**the following is an excerpt from a recent sermon, which was not recorded due to technical errors. 

Does Everything Really Happen for a Reason?

Have you ever heard anyone say that? Of course you have. Maybe someone said it to you after a difficult circumstance and you wanted to punch ‘em? 

Now no doubt we all want to believe this. We especially like to beleive this after we realize we made a mistake:

"Well Dad, it’s okay I crashed your car. Everything happens for a reason."

"I know I really did damage to our family with my addiction, but everything happens for a reason."

When somebody says this about their own mistakes, you really want to punch them.

And of course when people say this, what is implied is that whatever that reason is, it’s good. It’s a good reason. Nobody ever said to their loved one, after that loved one lost their job, “everything happens for a reason, but it might be a bad reason.” We mean something good will come of this. "That door may have closed but it’s because God is opening a big window upstairs for you." Something like that.

But is it true?

The most explicit passage in the bible that we get this idea from is in Romans 8:28.

28 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.

But to understand if everything really does happen for a reason, we need to answer four other questions:

What is all things?

What does together mean?

What is the good that Paul refers to here?

Who is this promise for?

All things is all things. Circumstances. Our sin. Others' sin against us. It is all things. It literally means all things -- blessings from God and evil from Satan.

It is where we were raised, how we were raised, where we went to college, what we did after we dropped out of college; it is the bullying that we went through, it is the good marriage, the difficult marriage, the divorce -- all that falls into the “all things.”

But what does “together” mean?

It means together, summed up. If someone said, "Chris & Jess work well together" -  they are talking about how we work together. You cannot deduce that if you take away Jess, that Chris works really good on his own.

It’s like basic math: 2 + 3 = 5.

Imagine Paul said God causes 2 + 3 to work together to be 5. But if you take 2 away, you cannot say that 3 = 5. Right?

Likewise, all things TOGETHER are caused by God to turn out for good….but that doesn’t mean that any one thing on its own is for good. It is the sum total of all things, but it is not any one thing all by itself. The childhood abuse, the cancer, the miscarriage -- those are bad things, results of a broken world where Satan and evil roam. On their own, they are not for our good. It is not true, according to this passage, to say, “this one hardship will turn out for good.” That is not what this is saying.

We have to get this or we will say shallow things to each other.

All things, when taken in their totality, work together for good. 

So - Does everything really happen for a reason?

At this point we can answer: Everything that happens works together for good......

But let’s continue.

The next question that must be answered is:

What is the "good" that Paul is talking about?

When people say this cliche, they usually, in my experience, mean that the reason something happened, the good that will come of it, is circumstantial: "Well your car broke down, but I guess God has a better car for you. Well that relationship ended badly, but that's becaue he has someone else for you who is even better."

That’s usually how we think of the good. Circumstanial happiness.

And while that is sometimes the case, is that the good God is promising here?

Thankfully Paul answers that question by specifically defining the good in the very next verse:

28 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.29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

The good that God causes all things to work together for "is to be conformed to the image of Jesus." Molded and shaped into his image - so that Jesu would be the first-born among many brothers and sisters who look just like him. 

God's goal is to bring glory to Jesus, the one who died and rose again, by transforming many people into little Christs (or Christians). 

Of course God blesses us circumstancially, but that is not the promise here. This promise is not about a better job, it’s not about a better boyfriend, it’s not about more money, it’s not about a change in legistlation after a tragey; it is about making us more and more like Jesus. To make us more hujmble, more patient, more gracious, more loving. That’s the good that God is up to.

That is God’s ultimate goal. The Best Good of All.

Now let’s acknowledge something -- some of you are thinking, “Yeah I kind of want to become like Jesus, but more than that I just want to be happy.” Right? That’s our biggest felt need. To just be happy. Parents say about thier kids, “I just want them to be happy.  As long as thier happy."

But no parent who truly loves their child would put that child's temporary happiness first all the time. Of course not.  A kid whose parents just focus on their happiness may be cute when they’re under 2, but as they get older, if nothing changes, they will be spoiled & entitled brats with no friends and no job. 

We all know that. So we discipline, we say no, we let them cry, we make them sleep outside (jk).

You know where I'm going with this, don't you? Of course the God of the universe, who loves each of us more than we love our kids, who is much wiser than all of us parents combined, will put our temporary happiness on the backburner at times for the sake of our long-term and eternal joy.

And our long-term joy - both in this life and in eternity -- is directly linked to us being conformed to the image of Jesus. Because to become more like Jesus is to become more free from this world. To become more like Jesus is to become less attached to the need for everytyhing to be fair; it is to be less attached to the need for people to like us all the time; it is to be less attached to material possessions.

Those things simply cannot sustain our joy because they are all temporary. They do not last. Companies downsize, people get mad at us for no reason, hurricanes ruin homes.

To become more like Jesus -- who reigns sovereign over all things and will rule for all eternity and is not going anywhere -- is to be more free from circumstance-dependent-happiness. 

So Does everything happen for a reason?

Everything works together for THE reason -- The ultimate reason of becoming more like Jesus. 

On one condition. And that brings us to the last question - "Who is this promise for?"

Look again at v. 28 - "Those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

This is talking about those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord and Master. Who love him more than anything else. Who want him to mold them into the image of Himself. Who are fully-surrendered to him.

For those God came after, whose hearts He has gotten a hold of, who have been given His Spirit, who have been jusitfied by Jesus' death and resurrection, and who are destined to be glorified in eternity with new bodies that cannot perish ---- this promise is for them! 

But what about those who have not trusted in Jesus?

Well, then everything will not work together to make them more like Jesus.

I know that sounds harsh. But think logically -- why would someone who is not a Chritian want to be confirmed and molded by God into the image of Jesus?

To those who reject Jesus as Savior, they don’t have to worry about being conformed into the image of Jesus.  

To go back to a movie analogy -- if you watch a good movie, by the end of hte movie you undrestand why every scene took place, how it pertained to moving the plot forward or revealing character. If you watch a bad movie, sometimes you will see a scene that doesn’t fit. It doesn’t belong. It was put in there for shock value or because the director had a personal connection to it but it didn’t fit in the overall story.

Well the bible is God’s ultimate story of all things being summed up in Christ. Everything is moving toward Him as our coming King and Christians reigning wtih him forever and ever. God is about that story.

So for those who want to live as if they are thier own king, as if they are the writer and director of their own stories -- then they can’t expect God to work all things together for thier stories. God is about His Story.

However, once someone trusts in Jesus, once they respond to God’s calling and are shown to be predestined by Him, then everything in their life -- all their past mistakes and hurts and pain -- is put into the bucket of “all things are caused to work together for good.”

______________

So for Christians, I have two question for you to think about: 

1. Do you WANT God to use everything to make you more like Jesus?

Do you understand that this is why you were saved? Or do you love success more than you love God? Are you living for the American Dream more than living for God’s story?

One way to know is to ask yourself what makes you the most angry and frustrated and depressed?

What happens when things don’t go according to your plan? Do you rail against God? Do you throw pity parties? Do you wallow in misery?

2. Do you believe that God CAN work all things together for that purpose?

We may want it, but it’s hard to believe it in the everyday moments of life. It's hard to believe that the spilled coffee and fussy kids are included in the "all things." 

And then of course it’s especially hard to believe that the really hard, devastating things are included -- the evil from Satan, the hurt from others acting selfishly, the tragedies. 

But this whole chapter is about suffering and pain, and it is in this context that Paul is talking about God making all things work together for. Look at what Paul says in the very next verse:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.