It Was for My Good

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

When we look at these verses we find that you’ll hear quoted frequently. Often it’s quoted as a means of encouragement when things seem to be going what we consider wrong; when things just don’t seem to be going our way; when we don’t get what we want or think we deserve; when things don’t go according to our plans…after all we’re supposed to plan. Right? We’re supposed to make goals. We’re encouraged to create our Strategic Plans, our vision boards and budgets. Right? It’s even said—if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Right? So how is it a failed plan is working for our good?

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I ran across something in my reading the other day and it’s a conversation between a man complaining to God about how bad his day went. He’s questioning God about how He could allow all this bad stuff to happen. Anybody ever question God? Oh come on you can be honest. Something happened in your life and you said God why did you let that to happen to me? Why did I have to go through that? Then for some you even ran down your list of attributes, the great things you’d done for the Lord, so how could he let xyz happen to you? Well here’s the conversation.

So ow is it a failed plan is working for out good?

Me: God, can I ask You a question? God: Sure… Me: Promise You won’t get mad… … .. God: I promise Me: Why did You let so much stuff happen to me today? God: What do u mean? Me: Well, I woke up late God: Yes Me: My car took forever to start God: Okay Me: at lunch they made my sandwich wrong & I had to wait God: Huummm Me: On the way home, my phone went DEAD, just as I picked up a call God: All right Me: And to top of it all off, when I got home ~I just want to soak my feet in my new foot massager & relax. BUT it wouldn’t work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did You do that? God: Let me see, the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of My Angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that Me (humbled): OH GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road. Me: (ashamed) God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work. Me (embarrassed):Okay God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered. Me (softly): I see God God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark. Me: I’m sorry God God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust Me…. in all things, the good & the bad. Me: I will trust You. God: And don’t doubt that My plan for your day is always better than your plan. Me: I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, Thank You for everything today. God: You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after My Children…

The message title today is, “It Was for My Good”.

What we have to first understand and second remember is God is God and we are His people. We must understand that His thoughts, mind, ways and understanding are infinite and far above ours; and remember that we are frail, fallible and finite human beings who can’t see around the corner, let alone into the rest of our day.

It’s important to understand what you know and what you don’t. In verse 26 we are told, in our weakness when we don’t know what God wants us to pray for, the Holy Spirit prays for us, with groanings that cannot be expressed. The closest example I can give you here is a couple that’s been married for so many years, they can just make a certain sound and the other understands. They can finish each other’s sentences because they are just that connected.

God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are just that connected they don’t have to speak, when we sigh, the Holy Spirit can interpret that as a prayer.

Have you ever been so distraught or disturbed over a situation, all you could do was cry? You couldn’t even put into words what you were feeling. You were in a battle within yourself.

Stuck

between the already and the not yet

between the hope of righteousness and the weight of corruption

between your flesh man and your spirit man

You should know God’s got you, He’s working on your behalf, the Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf. When you don’t know, when you can’t see what’s happening in the spirit, unless God allows you to see—God is taking care of you. When you don’t know what else to pray, when you can’t find the words to say, just say the name, Jesus.

The name that is above every name

The name that every knee shall bow to

The name that carries salvation

The name that carries hope

The name that carries healing

The name that carries joy

The name that carries peace

The name that carries forgiveness

The name that carries grace

The name that carries love

The man who carried the cross for you and me. Say the name. Jesus

And as the Holy Spirit prays, the Father knows all hearts. The Father knows your heart, your intent, why you do, what you do; good and bad. When the Scripture talks about the heart here, it’s not talking about the physical heart that’s beating in your chest. This heart refers to the inner center of a human being, the source of will, emotion, and intentionality, and here specifically is the area where the “silent groans” begin.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart of man when He calls you to do something. Not only does He know your heart, He knows what the Spirit is praying on your behalf, because they are one and what the Spirit is praying for is in harmony with and in the perfect will of God.

The Holy Spirit is praying for you to receive what you need, that’s why we can rest in the guarantee that my God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We don’t know what’s best for us, because we look with our natural eyes, we want what we see, and some people will do almost anything to get it, including taking someone’s life. There are those who would take someone’s life for something that is temporary. For money that once it’s spent is gone, forever. That’s why were told to store up treasures in heaven where moths and rust will not destroy them.

There are those who would take someones life for something that is temporary. For money that once it’s spent is gone, forever. That’s why were told to store up treasures in heaven where moths and rust will not destroy them.

There are times we don’t know what to pray, that’s what makes our Prayers that Avail Much book so wonderful, it gives us a place to start, in fact it gives us a beginning, a middle and an end. We all need help sometimes and what better place to get it than the Word of God?

So

just when we think all is lost

just when we’re about to give up

just when we want to say forget it

just when we are about to fall into the pit of despair

just when we think God must not care

something miraculous happens He comes through in ways we couldn’t even imagine. He blesses us in ways that mystifies even the worst critic. We discover that He’s been working on our behalf, even when we didn’t know it, even when we couldn’t see, even when we didn’t believe, God’s been there all along.

In the Lord’s prayer, we say “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. The reality is, evil is all around us. Satan is waiting to take us out by attacking our faith, destroying our witness and even taking our lives, just to shut us up. He wants to silence our witness because

if you’re too ashamed to tell your story—he wins.

If you’re too embarrassed about your past and you do what you can to hide it—he wins.

If you feel so guilty about your situation you won’t leave the house—he wins.

If you get so depressed you stop eating and your health begins to fail—he wins.

See, what you have to understand— tells us, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” So wisdom knows we overcome by the blood of the Lamb; but understanding recognizes our overcoming is also tied to the word of our testimony.

You can’t be afraid to tell your story

You can’t be afraid to tell of the goodness of the Lord

You can’t be afraid to tell others what the Lord has done for you

You can’t be afraid to tell what God has brought you through

You can’t let the enemy shut you up, by allowing him to stop you from telling your story, because of what people may think about you.

You can’t let the enemy shut you down, by allowing him to stop you from operating in your gift, because you feel you don’t have the qualifications.

You can’t let the enemy shut you out, by allowing him to keep you away from those things you’re supposed to be involved in because you feel inadequate.

How many of know you can be dead while you’re living? If you’re walking around

barely existing,

afraid to hope,

afraid to dream,

you don’t believe God is who He says He is,

you don’t trust that He can do what He says He can do,

you’re scared to leave the house because of what’s happening in the world…

you’re not living, you’re just barely existing.

Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. An abundant life comes with the reassurance that

the Holy Ghost is there to help you,

that He’s there with the Father praying for you

that He’s dwelling within you

that He’s not only watching over you, He’s watching out for you—leading and guiding you around danger and trouble and heartache and strife

that He’s even helping you to pray

And as we expound on the last Scripture in our text for today, verse 28, we come to the place where we can begin to celebrate, we can begin to rejoice, to exhibit that inexplicable joy because we know and understand who we are. Because we know, that we know, that we know, that God causes—not mama, not daddy, not a husband, not a wife, not children, not your BFF, but God, somebody say God…God causes everything to work together.

It’s like a lump of clay, the beautiful vase is in there but there are some things that must happen before it comes forth as the exquisite creation it was meant to be.

First the potter decides what the vessel is going to look like. So He can get the right clay. How tall, what shape, what color, what kind of hair, what sex. All that was by design, not by mistake or happen stance.

Then the potter decides what the vessel is going to be used for. Is the vessel going to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor or teacher. So He’ll know just what to put into it.

Next the potter decides what method He’s going to use to put the vessel together. You see there are many.

He may put you on a potter’s wheel and spin you around, adding just the right amount of water, the right amount of storms, at just the right time to keep you pliable and moldable, to keep you praying.

He may use a method where he pinches you between him thumb and fingers to mold and shape you, again adding just the right amount of water, the right amount of storms, to keep you humble.

He may use a method called coiling, where He takes blocks of clay and puts them together and they are asymmetrical. Giving them character and a personality unlike anyone else.

And then there’s the slab method, where he uses a form and with the form, as it dries, there may be some cracks, but it will maintain it’s shape. We may fall down but we are still who God called us to be and useful for what He created us to do. If the creation cracks, don’t throw it away, it’s still useful.

Then there’s the firing process where the vessel is put in an oven called a kiln that’s set at a temperature of 850 for 12-hours. This removes the physical and chemical water so the piece can be glazed without returning to mud and breaking. You see the fire takes away the imperfections, if you never go through the fire you won’t be able to withstand the things that will come your way. The fire makes you able to stand when times get hard, when people say all manner of evil against you, when friends turn their back on you, when loved ones let you down, the fire makes it so you don’t fall to pieces.

Now it’s time for the glaze, but before the glazing there may be some rough places that need to be smoothed with sandpaper or even cut off with a pairing knife—that’s the knife you use to peel with. The sanding is uncomfortable, but it removes the imperfections, the extra people, I mean pieces of clay that may somehow have attached but are not supposed to be there. Those rough spots are sanded and smoothed so you can get ready for your glaze.

it’s going to beuntil the potter decides what it’s shape is going to be, and what it’s places it on the wheel and begins to mold it, and shape it, adding some water begins putting it together it’s just a mess

Now you look all pretty, you’ve got your title, you’ve got your degree, you’ve got your position, you look maaarvellous, but guess what you have to go back into the fire and this time the temperature could go as high as 2500. When you think you’ve arrived, that’s when the real attack begins, but remember, we know that God causes, say “God causes” — “everything” — “to work together for the good”.

Praise God things aren’t just working together, they’re working together for the good, but it’s for a certain group of people. This is not for everyone, this is for the good of those who love God—do you love Him today? If I said prove it. Could you? How much time did you spend with him this past week? In prayer, in meditation, reading your Bible? Uh oh!

How much time did you spend with him this past week? In prayer, in meditation, reading your Bible? Uh oh!

Next, everything works together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. God has given us all a purpose, are you walking in yours? Or are you chasing something or someone else’s? Don’t try to live for anyone else, you won’t fit inside the mold they make for you, you only fit in the one our Creator God has made for you. He is the only potter and we are his clay, designed

with just the right kind of clay,

the right kind of clay, with the right method, with the right pressure, with the right amount of heat, with the right glaze. We are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and when he breathed the breath of life into us we became His living being.

with the right method,

with the right pressure,

with the right amount of heat,

with the right glaze.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and when he breathed the breath of life into us we became living beings.

But oh when we came to recognize we were sinners and needed His Son Jesus to save us from our sins, to rescue us from ourselves, that was a beautiful day. When we invited Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, that was the day we were freed to live the life God planned for us. That was the day we received our beautiful glaze and as we sit in the fire, the Holy Spirit is there watching, to make sure we’re not consumed by the fire, making sure that when we come out of the fire, we’re stronger than we were when we went in, making sure that when we come out, we don’t smell like smoke, making sure we don’t look like what we’ve been through.

Sin separated us from God, it separates us from our destiny, it separates us from our true lives, but Jesus came to bridge that gap. He came to give us the opportunity to receive eternal life. His sacrifice on that cross, allows us access to this wonderful promise that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

That was the day we were freed to live the life God planned for us. Sin separated us from God, it separates us from our destiny, it separates us from our true lives, but Jesus came to bridge that gap. He came to give us the opportunity to receive eternal life. His sacrifice on that cross, allows us to

So when you find yourself having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, take comfort in knowing God is in control and he’s working things out on your behalf in the spirit. So instead of complaining, praise him for grace and mercy and protection and life.

The doors of the church are open.