Turn your Bibles with me if you will, and by the way, do you realize that when we open the Bible, we open the very mind of God. So let’s see what God has to say to us from Romans 8:28, and while you are turning there, let me remind you:
Now Romans 8:28 is a very familiar passage of Scripture. And I want to ask you to stand with me, and let’s read this out loud together. Romans 8:28 says:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” ALL MIXED UP. Let’s Pray:
Back when I was attending Bible College outside of Raliegh, North Carolina, Jennifer was about 12 or 13 years old and Josh was around 8 or 9, we used to have some really bad winters. And since we lived out in a rural area called Corinth Holder, we would get snowed in for 3 to 4 days at a time before they could clear our roads. That was good for the kids because they got to stay home from school, and being a college student, I learned to appreciate those days as well. At the time, we had an old 1983 Jeep CJ7, and we loved that thing. We had a big ole 10 acre yard behind our house, so the kids would take the jeep and drive it around this field – it was a blast.
But this one day, me and Jenni and Josh were out driving around in about a ft. and a half of snow like we had good sense, and as we’re driving along, a car up in front of me hit it’s brakes and began sliding sideways down the road. And I was immediately confronted by 2 choices: 1) I could move to the right side of the road where there was a big ditch and take the chance of not slipping into the ditch, or 2) I could just ease on my brakes and hope for the best. So, I thought about it, and I thought about it, and thought about it some more (which ended up being about a half a second), I decided to hit my brakes. Well, that didn’t go quite work-out the way I planned it. When I hit the brakes, my jeep took off like a rocket – straight for that ditch. We slipped down into that ditch and slide a little ways, and when we stopped, the jeep just turned completely upside down.
Now Josh was in the front with me, and Jennifer was in the back seat – hanging upside down unable to unstrap herself from her belt buckle. After Josh and I stopped laughing at Jenni, we got her unbuckled. We all climbed out and while we are standing there in the snow, looking at our jeep turned upside down, Josh says to me, like any 9 year old would, “Dad, I don’t think any good can come of this.” I told him like any self-respecting father would, “Hush your mouth boy, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then after walking around the Jeep and surveying the situation, I said to myself, “I don’t think any good can come of this.”
Have you ever stood in the middle of a storm—your heart broken, your mind racing, your life seemingly turned upside down—and said something like:
“I know Romans 8:28 is in the Bible, but I can’t see how any good can come from this storm.”
“This tragedy doesn’t look like it’s working together for anything but pain.”
“This valley is too deep, this sickness too cruel—how can any of this be good?”
Let’s be honest—sometimes life feels like it’s just all mixed up.
Nothing’s in the right place. Nothing’s working like it should. And even though you know what the Word says, you still wonder:
“God… how can You possibly make something good out of this?”
Romans 8:28 is one of the most beloved verses in the Bible…
But this morning, I want to suggest that it’s also one of the most misunderstood, misquoted, and misapplied.
Because Romans 8:28 doesn’t say that everything is good. It doesn’t say that God prevents us from walking through the valley, facing the storm, or carrying the weight. But it does say that when God gets involved—when His hands are in the mix—He can take what feels broken, painful, and confusing… and He can mix it all together for something good.
So today, under the title “All Mixed Up,” I want to take a fresh look at this powerful promise. And I believe there is enough truth and strength in this one verse to bring peace to your chaos and purpose to your pain.
There are three divine aspects of Romans 8:28 I want you to see this morning—because even when life feels all mixed up, God is still in control of the outcome.
I SEE A FAITHFUL PROMISE – “AND WE KNOW . . .”
There were 2 Greek words translated in the New Testament as the word “KNOW.”
First, there was the word “Genosko,” which means “to come to know; to get to know, to gradually know.”
And Secondly, there was the word “I-Do,” which represents the force or power of knowing something.
- “To be persuaded of truth;”
- “To know without the need of understanding;”
- “To know without the need of explanation.”
Strangely enough, these two words and often been used in the same verse throughout the New Testament. For example, in John chapter 13, Jesus has laid aside His garments, and has a basin of water, He has girded His loins with a towel and He approaches Simon Peter. When He does, Simon Peter asked a question:
“Lord, dost thou wash my feet?” Jesus said, “What I do now, thou knowest (I-DO) not; You don’t fully understand what I am doing, but thou shalt know (Genosko) hereafter.”
“You don’t understand now – but you will.” “Eventually, you’re going to know.”
Now the word that Paul uses here is in the strongest form of the Greek word KNOW. “AND WE KNOW”
He was fully persuaded;
He knew, even though he didn’t understand;
He knew, even though he couldn’t explain it.
Paul said, “I may not understand all things, I cannot explain all things, but I KNOW that all things work together for the good to them that love God.” IT IS A FAITHFUL PROMISE. There’s a lot of things I don’t understand
- I don’t understand why some people have so much while others have so little;
- I don’t understand why some are always sick, while others are rarely sick;
- I can’t explain why some people have to die so young, while others live a good long life.
I may not know it and I may not can explain it, BUT “I know that all things . . . “
Not only do we see a Faithful Promise, but notice with me:
I SEE A FRUITFUL PROCESS
“And we know that all things work together FOR GOOD . . .”
One reason that we have so much trouble understanding Romans 8:28 and accepting Romans 8:28 is because we want the verse to say “ALL THINGS ARE GOOD.” But that’s not what it says.
When bad things happen in our lives, we look at Romans 8:28 and we just don’t understand.
The Bible does not say that ALL THINGS ARE GOOD.
When you follow a loved one to a grave – that’s not good;
When the doctor gives you devastating news – that’s not good;
The Bible doesn’t say that “All things are good,” It says “All things work together FOR GOOD.”
In the manufacturing of medications (and I’m sure some of you know this better than I do), did you know there was a process to making medications? They take just a small portion of the actual medicine, and they mix it with a lot of other medicines. They say that if you took the entire dose of a particular medicine, your body couldn’t take it – this is called “cutting it.” But, when you mix it up and dilute it with other medicines, it is good for you.
Listen to me now: If that one storm; If that one trial; If that one tragedy Was all there was, it would be too much for us. We couldn’t handle it.
- But I’m glad that with our storms – God adds peace!
- I’m glad that with my valleys – God adds some Mountaintops;
- I’m glad with with my tragedies – God gives some triumphs;
- I’m glad that with my sorrow – God gives some joy;
- I’m glad that in my darkness – God gives some light.
When it’s all mixed together, when it all “Works together,” It “works together for good.”
Church, we have to understand that it is a Fruitful Process.
You know what, I don’t like Raw eggs, and I don’t like raw dow; and I don’t like eating plain sugar, and I don’t like drinking vanilla flavor out of the bottle – BUT, when you mix it all together, give me a call, cause I sure like eating cake AMEN!
“All things work together for good.” Now let’s take it a step further. We saw the Faithful Promise, the Fruitful Process, now let’s look at:
I SEE THE FINISHED PRODUCT
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to HIS PURPOSE.”
I have known this verse for as long as I can remember. I have studied it, I have preached on it, but sitting in my room a few weeks ago, I was reading this verse, and when I got to the part that says, “To them that are called according to HIS PURPOSE.” That word PURPOSE just jumped off the pages at me. And I began to ask myself, “What is God’s ultimate purpose for my life?” What is His ultimate purpose for your life?
Now don’t miss this:
If you look at verse 29, you will notice that it begins with a little 3 letter word – FOR. That word FOR is a conjunction. Conjunctions are words that connect words, or sentences, or paragraphs or phrases.
This little word FOR takes verse 28 by the hand and then it takes verse 29 by the hand and it joins them together. And since verse 29 begins with that word FOR – we really cannot understand verse 28 without knowing something about verse 29. SO, I want everybody to join hands, now I’m gonna get right in the middle here and I want the right side of the church to be verse 28 and I want the left side of the church to be verse 29. Right side read verse 28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Now left side read verse 29: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Now, let me tell you what that means. God had only 2 Sons. What I mean by that is that there were only two men that ever walked the face of the earth that were not born of woman.
In Luke chapter 3, we find a listing of genealogies. It says that so-in-so begat so-in-so, and so-on and so-on. Then down at the bottom it says, “Adam, He was the son of God.“
Adam was the CREATED Son of God. Everything we see here today was spoken into existence – except man!
“God formed man with His own hands; He formed us from the dust of the earth and breath into our nostrils the breath of life and we became a living soul.”
And by the way, things that are always the most costly are the things that are hand-made!
God said, “Let us form man in our own likeness, in our own image.” The words image and likeness mean to “mirror” or the “reflect.”
GOD CREATED MAN TO REFLECT WHO HE IS! And God said, “This was very good.” And do you know why? Because when God looked at man, He saw Himself.
But you know the story, man fell into sin. God came into the Garden and could no longer see Himself and He knew something has died.
But remember, there’s another Son. And that is the “Only Begotten Son.” The Second Adam, the Final Adam. His name is Jesus Christ and He was everything God intended for man to be.
God created man for the purpose of reflecting who HE was. Jesus was everything God intended Him to be to the extent that He could say, “when you see me, you see the Father.”
No wonder when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River the Bible says, the Heaven’s open and a voice descended from Heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
In fact, God was so pleased with Jesus that He said, “I’m gonna make all my children just like Him.” “That He might be the first-born among you.”
But how is God doing that? How is God conforming us to the image of His Son?
By using “ALL THINGS.”
The “Good” in verse 28 is not talking about being happy, or healthy, or wealthy, it’s talking about conforming you to the image of God’s Son.
That means that God is orchestrating all things in our lives:
- The good things;
- The bad things;
- The things we understand;
- The things we don’t understand;
- The things we can explain;
- The things we can’t explain.
God is orchestrating, He is conforming us to the image of His Son through the events in our lives.
It is said that when a great artist paints a picture, he starts by painting the insignificants parts first. You can look at the painting and it doesn’t make any sense to us – and that’s the way life seems sometimes, it just doesn’t make sense to us. But to the artist, he knows where he’s going, so He paints on.
They say that a truly great artist has the ability to work his mistakes into the painting. When an artist makes a mistake, he doesn’t try to erase the mistake, he just works it into the painting.
Now we know that our Heavenly Father doesn’t make mistakes – BUT WE DO. And I’m glad this morning that my Heavenly Father has a way of working all my mistakes into the picture of my life.
I’m glad that when the vessel was marred, the Potter didn’t throw the vessel away. I’m glad our Heavenly Artist just keeps painting!
You see, God is painting a picture of His Son in our lives.
God is taking all the bad things that have happened in your life, all the pain and all the disappointment, all the failure – and He is mixing them together and painting a picture of His Son in your life.
In closing, look quickly at verse 31: “What shall we then say to these things:
- The good things
- The bad things
- The things we don’t understand;
- The things we can’t explain.
“If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 37 Nay, in all these things (WHAT THINGS? ALL THINGS) we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Verse 28 and 29, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Will you stand with me with every head bowed and every eye closed, nobody looking around please. I want to ask you this morning:
- Maybe you are in a valley that you don’t understand;
- Maybe you’re in a trial you don’t understand;
- Maybe you faced some tragedy you don’t understand;
- Maybe you’ve had some failures that you don’t understand.
Maybe you haven’t asked God with your lips, but with your heart you’ve cried out to Him – GOD WHY?
God is using that trial in your life, whether you understand it or not, whether you can explain it or not – He is using your needs to conform you to the image of His Son.
Maybe you just need to come and gather around the altar, and talk to God about the things that are going on in your life.
Maybe there are some things that have happened in your life in the past that have made you angry, and bitter, and hard-hearted. Maybe you felt those things were so bad that God can’t forgive you. Friend, God is using those failures to paint a picture of His Son in your life.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth on Him, so not perish, but have everlasting life; For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, might be saved.”
God loves you, all you have to do is accept that. Want you come this morning and kneel at the altar and ask Christ into your heart? You were made in His image for a reason.
“What shall we more say to these things: If God be for us, who can be against us!”
Fighting for My Pea Patch 