Watching, Waiting, and Warning

Good morning, and welcome to all our guests that we have here in Columbus, Ohio. I'm going to start off with a small joke today that I found. Actually, I can finally tell it. I had actually put this one in Mr. Westerviller's book of comics and funnies, and I've been holding on to it and holding on to it because I didn't want to spoil it, just in case he saw it on the video and such. So it goes, NASA, our famous space administration, now that they've kind of been changed and everything, got a call from the European rail system.

The European rail system called them up because they said, we're having all these bird strikes on our trains, and it's just ruining our trains and such. They're going through the windshields, they're causing damage, they're hurting our engineers. How do we fix this? How do you keep the space shuttle in one piece during takeoff?

How do you keep the birds not coming from the windshield? So NASA gave them all the algorithms and the alloy metals that they need to use and the bulletproof glass and everything, and they said, this is what you do. You build it this way, and once it's built this way, you test it out by firing turkeys at it. Once the turkey doesn't break the windshield, you know you have a strong enough windshield. So they went back and did everything that they were told to do.

Went out and got their frozen turkeys and such, went out to their testing facility, launched them. First turkey. Bam! Right through the windshield, just crashes through, went all the way to the back. And not only that, it caused more damage, and when it got to the back, it put a big dent right into the electrical box and stuff.

Second one. Same thing! Big damage. Somebody gets hurt. Third time, same thing. So they went back to NASA and said, how come this is not working? You told us if we followed all these instructions that we would not have any more damage, that nobody else would get hurt. And they wrote back three words, fall the bird. So anyway, I got a kick out of that one. I did see it. I'm glad that Tage picked that second song. It's going to kind of make, hopefully, more sense as we get into the split sermon today.

Talking about weaknesses, failures. We like to, as humans, be powerful. Take, for instance, as a young age, we like to lift weights. We like to be built up to be strong. We like to become smart. We like to gain knowledge. We read numerous articles and such. And we like to have a lot of wealth. Money equals power these days. We also like to succeed. We're not into failure. Think about it. As a young age, you don't want to be the person that's picked last. Or you don't want to be the person that crosses the finish line last.

You don't want to have the worst grade in the class. And you don't want to feel like you're not going anywhere in life. You want to be successful. However, if we take a step back, as the human race, are we really that strong? Are we really that successful? This came to mind a couple weeks ago as I had an interesting conversation with a girl at work that I work with.

I guess she works with me since she's at work. But anyway, we had an interesting conversation about what she perceives as normal. She feels like we're created for failure. That we have no choice of who we are or where we're going. And that once we're created, it's like we're predestined for one round. We can't change it. There's no space to make a U-turn or to change anything.

And the conversation came up because we were talking about homosexuality at the time. She believes that homosexuals are born that way. They don't have a choice of who they are. And I don't want to get into the realm of that. I mean, I kind of went into disputing that.

Did God create sin? Did He create Satan? No, He creates things perfect. It's up to the being or the person to actually change that. I want to answer the bigot question today. Did God predestined the human race for weakness and failure? Turn with me and we'll start in Romans 8. Did God predestined the human race for weakness and failure?

Romans 8 and we'll start in verse 6. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So we have this human nature that's enmity against God.

And we'll turn back there here in Genesis 1 if you want to start. We're going to start all the way back at the creation. We were created with this. God gave us this. So Genesis chapter 1, all the way back at the beginning.

And we'll go through the reason on why we were created this way, what's the purpose of it, and where we are going. And are we predestined to always be weak and to always fail? Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Verse 27, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. And skipping down to verse 31, Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. So God created man. At that time they were created, they were perfect. However, there was something in them that God had also given them that wasn't perfect.

Our human nature is something we strive hard against. Every day, every hour, sometimes every second, it seems like, we battle against our own human nature, but we were created with this. Turn with me over a couple chapters of Genesis chapter 6. Obviously, we know the story of Adam and Eve, how they chose to go a different route.

And from that different route that they took, mankind continued down that path. And it had gotten so bad, God had to almost wipe the slate clean. So Genesis chapter 6, in the time of Noah here, Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, it says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

So up to that time, it had gotten so bad that pretty much every wake and second was just a continual thought of evil. And once that evil was accomplished, they just went on to something else. And so it had gotten so bad that God said, I can't do this anymore. I am sorry the fact that I have made them because of the fact that they don't want to obey my ways.

And so he wipes the clay clean in this great flood, and he has Noah there that he saves the human race from. Noah and his family. Turn over to Genesis 8. The flood happens. It rains 40 days and 40 nights. All the humans on the earth die. All the animals that weren't inside the ark pass away. And so do things change afterwards? Now that the slate has been wiped clean again, we have Noah and his family coming outside the ark.

And Noah builds this altar to the Lord and offers a sacrifice. And in verse 21, it says, The Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. So even though he's wiped the slate clean and stuff, he still knows that man is going to go back to his evil ways eventually. He will not be able to change him. Man has to change himself.

Let's look at one more verse here. We'll take a slightly different path. Romans 1. And as man has continued down through time, up until the time Romans was made and even past the time, Paul states it here, this is the culmination of man's evil ways. This is human nature at its worst here. Romans 1.20 For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. God's created everything. You can look around him and just know that God's done that. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness and lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, and who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is the Blessed forever. They don't even acknowledge God now. We've gotten to the point where we think we're smart enough that we know how we were created. That God's just an afterthought. He was just some story that was made up of long ago. That the Bible was just a bunch of fables or just a bunch of tall tales written by drunk men. And so this is human nature at its worst. When you remove God from your beliefs, when you don't even believe he existed, the sins affect you, but not only do they affect you, but they start to affect others. And they have negative consequences that can continue on and on and on. Turn with me over to Deuteronomy chapter 5, and this will be shown here.

Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the recapping of the Ten Commandments. And it talks about if you obey them or if you disobey them, what will happen. But in Deuteronomy chapter 5, the Ten Commandments are reviewed here. And in verse 9, we'll kind of break into the thought.

So we have a couple of things here. The fact that they say the fathers are breaking the commandments of idolatry in this case. A couple of things. They establish a pattern of behavior amongst their kids. They teach their children. It's okay to worship a bird or a snake. It's okay to worship money. However, whatever you want to put in place of God, it's okay to do that. So they're teaching their children that. So they're establishing a pattern of behavior, but they're also establishing there's consequences that follow their actions of the father. And it talks about that the iniquity is passed on to the third and fourth generations. The kids sometimes have to pay the penalty of what their parents have done.

But it's one of those things that's a pattern of behavior, and we have to break the cycle. So oftentimes you hear stories that if the father was an alcoholic, then it's just more prone for the son to be, and then his son to be, and then his son to be. If you establish a good pattern of behavior, it's very good to establish it where if the father's good, then the son will have a good chance of being good.

And then his son will have a good chance of being good. They've done studies where people who have been good parents and have had good relationships with their children, they break it down over the time, and how one good example has how many good examples afterwards.

Whereas if you have one good father, you could have a congressman and there are statesmen. You could have somebody who's a good teacher or professor. You could have somebody who's an engineer, and they contribute so much to society. But on the other hand, if you have somebody who has a negative example, they establish a pattern of behavior that becomes negative, and then you have coming down the line criminals, or people who are abusers, or people who don't contribute anything to society or to their fellow man.

So you have to break the cycle. It's up to each of us to break the cycle if we do have something that we do see that is wrong. We'll look at an example of this in Jeremiah, chapter 35, on how one father passed along something that he saw as a weakness in his family line. We're going to talk about Jonadab and the Recobites. Jeremiah, chapter 35. Jeremiah is using the Recobites here as kind of a balance to what Israel and Judah are doing, or really just Judah in this case.

Jeremiah, chapter 35, we'll start in verse 1. He says, The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Go to the house of the Recobites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. And so Jeremiah takes these Recobites, and I'm not going to go through all the names. They're a little hard to pronounce. Jaz and Aya and others. So he brings them into the house of the Lord, as he's told to. And so he sets before them wine, as he's told to in verse 4.

And in verse 5, he says, Then I set before the sons of the house of the Recobites bowls full of wine and cups, and said to them, Drink wine! But they said, We will drink no wine. For Jonadab, the son of Rekab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, and you nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house, nor sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these things.

But all the days you shall dwell in the tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are served, Jerners. Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rekab, our father. In all that he has charged us to drink no wine, in all our days we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters.

Nor do we build ourselves houses to dwell in, nor do we have vineyards, fields, or seed. But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. So here you have the story of this family that's told not to do that. Now, there's some commentators that say, oh, well, they were taking the Nazarete thou, and therefore they shouldn't be drinking wine because of that. And then there's other ones that state, no, there was a problem with alcoholism, and Jonadab recognized that. And so because he could recognize that, he said, don't do it, nor tempt yourself to do it.

Set yourself up for success. Don't set yourself up for failure. If you go through and you plant vineyards and stuff, you may be tempted to press that wine and ferment it and then drink it later on. And then it'll become a snare to you. It'll become a stumbling block for not only you, but everybody else after you. Because he could see that there was repercussions from the consequence of one.

From one allowing their weakness to seep in. It's a choice. And if you think about it, I mean, I can't dogmatically state this, but I would probably take a good guess. The Recabytes did not have the Holy Spirit. And they chose wisely to do themselves. They set themselves up not for failure, but they set themselves up for success. So we do have this human nature that we're always contending with, and we need to make sure that we can see our weaknesses. We can stay away from them. So to answer the earlier question that we were talking about, we'll answer half of it right now.

God did predestinate us for failure. He gave us this human nature that we have to contend with and overcome. The fact that he gave us a choice means he gave us a weakness. But he also gave us an opportunity to show him that we love him or not.

God can't create character. However, we can create character, sometimes through the choices we make, and sometimes through the failures that we experience, that's how we build God and the character. He did not create us to force us to love him. If we were forced to love somebody, you'd have to ask yourself, is it really love them?

Are we called to be the bride of Christ, or are we called to be in the harem of Christ? The bride of Christ is a loving marriage that's supposed to be, is a choice to say, Yes, I want to be with you. Yes, I want to obey you. Yes, I want to please you. Yes, I want to love you. Whereas if you're in the harem of Christ, you're not really given a choice, are you? If you're in a harem by the king, the king just chooses you. Whether you look pretty, or you've been induced in from slavery, or it's been an arranged marriage.

But God didn't want that. God didn't want a bunch of humans to say, Oh yeah, you're going to be there, and that's it. You're going to obey it, and we don't have a choice whether to say anything or not. He wants us to choose. He wants us to conquer our human nature and choose His way. With that being said, though, God did have a plan. God had a plan that would allow everyone in mankind to choose His way of life, whether it be now or later. And by that plan, it was the fact that He had to have His Son sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins for all of mankind.

Turn with me over to Revelation chapter 13. Look at this. This plan was put in place before humans were even brought to the earth.

Revelation chapter 13. And look at verse 8.

And verse 5.

It doesn't become a permanent failure forever. We become a success because of Him. But if we look at us now, we look at the people who have been called out of the world, God called the weak of the world. Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians now. And this is the second song that we were singing about not many wise men now are called. 1 Corinthians 1.

And verse 26.

In the ways we are rich, to a certain extent, compared to the rest of the world. However, we're not as rich compared to the rest of our fellow men in this country. Now, are we mighty or noble? We don't have huge estates. We don't have also power positions or positions of authority that we can swipe down anything we want to in the halls of Congress. But God has chosen in verse 27 the foolish things of the world that put the shame to wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world that put the shame to things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen the things which are not, to bring nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in His presence, but of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. That it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. We should glory in God. He's the only one that should get all the glory. He's the strong one. When I think about the Scripture, I think about the story of Gideon. When God told Gideon, go out and round up the men and we're going to go and attack them, the enemies. I don't remember if it was the Malachites or the people of Ammon or whatever the case was, but He said, go out and get them. And He went out and got 10,000. He said, that's way too many. Way too many. And so He put a test to them. Anybody that wants to go home. And so He thinned out the lines even more. And then that was way too many. He said, bring them down to the river and have them drink. And those who lap up the water will take those. And He had 300. He was doing that because He said, after this victory, after we wreak havoc on the enemy and we defeat them, I don't want them to go back and say, Gideon is the one that did it. Or the power of the Israel Army is the one that did it. I want them to say, God is the one that brought this victory. To glory in God. To show Him that God is the powerful one.

In all honesty, we're just a bunch of weak humans. He's created us this way at this time. You'd have to ask yourself, if we were strong, do we even need God? If we could conquer completely our human nature, do we need God? Turn with me over to Psalms 10. Another, I guess you could say, thing or question that could come out of that is, why doesn't God call everyone at this time?

Well, for one, man's too prideful.

If you go back through history and look at the Bible of Sodom and Gomorrah, people of the Amorites, when God told Abraham, the Amorite sins haven't been filled yet.

Why didn't He just change them? Why didn't He just send in a prophet and have them change?

In a lot of ways, we've are, as mankind, when some of us have just gone too far, where it's impossible to change us now, our human nature is so captivated with ourselves and with Satan in his ways. Psalm 10, verse 4 says, The wicked in his proud continents does not seek God, and God is none in his thoughts. He doesn't even know where to start, he doesn't even know where to begin, he doesn't even look for Him. When he gets into trouble, he doesn't even think that God can help him out. He wants to stay as far away from God because he only looks as God as a judgment.

Ezekiel 18 Another thing is, if everyone was called out at this time, it would be a spiritual bloodbath. Because man is so prideful, they wouldn't be able to choose the way of God. And God doesn't want that. God wants everyone to have an equal choice, to love Him, to worship Him, and to see that He is the one for success. Ezekiel 18 This section of Scripture talks about personal responsibility. But I'd like to just pick out a couple of verses. In Ezekiel 18, verse 23, do I have any pleasure in all that the wicked should die, says the Lord God, and that none, and not that He should term from His ways and live? God would rather see that happen. Now is not the time for some people. In verse 30, He says, Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to His ways, says the Lord God, repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not be ruined. Cast away from your transgressions that you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn and live. God wants to give everybody their best chance to make the right choice. He's just one who wants to plop it down and hope for the best.

Turn with me back over to 2 Corinthians. So we are the weak of the world. When we come into the truth that we can see out there that God is placed in front of us and we've chosen that this is the right way of life, then we start to see that not only are we the weak of the world, but we have a lot of things in us that make us even weaker. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9.

And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Talking about Christ's words here. The grace of God. Therefore, most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproach its needs and persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Second boot camp with the armed forces, they break you down to build you back up again. You're broken down all the way, only to be built up stronger in their eyes, the way that they want to have you conformed in their image. And God does that in a way here. He breaks us down. He says, we really need to work on this. You have a temper problem. You drink too much alcohol. You're too gluttonous. You're too lazy. We all can look back at our own selves and see that we have an issue that we can all work on, if not many issues. And so, when we see those issues, it doesn't make us feel good. It makes us feel weak. It makes us feel human. The human nature inside of us can really come out then. But, when we can see it, and we're humbled, then we can be built up stronger again, because we can get rid of that and start with a better foundation. God wants us to get rid of our weaknesses to make us stronger. And the quicker we realize that, the better we are, because we can get on the road to fixing them and building godly character. It's the choices we make. It's the choices that we make through our failures of the things that we unfortunately fall and stumble upon.

But it doesn't always stay like this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Also known as the resurrection chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Also as the resurrection of the dead, the body is sown in corruption, and it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, and it is raised in glory, and it is sown in weakness, and it is raised in power. It is sown in natural body, and it is raised in spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. So we're started one way.

But as the choices we make, and as we overcome our human nature, and as we become stronger, we can eventually be a better way, a stronger way, God's way. In verse 45, and as so as written, the first man, Adam, became a living being, and the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spirit is not first, but the natural, and afterwards the spiritual. So God's created us this way, even though sometimes it's kind of hard to see why we have to do the things we have to do, or why we see our weaknesses, and yet we work, and we work, and we work, and we get nowhere we feel like. And this human life sometimes just feels like a lot of toil, and no triumph. But there is triumph. There eventually is going to be a huge triumph. I'm going to reference this, we're not going to turn there, but Revelation 2 and 3, when John gets this message to the seven churches, there's one word in there that he announces to all of them at the end. He who overcomes, the word overcome means to subdue, to conquer. All these things that are listed in these seven churches, they all have stumbling blocks at the beginning. He goes through all the bad, but then he lays out the good. To you who overcomes gets to sit on the right hand of God. To you who overcomes gets to be at the Last Supper. To you who overcomes gets to have a new name written. To you who overcomes is a pillar in the temple of God. There's so many benefits and successes at the end of that, but it's the process of overcoming to conquer the weaknesses of God. So how do we do this? Let's look at that. 2 Peter 1.

2 Peter 1 lays out a process that we can look at, that we can take from and then build. 3 Peter 1.

How do we overcome the weaknesses that we have today to the best of our ability right now? And then to take them and build upon them and to become as much of a success as we can? Sue, I didn't know you gave birth already. She's carrying a baby in, so...

2 Peter 1. 5 It says, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, Godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. We'll go back through this now. We'll take one step at a time through each of these. This is add to our faith virtue. To have faith is a big thing. The definition of faith, if you want to look at it, it's Hebrews 11, verse 1, the faith chapter. We won't go there, but faith is the evidence of things hoped for, things that are not seen. Sometimes, as a human being, it's very hard to say, have faith in this. Especially if it's another human doing it, because humans have weaknesses. But if you say, have faith in this, and it's God's, it does. Even still, sometimes, it's hard to do that. Because you can't see it. You can't taste it. You can't hear it. You can't touch it. But God says, to have faith. And so, if we need to have faith, then we can go to Him and ask Him for faith. But I will say one thing, be careful what you ask for. I asked for faith one time, and I got left in a foreign country for an extra day. But He got me out of it. It was a great, great story. And it was a little bit of a, I guess you could say, a trial for me, because I was out of my realm. But, in the end, I felt a lot stronger, and I felt a lot better. God wouldn't leave me there. He was hearing the spirits at the time. But you always have to be careful what you ask for. But He's not going to leave you with a mountain too high to climb, either. He'll get you through it. So we take our faith, and we add to it virtue to strive to do good, to become perfect. So we strive to do good on just one thing, or we take on one challenge to become perfect, to be more Christ-like. And that's a hard thing to overcome some bad habits sometimes, to just overcome one. And then, onto that, we build knowledge onto our virtue. So we learn how to overcome one thing, or we learn how to beat one thing, and then we say, well, let me take on some more. Let me read about it some more and find out what else is in there. Or maybe we beat what we thought was the problem, and then once we get into it, we find out it's like a huge problem. And so now we have something else to work upon, because we've learned more. And so onto our knowledge, self-control. To control yourself, your inner lusts and desires, and your wants. That's pretty big as well. Every year we come to the Passover when we examine ourselves. Self-control is a big thing to overcome, to try to control the inner man. What we do on the outside is, a lot of times, is what's going on in here in our heads. But we take on the self-control, and then we add to it perseverance. We build another block onto it. And perseverance is a huge thing, because sometimes trying to fight through that self-control doesn't always happen the way we want it to happen. You stumble along the way. It doesn't come as easily. You wish it was an easier path. But you get back up on the horse, and you continue to give it another go, and to beat it. And perseverance takes that. To have the patience when the outcome is not what you want, but to continue to strive to have the intended outcome that you desire. And unto perseverance, we build godliness, the way of give, that unselfish nature. And you think of godliness, too. You think of holiness, as well, to keep things holy.

Godliness can also be thought about in the first two of the great commandments that Christ talked about. Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. To try to strive to do that, to have that form of godliness. And then once you have that godliness, to build on that brotherly kindness. To think of others first, and then to take the second great commandment, to treat others as yourself. I mean, to put them first. That's a huge thing when the last scoop of ice cream is coming and you really like this flavor. But you yield it up to your children, because of the fact that you like to see their smiling faces and stuff. But you know at the same time it's the way of putting others first. Just like in the grocery line, you let somebody cut in front of you. Driving down the road, you let somebody go in front of you, maybe you've been waiting for a while and traffic's just zooming by and nobody else is letting them in. There's a number of ways that we can have brotherly kindness to show love towards others. And then lastly, on top of brotherly kindness, the pinnacle is love. The fulfillment of the whole law.

The two great commandments, love god and also love neighbor. God is love. And we strive from faith all the way up to love. There's building blocks along the way and we just have to keep adding to them. It's a stepping stone process. But the fulfillment is love. That's what God is. That's what he wants us to show to everyone else. That's what we should be striving towards. That's what Christ did. He loved the whole world. That he sacrificed himself. And God loved the whole world that he sacrificed his only son. Turn with me back over to where we started, Romans 8. We'll conclude here.

Romans 8, and this time we'll start in verse 18. We'll have a couple of sections of scripture to read. Romans 8, verse 18 says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be paired with the glory which will be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. We're all waiting for when Christ returns. So we can be changed. We can have a chance to know what God has for us really in store. In verse 20, creation was subject to fertility. And really, that's what this human life is all about. In some ways it feels like it's fertility. You strive and strive and strive, and you feel like you get nowhere. But there was a purpose for it. So we could have a choice. So we could know that God has our better interest in mind. That we could choose his way. He didn't want to create us one way, just to have a bunch of drones. Just to have a bunch of people who are yellow pencils that all do the same thing. For creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjugated it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And that's what will eventually happen as we go forth in time. Skipping down to verse 26, this is likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Sometimes the Holy Spirit even knows what our best interest is in mind and lets God know, as it works with us. Sometimes we may see a small tip of the iceberg, but there's a lot more underneath that we haven't realized yet or haven't found out or discovered. Verse 27, now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he made an intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We are predestined to have a purpose in mind through God's plan. We were created. And as it says in verse 28, all things work together for good to those who love God. Even though this life may feel futile at times, there's a reason for our weaknesses at this point in our temporary failure. But with Christ's sacrifice, we do overcome that failure.

So, the original question was, did God predestined the human race for weakness and failure? Well, the answer is yes and no. We were created to have weaknesses. Now, in this physical life, however, we are not to remain this way. We may have been created with this physical body with human nature that has lust, desires, weak points, wants. But we have been called out to overcome those shortcomings and to be part of a spiritual body, one that is stronger. God's plan gives heed to those that we're not stuck in failure forever. We're not created just this way and then that's it. There is no change. There is no U-turns. There's no left turns. There's nothing. No, that's not the case. We're not stuck in failure forever. Where we are that one day we will be a total success. One day we will be a total success. We are given a choice, whether now or later, to become not of our weaknesses and not of our human nature, but of God's might and of His eternal power.