{"id":4661,"date":"2015-08-09T18:27:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T23:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2015-08-09T18:27:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T23:27:43","slug":"in-everything-god-works-for-good-august-9-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2015\/08\/in-everything-god-works-for-good-august-9-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"In Everything God Works for Good: August 9, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:28-39 In Everything God Works for Good<\/span><\/p>\n

August 9, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Chilmark Community Church<\/span><\/p>\n

United Methodist<\/span><\/p>\n

Rev. Armen Hanjian<\/span><\/p>\n

A women dies. Her grief-stricken husband sits at the funeral home as friends and relatives pass by to offer words of sympathy. A few religious folk often share: \u201dAll things work together for the good to them that love God.\u201d It doesn\u2019t feel like it rings true. He goes home even more confused and hopeless.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019 sure most of you know what I\u2019m talking about. That phrase from the King James Version \u201cAll things work together for the good\u201d can explain anything in life. One of the high spots of the R.S.V., which had available older manuscripts than the 1611 KJV, has the verse reading \u201cIn everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose,\u201d You see the difference? Things can\u2019t work; rather, it is God who works in everything, and the good news is that God works for our good when God\u2019s purposes and ours are the same. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You think, \u201cWell that helps, but how can you read a paper or watch the TV and be made aware of droughts, wild fires, murders and such and still say God works for good in these things.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ralph Sockman once said that the only way he could understand this verse was to think of it in terms of a ship. There are parts of a ship which taken by themselves would sink. The engine would sink. The propeller would sink. But when the parts of a ship are built together, they float. So with the events of my life. Some have been tragic. Some have been happy. But when they are all built together, they form a craft that floats\u2026and is going someplace. And I am comforted.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to say God created everything (many people tip their hat to God or give a wave). It is a far greater statement of faith to say God works in everything, even in the worst thing you could imagine, even an unjust execution. In the short view, even the disciples thought God\u2019s purposes would be thwarted by Jesus being nailed to a cross; but in the long view, God will not be permanently or ultimately defeated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fearful people put Jesus to death; nevertheless, by his stripes we are healed. What about Jesus in all this? As any of us would, he prayed the cup of pain and suffering he had to drink would pass by. But he went on and said to God, \u201cnevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.\u201d And for reasons only partly understandable, Jesus suffered and died. It is important to see that Jesus in his prayer trusted God\u2019s will; he did not ask so much for an explanation, as he did for power to overcome or withstand the suffering. The important thing was not that <\/span><\/span>everything<\/u><\/span><\/span> would turn out rosy, but that <\/span><\/span>nothing <\/u><\/span><\/span>could separate him or us from the love of God. \u201cIn everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

his purpose<\/u><\/span><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not miss the truth that not only does God work, but that God <\/span><\/span>cooperates<\/u><\/span><\/span> with us. The Good comes when we cooperate with God; not when we work it out all by ourselves and not when we turn it all over to God to work out, as did the college student on taking a Christmas exam. The question was, What causes a depression?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The student wrote, God knows! I don\u2019t. Merry Christmas!\u201d The paper came back with the professor\u2019s notation: \u201c God gets 100. You get zero. Happy New Year!\u201d If we turn everything over to God or if we turn nothing over to God, God wins and we lose. Both God and we win when there is cooperation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026.as when a little boy asked his father for help in repairing his <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

wagon. When the job was done, he turned his face upward and said, \u201cDaddy, when I try to do things by myself, they go wrong. But when you and I work together, they turn out just fine.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

John Oman, in his book, The Paradox of the World,(p.30) has pointed out how all persons are used by God. He writes:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us alike are God\u2019s instruments. By not setting of our hearts on wickedness or doing evil with both our hands can we prevent God from using us. Our folly will serve Him, when our wisdom fails; our wrath praise Him, though our wills rebel. Yet, as God\u2019s instruments without intention and in our own despite, we generally serve God\u2019s ends only as we defeat our own. To be God\u2019s agent is another matter. This we are only when we learn God\u2019s will, respond to His call, work faithfully together with Him, and find our own highest ends in fulfilling His.\u201d You could add, no one is good for nothing, you can always serve as a bad example.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So the real question is not will God use me, but whether I will be an unconscious tool or God\u2019s conscious partner \u2013 a yoke fellow.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To know that God is your active partner is the source of inexhaustible strength. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever you do, don\u2019t get the impression that God works for us just because we love God. Jesus said, God sends the rain upon the just and the unjust alike and the sun shines just as brightly on the good as upon the evil. None of us has merited God\u2019s help. It is God\u2019s free gift to all. We are blessed not because of our good works, rather we are blessed because our purposes and God\u2019s purposes are one. Paul put it this way: \u201cThe whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the children of God coming into their own.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What the Christian faith affirms is that there is a divine purpose to this creation in its entirety; namely, that we children of God come into conformity with the image of Christ \u2013 Christlikeness. God has called us to this end and we believe God can and will finish what God has set out to do. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If we do believe that God\u2019s good pleasure is to will our highest good even in the happenings of the world around us, then, the first question which always must be asked is, \u201cHow is God working for good here? We are not through with crime and violence and drugs until we ask, \u201cHow is God working for good in these social illnesses? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And you are not through with that problem of yours until you ask, \u201cHow\u2026.\u201d (thoughts from Let Us Break Bread Together, p119)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When we are on God\u2019s side it doesn\u2019t matter who is working against us for nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God. The early Christians knew that as they faced a hostile world. They faced death unflinchingly. Unlike many of us whose anxieties over things make us miserable, those pioneers of the <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Christian way kept things in their perspective by keeping their eyes on Jesus \u2013 their living companion. Then, as now, a true <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Christian is, by nature, an optimist. Those who flounder in fears do so because they leave God out. They think they must pull themselves up by their bootstraps and they only sink deeper in the mire of fear. They fail to count on God\u2019s activity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before WW I I, a manufacturing company in NJ received an urgent message from a customer in Japan who had purchased a piece of equipment. It read \u201cMachine does not work. Send man to fix.\u201d The man was dispatched, but before he had a chance to carry out his assignment, the company received a second message, \u201cMan too young. Send older man.\u201d The company wired back: \u201cYou had better use him. He invented the machine.\u201d We believe this old world was made in the mind of God, and that is why we commend it, with all the things that have gone wrong, into the hands of God.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We firmly believe and find comfort in the fact that \u201cIn everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.\u201d And why not- it is God\u2019s world isn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hymn: \u201cThis is My Father\u2019s World\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:28-39 In Everything God Works for Good August 9, 2015 Chilmark Community Church United Methodist Rev. Armen Hanjian A women dies. Her grief-stricken husband sits at the funeral home as friends and relatives pass by to offer words of sympathy. A few religious folk often share: \u201dAll things work together for the good to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4662,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}