God Is Amazingly Good

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Lord Jesus, we're so grateful for what you've done.

And I think here on this earth we only understand a fraction of what you've done.

And the little bit that we do understand, Lord, is more than we can even handle.

I pray this morning as we're talking about what it is that you've done on our behalf, I pray that you'd help that to go deeper into our hearts and deeper into our minds, and I pray it begin to affect our lives, Lord.

Thank you so much for what you've done.

You've been so good to us.

Your name I pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

My name's Brent.

I am one of the teaching pastors here, and we're going to be in Romans chapter 8, 26 to 30.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

So if you want to go ahead and turn there, Romans chapter 8, verses 26 through 30.

Romans 8:26–30

We'll go ahead and read it, okay?

8, 26 to 30.

So here's what it says.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what's in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those uh 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.

So that's God's word for us this morning.

Um let's get started.

Let's start.

The first thing I kind of want you thinking about a little bit.

Do you guys ever struggle with whether or not God is for you?

Whether or not God's for you.

And the way that this comes out is, you know, you'll think of stuff that you've done in the past and and maybe sins that you have committed, and you'll say, I think I've done too much.

I think God's, I think he's just waiting to get me.

I think I think he's out to get me, is how we often feel.

Um I remember when I was young, uh, I was the I was a kid that by the world standards, I was a pretty good kid.

Like I'm looking back now and I actually realize I was the kid that parents wanted their kids to hang out with.

Like when I would go to my friend's house, the parents were happy because it's like, oh, this is a good kid my friend's hanging out with.

But in reality, what was going on with me is um, you know, every night before I went to bed, there was this prayer that I would pray.

And I prayed it because I was scared not to.

And here's what it was I would pray and I would say, God, if there's anything I did today that was wrong, please forgive me for that.

And if I'd done something wrong that day, I would say, I'm so sorry, God, I shouldn't have done that.

And what I was doing was I felt I need to pray, I need to ask God's forgiveness because if God returns tonight, if he comes, the second coming happens, and I haven't asked his forgiveness, he's gonna strike me down.

I'm going straight to hell.

That was the oppression that I lived under as a young boy.

And that lasted probably up till high school or college.

Right?

Is that really the kind of thinking?

Is that a right view of God?

And I hope what you see this morning as we go through this text is you see that's not who God is.

God is much more loving and merciful than we could possibly imagine, and what I imagined him to be at that time, right?

So let's let's begin and let's go through the text.

So it says at the beginning here, verse 26, it says, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Have any of you ever felt weak?

And this is like being a human being, right?

Like we all feel weak rather often.

And what this is saying is that God the Father sent the Holy Spirit specifically for those times when you feel weak.

Like if if uh if your marriage is falling apart right now, the Holy Spirit was sent specifically for the purpose of helping you with that.

If uh if you if things at work really aren't going that great for you right now, that's what the Holy Spirit was sent for.

He was He was sent to help you in that weak moment.

If there's somebody that you're at odds with and and your relationship's broken and you don't know how to fix it, the Holy Spirit was sent for that very purpose to help you with that situation.

Maybe there's a loved one that they have a health condition that it's beyond you, you don't know how to handle, you don't know what to do.

Again, the Holy Spirit was sent for that very purpose, to help you in your weakness.

And that's good news.

But it but it gets even better as you go through the text here because it says, for we don't know how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

We don't know how to what to pray for as we ought.

Have you ever been in a tough situation and you're just like, I don't even know where to begin to pray about this?

I don't I don't know what to pray, I don't know how to pray.

Do you know that in that moment, the Holy Spirit is actually interceding on your behalf?

Um I was thinking about this, and you know, God the Father, he he's the creator of language.

Like God's fluent in every single language, he understands what we're saying.

You can pray to him in any language and he would understand it.

But sometimes God gets so emotionally moved by your situation that the Holy Spirit He starts to groan on your behalf with groaning that words cannot explain.

Think about that.

The creator of language gets so emotionally moved by your situation that he begins to pray through, like he just he runs out of words and just starts to groan on your behalf.

That's crazy to me, but that that's what the scripture says here this morning.

Um and then in verse 27 it says, and he who searches hearts knows what's in what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

So not only is he groaning on your behalf, but as he's doing this, the whole the spirit's doing this, and God the Father understands everything he's saying because he he knows that they have the same mind, and he and he's not just praying, but he's praying according to the will of God on your behalf.

Um so a couple weeks ago, I was I was swimming in the pool with my children.

It was July 4th weekend, it was Sunday evening, and I was having a great time with them.

Our friends were over, we were having a blast.

Great July 4th.

And I'm playing with my kids, and I look up and I see my wife is in the doorway of our house, and you know, she's in the doorway, no big deal.

And then I notice she's on the phone, and then I notice she's not just on the phone, but she's on my phone.

And I'm and this question comes up in my mind: why is my wife on my phone?

And as soon as I start to think that, she starts waving me over.

And then this thought comes in my mind, I'm like, this isn't good.

Like she would not be waving me over, something's going on.

And I kind of see it on her face too.

So I run over, I grab the phone, and it's somebody from my family, I don't even remember who it was.

It wasn't my mom or dad.

It was somebody, one of my other family members, and they said, Hey, uh, we need you to know that your mom, we just put her in an ambulance.

She's on her way to the hospital.

We don't know what's going on with her, but she's not doing well.

We'll call you back when we know.

And they get off the phone.

About an hour or two later, they call me back and they say, Hey, we know what's going on with your mom now.

She had a brain aneurysm.

I'm a pastor.

I know what a brain aneurysm is, and I know the consequences of that.

I know most people that have brain aneurysms, not most, a lot of people that have brain aneurysms, they never make it to the hospital.

They die in their home.

A lot of other people, um, they end up being uh, it ends up greatly affecting their life.

And so I know my mom's chances of coming out whole and well are not that great at this point.

The thing that you need to know this morning is when situations come at you like that in life, the Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf, especially when you feel weak, especially when you don't know what to pray.

Like, to be honest, guys, in that situation, I didn't really think of praying because I was too overwhelmed by what was going on.

I'm busy, I'm on the internet, I'm looking for plane flights.

I know I need to go and see my mom as soon as possible.

And I didn't even pray.

But the Holy Spirit was praying for my mom, praying for me.

It wasn't just like a Lord bless them, it wasn't that kind of prayer.

Those kind of prayers are great.

The Lord knows your heart, he knows what you're praying, but he was praying according to the Spirit exactly what my mom needed prayer for, and exactly what I needed prayer for.

The Holy Spirit was interceding on our behalf, and that's incredibly encouraging to me.

And I pray that that's incredibly encouraging to you this morning as well.

Side note, my mom, she's doing pretty well.

She uh she's one of the few that a brain aneurysm didn't really affect her.

She's just she's just sleeping more during the day.

She's a little tired because she's recovering from surgery, but she's gonna, the prognosis is great.

So when you're weak and things are going bad, do you think to pray?

And if you don't, can I just take the pressure off?

It doesn't matter if you think to pray or not.

The Holy Spirit's already interceding on your behalf.

And he's interceding according to the Father's will.

So this means, you know, back in high school when I was doing that thing, I'm praying every night.

Actually, at that time, the Holy Spirit was also interceding on my behalf, and he was praying according to the Father's will.

What that means is when I was praying, there's some other prayers I prayed.

You know, I prayed, hey, this girl, I think I'm gonna marry her.

Like, God, can you make this happen?

The Holy Spirit was not praying that because he knew they would not be good for me, right?

He was probably praying, help him to know Jesus more, have him break up with her soon, and help him to eventually meet April, who will be the perfect girl for him.

Like he was praying according to God's will, and I I wasn't mature enough to even understand God's will yet at that point, right?

That's how good God is to us.

Let's go to verse 28.

It's a great verse.

It says, We know that those who love God, those we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

All things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

I mean, these are this is the kind of verse.

We got this verse in our coffee mugs, we got it up on your, you might have this up on the wall of your home.

It's a great verse.

And we love this verse until hard times come.

And then we're like, wait a minute, what's happening here?

Like, like if you're dating someone right now and you are sure this is the person that I am gonna marry, and then they break up with you.

God, I thought you were working everything for my good.

What's going on here?

Or I have a friend, uh, he he's in his late 20s.

Or yeah, he's in his late 20s.

He just found out about a year ago that he has leukemia.

He beats the leukemia, all the tests are coming back clear, and he goes in for his final test, and they say, Oh, actually, you didn't beat it.

Leukemia's back, and now we're gonna have to go after it even harder.

And that's what he's in the middle of right now.

So I see my friend, and I'm like, God, what are you doing?

This guy loves you.

I thought you worked all things together for good, God.

What's happening?

Um, you know, with our kids, we know that if we give our kids everything we want, it will ruin our children, right?

Like if your kids come to you and they say, I want candy, and you just like have all the candy you want, their teeth are gonna rot out, it won't go well.

Like I remember just a few weeks ago, I took my children to the movie theater.

And I was like, I want my kids to understand the goodness of God.

I'm gonna get them all the soda they want, I'm gonna get them all the popcorn they want, and we're just gonna have fun at this movie.

And so that's what we did.

We got they're they're just down in soda.

We went and got refills on the soda.

We ended up going to the bathroom multiple times.

I miss most of the movie because I'm taking kids to the bathroom the whole movie.

One of them went twice to the bathroom.

How you go twice to the bathroom in one movie?

I do not understand.

And then we get home that night, and one of the kids had had so much soda that they threw up.

Like it, so I might have overdid the, you know, you need to know the goodness of God thing a little bit.

Um, but when you give your kids everything they ask for, it doesn't go well.

Like if my kids come to me and they say, I don't want to sleep tonight, Daddy, I'm like, great, you don't have to sleep anymore.

Forget it, stay up all night.

They say, I don't want to go to school anymore, and I just give them what they want.

Yeah, don't go to school anymore.

You don't have to go, no, no point in school.

That would not be good for my children, it would ruin them, right?

And they would be miserable people to live with if I gave them everything they wanted.

Here's my question for us.

Why then do you demand that God do that for you?

Let me ask again.

Why do you demand that God do that for you?

It's not good for you either.

About three or four years ago, well, no, when Wyatt was about three or four years old, he was playing on the back deck of our home, and as he's out there playing, he gets a splinter in his foot, and it was a big one.

Like this splinter is about that long sticking out of his foot.

And he's crying, and I take him in, and you know, April and I try to get the splinter out.

We try with some tweezers, and as we're trying to get it out, it breaks.

So now he's got a splinter about that long in his foot, a little shorter, but it's stuck deep in his foot.

And we're like, this isn't good.

I don't, we can't get this out on our own.

We're gonna have to take him to the emergency room.

And so Wyatt is our first child, and uh, with him being our first child, my mom my wife gets a little bit emotional about him being injured, and she was like, I don't think I can take him.

I don't think I can do it.

I said, I can do it, I'll take him.

I didn't want to do it either because I know what's gonna happen in the emergency room.

It's not gonna be fun.

So we get there, we wait in the waiting room, they eventually call us back, and once we get back there, they say, Hey, this this thing's in his foot uh pretty far.

And so we're gonna have to put him, there's this thing that they put you in, like a strait jacket, and they're like, We're gonna have to put him in this strait jacket.

I'm like, Are you sure you need to do that?

And they're like, Yes, sir, we're gonna have to do it because if we don't do this, his foot could be permanently damaged.

If he if he jerks, right when we're pulling it out, it could go in deeper and he might have to have surgery or something.

We don't want that.

We want to make sure we get it out cleanly.

I'm like, all right.

So they start strapping him into this thing, and once they when when he sees it and they begin strapping him in, he starts freaking out.

He's like, Daddy, I don't want this, don't put me in this.

And and and and from his viewpoint, I'm supposed to save him from this.

And I'm like, no, this needs to go on, and I'm helping strap it on.

And and they say, There's one more thing we need you to do, sir.

We need you to put your weight on him and hold him down so that he can't squirm while we yank this thing.

So now I'm about like this far from his face.

He's screaming, and and his view is I have now sided with his oppressors, right?

And you can understand why.

If you were him, you would feel the exact same way.

And I could have tried to explain to him why it, this is why they're doing it, but in his three or four-year-old mind, he would not have understood.

And so I'm just there holding him down.

They eventually get it out, and he's okay.

Now I tell that story and you hear it, and you guys aren't like, well, you're a terrible parent.

How could you do that to your son?

And the reason you think that is because you're a little bit older too, and you understand that I was actually working for his good in that situation, right?

See, I think a lot of times we have situations come up in our lives where it feels like God has put us in a straitjacket and he is leaning on us, and we feel like, God, why have you sided with my oppressors?

Why are you doing this to me, God?

And God's saying, You just gotta trust me, I'm actually doing this for your good.

You know, the gap between my son and I, and and and like my wisdom and experience, there's maybe a you know, a gap like this.

I know a little more than he does at this point.

But the gap between us and God is like, it's it's unfathomable.

He's been around forever.

There's nothing he doesn't know.

He created the idea of wisdom, he gave us the ability to reason and think, and he has been around forever.

There's a huge gap there.

And so sometimes, wouldn't it make sense?

That sometimes there's gonna be things in our life that God is we're gonna be going through, and God's like, I if I tried to explain it to you, you wouldn't even understand.

You're just gonna have to trust me.

And here's what will lead you to trust.

It's his history.

If you would actually study this Bible and see his character, you would know that he is trustworthy.

Because our God, God the Father, sent his son, his only son, to die on your behalf.

That's how much he loves you, that's how much he cares for you, that's how much he is for your good.

And that son died on your behalf, the weight of the sins of all the world were put on him as he was on that cross, and then he rose again.

And because of that, that means you're never gonna have to do that because he sent his son to do it on your behalf.

He he died to death that you should have died.

And I think when you look at that and you look at his character in that, you can trust God that even when you're going through hard times, he is working for your good.

He is working for your good.

Verse 29.

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.

Um these are some some kind of big words, right?

Some big theological words.

Those he he he foreknew, he predestined.

In Ephesians 1:4, it doesn't just say that uh this is something he did in the past.

Ephesians 1:4

It says before the foundation of the world, uh he chose us in him.

Before the foundation.

So this is something that God chose you.

If you're if you're a follower of Jesus, he actually chose you before the foundation of the world.

This should be encouraging to you.

So listen, I know some of you you're trying to get into the Calvinism and Arminium debate.

Let's not go there yet.

Let's think first, why did Paul put this in here?

What would this have meant to the original readers of this book, to the Romans at that time in history?

What would this have meant to them?

This book was actually written to a mostly Gentile church in Rome at the time.

It was mostly Gentile.

Uh Gentile just means you're not a Jew.

So is anybody non-Jewish or Gentile, which would probably be the majority of the people in here, right?

And so people that came from a Gentile background, they were polytheistic.

That meant that means they worship many different gods.

So they would have a God of business, and you go and you'd worship that God.

They'd have a God of uh of education, you go and work at worship that God.

There'd be a God of agriculture, there's a God for your love life.

They had a God for everything.

And if you wanted to do well in those areas, the belief was I need to go and I need to make sacrifices and worship that God.

You know, if I want my business to go well, I go and offer sacrifices there.

I want my love life to go well, I need to go and offer sacrifices there.

There's no understanding of the people at this time that, like, this is a God that loves me and wants what's best for me.

That's not how the God's operated.

The way the God's operated was you had to try to please them, and if you didn't please them, they're gonna, they're gonna come after you, right?

So Paul's saying that, what are the words here?

He says he foreknew and he also predestined.

So these people that they never know if they've done enough.

They're constantly under the weight of have I done enough to make this God happy and actually make my business thrive, actually make my love life thrive, so I can actually pass this test.

Have I sacrificed enough?

Paul's saying, not only have you sacrificed enough for our God, but he actually, before the foundations of the world, he chose you to follow him.

And he chose that he was gonna, he it says to be conformed to the image of his son.

He's gonna make you more and more like Jesus.

That's already been chosen, it's already finished, it's already done.

And that would be incredibly encouraging to them.

They can finally get off of that hamster wheel and just rest in Jesus, right?

And so I think for us as well, the first thing that we've got to hear when we're looking at this text, um, it should be like a warm blanket for you, right?

This should be the kind of thing that you can wrap up in and you can trust that I am actually a follower of Jesus.

He loves me, I'm predestined, I'm chosen, and and and he could not love me more than he does right now.

But I think for some of us, a question begins to come up in our hearts, and we begin to say, well, what if, what if he what if I don't know if I'm a follower of Jesus this morning?

Did he not choose me?

Am I not foreknown?

And and the thing that I think you need to look at when you're looking at this, like Paul did not write this to non-believers, he wrote this to the church, and he wrote it to encourage the church.

Um and and so here's the truth: it God knows if you're gonna follow him or not, but that doesn't change the fact that you also have free will to choose whether or not you follow him.

Both of those things are true.

He knows, but you also have free will.

Um and along with that, God's heart toward you is made very clear in scripture.

Paul, who wrote Romans, he also wrote 1 Timothy.

And in 1 Timothy 2 4, it says this.

It says, it says it's saying who, and it's referring to God, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.

So he desires that you would be saved.

He wants you to know him.

In 2 Peter 3 9, it says the Lord's not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And so what this text is saying is that Jesus wants you to know him.

That is his heart.

He wants you to get to know him, and I believe that God is doing everything in his power for you to get to know him.

He's doing everything he can to reveal himself to you.

And nobody in this room knows what you're gonna choose.

We don't know.

But he does know.

And that's just part of being God.

And I think the the problem that we get into with this is we start to think that God is like us.

And we think if I had that knowledge of someone, I don't know if I'd be able to do that.

So let me tell you what I'm saying.

So if I have a friend who I know that five years from now, this person, they're gonna betray me.

And they're not just gonna betray me, they're gonna do everything they can to destroy my life.

If I knew that was gonna happen five years from now and they're a very dear friend now, I think I would struggle to be kind to them from here on out.

Like I would know what was coming, and I would be like, I don't know that I want to have a relationship with you anymore.

Because I'm a human being.

I don't think I'd handle it well.

But God's not like me.

Remember the story of Judas in the New Testament, right?

Judas is the guy that betrays Jesus.

He's one of the 12 disciples.

And Jesus loves him well to the end.

Jesus never treats him differently, he he loves him just as much as he loved all the other disciples to the very end.

So Jesus can have this kind of knowledge, he can know the future, and he can still love us well.

That's something that that passage proves to us.

Um let's let's keep going here.

It says then in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So it's saying that Jesus was the firstborn among many brothers.

And so what it's saying here, Leo talked about this a couple weeks ago.

So this is true of Jesus, but now in Christ, it's now true of us as well.

That we're now the firstborn among many brothers.

And what this is talking about, your inheritance rights at this time in history.

And Leo explained this a couple weeks ago.

But yeah, what this means is that as a believer, you don't get God's sloppy seconds when it comes to the inheritance.

You get the best.

Because at this time, In history, the firstborn son got the majority of the inheritance rights, and he got to choose what part of the inheritance he wanted, and everything else was left over for the rest of them.

And what God is saying here is that that's not that is true for all of us.

For men for women, if you are in Christ, you don't get the sloppy seconds of his inheritance, you get the best.

There's nothing that God is withholding from you, right?

Let's keep going.

And then in in uh verse 30.

And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified.

So it's saying, those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those who he called, he also justified.

So if the people that he called are also justified, then the calling means that they're saved.

Do you see the logic where we're going with that?

So, you know, a pastor can get up and preach, and they can call you to follow Jesus.

We can do that, but you have a choice whether or not you're gonna obey that and whether or not you're gonna respond to that, correct?

What this is saying is that when God calls you, you don't have a choice.

If it's actually God's Spirit working in your heart, he's gonna call you in such a way that you're gonna have to say yes.

Let me show you a couple passages that kind of point this out.

Look at Acts chapter 16, verse 14.

Acts 16:14

Acts chapter 16, verse 14.

Acts 16:14

It says, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

And so this is God calling Lydia to himself.

He's opening her heart so that she can begin to understand who God really is.

And if you're a follower of Jesus this morning, this is something that he did in your heart.

So what this is saying is you're not the one that initiates your salvation.

It's God that initiates your salvation.

Right?

Let's look at one more passage I like to look at when we're talking about this is Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

So this is the story of Paul who wrote the book of Romans.

And so Paul is on this road, the Damascus Road, and uh God just shows up.

He's actually on his way to go and persecute Christians.

He has no, we we see no evidence of any desire to follow Jesus in his life at this point.

And God shows up, strikes him blind, and is like, hey, I'm I'm Jesus, who you've been persecuting, and your life's about to be turned upside down, right?

And then God goes to this guy who's a prophet named Ananias, and he says, Hey, Ananias, I need you to go to Paul and I need you to tell him about me, and I need you to pray for him and get him started in his life with Jesus.

Nowhere in Acts chapter 9 is there really like Paul has a ton of a choice.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

I mean, I guess Paul could have chosen not to follow Jesus and stay blind the rest of his life.

But I don't I don't think that would probably be the greatest option for him.

So look at verses 17 and 18.

So Ananias, he listens to God, he departs, enters the house, and laying hands on him, talking about Saul, that his former name was Saul, he's now Paul, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then in verse 18, it says immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, then he rose and he was baptized.

So what this is the same thing's happening to Paul.

Jesus has called him, and once Jesus has called you, it's uh it's irresistible.

You have to obey that calling that Jesus has done in your heart, and then you're baptized, you're saved, you begin to follow him.

So let me try to explain this, bring it down into our world.

When I was a little kid, my mom would often make cookies with me.

Now, when my mom was making cookies with me, I don't know that I was actually that much help.

At the time, I thought I'm really helping my mom, but I look back now, I wasn't a ton of help.

Like whether I helped her or not, the cookies were getting made, okay?

And the cookies probably would have tasted better if I hadn't helped.

Like she was better at it than I was.

But my mom, one, she wanted me to learn how to make cookies, and two, and and more importantly, she just wanted to spend time with me.

And so she invited me into this process of making cookies.

And so I'd put the flour in, I'd put the sugar in.

I remember putting the vanilla in.

I remember one day I tasted it.

You know, it smells so good, and you think it's gonna taste great.

It doesn't.

I wouldn't recommend trying that.

It's good in the cookies, but it's not good in your mouth.

Um, but my mom, she wanted to teach me and spend time with me, and so we made cookies together.

I think this is a lot how the Holy Spirit works with us and how God works with us.

Like, you know, if you're sharing your faith with somebody, God's will is gonna be done in their life.

There's there's like, I often thought as a kid, I was like, you know, if I don't share my faith right, they're never gonna follow Jesus.

I could completely mess this up, and I didn't want that pressure on me.

And what I realize now is actually there was nothing I could do to mess it up.

The father was the one that was gonna draw him, draw them to himself.

And whether they follow Jesus or not really isn't up to me.

It's something that the father's gonna do.

And and really what it is, is it's the father coming and saying, hey son, take my hand and let's go and let's do this together.

And it's one, he wants you to learn how to share your faith, yes.

But more than that, he just wants to spend time with you because he loves you.

And so he says, Hey, let's go and let's do this together.

I got this, and and there's really no pressure on you.

Do you see how this fact that we're predestined and we're called, it takes all the pressure off of you in evangelism.

It's no longer up to you.

God's doing it.

And we just get to go and help him as he does it.

And that that's so uh that's so comforting to my heart.

So let's keep going through the text here.

It says, those whom he predestined, he also called, those whom he called, so that that's God's effectual calling.

That's that's God calling them.

He also justified.

So this is another very important theological word.

And it doesn't just mean that God has forgiven you of your sins.

Yes, that's true, but it means that he has now credited Jesus' perfect righteousness to your account.

And when God looks at you now, he doesn't see you as imperfect or see all your sins.

He sees Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Perfect life, death, and resurrection.

When he looks at you, that's what he sees now.

Um so let's let's imagine that you're in prison for killing someone, right?

Let's imagine you killed your neighbor.

Cops catch you, you go to prison, it's a heinous crime, and you know that you deserve to be in prison.

You know that.

You deserve to be in prison.

This is something that, and and and not only that, but when they they put you in prison, you went before the judge and he said, Yeah, you're getting the death penalty for what you've done.

You said, Yeah, that that's I deserve that.

I deserve the death penalty.

I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have done it.

So you're sitting in your prison cell, and it's finally the day of your execution.

And you hear somebody coming down the hall, and it's the jailer, but there's somebody with the jailer.

And he unlocks the door, and this guy comes in, and and and he says, Hey, I'm Jesus, and I'm here because you get to go free today.

And you're like, No, I don't get to go free.

Today's the day of my execution.

I I deserve to die because I killed somebody.

That's that's what's happening.

He's like, You're right, you do deserve to die, but I'm gonna take your place.

And you just you can't do that.

No, that like that's not gonna work.

He's like, it is, I'm gonna take your place.

And not only that, but I went down to the courthouse and I got your record.

And this is all the stuff that you've done in your whole life.

Yeah, the murder's on here, but you also stole candy when you were a little kid.

All that stuff was on this record.

I want you to look at it now.

He hands you the record and you look at it, and it it's it's completely clean.

There's nothing there anymore.

There's nothing that you've done wrong.

You're like, how can this be?

He says, Well, I not only am gonna forgive you of the murder, but you're also forgiven of everything you've ever done, and I am gonna give you my life in exchange for yours.

Like, and here's something you need to know about me.

I'm a perfect person.

I've never done anything wrong, and now that is gonna be credited to you.

That is what Jesus did for us when he went to the cross.

We do a pretty good job of preaching that we're forgiven.

Most of us understand that, that we've been forgiven.

There's no sin that you can commit that you can't be forgiven for.

But I don't know that many of us understand that that record of wrong that stood against us has been wiped away.

And we are now justified in Jesus.

Like when God looks at us, he doesn't see all the wrong things we've done, he sees you just as perfect as Jesus is.

And that is such good news.

I I still struggle to get my heart and my head around that one.

That's amazingly good news.

So let's keep going.

There's one more thing here.

It says, Those that he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Do you notice that that is in the past tense?

That's interesting, right?

So glorified, Leo talked about this earlier too.

Glorified is like, it's like you're in your new resurrected body in heaven.

Right?

That's what this text is saying.

So you, if you've been justified, so if you've been justified, your sins have been wiped away, and he he sees you as Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection, then if that's true, then it also must be true that you've also been glorified.

And you and when Jesus looks at you, he doesn't see your broken down body that's wasting away and will eventually die.

He sees you in your glorified body.

Which again, this is kind of crazy to me.

So what's going on here is we live in an already but not yet kingdom.

Already but not yet.

Um we have we all these things are already true.

We have been glorified, we have been justified, but they're also not true yet because it hasn't happened in reality here on earth, right?

So we still sin, we still struggle with sin, but God, when he chooses to look at us, he doesn't see that, he sees Jesus.

We still, you know, our bodies are slowly but surely breaking down.

Like I'm kind of getting to the age now where my body's slowly starting to break down.

Like when I play basketball now, I have an ankle that acts up on me because there's some loose stuff in a joint, and I gotta start like bending my ankle to get the stuff out of the joint, and then I can play okay again, and it doesn't hurt anymore.

That's just part of getting old.

Stuff like that starts to happen.

Your knees start to hurt, you get, I mean, some of us have gotten cancer and we have chemo.

My son Gabriel, he's missing a foot and his hands are all bent and messed up.

Our bodies are not what God created them to be.

And they're slowly but surely wasting away.

But what this passage is saying is that if you're in Christ, you are now glorified.

What does it what's this even mean?

Paul says in in, I believe it's first, it's the end of 2 Corinthians, I think.

He says that, no, it's the end of 1 Corinthians.

He says that it's not flesh and blood that will inherit God's new kingdom.

So our new bodies aren't going to be flesh and blood.

At the same time, at the end of Luke, Jesus comes down, well, he didn't come down to earth.

He just kind of shows up in the disciples' room after he's been resurrected.

So he shows up in the disciples' room and they touch his scars, and he also eats some fish, and then he ascends up to heaven.

So our bodies, that's his resurrected body.

So our bodies, they're they're they're close to being what they are now, but they're not what they are now.

They're new in some way, and they're perfect in some way.

That is what you are in the here and now, and that's what Jesus chooses to see.

So here's what I thought.

Here's how this would affect your life.

If you're somebody that you constantly, when you look yourself in the mirror, you're just like, man, I don't look good.

Maybe you maybe you've got some flaws, maybe you, maybe you're missing a limb, or you've got a major scar somewhere on your body, and you're just like, I am not a good-looking person.

That's not what Jesus sees when he sees you.

He sees your resurrected body.

And he sees you as perfect.

That's so encouraging.

It's so encouraging that that's how Jesus chooses to see us.

So for me, when I was a little kid, and I'm praying that prayer every night.

Every night, I'm really I'm kind of under this oppression.

Like, if I if I if I don't pray this, God is gonna come and He's gonna send me straight to hell.

That's just not who God is.

Do you see that as we've gone through this text?

Like God hadn't just forgiven me for my past sins, but when when when we're praying, like God has already forgiven us for all my future sins as well.

Like me being mean to my kids later this week or yelling at my wife later this week, whatever the sin is, that's been forgiven too.

That's how good God is to us.

Or if I'm out trying to share my faith this week, I'm like, oh, I messed up, I shouldn't have said it that way, I should have said this, they're never gonna get to heaven.

No, no.

It's God who initiates the plan of salvation.

Like it doesn't have a whole lot to do with me.

It's all God, and I'm just the kid baking cookies with my dad, right?

And we're just going and I'm just spending time with Jesus, and I'm getting to enjoy it.

And if he asks me to do something, I'm gonna obey and life's gonna be good.

So if if if you're not a follower of Jesus this morning, you're like, yeah, that's all really good news, Brent.

But what what about me?

I yeah, what about you?

I like this is good news, and I am praying and hoping that the Father begins to draw you to himself and you can come and join our family.

I want you to experience all this goodness too.

And I and I know from scripture, from 1 Timothy 2.4 and 2 Peter 3 9 that God wants you to as well.

I think run to Jesus if that's where you are.

I hope this morning has been encouraging to you.

As I studied this, it was so incredibly encouraging to me.

Like I'd never noticed as I went through the text before that that glorified was in the past tense.

I'm like, God chooses to see me as glorified.

That's why is he that good to us?

He just is.

That's just who he is.

He he is good, he's gracious, he's loving.

So this morning, there's gonna be some questions come up here on the screen.

And I want you just to take a little bit of time and I want you to think through what has the father been saying to you this morning?

What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you?

Because I I want you to hear what the Father is saying and respond.

Lord Jesus, would you come this morning?

I believe you've already come, and I believe you're working in our hearts right now, Lord.

Would you put a finger on exactly what it is that you wanted to say to each and every person in this room this morning?

Would you speak to them clearly?

And I pray they'd walk out with some truth from you that they can take out into the surrounding area and make a difference, Lord.

Come and speak to us.

So, Lord, I'm trusting that your Holy Spirit has been speaking to us.

And I pray that we wouldn't just be hearers, we wouldn't just get truth into our hearts, but we would be doers of the word, Lord.

Help us to go out and obey you in our lives this week, Lord.

May these truths get deep in our hearts and begin to change the way that we live, the way we interact with our wives, the way we interact with our our spouses and our friends at school, Lord, and our children come and change us, Lord.

We want to look more like you, Jesus.

Your name I pray.

Amen.

So now there's a short video we want to show you, and it's going to show you some of the things that are happening here in our church.

So I ask you to direct your attention to the screen.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

The end of summer family celebration is happening on August 6th.

The cost is$10 per family, and there will be fun, bubbles, dinner, and a treat.

Register online at grandparkway.org.

Continue to pray for those on mission trips to Portland and Brooklyn this week.

From coast to coast, we have teams with their gospel plows in the dirt helping churches to plant so they can reap a harvest.

Be in prayer for Redemption Church in Portland, Oregon, and Parkslope Community Church in Brooklyn, New York.

If you're new or would like someone to pray for you, be sure to find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

All right, so if you want to worship through giving this morning, there are boxes back by the doors where you can do that.

In addition, if you're new here this morning, there's a there's a uh phone number that's gonna come up here on the screen.

If you could text us, we would love to get to know you better.

And then finally, if you have any questions about the sermon or you just want to talk to a pastor, there'll be pastors here in the front at the end, and we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit better.

Um, would you stand with me?

I want to pray a prayer of uh a blessing over you.

I want to bless you as you go.

Um let's pray.

Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Help us, Lord, to live this out this week, Lord, in your name.

Amen.