Conformed to His Image

Rediscover Growth- Discipleship TITLE: Molded into Something Great TEXT: Romans 8:28-29 THEME: God uses everything in your life to mold you into something great.

Conformed to His Image

"You just have to get his attention first before talking to him."

Some of the pain and hardships we endure in life is God trying to get our attention so that he can speak to us.

Conformed to His Image

Why should the believer find hope even in times of suffering?

I. God works for the good. (1)

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one. A conflict with a spouse, family member or co-worker.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one. A conflict with a spouse, family member or co-worker. Financial crisis.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one. A conflict with a spouse, family member or co-worker. Financial crisis. Loss of a job.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one. A conflict with a spouse, family member or co-worker. Financial crisis. Loss of a job. Failure due to unmet dreams, goals or expectations.

These can include things like: Death of a loved one. A conflict with a spouse, family member or co-worker. Financial crisis. Loss of a job. Failure due to unmet dreams, goals or expectations. Heath issues.

These can include things like: Unknown purpose in life.

These can include things like: Unknown purpose in life. Losing, stealing or the destruction a precious possession.

These can include things like: Unknown purpose in life. Losing, stealing or the destruction a precious possession. Arrested unfairly- like Paul was.

These can include things like: Unknown purpose in life. Losing, stealing or the destruction a precious possession. Arrested unfairly- like Paul was. False accusations and undeserved penalties.

These can include things like: Unknown purpose in life. Losing, stealing or the destruction a precious possession. Arrested unfairly- like Paul was. False accusations and undeserved penalties. Persecution

Why God May Allow Suffering for the Believer To Test Us and Refine Us:

I Peter 1:6-7 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials

I Peter 1:6-7 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I Peter 4:12-13 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Why God May Allow Suffering for the Believer To Test Us and Refine Us: To teach us patience

II Cor. 1:6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

Why God May Allow Suffering for the Believer To Test Us and Refine Us: To teach us patience To teach us Character.

Romans 5:3-5 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Why God May Allow Suffering for the Believer To Test Us and Refine Us: To teach us patience To teach us Character. To teach us how to comfort others:

I Cor. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

I. God works for the good. (1) Of Those Who:. A. Love Him.

Eph. 2: 12 …you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Eph. 4:17 They are separated … from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

Col 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

Phil 3:18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

I. God works for the good. (1) Of Those Who: Love Him. Have been called according to His purpose

Romans 1:5-7 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Gordon McDonald Yet something had happened; something had been learned. One girl had become aware of the importance of guarding her tongue lest an errant word hurt another's feelings. And the other learned not to overreact in a heated moment. Valuable lessons. If remembered, the "learning’s" might save both of them in many of the inevitable quarrels they would experience in the future.

Conformed to His Image

Why should the believer find hope even in times of suffering?

II.God is using it to conform you to His image.

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

II.God is using it to conform you to His image. A. He foreknew it

Foreknew It is the word, “Prognosis” a word used often in the medical field as in “What is the prognosis doctor?”

Foreknew It is the word, “Prognosis” a word used often in the medical field as in “What is the prognosis doctor?” It also most has the sense of “fore loved.

Psalm 139 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Psalm For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Psalm Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!

II.God is using it to conform you to His image. A. He foreknew it. B. He predestined it

II.God is using it to conform you to His image. A. He foreknew it. B. He predestined it C. Jesus preceded it

Colossians 1:15-18 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him

Colossians 1: He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

The Wall Street Journal Sep. 17, 2012 According to the author, sometimes the best thing we can do is to love our kids and "back off a bit" by allowing our children to face adversity. Let them fall. Let them fail. "Overcoming adversity," the author states, "is what produces character. And character, more than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting change."

Conformed to His Image

APPLICATION God will bring both good and hard things in your life. They are all for your good- they are always for you good. We may not see the good but if during those trying times we trust Him and draw close to him he can be assured He has something good in store for the long run.

APPLICATION Changing ingrained habits or behaviours are hard to change. God knows that and may allow you to go through hard times to help to learn and change that which would otherwise go unchanged.

APPLICATION Suffering is only for a time.

APPLICATION Discipleship means we are to become more and more like Christ. Just as that is God’s objective in your life so it should be for us. We all need to be in process- the process of becoming more and more like Christ.

Conformed to His Image