“God Working It Out!”
Romans 8:28-31, “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. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
One of the most beautiful songs in the world is “Order My Steps” written by Glenn Burleigh and recorded by Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Mississippi Mass Choir and many others. The lyrics go:
“Order my steps in Your word dear Lord
Lead me, guide me everyday
Send Your anointing, Father I pray;
Order my steps in Your word.
Order my tongue in Your word
Guide my feet in Your word
Wash my heart in Your word
Show me how to walk in Your word
Show me how to talk in Your word
When I need a brand new song to sing
Show me how to let Your praises ring
Please order my steps in Your word.”
What I’ve learned in life is that a song is easy to sing if you can sing, but to truly trust God and turn things over to Him to work things out in your life is another thing. Somehow we like to think that we can figure out everything because of that God-like image that mankind was created in. The problem is when we’re spending all of our time trying to figure it out God is already working it out!
So today, I would like to talk to you on the subject, “God Working It Out!”
So, First Baptist, on this first Sunday of 2018, I’m here to tell you that no matter how things look, God is working it out! I serve a God that does His best work when things look impossible! I recall an old record by the Pilgrim Jubilees that says:
“Have you any rivers
That seem uncrossable?
And have you any mountain
That you cannot tunnel through?
God specializes
In things thought impossible
And He will do what no other power can do.”
What you don’t know First Baptist is that God has a plan for you to succeed. I recall Jesus telling Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” No matter how things look church, keep leaning on the Rock! God is aligning heaven and earth to work for your good! Do you believe that this morning?
In Jonathan Chan, Book of Mysteries, DAY 150, “MOVING THE UNIVERSE”, it says:
“Nearly four thousand years ago when Abraham sent his servant to the city of Nahor to find a wife for his son Isaac. His servant stood by the well and prayed that God would show him the right woman by having her come to draw water at the well and offer to draw water as well for his camels. Before finishing the prayer, a young woman named Rebekah, came out to the well and did exactly as he had just prayed. So when did God answer the servant’s prayer?” “When Rebekah came to the well?” “But in order to come to the well, Rebekah had to have already been on the way to the well before the servant saw her, and before he prayed.” “Then when she left her house?” “But before she left her house, she had to plan her day to go out to the well exactly as she did in order to arrive exactly when she arrived. And for that to happen, every event of that day had to take place exactly as it did. The slightest delay or lack of delay and it wouldn’t have happened. You see, behind every event are countless previous events in an incalculable chain of time leading up to and causing the event to happen just as it does. And it is not only a chain of time, but of space. Surrounding every event are countless other contributing events, countless interactions and confluences—a gust of wind, a drop of rain, a random thought, the movement of the sun and stars, and the gravity of a galaxy. They must all work together with absolute precision for any specific event to happen as it does. So for God to answer the servant’s prayer and bring Rebekah to the well that day, He had to make those things work perfectly together in time and space. To answer that prayer, He had to move the universe . . . And so it is for you, and for all His children. For God to answer even one of your prayers, even the smallest of your prayers, He must direct all things and move and coordinate all events of time and space to make it happen. He must move the universe. And for you He will move the universe . . . For that is how much He loves you . . . with a love greater than time and space . . . greater than the universe.”
So, First Baptist, for God to put you where you are today, He had to move the universe! Somehow in the midst of everything we're doing, we must believe that God is in control! Can I get an Amen? I don't care how bad things look, how crazy things get, God is working things out! He is the great orchestrator that orders the universe to our beckon and call! Our text gives us the confidence to believe that all things work together for our good. To fulfill our divine purpose, God had to align heaven and earth to work for us. Can you see it? Everything had to be in place, in the right order and time to make everything work! When you grasp that thought, it lets you know how important you are to God. Don't you know that God took time to prepare time, chance, opportunity, and people to be available to work for the purpose that He designed for your life! This blows my mind! Jonathan Chan says that God will move the universe to answer our prayers! That's mind-boggling! Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9:10&11, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." Without any special powers of our own, God lines up time and chance to fall in place to work for us. We must do what we do, but life is so big that it's out of our control. The divine hand of God orders our steps and everything around us for our good! Do you believe that this morning?
As big as you think you are, if God hadn't shook you to wake you up, caused your eyes to open up, gave you the strength to rise up, allowed you feet to hit the floor, pushed you on your feet, moved one leg at a time, caused the other to follow, provided air to breathe, food on your table, move your jaws to eat, cause your stomach to digest your food, rain to water the harvest, hands to harvest the food, heat to cook the food, gas, water and air to produce the power, a car to drive, manufacturers to build the cars, a job, a need that provided the job, resources that provided for the need...... all things through God working things out in your life! I can go on! Kept back the hand of death, kept that car from crossing your path, got you across the road before that train came down the track, brought that husband, that wife into your life, at the right time, in the right place, moving the universe so that you both could meet and now you’re here! I heard one writer say, “I’ve got a made-up mind!” Don’t you know that if God hadn’t aligned time and chance you couldn’t make up your mind? You just didn’t make up your mind on your own; something had to happen beyond your power! The Bible says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” Your made-up mind was made up for you by God aligning time and chance in your life to do its work! You can’t take the credit for that! Whatever happens in our lives is God working it out!
As we come to out text we find Paul writing a letter to the Roman Christians to encourage them when things just didn’t look like they were working out for their good. I know I got somebody in the house this morning that’s been at that place in their lives and just didn’t know or couldn’t see how things were going to work out. I’ve been there and I know all of you have too! There was great persecution and Paul was trying to console them to continue to be faithful even if things just didn’t look good. All of us can be very critical at times when other folk are facing hard times, but I learned a long time ago to never judge a man until you’ve walked in his shoes, and don’t even judge him then! He might not be able to bear the burden you can bear, and you might not be able to bear the burden he can bear! My Bible says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Whatever the burden is, or how heavy is measured by God for us individually so that t will work out for our good. Can’t understand it all, can’t see my way through it all, but I know that God will work it out! Paul told these suffering Christians, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” God didn’t give them a promise that all of their problems would magically go away, but things would get better down the line that can’t be compared to what we’re going through now. I know waiting is hard when you’re burdened down, but David said, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Things will work out if we just continue to hold on! Have you ever missed out on something good just because you didn’t hold out? We must have all “holy” folk over here, let me asked the folk on this side that don’t mind being honest with yourselves, have you ever missed out on something good just because you didn’t hold out? All of us have! I have a message I preach, “To Much – Too Soon!” Have you ever gotten yourself in trouble because you wanted too much too soon? Won’t old enough – got pregnant! Won’t old enough – had a child out of wedlock! Won’t old enough – got an abortion! Won’t old enough – got a car! Won’t old enough – wrecked your car! Won’t old enough – started drinking! Won’t old enough – got a ticket drunk driving! Won’t old enough – move out on your own! Won’t old enough – flat and busted! Sometimes because we just won’t wait on God to work things out so we venture out and get too much too soon! Isaiah came to this conclusion, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” God is working it out, all we need to do is be patient and wait on Him to work this thing out in our lives.
The hardest thing to understand is how God does it! Our text says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” On one of my gospel Jazz CD’s, Kirk Whalum says, “How can the clay ever understand the potter?” The omniscient God we serve knows all! Revelation 1:8 says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” God does it by knowing us - our past, present and future! God foreknew you before you were you, and predetermined you to be in that place and time to avail you of the opportunity or plans that He has for your life. He aligned, as Jonathan Chan says, heaven and earth to your beck and call to put you in time and space to work that thing out in your life. Just as He orders the stars in the sky, and every grain of sand on the seashore, your and I get the same care. I know it’s hard to comprehend, but God does everything for our good. Let’s go back and look at Joseph! Brother’s sold him into slavery, Potiphar’s wife seduction, back in jail, nothing looked good about his situation, but my Bible says, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” God aligned everything In Joseph’s favor, whether it was considered good or bad! If He did for Joseph, don’t you believe that He’s doing it for you? What God allows you to be taken through is fore-appointed to prepare you for your calling without question. You might not add up to you or even others, but your path has been justified by God so that His name gets the glory. God aligns everything under the heavens and in earth that put you where you are today. That’s mind boggling when you think about it! The big question is, do you trust God to work things out when they look bad? I know it’s easy to say, but do you really trust Him to work that thing out? Then you can sing like Albertina Walker:
“That problem that I had
I just couldn't seem to solve
I tried and I tried
But I kept gettin' deeper involved
So I turned it over to Jesus
And I stopped worryin' about it
Turned it over to the Lord
He worked it out!”
Then she says the defining message in the song:
“When you’re trying to figure it out,
He already worked it out!”
That whatsoever thing in the life that you can’t quite figure out; I’ve got news for you; God is already working that thing out!
Before Paul could understand how God was going to work it out, he realized that “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” My question to you First Baptist is, do you know that God is working this thing out for you? Didn’t I tell you that God knows, “which is, and which was, and which is to come?” I didn’t say I think, I believe or I hope! I said I know God is working things out for your good! God knew about your situation before your situation became a situation! God knows what you’ve been through, what you’re going through and what you have to face tomorrow! All you got to do is put your trust in Him! What you need to do church is, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Gloria, Alice posted in an email from HR right before Christmas: