The types of things you should expect as a Christian:
- Repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Join in with the community of believers as you study Scripture, pray, worship, and bear one another’s burdens.
- Take the gospel to the world.
- Live in anticipation of the renewal of all things.
- Persevere through pain, suffering, and persecution.
Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
-Acts 27:23-26 (NIV)
On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’ So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.
-Acts 27:27-32 (NIV)
To the non-believer:
Suffering is a result of our freewill decisions.
To the believer:
Suffering is God’s plan to create something beautiful in you.
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. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
-Romans 8:28-30 (NIV)
Foreknow: Proginosko: To know beforehand
Predestined: Proorizo: To determine beforehand
What was foreknown? Salvation.
What was fore-determined? Sanctification.
God stands outside time and space and is not subject to it!
He knows who will be saved—who will reject Him and who will receive Him—because He is already present in that moment.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
-Romans 8:29-30 (NIV)
Your salvation was not predetermined—it was foreknown.
The Bible places a huge emphasis on the power of decision:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Galatians 6:7 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
‘Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.’ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:36-38 (NIV)
To passionately call for repentance and belief and then claim that those who do not respond were preordained to reject God would be unjust.
However, God, because He is omniscient, knew that one day you would respond to His invitation.
Why create those whom God foreknew would reject his salvation?
God thinks linearly.
God predetermined that He would send a Savior into the world.
God predetermined that all who call on the name of the Lord would be saved.
God predetermined that the Church would be born on the day of Pentecost, that He would restore everything that has been lost, that those who rejected Him would be given the ultimate ramifications of their freewill decision to live apart from Him.
Man’s free choice cannot stop:
- The Savior from entering our world.
- The power of the Holy Spirit.
- The ultimate healing of the nations and the restoration of all things.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
-Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
God is sovereign over human actions, not in that He causes every evil event, rather, that He is able to transform intended malice, betrayal, and suffering into positive outcomes.
God works through, yet is not the author of, sinful acts to achieve ultimate good.
Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
-Acts 2:22-24 (NIV)
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.
-Romans 3:25 (NIV)
‘Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.’
-Acts 2:36 (NIV)
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.
-Romans 8:28 (NIV)
Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.’
-Acts 27:23-25 (NIV)
Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’ So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.
-Acts 27:31-32 (NIV)
One: God sees every storm headed your way.
He is able to take all the free choices man makes, hold him accountable, and still bring ultimate good.
…Jesus said, ’This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’
John 11:4 (NIV)
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
John 11:33 (NIV)
Then Jesus said, ’Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’
John 11:40 (NIV)
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
John 11:45 (NIV)
Two: God promises His prevailing presence.
Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, ’Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Mark 6:45-52 (NIV)
Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ‘You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’
Job 42:1-6 (NIV)
…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)
…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:3 (NIV)
One: God sees every storm coming your way. Trust!
Two: God promises His prevailing presence. Seek!
Third: Every decision you make has ramifications. Repent.
You are responsible for the decisions you make in your life.
When you begin defining God’s Sovereignty as pre-ordaining or predetermining every event of your life, there is the tendency to shift the blame from your decision to God’s plan.
When you repent—God forgives, but the ramifications often remain.
One: Every storm is foreknown. Trust.
Two: God promises His prevailing presence. Seek.
Three: Every decision has ramifications. Repent.
Four: The end of all storms is on the horizon. Rejoice!
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:18-21 (NIV)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
Heaven is God’s ultimate answer to our pain and suffering.
We should not deny the reality of our pain in this life. It might be terrible. It might be chronic. It might go on for all 72 of your years. But in heaven, after 5,484,545 days of pure bliss, and with an infinite more to come—if someone asked, “So, how has your existence been?” you’d instantly react by saying, “It has been absolutely wonderful! Words can’t describe the joy and the delight and the fulfillment! And if they said, “But didn’t you have a tough time before you got here?” You would probably think back and say, “Well, yes, it’s true that those days were painful, I can’t deny that. But when I put them in the context, in light of all God’s outpouring of goodness to me, those bad days aren’t even worth comparing with the eternity of blessings and joy that I’ve experienced.
-Lee Strobel
‘…What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ - the things God has prepared for those who love Him.
-1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
Make a Decision