For all that is in the heaven.
And then the earth is Zion.
Zion Is the kingdom, oh lord?
And thouard is vaulted as head above all.
Both rich and honor come of me. And now, Raines, overall.
And in one hand, it’s power and might And in that hand, it is to be great.
And it gives strength until all.
Now therefore, Arga, with Sandy. I’m very, like, Lawrence’s name. First Chronicles was my 9-10-13.
Bethany, bring us into your heart and mind.
What was going on there?
I just realized how powerful and in control god is.
I know everything is just because of him, and he’s so brave and amazing.
That ladies and gentlemen is the way the word of god should impact us. Praise god. Awesome.
That’s what this is all about.
Was that precious or what? Oh my gosh. That’s exactly what we’re talking about.
The word of god possessing you that the things in life that happened to us are guaranteed to turn out for the good, the cancer, the hurt, the broken relationship, everything that seems to be a curve ball coming your way according to the Bible, god says to his children, I’ve got this.
I am working this out, but god, I don’t understand. That’s the walk of life.
That is the walk of faith. We don’t understand. We’re not supposed to understand.
If we understood everything, we would be god. Number 2, If we understood everything, there’d be no need for faith.
You must know his nature. To be able to have a response like that.
That little girl, that teenager, know his knows his nature. Unless she also clearly knows the Bible.
The work implies, as I said, that all things are activated from that we get our perspective You might wanna write this down, if you would, that there is 1, the good things, and 2, the bad things But from god’s perspective, there’s only the one good things.
See, that sounds odd. Yes. Listen. Number 1, there’s the good things. Number 2, there are the bad things.
But according to god’s math, in fact, watch this. God’s math is this way.
1+2, that’s the good and the bad, equals 1.
That’s god’s math.
Good stuff, bad stuff, people the same to me in your life, Jack.
The good and the bad that you judge, I put it all together.
1 fantastic recipe to deliver to you into your life, custom made, no one else will ever live and do, and I won’t expect anything else from anybody else, but you, what I give you to do, and that goes for every single believer.
And the number one thing is is to know this. You are so secure in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit has sealed you into the day of redemption.
That you are the child of god and that we don’t need to tiptoe around this world as though we’re some sort of weakling.
It’s the exact opposite. It is the Christian that has the answer.
It’s the Christian that says 1+2 equals 1 with god. It’s all him at work. The pain.
Take the pain. Somebody, I hope, will take this and the moment of grief that you’re going through and say, that’s it.
I’m giving my gut wrenching life threatening pain.
Be it physical, emotional, spiritual, whatever it is, and I’m giving it to god.
He has put his seal upon me. Say, what do you mean by that seal?
That means this, in the midst of your pain, I’m not asking you of your opinion about god.
I’m asking you in the midst of your pain. Are you aware of god?
Did you hear me?
I’m not asking if you approve of the way you think things are going. That’s irrelevant.
I’m asking you in your pain Are you aware of god?
If you could walk away and say, now I know there is no god and have no hook on your heart whatsoever, then you do not know god.
But if you’re struggling and warring and babbling and crying and kicking, His message to you today is this.
1+2, the good and the bad equals good because I am your god. That’s who he is.
James chapter 1 verse 2. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials.
Notice it’s trials, not temptations. It’s a big difference.
When you go to Joe’s bar and grill where they you because you’re thirsty and they have strippers there, Don’t say a widow, man.
God. What’s god doing to me? That’s you doing that to yourself.
You placed yourself in a in a temptation, horrible situation.
You run you’re supposed to flee from that.
But when stuff happens to you that you did not engineer, those are called trials.
With all due respect, their god sent.
You mean, that was that guy pushing his Tesla, well, if the guy was a Christian, Listen.
If the guy was a Christian, then that’s a godsend trial.
If he was not a Christian, then he’s gonna be tempted to cuss out his Tesla.
You see? There’s a difference. That’s why the Christian can rejoice in all situations.
We have a friend years ago, 30 years ago, taught us.
He goes, I’m so tired of people always saying, oh, good luck.
He was in the he was in the performance industry, and people would say, good luck.
He was a believer. He’s I’m so scared in that. Because believers don’t talk like that. Good luck to you.
Good luck on your sermon. It’s like, what?
It’s like the Hebrew language has no word for a coincidence because god’s real.
It’s impossible to have a coincidence.
And so, uh, this this whole thing regarding happenstance or accident that when in life things happen, it’s not an accident.
It’s not luck. And so Lisa and I started saying, he’s he taught it to us.
He said, I’ll just counter back to people and say, well, may the luck of the lord be with you too?
Is that a great line?
The luck of the lord be with you, which, of course, is a joke, but it’s kind of funny if you think about it.
It’s either god or it’s luck. It’s either a god or a rabbit’s foot. Pick one.
I got news for you. Pick god. You won’t need a rabbit’s foot. Yes.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 says, and seeing the multitudes, he, Jesus, went up at a mountain and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.
And then he opened his mouth, and he taught them saying, bless it are the poor in spirit.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bless it are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
This is the internal life of the true believer in god, by the way.
This describes every single one of us to some level of degree. Bless it are the meek.
Bless it are those best word to remember, listen, you’ve heard this. It’s it’s perfectly accurate.
You’ve heard it a thousand times, but, uh, when you’re teaching Sunday school, you tell the kids, blessed are the meek.
And you take a dash and you put a dash between the two e’s. Bless it are the me.
The meek blessed are the meek. Bless it are those who have a proper view of themselves.
I I can’t I’m nothing. I can’t save myself. God says you’re blessed if you know that.
Bless it are the meek, he says.
For they shall inherit the earth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
For they shall be filled, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
Bless it are the pure in heart for they shall see god.
Bless it are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of god.
Bless it are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Bless it are you when they revile and persecute you.
And sail kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great as your reward in heaven.
For so, they persecuted the profits who were before you.
Now, most of us don’t even have a clue as to the application of all of that, but just know this.
You can write in your margins.
Number 1, that is the internal description of the believer, and each of us have certain levels of this in operation in our lives in some way, shape, or form as we follow Jesus.
Okay? The more by by the way, heads up.
The more you follow Jesus and the closer you press into Jesus, the more true that truth becomes in your life.
Why the word is activated as you draw close to him.
And, uh, listen, I’ve not I have not been a Christian to the point where I’ve had to resist evil by shedding my own blood.
I haven’t been, uh, you know, I haven’t had my throat slit or whatever.
There’s people that are going through that.
There’s people that are being burn to death every Sunday in the world, every Sunday.
For the last 2000 years, Christians find themselves on Sundays somewhere in the world being killed in church services for being Christians.
Africa right now, North Africa is the danger zone for Christians gathering, and yet they go they gather.
The families dress up They walk to church, knowing that Muslim extremists just might target their church this Sunday, and they go anyway.
Would you do that? Would listen.
If if this church was under attack, would you still show up next week to worship god.
Don’t say yes because you don’t know. Honestly, don’t even say yes.
And Africa The church is all they have.
They understand that depart from this world is to enter his world.
To be absent from this body is to be present with him. Heaven’s a reality. We don’t wish her.
We don’t pretend about it. It’s a reality. Persecution.
We’re doing a weird age, a weird time right now. Um, persecutions rising in America.
We see that’s gonna increase. I’m not a prophet. I just know my bible. It’s gonna increase.
It’s gonna increase in California. It’s gonna increase in your town or your city.
It’s gonna increase in New York. It’s gonna increase. It has to increase.
Because Jesus said, if you walk with me, if you speak like I do, if you stand with me, you’re gonna be hated.
But he said, don’t get a big hit. Hey. Well, I’m I’m adding this part.
He’s he bay he said, don’t don’t worry about it because they hated me before they will ever hate you.
Translation. Don’t get a big head about it if you’re persecuted.
It’s just because somebody I’d, uh, mistake mistook you, for me.
Jesus is saying you live like me, you’re gonna be hated. Isn’t that amazing?
The the very one the world needs right now, honestly, if Jesus just popped onto the world scene.
Do you know what he would do?
He would be able to bring peace to Africa, peace to Gaza, peace to Israel.
He’d bring peace to uh, Philadelphia, he’d be p think about it.
That’s a fact.
But do you know what would happen if Jesus showed up today? The world would crucify him again.
It’d kill him again. You know why?
Because the same one that brings peace, forgiveness and love is the same one that says you shouldn’t do that.
That’s wrong. You need to choose between following your father, the devil, or my father in heaven.
You gotta choose, and they’ll kill him for it. And they’ll do it again.
But because he’s not here, they’ll kill you. Now this is a joke.
I’m I mean, I’m not joking. But to equate this is a is ridiculous.
So my Facebook, it’s personal. That my Facebook is private. It’s not church property. You understand that?
The church has their own Facebook. On my Facebook, I get to say whatever I wanna say.
It’s my Facebook. It’s and so I put whatever I wanna put on there.
And so I put something on there, and I put on our our Wednesday night service that we had.
Here, if you were not here Wednesday night, wherever you were at, you were in the wrong place.
He was incredible. And so I got all of these hate posts and hate hate things about, uh, and then people started telling me about what I believe.
Is that amazing? Do they call me to ask me if that’s what I believe?
And then some I’m not gonna even mention their name.
Some news agency, 3 days ago, slammed me publicly on national news, And then something else pops up, and then they wanna interview from me about contributing to their article about what they’re doing about somebody else.
How’s that? There’s no equation.
I’m not dying for my faith, but I will tell you this.
When you don’t waiver on what you believe in, people are gonna say things about you.
Friends, my dear, young friends, suck it up Don’t worry. Stop worrying about what people oh my gosh.
Somebody canceled me. That’s probably a badge of honor. Find out who it was.
It’s probably a good thing. If Satan cancels you, that would be a good day.
Stop worrying about what people feel and think about you.
And by the way, everybody, we all need this one.
Don’t respond to people that criticize you in your comments, be it personal, or on social media.
You wanna know why? If you respond to them, now you open yourself wide up.
And the Bible says never answer a fool in their folly. How’s that?
Isn’t it awesome that the eternal god knew that the internet was coming? And social media.
And he says when a dumb dumb says something about you, don’t answer back lest you become a dumb dumb with them.
Don’t do it. Don’t respond. And here’s the thing.
You see, yeah, but I got a good answer for them. No. You don’t. No. You don’t.
Because you could give them the very word of god in print verbatim, and they won’t accept it.
Don’t let that stuff bind you up. The Bible says the fear of man is a snare.
The fear of man keeps your mouth shut. Don’t be like that. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3.
For consider him, that’s Jesus who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin. Listen to this.
I call this a preamble. It’s 2 passages.
First Peter 1 versus 3 through 7, but watch how it’s broken up. The preamble is this.
Bless it be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible on defiled, and that does not fade away.
Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of god. Same end people.
You’re being kept by the power of god. Not your good works.
He’s doing it through faith for Salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That’s the preamble. Next message.
Watch this. In this, here’s the response. In this, what? Verse of one through 5.
In this, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been greed by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Wow. Oh my goodness. That’s fantastic. Beautiful.
God is at work, friends, and the Bible tells us that it says all things work together for good And that word together is an interesting word.
It’s a powerful word. Sunir Gail. Sunir Gail. The word means working together toward the center.
So from the outer to the inner, to start from the outer limits to move continually inward toward the center.
Or point of contact. According to god, all things are working from the outside in to wear, watch outside.
Think, really. Think outside the this room, then in the room, then down your aisle, near your seat up against your skin in your heart.
That’s why the world is out there as it is. Fallen, broken, hurting? Yes.
God’s using it. God is not subject and victimized by the world that has fallen.
God is literally restoring, and he’s forming, and he takes that which is broken, and he even makes it to work for good.
Listen, you and I cannot am I getting excited? I’m so Let me calm down.
The the worst of the worst that the world can do.
And Satan rubs its filthy little nails together in hell saying I got them now.
Look at all those Christians running panicking out.
And then the spirit of god breathes a breath of reminder upon us. Yes.
And we can feel as it were those blow up clowns or dinosaurs that you plug in, and the air fills them up.
The Christian that is all defeated and put down.
God begins to blow the wind of the spirit in your life and you begin to get filled up and you’re standing there under the power of someone else who is the holy spirit against the forces of hell itself, which is impossible, but god.
Absolutely wonderful.
The Bible tells us in Psalm 23 verse 5, you, that is the lord, anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.
Uh, real quick on this. You will know that verse. 23rd Psalm.
Oh, that’s so I have a plaque on my home with the 23rd Psalm. Who doesn’t? Everybody does.
I think I have 5 20 3rd Psalms that have been given to me over the years.
They never get old, though. The lord anoints my head. The word anointness. Listen.
He takes the oil. The shepherd had oil.
And the oil was all of oil with various herbs.
Crushed into the olive oil.
And when when when sheep were, um, beat up, skinned up, going through thickets, getting hurt, could be bleeding, could be whatever.
You know, he would do. He would pour the oil on the sheep’s head, the shepherd. Doesn’t this sound great?
And he’s rubbing the medicinal oil into the sheep’s head and maybe under the ears And that can you imagine that sheep just Why does god say this stuff to us?
Because he does this stuff to us. All things were how about this? Work it in together.
Can you think of it that way?
Because the word together actually means to work in the dye, to work the dye into the wool, to work the the stain or the dye into the fabric.
What a beautiful thing that is. And here’s the qualifier to those who love god.
Do you love god friend? Listen. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Do you love him?
We talked about the challenge of that. And how we say we love him, and we do love him.
But when soon as we say we love him, we feel so deficient in our love for him.
To those who love god is the 1st qualifier, and the second qualifier is to those who are called.
So what does that mean called?
I mean, you can basically think of it as the have you gotten a call lately from god?
Are you invited? Did god invite you?
Have you ever heard god say to you And this is this is listen, where we’re starting to end.
It doesn’t mean you’re leaving. It just means we’re ending soon sometime in the near future.
Can you honestly, with integrity to yourself, without anybody knowing, can you honestly say, There was a time in my life, or maybe it’s even today when god is saying, do this.
And you are gonna be lord of your life, or he is.
You’re gonna have to choose.
And I’m gonna ask you to bow your head right now, and let’s pray together right now.
At father, I ask you, lord, in Jesus name, at father god that you would move in the midst of this place, and lord that you would be calling those who you know before time ever began that are the called.
They don’t know it yet.
To identify, to become associated with the Christ Jesus, Yashua, who died in the cross as the sacrificial Passover lamb for time and eternity, The one who when Moses had them slay the little lamb for each of the homes in Egypt was a prototype of he who would die for the sins of not only the nation of Israel, but to all those who would come to believe, Christ, the Messiah, as Isaiah said, the savior of the world.
And so father god, we pray that today, we would be waking up some of us here to the fact that it’s you.
Calling us. And, friend, as we start this song right now, I’m gonna ask you to be honest, have you ever publicly accepted Christ that means You may believe in Jesus, but does anybody else know that you believe in Jesus?
The Bible says, Jesus said, if you do not acknowledge me before other people, I will not acknowledge you before my father.
Why? Is it an earn thing? Is that a a bit of works? Nope.
It’s to dispel any temptation of shame. Are you ashamed of Jesus, then stay seated?
But if today you’re saying he’s my Christ, he’s my lord, he’s my savior, and I wanna make him my redeemer forever.
I wanna have my sins forgiven, and my life give an eternal life, and I wanna start all over today.
I wanna start life all over.
As we sing this song, I’m gonna ask you to get up out of your seat and come forward and just stand right here at the base of these seats up front here, and now I’m gonna pray with you in the end.
But let’s sing this song remain in an attitude of prayer, everybody. Christians be praying.
And I don’t want anybody moving around.
You could distract someone who’s on the brink of making an eternal decision.
If god is saying you need to do this, my friend, I beg of you, obey him, to obey him as life, I’m gonna ask you to pray with me and just simply mean this prayer.
God knows your heart. It’s so great.
We we don’t have to we don’t have to sell him to you. He’s not for sale.
We don’t have to, uh, argue for him. He can defend himself.
He knows the inside. He knows your entire life. He always has.
And even the stuff that has been your big problem, right, your big problem.
This has been my life. It’s by parents or me, and I made this decision.
I got in this trouble where I get this happened.
And I did this, and I did the other night snowballed into destruction. Oh, my friend.
You qualify. To whom much is forgiven, Jesus said that person loves much.
Some of you might wanna scrounge around and look and remember to see if you can think of any more sins in your life that you might have forgotten, but He is forgiven, and you can say, lord, thank you.
So those of you standing, pray this out loud. Would you church?
Will you pray with them out loud? It’s beautiful. Heavenly father? Yes. I’d give you my life right now.
Yes. I proclaimed Jesus Christ as the son of god’s savior.
As the son of god’s savior. Crucified for me. And risen from the dead.
I give you my sins and I receive your righteousness.
Thank you god. Amen. In Jesus’ name. Jesus. I pray. Amen. Amen.
God bless you.