Does God Really Have "A Wonderful Plan for Your Life"?

My sermon today is to try to answer this question, does God really have a wonderful plan for your life? This morning, about 830, I got a phone call from my hysterical daughter, Katie, who said something terrible has happened. And I said, what's happened? What's happened? Well, my granddaughter Ashley was driving from Concord out here and talking to her on her cell phone. And as she's going along, all of a sudden, she said, Ashley started screaming and then said, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, and the phone went dead. And so, for 30 minutes, we're trying to figure out what in the world has happened to this girl. We couldn't get her to answer her phone. We called everywhere, called the hypertrophine, they got on the web, and you're actually going to the web on the CHP website, and they give minute by minute accident reports.

And there it was. She was driving along on Highway 4 on the freeway and hit something and lost control of her car. And spun around. She didn't know what happened. It just went everywhere, ended up going off in the embankment down into this ditch. And the living God kept his hand on her because she wasn't hurt, she was just hysterical. She was scared to death. And as I was talking to my daughter, her mother, and if you know, most of you, no Shana, know that she's faced some huge challenges over the last few years. And she said to me, I just don't know if I can take very many more of these. And because I've been studying for this message, I said, God has a wonderful plan for your life. And this is a part of it.

This is a part of it. A lot of times when we think about this issue, and people often quote this passage, I remember quoting Romans 828 to a lady one time, some years back, and she was in a very difficult time. And we were talking, I just didn't, you didn't come out of the air, but we were talking, and I took her to Romans 8, and I quoted this version of God, it's causing all things to work together for good, to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. And it really enraged her. You said, you sound like a doctor says, go home, take two aspirants and call me in the morning. That's no answer. Well, it is if you understand it. It's a great answer in the midst of life's most difficult moments.

Is the promise that we have in Romans chapter 8, turn there with me. Romans chapter 8. I'm going to begin reading in verse 26 and get on through verse 30. We've been going through the book of Romans, and here we are, chapter 8. Listen to these words. Paul says in the same way, that is in the same way that hope fills our hearts in the midst of the darkest days because we have the promises of God regarding the future, and he says in the same way as hope helps us, he says the Spirit also helps our weakness, where we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings, too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He for knew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the first born among many brethren, and these whom He predestined, He also called, and these whom He called, He also justified, and these whom He justified. He also glorified. I regret it, but we're going to have to talk about the P word today, predestination. And some people that really causes a lot of discomfort, predestination. It's just a good biblical term, and as we'll see, it's a wonderful comforting term. I taught in a Bible college some years ago back in the early 70s and actually in the late 60s, and there was a lady, a wonderful little lady who had been on the mission field her whole life, and she was quite aged, and she was still teaching some, I can't remember where she taught there.

I think something on missions for Christian life, but she couldn't say the word sex. She just couldn't get that out of her mouth, and so she spelled it if she ever had to say it. But not only that, not only did she spell it, but she intentionally misspelled it so that she wouldn't be defiled by it, S-I-X, as she would say. Some people are that way about predestination. Predestination is just an incredibly comforting word, because it means that God has a wonderful plan for your life, believe her. The God has established a plan for you individually, and for us corporately. But God knows exactly what He's doing in your life, and He's up to something good. He's up to something good. I'd like to read something to you to start a little story.

This is not a story, but a letter from Miriam. This is Miriam Bell, of course, that you that are visiting, this is the lady in our church. When she left, she had black hair, and now she has gray hair, because she said that when she got there, she decided not to dye her hair anymore, and the man who's ahead of the ministry there got quite concerned, because she looked like she was under duress as her hair was turning gray so quickly. So she had to explain to him what was going on. I think she looks wonderful. This girl next to her, whose name is Harriet, and it isn't spelled like that. I know this is spelled in A, of course, Harriet and her baby, and I don't know the name of the baby, and I don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl.

But listen to this description that came with this picture. Miriam says last month, I wrote of a lady named Harriet, who is HIV positive with a four month old baby. This is from Uganda. I wrote that I invited her to church, and she came on the following Sunday. As she entered the church, I noticed she was wearing the same clothes that she wears every day, and the baby was dressed in the same dirty things, and wrapped in a pillowcase. She didn't smell too good, and I noticed the reaction from others that I knew was coming. I quickly went and welcomed her, and she remembered me. She always has a childlike smile and acts like one as well. I made sure she sat by me so that she wouldn't feel out of place.

I don't think she noticed the rejection, maybe because she's had to live with it all of her life. No one wants to befriend a person with HIV in Uganda, and she very clearly has it. The disease is called slims, because an infected person eventually loses so much weight they begin to look like a walking skeleton. With Harriet and her baby near me, I was able to participate in the service and keep my eye on her as well. I had no idea whether she had ever been to church, or she knew what to do. She seemed to really enjoy the music, because she was holding her baby, I motioned for her to remain seated when everyone stood. During the song, praise the name of Jesus. I happened to turn and look and see how she was.

I saw that her head was bowed. She held the baby in her left arm, in her right arm she was raised. I was brought to tears. I thought to myself, this woman has heard of Jesus, and knows enough about him to lift his name up in praise. I wondered if she knew him or just knew about him. Was it possible that she's a child of God? I hope to find out more about her when she and I are able to communicate. I have a feeling that Harriet has a lot to say about her life. This Sunday she came to church again. I was able to greet and sit next to her again, and she greeted me with a smile. We had communion this week, and I couldn't communicate with her to find out whether or not she was saved or understood what was going on.

A friend of mine sat on the other side of her, and you got in front and asked her some questions, but I didn't know what they were or their outcome, because that person doesn't speak English either. As a tray of bread came by, I could tell Harriet really wanted a piece, but she didn't take any. Instead she watched the ushers as they passed the plate around the room. She never took her eyes off them. I don't think she understood why all were allowed to take some, and she couldn't. The same thing happened with the juice. I wanted to reassure her, but was at a loss at what to do. So I did the only thing I could think of. I reached over and held her hand. I wanted her to know that she was not rejected.

Please pray for Harriet. God has really been challenging me with her and her baby. He brought her past together for a purpose. Pray that I will continue to love this woman, who has never known love. Also pray that she will recognize it, find some comfort in it, and that the damage done to her mind is not permanent. And then she says, this is final note that actually came later. Harriet and her baby are in this picture. And just an update, one of the ladies in our church made a quilt for the baby and also donated a dress and a pair of shoes. God is so good. I didn't want to do that to get all emotional about it. I wanted to ask you some questions as you think about God's plan and purpose in your life.

Suppose today there was somebody in this room who saw this picture and then this young lady ended up succumbing to death and this baby was left alone. And suppose that somebody's heart was so moved, not just with pity, not just with emotion and sentimentality. But suppose somebody's heart just by the power of God was so deeply attached that they said, I want to bring that baby into our family. I want to make this little girl, I think it's a girl, I don't even know, we want to make this little girl a part of our family, we want to raise her, we want to give her health and home and love and affection. What if that was to happen? What if somebody's heart was just so captured by it that you felt compelled to do that?

Now I'm not trying to produce that, I'm not wanting that to happen, I just want to illustrate something. What would you do? Well, first of all, there would be a love from your heart that would be attached to her, you would actually set your affection upon her. That'd be the first thing, you would begin to love her. And then you would develop a plan of how you're going to bring this little girl into your family. And then you would begin to work the plan, there would be a lot of things that would have to happen in order for that take place, you would have to go to Uganda, you would have to find out how legally you could adopt a Ugandan child, you would have to look at all kinds of things, her health and all of her needs and what would have to take place in order for you to bring her into your home and into your family.

So many things, now your heart is, you're doing all this because you love her. And you want to bring her close, you want her to be a part of your family circle. And the plan would include things like rescuing her, you'd have to get her out of this situation, most children in this situation don't live. It's more than likely statistically that this little child you see, you saw in that picture is not going to live. You'd have to rescue her. And then you would have to accept her, that'd be a part of the plan. I mean, bringing her in and making her part of the family, embracing her, making her your own. And then you would have to raise her. You would have to go through that process of raising her, that long process.

You know, and you would have certain goals in mind, you would want her to become a certain kind of person, a person of faith, a person of integrity, a person who has some confidence in God that they wouldn't be afraid to live life in a fallen world. You would want her to see produced in her life a certain kind of character that would manifest itself in all of life. I mean, there's a lot to do here, but to do in raising kids, isn't there? Usually you don't think about it until you're my age. You know, when you're doing it, you're not thinking about the big picture. You're thinking about, how are we going to get through tomorrow? But just imagine all of that. Now think of the text we've just looked at.

And notice what God has done. God has set his affection upon us. That's what it means that God for new us, as we'll see in just a moment. And because He loved us, He then developed a plan, He predestined us, that is, He laid out a plan by which He's going to actually conform us into the image of His Son. I'm so unlike Jesus, but I have this incredible hope that I'm going to be one of these days. And then He called us, He started working His plan. He called you, He called me, every believer in this room, He called you to Himself. He responded to that call. And then He justified you. That's what acceptance is. God declared you to be righteous. He clothed you with the righteousness of Christ and brought you right into the bosom of the family of God, made you His.

You're accepted in the beloved. And then He began to work in our lives and it culminates in the fact that He's going to glorify us. Which means He's going to completely change and transform us in character. You know, a lot of people when they think about being conformed into the image of Christ, they're thinking in external things. I've had people tell me that their whole idea of what heaven would be like is everybody would look alike. Wouldn't that be terrible? Everybody looked the same. Judy and I were walking through the mall over and stalked on the other day, we had to run over there. And I was just struck by the incredible diversity. It's incredible. And I thought, this is how heaven's going to be.

This is how heaven's going to be. You know that little song you learned in Sunday school, how's it go? Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in its night. Jesus loves the little children of the world. That's what heaven's going to be like, you know. Some people get so upset that there have been people that have, for example, presented a black Jesus. Now it's funny, we have no problem with having a Jesus that looks like an Italian instead of a Jew. You know, we don't mind those kind of pictures. You have no clue what Jesus is going to look like, do you? It might be a five foot, eight Jewish man who has Jewish characteristics is a real humanity. We get to heaven, it's going to be incredible.

We're all going to have the character of Jesus Christ. We're going to love to live together and be with each other. We'll love what God's doing in one another's lives. It'll overwhelm us. It'll be so good. This is what God's wonderful plans all about. Some of you, I pray, maybe not all of you, but a lot of you have heard over the years. I guess older people maybe have heard it more, but you've heard the four spiritual laws of campus crusade for Christ. I think there's a couple of problems with that gospel presentation and a couple of little problems theologically. But the first spiritual law is what? God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, let me tell you, that's the first law of being a Christian.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you need to understand this. God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. That's what Paul is telling us in this passage. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Let's look at it a little bit closer. Notice this. The actor in this passage we've looked at, and I want to, what I mean is, who is producing the action? We've talked a lot about this indicative and imperative. The indicative is, this is what is true. Now, this is what you ought to do. When this passage, we don't have any commands. You're not commanded here to set out a plan. You're not commanded here to become a visionary. You're not commanded here to respond to a call. You're not commanded to justify yourself or to glorify yourself or anything like that.

This is just a statement of what the living God has done. The actor is described as the one who works all things together for good. That's a title of God. You know, there's some incredible titles for God in the Scriptures. In James 1, he's called, and these are literally titles. In the original language, it's almost like there's brackets around these phrases that describe God. And James 1 says, he is the one who gives liberally and does not upgrade. The giving to all liberally and not upgrading God, that's who he is. That's kind of God he is. He is a, he's not parsimonious, he's not tight-fisted, he's not the kind of God who hates to bless you. He's the kind of God that Jesus described to his apostles who said, the Father longs to give you the kingdom.

The Father longs to bless you. What God has for you, what God wants to bless you with is so much greater than you can even imagine. He wants to bless us. He's the one who works all things together for good. Now the recipients, the receivers of this are described as, this is wonderful. The described as those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose. What Paul's done in this passage, as you've read Romans 8, is he's used certain phrases to describe us as Christians. For example, if you look back, I think it's in verse 4, we are called those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. He's used his other phrase, but then noticed in verse 14, he says, we are the ones who are being led by the Spirit of God.

And now he says, believers are those who love God. A lot of people read this passage and they think, here's what Paul is saying, he's saying, look, God causes all things to work together for good if you're loving God, but believe her, if you're not loving God, things are not going to work out good for you. That is not what Paul is saying. What Paul is doing here is he's describing believers, every believer. All believers are described as those who love God. Now, that is the most radical change that has ever occurred in your life. When the Spirit of God came and the grace of God invaded your life, you became a God lover. Isn't it something how you love God now that you address him as Father? But he's the first one you run to when you're in trouble that you never worry about, is he going to reject you?

Is he going to close his ears? Is he not going to listen to you? You know he's going to listen to you and you know that you love him, even when you're not actively acting like you love him. You're acting in a very unloving way at times, but you are, you believe her, are a person who loves God. That's a descriptive phrase of Christians. They are those who love God. And then he describes it from another perspective, those who are called according to his purpose. From the human side, we believers are those who love God. But from the divine side, we are those who are called according to his purpose. Is that wonderful? You're called according to his purpose. That's a glorious truth. You've been called according to his purpose.

Every believer. That's why you're a Christian today because God called you according to his purpose. Now notice this. This is called, if you were to read almost any commentary, they'll mention that this is called the golden chain of redemption. Somebody came up with that title, the description of these five things that Paul mentions in his verses. The reason it's called a golden chain is that they are put together in such a way that it's clear that Paul is saying every single person who was foreknown by God was predestined by God. Every person who was predestined by God was also called, every person who was called, it has also been justified, and every person who's been justified has been glorified, even though it hasn't happened yet.

This is called a prophetic present. In other words, it's so sure that you're going to be glorified that he can put it in the past tense. He can say, you've already been glorified. And I look around the room and say, not this group, nobody here has been glorified yet. And yet he says, you have. This is the golden chain of redemption. And what I want you to notice about this is God does all this. This doesn't have anything to do with what you've done. It has to do with what God has done. And look how early on the job he was. Paul says in Ephesians 1, he's talking about the same very, very same things. He's talking about these very same elements. He mentions them. And there he says, we were chosen.

This first step, this foreknowing, this foreloving, this setting, his affection upon us. He said it took place before the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world. Now let's take a look at these just a little bit closer. And think about this, that we are, this is the description of the believer. We are those whom he for knew. And right away, some people, when they see this, they just assume that what's going on here is that, yes, God looked down the corridors of time, and he saw that there would be people who would cooperate with him, who would love him, who would turn to him, and believe upon him, and therefore he chose those people. And I hate to bust your bubble, but you know what?

That just isn't what the text is saying at all. In fact, that the Bible testifies to very clearly, is there is none righteous, no, not one. The person in this room, that when God looked down the corridors of time, could see that if I leave them along alone, they'll turn to me. We none of us would. None of us would. There's none righteous, no, not one. No one turns to God, unless God first turns to them. And you say, but I chose God, yes, you did choose God, but the reason you chose God is because God chose you, okay? And so here we are, those whom he foreknowed, now why does he put it this way? Now in Ephesians 1, he says, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world here. He uses, speaking of the very same thing that God did, and he calls it God foreknowing us.

This speaks of God's election as an act of warmth and love. It speaks of God's choosing you as an act of the devotion of his heart to you. He set his affection upon you. That's what it means for him to foreknow you, because to foreknow is to forelove. That's the biblical meaning. I'll show you a couple examples of this. So we can describe election as love before time. That's what election is. The biblical doctrine of election is that God set his affection upon you before you ever came into this world. Most of you have heard the expression here, he's got to face it only a mother could love. Isn't it amazing the power of a mother's love is truly, I mean, I've seen this up close. I've seen people that were so incredibly unlovable, and yet see a mother who was so committed to love that person.

God's love is greater. God said there are some mothers. There are some, not many, but there are few. There have been a few in history. There are some mothers who would forsake their nursing child. That was a shocking thing when God said that. He says there are some, but I will never forsake you. In other words, my love is even greater than a mother's love for her nursing child. It's the greatest love in all of creation and all of time. It's God's love for his people. And so when Paul says here that he describes us as those whom the Father has foreknown, he is emphasizing the fact that we are those upon whom the Father has set his love. He has set his love upon you. Now let me establish that. It's fairly clear from the testimony of Scripture.

For example, notice this, Genesis 189, where I have chosen, that's how it's translated in the New American Standard. The Hebrew word Yadda is exactly the same as this word, this Greek word that's used here that's translated for, no, except without the four, but it's, we were known by God. In the eternity past, here it says, he says to Abraham, or about Abraham, for I have known him and the translators translated, I have chosen him because that's exactly what it means. I have known him. I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring up on Abraham what he has spoken about him.

And notice how it's used, for example, in Amos 3.2, you only have I chosen, that is, you only have I literally in the Hebrew, you only have I known, among all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your inequities. That, by the way, is one of the side effects of being chosen as a God will deal with your sin. He deals with the sins of his people. He chases those whom he loves. In fact, the writer of Hebrew says, if you're never chasing by God, then you're a bastard and not a legitimate son. But since the child of God is a legitimate son and child of God, then God does deal with our sins as he did with the sins of Israel. But you see how this word is used? Remember in Genesis 1, it says, and Adam knew his wife, Eve, she bore a child.

It was very obvious when you read that, that's how the King James translates this very word to know, you know he's talking about intimacy, don't you? You understand how that works, that Adam was intimate with his wife and she became pregnant and she bore a child. He loved his wife and he expressed that love in their union. When it says that God for a newest, it means that God set his heart upon us. Now, obviously God foreknows everybody in the general sense, but not in this sense. God knows about everybody here and everybody in this world. He knows your past, your present, your future. He knows what's going on inside your heart. He knows what's going on in your circumstances. He knows all about you.

But when it says he for new us, it means he set his love upon us. He loved us, chose us as his own. And then we're told in 1 Peter 1.20 and the same exact word is used of Jesus Christ, for he was that as Jesus Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. The Father loved him and he chose him for this task to be the Savior of the world. And he says, but he has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. And so what we have here when it says that we are those who were foreknown, it means that we are those who were foreloved. We are those upon whom God has set his affection. And then he says, all of those who were foreloved have been predestined. We are those whom he predestined.

Now, what in the world does that mean? Well, notice this. The predestined implies that God has a destiny for you, right? You can see that in the Word. We were predestined. He has a destiny for you. What is our destiny? Well, he tells you right here to become conformed to the image of his son. He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. God had in mind something. You know, there's a lot of talk in the church today, so much literature about vision and vision casting. Leaders are supposed to have a vision for the church, and they're supposed to continually be putting that vision before the people so we can be pursuing a vision. I think that's wonderful, but I've got to tell you, my visions don't always come to reality.

Do you yours? God always does. You know, we're about to, we are just entering into contract with our architect to build this building, and they're going to begin the final stages for the building permit itself, and now it's all the working plans. So they're going to put on paper this plan for how this building is going to be built. In the contract are these stipulations that deal with the fact that what's going to happen is the best laid plans we're going to discover that there are mistakes of one kind or another. Or we're going to change our mind about this or that. And so it talks about what we do when we run into that. There is no such thing in the plan of God. Here's in the plan of God, we're dealing with not only an omniscient God, but an omnipotent God, a God who has all power and authority and sovereignty to accomplish His perfect.

And so His plan, His purpose, according to which He has called us, is going to culminate in this that we would be conformed to the image of His Son. This word, sumorphos, you can see right in the word, if you look at it, we get our word morphed from it. Have you ever used one of those morphing programs on a computer where you can take a picture of you when you were 16 and a picture of you when you were 60? And then you can put those two pictures together and this program will take that picture and it will morph you into the older person or vice versa. That's what I'd like, you know, just would morph you from, you know, 60 to 35. And it's really amazing to watch, you know, this transformation that takes place.

And here He uses this word sumorphos, that is, we are the ones who are being morphed into the image of Jesus Christ, not physically, not externally, although our bodies are going to be transformed into the image of the body of Christ, not, it's not that we're going to have the same stature and look exactly like Him. It is that our bodies are going to be spiritual bodies. Our bodies that is are going to be animated by the spirit who lives within us. Our bodies are going to be fit to live in the presence of Almighty God and to praise Him and worship Him and live in the joy and delight of fulfilling His purposes in this universe. Well, notice this, why is God so interested in this? Why is God so interested in conforming you into the image of His Son?

Well, it's so that He would be, that is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God would be the first born among many brethren. When I showed you that picture, that little baby held in the arms of his mother or her mother, I'm sure there is some emotion that arises in your heart about that child, thinking about its future and so forth, but I'll guarantee you a few of you thought, you know, this would really be good for our children. This would be such a good thing for our kids to have this little child in our home and see her transform to become like they are, you know, to become like all of you have these wonderful children that are holy and righteous and feel with truth and incredible character and you want them to become like them.

Well, Jesus has a Son. I mean, God has a Son, rather. God has a Son who has arrived. God has a Son who is perfect. And God's desire is, and this is why He chose you, this is why He is predestined you. He is predestined you to become like His Son because He wants His Son to be the first born among many brethren. I'll tell you, that's astounding. The Father wants you to be like His Son. He wants you to be, He's already said that you have been brought into the family and made His child when you put faith in Christ. You become a Son of God, a child of God, and He says, I'm going to be raising you and working in your life through all the circumstance of life until you are finally conformed to the image of my Son.

You'll be as righteous in practice, as holy in practice, as truthful, as good, as loving, as kind, as Jesus Christ is. Isn't that something? You know, in the New Testament, He's constantly telling us, we ought to become more like Jesus Christ. And Philippians 2, He says, have this mind among yourselves, church, as Jesus Christ had, that He put the interests of others before Himself. And then He gives you the evidence that He left glory where He was manifesting His equality with the Father from all eternity and He says, but He let go of that and took on the form of a servant, became a man and entered into our world. He took on our likeness so that we could take on His likeness. Is that amazing?

Did He came all the way down to where we are so that He could bring us all the way into the very inner circle of the family of the triune God? So the Father wants the Son to be the first born among many brethren, and so notice the parallel statement. He puts it this way in Ephesians 1, 5, He predestined us to adoption of Son. See the parallel? In other words, this Son and being a child of God, a Son of God, being like the Son of God, being a part of, being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as a part of being in the family of God. If you brought that little girl into your family, she would begin to take on the characteristics of your family, wouldn't she? Funny how that worked. Scary, isn't it?

Man, that's scary. They start becoming just like you. Have you noticed that? You're not laughing. That is the hardest thing to me about raising kids, then they start becoming just like you. And the things I've had, the biggest troubles in raising kids is when they were acting the most like me, it was horrible. Brothers, the first born among many brothers, I'd say sometimes it's hard even to think of Jesus as being our brother, isn't it? You probably don't think about that very much. I don't say that very much, because I want to reverence him, but this is exactly what the text says. He is my brother. He's my older brother. I have an older brother who's about four years older than me, and as I was growing up a little kid, I did look up to my brother.

I wanted to become like my brother. My brother had a good character, and he had a heart for God, and he followed in a path of obedience. He became a pastor, and I wanted to follow in his step. He said an example for me. We have, every one of you have, an older brother, Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God, and God has predestined a plan for you in your life, including all the events of your life. The good stuff is better as well as the bad stuff in order to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ. You know one of these days that you two are going to look out for the needs of others more than you look out for your own needs? You think I'm going to be wonderful when you're freed up from self-interest, and your heart is really set free, and you can really lay down your life the way Jesus laid down his life.

Won't that be wonderful? Of course it will. Before time began, God formulated a wonderful plan for your life. That's what the passage is telling us. I want to emphasize something. This is a personalized plan, and what I mean by that is every single one of you. We could go around the room. You could tell us your name when you came to faith in Jesus Christ. You could tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience, and I could tell you, I could look you in the face individually and say, do you know that an eternity passed, God had Dan in mind when He laid out a plan for Dan. A particular personalized plan in which He was going to conform Dan into the image of Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful?

And that's like I tell my daughter this morning, she's feeling overwhelmed, and I said, God is at work in this. This is a part of the good and glorious purpose of God in conforming one of His dear children into the image of Jesus Christ. I believe that without a doubt. I don't always believe that. There are moments where I've had a hard time believing that, but I know it's true. I know it's true. And then the goal is family likeness. In chapter 8 verse 3, it says He took on our likeness. In verse 30, it says, now God is causing us to take on His light. I love that part. I love that part. I want to be like Him, don't you? And every time I see His likeness in you, I get in situations and I'm with you in certain kinds of situations, sometimes pretty heavy.

And I see the character of Jesus Christ showing through it, such a thrill, such a thrilling thing to watch Christ being formed in you. You know, in Galatians, Paul describes it this way, he says, it says, Paul says, it says, though I have birth pangs as I'm waiting for Christ to be formed in you, he says, as I watch your life and as I minister to you and try to disciple you and make and and pour my life into you, he says, it's like I'm experiencing birth pangs because I want to see Christ formed in you and sometimes it's so painful when people go through things and they manifest the fact that man, they just got these big holes in their character where there's nothing at all like Christ in this area of their life.

And yet we have this glorious comforting truth that God has a purpose and a plan. He has predestined you to be conformed into the image of His Son and He's going to complete that. And this comes through the fellowship of His sufferings. We ought to just sit here and think about that for a second. This comes. It is a wonderful idea, isn't it? Again, I could just, I could stop right there and be really thrilling, but then you got to look at the part about the fact that God says, yes, I've got this plan and this purpose and guess what it's going to come through the fellowship of His suffering. You're going to enter into such a close relationship with Jesus Christ, this life transforming relationship.

And you know what it's going to be like? You're going to go through sufferings the way Jesus went through sufferings and He's going to be in it with you. Ephesians says, when you're in the midst of this, you have a special experience of the Spirit's presence in ways you have it. No other time is when you're being, you're fellowshiping with Christ in the fellowship of His suffering. Notice this. In Philippians chapter three, turn there with me. Let's turn to Philippians three. Philippians chapter three. Philippians three verse 10, notice this. Paul says that I may know Him. Let me go back to verse eight. This is just too good. Listen to this. Verse eight, chapter three, Philippians, more than that, I count all things to be lost, which means to be stuff that's so worthless.

Maybe today would be best translate this toxic waste. That's what this means. More than that, I count all things to be toxic waste in view of the surpassing value. When He says all things, He means all the good things in my life. The fact that I have a status in Judaism, I was a teacher. This man had an incredible mind and he had status and he had a place in the future, but He says, I count all of that, all of that I count it to be toxic waste in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Have you ever had that happen in life where you're going along and you have some things that are really valuable to you? You really like Him and you really value them. You have them all around you, but then something happens.

You come into a situation where something else comes along and it becomes so valuable to you that this no longer has much value and all you want to do is get rid of it, whatever you need to do in order to have this. Like the man who found the treasure in the field, it captures your heart. Paul says, this is what's happened to me. My heart has been captured by this. Everything has become toxic waste in light of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may get in Christ and may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from obeying the law, doing the right thing, but that which is through, that is a righteousness that is through faith in Christ, a gift, a righteousness that is a gift that comes when I put my faith in Jesus Christ, that as I can be right with God, I can be accepted by God based upon the righteousness that's given to me as a gift through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and you go, yes, I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

I want to experience the power that it took to raise Jesus from the dead as Paul says in Ephesians 1, you can have this kind of power to live the Christian life and I say, yes, this is what I want. I want the power of His resurrection. And then he says, and the fellowship of His sufferings, fellowship of His sufferings, the coignanee of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, I want to fellowship with Him in His sufferings so that I will become like Jesus was in His death, that is that Jesus obeyed God to the very end. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is manifest in the fact that He obeyed the Father even at the cost of His own person, He lays down His life and obedience to the Father.

Everything has been given up. Jesus didn't even have a place to lay His head in order to be obedient to the Father. He valued obeying the Father more than anything in life in Paul says, this is what I want. I want to experience the fellowship of His suffering. You know when God starts taking things out of your life and you panic and you're trying to hang on to them and you're trying to figure a way to keep from losing those things? Why don't you just let go? Why don't you just try just letting go? I heard a, I wish I could think of His name, a pastor in Pomona, California, but I can't think of His name, but this guy was telling a story about going to see this little, this person in the hospital who was, no, this was, I know this was, this was a barnhouse.

When barnhouse went to see a woman in this, a little girl in this church, about 10 years old who was dying of this disease she had and he was, as he was talking to her, she was a believer and she had strong faith and this little thing was just fading away. Her life was coming to an end and as he was talking to her, she said, she said, I think, pastor, I think that the Lord's going to take my life and barnhouse said, don't let him do it, give it to him, give it to him, release your grip, enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, be conformed into His death, that has become a person who experiences incredible joy of possessing nothing and yet possessing all things. That's what He says, this is what is going to conform us, that I may know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, but He says, this is going to result in verse 21, we will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with His, the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

You know why we enter into this fellowship of His sufferings? People don't do this except they go through this process of taking on the mind of Jesus Christ. You won't suffer as a Christian the way Paul is describing until you take on the mindset of Jesus. That's the order of these chapters. Chapter 2, He says, take on the mindset of Jesus. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mine, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this mindset in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, and then He goes on to describe how Jesus, although it existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped and hung on to for dear life, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant.

The mindset of Jesus, I mean, imagine this, when you see people, I think in the life of the church among real Christians who've rested their faith in Jesus Christ, we rejoice and we have great joy when we have somebody come, and they testify to the fact that God has brought them to the place where they're willing and able and joyful and laying down their lives for others. We're going to have missionaries here next month from around the world, one of the things about all these guys that I know them all well, that the impressive thing to me with every one of them is this, that they manifest the mindset of Jesus, that they're not doing what they're doing out of selfishness or empty conceit with humility of mine.

They're regarding one another is more important than themselves, and He says, that's how we ought to be in the local church. And isn't it wonderful when the church is like that? Oh, it's wonderful to be in the life of the church. Man, when you're in trouble, especially, when your needs are great, they multiply and you get in situations, and then the body of Christ just surrounds you, and they begin to manifest this mindset of Jesus, that your needs and what you're going through is more important to them than their own needs. You see the face of Jesus in His people, it's a wonderful, wonderful experience. I couldn't exist outside the church. To me, this is life being in the fellowship of the same.

When Miriam wrote that letter and about this experience with this young lady, I thought in that last little note, somebody in the church made a blanket and gave her a dress and gave her some shoes. What it's like to get shoes in Uganda? This is a big deal. I'd be like saying, yeah, somebody bought this guy a Louis Ross suit. I mean, this is a big deal. You know what it is? It's the face of Jesus Christ seeing, being seen in His people. What a wonderful place to be in the body of Christ. The steps in the realization of God's wonderful plan for your life is a lie who will close with this, these three things. God has called us according to His purpose. He forenew us. He said His affection on us.

That is, He chose us in eternity past to be objects of His grace, and then He worked out a plan by which He's conforming us into the image of Christ, and now He tells us how He carries it out and He gives us these three steps. He says these, whom He forenew and predestined, He also called. He called us. He called us. What a glorious thing. This confuses people sometimes because the Bible clearly says that God's calling all men in Matthew 22. We're given a parable there. Jesus gives a parable, and He says He wants the kingdom. The kingdom of God is like a king who's having a wedding for his son, and He invites some guests. They all tell him He can't come, so He says, go tell everybody to come, make the invitation open to anybody who wants to come and celebrate.

The call goes out to the whole world. There's not a person in this room. There's not a person in this city. There's not a person on this globe to which the gospel does not go out. The invitation doesn't go, come, come, but there's also a sentient which the call of God is very personal and effectual in the life of those upon whom God has set His love. In fact, look with me at Matthew 11, very familiar passage, but look at this. Look at the context of it, Matthew 11, Matthew 11. In verse 25, it says, at that time, this is after the disciples had gone out, preached the gospel throughout Israel, had come back and given in this glowing reports that God was at work. God was doing miraculous things, people were being impacted by the gospel, and it says in verse 25, at that time, Jesus said, oh, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise, intelligent, have revealed them to infants.

Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one, get this, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. The reason that you know the Father is because the Son wills to reveal the Father to you. But then look at this, look at this, look at this, and then very next verse, Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Join yourself to me, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and hard, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Jesus says, come, but he says today, come, you're here today, you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, what Christ is saying to you through us is, come, come to me and believe, come to me and receive eternal life.

Inner in, the door is open, come, there's no class of people on the face of the earth that the invitation doesn't go to, come. And yet you who have responded have experienced the effectual call, the gospel is coming power. You are in a situation, and you may have been hearing the gospel, but then one day it came in power, as Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, it didn't come in word only, it wasn't just a bunch of words, the guy up there was speaking, but all of a sudden the spirit of God opened my heart, and the power of the gospel invaded my life. He says it came in power, and in the spirit, and with much full conviction, and you turn to Christ, and you believed in Him, He called you, He called you.

And then He says all those that He called, He also justified, He accepted you, He declared you righteous. He declared you as His, and His righteousness as His Son, because He wraps you up in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And then He says, these He also glorified, it is so sure that He's going to conform you into the image of Christ that Paul could put in the past in. Now, some of you, if you were absolutely honest, I've often thought of this in church services, you know, how often in your life, I want to ask you something, be honest about this to yourself, I don't want you to raise your hand or anything, but think about this. How many serious conversations have you had this week with somebody about really spiritual things, about your heart and your soul, in the state of your soul, and what's really going on inside of you?

How many conversations have you had this week in which you talked about what was really important, about what was really going on inside, about God's work in your life? I would say that many of you have had no conversations like that, and I got to think about this. We come to church, and I get up here and preach away, and then afterwards we all get together and talk to one another, but how many of those conversations are about what God is really doing inside of you? And I thought, you know what I had to do sometimes? I had to just stop in the middle of a sermon and say, and I have actually done this before in some context, don't get scared, but I've actually stopped and said, okay, now turn to your neighbor and preach the gospel to them.

Wouldn't that be panicky for some of you? Turn to your neighbor and proclaim the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ and what it implies for your life today. You know, we need to do that. I mean, these meetings ought to be, when we come together as believers, we ought to have some serious and real and honest and straightforward conversations about what's going on in our toll. People ought to feel free enough to be honest about their struggles and about their immaturity, about their fears. You know, a person ought to be able to say, man, this stuff scares me to death. This whole idea of predestination, election, I just can't stand this, and for somebody sit down with them and say, let's look at the passage, let's think about it.

I know what you're struggling with. I struggle the same way, but what does it mean? What does it say? What is God doing here? Why does God think it's so good? Why does God think it should encourage you when it discourages you so much? We ought to be having those kind of conversations. What are you struggling with? Who is it that knows about the secret sins in your life? If you're the only one who knows, I can guarantee you you're going to stay in those sins. That's just how it is. That process works. The secret sins who stay secret with you are going to become in your mind, your identity. And somebody needs to come up with, remember that commercial aqua-velva, the slap in the face, you know, and the guy says, thanks, I needed that.

That's what we need in the church. What we need in the church is for people to be honest with each other. And talk about real spiritual things. I challenge you to do that today. The real, if I was to ask you, where's the proof that God is causing all things to work together for good in your life? What would you point to? What would you point to to say God's blessing is upon my life? What evidences are that God's blessing is upon your life? Let me tell you, I could tell you this morning, the sign, one of the evidences that God's blessings is upon my life is some of the troubles I'm going through. We usually think, you know, this whole prosperity gospel, name it and claim and all that stuff, you know what baffles me?

I mean, just amazing. Do you know that stuff sells in Uganda? Do you know that there are churches thriving in Uganda who preach a prosperity gospel? If you believe on Jesus, He'll make you healthy, wealthy in the center of everyone's attention. And there are churches that are growing huge because that's exactly what those people want. And it's a lie. And the great evidence that God is at work in your life, that He has a plan and a purpose, a wonderful plan in your life, part of the proof of that is the troubles you're going through because the real proof is character. Character. And some of you aren't even aware of how much your character has changed and so something happens. I sit at a table at the conference, the banquet on Friday night and there were several couples there, T and Laurie were with us and Stephen Fernandez and Karen and there was these two couples.

There's one that's been a student of mine, 21 years old and he heads up a Spanish speaking ministry in a church in Cordilla and he had this other couple there, Jose and his wife and Jose began to tell a little bit about his story and he kind of blushed and Kevin says, tell him your story and he blushed a little bit and he says, well, I was really bad. I mean, I was really bad. I was really into bad stuff and I ended up in jail, serving time. And things really got bad and I was afraid I was going to lose my family, his wife sitting right there, beautiful young lady, I was afraid I was going to lose everything and it really got bad. And then when I got out of there, I didn't have any place to go, I had to go to a shelter so I went to the Richmond Rescue Mission and he said, at the Richmond Rescue Mission, I heard the gospel and I came to faith in Christ.

And then I started going to Valley Bible Church and I started being taught the word and now I'm in ministry in Cordilla. And I just, I was so funny to me because Mitch and I have a good friend who has exactly the same story. His life was in the pits. He gave everything he had away, he was, he had nothing in this world. He was so, in such a despondency, he didn't know what to do and he ended up in San Arita, jail. When he got out of San Arita, the only place he had to go, somebody told him about the Richmond Rescue Mission. He goes to Richmond Rescue Mission and he came to faith in Christ. And then he became the administrator of Valley Bible Church. And you know what, the proof of Phil Skoggins, you know, his 10 children, he didn't get married till he was like 37 and he has 10 children.

How in the world do you do that? That's just phenomenal. And but Phil, the thing about Phil was, is the proof that God had a wonderful plan for his life was, it wasn't what most people think, it was because he lost everything. That was the proof that God was at work his life. He lost everything. And once he lost everything, he became open to the grace of God and his character was changed by it. He became a completely different man. Greater love had, than this, there's no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. I remember Phil Skoggins, I was talking to him one day and we were talking about a battle that was going on, that he was in the middle of, that he was kind of the target of, and I said, are you worried?

And he says, no, because I'm not going to fight. I'm just not going to fight. And it's hard to fight with somebody who won't fight, I'm not going to fight. Because God is so captures, heart, this driven, self-willed man, that been broken by the gospel. But the work of God, the proof of God having a wonderful plan for his life was he took everything away from him. Who knows what the proof that God is a wonderful plan for your life is today, the most glaring proof, but I can tell you this, it results in a change of character. You're becoming people of faith. Just think about how much stronger your faith is today than it was when you began. Let's stand and pray for each other. I hear the kids screaming.

Father, what can we say to a God like this? What can we say to a God who would set His love on us when we were nothing but God-haters? When we had no desire to come to you and you came to us, what can we say? To a God who would lay out a plan for each one of us individually, that you have a plan to conform me into the image of Christ. I have so far to go, and yet I have confidence that you have a plan and a purpose. I thank you for the trouble in my life and for the pain in my life and for the sufferings in my life, even though they're small and so insignificant in comparison to the sufferings that others have, but I thank you for them because I know they're a part of the plan, but I also thank you for the incredible joy of faith and of confidence in you.

Oh God, I thank you that you're at work in these people's lives. These are objects of your love and your affection, and you are prejudiced towards them. You are committed to finish this good work that you have begun, and I pray that you would. I pray that we could rejoice as you do it, and as we watch your hand at work, you know, all of these things. We thank you that you were working these things together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name, amen, amen.