To them and streaming world wide at $670.00. 95. a style of worship or an approach to the spiritual life big mistake Holy Spirit will not violate your personality the Holy Spirit will fulfill you enable you equal if you engage you to be all that God is calling you to be and that should be comforting to you and if there is nothing else that I want you to feel tonight I want you to feel secure in Christ in that every one of you who are in Christ is a little tiny vessel dead that contains in some mysterious spiritual way I don't understand it all but in some mysterious spiritual way contains the Holy Spirit and if he is inside of you then of course I Harwood assume that you would be feeling hopeful as you sit here in this room tonight as we begin in verse number 28 and if some of you are coming tonight say I can wait till he gets to that 29 because there are some great controversy in that those who you For knew he predestined and all that stuff well we're not going to get into that tonight I want to simply look at Bersih number 28 I'm not sure where the preaching schedule goes from here but I do know this the Lord has laid on my heart that we consider this one verse together tonight Romans 828 I want you to read it aloud with me 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 Father thank you so much that in a in a day and age of uncertainty we can read in the 1st 3 words of this verse and we know because Lord there are fewer and fewer things it seems that we can know for certain Lord I pray that as we contemplate this. Laureus truth in this amazing verse that you would stir Laura I have been in mine someone who came tonight is discourage someone who is needing a spiritual lift or someone who looks large you can cold someone Lord who is going through the motions shake us all by your spirit and awaken us to the truth that is found in this glorious glorious text the scripture and Lord as you do that we need some spiritual food for our souls and pray that we be nourished and we'd be at it and we would go out with a renewed sense of passion to live. For the glory of God and in Jesus. this lioness the local Sam people who named the law and. Which means the blessid one have never witnessed anything like this before and experts are also baffled by. Motives when solve the research or encounters the pair it is clear they are both in a bad way the young lion is unable to nurse the cows or experiment antelope and it is weak and thin but camel. Refuses to leave her young charge so she's not feeling herself and is woefully undernourished in fact she's in a park there and Kenya and the caretaker of the park who come so concerned that the lioness is not eating the throw some red meat to the lioness and one scene in the show that night and the line. Anis refused to eat it as though she's saying if the little antelope can't 8th and I'm not going to eat either and as the days go Go on she becomes less and less able to protect herself or the oryx from the other lions and then of course the question is asked will this precarious bond last or will it end in tragedy and we sat there and watch as this lioness is basically shepherding and mothering and caring for a little baby antelope that they would normally prey upon without thinking about the fact I'm not going to ruin the plot but it's very interesting the way if you didn't see it then you missed something I'm going to tell you but it was amazing the way this thing kind of turned out and then subsequently it was learned that the same lie and this went on to mother some other little baby tiny antelope as well as someone who is normally their prey tourists flocked to the well liked wildlife park to see this of course and the Kenyan people who've became you know pretty much bloodiest to a lot that goes on around them they flock to as well some tribal people in fact approach this researcher and asked if he would make a video of this and take it to their tribe so that their older Try members and some of their children could see so one of the scenes as a show them watching a video of this of this lioness basically mothering in caring for this little baby antelope and interesting leave the Kenyan people when they saw I had responded by saying God has come because they had never seen anything like this before when asked how something like this could happen the wildlife expert replied no one knows for sure I want to make 2 comments about that response number one I like that comment of the Kenyan people better that God has come. But secondly and this is a warning and I wish I had flashing red and blue lights on the pulpit right now as I issued this warning this is a warning the phrase no one knows for sure is gradually sneaking into the evangelical church. We don't know for sure do we if Jesus was a virgin born and even if he was and will that make any difference we're being that we can actually say we know something to be true is nearly impossible to read Romans 828 in time had to the idea that no one knows for sure it's clearly one of the best known verses in the viable one author is called it a spiritual pillow on which Christians can lay their weary heads another is another as this verse soars to sublime Heights unequalled elsewhere in the New Testament and I love how Paul. I'll start this verse in the opening 3 words say with me again and we know now I admit there are things we do not know in fact if you want some contextual support he says it right there in the text we looked at about a month ago in verse $26.00 we do not know what we all to pray for so there are things in times when you and I would be right to say and it's Ok to say I don't know but having said that there are also some things we can know for sure the older I get the bolder I get there is a creeping sentiment in the Christian community that we shouldn't be dogmatic that we absolutely know something would be arrogant or even somehow embarrassing as I meditated on Romans 828 this week I was gripped by a powerful wave of passion it's Ok to say we know something to be true and if I were retitling the sermon tonight I had to get the title in advance of my preparation I would title it 5 things God wants you to know for sure from Romans chapter 8 verse 285 things God wants you to know for sure number one God wants you to know for sure that he is tactical that God is tactical and I wanted to start by using the simple phrase God is working and in fact in my notes earlier on this week I had that written down but I changed it to tactical for a couple of reasons because one the word capital implies that there is a plan he says and we know that in all things God works ever wonder if God's working. Ever wonder what God's doing Ever wonder why God won't do something you want him to or does do something you don't want him to so many nod your head out there if you've ever had that yeah you have and I have as well God is tactical means. That God has a plan that he is working out in your life and mine and let me add at a more global level and in the world but I do know this that whatever happens listen closely that whatever happens God is working God has a tactical plan listen to a god is not just spinning his wheels out in the slime of life with no plan in mind God isn't just a busy deity sitting in heaven tuning carbs so they're ready when we get there he's a tactical deity who is precise and exact in everything he's up to he's active in each of our lives and in the world he knows exactly listen he knows exactly what he's up to now I know what some of you are thinking right now your question is Ok well then would he be willing to tell us and the response is No. And my I would say to you I don't know what God is up to and I've said this before and I'll say it again if I were God I would be doing things differently right now but guess what I'm not God and you should be using Amen to that. And I don't want you to be God either by the way God is tactical He is working implies that he has a plan that God has a plan that will be fulfilled no matter what else happened that God is not sitting up in heaven kind of holding his breath with the hope that well I hope I hope it didn't go that way because it goes that way then I'm not sure what I'm going to do and one of the reasons I didn't even I mean it was so hard for me to read or endure that book Why Bad Things Happen to Good People people Rabbi Harold Kushner a number of years ago probably decades ago now was because he didn't see new ways that although God is good he is not powerful that is that God watches just like we do when he sees these bad things happening but he can't do anything about it oh wait a week an anemic God is that is certainly a good God but but not a very powerful god. There are a lot of good things in that book but it rises at the wrong conclusion and the wrong conclusion is that God really wants to do something but he has to sit back like we do and watch it all happen and that is not what the Bible says it says that in all things God works God is working in all things c.s. Lewis in Mere Christianity says Imagine yourself a living house God comes in to rebuild that house at 1st perhaps you can understand what he's doing is getting the drains right stopping the leaks in the roof and so on and you knew that those jobs needed doing so you're not surprised but presently he starts knocking the house about in such a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense of what on earth is the up to the explanation is that he's building quite a different house from the one you thought of throwing out a new wing here putting on an extra floor there running up hours making courtyards you thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage but he is building up a palace he intends to come and live in it himself God has a plan God is tactical this 1st audit comfort and encourage you tonight you ought to be able to leave here feeling certain and safe and secure because God has a plan God is tactical and God is working now I know what some of you're doing right now you're saying Ok Well you're back to preaching again and you're going all excited about something then yeah we know all that stuff we've seen you do that before but but really you don't know what's going on in my life how in the world can you say how in the world could you be saying that God is working God has a plan for you don't know what's happening in my life and I know that there are people who are thinking that way. I'll be shocked if there weren't because you are struggling with this idea that God could be working with us with that whatever that is right now you know a lot of hurting people show up at your church. You know a lot of trouble people walking into the church doors looking for answers now the sad thing is the kind of answers they're being provided today are answers that are designed to make people feel good but don't hold me tell them the truth like that God wants you to be a business success you know the fact of the matter is God may not want your business to succeed God may allow your business to fail. And it's not just if you put the goals and plans together he's going to have to make it happen because the Bible he says he's going to you know follow through on your plans and you don't know what he's doing and there is mystery in that and that bothers you and that bothers me too I love this little story about when Marcello who's one of the most easily recognizable jazz music musicians in our day one night when Marcellus was playing with a small little known combo in New York and a basement club and a few songs into there said he walked to the front of the bandstand and began an unaccompanied solo of the 1930 s. Ballad I don't stand a ghost of a chance with you how do records how do you read the records that the audience became rapt as Marsalis the strumpet virtually wept in despair almost gasping at times with pain in the music stretching the mood taut Marcellus came to the final phrase with each note coming slower and slower with longer and longer pauses between each one I don't stand goes stuff chance and then somebody's cell phone went off. Kind of reminds me of church. And it began to chirp and add Sir little tune and the audience broke up into tutors and the man with the phone jumped up and fled into the hallway to take his call in the spell was broken magic ruined the journalist scratched into his notepad but then Marcellus played the cellphone melody note for note and then he played it again with a little different accent and he began to play with it spinning out her Rhapsody on the silly little tune changing keys several times the audience settle down slowly realize. That they were hearing something altogether extraordinary around and around Marcellus played for several minutes weaving glory out of goofiness finally in a master stroke he wound seamlessly to the last 2 notes of his previous song with you . And the audience exploded with applause in the same way our brilliant adaptable God is at work through this since it world bringing beauty out of baseness heroism out of Holocaust love out of laws even salvation out of sacrifice he calls us to believe and then to do the same Let me tell you something my friends. And this I know for sure. God is practically working in your life right now. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him number one God is technical. And the real Prince rocked by following her on Twitter and. Facebook at the real crazy. deal God is not really good that. Satan question God's goodness in the Garden of Eden there's been bringing it up ever since if God is good how can he permit birth defects if God is good how can he permit war if God is good how can he permit cancer to strike that loved one if God is good how could he have permitted the holocaust of God as good how could he permit an eternal hell where if he knows that people will be suffering throughout all of eternity let me warn you be careful when you feel yourself starting to question the goodness of God you are venturing on a dangerous Carol. Paula search that God is working for the good of his children now that thought interesting save with that thought doesn't seem so unusual when you apply it to an earthly father Dad wants something good for his kids but somehow when we think of God it becomes tougher to embrace God it is committed. God is committed to your good. And I suppose we going to the trouble to into the Continuum number one when we start questioning because of other things we see happening in the world and then number 2 because of what our definition of good is. To see can see good for you the effects are said you are in a body to get a favorite on the word good and then right underneath that what you think would be good for you. How many of you think what you write on that paper would be something God would agree with. And I don't doubt you but I find myself thinking I probably don't know what is best for me in most instances I think I do he'll be good. I know what I think would be good but what does God think could be good I thought of the good for me to be a dad for example and I further think I made a really cool grandad I'd have been one with hair how about that I mean that would have been cool. Would be good for me. But god idea of good didn't line up with my. Good. I thought of being good if I would add a terrific relation for 6 years I think I've been good my dad would have lived like a long full life to his eighties like my mom did rather than dying at age 58 the age I am right now you guys know talking about don't you come on your heads out there you know what I'm talking about God Is that good is inevitable is a stretch for some of us that this the idea that God is good in His mercy indoors to all generations and all we thing is sometimes God is good all the time and all the time God is good but do we really believe it. G.r.r.r. Tolkien says no man can estimate what is really happening at the present there is a profound statement all we do know and that to a large extent by direct experience is that evil labors with vast power and perpetual success in vain preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout and that's a very solid theological perspective John Stott puts it this way all that is negative in this life is seen to have a positive purpose in the execution of God's eternal plan found a great story this week. You might have heard this if you read Rick Reilly's columns several years ago called the play of the year Jade Porter 17 a member of the north west high football team in McDermott Ohio was born with a chromosomal fragile x. Syndrome a common cause of mental retardation he couldn't read he could barely write his name but he loved football and he faithfully attended every practice North West coach de France wanted to do something special for Jake so before a game against Waverly high in the fall of 2002 friends called his friend Derek could do with the head coach at Waverley the other team and suggested that both teams allow Jake to run one play at the end of the game assuming the game was not on the line Jake would get the ball take a knee and the game would end so with Waverley leading $42.00 to nothing you see the game was not on the line 5 seconds left in the game Franz called a timeout Jake trotted out to the huddle and the 2 coaches met at midfield Sports Illustrated Rick Rick Reilly picks up the story fans could see there was a disagreement do it with shaking his head and waving his arms after arrest stepped in play resumed and Jake got the ball he started to genuflect as he had practiced all week but teammate stopped him and told him to run but Jake started going in the wrong direction so the back judge rerouted him toward the line of scrimmage suddenly the Waverley defense parted like presents for the king and urged him to go on his grinning way all the way to the end zone imagine having 21 teammates on the field in the stands mothers cried and fathers roared players on both side lines tell their helmets to the sky and whoops apparently when the coaches met before the big play France had reminded the weight of the plan that Jake would simply take a knee but the way it wasn't satisfied he said no I want to score France is own coach objected but the way it insisted he called his defense over and said they're going to give the ball a number 45 Do not touch him open up a hole and let him score understand Jake had the run of his life. Scoring the touchdown heard around the world on the play of the year all because of do with unselfish decision I want him to score like coach do it God has high purposes for each of us God wants us not just to get the ball and touch and need to the ground God wants us to score a touchdown. Now I can't prove it but I have a guess right now that a number of you in this room have never felt that way regarding how God feels about . You were raised with that nasty low grade a beard white hair wrinkled brow Beagle I was scornful look of God from Adam looking down a huge is waiting for you to do something wrong so he could get to do one of his favorite things to do zap you with a lightning bolt. The idea of a god once something good for you the idea that God wants you to experience a touchdown in the last 5 seconds of the game is never occurred to you. And once you know this for sure. Number one he is technical and he is working. On your behalf number 2 good is inevitable number 3 nothing is coincidental to powerful words right there in the opening phrase and we know that in all things say with me all saying Say it again all things warning Paul doesn't say all things are good. Don't make that mistake rather that God works in all things and this of course implies if that's true you see if you follow the logic if it's true that