If you would open your Bibles
back to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. And let's read verse 28. Romans 8,
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. Every single time that I read
that verse, or I hear someone say Romans 8.28, it makes me
think of a story, every time. That story was 75 years ago in
1950. A traveling preacher named Rolf
Barnard came to Ashland, Kentucky. And he was preaching, and there
was a young man sitting in the front row. And kind of out of
nowhere, he just looked at that young man and said, son, can
you quote Romans 8.28? And the first of two reasons
that I always think of that story is that ever since I heard that
as a small child, every single time someone said Romans 8, I
would immediately put my head down and immediately say over
and over again, please don't call on me, please don't call
on me to say that verse. The second reason is the rest
of that story, that young man said, and we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, paused, to which
Rolfe immediately said, do you know the rest? And he then continued
to say to them who are the called according to his purpose. And
I'm not going to try to imitate him, but the moment that young
man finished that verse, Rolfe Barnard just yelled, purpose,
just at the top of his lungs. and said, if you know and understand
what that word means here, then you will know the gospel. My
goal this evening is I want us to get two things. First, I want
us to know the purpose of God. And secondly, I want us to try
to get a grasp of the gravity, the breath, the size, the impact
of his purpose. and hope that will make more
sense as we go. It's so amazing that it takes a long time for
us to try to even say what it is. But how I'm going to do that
is I'm going to start with that word purpose in verse 28, and
I'm going to go backwards for 10 words to try to explain to
us what each of those words mean and their impact on this word
purpose. So let me start by saying the definition of the word purpose
here is the reason for which something is done or something
is created. The reason for which something
is done or is created. God's purpose. When he created
this world, when he created man, all of it is that song you just
sang. Redeemed. by His blood, by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Second Timothy says, who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's His purpose,
to save His people. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. That's what he did. That's why
he became a man. That's why he bore our sins on
the cross. That's why he did all of that.
That was his purpose. And starting with this word in
Romans 8, 28. Purpose. This word here is singular. There is only one purpose. Just one. That's it. All the rest, there's no purpose
apart from His purpose. It's one purpose. Turn with me
to Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. In the message this morning,
we heard this. Our pastor said his purpose from Psalm 128, the
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Isaiah 46, look
at verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. His singular
purpose will be done. It will. It will be done because
he is able to do it. It will be done because it is
his purpose. Anything that God does, I mean,
capital G, Jehovah, God, anything that he does or he determines
will be done. When he has a purpose, it will
be done. Now, the word before purpose,
don't turn back, we'll stay here in Isaiah for a minute, but the
word before purpose is his, and it's in italics. Now, that means
it's not in the translation, but they've put it there for
us, and there's a good reason for that. When we see the word
purpose, if that were not in there, and it says according
to purpose, a lot of us have a tendency to try to insert ourselves
into everything. False religion is very good at
this. If it said, according to purpose, we might try to think
that maybe it is someone else's purpose. Maybe it is our purpose.
And by our, I mean mine, ours, or maybe mine and God's purpose.
But they put this in there just in case we aren't smart enough
to realize it's His purpose. There is no purpose apart from
His purpose. I love how the Lord does this.
Anytime He tells us something, He'll always tell us again. Sometimes
in a different way, He just keeps telling us. We're hard-headed.
We need to hear it twice. The word before that is to His
purpose. Look in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14. These two words before his purpose,
I had them separate. I had to and I had according
as separate words. But I looked up those two words
together because it didn't feel like separately they made as
much sense. So I looked up according to and
it gave five definitions. I couldn't believe it. They all
five are perfect. They're perfect. Listen to this. According to his purpose. All
right. So this is with his purpose. The first definition is in agreement
to his purpose. All things are in agreement to
his purpose, whether they want to be or not. Everything is in
agreement with his purpose. Secondly, They are all consistent
with His purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ's purpose,
God's purpose is consistent. It is the same thing from before
time began until the end of time for eternity. It's the same thing.
His purpose follows the same path. Me and you, you know what
we do? We determine something we're
going to do. We determine a path we're going to go down until
something gets in our way, until our mind changes, until we forget
it. Our path, our purpose always meanders, changes constantly.
His is consistent. It's always the same. Thirdly,
it's on the authority of his purpose. His purpose stands because
he has the authority to uphold it. He has the power to do it.
Fourthly, it's in proportion to or it's the significance of
his purpose. We worry and fret and think about
so many things in this life. All of it has no significance,
no bearing compared to his purpose. We cannot change, we cannot impact
His purpose no matter what we do. If we're trying to or if
we're not trying to, we cannot impact His purpose. And finally, it is contingent
on His purpose, meaning that nothing happens without His purpose
making it happen. Nothing. I mean nothing. You
told me there's a fly up here. I don't know why, but it's His
purpose. There's a reason for it. Nothing
happens. Not a fly flying in a certain
place happens, except it is contingent upon His purpose. Isaiah 14 here,
verse 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the
Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders, This
is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For
the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? First
off, verse 25 talks about the burden. Shall his yoke depart
from him, and his burden depart from off his shoulders? All those
that he purposed to save, he will take their burden. His yoke
is light. His yoke is easy. He will do
that. And then verse 27 says, Who shall disannul it? Who can
change it? Who shall turn it back? No one
can. No one can do that. Let me read
to you a verse here in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians 1 it says, "...having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, having
made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His
good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself." in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated and accorded
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." You can scroll through this book over and over
again to all these times that he says the word purpose, and
they keep saying the same thing. They say it's his purpose, according
to his purpose, it's my purpose, I will do what I will do, no
one can stop it, it says the same thing over and over again.
And that's a great comfort. To know that no one can change
that? To those who are called according to His purpose. This
word called, it means to wake up, to bring to life, to show,
to teach. Isn't that what all the called
need? We have to be woken up. We have to be brought to life.
We have to be taught. We have to be shown over and
over again. That's the only way anyone will
ever know anything about the truth of his purpose. If the
Lord Jesus Christ wakes us, makes us to arise, teaches us, shows
us, and it's important to know that that word is past tense,
called. He has already called. Now, I
pray that there are many more that he has called that don't
know that. but all of us are called in the
same way at the same time. I'm getting ahead of myself,
we'll get there in a second. The word before called is the called,
the called according to his purpose. Second Timothy, I read this a
few minutes ago, who has saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ before
the world began. There is just one calling. All the called are called by
the same person at the same time and in the exact same way. We
are called by the grace of God before the world began. Now,
we might say to ourselves, well, that doesn't really go with my
experience. Well, the next verse in 2 Timothy
says this, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. We all are called
at the same time, but it's just in his purpose, in his will,
in his time, he shows us that. And this is important to know
this because it's not as if someone who understands or he opens their
eyes is called in that moment. This isn't a situation where
the Lord did what he did and it just happens for the person
then. All of this, this calling was predestinated. We're going
to read this in Romans 8 a minute ago. Read through all these verses.
We'll go through it. Our pastor read it and we will see what
he has done before time began and his calling is effectual
and when it happened. Who are the called? You guys
understand how definitive that is? They are the called. This isn't they might be the
called, we'll see who are the called, all these different things.
This is a definitive word. They are called. There's nothing
they can do about it. Not a thing. All the time, every
single day, I call my children. I shout out their names to them.
I want them to come to me. I want them to listen to me.
And do you know that it doesn't always work out like I want it?
And I can tell myself, well, maybe I was in the other side
of the house and they didn't hear me. Or maybe they thought I was talking
to someone else. All these excuses as why they didn't come. Well,
do you know what the truth is? My voice does not have the power
to make them come. I don't have that ability. The
Lord Jesus Christ, His call is effectual. When He calls, they
come. Whomever He calls, they hear
Him. Whatever I say up here, whatever
anyone says, all of it is dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ making
it effectual, making us hear it. We don't hear things. to them who are called, them. In Jeremiah 33, it says this,
as the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand
of the sea measured. Them is a great number. Them
is describing those who are called. It says that they are the sand
of the sea. I don't know if this was you,
I remember someone talking about one time they tried to count
the grains of sand. They were at the beach and they
took just a small little piece of, a little portion of sand
and they started trying to count it. And how the fact that this
very small part in the piece of your hand, it is impossible
to count how many little pieces of sand there are in this tiny
little part of your hand. The called, the chosen of God
is a great and significant number. And it's a particular number.
Our God is great. I don't know why we tend to have
hindrances and constraints on our God. The number is a great
number. And then the last word in this
section of 10 words is the word to. To them. These things are not done by
them. It's not done with the called. It's not done through the called.
It is done to the called. The Lord Jesus Christ does these
things to the called. Just another example of showing
us we don't have any part in this. The Lord Jesus Christ calls
His people. He does it. He does these things. Turn back to Romans chapter 8. Verse 28 starts off, and we know. Do we have any confidence in
our knowledge that we know these things? It says, and we know. What's
the only way we could know anything? It has to be his purpose. It
has to be his will. He has to do it. I know that's
true. I was told the same thing so
many thousands of times. And it wasn't like someone told
me better. It wasn't like someone phrased it differently. It was
that the Lord opened my eyes to see it. That's the only way
any of us ever know anything. And we know that all things,
that word all describes all. You can't say, well, that just
means some things. You can't say that means most
things. It says all, everything. And the word things, we use that
to describe everything. That can be anything and everything. It says, and we know that all
things work together. So not only do all things work
together, meaning that every single thing, it says all things,
that every little thing, every big thing, all things work. In God's purpose, every single
little, every single middle, and every single huge thing,
all of them work. There's not anything that is
left to chance. There's not anything that is
inconsequential. Every single thing that has ever
happened, all of it works together in one according to his purpose. And what do all those things
do? And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. Okay, we have to unpack this.
The first is, I want to go to the end that says, that love
God. So this says, all things work together for good to them
that love God. So how do we determine who loves
God? I mean, I know a lot of people,
a lot of people. that if you said, do you love
God, would say yes. I mean, that's just kind of what
we understand, what we say. Yeah, yeah, I love God. That's
what almost everyone would say. No one can love God apart from
him loving him. That's not who we are. If we're
honest with ourselves, we really don't love anyone apart from
something that benefits us. I mean, we really don't, if we're
being honest about it. Everything that we do is about
us. This idol you're talking about,
it's all about me. And I'll come back to that in
a minute. All things work together for good to them that love God. So what is the good? All things
work together for good to them that love God. We know this is
talking about those who are called. That's the people it's referring
to. Now, if you have read any of this book, okay, any of it,
you would immediately think to yourself, my definition of good
is not what happened to the people I think of that are called in
this book. If I said, name someone in the Bible, you could name
anyone, okay? And you could say something that
was bad that happened to them. According to our definition of
good, right? Every one of them. So what does good mean here?
Well, good, okay, all things work together for good. Do you
know what is good? His purpose. That's what's good. Now, it may not feel good, it
may not seem good, we may not like it, but it is good to His
children, to those who are called, every single thing. All things
work together for good to them who are called according to His
purpose. Now, I don't know about you,
but I was told this as a kid. I've even repeated this line
before. We hear it all the time. You gotta find your purpose in
life. You gotta see what your purpose is. If we could have a purpose, we
wouldn't understand it if it smacked us in the face. Our purpose
is whatever God determines our purpose to be. We don't have
a purpose. And what I mean by that is our
purpose is doing what He has purposed us to do. And that feels
like one of those abstract thoughts that everything we do is what
He determines that we will do. Now, the immediate response to
that, human nature-wise, is to think, wait a minute here. I
do what I want. I want to be in control, all
these things. If the Lord shows you your will, and your ideas
and your thoughts and your nature, I'm happy to let a holy God's
purpose be what's in control. Now again, I keep saying these
things. All of this is only because He makes us to understand these
things. His purpose causes us to understand
that His purpose is the right purpose. So look with me here
in verse 24, and I just want to read through a couple of verses
real quick. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it? We are creatures
of proof. We want to see it, show it to
me. That's what we want. The Lord
Jesus Christ has to give us faith, give us hope, show us who He
is. And if He does that, that's where
we find hope. We have no hope apart from the
purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 26, likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. Prayer is a time in which I am
shown how weak and how sinful I am. Prayer is something that
I only do when I make a determination that I'm going to pray, if that
makes sense. So when I pray, I think to myself,
I want to pray to God. I want to give thanks. I want
to ask. I want all these things. So I am making a concerted effort
to speak to God. And do you know what? I don't
know what to say. I don't know how to say it. I
can't keep saying it. I start thinking about something
else. In a moment to where my only thought is, I have to ask
God. I can't do it. I can't even do
that. That's so scary to think of. But look at the next line. But
the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. He does it for us. He maketh
intercession for us. I remember a story. Well, I don't
remember the actual story, but I remember my dad telling this
story. As a small child, we were at my grandmother's, his mother's
house, sitting around a dining room table, a round table, and
eight to 10 people are there. And to my right is my dad, and
on the other side of him was my grandmother. And I said something
or did something. And it was very clear in that
exact moment, I am in trouble. I don't know what I said. I don't
know what I did. But I did something. And in that moment, everyone
at the table universally knew, uh-oh, Luke's in trouble. So of course, what happens is
my dad, who was sitting right next to me, the chair scoots
out. You know that sound? Everybody
knows the sound of a chair scooting back. And he stood up and he reached
to grab my arm. And do you know, in that amount
of time, my 70-something-year-old grandmother, who was on that
side of my dad, had ran the length of the table all the way around
and got in between us. And there was no punishment coming
to me in that moment. She made an intercession for
me. She, there it is, stood in my place." Our Lord. Our Lord has taken
our place. We deserve death. We deserve
the punishment for our sin. And someone had to pay the punishment
for it. And the Lord Jesus Christ did that. And we're going to
see this in these next verses. Let me keep going. Verse 27,
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, Anybody want to have their thoughts?
Anyone want to have their heart searched in front of everyone
else? It says here, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. He maketh intercession because
of God's purpose. The will of God. He maketh intercession
for us. 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. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son. It says, For whom He did foreknow,
He knew us long ago. And those He foreknew, He did
predestinate. He determined before time began. before either had done good or
evil. He did that. He made that choice. He chose
us. And it says, to be conformed
to the image of his son, that we would be like him, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified." All these things He's done. He did all of them.
He did it. He predestinated. He called.
He justified. He glorified. He did all these
things according to His purpose. Verse 31, what shall we then
say to these things? All of those verses, what in
the world should we say to that? How about amen? How about thank
God? Crying? I mean, there's a lot
of reactions to that. But in this circumstance, they
say this. The writer says, if God be for us, who can be against
us? Sometimes I read that from a
voice of someone who just can't believe that they have to say
it. Someone that in a moment when you're telling something
so obvious to someone that you almost say it in a way that's
just mean. You just look at them and be like, if God is for us,
who could be against us? Like, how do you not get that?
That's what we should think. If God Almighty is for us, why
do we give anything else any concern, any consideration, any
worry, anything? Because our flesh, that's why
we do it. But we should know, He did all these things. He did
it all. What's the good thing that He
could do? The good thing it keeps talking
about? It's Him saving us. His purpose, He came to save
His sheep. That's the good thing. All the
things of this earth, there's nothing good in this earth. There's
nothing that He could give us. There's nothing we could experience
that would be anything good compared to what He's given us with eternal
life. Verse 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? His purpose was to
save the call, to save His people. And how was this done? It was
because He spared not His own Son. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a man and lived perfectly doing what we couldn't do. We're sinners. Sin has to be punished. But he
was righteous. And in this transaction where
we got his righteousness and he bore our sin and died for
it. If God before us, if he would do that, who can be against us? 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? We come back to this all things
phrase, everything. This says here, because he gave
his son to die for his sheep, for the call, he gave his son.
It says because of that, isn't it obvious that he will give
us all things freely? It makes us to see that all things
are not talking about fleshly things. In the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have all things. Everything. We have all things. Anything we could ever hope for,
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? If we took some time And we got
creative, and we sat here, and you guys went one by one and
started thinking of things you could charge me with. You could
say, you're a liar. You just keep thinking of things.
We could go around the room, and back around the room, and
around the room. We'd just keep going all night long. And the
only response I could ever have would be like, yup, yup, yup,
like just over and over again. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? How is it that the called cannot
be charged with anything? How is that possible? The rest
of the verse says, It is God that justifieth. Anything we
could be charged with, He has already been charged with and
paid the punishment. I'm getting ahead that verse
34 starts with, Who is He that condemneth? Whatever word we
want to use, charged with something, condemned with something, found
guilty of something, put to death for something. He did all of
that for us. And it can't be put on our account
because he did it. Instead, we have Christ's righteousness. We're under the blood of Christ.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you the Passover. What a
picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Who is he that condemneth? Verse
34. It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who
is even on the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. He died. I love how it says here,
Christ died. That's why we can't be condemned
for what he did. But it immediately follows that with, rather, he's
risen again. We don't need to linger on that
fact. We need to stay on the point of His victory over sin
and death. He's risen, and where is He?
He's at the right hand of God. And what is He doing there? Making
intercession for us. What a thought, maketh intercession
for us. Verse 35, Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? This portion here is for any
of us who find ourselves as doubters. After hearing all that, and we
just started in verse 24. I mean, there's so much before
that for all these chapters throughout this whole book. And it says,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Only a sinful,
pathetic person could see all of that. And they think to themselves,
well, am I going to be separated from the love of Christ? But
because our God is kind and loving, He answers that question anyway
for us. And what does He say? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? What about all that stuff? Can
that separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 36 says, as
it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. So think of these
two verses in a row. This says, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Can we be separated from the
love of Christ? All these bad things, can they
separate us? And then in 36, what does it emphasize? Do you
know what we are? We're sheep being led to the
slaughter. We're sheep, which are creatures
that can't stop anything. They've got no defense mechanism.
I mean, all they can do is just baa. That's all they can do. That's their only hope. A lion
comes up to a sheep and they just make that noise, hoping
nothing else happens. That's us. We're sheep led to the slaughter. And why does it tell us this
here? Okay, verse 37 says, Nay, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. It says, Can we be
separated from the love of Christ by all this bad stuff, by all
these things? It says, Remember, you're a sheep, a helpless sheep
who's going to die. And then it says, no, none of
these things can separate you. Instead of separating you, we
instead are conquerors. You know what a conqueror is?
It's a victor. It's a winner. It's a person who has something
that didn't belong to them. We have Christ's righteousness.
It didn't belong to us. We didn't earn it. We were given
it. And because of that, we're conquerors through him. It's
an amazing thought. But what's that last phrase?
Through Him that loved us. Don't forget, you're the sheep. You're a conqueror, but it's
because of Him that loved us. The love of God, the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ makes us conquerors, victors, winners. That's what we are because of
Him. So after that, there's no way that we would ever have doubt
again, right? We just read that? Well, verse
38 says, For I'm persuaded, we're gonna list more things, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. Just in case you thought there
was something else that wasn't mentioned. Nothing can separate
the called from the love of God. It can't be done. It cannot be
done. And to try to understand this,
we need to see, the end of verse 37 of course says, through him
that loved us. This is emphasizing that the
relationship, okay, it says that can we be separated? Only something
that's together can be separated. We are together with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that togetherness is him
holding us. This is not a proportional togetherness. This is a 100% Him and a 0% us. It's not 99-1, it's not 50-50,
it's not any of that stuff. It is through Him that loved
us. Verse 39 says, 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. Why are we together? Why do we
have the love of God? Because we are in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So, you know, we think to ourselves,
why would he love me? Why would he choose me? Well,
if we're in the Lord Jesus Christ, because we're the called, we're
the chosen, we're the predestinated, all these things he did, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, We have the love of God. He loves his son. When he sees us, he sees his
son and what he did. I say these things and it is
so repetitive. I find myself using the same
phrases and saying the same things. And sometimes in doing so, when
I'm standing up here, the idiom, the phrase comes to my mind that
I'm beating a dead horse. Like the meaning of that is that
you're saying something over and over and over again that's
already been discussed and it's already been decided, but you
just keep saying it over and over again. When I read verse 36 and it calls
us as a sheep for the slaughter, I thank God that he beat this
dead sheep over and over and over again with the truth. And
I pray he does that for every single one of us. Paul said it, you know, say the
same things over and over again. I don't mind doing it. It's needful. It's needful for us to hear the
same thing over and over again. And it seems like foolishness,
but it says in the scriptures that please God that through
the foolishness of preaching to save. That's why we say the
same thing over and over and over again. That what we're saying
here, his purpose to save his people, we just read it and package
it and say it in a different way. And that's just because
we heard someone else say it that way and we want to repeat
the way they said it. And we pray that it's the way the Lord
wanted us to say it. But we say it over and over again
because all those times when I was young, especially as a
teenager, I thought to myself, I already heard it twice. Why
do I have to go back Sunday night? They're just going to do the
same thing. They're just going to open up the Bible. They're
going to read a verse or read a chapter and they're just going
to say more things about the Lord Jesus Christ. I get it.
I've heard it. But one day, That changes, and
the whole thought goes just the total opposite direction. You
think to yourself, I need to go hear that again. I want someone
to tell me one more time that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. I just want to hear it one more
time, because what's going to happen? In five minutes, I'm
going to start doubting. I'm going to start worrying about
the things of the world. I'm going to start looking at these things
and thinking, well, is this going to separate me from the love
of Christ? But that's because we look at ourselves and we don't
look to Him. It's His purpose. And because it's His purpose,
and there's no other purpose, all things, all of it, we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Thank God it's
His purpose. All right.