Sample Sermon 1

Sample Sermon

God Has Your Best Interest In Mind

by Kyle Idleman

It is great to be here with you. This is such an incredible place. Right before I got up here to speak, Dave Stone’s little boy, Samuel, comforted me with these words. He said, “Hey look, there’s people on the fifth floor!”

What’s incredible about this place is not the building, but the people. Since we have gotten here, people have made us feel so welcome and wanted. My wife and I and our three daughters are happy to be making this our home. When we were praying about this move to Southeast, one of the things we noticed is what an incredible past this church has. God has worked here in amazing ways. But we wanted to come to a church that didn’t just have a great past, but a great future.

As we met and prayed with the elders, talked to the staff, prayed together and sought God’s will, we became convinced that with this church the best is yet to come. I want you to know how incredibly humbled and honored I am to be a part of what God is doing here.

This morning I am starting off a series of messages entitled “Words to Live By.” Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at some familiar passages of scriptures. These are scriptures that you have heard before, but we are going to take a fresh look at them. Next week will be a great week to invite a friend. Dave Stone is taking a look at John 3:16. We are going to be looking at scriptures that are familiar, but would you hear them again and let them change the way you think and live?

Today the passage we are looking at is Romans 8:28. It says this, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.”

Not long ago a friend of mine gave me this book entitled “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook.” This book outlines how to survive life’s worst-case scenarios. It tells you how to get through the horrible situations that you might find yourself in. It tells you what to do if you have to deliver a baby out of the back seat of a car, how to wrestle free from an alligator, how to escape from quick sand, how to survive a shark attack, and how to escape from a mountain lion. This book gives you two simple steps to escape from a mountain lion. Step one is this, do not run. That’s what the book says.

Now, if for some miracle you complete step one, step two is tougher. It says this; Try to make yourself appear bigger than you really are. It says if you have a coat, open the coat. If you have a shirt, open your shirt. If you have a child next to you, pick up the child. Do everything you can to appear bigger than you are.

Most of the explanations are just that simple. This book is only 150 pages long and that’s all I need to tell you how to survive about 40 of life’s worst-case scenarios. Just one page is needed to tell you what to do if you jump out of a plane and your parachute doesn’t open, or if something happens to the pilot and you have to land the plane. Forgive me for being a bit cynical, but this book seems a little too simple. The explanations are too easy.

I have never been a fan of simple explanations for difficult circumstances. Don’t give me easy answers for my tough times, and tough questions. Do you remember this simple explanation as a child, “No pain, No gain”? Do you remember that? It’s supposed to make the pain go away.

My orthodontist liked this one. He would tighten my braces and then he would say with this annoyingly bright smile, “No pain, No gain.” My basketball coach used it. We would be running sprints up and down the gym floor while he would sit on the bleachers. He was a little overweight, and while he was sitting there eating popcorn, he would yell at us with the popcorn falling out of his mouth, “No pain, No gain.”

Don’t tell me about the gain when I’m in the pain! Are you with me on that? I recently heard this expression when my wife was in labor with our second daughter using no anesthesia, having a completely natural childbirth. The doctor says to her, “No pain, No gain.” If you keep a list of things not to say to a woman in labor, you might want to write this one down!

When you are in the pain, you don’t want to hear about the gain. When you’re hurting, you don’t want to hear how it’s good for you. I think Romans 8:28 might come off a little too simple. If you are here this morning and you’re hurting, I’m not sure how the words, “In all things God works for the good,” might sound. When it’s your house, health, marriage, child or job.

I think of people I ministered to in Southern California. Joe, who is on his third round of chemotherapy, lost his wife a few years ago to cancer. I think of June, whose sixteen-year-old daughter was left severely physically and mentally handicapped when she was in a car accident that wasn’t her fault. I think of Heidi, whose husband left her for another woman right after she gave birth to their first child.

I think of the couples who for years have been trying to have a child. I think of Jennifer who was sexually abused as a child and now in high school she cuts herself, self-mutilation. I think of Troy who has full-blown AIDS and a past that haunts him everyday. I think of Jerry whose daughter is a prostitute in Los Angeles. I think of Karen who chokes on her loneliness. I think of Lance, whose two-and-a-half-year-old son drowned last summer in the backyard swimming pool.

“In all things God works for the good.” You try to tell these people that, because I don’t know if I can. When the pain of this world surrounds us, how can we say, “In all things God works for the good?” That promise seems inconsistent, maybe even offensive, because we have so much hurt around us. Some of you here this morning have your own examples that might seem to fly in the face of this promise.

You have read the newspaper, you have seen the news, and if this is God’s idea of good then maybe He should resign and let somebody more competent take his place. It doesn’t seem that good to me. I don’t know if you have seen these commercials on TV, the new commercials advertising a drug or pharmaceutical product. They make it sound like it’s the best scientific discovery of the decade. People are laughing and dancing and running through fields as music plays, and then the last half, it’s all side effects.

The guy quickly tells you what might happen if you take this drug. You quickly realize the potential side effects are much worse than the original problem. Have you seen these commercials?

One guy was coming up with a humorous take on these commercials. He came up with this drug. It’s not real, he’s just making fun of these new drugs they’re coming out with. The drug he came up with was a drug for joint pain. His instructions read: take two tablets every six hours for joint pain. Listen to the side effects he came up with:
-This drug may cause joint pain
-May cause nausea
-Leg cramps
-Shortness of breath
-Muscle aches
-Rapid heartbeat
-Impotence
-Ringing in the ears
-If trips to the bathroom become greater than 12 per hour consult your doctor
-You may find yourself becoming lost or vague
-May cause stigmata in Ukrainians
-May induce a tendency to repeat the phrase, “No can do”
-You may feel an empowering sense of impending doom
-Do not take this product if you are uneasy with lockjaw
-This drug may shorten your intestines by 21 feet
-Women experience a lowering of the voice and an increase in ankle hair
-Sensations of levitation are illusory, as is the sensation of having a “phantom” third arm
-20 minutes after taking the pills you will feel an insatiable craving to take another dose--avoid this with all of your power.

Do you ever think there should be a side effects label on life? We are told that “In all things God works for the good,” but shouldn’t there be an asterisk next to that? “In all things God works for the good,” but watch out for the following. Some of you know what I mean.

Some of you thought everything would be better when you became a Christian, that it would all be good. You have discovered that there are a lot of side effects. The divorce still goes through, cancer still claims the life of a loved one, and the latest drug does not arrest the Alzheimer’s. The relationship ends and your singleness feels like an intolerable burden. There are a lot of side effects, and you know it. There is pain and suffering, heartbreak and disappointment, crime and victimization, loneliness and abuse, and there is death.

Jesus called it in John 16: He said, “In this world you are going to face tough times, you are going to have some trouble.” In the midst of all of life’s pain how can Paul say to us, “In all things God works for the good?” The Romans who received this letter were in tough times themselves. At the end of the chapter he talked about their loneliness, persecution, famine, danger, and nakedness. Paul’s life seems to contradict this promise.

In 1 Corinthians 11 he said, “I’ve been in prison frequently, I’ve been flogged severely, I’ve been stoned and faced death again and again. Five times I received 40 lashes minus 1, three times I‘ve been beaten with rods, three times I’ve been shipwrecked. I’ve been cold and naked, hungry and thirsty, and besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” Now if that is the good life, don’t sign me up. It doesn’t sound that good to me.

Maybe what’s going on with this familiar passage is that Paul is optimistic and he wants us to become more upbeat and positive. So he says, Hey, “In all things God works for the good,” hoping we will practice the power of positive thinking. Maybe that’s it. We could stand to be more optimistic. I heard one minister (John Ortberg) say, to be more positive we need to remember four words, It Could Be Worse.

By remembering those four words, It Could Be Worse, we will remember how good things really are. I want you to remember those words. I’m going to say them and I want you to repeat them nice and loud after me, It Could Be Worse.

Now today when you go home you might think to yourself, “If I had a newer house, a nicer house, or a bigger house, then things would be good.” You’re not going to say that, because instead you are going to say, It Could Be Worse!

In a few minutes, when you go out to your car, you will pass a newer car, a nicer one, and you might think, “If I had that car then things would be good.” But you’re not going to say that. Instead you’re going to say, It Could Be Worse.

Tomorrow when you step out of the shower and you look in the mirror, and take in the side view, upon seeing that vision you might think, “If I had his height, or her body, or their health, then things would be good.” But instead when you see yourself you are going to say, It Could Be Worse. Because it really could be!

In the morning when you wake up in bed and you roll over and look at your spouse you might say, well it’s true, It Could Be Worse!

Maybe that’s the point of this passage. We need to realize how good things are by understanding how bad they could be. Paul just wants us to be more optimistic. Maybe that’s it. I was reading some research in the field of optimism and it turns out that optimistic people are not always accurate receivers of reality. One study found that optimistic people are always overestimating how much other people like them. They commonly think other people like them when, actually, they don’t.

The same study found that slightly depressed people are more accurate perceivers of reality. It leads to this big question in the field of optimism. Is it better to be realistic and sad, or deluded and happy? Which one is better?

Maybe that’s what is happening here. Paul’s optimism has made him a little delusional. He is not seeing the pain around him. Maybe Paul is a blind optimist. But I don’t think that’s it. In this familiar passage, have you noticed the two words, “We know?” “We know that in all things God works for the good.” That word translated “We know” which is used thirteen times in the book of Romans, does not mean, we hope, we wish, we want, we guess, or we desire. Most likely, that’s not what it means. It means, “We know.”

Paul is not speaking wishfully here. He is not guessing about it. He speaks with conviction and unshakable confidence. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” Paul has not given us this verse as a wall plaque nicety. He has given it to us as a truth. It is at the heart of our faith in the God that we serve. Did you notice it’s used one other time in this chapter, thirteen times in the book, twice in chapter 8 and the other times in verse 22? It says in verse 22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning.” In other words he says, “We know that life here on earth is hard.”

Don’t miss this. Paul said in chapter 8, “I know two things for sure.” In verse 22 he said, “Life is hard,” and in verse 28, “God is good.” Do you know that this morning? Do you have that hope?

In Los Angeles County where I moved from, there is a woman by the name of Tammy Kramer, she is the chief of an outpatient AIDS clinic. She tells about one day at work when a patient came in for his daily dose of medication. He sat in tired silence on the clinic stool. The doctor, who was new to the clinic, came in and saw the patient for the first time. He administered the medication and when he was on his way out, the doctor said, “You know don’t you that you’re not long for this world, a year at most?” Tammy Kramer said the patient came by her desk on the way out and she could see the pain in his face. He said through clenched teeth,”That S.O.B. took my hope away!”

Tammy Kramer said, “I guess he did.” Maybe it’s time to find another hope. Now that’s the question. Is there another hope? Paul would say, absolutely. In chapter 5, verse 8 he speaks about a hope that does not disappoint. Do you have that hope in your life? Do you have a hope that will never let you down?

As we look at this familiar passage there is another word that I have a problem with. It’s the word ‘Good.’ I’m not sure that God and I always agree on the definition of ‘Good.’ What He says is ‘Good’ and what I say is ‘Good,’ are not always on the same page.

Moving here from Southern California, you can imagine that from Los Angeles to Louisville there is a little bit of a culture shock. I didn’t actually move into the city of Louisville, I moved into the city of Pewee! Pewee Valley is where I moved. It’s hard to tell your friends in Hollywood that you live in Pewee Valley. I was comforted by something I heard. The guy who sold me my house was explaining to me that Pewee isn’t actually pronounced Pee Wee, but it is named after an exotic bird that is found only in those parts and is pronounced “puh way.”

I can get excited about living in ”puh way.” That’s not so bad. It’s almost French. It’s more Cosmopolitan. There’s a little difference between LA and Pewee Valley. One of the things in California that is real popular right now is a Sushi bar. People love to do this, go and eat raw fish. I don’t like raw fish. I’m pretty uncomfortable with this. I went to a Sushi bar once just to experience the culture. The guy I was with was telling me how much I would like it and how good it was. I’m just not comfortable eating raw fish. In Kentucky we don’t call raw fish Sushi we call it bait!

I took a bite of this stuff, because he said it was good. I immediately spit it back out. I’ll never eat this stuff again. The difference in what he said was good and I what I said was good is very different. Sometimes I feel pretty separate from God on what is ‘Good.’ If I could change this verse around a little bit I would have it read like this, “In all things God works for my convenience.” I like that a little better.

You see, you have your own ideas like I do of how God works for the good in our lives. When I was in college in California I had to get my drivers license. I went to the DMV and it was a miserable experience! I hadn’t studied for the test so I was cramming for it while I was waiting in line. I was taking it thinking I was going to be lucky to pass this. So I start praying, “God please deliver me, because I don’t want to come back here.” I take the test up to be checked and she starts marking with the red pen. I realized I’m missing quite a few. I start counting and I know that if I miss one more I’m going to have to do this all over again. I’m pleading with God now.

She gets down to the final question on this test and she stops. She looks at me and says, “Did you mean to put the letter B on this last question?” I had clearly marked B, but somehow I sensed God at work through this DMV official. I said, “B is that what I put? No, that’s not what I meant to put!” She said, “Well, what did you mean?” I didn’t know. I didn’t know if it was A, or C, I wasn’t sure. Finally she said, “Did you mean to put C?” I said, “I was going to say that and then you said it right before me.” So she marked out B and circled C and “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” That’s what I’m talking about.

I bet you have your own ideas of how God would work for the good in your life. Maybe it would be by giving you a great parking spot when you come to church, or maybe it’s straightening out your kids, or giving you a negative biopsy report. But it seems that a lot of the time the way God works for our good isn’t how we would have imagined it.

Here’s what I want you to catch this morning. Here’s what I want you to go away with. God’s good is better than our good. God really does have our best interest in mind. His good is better than our good.

Can I quickly give you a few ways that God will work for the good in your life? One way that God works for the good in our life is to draw us closer to Jesus. In the Old Testament it was only after suffering and pain that Israel would turn back to God. A lot of us are that way. Some of you are here this morning because life has left you so flat on your back you had nowhere to look but up. You turn to God in your pain, and you turn to him in dependence when otherwise you would have ignored him.

2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 20: “For God could use sorrow in our life to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation.”

It doesn’t say God causes sorrow. It says God can use sorrow. He did it for Jack Shelly. Jack was one of those guys who never thought he would come to Christ. He would come with his wife once in a great while to church, and even then he would sleep through the sermon. His wife, Judy, was always praying for him that he would come to know the Lord. I just didn’t think so. One day I got a phone call from an elder. The elder said, “Kyle I just got the news that Judy was killed in a car accident.” After the funeral I walked out and I saw Jack sitting on the end of the pew with his head buried in his hands weeping.

I knew I was going to have to go see him and a few days later I did. I walked into his living room and sat down on his couch, and I didn’t know what to say. I noticed he had pulled a picture of his wife out of a frame, and you could see where the tears had been running down the picture. There was a robe sitting next to him that belonged to his wife. He picked it up and smelled it. Finally he broke the awkward silence with a question to me. He asked, “Kyle, do you ever watch your wife sleep? I used to love to wake up in the night and watch Judy sleep.” I walked out of the house that day and I thought to myself, no good is going to come of this. I was amazed just a few months later when Jack walked down the same aisle that his wife’s casket had been carried out. He gave his life to Christ.

God used. He didn’t cause, but He used the sorrow to turn Jack towards Him. The two of them, Jack and Judy will spend an eternity together in Heaven. God worked for the good. It’s not the way I would have imagined it, and it’s not how I would have written it up, but God got his attention.

The Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 30: “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” You know, sometimes it does. I wonder this morning if God is trying to get your attention, I wonder if He’s
trying to work for the good and draw you closer to Jesus.

Another way God works for the good in our life is that He makes us more like Jesus. Verse 29 says this in chapter 8. “For those God knew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.” God and His foreknowledge that you would come to Christ, has made it so that everything in your life can make you more like Jesus. He can make everything; everything good, and everything bad. He can make it so that it develops in you a Christ-like maturity. That means your pain is never in vain. That means your pain is never without purpose, and it always serves a greater good.

I was reading that two of the most painful things you could experience in life is giving birth and passing a kidney stone. On a purely physical level these two things are very painful. But they are very different. A woman who gives birth has pain with a purpose. Her pain gives life, and it has meaning. She might say after giving birth, “I might do this again.” Maybe God will bless me with another one.

A person who passes a kidney stone never says this. They never say, “Maybe I’ll do this again.” The pain is different. They treat it differently. They don’t take a picture of the kidney stone and hang it on the wall in their hallway. The difference between the two types of pain is the outcome. It has a different outcome. When you go through the pain you can know that when you love God you’re called according to His purpose. The outcome is that you will come out the other side looking more like Jesus.

So maybe God allows cancer to teach us the value of what’s eternal. Maybe God allows the difficult loss to teach us self-control, or unemployment to teach us faith. Maybe He allows a colicky baby to teach us patience. Maybe He allows an embarrassing moment to teach us humility. You can be sure of this; He will use everything in your life to make you more like His Son. That’s pretty good, don’t you think?

One last way God works for our good is to take us to be with Jesus. Romans 8, verse 29: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son.” Verse 30, “And those He predestined He also called and those He called He also justified and those He justified He also glorified.”

That’s it. Glorified. God is working for our eternal good. Spending eternity with us in Heaven. That’s how God defines “good.” Spending eternity with you. Paul doesn’t point us to a happily-ever-after ending here on earth, but he does point to our Heavenly Home.

In Romans 8, verse 18, listen to what He says. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

There will be a day when things truly will be good. Whatever pain you go through in this life is a small price to pay to walk on streets of gold. In the book of Revelation, which is written to suffering people, John tries to describe what Heaven is like. He uses beautiful imagery, all kinds of words but I think he knows that at the end he is falling short. The problem is not him it’s us. It’s too good for us to imagine. It’s more than we can comprehend.

I relate a little bit to his dilemma. When I was in Africa on a mission trip, we tried to describe America to some of the Natives. It is very hard to do. It’s difficult to describe to them the house that you and I live in when their reference is a hut with a mud floor. How do you tell them about the lights of the city when they have never used electricity? How do you explain to them about the spa in your backyard when they have never taken a hot shower? They just can’t comprehend. It’s too much for them to imagine.

You could describe America by saying what is not there. You could say, if you lived where I lived you would not go hungry, you would not go without an education, you would not be homeless, and you would not walk hours for medical help. If you lived where I lived this would not be the case. Somehow by saying what would not be there would more effectively describe how good it was.

I think at the end of Revelation chapter 21, John decides to take this strategy. He decided to describe Heaven by not telling us what is there but by telling us what is not there. Maybe that way we will picture how good it is. Listen to what he writes in Revelation 21. “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling from God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, mourning or pain. For the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I’m making everything new.’”

John says, “Let me tell you about Heaven. There’s no more death, there’s no more mourning, no more crying, no more sickness, and no more pain. Sounds pretty good. Can you imagine a place like that? Imagine no more bloated stomachs. Imagine no more anxious waiting rooms. Imagine no more empty tissue boxes. Imagine no more tables for one. Imagine no more motionless ultra sounds, and no more tear stained divorce papers. Imagine no more tiny caskets. Imagine a place where we will just laugh, dance, sing, pray, serve, and worship for all of eternity. Sounds good. Sounds good, don’t you think so?

As we close there is one part of this verse I left out and it should be mentioned. There is a qualifier to this promise. It is not for everybody. There is a condition to it. “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.” That means this morning before you leave you might have a couple of important questions to ask yourself.

Number one, do you love God? Jesus said, “If you love me you’ll keep My commands.” He has commanded us to confess to Him before men and be baptized into Him. Maybe you need to say I love God, so I’m going to make that decision, I am going to give my life to Him. It says, “For those who are called according to his purpose,” there’s no better way that I know of to live according to God’s purpose and to become a part of a church family like this.