1. ALL THINGS
Last week we focused on the inheritance of the children of God in verse 17. If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and Treasure, then God has given to you the right to be called a child of God (John 1:12). And if we are children of God, Paul says, then we are "heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."
We saw that our inheritance includes the world and all that is in it. And, best of all, we saw that it includes God himself for our everlasting joy. We also saw that our inheritance includes our own glorification. And this is not merely tacked on as a third benefit. It is the basis of our ability to enjoy the rest of the inheritance. If we stayed in our present condition physically and emotionally and spiritually, our capacity to enjoy the new heavens and the new earth and God himself would be pitiful. So God promises us not only an incomparable inheritance, but vast, new capacities to enjoy it forever. That is what it means to be glorified. We must have glorious capacities to enjoy infinite glory.
Finally, we saw that we will have to suffer with Christ in order to receive our inheritance with him. ". . . if we suffer with him in order that we might be glorified with him" (8:17).
Today we’re going to close the series by delving into the popular Romans 8:28

2. Romans 8
28 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.
Marilyn Monroe once said, “I believe everything happens for a reason.” Sounds familiar? Probably you’ve heard one of your co-workers who’s not yet in Christ said that before. If you’ve been a Christian or have been in church for a while, most probably, you’ll be familiar with Romans 8:28.
Romans 8:28 is a wildly popular verse, however, it is often misquoted and taken out of context, especially by the proponents of Prosperity Gospel that teaches the Gospel as a way to live "the good life” and claims that wealth is a sign of spiritual maturity and practices their “Name it and Claim it” method!
“All things work together FOR GOOD!”
For many Christians who’re influenced by the Prosperity Gospel teachings, “GOOD” means an increase in possessions and position, prestige, power, and popularity. Is that really what Romans 8:28 is all about?
The easiest way to find the context of a verse or a Bible passage is by looking into the verses before and/or the verses after. I believe that’s also the case with our text today.
Let’s look at a couple of verses prior to Romans 8:28, which are verse to understand the context...

3. Romans 8
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
The context of Romans 8:28 is not about getting a new car, a new house, or a new job! The context of Romans 8:28 is THE SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME! Right here, right now while we live on earth!
Verse 20…

4. Romans 8
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope,
The creation was subjected to futility which means what we think now is GOOD, the big house, the fancy car, the big bucks in your bank accounts, is not necessarily GOOD from God’s perspective!
Not that it’s wrong to have a big house, to have fancy cars or big bucks in our bank accounts! NOT AT ALL!
However, it is INCORRECT to view that the only way to live as a Christian to be rich and if we are not, that means we are not blessed, we are out of God’s favor! Many times, Christians associate problems, challenges in life, unanswered prayers, people who got prayed for healing but didn’t get healed as signs of lack of faith, lack of spiritual maturity or lack of favor and blessing from God. When these “bad things” happen to them, they think God is punishing them for their sins, their lack of faith or their lack of whatever.
It is incorrect for Christians to assume that the sufferings they have to go through as a sign of lack of God’s favors or blessings, or lack of faith or spiritual maturity.
If we are reading verse 18 carefully, SUFFERINGS is part of our walk with Christ! It is not a matter of “IF”, but a matter of “WHEN”! And when sufferings happen in our lives, God wants us to have the CORRECT perspective! God wants us to see it from the point of view of ETERNITY! Remember that the Earth is only our temporary home! Heaven is our home! We don’t belong here on earth because we are CITIZENS OF HEAVEN! That’s why verse 18 we just read says that THE SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORY COMPARED TO THE GLORY WHICH SHALL BE REVEALED.
Now, we know God is good, God is love, God is generous, God is faithful. But let me ask you this. If you prayed for a new car and you got it, does it mean God is good? And if you did not get it, does it mean God is not good?
Through Romans 8:28, God wants us to understand that ALL THINGS means ALL THINGS. (Next Slide)

5. ALL THINGS When life is good as well as when it’s challenging!
When life is prosperous as well as when it has a lots of problems!
When life is like a walk in the park as well as when you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of the death
When we or our loved one got healed as well as when it didn’t get healed!
All things means ALL THINGS: Good things or bad things! Whatever the situation or the condition may be!
If we really think about it, Romans 8:28 is more appropriate for when the situation in our lives is BAD! In other words, when we go through SUFFERINGS!
When everything in our lives is GOOD, then we don’t really need to hear such encouragement! But when our prayers left unanswered or not answered according to our expectations, we lost our job and had been looking for a year, our loved ones didn’t get healed, our problems didn’t get fixed, in fact it got worse, when we are going through suffering, afflictions, trials and tribulations, that’s when we need to hear ROMANS 8:28, that ALL THINGS…. WORK TOGETHER… (Next slide)

6. SYNERGEŌ SYNERGY WORK TOGETHER
The words WORK TOGETHER is translated from the Greek word: SYNERGEO (Pronunciation: sün-er-ge'-ō)!
Synergeo means to work together. From the same root word, we got the word “SYNERGY”
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, SYNERGY is the increased effectiveness that results when 2 or more people or business work together!
Synergeo means that through our SUFFERINGS, through our TRIALS, God is powerful enough, mighty enough, in control enough to work it all out FOR GOOD (next slide)!

7. FOR GOOD What does it mean by “GOOD”?
As I said earlier, for many Christians who were influenced by the Prosperity Gospel teachings, “GOOD” means new car, new house, new job, new wife ….. which is very dangerous and very wrong!
Prosperity Gospel appeals only to our sinful and selfish nature. Jesus repeatedly warned that wealth can be dangerous to our souls (Luke 8:14; 12:15; Matthew 19:21-24) and that “you cannot serve both God and money”! Prosperity Gospel is a gospel of idolatry! It’s a wrong theology! People are taught to GIVE in order to RECEIVE instead of to GIVE out of GRATITUDE! People GO to church in order to GET something from God!
Don’t get me wrong! Jesus wants to provide for us, but He provides for us according to our needs, not to our “wants”! Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” According to the riches in glory by Jesus! It’s all point back to Jesus!
THROUGH OUR WORST SUFFERINGS GOD CAN TURN IN FOR GOOD…
President Lincoln said “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right”
Similarly, our concern is not whether God loves us! He does and He does it so extravagantly! But do we love God?
Romans 8:28 says we know that all things work together for those who LOVE GOD!
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We need to understand that sufferings is part of deal when we decided to follow Jesus. The bible says in Luke 9:23, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Why is it important to understand this? It is important because sufferings is counter intuitive for us humans.
It is not wrong to be prosperous, but it is wrong to think that that there is something wrong with our walk with Christ when we are experiencing SUFFERINGS! It is wrong to think that something is wrong with our faith or with our spiritual maturity. Even worse, to think that something is wrong with God for allowing us to experience SUFFERINGS! We think that God is mean, that God doesn’t love us when He allows us to experience SUFFERINGS! It’s funny how we often assume that the reason why bad things happen in our lives is because God doesn’t love us!

8. LOVE GOD
Laura Story, a Christian Contemporary singer, won the 2012 Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Christian Music Song with her song titled “Blessings”
The song may be named “Blessings”, but Laura Story didn’t write it because of the great things that were happening in her life. It’s not because she just got a record deal, a promotion, won a lottery, make big bucks from a huge business deal, just married her prince charming! The song was about worshipping God when life is hard. Her husband, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she wondered “Why didn’t you fix it, God? You are all powerful and all loving…just fix it!” Her struggle through the obviously difficult time in her life is reflected through the lyric of the song:
We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
Love = AGAPAO = to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
When things got tough in our life, When things in our lives don’t make sense, we question God’s love! When our prayers seem like they are not being heard… IS GOD Enough? Are we Content with God? Is God our everything or only his Blessings?
God should be our everything… HE is Sufficient for us…. He LOVES us first…
Romans 8, verse says…

9. Romans 8
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
God loves us! He is for us! There’s no question about that! But do we love God! To go deeper into this question, it should probably be rephrased: Do you love God for WHO HE IS or only for WHAT HE CAN DO?
Many Christians stay faithful to God only when times are good and nice, when all the roses are blooming and the sun is shining so brightly. But what about when they’re walking through the desert or walking through a road marked with suffering? Are we still going to stay faithful with the Lord? If all the reasons we stay faithful with God are only because of all the blessings, the miracles, the healings, the perks and the benefits from Him, and when times get tough, when we go thru sufferings we bail out, then what is the different between us and the “Material Girls” we all disdain and scorn? “If our relationship with God the Father is based on what He can do or what He can give to us, then He is nothing but a Sugar Daddy to us!”
IS God Enough for you?
Loving God is about KNOWING Him! Knowing His character! Knowing His heart! When you know His heart, you will not be in the position of against God! When God doesn’t do or give to you as you wish, you are not going to position yourself in the position of the opposite of God but on the same side as God because we know His heart and we know His character! The greek word for KNOWING is “GINOSKO” which means KNOWING INTIMATELY BY EXPERIENCE!
To experience God we need to learn to TRUST Him and to respond in OBEDIENCE to Him who has called us according to HIS PURPOSE… (next slide)

10. Romans 8
28 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.

11. Called according to his purpose
What is God’s purpose, Romans 8:28 is talking about?
Romans 8:28 makes no sense without Romans 8:29. “For whom he did for know he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, that we might become the first born among many brethren.”

12. Romans 8:29
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
One of God’s purposes is for us TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON! In other words … CHRISTLIKENESS!

13. christlikeness Christlikeness = to be like CHRIST!
Christlikeness can only be produced through SUFFERING – AFFLICTIONS – TRIALS – TRIBULATIONS!
Jesus in Getsemane…

14. Christlikeness SUFFERING Afflictions Trials & tribulations
is produced through
SUFFERING
Afflictions
Trials & tribulations
The problem is we don’t become like Jesus automatically or voluntarily! It’s not like we’re walking down the street one day and, zap, we’re zapped and all of a sudden, I no longer worry anymore or I’m always patient with everybody. I’m always Christ like. There is no pill. There is no conference. There is no book that can do that kind of sanctification.
So how does he make us like Jesus if that’s God’s number one purpose to make us like Christ?
I have found both from scripture and from experience that God allows us in the exact opposite situation in order to teach us character.
How does God teach me love By putting me around unlovely people.
How does God teach me joy, in the middle of grief, not happiness, which is based on happenings and happiness.
How does God teach me peace? Not when I’m out fishing and everything’s going my way and I say, “It doesn’t get any better than this,” but in the middle of chaos.
How does God teach me patience, by putting me in his waiting room and forcing me? So the exact opposite cause me—that those are part of the sovereignty of God too.
in order to teach us character, God allows the exact opposite situation, which is through sufferings because it is counter-intuitive to us, humans…
James 1 says…

15. James 1
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
You see, for many people many people MAXIMIXING HAPPINESS and AVOIDING SUFFERING at all cost are their number one life purpose! They think, by getting more stuff, having more money in the bank account, getting their dream job, getting the promotion, getting a new house, new car, getting married, having a boyfriend or girlfriend, they will be PERFECT, COMPLETE and LACK OF NOTHING! That’s why, the Prosperity Gospel gained so much popularity amongst Christians! It’s the Christian version of the American Dream! People were taught that all Christians should be rich and have tons and tons of money in the bank account and by having so, they will be PERFECT and COMPLETE!
In the greek words
Perfect = teleios which means WANTING NOTHING NECESSARY TO COMPLETENESS
Completion = holokleros which means COMPLETE IN ALL RESPECT, IN NO PART WANTING
In other words, FULFILLED! SATISFIED! CONTENT!
You know we sing that song “CHRIST IS ENOUGH” all the time! But do you know that we experience the meaning of that song much more when we are in lack than when we are full! We experience Christ is enough when there is a need in our life that is not FULFILLED and SATISFIED, but we choose to be CONTENT because of Christ that is in our lives is ENOUGH! And since Christ is enough we can rest, we can be FULFILLED, SATISFIED and CONTENT! We are not looking for anything else! What’s important to us is Christ!
Do you know that we know Jesus more when we are experiencing suffering?

16. PHILIPPIANS 3
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
THAT I May KNOW HIM!!!
We learned in the Bible that Peter preached and 3000 people got saved! Shortly after that, in the same book, the Book of Acts, Stephen preached and 3000 stones were thrown at him!
But does it mean Peter received God’s blessings and favors and Stephen did not? Does it mean that Peter had more faith and was spiritually more mature than Stephen?
The truth is, in the bible, there was never found any other instance where it’s recorded that when Stephen was stoned and was about to die, he saw a vision of Jesus STANDING at the right hand of the Father! Did you notice that Jesus was not SITTING at the right hand of the Father, but STANDING! And standing is the sign of honor! Stephen was being honored by Jesus for his steadfast faith in Christ in spite of facing death!
When John the Baptist was in jail, he was in lack! He was in lack of space, maybe in lack of good food, in lack of water, in lack of company, in lack of FREEDOM! But when he got an opportunity to ask Jesus one question, He didn’t ask, “JESUS when are you going to get me out of this jail?” “Jesus, when are you going to get me out of this suffering?”
That’s not what he was asking! Instead, John the Baptist asked, “Jesus are you the ONE? The Messiah that we’ve been waiting for! The Messiah that I’m preparing the way for? Or should I wait for somebody else”
John the Baptist was not concerned about her sufferings! Dwelt in his self pity and miserable self! He focused on whether He was fulfilling God’s purpose or not! Because if he has, he could care less about whether or not he will be released from jail or not. Whether he’ll be released from his sufferings or not.
Many times when we go through sufferings, our focus is getting out of it as fast as possible, as painless as possible! We could care less about fulfilling God’s purpose! We could care less about being conformed into the image of Jesus. All we care about is for Jesus to send his deliverance right away, to send His blessings right away, to send the answer to our prayers right away! We often falsely think that God exists to serve our purpose while the opposite is true! We exist to serve God’s purpose! We are called according to HIS PURPOSE!
Whatever sufferings we are experiencing is temporary…. 1 peter 1… (next slide)

17. 1 Peter 1
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
The various trials, the sufferings we are experiencing is only for a little while!
We must see our lives from the point of view of ETERNITY! Because whatever we are going through in our lives here on earth is TEMPORARY! It’s NOTHING compares to ETERNITY!
The bible says our life is like a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes! The suffering, afflictions, trials we are going through is nothing compare to the coming glory!
God is more concerned about the GENUINENESS OF OUR FAITH which is much more precious than GOLD that PERISHES! The trials will grieve us, but it is important for us so that we build our faith, because God is so much more interested in what we become through the journey than what we can accomplish or “get by faith” in the journey. The genuineness of our faith is so much more precious than gold. We like gold more, because it is an object that we can see and touch; and mistakenly think of it as “the” measure of our faith.
When we pray for someone who is sick, which one requires more faith, when the sick person got healed right away or when the sick person did NOT get healed right away?
When you’re unemployed and you pray for a job, which one will require more faith, when you got the job right away or when you didn’t get the answer right away. The thing is, we don’t know how trust without being in the dark. Suffering is the test of obedience unto death! Why? Because the victory of Jesus was accomplished through obedience to death. Because without death, there will be no resurrection! That’s why we have to go through trials and tribulations, sufferings and afflictions! We have to go through death in order to experience the resurrection! Without death there’ll be no resurrection!!
When we go through trials, suffering, afflictions ,problems, challenges, our prayer should not be, God get me out of this situation NOW! Heal me NOW! Give me a job NOW! Give me a Husband/Wife NOW! Take away this pain NOW! Our prayers should be, God let you accomplish what you want to accomplish in me as I’m going through this trials, through this sufferings and afflictions! And give me the grace to endure it and to come out victorious!
At the end of the day, we must understand that life is not about me! We are not the center of the universe! Life is about God! Life is about bringing PRAISE, HONOR and GLORY to JESUS!
The creations must display the glory of the CREATOR! When people see and admire the masterpiece painting called Monalisa, the name Leonardo Da Vinci will pop in their mind. Cause he is the grand maestro who did the painting.

18. ALL THINGS