Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Everything Happens for a Reason

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Everything Happens for a Reason · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Everything happens for a reason. You've heard that line, maybe
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  Speaker 1: you've said that line to others, maybe you've recited it
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  Speaker 1: as a reminder to yourself. Everything happens for a reason.
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  Speaker 1: It's a cliche. It's a well meaning cliche, but it's
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  Speaker 1: a cliche, and people who say it are normally genuinely concerned.
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  Speaker 1: But the problem is, we don't live on slogans like
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  Speaker 1: this one. We live on divine promises. So can we
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  Speaker 1: ground such a claim on the bedrock of God's unchanging word.
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  Speaker 1: That's the question today, I asked Pastor John, everything happens
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  Speaker 1: for a reason. And we get there by reading a
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  Speaker 1: Romans eight together Today and tomorrow we're reading Romans eight.
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  Speaker 1: It's an amazing chapter, Pastor John's. It's so amazing. In
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  Speaker 1: your book Providence, you call Romans eight, verses twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: to thirty nine quote the greatest section of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: chapter of the greatest letter in the greatest book in
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  Speaker 1: the world. Amen, you can't say it's stronger than that.
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  Speaker 1: And to it we return today through Lucas's question. Lucas
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  Speaker 1: lives in northern California. Pastor John, how does Paul's promise
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  Speaker 1: in Romans eight twenty eight that all things work together
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  Speaker 1: for good. Reframe our understanding of suffering, inviting us to
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  Speaker 1: trust God's providence even during pain and hardship when facing
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  Speaker 1: difficult circumstances. How does embracing God's comprehensive sovereignty foster patience
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  Speaker 1: and hope rather than despair. I'm just beginning to make
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  Speaker 1: these connections and would love to hear your thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: The reality that Romans eight twenty eight expresses is precious
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  Speaker 2: beyond measure for Christians. This reality is the rock where
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  Speaker 2: our feet can find some measure of stability and sanity
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  Speaker 2: and hope when waves of disappointment and frustration and grief
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  Speaker 2: and loss and betrayal and abuse and disability and disease
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  Speaker 2: break over our souls, sometimes with unremitting and life long suffering.
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  Speaker 2: I say this is a precious rock of stability and
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  Speaker 2: sanity and hope unless the Christian has been badly taught,
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  Speaker 2: and unfortunately millions have been badly taught about God's sovereignty
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  Speaker 2: in their suffering. So I would encourage every Christian to
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  Speaker 2: do a deep dive into Romans eight, so that you
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  Speaker 2: are well taught by God concerning the meaning of Romans
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  Speaker 2: eight twenty eight, and can have a rock to stand
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  Speaker 2: on when your time of badling suffering comes. That's why
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  Speaker 2: this verse is in the Bible to preserve our faith
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  Speaker 2: in the loving purposes of God in our life when
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  Speaker 2: everything around our soul gives way. So let's get this
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  Speaker 2: glorious verse in front of us, and let's be sure
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  Speaker 2: to see it in its context, so that we don't
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  Speaker 2: read our own tendencies into the verse. We want to
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  Speaker 2: get God's word out, not our mere human preferences in.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start with verse twenty six, not twenty eight. Likewise,
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  Speaker 2: the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do
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  Speaker 2: not know. Now pause there, because that's going to contrast
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  Speaker 2: with verse twenty eight, which says, but we do know.
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  Speaker 2: So here's what we don't know. We do not know
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  Speaker 2: how to pray as we ought, or what to pray
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  Speaker 2: as we ought. But the Spirit itimself intercedes for us
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  Speaker 2: with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches
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  Speaker 2: the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit,
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  Speaker 2: because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the
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  Speaker 2: will of God. So he has just spoken in verses
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  Speaker 2: twenty three to twenty five about the groaning of our
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  Speaker 2: bodies as we wait for redemption. So pain, suffering, calamity, disaster,
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of things because of this fallen world. And
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  Speaker 2: so the uncertainty of what we should pray for relates
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  Speaker 2: most immediately to our physical condition in this world. What
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  Speaker 2: should I ask for? In this broken world where physical
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  Speaker 2: evil is going to eventually take my life? Should I
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  Speaker 2: always pray to be spared? What should I pray for?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Paul really wrestled with this like his thorn
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  Speaker 2: in the flesh. Three times, take it away, take it away,
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  Speaker 2: take it away? And God doesn't take it away? And
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  Speaker 2: he must have been perplexed. What else should I not
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  Speaker 2: pray for? And am I going to get a know to?
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  Speaker 2: And he says, very often we just don't know what
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  Speaker 2: to pray for, And then comes this glorious twenty eight
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  Speaker 2: concerning what we do know. So over against not knowing
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  Speaker 2: what we should pray for, he says, but we do
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  Speaker 2: know that for those who love God, all things work
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  Speaker 2: together for good, for those who are called according to
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  Speaker 2: His purpose. Now, this is a promise given to Christians,
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  Speaker 2: not everybody from God's side. These people whom the promise
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  Speaker 2: applies to are called they are called by God into
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  Speaker 2: being a Christian. That means he called them. He called
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  Speaker 2: them from death to life. He saved them, he caused
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  Speaker 2: them to be born again, and he did it according
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  Speaker 2: to his eternal purpose in Christ to glorify His grace
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  Speaker 2: in their self. And then from the other side, the
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  Speaker 2: human side, that was from the divine side. They're called
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  Speaker 2: from the human side. He says, they love God, so
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  Speaker 2: he calls us, we love him. There's the objective work
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  Speaker 2: of God. There's the subjective response of man, defining the
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  Speaker 2: Christian that this verse applies to. Verse twenty eight. We
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  Speaker 2: are Christians because God took the initiative to call us,
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  Speaker 2: and we are Christians because that call created in us
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  Speaker 2: a heart felt love for God. Those are the people
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  Speaker 2: to whom this verse applies. And sandwiched in between those
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  Speaker 2: two descriptions of Christians as lovers of God and called
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  Speaker 2: by God, we see the astonishing promise all things work
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  Speaker 2: together for good. Four simple Greek words ponta, sun erge ace, agathon.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think there's any reason to limit the word
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  Speaker 2: ponta or all things, and it especially includes suffering because
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  Speaker 2: the main thrust of this section from verse eighteen to
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight has been to deal with the corruption and
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  Speaker 2: futility and brokenness and misery of the created world after
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  Speaker 2: the fall. That's been the context. So it's a strong
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  Speaker 2: and comprehensive statement. That's why it's so glorious. That's why
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  Speaker 2: it's so many people's favorite verse. All pleasant things, all
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  Speaker 2: painful things in life, the life of a child of God,
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  Speaker 2: are being woven together by God into a fabric that
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  Speaker 2: God calls good. That's the image that Corey ten Boom used.
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  Speaker 2: That's why I thought of it when she was suffering.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, she spent time in a German concentration camp,
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  Speaker 2: and as she looked back over her life, she said,
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  Speaker 2: it was like God weaving a tapestry that she could
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  Speaker 2: only see from the underside, with all the loose, tangled threads,
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  Speaker 2: and God could see it from the top, with its bright, beautiful,
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  Speaker 2: purposeful meaning. And that's what we'll all see someday. God
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  Speaker 2: gives us a little glimpses of it now, but not
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  Speaker 2: all of it. Paul tells us more specifically what the
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  Speaker 2: good is right here in this passage, in this chapter.
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  Speaker 2: Right in the next verse, he explains, he says for
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  Speaker 2: those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to
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  Speaker 2: the image of his son. That's the ground for the
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  Speaker 2: good in verse twenty eight. Be conformed to the image
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  Speaker 2: of his son. So that's the ultimate good that God
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  Speaker 2: is working in all believers to be conformed finally to
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  Speaker 2: the image of his Son. Now that is simply staggering
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  Speaker 2: to think about that. We, every Christian, will one day
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  Speaker 2: be like the second person of the Trinity, the creator
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  Speaker 2: of the universe. You gotta let that sink in. You
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  Speaker 2: just cannot read over that. It's just mind boggling. We're
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  Speaker 2: going to be like the creator of the universe. And
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  Speaker 2: that's true physically and morally. Philippins three twenty one. He
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  Speaker 2: will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious
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  Speaker 2: body by the power that enables him to subject all
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  Speaker 2: things to himself. And Colossians three ten. You have put
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  Speaker 2: on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
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  Speaker 2: after the image of its creator. Even if we must
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  Speaker 2: suffer every day of our lives on this planet and
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  Speaker 2: have none of our earthly dreams fulfilled, this life is
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  Speaker 2: but a vapor's breath compared to eternity. So Paul says,
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  Speaker 2: this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal
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  Speaker 2: weight of glory. Indeed, an eternal weight of glory beyond
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  Speaker 2: all comparison. That's the good. In other words, it is
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  Speaker 2: all working for our glorious good. Yes, even the evil,
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  Speaker 2: even the evil done against us, as it says in
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  Speaker 2: Genesis fifty twenty as for you, you meant evil against me,
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  Speaker 2: But God meant it for good, meant it not used,
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  Speaker 2: it meant it for good. Yes, God is that sovereign.
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  Speaker 2: James says, if the Lord wills, If the Lord wills,
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  Speaker 2: we will live and do this or that. This or
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  Speaker 2: that is comprehensive. It's meant to be detailed and exhaustive
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  Speaker 2: if the Lord wills, and if he doesn't, we won't
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  Speaker 2: do this or that. Paul says, God works all things
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  Speaker 2: according to the counsel of his will, and that all
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  Speaker 2: things is the same all things of Romans eight twenty eight.
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  Speaker 2: All things. And this is good news to believers who suffer,
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  Speaker 2: because it means our suffering is not random. It's not
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  Speaker 2: ultimately in the control of a malevolent spirit. It's not
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  Speaker 2: in the hands of a fumbling, bumbling God. It is
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  Speaker 2: in the hands of an all wise, all good, all
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  Speaker 2: powerful Father. That's the way Jesus argued. I'm not putting
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  Speaker 2: pieces together in a logical way and drawing this out.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just following Jesus. Listen to what Jesus says. This
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  Speaker 2: is how Jesus comforts us. He says in Matthew ten
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight to thirty. We should not fear those who
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  Speaker 2: kill the body. Why not? Are not two sparrows sold
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  Speaker 2: for a penny and not one of them will fall
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  Speaker 2: to the ground apart from your father. Now that's meticulous providence.
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  Speaker 2: That's God's sovereignty, pervasive. Not a bird in the universe,
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  Speaker 2: on the planet falls to the ground apart from your father.
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  Speaker 2: Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Now
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  Speaker 2: what does Jesus make of that? You can get all
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  Speaker 2: kinds of arguments going about God's sovereignty, and that's not
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  Speaker 2: where he goes. Here's where he goes. Fear not. Therefore,
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  Speaker 2: you are of more value than many sparrows. Now that's
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  Speaker 2: precious beyond language. Right, God's total control sparrows. God's total
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  Speaker 2: control in our lives goes hand in hand with the sweetest,
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  Speaker 2: most intimate care for his cherished children.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, everything happens for a reason towards an ultimate good,
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  Speaker 1: and that ultimate good is God working in believers to
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  Speaker 1: be conformed finally to the image of his Son. Your
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  Speaker 1: affliction is never meaningless, never meaningless in Christ, God and
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  Speaker 1: his wisdom and his love has a profound purpose for
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  Speaker 1: your pain. Every single hour that you hand your suffering
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  Speaker 1: over to Jesus and bear it in his strength, you
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  Speaker 1: are gaining something eternal, none of it meaningless, none of
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  Speaker 1: it arbitrary. That is so powerful. And maybe all of
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  Speaker 1: this is new to you. This answer assumes a lot
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  Speaker 1: that you know a lot and about a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the ground that we've covered. If you if you're still
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  Speaker 1: trying to figure this out, you can catch up on
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  Speaker 1: what we have covered in the past on the podcast
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  Speaker 1: in the Asked Pastor John book in that chapter on Trials,
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and Chronic Pain, which begins on page three sixty
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  Speaker 1: five on Trials, Sorrows and Chronic Pain of the Asked
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John Book. Well, can anyone get saved? Anyone? That's next?
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky Pastor John, and I will see you
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  Speaker 1: on Monday. Thanks for listening.