And he says, "You groan. I'll answer. You groan, I'll answer. You groan, I'll answer." How sweet is that? He's not waiting for you to get your act together. He meets you in moments of such utter weakness that all you can do is look to heaven and groan. How beautiful. And so, you can never ever tell yourself that you're alone in your experience. You can never say no one knows and no one understands. Somebody knows and somebody understands and with understanding is carrying things to the Father that you don't have the ability to verbalize. Isn't that beautiful? You're understood. Every aspect of your experience is known and is carried to the one who has the power to make a difference. Just groan, just groan, just groan. God knows, he cares, he understands. When the Israelites were in Egypt and they were crying out for all these years wondering where God is. God said to Moses, "I see, I hear, I remember, and I know. I see you, I hear you. I know what you're going through." What's the I remember? I remember every promise I've made to you. Your Lord sees, your Lord hears, your Lord knows, your Lord remembers. Just groan. But not just preparing grace and intervening grace, but unstoppable grace. Let me read for you verses 28 through 30, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified." Now, I want you to fasten your seat belts and put on your crash helmets because we're about to discuss the most misunderstood, misinterpreted misapplied passage I think in all of the Bible. You're going through something tough and one of your well-meaning Christian friends does one of those drive- by encouragements. Not really slowing down to say, "Just remember, all things work together for good." You're laughing because you know that's true. You may have said it. Now, that's not what this passage is talking about. This passage is not promising you that every dark experience is going to brighten and be wrapped with a bow and you can say at the end, "I love my life." It's not what's being taught here. And when you give people that application, you set them up for disappointment and frustration, and maybe even anger toward God. I'm never going to be fully healthy again, I want to say this respectfully. You probably know this person, Joni Eareckson Tada is not going to get up out of her wheelchair. That's not what's being taught here. Don't do that to one another. Now, a little bit of a lesson in biblical interpretation. You have to let scripture interpret scripture. So here we go. Verse 28 is explained by verses 29 and 30. The key question of verse 28 is, what is the good God's talking about? All things will work together for good. What is the good he's talking about? Well, what happens next defines that. Here we go. "For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the son in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those who he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified." The good, and I'm going to explain this, that he's talking about is redemption. Nothing in your life can ever thwart or stop the march of redemption in your life. And with redeeming grace comes everything you need, all of God's promises. I love what it says in Ephesians, that we are blessed with eternal blessings in Christ. Your suffering is not a failure of his redemptive plan. Your suffering is not him abandoning all the things he promised. Nothing will stop the work of grace in your life. And that will march on until it's complete. Here's the way I think about it, God will not relent until every microbe of sin is delivered from every cell of every heart, of every one of his children. And then he will say, "All things are now ready. Enter into my Kingdom." Yeah, you should applaud. Because that's a glorious reality. I love what it says in 1 Corinthians 15, that passage about the resurrection. It says that raised Jesus must reign. You know what it says? Until every enemy is under His feet. And when the last enemy is under His foot, death, he will say, "All things are now ready. Enter into my Kingdom." You know what Jesus is doing right now? This is the redeeming plan, you may not see it, he is putting enemies under his feet. That's the spoils of his victory in the cross and the resurrection. He's now at the right hand of the Father ruling over all things for the sake of his church. And that march is unstoppable. Hardship is not a interruption. Hardship is not stopping the plan.
TRANSCRIPT: SESSION 3
GOSPEL HOPE
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