Conformed to His Image

1. Conformed to His Image

2. 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.

3. Conformed to His Image

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

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

6. Conformed to His Image

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

8. I. God works for the good. (1)

9. 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.

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

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

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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. These can include things like: • Unknown purpose in life.

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

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

19. 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.

20. 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

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

22. 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

23. 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.

24. 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.

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

26. 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.

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

28. 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.

29. 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:

30. 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.

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

32. 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.

33. 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.

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

35. 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.

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

37. 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:

38. 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.

39. Conformed to His Image

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

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

42. 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.

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

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

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. Psalm 139 13 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.

48. Psalm 139 16 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!

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

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