*pre-sermon manuscript notes not a sermon transcript

 

Way Better Than Lemonade | Romans 8:28 | May 6, 2018

 

What do you do when life gives you lemons?

 

Well, as the old saying goes, you should make lemonade.

 

The idea is to try to make the best of a bad situation.

 

But that bad situation will get bitter and dreadfully sour if you make lemonade and forget to add any sugar, right?

 

Here’s the thing, though, I’m not big on lemonade.

 

So, why can’t we say when life gives you lemons, make:

 

• Lemon meringue pie
• Lemon cream cheese bars
• Lemon souffle cheesecake

 

Those sound like much better options to me.

 

There are other “lemonade-y” sayings.

 

• “You gotta play the cards you are dealt.”
• “You gotta go with the flow.”
• “Everything will work out in the end.”
• “Everything happens for a reason.”
• “Every cloud has a silver lining.”
• “Stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball.”

 

But when life is hard, don’t we want more than a catchy phrase?

 

When we wake up in the middle of the night paralyzed over a nightmare, don’t we want more than a glass of lemonade?

 

When we are sitting at our desk at work or school or sitting in the lobby of the emergency room or standing at a graveside service at the cemetery, don’t we want more than just “everything happens for a reason”?

Our souls were not created to be satisfied with slogans from bumper stickers, cross-stitched throw pillows or memes on social media. 

 

Our souls were created to be satisfied with something more. 

 

What?

 

Let’s see if we can find out. 

 

Listen to Romans 8, verse 28.

 

The Apostle Paul is writing to folks in ancient Rome and says:

 

28        And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

 

Now, someone might immediately say:

 

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! That’s just the Christian way of saying ‘everything happens for a reason’”!

 

At first glance, yes, it kind of sounds like that, but it totally is not.

 

So, let’s unpack this a little.

 

28        And we know that God

 

When it comes to the lemons of life, you need to know God.

 

You don’t need to know about God, you need to know God.

 

And which God do you need to know?

 

The one, true God of the Bible who is also known as:

 

• The Lord of hosts
• The God of Israel
• Yahweh
• Jehovah

 

He is:

 

• The God of historical men named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
• The God of historical women named Esther, Mary, and Lydia
• The God of a prophet named Isaiah

 

Isaiah lived and worked in and around Jerusalem about 2,700 years ago and the God of the Bible made sure Isaiah wrote these words down for people like me and you to hear and read:

 

Isaiah 41:4

“Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.”

 

Consider the greatest leaders who have ever lived:

 

• Kings
• Queens
• Presidents
• Generals
• Scientists
• Teachers
• CEO’s
• Athletes
• Fathers
• Mothers
• Preachers

 

The best leaders that have ever lived accomplished significant things during their lifetimes that still impact our world today. 

 

But none of those great leaders can say:

 

“I actually called forth the first generation of people that ever lived on the earth.”

And none of those great leaders can say:

 

“When it comes to creation and humanity, I was the first one on the scene and I will be the last one on the scene.”

 

And how do we know that is true?

 

Because all of those great leaders have or will have a date of birth and a date of death.

 

So, when the lemons of suffering and shame and frustration show up in your life, your soul will not be able to find ultimate satisfaction in humans.

 

For ultimate satisfaction for you soul you deeply and desperately and joyfully need to know God.

 

J.I. Packer

[Knowing God] is the most practical project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for living our lives.

 

J.I. Packer

Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through this life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.

 

Does that ever happen to you?

 

Do you ever find yourself struggling with a sense of direction?

 

When it comes to some of the big decisions of life, like college and jobs and marriage and kids and surgery and money, do you ever struggle with knowing what to do?

 

J.I. Packer

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.

Why do most of life’s problems fall into place once you become aware that you need to know God?

 

Paul tells us.

 

28        And we know that God causes all things to work together for good

 

Knowing God:

 

• Gives direction
• Feeds decision-making
• Creates hope
• Maintains hope
• Sustains hope
• Establishes peace
• Helps most of life’s problems fall into place

 

Now, I’m no genius, but that sounds pretty good.

 

• Better than kids eat free at Bob’s Burrito Barn
• Better than making a 94 on your medieval history test
• Better than winning a regional playoff game
• Better than receiving a promotion at work
• Better than leaving the hospital early
• Better than paying off your mortgage

 

To know God means that you are able to have and hold and enjoy the kind of peace and hope and confidence that can immediately rescue your heart and your mind when you jerk awake in a nightmare. 

 

It means having and holding and enjoying the kind of peace and hope and confidence when some jerk cuts you off in traffic and wrecks your car.

 

It means having and holding and enjoying the kind of peace and hope and confidence when your body shakes and jerks from the side effects of the medicine. 

Knowing God has that kind of impact.

 

So, with those kinds of intense benefits, how in the world can we know God?

 

Well, there is only one way.

 

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…

 

Jesus Christ was perfect and without sin. 

 

• I am not perfect and without sin
• You are not perfect and without sin

 

Sin makes a person’s soul:

 

• Corrupt
• Contaminated
• Polluted
• Defective
• Dead

 

Imagine you are standing before a judge on the grounds of embezzling money from the company you worked for and there is a 500-page report detailing clear evidence that you did it.

 

It would seem beyond ignorant for you to ask the judge to drop the charges and just let you go.

 

The judge might ask you, “Why should I?”

 

And you might say, “Well, I’m really not that bad a guy.”

 

And the judge points to a plaque on the far wall and says, “That plaque contains the 10 commandments. Find me one person who has in every way obeyed each of those commandments every day of their life and I’ll drop the charges and let you go.”

Guess what – you are never going to find that person!

 

Every human being that has ever lived and will ever live is not perfect and is not without sin.

 

But Jesus is God so he is perfect and without sin. 

 

And Jesus became a man and was still perfect and without sin. 

 

And on the cross, Jesus substituted Himself for the charges of my sin and your sin.

 

And why did he substitute himself?

 

To make a way for our sin to no longer force us to be separated from God.

 

Jesus died to establish the only way for you to be saved. 

 

Jesus died to establish the only way for you to be brought near to God. 

 

Near to the one, true God who says that when it comes to the existence of the universe he was the first one on the scene and he will be the last one on the scene.

 

• Being brought near to God changes everything
• Being brought safe to God changes everything
• Being brought near to God means God is for you

 

Knowing that the one, true God of the universe is for you helps most of life’s problems fall into place.

 

Jesus suffered and died to bring you to God.

 

So, with grace and mercy and passion and hope we plead with you to come to Jesus so that you can be brought near to God.

 

And why would you want to be near to God?

28        And we know that God causes all things to work together for good

 

How many things are all things?

 

• 90%?
• 75%?
• Just things on Sundays?
• Just things on Wednesdays?
• Just things on Christmas and Easter?

 

Or does all things mean all things all the time no matter what happens ever in the whole universe?

 

All things means all things – no exceptions. 

 

1. Vernon McGee

“All things” – good and bad; bright and dark; sweet and bitter; easy and hard; happy and sad; prosperity and poverty; health and sickness; calm and storm; comfort and suffering; life and death.

 

So, does that make you a little uncomfortable?

 

Listen to those words again:

 

• Dark
• Bitter
• Hard
• Sad
• Poverty
• Sickness
• Storm
• Suffering
• Death

 

Does it make you a little uncomfortable that Paul is promoting that those words and the nearness of God actually go together and even go together with the word “good”?

That sounds a little crazy, right?

 

That might cause our hearts and minds to squirm with a little:

 

• Confusion
• Fear
• Disagreement
• Debate
• Argument
• Anger

 

If you are squirming a little bit thinking about that, great!

 

Feel the burn and love the squirm!

 

We will look at something in just a moment that will make us squirm a little more.

 

But hang in there because on the other side of the squirm is some major, cool truth for you to grab up and enjoy.

 

So, all things means all things. 

 

And what does God do with all things?

 

He causes them to do something.

 

What does he cause them to do?

 

He causes them to work together for good.

 

What does that mean?

 

The words for “work together” here have the idea of “synergy”.

 

John MacArthur

The working together of various elements to produce an effect greater than, and often completely different from, the sum of each element acting separately.

Imagine you come over to my house for dinner and you sit down at the table and I set a plate of food down in front of you.

 

And you look down at the plate and see:

 

• A small scoop of baking soda on one side
• A small scoop of baking powder on the other side
• A big scoop of flour at the top of the plate
• A hunk of Crisco shortening at the bottom of the plate
• 5 raw eggs swimming around in the middle of the plate
• A glass of buttermilk off to the side of the plate

 

And I say to you, “Bon Appetit!”

 

Are you going to dig in to that plate or duck out of the house?

 

Those things would taste super nasty individually. 

 

But if I put those things together with some sugar and some cream and some butter and some vanilla and a few other things and baked it for a while and then put some cream cheese frosting on top you might be a little more willing to take a bite.

 

All those ingredients that taste nasty by themselves would taste good if they were mixed and prepared right. 

 

God is the master chef of the universe. 

 

He mixes and prepares and causes all things to work together for good.

 

Now some of you might be offended that I would use a cake recipe to try and explain away the most horrible moments of life.

 

But I promise I’m not trying to explain anything away.

 

What is one of the most honest and faithful and loving things a Christian can say when terrible suffering has occurred and someone looks at us and says “Why?”?

One of the most honest and loving things we can say is:

 

“I don’t know.”

 

So, I’m not trying to insult pain or minimize suffering with a cake recipe. 

 

I’m just trying to help us catch a few glimpses of the big, great, majestic, awesome, incredible, amazing God who existed before the first scene of the universe and will be the last one on the scene of the world as we know it.

 

Because I know that one sermon will never answer every single question you have about the problem of suffering and difficulty. 

 

But if one sermon or one Sunday School lesson or one chat over coffee will at the very least stir you and encourage you toward knowing the God of the Bible, then super fantastic!

 

I’m a super simple man who’s not smart enough to come up with something better than cake to try and help me think toward the goodness and grace of God in the middle of the most horrible and unexplainable moments of life. 

 

But I so want to think about the goodness and grace of God in those moments!

 

And everything about that cake picture is real and true.

 

Take all the stuff in life that is:

 

• Dark
• Bitter
• Hard
• Sad
• Deadly

 

And God is right now and has always been and will always be causing all of those things to work together for good.

If you are a Christian, you know this is true. 

 

• You might not like it
• You might want to argue against it
• You might get angry about it
• You might deny it

 

But in your heart, you know it is true.

 

God is working all things together for good!

 

What kind of good?

 

Well, maybe not our kind of good. 

 

Our kind of good usually centers around being a little more:

 

• Healthy
• Wealthy
• Wise

 

But God’s idea of good is bigger than our idea of good. 

 

Our idea of good usually centers around comfort and leisure now and something that looks like early retirement later.

 

Unless our ideas of good match up with God’s ideas of good, our ideas of good will only last until we die.

 

So, what’s God’s idea of good for you?

 

Jesus said it this way:

 

John 14:3

I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 

 

God’s idea of good is that you would be saved and be more and more like Jesus.

And God’s idea of good is that you would one day be with Jesus. 

 

So, if you are a Christian God is causing all things to work together to make you more like Jesus and to propel you with perfect timing to one day be with Jesus.

 

And to be like Jesus and to one day be with Jesus is the best good that a person can ever know or have.

 

Really, really, really – the best good that you can ever know is to be like Jesus and one day be with Jesus!

 

That’s the bestest good in the universe!

 

So, let’s set that good down into life.

 

What I’m about to read reflects some true stories of true people who have embraced and realized and experienced God causing all things to work together for good.

 

And this is that other part I said will make us squirm. 

 

Geoff Thomas

What we are being asked to believe is this, that for every Christian every obscene evil that we can imagine is turned by God to our best interests:

 

Geoff Thomas

…death, illness, marital strife, vocational problems, persecution because of your belief, your child being diagnosed with an incurable disease. In all these things God works for our good.

 

Squirming yet?

 

Geoff Thomas

Your back is broken in a diving accident in a lake. God works it for good. Your husband is having an affair. God works it for your good. Your wife wants a divorce. God works it for your good.

Squirming now?

 

Geoff Thomas

Your sister has been kidnapped, your job has been terminated, your car has failed…you did not win the grades you needed to get to university, your beautiful Son was falsely accused and crucified on a cross…

 

Whoa!

 

Wait a minute!

 

What was that?

 

I didn’t stutter and yours ears weren’t flapping.

 

Yes, the most horrible evil that could ever be carried out really did happen.

 

Jesus was completely perfect and completely innocent and yet he was brutally crucified.

 

Why?

 

Was the justice system messed up?

 

Did his case fall through the cracks?

 

No. 

 

Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you to pay the penalty charges for your sin.

 

How could that possibly work for good?

 

Here’s how…

 

John 14:3

…that where I am, there you may be also. 

If you have truly yielded your life to Jesus, you will be with him.

 

That is the ultimate good that is working out for a believer. 

 

Ray Ortlund

Either all things work together for our good, or nothing makes sense.

 

And guess what – a lot of things still won’t make sense!

 

But one thing will make sense if you are truly a Christian and that’s this:

 

You are a Christian!

 

• You are in Christ!
• You have been saved!
• You have been redeemed!
• You once were lost!
• Now you have been found!
• No power of hell!
• No scheme of suffering!
• No evil woman or man!
• No evil regime or plan!
• Can ever pluck you from God’s hand!

 

That is good and great and wonderful and super fantastic!

 

Will your pain feel good?

 

No.

 

Will your suffering feel good?

 

No.

 

Should we hang banners on the front of the church that say:

 

“Evil is good!”

No!

 

But in the life of a believer through Christ is God causing all things to work together for good?

 

Yes!

 

A thousand times yes!

 

28        And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

 

And we know. 

 

Do you know that?

 

James Denny

God is ever with us and will not abandon us at last.

 

Do you know that?

 

Do you know that you are in Christ?

 

If so, then you have the best good your soul can ever know. 

 

God will not abandon you at last. 

 

God will not abandon you at last.

 

Dow Welsh © 2018 Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Pre-sermon manuscript notes not sermon transcript

NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

http://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_828-39

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/you-cant-turn-lemons-into-lemonade/

http://www.alfredplacechurch.org.uk/index.php/sermons/romans/romans-8-2/all-things-work-together-for-good/