The Pillow of Providence
Notes
Transcript
Providence:
1) God provides for and sustains His creation.
2) God is guiding his creation to an intended end.
There is nothing random about what is happening around us. God is in control. There is purpose in what He is doing.
The believer has a conviction about these things. This is what we call providence. Our text this morning encourages us by showing that God’s providence is real in the life of the believer. God sees and knows everything about us. He is actively involved in our lives using everything for own good and His glory.
There are times when the providence of God is very clear to us. When that happens, we may confuse providence with miracles. A miracle is when the laws of nature are broken. You may never experience a miracle in this world. You experience the providence of God every day.
An example of God’s obvious providence:
Illust. I was looking for a large cooler for fishing. I went to Wal Mart and was depressed about how expensive coolers have become. I decided not to buy one but to look around. Later that week I had to ride with Jennifer to Jacksonville to take her grandmother home. That was a long trip. When we pulled up to her home her neighbor was having a yard sale. Sitting right out in the open was the exact size cooler I needed. I got it for 20$.
That is an example of God’s obvious providence in my life.
I had a need.
God directed the circumstances of my life to meet that need.
1. God’s ultimate plan requires providence (29-30).
A. God has a purpose.
Look at the end of verse 28. “His purpose” He is directing all things towards this purpose.
What is the purpose? Look at the end of v. 30. He is going to glorify you.
He has predestined that you will be conformed to the image of His Son. In this context predestination does not refer to the individual. It refers to the final part of salvation-glorification.
If you’re saved God has predestined that He will conform you into the image of Jesus:
1) Spiritually- you will be holy like Him, without a sin nature.
2) Bodily- you will receive a body like He had when He rose from the dead.
“firstborn among many brothers” means that Jesus is the preeminent among all the sons and daughters of God. He is not a Son of God like I am. He is the reason I am a son of God.
If you are saved, you will one day have the unblemished character of Christ and incorruptible body of Christ.
B. God is in complete control of this purpose.
Paul shows us God’s side of salvation:
God foreknew us- before the creation of the world.
Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
God predestined we would be conformed into the image of Jesus (Decreed)
God called us through the preaching of the gospel.
God justified us when we placed our faith in Jesus.
God glorified us- past tense because it is as if it has already happened. God knows everything simultaneously.
This plan is how we know all things work together for good.
Folks, God knew us and loved us before we were born. God will know us and love us after we are dead.
It only stands to reason that He knows us and loves us right now. If He loves us and knows us, He is active in our lives. God is not a negligent parent. He is in the here and now. He has no latchkey children.
2. God is using all things in our life.
A. We know this to be true.
Look at what occurs before this verse. It is confusion. It says what we don’t know. In verse 26 he says in our weakness we don’t know what to pray.
Times of trial.
Times of confusion.
Too sick to pray. Too tired to pray. Too confused to pray. Too overwhelmed to pray. We’ve all been there.
Even amid confusion there is something we do know.
We know God is working all things together for our good.
This is the pillow of providence.
It’s the only way we keep going.
It’s the only way we can sleep at night.
It’s the only way we don’t give up on our faith.
We know!
The Bible says that our God does not slumber, nor does He sleep. That is how we sleep at night. We know He is awake. He is watching! He is working!
Please understand we do not know that our own purposes will prevail.
We have dreams and goals. There is nothing wrong with that. We’ve painted a picture in our mind of our own Utopia. It may never come to pass.
The job you dream of.
The house you dream of.
The physical health you dream of.
Our purposes may fail. We know that.
We can keep going because we know that while our own purposes may fail, God’s purpose will not.
B. Everything in our life is not good.
The text doesn’t say that.
The sin in our lives isn’t good.
The evil done to us is not good.
The cancer is not good.
God’s providence doesn’t mean that He is the author of evil. The best way I have heard it put is like this:
1) God causes some things.
2) God allows other things.
3) God controls all things.
While God is not the direct cause of everything in our lives, he will use everything in our life.
If you are saved nothing in your life is wasted.
Illust. When I was a kid I heard that hotdogs were made with some horrible things. I was told at the end of the day in the meat factory they’d seep up all the unsavory stuff off the floor and off the meat cutters: Chicken beaks, feet, noses, fat, ears, tongues. They’d smash all that up and put it in a casing. I still ate them, but I wondered what I was eating. 43% of Americans don’t want to know what is in a hotdog.
The truth is hotdogs are made because companies have lots of meat that isn’t tender enough, the right shape, or wouldn’t make appealing steaks or roasts. Because these companies use all things we have hot dogs.
You might think hotdogs are the result of greedy corporations. If you have ever butchered an animal, you understand how much of the meat doesn’t look presentable but is still good. To throw this meat away would be bad stewardship of the animal and your finances.
Wat if God only used:
The presentable things in your life?
The attractive things in your life.
The good things in your life?
Much would be left on the floor. There would be a lot of waste! God doesn’t waste anything in our lives! He uses all things!
C. God is working all things together for our good.
1) He works painful things together for our good.
Illust.: Jennifer is about the best mother you will find. Her story is one of abandonment by her mother. Her mother loved alcohol and drugs more than she loved her. Thankfully her father remarried, and she was blessed with a stepmother who filled the role her birth mother would not fill. It is a painful thing for a child to know their own mother abandoned them.
God used that in her life.
Alcohol has never touched her lips and never will.
Her children sat down to supper every night that she cooked.
Her children were put to bed with a story, a kiss, and a prayer each night.
Her children NEVER wonder if their mother will remember their birthday.
She is a better mom because God used a painful thing in her life.
Do you remember the story of the man born blind in John 9? How do you think that man’s parents felt when he was born? It was painful. To be blind in those days was far more difficult than it is now, and it’s hard now! I would imagine those parents questioned God.
Jesus came by one day and explained it. He said this man was born blind for the glory of God. Jesus healed him. God used a painful thing.
2) He works sinful things together for our good.
He even uses the devil. The devil tempted Eve and brought sin into this world. That’s a horrible thing. What the devil didn’t know is that his actions would reveal parts of God’s character we would not understand.
Without sin we wouldn’t understand forgiveness. Almost every song we sing to the Lord mentions God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy.
What Satan means for evil God will use for good. Think of how many people have been saved because they heard the testimony of a person who was rescued from a sinful life.
You say “I’ve sinned too much! God can’t use me!” You’re just the type of person God will use!
3) He works the confusing things together for our good.
There are times you are not going to understand what’s happening in your life.
Why did they have to die?
Why did I have to get this disease?
Why did this happen to my children?
We live in a google age. We want to find answers and find them fast.
You say, “I don’t understand preacher!”
I know you don’t. That’s ok. You don’t have to understand. You don’t have to know why when you know God is working all things together for your good.
I can’t tell you why. I can tell you He’s working.
I can’t tell you when the confusion will be cleared up. I can tell you He’s working.
God didn’t give us all the answers folks. He did give us this promise: I am working all things together for your good!
You say, “It don’t look good!”
When I was a kid a lot of ladies used to crochet and cross stitch. I can remember looking at the backside of those things. It was a mess. There was no beauty there. When you flipped it over there was beauty. It all made sense.
Friend, we are looking at this thing called life from the bottom. God is looking at it from the top. When we get to where He is we will see as He saw. It will be beautiful!
3. Believers love God despite the chaos of this world.
A. All things are not working for good for everyone.
The phrase “for those who love God” is placed at the beginning of this verse in the Greek. This is what’s called the emphatic position. It means that the writer wanted to emphasize this phrase. It would be like you highlighting something in your Bible. The first thing you see is what you highlighted.
Paul wants us to know tis is only true for believers. If you are not saved things are not going to get better for you. Things are not going to work out. All things are working against you. You are storing sin for judgment day.
You need to be saved. Come to Jesus.
Illust. I have watched lost people suffer and die. It never fails that people begin to say:
He’s better off
He ‘s not suffering anymore
He’s in a better place
If you die lost you are not better off, you are not in a better place, you are suffering.
Please don’t leave here today thinking all things are working together for good if you are not saved.
B. Believers have the ultimate example in Jesus.
There is no better illustration of all things working together for good than the cross. God doesn’t just tell us to bear our burdens. God has tasted the burdens we bear. Christ lived this text!
All things were working together!
The slander
The rejection
The hate
The lies
The injustice
The beatings
The spit
The humiliation
The splinters
The spikes
The laughter
The spear
The death
It all worked together for good. It brought about our salvation. It lifted up Jesus so all could see His glory.
C. Believers are described as those who love God.
Not as those who prayed a prayer.
Not as those who were baptized.
Not as those who love their neighbor.
The ultimate proof of salvation is loving God.
They love God despite the trials!
They love God despite the tears!
They love God despite the rejection!
They love God despite the cancer!
They love God despite the loss!
They love God despite the handicap!
How can you love a God who allowed that?
He is working all things together for my good, that’s how!
When a mother endures the pain of labor & forceful contractions she doesn’t say “Get that little devil out of here! He’s caused me too much pain!”
No! She takes that child in her arms. She loves that child despite the pain it causes her. The joy is greater than the pain. She is now a mother.
It was Job who said “Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.” (Job 13:15)
He loved God when he lost his wealth.
He loved God when he lost his children.
He loved God when he lost his health.
He loved God when his own wife turned her back on him.
In the end, all things worked together for his good.
Do you love God today?
Do you love God more than you love yourself?
Do you see His hand:
Guiding you?
Providing for you?
Correcting you?
Are you resting your head on the pillow of God’s providence?