Romans 8:28-30
Sermon Series:
My Life’s Verse
Sunday, July 20, 2008 ©
Dr. Victor D. Pentz
Senior Pastor
Scripture Lesson: Romans 8:28-30
It’s so exciting to know that in three
weeks we’ll be in our new gathering space,
which will add so much to our Sunday morning
experience. Beginning August 10, our new
motto around here is going to be “Take ten.”
Take ten minutes before or after worship to sip
and circulate and have a cookie and let this
congregation love you. Think of it, if you’re a
young single person in this church this is a
dream come true. You can work your way
around the room looking for Miss or Mr. Right.
With that idea in mind, I’d like to offer you
young men some Christian pick up lines to use
in our new gathering space. For example: You
might walk up to a young woman and say,
“Man does not live by bread alone. So how
about dinner and a movie?”
How about this one? “My friend told me
to come and meet you; he said that you are a
really nice person. I think you know him. Jesus, yeah, that's his name.” (That’s pretty
cheesy.)
Now our theme of the morning as a
pick-up line: “I didn’t believe in predestination
until I met you.”
Please turn with me to my life verse,
Romans 8:28-30. It’s on page 1757 of your
pew Bible. The words of the Apostle Paul to
the church of Rome are words I have clung to
for strength and encouragement and guidance
and vision and hope throughout my entire life.
Beginning way down in the right hand corner
of the page:
Or “Excuse me, I have to call heaven.
They’re missing an angel.”
And we know (I love that. I love everything
about this verse.) that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose. 29 For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be
Or, “Excuse me; I do believe one of
your ribs belongs to me.”
1
conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30
And those he predestined, he also called; those
he called, he also justified; those he justified,
he also glorified.”
issues in our denomination. I didn’t get angry;
I just withdrew. I pulled back. I have to confess I wrote him off. Several years later, word
came that Ron had committed suicide, leaving
his wonderful wife who’d also been a friend
and two lovely children. You do not know
how often I think, “If only I could go back
and cut and paste and re-edit my responses to
Ron after seminary.” I knew him and what
made him tick and cannot shake the sense that
if our friendship had stayed alive Ron would
be with us today. That’s a burden I carry.
This morning I want to celebrate – not
just defend, celebrate! – the Christian doctrine
of predestination. It’s a doctrine associated for
centuries with Presbyterians. There’s an old
joke: What did the Presbyterian say when he
fell down and broke his leg? “Sure glad that’s
over with.” But that is not what we understand
to be predestination as taught by the Apostle
Paul. Instead of taking away our freedom, this
doctrine is the key that unlocks to you and me
our soaring liberty as God’s children.
Have you ever noticed how many
movies these days are about time travel?
Someone goes back in time to a moment
when they repair what went wrong. An airline
headed this way gets diverted to a new direction out of harm’s way and a tragedy is
averted, or in a relationship new words are
spoken that bring healing and a whole new
future. No movie grasps this better than an
old Bill Murray comedy called Ground Hog
Day. Many of you have seen it. Every year on
February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania,
Phil the ground hog is brought into the public
square, and the crowd decides whether or not
he has seen his shadow. If he has, there’ll be
six more weeks of winter. If he hasn’t, it’s
going to be an early spring. Bill Murray plays
a Pittsburgh weatherman, also named Phil,
sent there on assignment with his producer,
Rita, played by Andie MacDowell.
Stuck in the Past?
Think for a moment: do you have a
place in your past where you are stuck? Recall
a time when someone did something to you (or,
more likely, you did something) that was reckless and foolish and hurtful, and you later
thought, “If only I could go back to that moment and have a do-over.” It’s like the Robert
Frost poem, “Two roads diverged in a
wood….” and I went this way and now through
life’s rearview mirror I see how dumb that decision was. I was young and foolish, or maybe
I was older and angry, and going this way
unleashed a cascade of consequences. Instead
of living, I spend a lot of my life re-living what
might have been.
Phil hates everything about his assignment in Punxsutawney from the sicky sweet
charm of the bed and breakfast where they
look at him blankly when he asks for a cappuccino, to the guy he runs into on the street
who hails him as a long lost buddy from high
school and tries to sell him insurance, to the
cold slush puddle he steps into up to his knees
while making his escape from that guy. He
doesn’t like the townspeople in the square,
I had a friend I was very close to in
seminary. You might even say we were best
friends. Ron and I kept each other sane in systematic theology by cracking each other up doing impressions of our Dutch professor: “Vat is
Luke saying about zee Heilsgeschichte?” We’d
go on for hours like that. We graduated and
Ron took a direction in his theology I didn’t
like. We were best friends in many ways, but to
me it seemed he went to the dark side of the
2
excited about what the other Phil (the “rat” as
the Bill Murray Phil calls him) who is going to
predict the weather. This two-legged Phil is a
cynical sourpuss whose one bright spot is the
stunning beauty of his producer Rita, with
whom he doesn’t have enough classiness or
finesse to get anything going. So all he can
think about is getting out of this podunk town
and back to Pittsburgh. Then a blizzard hits and
he’s stuck, in more ways than one.
do what I want, but I do the very thing hate. ...I
can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I
do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not
want is what I do.”
In other words, friends, if we were to be
placed back in time, knowing what we know
now, with a chance to redeem ourselves, there
is a very strong likelihood we would do the
same thing or something very much like it, because we are sinners.
At 6 a.m. sharp, his alarm goes off,
playing the same ear-splitting Sonny and Cher
tune he heard 24 hours ago. He gets up and
looks out the window at the same scene as 24
hours ago. As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s déjà
vu all over again.” It’s Ground Hog Day again.
He is caught in the spiral of one recurring day.
As he goes through it again he does some
things differently, has a few choices but not
about whom he runs into, and somehow he always steps in that big icy slush puddle. The
film gives him lots of chances to do things differently, but he doesn’t. The only difference
between him and others is he remembers the
day before and the people around him don’t.
So here is a man getting what we all yearn for:
the chance to revisit those moments of failure,
the chance to seize those lost opportunities and
wipe out the “woulda, coulda, shouldas” and
do things right. He gets one chance, two
chances, three chances, four chances, five, six,
seven, eight and you know what? Every day he
steps in the puddle; every day he finds a new
way to self-destruct in his would-be romance
with Rita. Even with chance after chance nothing changes because he’s the same selfish,
bumbling klutz he’s always been. Only after a
month of Sundays does Phil show progress.
But here is the good news I’ve been
leading to: that does not matter. Why? Because
in all things – ALL THINGS – God is working
for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose.
Passengers on the Bus
The tyranny many of us live with is
thinking, “I am the sum of my choices. I am
what I do.” That is a recipe for living every day
inside that Punxsutawney nightmare or with
the depression of Paul in Romans 7.
Here’s the good news: you’re not driving this bus; you’re only a passenger. Your little story is nothing but a subplot in the grand
epic saga of God’s redemption of the universe.
We need the perspective of Joseph in
the Old Testament. Joseph was kidnapped by
his 11 older brothers after his dreams made
them jealous, tossed in a pit, sold into slavery
in Egypt, and then thrown in a dungeon for
years on trumped up charges. Eventually he
turned it around, went on a meteoric rise
through the government of Egypt, and became
second in command next to Pharaoh himself.
A great famine one day brought none other
than Joseph’s brothers, desperately scavenging
for food. They had no idea this majestic ruler
was their little brother. (This is the favorite
story of youngest siblings everywhere.) Suddenly Joseph dropped his disguise and said, “It
This is a profoundly Biblical movie.
One of the great Bible heroes found himself
stuck in Punxsutawney inside a recurring day.
The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7: “I do
not understand my own actions. For I do not
3
is I, your brother, Joseph.” They figured, “It’s
over, payback time. We’re history.” But here’s
what Joseph said: “Do not be afraid. I am not
going to take revenge on you. What you did to
me you meant for evil. But God meant it for
good. Let’s heal our family.” In other words
there’s so much more going on in our lives
than our choices or what others do to us. A
mysterious hand moves through our lives and
can take even things intended for evil and bring
them to God’s highest and best.
toward which he is moving those of us who are
in Christ.
Does that take away our free will? No!
So how do we wrap our minds around the
grand paradox of predestination by a sovereign
God and our human agency of free will? Think
of it this way. All of us in Christ are on a huge
747 bound for our dream destination – for me
that’s Costa Rica; you fill in your picture of
paradise – we’re belted in for take-off with our
seats and trays securely in the upright position.
We lift off, up, up and away, and in a few minutes a voice comes on and says, “You are now
free to move about the cabin.” People exercise
their freedom. They push their seats back to
where they prefer, bring down their trays, get
up and go to the restroom, watch a movie, order a drink.
What that means is when I wake up in
the morning feeling grumpy and I spill my coffee on myself and hate my life, how I feel bears
no relation to reality. My pre-destination is secure.
Our Heavenly Destiny
What drives us to our heavenly destiny?
Paul uses five verbs in the next verse, verse 29:
For those God foreknew he also predestined....
And those he predestined, he also called; those
he called, he also justified; those he justified,
he also glorified.
Sometimes people use their freedom
poorly. I was having dinner with an airline executive recently who told me in his earlier days
he had been in charge of emergencies for his
airline when passengers flew into Hartsfield
International Airport. He told me how a lady
in another city who’d be flying into Hartsfield
walked up to the ticket counter with a little box
for carry-on. The ticket agent asked, “What’s
in there?” The lady said, “That’s Freddie.”
“Freddie? Who’s Freddy?” She answered, “My
pet snake.” The agent said, “I’m sorry, we
don’t allow snakes in the passenger cabin.” So
the woman left. An hour later she got on the
plane. (I think you know how this is going to
turn out.) The plane landed in Atlanta and as
they were deplaning, there was a blood curdling scream: “Freddy! Where’s Freddy?” The
woman started sobbing. Flight attendants
thought it was a lost child, but when they
started asking, “Who’s Freddy?” the woman
refused to answer. Finally they got it out of her.
They went through the whole plane; there was
no Freddy. The plane had to be taken out of
service, costing hundreds of thousands of dol-
First God foreknew us. God foreknew
you in the pew. Think of the moment of conception. 100 million sperm over here, one
ovum over here, the gun goes off, there’s this
huge race and guess what? You won! Bigger
than the Peachtree Road Race – the odds of
you being you are about a hundred million to
one. But you’re here and you’re you. God foreknew the you in the pew!
Then those he foreknew he predestined.
There’s that word again. People think predestination is, “I smashed my car up today because
it was in the script. It’s the day it was going to
happen.” Or people think predestination is God
lining everybody up and saying, “You folks are
going to heaven and you people are going to
hell.” None of this is Biblical. Predestination
simply means God has pre-selected the destiny
4
lars. This gentleman told me they wound up
flying the plane north to a very cold climate—to try to flush out Freddy, since snakes
hate cold. Eventually they had to release on
board eight to ten very mean and hungry cats,
and they found Freddy.
Have you noticed how these days people love to surround themselves in their
homes with things with flaws? When you’re
out shopping for a carpet you aren’t looking
for machine-made perfection. Don’t you want
something with character, slightly asymmetrical, with the feel of hand-made native art?
Something that has a self invested in it? Today we have way too many perfect, plastic
Christians out there when we need authentic,
real, flawed followers of Jesus who say,
“Even with my nicks and scratches and tears
and frayed edges, I am an heirloom beloved
of my Heavenly Father ‘just-as-if-I’d’ never
sinned.”
Even with that passenger using her
freedom poorly that plane arrived at its predestination on time. Our predestination is the
kingdom of God, where there’ll be no more
weeping or sadness or death or children dying
of AIDS and God himself will wipe every
tear from our eyes. I was thinking not even
the original Freddy who tempted Eve can divert us one millionth of a degree off course
from our destination to the home of God’s
children, for to stand in the way of God’s
kingdom is like trying to stop a 747 with a
butterfly net.
Then, those God foreknew and predestined and called and justified, it says, he also
glorified. Someday it’s going to be show time
when we bask in the glory of our destiny as
God’s children when, says verse 29, we will
“be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” In
the meantime, in all things God is working
toward that goal in our lives. Nobody gets lost
in this process. Those whom he foreknew, he
also predestined, and that same number of
people he predestined, he called; and that
same number of people he also justified; and
those very people he will glorify.
For God’s children whom he foreknew, he also predestined, and third, those he
predestined, he also called. Jeremiah 1:5
says: 5 Before I formed you in the womb I
knew [a] you, before you were born I set you
apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. He says, “Back in eternity I had an
‘aha’ concerning you. I had a work I wanted
done on this planet and you are my finely
crafted instrument.” God says, “I call every
one of you to make a difference in the world
for me.”
I’ll tell you why this doctrine means a
lot to me. I grew up in a Pentecostal church
where I was taught I could lose my salvation.
If you had unconfessed sin your life and you
died—sorry, you go to the other place. As a
boy I was very insecure before God, until I
came across this great verse, my life verse,
Romans 8:28-30. It even gets even more
thrilling toward the end. Paul asks, “Will anything in all creation ever be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord? No! No! A thousand times no. In all
these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.” If you're not a
Those he foreknew and predestined
and called he also justified, Paul says. This is
my favorite. Back in second grade Sunday
School Mrs. Manderville taught me
“justified” means God treats me “just-as-ifI’d” never sinned. Every good and loving
thing Jesus did I get credit for. What that
means is that I myself don’t have to be perfect; it’s enough that I be authentic.
5
Christian, my friend, there's another person inside you that's longing to come out – the person you were created to be from before the
foundation of the world, not perfect and plastic,
but real and authentic and treasured.
28 home runs, several of them 500 foot monsters. At one point he hit home runs on 13 consecutive swings of the bat, while 53,713 New
Yorkers were on their feet screaming his name.
Afterwards, grabbed by a TV reporter he said
“God has done amazing things in my life in
such a short time. I want glorify him.”
Working for Good
Did you happen to see the All Star
events in Yankee Stadium this week? The buzz
was all about Josh Hamilton, an outfielder for
the Texas Rangers. In 1999 Josh Hamilton was
drafted first in the major league draft. He got a
4 million dollar signing bonus. He started
hanging around a Bradenton, Florida, tattoo
parlor and it was down hill from there—
alcohol, cocaine and heroin. He spent every
day locked in his own private Punxsutawney
hell of bad choices, day after day. In 2004,
Josh Hamilton was banished from baseball. It
was over.
The next day he elaborated those
thoughts, and I want the words of Josh Hamilton to sum up all that I’m saying this morning:
This may sound crazy, but I wouldn't
change a thing about my path to the
big leagues. I wouldn't even change
the 26 tattoos that cover so much of my
body, even though they're the most obvious signs of my life temporarily leaving the tracks. You're probably thinking, bad decisions and addiction almost cost him his life, and he wouldn't
change anything? But if I hadn't gone
through all the hard times, this whole
story would be just about baseball. If
I'd made the big leagues at 21 and
made my first All-Star team at 23 and
done all the things expected of me, I
would be a big-time baseball player,
and that's it. Baseball is third in my
life right now, behind my relationship
with God and my family. Without the
first two, baseball isn't even in the picture.
It was soon thereafter that Jesus got hold
of Josh Hamilton. The electricity on Monday
night was that before the Home Run Derby
Josh Hamilton told media that two years prior,
like Joseph in the Bible, he had had a vivid
dream from God in which he, Josh Hamilton,
was being interviewed in Yankee Stadium after
participating in the Home Run Derby. Two
years ago, nobody knew this year’s All Star
events would take place in Yankee Stadium.
Two years ago Josh Hamilton was still banned
from major league baseball, and the idea of his
being an All Star was nothing but a crazy
thought.
In all things – all things – from chilly
slush puddles to cocaine addictions, God is
working for the good of those who love him
and are called according to his purpose.
On Monday night with all this being
whispered in the background, Josh Hamilton
put on the greatest display of home run hitting
power in major league baseball history. In the
opening round of the Home Run Derby he batted last of seven or eight players, the best of
whom did very well, hitting 8 home runs. I’m
so glad I was awake to see what happened
next. Josh Hamilton stood at the plate and hit
ESPN Announcer Rick Reilly closed the
broadcast Monday night saying, “What a lousy
night for atheists.”
6
7
P EACHTREE P RESBYTERIAN C HURCH
3434 R OSWELL R OAD , NW · A TLANTA , G EORGIA 30305
www.peachtreepres.org · 404-842-5800
8