#37 HCBC 9-30-07 AM
5 Unshakeable Convictions
Romans 8:28
People tend to be either optimistic or pessimistic.
Either we have a confidence that things will work out with a good result, or
We lack that confidence and expect that things will not go well!
We could say that everyone is somewhere on the spectrum of confidence;
Leaning toward optimism or leaning toward pessimism to one degree or another.
When it comes to your level of confidence about the circumstances and situations of life,
where are you at?
Do you have a strong sense that things in your life are going to be OK?
Or do you expect that the result of all of these life situations will not be good?
On the overhead, I have tried to draw a picture of this idea of the spectrum of optimism and
pessimism.
The optimist says: Everything is great!
The pessimist says: Nothing goes right!
The optimist says: Life is good!
The pessimist says: Life is awful!
The optimist says: We can do this!
The pessimist says: I can’t take anymore!
The optimist says: Onward Christian Soldiers!
The pessimist says: Where can I hide?!
Among the optimists would be the Apostle Paul.
Among the pessimists would be Doubting Thomas.
Among the optimists would be Job.
Among the pessimists would be Job’s wife/friends.
Among the optimists would be Solid Christians!
Among the pessimists would be Defeated Christians!
We know: 543 times in the NT (12=John 8+Romans 16=1 John)
This is not Paul’s wisdom or power of positive thinking.
This is Paul the Apostle penning the inspired Word of God as he is carried along by
the Holy Spirit.
This whole chapter has been about and will continue to be about the security of the
believer in salvation!
We know God is working
In 1 Corinthians 12:6, in the discussion of spiritual gifts, Paul says that it is God who
works all of the gifts.
By His Spirit, God is working.
John 4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish
his work.
John 5:17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and
I, too, am working."
John 9:3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so
that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
John 9:4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is
coming, when no one can work.
John 14:10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father,
living in me, who is doing his work.
John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to
do.
God is always working!
We know God is working
We know God is working for good
Deut 8:15-16
John MacArthur:
The Lord did not lead His people through forty years of difficulty and hardship to
bring them evil but to bring them good, the good that sometimes must come by divine discipline and refining.
Jas 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
God uses the righteous for good:
His power supports us in our troubles for good!
His wisdom provides exactly what we need for good!
His goodness works for good!
His faithfulness works for good!
His Word works for good!
His angels work for good!
His children work for good!
And God is working in all of it!
We know God is working
We know God is working for good
We know God is working in all circumstances
We know and understand that God works in the good, but we wonder about the bad.
God uses the evil for good:
God used His people’s slavery and their trials in the wilderness to bring them
into the Promised Land.
When Daniel was threatened with death for his refusal to worship according to
the dictates of the king, God used that evil for good!
God uses the evil of suffering as a means of bringing good to His people.
1 Cor 11:29-30
Jas 1:2-3
Gen 50:20
Through suffering we can learn kindness, sympathy, humility,
compassion, patience, and gentleness.
Suffering can teach us to hate sin.
Ps 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.
Ps 119:71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
Ps 119:75 I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness
you have afflicted me.
God can turn temptation into our good!
Ps 119:11
When Jesus was tempted, he did not resist the devil in his humanness,
but confronted the tempter with the Word of God!
John MacArthur:
The supreme illustration of God’s turning “all things,” even the most evil of things, to
the good of His children is seen in the sacrificial death of His Son. In the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God took the most absolute evil that Satan could
devise and turned it into the greatest conceivable blessing He could offer to
fallen mankind – eternal salvation from sin.
We know God is working
We know God is working for good
We know God is working in all circumstances
We know God is working for those who love him
The only qualification to the marvel promise that God is at work in every situation for
good, has to do with the recipients.
It is solely for His Children that God promises to work everything for good!
Ex 20:5-6
1 Cor 2:6-9
We know God is working
We know God is working for good
We know God is working in all circumstances
We know God is working for those who love him
We know God is working for those he has called
Php 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Isa 46:9-11 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is
no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from
the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will
stand, and I will do all that I please. 11 From the east I summon a bird of
prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that
will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Optimist or Pessimist?
Song: More Love To Thee