Almost Gospel - Week 2

WEEK 2 – "The Gospel of [self]Comfort" Opening Reading: Romans 8:26-28 These three sayings distort God's purposes in su=ering and hardship.The Lie: "God Exists to Make My Life Easier"Core Passage: Romans 8:18-30Big Idea: God's goal is not our COMFORT, but our CONFORMITY to Christ.Exegesis Romans 8:18-30 – helps break down the misrepresentation of Romans 8:28Teaching MovementSaying 1: “Everything happens for a reason”Not everything that happens is good.• Acts 2:23Evil is genuinely evil.Not in the Bible.Romans 8:28 is often mis-paraphrased this way, “God works all things together for my(our) good”, but theverse says something much richer:"God works all things together for good for those who love Him..."The Bible does not teach that every event is good.It teaches that God is sovereign enough to redeem evil, su=ering, and tragedy for His purposes.Saying 2: “This too shall pass”Temporary su=ering is not meaningless su=ering."This too shall pass" isn't Scripture.I believe Gandalf better says it in his epic battle with the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum “you cannotpass” {four times by the way book, not the one usage from the movie of “you shall not pass”}.But:• Revelation 21:4God uses su=ering as formation.Not in the Bible.The phrase has roots in ancient Middle Eastern wisdom traditions.- Originating from medieval Sufi poets like Attar of Nishapur, the phrase is famously tied to a fable about a king whoasked his wise men for a ring with an inscription that would keep him grounded in both bad times and good.Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism withoutchurch discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personalconfession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, gracewithout Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.Dietrich Bonhoe=er, “The Cost of Discipleship”Saying 3: “God works in mysterious ways”God's ways are often hidden but never absent.Not in the Bible.The expression itself, is actually a misquotation of the hymnist William Cowper. The properquotation is actually “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” It is found in theHymn that is titled, “God Moves In a Mysterious Way” from 1774.• Isaiah 55:8-9Mystery is not abandonment.Again, the great theologian Gandalf the Gray says it this way, “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, hearrives precisely when he means to.”The concept is biblical; the quotation is not.Practical ApplicationWhen life hurts –Instead of asking: "Why did this happen?"Learn to ask: "How is God meeting me here?"InvitationAt Calvary, God transformed history's greatest evil into history's greate