God Meant It (2)

Intro:

Hook: Thanksgiving, more than just a time of year, is a posture we are called adopt towards all of life. In all things give thanks! Enter His presence with thanksgiving! This is how we’re called to live all of life as followers of Jesus. We’re called to live this way because we claim to follow a God who is Almighty and infinity good, so thanksgiving is the only logical, right response! And in some seasons, this call seems possible and natural, but for many, this call to give thanks and rejoice too often seems beyond our reach. We may say the right things, and pray prayers of thanksgiving, but in our hearts, we feel less than confident in these postures. Some of you may be in a season right now where thanksgiving feels beyond your reach:

Present circumstance

Past hurt

Dissatisfaction

Depression

We are told God is good, and we are told to give thanks in everything, but how does this interact with the reality of all the the things that we aren’t thankful for? Sometimes in church, people would rather not talk about these things. They’d suggest we focus on the positive, especially when it comes to thanksgiving! But here’s the truth: Only the extremely resourced and insulated can live any length of time without having this tension directly confront them.

And we must confront this tension between our belief that God is mighty and good, but our daily interaction with and experience of things which are unquestionably not good. If we don’t have a conviction on how to answer this we will answer it one of three ways: 1) Deny evil’s existence, 2) Deny God’s presence 3) Deny God’s goodness

Main: The hand of God is working for good in all things, so we must give thanks.

Body:

I. Providence God is working in everything, even evil

EXP:

There are only two options: Evil is either instrumental or independent.

Look at the intentionality language. He meant. Think about the evil Joseph suffered. God meant that?

Is Gen 50 a one off? 2 Sam 24:1, 1 Chron 21:1, Esther, Bathsheba-Jesus. Pharoah.

God’s Providence is rooted in his total authority and his great goodness.

ILL: You can’t have a sovereign who isn’t over all.

God could stop the murders heart before they act, but often He sustains their life as they do.

God could heal every child with cancer, but He doesn’t

God made the tree, and the serpent, and let the serpent in the garden, and made Adam in Eve is a way that made the fall within their nature.

He either has a reason for that or He’s out of control. Does this mean there is no evil. No. Ps 97:10

APP: Evil is evil, God punishes evil, but it is not outside of God’s authority, and God is good.

Everyone is going to have this belief tested at some point: Pain, suffering, sin.

We have to trust less in our understanding and more in God. Less time judging God and more time trusting.

We must remember that God hates evil far more than we ever could.

The complexity of God’s will can be (finitely) understood in our own complex wills.

Trans: God’s mighty hand is working in all things, even through the evil of this world, to lead His creation towards His ultimate, good, end for all things, and so we must give thanks. And as we do, we must ask: what exactly is that end?

II. Purpose For his glory and our good (God’s end in all things is His glory and our good)

EXP:

God’s chief aim is His glory, and in His goodness and love for us, He seeks His glory through our good, even through evil. Gen

Look at what happened as a result of Josephs brother’s heinous sin. Rom 8:28

How is God glorified through evil? How are we uniquely blessed? Eph 1:3-6

The good King conquers, the people saved (and informed) by grace.

ILL:

Water never tastes sweeter than when I have gone too long without.

Saint Augustine: In most every case of life, the joy in good is greater, the worse the pain which has preceded it

The grace and goodness of God is all the more pleasurable because we will know life without it. Luke 7:47

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

God’s people, loving and being loved by Him forever is his good plan. To the glory of His name, and He will stop at nothing to see this done.

APP: Rachel and Liz

Here’s a crucial truth from this: God’s working in all things for His ultimate glory and good. That means if I want Joy, I need to want His good.

If my mind and heart are fixed on another good or glory, I won’t be able to see and rejoice in His working through good or evil.

Should we then sin because God will work it out? Rom 6; look at Joseph. Joseph probably didn’t want his life to go the way it did, when it did he could’ve given up, but he was faithful. Wanting his good means working towards that good.

Trans: What glory, what good are you seeking? If it’s any other than the glory of God and the ultimate good which comes from Him, eternal fellowship with Him, then we will live frustrated, fruitless lives, because His will will be done. What do we gain by receiving this truth?

III. Promise And this reality is the cornerstone of indestructible joy

EXP:

Look at Joseph throughout this story, and especially his response to his brothers at the end of this account.

Grace, love, generosity, faith, hope, thanksgiving.

To the degree God’s people trust in 1) God’s wisdom, 2) His goodness, and 3) His promise, no matter the season, they will have indestructible joy.

Truth: There is so much God has done to be thankful for, but if I don’t have the framework to receive the good and the bad from the King of all, then I will never be able to appreciate all the blessing!

ILL:

Trust in this truth of God’s working in all is like moving from wilderness navigation to kayaking down a wild river.

One says “I hope I find my way” the other says “It may get rough, but I’m not trying to find my way”.

Ever known someone who lived like they had a “can’t lose” card? It’s annoying!

Any confidence in earthly security is vanity, but the confidence of God is indestructible!

I’ve seen this happen in my life. From frail joy to solid joy.

APP:

And what does this produce in us? Look at Joseph

Not pride, not lovelessness, not detachment, but grace, and charity, and mission.

If we are walking in this truth, then in every season, our focus will be responding to what the Lord is leading us towards.

Not risk management, score keeping, or scar counting. (The tragedy of fear or victimhood)

Trans: In a world with evil, but a world we are called to serve and bear witness too, we will never be able to enjoy God’s goodness, and partner with Him on His mission, if we aren’t certain of His authority and promise to work in all things for His glory and our good. And that is His promise. It’s a promise that He has fulfilled over and over again, but...

IV. Pointer Which we see most fully demonstrated in the cross of Christ (The Cross is our great evidence of God’s good work through evil

EXP:

The condemnation of Christ was the most despicable, evil act in the history of the universe.

The cross of Christ was God’s sovereign plan from before time began. (Not plan B)

The crucifixion horrified Jesus and yet He found peace and strength in praying “thy will be done”.

He endured the cross full of joy not because of the cross, but because of His confidence in the plans of God through the cross.

The outcome of it all was the glory of the Son, forever seated at the hand of the Father, and the Redemption and blessing of all who trust in Him.

APP:

In the cross, we see the way we must engage with evil

In the cross, we have the assurance of God’s victory and our blessing. The cross is the evidence and the substance of our hope in God’s using all things to bring about His good purpose.

The cross is what God was moving towards when He worked in Joseph being sold into slavery

The cross is what He was preparing when He brought Israel up out of slavery

The cross is where He was leading when He overthrew Israel by foreign powers and struck down His people.

The cross is why Jesus came.

And the cross is the thing to which God would lead you through every single moment of your life, good, glorious, and evil.

Close:

There is no moment of your story, no pain, no struggle, no sorrow, which is beyond the redeeming purpose of the cross!

God will do whatever it takes, and He will let nothing stand in the way of His plans for Redeeming His people through the work of the Son, and He will use all things to grow us in our reception of this work by the mission of His Spirit.

So how can we give thanks in all things? How can we rejoice?

Not because we know how any individual situation will turn out. Not because we enjoy suffering or tragedy, but because we know that God, as He ordained and worked the death of His Son for ultimate, unending good, will do the same in my life, because of His plans, and by His power, if I am in Him.

There’s this amazing story towards the end of Jesus life where he finds out one of his best friends is dying. And rather than going to him, he delays. His friend, dies, and the next time Jesus sees his friend sister, she says “Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died”

I think there are some of us tonight, who are experiencing things, or we have experienced things, and there is a part of us that grieves, and wants to say “Lord, if you had been there, things would be different”

And what we need to clean too, but we need to know with every fiber of your being is that his response to us in those moments is “I was there” “I am here”.

God will never, and has never abandoned a single one of his children, in all their glory’s and sorrows. He is with us, he mourns with us when we mourn, but even more than that he is working, and using every piece of our story, even when it confounds our ability to understand how, for our good and his glory.

Those of you who have dealt with deeply painful things in your life, those of you who suffer, or feel despaired, my encouragement is not to “re-work” your story to make it seem more positive. My prayer is that you would find the freedom that comes by knowing that your God is good, He is for you, and He has never relinquished control of your life. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers after they beat and threw him in a well to die. He was sexually abused and falsely accused because of his virtue and thrown in prison to rot. He was in a position to be angry, and to let His whole life become focused on what he had suffered. But the hand of God was upon him, and he saw it, and it preserved not only his heart, but his mission. That’s my vision for us, because we will be touched by, and impacted by evil, but evil will not, in Jesus name overcome or diminish God’s plan for our life, in fact, by his unbelievable mercy, the things which appear most irredeemable, will be redeemed in the light of His grace.

In a world overflowing with evil and short on answers, this is one of the most powerful, sin-shattering truths of the gospel. May you receive it today.

Main: The hand of God is working for good in all things, in this, we can, we must give thanks.