Well, turn in your Bibles to Romans 828. I'll be reading verses 26 and 27 mostly for context, but the whole sermon's on one verse this morning. We could probably do several verses on this verse. I had to pick a favorite verse of the Bible. I was really wrestling with it this week, but I really think this would be it for me. Romans 828. It's a verse that meant something to me very early on in my Christian conversion and ever since to remember that all things work for good to those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose. I think that's one of the first verses I memorized. And it's important for us to remember because last week we looked at hope, the Christian concept of hope, the doctrine of hope if you will, and hope as Paul said, it's for the future. We don't hope for what we already have. We hope for what we don't have, right? So we saw that while we will suffer in this present life, and even though much like a lion's share of the blessing that God has for us in Christ will not come in this present life, we live by hope in the future. And that fact might cause some to say, maybe it has caused you to question, well, you know, this life is just miserable and grin and bear it. So keep that stoical upper lip, that stiff upper lip, just go through this horrible life until you die and then, you know, it'll finally come to an end. Because it's all for the future. And what I want you to see this morning is the verse that we're looking at destroys that perspective. You can't take that position if you're a Christian. You can't say that, yes, while most of my hope is for the future, I can't say that right now it's just an awful time, and it's sort of as a friend of mine said, wasted. You know, all this is just wasted time right now. No, it's not. There's actually something good happening to you right now, no matter what's going on in your life scripture assures you of it right now. There is good in your life. How can that be? Well, let's look to our text and find out. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word. Lord, what an astounding promise in a certain sense. What could be more obvious than Romans 8.28 considering who you are? And yet, Lord, considering who we are, what could be harder to believe? Lord, help us. Remember us. How weak we are. We are but dust. Lord, help us to believe this word. Understand it, to believe it, and to live by it. And do it for Christ, glory. Because we ask it in His name, amen. Well, again, I said I'm going to read the two verses previously. Beginning in Romans 8.26 through 8.28, this is God's holy word. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now, He who searches the hearts and knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are the called, according to His purpose. May the Lord bless this word in our hearts this morning, I pray. So, your first three points are going to be the exact same. You're just going to highlight different words. So, the first point is all things work together for good. We're looking at the words all things. All things you can write in caps. All things work together for good. As we've noticed, the point of this verse really is Paul's been talking about the greatness of the future in context of what? Present suffering versus 17 and 18. Present weakness. This bondage to corruption. This lack that we have now. The groanings that we are going under. All of this has been coming up in Romans 8. And what's he pointing out? Future liberty. Future hope. Future adoption. The adoption that we're waiting for. The redemption that we're waiting for. Future everything here, right? A hope. A future that is not yet here. Which begs the question. What about now? What's happening now? What do I have as a Christian? Right now. And God's answer to us is that right now all things, the Greek word is punta. It's neuter. So it has to be things. And it's plural. It has to be all. All things are working together for our good. Now all things means, and this is going to be complicated, all things. It means everything. Every single action. Every single event. Every single word. Every single deed. Everything that happens to you. Everything that you do in your life. Now connect that, I think, with verse 27, right? He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit, as we saw earlier, makes intercession for us. And by God's will and God's power, he is working in us. And so this isn't something that happens on its own. In fact, the new American standard actually translates. God causes all things to work for good. Now God causes it is not part of the verse, but clearly it's foundational to what's being said here. It's because of God that all things work for good to those who love God and who are called to coin to his parents' purpose. I think we can see this in an analogy, right? As parents, everybody who are parents here and everybody who have parents, so that's everybody. We recognize that when your children are little, you can throw a lot of the things that are going on in their lives. And you make sure that whatever happens to them, as much as you're able, only happens for their good. You're not going to let something happen to your children for their bad or that's really going to hurt them. You may let them go through something. You may see your child doing something, and you say, OK, well, we're going to let them do that. Let's hold on. He's going to learn less than here. Let's go ahead and let them do that. Let that happen for their good. Because ultimately we know it's not going to bring them serious harm or we wouldn't let it happen. And we control that. And so we do that as much as we can as parents, but as parents, especially as our kids get older, and we have to let them have that freedom. But even when they're younger, right, we don't know everything. We don't control everything. We don't have all power over everything. And this is maybe the hard one. We're not always good to them. Because we're sinners too. And so even though we want, on one hand, all things to work for good to our kids, sometimes we get in the way of that. But none of those things apply to God. Remember, this is talking about Christians. God is our Father. He does know everything. He is all powerful. He is looking out for our good. And He loves us. And God knows all and sees all. And so God can. God, we're not in control of all things, but God is in control. You know, so many different strains and flavors of Christianity that are not reformed or Calvinist, they do get this first. They become sort of Calvinist at least briefly at this verse. And I'm glad that they do. I'm not saying that in the comments anyway. So they all say things like, and I've got Armenian friends who will say things like, well, I know God has a plan. And there must be a reason for this. Well, what are they understanding? God is in control of all things, including them and their decisions. Now if I get in a discussion with them, they might deny that. And yet on the other hand, they know when things get bad, God has a plan. Praise God that they know that. God is in control, they'll say, well, we know God's in control. That means of humans and their decisions too. And they get that. And so many Christians get that. I think every real Christian gets that. You have to, right? God is in control. The old thing here is the big things. One nation rises up against another. One nation goes down. God will turn all of that for the good of his people. We can see an example in history, right? This gospel is going out. Paul is going from city to city, from town to town, from nation to nation, from continent to continent. How is he able to do that? Well, because in the sovereignty of God, there's this cruel and repacious empire, known as the Roman Empire. And they did a lot of rotten things. And yet there was a worldwide peace, the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. All the civilized earth was at peace at this time. And so Paul could go from city to city because of the providence of God. And before the Roman Empire, there was just as much of a power, a hungry nation known as Greece. And Alexander the Great made conquered everything and their Greek culture they spread everywhere. So the whole world is seeking coin a Greek. So Paul can go from city to city and preach the gospel, and all the apostles can write all the words of the New Testament in Greek, and everybody can read it. Because of the providence of God, who orchestrated all of these events and even used all of those wicked acts of all those wicked nations to get the world in place for that particular time, when now it's time to send forth the gospel. And they had all those wonderful roads that Rome had built, that still exist to this day, only a tad bit ahead of what Pendot can do, right? Just a tad. I'm looking at the eye, I always kid with the eye. But, you know, an amazing feat. And it's this time in history that Paul can go, you know, on the Appian way, on all of these roads that, again, you can still see the say in the shipping lanes, and all the knowledge that God had given to the Romans, all so that the gospel could go out. And in fact, if you want to go even before that, where does Paul go when he goes to every city? Why he goes to a synagogue of Jews? How could there be a synagogue of Jews? I thought they were supposed to go and live in that little strip of land in the Middle East called Palestine, Israel. Well, there was some things that happened before that. The wicked nation, the Syria conquered the northern part. And then the wicked nation Babylon did, and they did a horrible thing. And because of that and the captivity that the Jews were in, and even after they came back, the persecution they suffered under Antiochus epiphanies and the salucited kingdom, and all of the terrible things caused the Jews to go on the diaspora, right? The dispersion. So the Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire, and everywhere they went, they took the Torah with them, the law, and they built synagogues, and they worshiped Jehovah. So that now, when Paul goes with the gospel, where does he go in every city? To the synagogue, where they have the scriptures already, and they already know them, and he can talk about the Messiah, because they read about him every week, in the providence of God. God was preparing the big things for his people, but it's not just the big things that work for good. It's the little things, the very little things, and Exodus chapter two, where in Exodus in our family devotions, and we just read Exodus chapter two this week. Do you remember? Exodus chapter two is the story of Moses' birth, and remember what's going on when Moses is born, the wicked Pharaoh, who's on the throne, is jealous and fearful of the Israelite people, because they're so numerous, and so he commands the midwife to throw the boy babies in the Nile, but the midwives wouldn't do it, so God blessed them. But then Pharaoh had his people throw the boy babies in the Nile, and yet there was a woman of the tribe of Levi who had a male child, and the Bible says, and he was a beautiful child, just a little providential thing on God's part. And so this woman took risk to her life in the lives of her family, and she hid the child for three months, as long as she could. She could hide him no longer, she built a basket, you know, the story, and she put baby Moses in the basket, and she sealed the basket, water proofed it with batoumin and pitch. And then she commanded her daughter, Miriam Moses, older sister, to watch the basket, because she didn't know what else to do. Maybe the Romans were hot on her back, or the Romans. Maybe the Egyptians were hot on her back, as she put it in the Nile, and she would maybe she was planning to go and get it later. Who knows? We don't know. All we know is she had the daughter sort of hide in the reads, and watch the basket, make sure nothing happens to it, and it just so happened that at that particular time, Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile today, Pharaoh's daughter, who had probably a slew of servants, who had probably a wonderful bath in her palace, but for some reason she decided to go to the Nile that day at that time and in that place, and she just so happened to look and see a basket of reads. And so she sent one of her servants over to get it, and the Bible says the servant brought the basket to her, and then this happened, and the Hebrew is striking, so she opened the basket, and behold, and the word beholds there, some English translations don't put it, but you need to read it. And behold, the boy, then not air, the boy, before that it was a child, it was sort of non-descript, the boy cried. It just happened at that moment that the boy cried, and it said she had compassion on him. It's not the ordinary Hebrew word for compassion, it's the word spare, and she spared him, and she said, this is one of the children of the Hebrew, and she knew what was going on with the Hebrew children, it was her dad who ordered them to be killed, and she knows the law, and yet the baby cried as she's holding him, and she sees him, and remember he's a beautiful child, and she says to her servants, go, I will raise this child, all in the Providence of God. God did that. The little thing said, a baby would cry at that moment to make the daughter of Pharaoh's heart. That's the Providence of God, over the little things, but not only that, the evil things we saw in our scripture reading about Joseph, right? Joseph had terrible things unto him by his brothers, they were going to kill him, and then they decided not because they had any fear of God, or compassion, excuse me for their brother, but because they saw an opportunity to make some money off of them, they said, oh wait a minute, why don't we sell our brother? That'll be better. We'll make some money, and then we won't get our hands dirty, maybe we'll feel bad about it later, and we don't want that. So they sit down and have a meal after they sell their brother as a slave, and he goes to Egypt, right? We know the story, and he's accused falsely by Potiphar's wife, a wicked woman, because he wouldn't sleep with her. He's accused, and he's thrown into a dungeon in Egypt, probably a little bit worse than an American prison, I'm guessing, and he's there for years, at least three years, and where's God? What did he do wrong? God revealed himself to him, gave him this ability to interpret dreams, God was already using him as a prophet, God singles him out, and he suffers for it. He's faithful to God in Potiphar's house, and he suffers for it. And yet all of that was happening so that he would be in that prison when these two men, the baker and the cut bearer, are put in prison, and he interprets their dreams, but they forget about them, and then years later, they decide to eventually tell Pharaoh about it, and Pharaoh makes him, basically, the acting king of Egypt, second in command, and all Egypt, and so we know what happens, and then the famine comes, and of course, it was God's sovereignty to bring the famine and all that, with the famine comes, and then, what happens? Joseph's brothers come down there, and they need Joseph to give them bread, and of course, he provides for them, but now that their father has died, they're afraid. They know what they did to him. They know how he suffered. Who knows? Let me have scars from the prison, on his back, or on his face. Who knows what all happened to him? And they thought they were afraid, that he was going to do it, and Joseph doesn't say, you know what? Hey, it's cool, guys. You didn't really do anything bad. You didn't mean anything by us. You didn't say that, Debbie. He says, you men it for evil. You read the verses. Look over in your bulletin. You meant it for evil. You were wicked to me. But God meant it. God meant every single one of the evil acts that they did for evil. God meant every one of them. For good. He doesn't say, oh, well, God sort of let that happen, and you know, God really wished it. What? No, no, no. God meant all of them. For good. God rules over the wicked things. And why is that help us? Because you know, God could just take the good things in the world and bring more out of them than what would ordinarily happen. That would be pretty significant. And if God could take maybe even the neutral or ignorant things that people do, then they don't know there's a God or they don't acknowledge him. And if he took all those events and actions and decisions and words and brought good out of them, hey, that's pretty powerful. But when God takes the evil things, when God takes the things that you and I or that people that hate God do, and he uses them to accomplish his good purposes for his people, what does that tell you? That God rules over everything. When God can take the worst actions of his enemies against him and use them for good, God can do anything. Even the most wicked acts. God will use for good. In fact, the most wicked act in Scripture, I think, is the betrayal of Jesus Christ. Scripture says as much, right? It says it about Judas. In Matthew, it's also in Mark, but in, I can't find it, oh, here it is, Matthew 26, 24. The Son of Jesus says that the Son of Man goes indeed just as it is written of him. There's God's plan predestination. But woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born. God was sovereign, Judas was free. Judas did exactly what he wanted. He wasn't trying to accomplish God's plan. He was trying to get 30 pieces of silver. He got it. But God was sovereign. And he used that wicked act of betrayal to bring salvation to the world. That most evil act, God used the greatest, brought the greatest good from. This is the God that we serve. Because all things to work for good and God's intention in all things is for the good of His people. So secondly, notice all things work together for good. All things work together. The work together is our focus. Now, all things work together for good. Keith, I think there's just that little bit of a ring. Maybe you can hit it. All things work together for good. Now, we gotta get that right. He doesn't say all things are good. He doesn't say that. That's not what Joseph said. You guys, I know you didn't mean it. No, no, no. He doesn't say all things are good. And he doesn't even say all things together are good. Well, yeah, individually, they're bad. Sort of like the elements. There are certain elements that if you have one of them by itself, it's bad, but you combine them a certain way. You know, it's okay. I mean, I think if you drink pure hydrogen, it would be bad for you. But H2O is good. It's water, right? No, that's not what we're talking about here, all right? It's not just because they're together. They suddenly become good. The things themselves are evil. And all the things together are evil. It's that God makes them work together for good. You know, the cult Christian science teaches that evil is an illusion. Evil is not real. Evil is in our mind. It's a mistake that we make because we don't know the truth. But there's nothing that's actually evil out there. It's what Christian science teaches. Paul is not a Christian scientist. Christian science is not Christian. It's really not science either. So I don't know what to tell you, but... But there are evil things. Evil exists. And evil is real. And we all felt it and see it. We just had, you know, we're in Romans 8. The previous seven chapters. What have we been looking at? Total depravity. Bonded to sin. Dead and sin. Original sin. We've been really inundated with the wickedness of man and Romans thus far. Sin is real. And evil is real. And people do evil on purpose. And we only fool ourselves when we say it otherwise. And it's one of the greatest lies of Satan, I think, to get man to call evil good. I didn't say that in the scripture. Woe to those who call evil good or good evil. Isn't that what our culture does today in changing the morals of human nature even? Calling evil good and good evil. Woe to those who do that good. And evil dealt change. There really is good. And there really is evil. And it's by God's word. And it's according to who we are and what our natures are in need. And it doesn't change. Evil exists. And yet God is the one who causes and rules over them, over rules them. And he forces them to bring about good. He forces the evil things to bring about good. I don't remember who it was. I heard it was a politician or an actor or something. But it was a Christian man, a black man who was testifying. And he actually said something that was very controversial. But he said, you know, I know my relatives, my ancestors were brought over here as slaves. And racial slavery was a horrible and wicked thing. And yet God used that to bring me to faith. Because my family came to faith at the time of slavery. And he saw the good in that. That God used that brought him eternal salvation. Did that excuse the wickedness of what people were doing now? Did Joseph's brothers were they okay because all they did, turned out for good. Does that mean that they didn't do evil? No, they did evil. It's not because it doesn't matter. It's not because, well, we don't really mean it. No, it's because of God's power. God takes the evil that is opposed to him. And he forces it to bring about good. That's the power of the God that we serve. Even those who are martyred, even Christians who are killed for their faith. We're seeing that around the world today with Muslim terrorists and Christians being killed for their faith. That works for their good, the Scriptures would assure us. Now, there is a hope element here, too, because we don't always see the good in our lives. When it comes to martyrdom or being persecuted and dying for your faith, you don't see the good while you draw breath in this world. But if I can say it this way, the great thing about martyrdom is you don't have to wait long. Because as soon as you are dead, you do see the good because God promises the crown of martyrdom and great rewards for those who suffer for the faith. Jesus said it this way, blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say, all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. Yes, but sometimes the good we don't see in this life. Some of it is future and it's true. But the way in which we hope it, the way in which we realize it, is that we continue to walk by faith even when we don't see the good. That we continue to hope. So the question here for all of us is what do you believe that God is working for good in your life through all things? Do you believe it? The God is causing that difficult situation at work to work for your good. Do you believe it? That difficult situation that's in your family right now, that God is making that to work for your good. You know, personalize it. Think of the things in your life that you really would rather have them not be there right now. Do you really believe it? I said, this is one of the easiest verses in the scripture to understand. I think it's one of the hardest ones to believe. Do I really believe that many things in my life that I hate, that I don't want to be there, that I would change if I could? Do I really believe God is working that too. That thing too is causing good to me. Do you believe it? I've shared my testimony before with you in just some of my simple ways and how God used them to bring me to faith. And if I could change many of the things that I did, I would change them in a heartbeat. Because they were sins. God used them to bring good into my life. I wasn't in the accident that I was in. I wouldn't have become a Christian. I wouldn't have applied a cornerstone television. I wouldn't have met my wife. I wouldn't have had the family that I had. I wouldn't be a minister. Would I have changed my simple ways if I could? Yes, I absolutely would. Doesn't excuse. Oh, God brought good to them. I'm so glad that I did all those evil things. No, God brought good and God is sovereign. That doesn't excuse us when we do evil. We always repent of sin and we don't say, oh man, I'm so glad that that worked out great. Our sin is still sinned. But we've got to trust God through it, right? What we do, when we don't trust God, what we sinned. And we do the evil thing. Okay, God's working this out for good for me. This terrible thing's happening at work. Oh, I could commit this sin over here and get out from under it. No, that's not trusting God, right? Okay, make it concrete. Somebody at work is making it very difficult for you. And you see a way to get them fired. That's not legitimate, but you know it'll work. Do you do it? Or do you trust God that he's working all things for good? If you do this simple thing, you can't be trusting God. You can never sin and say, oh yes, I believe God's working this out for good. When you sin, you're the one who's opposing that. You're not believing that it's working for good. So many times in scripture we see that, right? I mean Abraham and Hagar. Abraham and Sarah are giving Hagar to Abraham as his wife. If they would have just believed God, they wouldn't have done that. But they didn't believe him. And they did that and it brought a lot of heartache and pain into our lives. So we've got to believe God. We've got to believe that whatever is in our lives is there for reason. And my job isn't to try to figure out a way out from it, although if I can get out from it, sure, but not by sin. Never by doing evil, right? I prayed God, you know, take this from me. I'll pray three times for that one in the flesh. We'll take this from me. Take this from me. Take this from me. God said, no. And maybe Paul could have sinned and gotten rid of it. But he didn't do that. He trusted God. And we need to trust God so that all things are working together for our good. Thirdly, all things work together for good. All things work together for good. This doesn't mean whatever I want, right? So whatever I want is my good and whatever I don't want is my bad. No, it's according to God's word. Thus far in Romans, we've seen good works, the good man. The law is good. Nothing good dwells in my flesh. Now, that tells us, right? Nothing good in my sinful nature. Nothing that I want in my sinful nature is really good. It's the law that's good. God wants real good for me, lasting good, spiritual good. Good according to my nature. You and I are made in the image of God and ultimately sin can't be good for us. So if God would give you the sin that you want, it wouldn't be good. It would destroy you. When God gives somebody, that's one of the things that we saw in Romans 1, right? And God gave them over to their desires. God gave them over. That was a terrible judgment from God. To be given over to the sin that you want. No, we want good. We want real good. Lasting good. The good that's according to our nature. The good that might not, we might not always see in this light. But, you know, I think there is also a present benefit here, even in those good things that are, we're waiting for. Those things that don't go away. I think you can see it back in Romans 5. When Paul said, Romans 5.3. Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. You see, even when it's hard, even when there are bad things in your life that you would rather not have that hurt. What's going on? What is the good that you're getting? I mean, maybe yes, there's a crown of martyrdom coming, or there's a reward in heaven coming. But is there something good happening now in the bad thing? And the thing that you don't want, and the thing that's causing you grief in the trial, in the trouble, in the, in the, in the, maybe even the persecution? I think there is. Right? There's God's sanctifying process that's going on. Tribulation produces character and character perseverance and perseverance hope. God is changing us. He's sanctifying us. He's making us like him. And sometimes it hurts while that's happening. But don't ever doubt that God's doing it for your good. He promises it. He promises that he is. And so it is for good. You're good. You are being sanctified. You are becoming more like Christ. And even when it hurts, that is something that we're getting now from God that really is a taste of heaven. It's the fullness of our new nature. And we get to witness to others. I value God this much. I will keep this pain in my life as long as I continue to follow Jesus. You know, what's Jesus worth to you? Will you put up with that thing because you know it's giving a harvest of righteousness? So fourthly and lastly, all things work together for good, for real Christians only. For real Christians only. Well, this is the part that says what? For those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose, to those who love God. Only Christians love God and yet all Christians by definition love God. By definition, it is the unconverted man who, what, remember what Jesus said? Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come to the light. Less is deeds being exposed. They cannot hate you, but they hate me. The world hates me, Jesus said, because I testify of its works, that they're evil. Jesus constantly pointed to the hatred that the world had for him. And the thing that marks the Christian is that we love God. We've been given a new heart. And so if you're Christian today, if you're just barely a Christian, if you're a brand new Christian, you can know that all things are working together for your good. Because you are, the actual, it's a present participle, to those loving God, to those loving God. And then it adds the second part, right? That is, to those who are the called ones according to his purpose. The word there is a prophecy scene. You can hear pro thesis. That was comes before the plan beforehand, according to God's pre-plan. We get the prefix pre from pro, although some of our words even have the pro, right? To propose something is to suggest it beforehand. I'm going to make a proposal here. I'm giving a suggestion beforehand. It's pre. Well, God's purpose is his pre thesis. God has a purpose in a plan. And if you're saved, it's according to God's purpose. Not because, in other words, you love him. See, that's why Paul adds that part. To those loving God, that is, no, it's not that you loved him and you earned this. No, you've been called according to his purpose. That's why you love him. That's what Paul's saying here. To those who love God, that is, to those who are the called ones. According to his purpose, not ours. Here, that call is not many or called fewer chosen type of call. The call that goes out now, what I'm doing, calling people to believe in Jesus outwardly. It's that inward call, what theologians call the effectual call. I know I've shared this before, but this is my favorite example. The effectual call is the call that actually affects what happens. It's the inward call. God calls us inwardly, and he transforms us. This is how we are regenerated. You were born again because you heard God in your heart. Your ears heard him. Everybody's ears hear him, but those who receive him hear him in the heart. And so that call goes out and it affects what it tells people to do. Right? Believes and repent. And suddenly, for some reason, I actually believe that and I repent. When I was a kid, all the dads would call for us. You would be playing outside all day. And all the dads would call a different way. I remember Richie's dad, Harry, would whistle. And he had this distinct whistle that he would do. And Eric's dad would whistle. And Chris's dad would yell. My dad would yell. And he would hear it this way. He would usually go out, you know, Pami Buster Bruce. Time to eat. You know, and sometimes we'd hear that. And sometimes we didn't hear it. And when we didn't hear it, the second time, you'd hear Pami Buster Bruce. Now! And sometimes I'd hear that first one and it would be in the middle of a football game or something we'd keep playing. When I heard them now, it was an effectual call. I mean, I could be receiving the kickoff and I would drop the ball and run home. Because I knew if I didn't get home quick, I was in trouble. Now, in the effectiveness part, that's got the effectual call, but it's not out of that kind of dreaded fear. And I'm in trouble. It's because our hearts are changed. Listen to this verse. There's several verses that actually say it that way. That it's because of the call of God that we are saved. First Corinthians 1.23. But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews of Sumbling Block and the Gentiles foolishness. There's the outward call if it's only outward. We preach. It's a Sumbling Block and it's foolishness. But to those who are the called and the wisdom of God, did you hear what's the difference? For Jews and Greeks, something block foolishness, if they're really called, if they're inwardly called, if they're affectionately called, it's the power of God. That's what Paul said at the beginning of this epistle. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. Not to everybody. To those who are the called. According to his purpose, do you believe in Jesus this morning than you've been called? And you cannot just wish. You cannot just have a pretty secure hope or confident expectation somewhat. No, as the verse started, I left it off till now. And we know that all things. We know. We know from experience in our lives we can point to examples. We can see how God works in our lives and uses our sin to bring us good. We can see from Scripture and people like Joseph and Job and others, whom God brought good to, even through hardship and pain. We have it in God's word, promise to us. We feel it in our hearts, I think, right? We know that we're his children. And he means good to us. But the reason why we know the most, the reason why we can be most confident, that we know, that all things work to for good to those who love God, to those who are the call to court and do his purpose, the reason why we know for the higher than anything else, because of who God is. God is all powerful. God is all knowing. God loves you. And God is all good. Now, if an all-powerful God who knows everything and who's all good loves you, can't anything that happens in your life, not be for your good. Because the only way that what happened is if he intended evil for you, or if somebody overcame him, or if it was something that he didn't know about. But this Scripture is assuring us, faced upon the character of God that we know, that that can't be. Martin Luther in his commentary on this verse said, there is no chance for the Christian. Not even a leaf can fall from a tree Luther said, except by the will of God. And if God lets that leaf fall from the tree and it lights upon your head, there was a good purpose in that, or it wouldn't have happened. We know that all things work for good to those who love God, to those who are the call to court and do his purpose. We know it. May God grant that we would believe it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have your assurance. We have your own character that ought to show us and convince us that there is not a single thing that's happening in our lives that you are not bringing good to us through somehow, some way. Lord, we have many things that hurt, and we do pray to you to remove them if you would, to cause us that we have able to have a time of peace, a time of good health, a time of joy. We would long for these things. And yet, Lord, even when you don't give them, we know the reason is not because you hate us, not because you mean evil to us, but on the contrary, it's because you love us, and you are bringing good to us through that difficult thing. And we know that you know best because you're our father, and you know all, and you love us and you would only do. You would only let happen to us what is good for us. Help us to believe that. Help us to see it in this life, Lord. And may we glorify you as we walk by faith and all the good that you are doing to us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.