Tuesday, June 15, A Love at Purifies My Character

Transcription

1 A Love at Purifies My Character

2 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ~Romans 8:28

3 The Scope of the Promise 1. God works in all things, not just some things. Works: God doesn t cause all things; he works all things. Things: Hardship, persecution, famine, poverty, danger and sword. ~Romans 8:36 Life, death, spiritual beings, things that happen today or will happen tomorrow, powers, highs and lows anything the universe can throw my way. ~Romans 8:38-39

4 Those things make up the comprehensive list of stuff that God turns to my ultimate and long-range good.

5 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ~Genesis 50:20 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11 Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 1:6

6 It is the clear witness of Scripture that God works in every circumstance of my life and indeed turns all things to my advantage. We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage. ~John Newton

7 God has promised to get you to glory, not without pain, but without stain. God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain. ~C.S. Lewis

8 The Scope of the Promise 2. God s promise of good isn t a universal pledge; it s a conditional promise for committed Christ followers only for those who love God. Love is expressed in action: "If you love me, you will obey what I command. ~John 14:5 Love is diplayed in emotion: "I know your deeds...yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ~Revelation 2:4

9 The Scope of the Promise 3. God s promise is only to those who have been called according to his purpose. Purpose : A compound word, from pro (before) and thesis (a setting forth) We are God s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do. ~Ephesians 2:10

10 The key to correctly understanding and fully experiencing the benefits of Romans 8:28 is to bring everything into alignment with the eternal purposes of God for your life. When God s purpose becomes the sum and the substance of all that you are, nothing in all creation can separate you from the inexorable plan God has for you in eternity.

11 The Scope of the Promise 4. The ultimate goal of God s promise is to conform me to the likeness of Jesus. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ~Romans 8:29 Conform : morph (summorphous); Firstborn : prototype (prototokon)

12 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons...god disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. ~Hebrews 12:7, 10-11

13 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. ~Romans 8:30 Glorification: It is both now, yet future. In Christ, our future and ultimate glorification is as certain as if it had already happened.

14 There is nothing not anything in all of creation that can stop God s love or thwart God s purpose in remaking you and into the image and likeness of Jesus and bringing us to our ulitimate destiny of eternal glory!