In All Things, God Works for the Good | Romans 8:27-39

Show Notes

Episode 843: 
In this episode, we discuss Romans 8:28–39, clarifying what it means when Scripture says God works all things together for good — and why that doesn’t mean life will be painless. Through examples like Joseph and Paul, we explore resilience, calling, and the unshakable truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If you’ve ever wondered whether God is still working in your circumstances, this episode offers clarity, encouragement, and confidence.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning, good more. We talk the whole net through. Good morning, good morning to you and you. And you man. It just feels like Christmas Eve. It does. Merry Christmas, of course, Hey, Merry Christmas. And welcome to the Bible guys. This is airing on Christmas Eve, so uh, that means people are. Off work if they're home today, of I hope. So. Yeah, there's some people that do work though. You know, my son in law works as a pharmacist and he works. Every holiday, every holiday. Yeah, CBS is open always right, so and he's the he's the guy he runs the show, so he works every holiday. Wow, Kevin Drag. Yeah, anyway, Hey, hopefully you're not. I'm working though I had nothing. I'm like, I'm think of somebody, think of something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's it's sad, but heyay, welcome to the Bible guys. And uh, maybe you are listening in the morning even though that you normally listen to the evening because you're off of work. So I just want to say this. We are in the middle of a series talking about God's promises for our future and our well being. But before we dive into that desiree is a very interesting segment. Yeah, this is kind of it said, let's ask chat GPT. Yes, and so here's the thing. She says, let's ask chat GPT. With today being Christmas Eve, let's see what funny stories, dad jokes or random Christmas chaos chat GPT can come up with. So I just took that. I copied and pasted that statement. Yeah, did you do that too? No, I said, give me plenty of hilarious Christmas jokes or stories about Christmas that I can read on the bibble guys Christmas Eve episode? Please? Oh okay, I said, please? Please? Yeah, well I always do too, I'm a nice usually I do. But I'll say it was and paste her thing and drop it in and it says here's a fun punchy intro. Right, and it says it's Christmas Eve, which means anything can happen. So today we thought we'd ask chat GPD to give us some funny stories, dad jokes and random Christmas chaos. Because if anyone can go off the rails faster than a small Santa on his lunch break, or then a mal Santa on his lunch break. It's ai, let's see what chat GIPD can come up with. Then he gave me dad jokes that deserve coal, random Christmas chaos, a short funny story, and then it offered me six other options that I could choose from. Wow, I know what you get. I get quick one liners which are like dad joke, dad jokes, yeah, slightly longer jokes, short stories which are not very good, and then elf on the shelf gone wrong. Oh those are the stories. And then I get jokes about the Biblical story and it says clean and respectful and they're horrible. And then humorous Christmas observations. Oh, then silly mini stories. Okay, so what's your best best like dad joke one liner? Well, how about this one? What do you call a really old snowman? I don't know, water a puddle? Yeah that's pretty good. Right, that is a good one. I got one that says how much did Santa pey for his sleigh? How much? Nothing? It was on the house. Oh that's pretty good. That's a good one. Yeah. What do you call a kid who doesn't believe in Santa? I? Don't know a rebel without a clause. That's a good one. Pretty good. What do you call an elf wearing ear muffs? I don't know. Anything you want you can't hear you. Oh that's so funny, right, Hey those are good ones. Yeah, those are pretty good, right. Why do Christmas trees make terrible knitters? I don't know, they keep dropping their needles. Oh I got that one too, yeah yeah, Now as soon as he said that, okay, So then remember how I told you? It said it can generate other things, and it gave me six things. A Christmas Eve Choose your Own Adventure a Hallmark movie plot written by a confused about a Santa Rudolph hr meeting transcript a Christmas story told in barbecue pitmaster style because I just did a barbecue thing recently. A Christmas rap battle between Mary and the innkeeper, or even the gospel according to Elf on the show, So I said generated Christmas Eve Choose your Own Adventure story lasting five minutes? Wow? Hey, can I do one more joke? Do it? Do it? Do it? Yeah? Lust joke ready? Why would Why was the snowman rummaging through the bag of carrots? I don't know, he was picking his nose. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's so good. No, it's double meaning, it's so good. It's so good. That's a good one. I like it. Yeah, okay. So here's our choose your own adventure and you get to choose the next thing that happens. I love it. That's how it goes. I love it. Okay, So there's boys and girls, buckle up. We've got a couple of minutes here. This is gonna be exciting one. It's called Operations Save Christmas Again. Wow. Okay, it's Christmas Eve. Snow is falling, cookies are cooling, and suddenly, bam, a loud crash echoes across your living room. You rush your window and see Santa's sleigh sideways in your yard like he's attempting the world's worst parallel park. Santa jumps out, brushing snow off his coat. We've got a problem, he says. Rudolph swallowed a GPS air tag, the sleigh broke, it's left runner and we're running low on Christmas magic. I need your help. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save Christmas in the next five minutes. So here's your choices one, how do you respond? Do you help Santa fix the sleigh? Do you check on Rudolph to see if the air tag is retrievable or invite the whole crew inside for hot coco because everything is better with carbs. Which is your choice? Help Santa fix the sleigh, check Rudolph to see if the AirTag is up retrievable or hot coco. Uh? I think my wife would rub off on me. I would do the Okay, here you go. If you choose number three, it's cocoa time. The reindeer stampede towards your porch like teenager smelling pizza. Santa grabs a mug, insize Christmas Magic runs on hot coco. This might work. The more coco they drink, the brighter they glow. You might actually save Christmas with sugar. So now you have a choice. Choice A is serve them your best cocoa recipe, or choice be A is dump candy canes in it and hope for the best. Well, I mean, it's Santa Claus and it's raindeer. You gotta go best cocoa recipe. Okay. I don't know why it gave us those choices, because then I don't have the ability. It says, no matter oh yoh, yeah, okay, says no matter what path you took. The sleigh is almost fixed, so that's you just chose one, all right. Yeah. Rudolf is glowing like a traffic light and Santa has a mustache made of marshmallows. Santa looks at you and asks, we're running out of time. Should we launch this sleigh now or test it first? Because you guys repaired it right, So launch it now, Launch it now. If you choose to launch it. Santa hops in, Rudolph charges forward. The sleigh lifts off beautiful, majestic, then it wobbles like a toddler learning to ice skate. You yell you can do it, and Santa shouts back, tell my elves, I love them. But suddenly, whoosh, the sleigh steadies, the lights glow and Christmas is saved. You did it, Chrish, reckless legend. Hot cocoa, and caution to the wind. Throwing caution to the wind. So you saved Christmas. Santa salutes you. Rudolph winks. The sleigh shoots into the sky as Santa calls out, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good adventure. Wow, that was terrible, and to all a good adventure? Wow? Okay, that's pretty good. Well, you know, life's an adventure, even though sometimes we don't understand why things happen. You know what it is? I agree? And did you know God talks a little bit about that in Romans chapter eight. Oh is that is? He works it all out? Oh? I see, I see, I see. I see where you're going with this? Yeah? So in Romans eight, verse thirty one, it says this, and this is our passage for the day. Our promise is what, Chris, what's our. Prom Romans eight twenty eight is our promise? I know that? But what what is? What is the promise that we talking about today? Oh? I see, it's the tide is in all things God works for the good. Okay, So here's what he says in verse thirty one in Romans chapter eight, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? Talking about the fact that God always had a plan to have you in his family? Right? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us, all, won't we he also give us everything else. Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own. No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself, Who then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he's sitting in the place of honor, God's right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from God's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger or threatened with death? As the scriptures say, for your sake, we're killed every day, We're being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ Jesus, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus Our Lord. But I missed verse twenty eight. That's why. That's why I said, I said, I said, you said thirty one. I said, it's in twenty I know, I know. I read it, and it says, so the Father knows all hearts. The Father, who knows all hearts, knows what the spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads for us as believers and harmony with God's own will. 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. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his son, so that in his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. And then he goes on and says, what shall we say about such wonderful things as these? Yeah? So why I started I started at the section yeah, yeah, yah, yeah. Separation. Yeah, that's why that's why I said twenty Because you said thirty one, and I said you mean twenty eight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then you start reading, and I was like, is he have a point because because he heard me? But then you did hear you. I just wasn't thinking twenty. Eight was before thirty one. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a long week. Man. Hey, listen, you already know this because I just literally referenced this, what like three weeks ago or two weeks ago. But I said Romans eight that that last passages some of my favorite verses in all the Bible. Yeah. And and for me when I say that, I actually I'm only thinking of my actual favorites as opposed to you. They're all my actual favorite Yeah, you're like big fan, big fan. Which, by the way, you did reference this at the. Funeral Romans eight one. Yeah, I did my brother's funeral. And you also referenced nothing concept separates. From God Love you. So Romas eight was a big one, which, by the way, I got a bone to pick. I'm just gonna go ahead and go off on this for just a second. I have a bunch. I have six sisters, and one of my sisters, Iva, she listens to the Bible guys every day. So Hi, Iva, and Iva came up to me after the service, the memorial service, and she commented on something that you and I had done and the Bible guys, and then she just kind of hinted at how much she likes Chris's oar ball. And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm your brother and I'm a Bible guy. And I said, you know, Chris was here at the pet And I said, you know Chris was here at the funeral. She's like, you're kidding me. Oh my goodness. I sent my son out in the parking lot to try to find you because you just left. She was so disappointed, like like okay, yeah, like disappointed. She was just stuck with me because they were there. So I don't know. I would have loved to have met her. I have ever met her in person. I don't know. I don't know if you've met her. Okay, did you meet her at my death's funeral? Maybe I can't remember. Maybe, but anyways, yeah, I spoke a little bit on Roman's eight times time at seven. But yeah, well listen, sorry that I didn't get to stay around and meet you. I would have loved to have talked with you, but actually I had to get home because it was a almost an hour drive, and I had to write a sermon after that, so I sat down at nine o'clock and didn't finish up till one. In the morning. Oh wow. Yeah, well I here's what I would say, is the key verse for today is and we know that God causes everything to work together for good for those who love God, and to call it according to his purpose. So God didn't want you to be disappointed when you meet one of your heroes, and so he worked it out. But you didn't have to meet Chris. Yeah. I appreciate that compliment and did is for your own good. I've God worked it out. He spared you. One of my favorite things to do for you is to compliment you and take a dig at the same time. Yeah. That was clever. It was clever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So you're one of her heroes. That's a compliment. I appreciate that. Yeah. And good things you didn't find out the real you. Good good things you didn't get to know you. Yeah. So any ways we should get into this then. Yeah, okay, so this. Is one of your favorite passages. It really is, it really is for real? Yeah, because I love the you know, I empathize, I really do. I empathize with people who wrestle with God. I empathize. My heart goes out to people who have doubts, who question, who are going through a very tough time, who are angry with God, those who feel far from God or you know, feel like God's angry with them or mad at them. I think it's because I think I sort of grew up with so much confusion about God and I didn't have a plane interpreter. I think it's one of the reasons why I wanted to become a teacher of the Word, because I love bringing clarity to something that isn't perhaps clear, right, Like, I really do. I love bringing clarity. It's like people go, oh, Chris, I love your teaching because I can understand it. I'm just like, gosh, that's the biggest compliment for me, right, because that's what Jesus did, didn't he? Right? I mean a lot of times he did do the whole like metaphorical who as he ears to hear, let him hear, And a lot of times the mysteries weren't heard directly. Right. Most of the time he's saying the Kingdom of heavens like this farmer Kingdom heaven, Kingdom of heavens. Like right, most of the time it was clear as day, right, And and I think that I think that that's part of our job as teachers of God's word, to say, hey, here's the application for this. You know, it's not just this, you know, reading that doesn't make any sense. It's supposed to actually apply to our lives. The word of God is relevant. And anyway, all that to say this, I love Roman's Aides Versus Well thirty five through the end of the chapter because he answers that with absolute confidence, in fact, did you know this? That it's actually it's the longest and strongest answer to any question in the Bible? Did you know that? So he poses a question, can anything ever separate us from the love of God? And then he gives like he just takes like the next what fifty words to give this incredibly confident answer. And the way that he says it is that he just think of the resolve. Here he says, and I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, Neither are fears for today, not even the worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God God's love, No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing and all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, that is revealing Christ, Jesus our Lord. And I love the resolve there because he is just. It's like, Hey, if you ever had a question, here's the definitive answer, and it's about the most important question you could ever ask, which is, is God. Mad at me? Can I ever behave myself out of God's care? You know? Could I ever sin to such a degree that God would perhaps change his mind about my salvation? And Paul's like, let me answer this with resolve. Yeah, I just love it. And he goes, absolutely not, that's right, right, nothing can separate it. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. So I love this this verse, and it's the key promise that we're highlighting today. It's in the context of all these other things God's for you, nothing can ever separate you from God's love, right that all of those things, it says, the promise is 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. So a lot of people say, well, everything works together for good, right, And that's not true. That's right. Not everything works together for good? Right right? Oh you got hit by a bus, Well everything works together for good? Yeah, right, But it says that God causes everything that happens to work together for good. So things happen, and it's not always that, you know, I think God gets blamed for lots of stuff he doesn't do. Yeah, it's one of It's one of my pet peeves in life when people say, well, it must have been God's will, yeah, and I'm like, whoa, whoa. Or you just stepped off the top of the roof and hit the ground. That doesn't have to be God's will. Right, Gravity works, He set up gravity right right right? Yeah, and you lost your footing. Yeah. So, but it does say that things that happen in life, God then shapes those things to say, hey, I'm going to make this work out for your good. I'm for you. I'm not against you. If God's for us, who can be against us? He says, right, So it says that he causes everything to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes for them. So this is also interesting. It doesn't say he causes everything to turn out for good for everybody, right, Life just happens to everybody. Life happens, Stuff happens. But it does say that God will take even the bad things and turn them for good, because it's everything. He'll take the good and the bad make them even better for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And so this is this reminds me a little bit Chris when I read Malachi three and it talks about tithing and it talks about you know, at the beginning, he's like, are you gonna rob God? Really? And they're like, oh, when do we rob you? Oh? And ties and offerings, and he says, hey, just test me in this and see if I don't open the windows of having importable blessing on it. If you tithe, bring ten percent, not six or not two, bring ten percent, you tithe, And see if I don't open the windows of having a poor blessing on you, you can't receive and that's what we want. Whooa. But then he goes on and says, and see if I don't bind the devourer for your sake? So that the grapes don't drop sooner so that the harvest is a little better. Right, that's what he's talking about there. So not only blessings, but but preventative things that won't yeh come your way. Yes, right? And this feels like that for those who are called according to his purpose. He's like it, love God, and then you know that you're called according his purpose. Got the list. I'm going to work everything out for your benefit. There's the blessing side of it. There's also the preventative side of it, and a lot of times we don't realize the other side, the preventative side. You and I usually usually can recognize a blessing, but a lot of times we just don't realize the protection, the extra care. We just don't even see it. Right If if you know, you watched a Tom and Jerry cartoon, and you know, Jerry goes walking by and the piano lands rate behind him, you know what, doesn't even know what happened, He just walks by. I wonder how often those kinds of things happen, And I think it's a lot. I think it's often most humans life is just happening to them. But for those who love God and are called accord and its purpose. God is shaping the things that are happening in a way that works for our benefit rather than to our detriment. Right, even if that piano fell behind us instead of honest, we might not even realized it. But God is the one that's you know. And yes, and yesterday's podcast we mentioned Joseph, and and what you said is sometimes things happen and then and then God will bring good things from it. Right, That's that's why. That's how I think of Joseph. I immediately thought of him. So here he is, you know, he's sold into slavery. And this isn't the marry and Joseph, Joseph, I'm. Sorry, Joseph, the Old Testament. Yeah, so he gets sold in the slavery and what does he do. He's like, Okay, I'm just going to uh, you know, be the best follower of God and honor God and be the best person I can. And then it's amazing how good things came along the way, even in the valley. So God blesses in the midst of the valley, and that's really true for us. And he finds himself in prison, and then what does he do he you know, he becomes you know, successful and prosperous. He takes over the household. That's right. That's right. And then in prison, then he becomes. In charge of the prison. Right. But even wherever he finds himself in. It's a great example of this verse where it says, hey, all things work together for good. It doesn't necessarily mean your life's going to be roses or that there's going to be no hardships. What it does mean is that when you are a person who decides to continue to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength in any and every given situation, God is going to bless that. So it is the seed that you plant, and it is the harvest that you're going to reap. And it doesn't necessarily mean, like I said, circumstances might not you know, necessarily change. You might find yourself in hardship, and you know, we all deal with the hard knocks of life. But when you love God and serve God, God will always show his blessing and favor in your life in some sort of way. Yeah. So, to stay with the Joseph connection here, Joseph never stopped loving God when problems come. A lot of people give up on God because they thought that the whole faith thing was to make all their wildest dreams come true. Or they think that God they changed their night about God. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And it's because I think they usually they had a faulty view of who God is and what his role is in our life. Right, so they give up on God. But Joseph didn't. So this promise is to those who love God. So Joseph never gave up on God even though life was hard. And then it says and for those who are called according to His purpose. So Joseph was like, Hey, apparently God has a purpose for this next thing I dream. Yeah, and it must be a calling. And so I'm going to lean into this thing. And instead of giving up, instead of getting bitter at God or quitting or giving up and just waiting for God to do some miracle, instead Joseph decided, I'm going to be the best servant in this household. And next thing, you know, he's leading the household. Then he goes to prison and he's like, I'm going to be the best prisoner. Next thing you know, he's leading the prison. He didn't give up on God, and he didn't give up on his calling and God just kept moving forward and improving his life. And that's how God works. God doesn't work like, well, a bad thing happened, sit back and don't do anything and hopefully God intervenes. Right Instead, God's like, I'm going to bless you as you keep moving forward. And this is again, Man, it just seems like this whole week, there's this theme of this resiliency right this. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give up on God. I believe God has a purpose for me. I don't know why this is happening, but I believe God's going to turn it into a good thing. And you see God do it with Daniel. You see God do it with Joseph, shadrack me shack in a bed and to go. You see God do it with so many people when they love God and they know that God has a purpose for them. And it's the same for you. So God will cause all things, everything, not some things, everything to work together for your good if you love God and you understand that God has a purpose for you. Hey, one last thing, have you ever seen the movie Joseph with Ben Kingsley, as Potter. For Yeah, boy, I don't remember it, but I remember watching it. So Ben Kingsley obviously is a pretty big name character, right, And I can't remember. I think it's just called Joseph. You could IMDb it, google it whatever. But I got to tell you it's long. But it is a tremendous job. I remember that acting was good in it. The depiction was good, it was biblically accurate, it was actually emotional. It was very good. And if you now I remember it that way. Of course, it's thirty years old, twenty years old, whatever it is, so maybe it's not as good as I remember. But and I was a little. Lame back then too, But you enjoyed it. But I but I remember as I've always been a movie person, and I remember thinking, wow, they really stepped up and they really did a good job. Because you know, I don't I don't like ninety percent of all Christian movies. I love the theme, just not the acting part. This was good acting. Wow. So you were a little lame back then, Yeah. I was a little lame. And what happened to you? I get better? Oh, digit God works all things together. That's right, that's right. Awesome. Well, hey that is our time. Thanks for tuning in today, so hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on Christmas Day on the Bible, guys,