Faithbase

Well hey, good morning everybody. This morning I'm gonna read from Romans 8. I'm gonna read verses 29 through 30 and there's gonna be some words in there that sometimes cause people to get a little anxious or even argumentative, but let's read the verse and then we'll talk about it. Verse 29 and 30. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. One of my favorite times in my life was when I was at Southeastern Bible College. I met my wife there and answered the call to ministry there. Met lifelong friends there and one of my favorite memories is during lunch, not just eating, but sitting around the table with a bunch of other theology students and talking about these words right here. The word foreknowledge, predestined, called, all these things. And everybody would give their opinion and all that stuff. And listen, that is a wonderful conversation to have. It is a wonderful conversation to talk about predestination and God's foreknowledge. You start to get deep into the weeds, things called Calvinism and Arminianism. It's good to discuss those things. It's good to really try to dig into the deeper things of God. But here's what Paul's purpose is here. It's not to confuse anybody. It's not to start theological arguments. It's to encourage you that when you are founded in Christ, when you are born again, when you are placed in his hand, here's the thing, he knows you. He is going to glorify you. You are his. These words are meant to be an encouragement to you. Again, we can have the conversation when it comes to the predestination part. That's good. But Paul's purpose here is to encourage you to know that your being a child of God is not in your hands. It's in his. Folks, that's a good thing. It means we can't mess it up. We can't stop it from happening. That we are his child. We looked at it a few days ago. We looked at that word adopted. We are adopted into his family. We are now destined to be his forever. Folks, again, don't let that be something that causes any type of argument today. Let it be something that gives you encouragement. That you are adopted and you are destined to be with Jesus forever. And that's something we can hold on to. We've also talked about that word hope. That's something that can bring us hope as we go through the pains and hurts of this world. So hold on to that today. If I can pray for you, if I can do anything, shoot me a message. I'd love to be able to serve you any way I can. God bless. Have a great day.