WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE HAVING A BAD DAY

TEXT: Romans 8:28

INTRODUCTION: There is a story about a man that was walking along a mountain road, and he saw an Indian lying in the middle of the road with his ear pressed to the ground.  As he got close to the Indian, he heard this Indian talking in broken English.

    He leaned over to hear what he was saying, and the Indian was mumbling these words:  "Truck, Chevy truck, Chevy pick-up truck, large tires, man driving, German Shepherd in front seat, loaded with firewood, California license plate, UBH123."

    Well, to say the least, this man was astounded.  He looked at that Indian and said, "That is unbelievable.  You mean you can tell all of that just by listening to the ground?"  The Indian said, "No, truck ran over me thirty minutes ago."

    Now when you think about it, life is a lot like that.  We don't always see what is coming, and when it does, sometimes it runs right over us.  What is even worse is that no matter how hard you try, you can't keep from having a bad day.  You can plan, scheme, prepare, do all you know to do to keep from having those days, but they are going to come just the same.

    Did you hear about the train that was going through a town, but it was not scheduled to stop?  There was a very short passenger on that train who wanted to get off, because if he did not he would have to pay $100 for a taxi to bring him back to the town.

    "Look, the train always slows down to pick up a mailbag. When it slows down I'll hold you out the window.  When I drop you, you start running so you won't fall on your face; and simply run to a stop."

    Well, the train did slow down, and the man took his little friend, put him out the window and dropped him.  The man was running along the platform waving at him, thanking him for his help.

    About that time, a man seated in the next car saw the little man running on the platform, reached out, grabbed him, pulled him in through the window, and said, "This is your lucky day, you almost missed the train!"

  Face up to it.  Life is filled with bad days, even bad months, or bad years.  But there is a truth in the Bible for God's children that we need to remember, and it is one of the most well known and most quoted verses in the Bible, which is the text for our message--Romans 8:28.

    In this verse, which is short on words but long on wisdom, God gives us three truths to remember when you are having a bad day.  Now these three words are promise, providence, and purpose.

I.    Remember God's Promise To You

A.       There are three words that are extremely important in understanding and appreciating what this verse really says.

1.      The word "we." 

a)      Paul says, "And we know that all things work together for good."  Now, who is the "we?" 

b)      "We" are the ones who "love God" and who are "called."

c)      There are only two types of people in this world.  Those who love God and those who don't. 

d)      The "we" are also the ones who are "called."  That is, those who love God are the ones whom God has called to be a part of his family, and who have responded to that call by surrendering to Jesus Christ and becoming a child of God. 

e)      Not everybody can say, "Don't worry, everything will work out."  Because everything does not work out for everybody.

f)       Everything only works out for God's children. 

g)      Some think "Well, I'm not a child of God, and everything is working out for me."  I submit to you that ultimately if you die, and spend eternity without God, things really didn't work out for you.

2.      The word "know." 

a)      Paul says "and we know that all things work together for good." 

b)      There are a lot of things about God, the Bible, and life, we don't know. 

c)      Paul tells us in v.26 we don't always know how to pray.  We don't know what Jesus looks like.  We don't know exactly when He is coming back.  As a matter of fact, we don't even know what is going to happen in the next five minutes.

d)      You may not always like what God is doing in your life, and you may not always understand what God is doing in your life.  But you can know that God is involved in your life 24-7 making all things work together for your good.

3.      The word "all." 

a)      "We know that all things work together for good."

b)       Now if Paul had used the word "few" or the word "some" or the word "most" we would not have batted an eye. But he said, "All things work together for good..."

B.       This verse did not say that God works all things out for our good most of the time, nor does it say that God works most things out for our good all of the time.

1.      It says God works all things out together for our good all of the time.

2.      It doesn't say that we "see that all things work together for good."

3.      You can know it whether you can see it or not. 

4.      Just because you can't see it doesn't mean he can't see it.  Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light. 

II.  Remember God's Providence Over You

A.       Behind every promise of God is the providence of God.  

1.      Some of the oldest and best manuscripts have the verse reading this way: "God works all things together for good." 

2.      Whether or not that reading is accurate, it certainly is true.

B.       Word providence means? 

1.      It comes from two words: the word pro meaning "before," and the word video meaning, "to see." 

2.      Providence simply means to see beforehand and to provide for what is seen. 

3.      Do you hear that word "provide" in the word providence? 

4.      The providence of God simply means that God sees every event before it occurs, and provides for that event and makes sure that it fits into His plan for your life.

C.       There are no accidents in the life of a child of God, just appointments? 

1.      So often disappointments are really "His appointments." 

2.      So many times what we think is a rock of disappointment, turns out to be a boulder of blessing.

    There is a story of a man who was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island.  He managed to get a few meager belongings together that had washed up on shore after the shipwreck, and built a little hut to protect those things and himself from the sun and the rain and the wind.  For weeks the only thing he had for company was the hot sun, the cold rain, and dark nights.  He prayed every day that a ship would come, but nothing came.

    Then late one evening he went out to look for food, and he noticed across the island a cloud of smoke rising from where his hut was.  He ran back terrified, to find that his little hut was going up in flames.  His campfire had caught fire to the hut and not only burned up the hut, but what few possessions he had were all gone.

    He went to sleep that night crying out to God, asking him "Why has this happened to me?  Why did you let the tent burn?  Why did you even cause me to lose everything that I had?"

    Well, early the next morning he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island, the rescue he had been praying for all the weeks there.  Still trying to believe his eyes, he heard footsteps and turned around, and there were some men from that ship who had come to rescue him.  He said, "How in the world did you find me?"  They said, "We were just passing by and saw your smoke signal and came to rescue you."

3.      God can take a fire and turn it into a light that delivers you from darkness. 

4.      He can take a flood and turn it into a river of blessing.

D.       The Greek word for the words "work together" is the word that gives us the English word "synergy." 

1.      Synergy is what happens when the individual parts of something come together into a whole, thereby having a greater and a better effect than each individual part could have on its own.

2.      That does not mean that all things that happen to us are good.  As you well know, everything that happens to you is not good.  But everything that happens to you will ultimately work together for your good.

    Elaine can make a good fresh Coconut cake. If you take any one of the individual ingredients she puts in the cake and they are not really too tasty.  Do you like to eat flour?  Anybody like to make a meal of baking powder?  How about lard?  How about raw eggs?  Any of those things by themselves not only do I not like them, but they are very harmful and very dangerous. But she would take those ingredients, mix them together, put them in the oven and out would come the greatest cake in the world. You see, it is not what goes into the bowl that matters; it is what comes out of the oven that counts. 

3.      You are not always going to enjoy the ingredients that God puts into the recipe of your life.  But when He has finished baking it, you will have "Romans 8:28 cake," and the taste will be unbelievable.

    Did you know that every day most all of us consume two deadly poisons?  By themselves they are called sodium and chloride.  Now either one taken alone can kill you, but taken together they form sodium chloride, otherwise known as salt. Either one without the other can poison you, but both together can bless you.

    If a human being can take two things that are bad and make them into something good, surely you believe that God can take everything that is bad and make it into good.

III.Remember God's Purpose For You

A.       God's purpose for you, we are told here, is "good." 

1.      God's purpose for you is that the end result of your entire life will be to the "good." 

2.      That does not mean that things will turn out like you think they should, and it may seem that certain things that are bad at the time really are good.

    On May 11, 1996, Demingo Pacheco had a major problem.  He was on a tight schedule to catch his plane out of Miami when the left rear tire of his Cadillac blew out on the Palmetto Expressway. For more than hour he sweated under that broiling Florida sun changing that tire.

    Just as he finished changing the tire, he got a call on his portable phone.  It was his mother.  She said, "Where are you?"  He said, "I'm stuck on the freeway, having just changed a flat tire, and I have missed my flight."

    She shouted, "Turn on your radio and thank God.  The plane you that you were going to be on just crashed in the Everglades." Demingo Pacheco would have been aboard ValuJet Flight 592 except for that flat tire.

    Normally to say thank God for a flat tire would be crazy, but now we know that we can give thanks "in all things."  Now good does not necessarily mean health, because not all Christians are healthy.  It does not necessarily mean wealth, because not all Christians are wealthy.

B.       God's purpose for you is neither to be healthy or happy, nor to be rich or famous. 

1.      His purpose for you is found in v.29, where Paul said, we have been "predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. 

2.      God's purpose for you is to be just like Jesus.

a)      The best thing that can ever happen to you in this life is not to make millions of dollars, not to become famous, not to live in a mansion, not to drive a Mercedes. 

b)      The best thing that can ever happen to you in this life is to become just like Jesus.

C.       Only God knows what is good for you. 

1.      What is good is not necessarily what you think is best.

2.      God's "good" always is better than your "best."

    In 1971, Ravi Zacharias, was ministering in Vietnam.  His interpreter was a young man named Hein Pham, a devoted young Christian who was a translator with the American Military and also with missionaries.  Zacharias left Vietnam after a while, and within four years Vietnam fell and Zacharias did not hear about Hein Pham's fate.

    Seventeen years later in 1988, Hein Pham called Ravi Zacharias to tell him he was in the United States, and the story of how he had gotten there can only be explained by the promise, providence, and purpose of God.

    Shortly after Vietnam fell to the Communists, Hein was arrested for aiding the American cause.  He was in and out of prison for several years.  During one long jail term, the sole purpose of his imprisonment was to turn him against Democratic ideals and the Christian faith.  He was cut off from reading anything in English, and restricted to reading Communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese.  Every day he was forced to read Marx, Engels, and other Communist philosophers.

    He began to buckle under the pressure.  Maybe he thought, “I have been lied to."  Maybe God does not exist.  Maybe Christianity is a farce.  Finally he made up his mind; he determined that when he awakened the next day he would never again pray or ever think of his Christian faith.

    The next morning he was assigned to clean the latrines of the prison.  It was the most dreaded chore that no one else wanted to do, and so with much distress he began cleaning those toilets.  As he cleaned out a tin can, filled to overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what appeared to be English printed on one piece of paper.  He hurriedly washed it off and slipped it into his hip pocket.

    That night, under his mosquito net after his roommates had fallen asleep, he pulled out a small flashlight and, shining it on this damp piece of paper, he read at the top corner, "Romans chapter

    Trembling with shock and amazement, he read these words, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose..."

    Hein began to weep.  He knew his Bible.  He knew that there was not a more relevant passage of conviction and encouragement and strength for someone in his position, in all of the Word of God. He cried out to God, asking Him for forgiveness and said he would never again turn his back on the Christian faith.

    Well, the next day Hein asked the Camp Commander if he could clean the latrine again.  They thought that was an unusual request, but they allowed him to do it, and every day he cleaned the latrines.  Because he discovered that some official in the camp was using the Bible as toilet paper.  Every day Hein would pick up a portion of Scripture, clean it off, and read it that night in his nightly devotions.

    The day came when through an unbelievable set of circumstances, which could only be by providence, Hein was released.  He promptly began to make plans to escape from the country.  After several unsuccessful attempts he began to build a boat in secret.

    About fifty-three other people planned to escape with him. Everything was going well until just before they were to depart, four Viet Cong knocked on Hein's door.  When he opened it, they said they had heard that he was trying to escape.  They said, "Is it true?" Well, Hein immediately denied it, and made up some story about what he was doing.  Apparently convinced, they reluctantly turned and left.

    Well, Hein was relieved, but also very disappointed in himself. He said, "Here I go again, Lord, trying to manipulate my own destiny, rather than relying on you to work all things out together for my good."  He made a promise to God that he hoped God wouldn't ask him to keep, that if the Viet Cong were to come back, he would tell them the truth.

    Hours before they were to leave, there was another knock on the door.  He was thoroughly shaken when he opened it to find the same four Viet Cong at his door.  They said, "We have our sources, and we know you were trying to escape.  Is it true?"  Hein took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I am with fifty-three others.

    Are you going to imprison me again?"  There was a pronounced pause, and then they leaned forward and said, "No, we want to escape with you!"  Then in an utterly incredible escape plan, all fifty-eight of them found themselves on the high seas suddenly engulfed by a violent storm.

    Hein fell with his face in his hands, crying out to God and saying, "Did you just bring us here to die?"  Then he said, "Brother Ravi, at that point those four Viet Cong looked at me and said, 'Did you not know that we were sailors?'"  And he said, "Brother Ravi, if it had not been for the sailing ability of those four Viet Cong we would never have made it."

CONCLUSION: Peter Marshall, who was the Chaplain of the United States Senate, who prayed some of the greatest prayers ever recorded, once prayed this prayer on June 6, 1947 before the United States Senate, and I close with this prayer:

"Oh God, our Heavenly Father, restore our faith in the ultimate triumph of Thy plan for the world Thou hast made.

In spite of represent difficulties, reassure us that Thou art still in control.

When we become frustrated and give up, remind us that Thou art holding things together waiting, and working, and watching.

When we make mistakes, help us to remember that Thou dost not give up on us.

Forbid it, Lord, that we should give up on Thee, and forget that all things work together for them that love Thee.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."