Born the youngest of four daughters in 1949,
Johnny Erickson Tadda, I used to call her name Johnny,
but her name is pronounced Johnny after her father.
Johnny Erickson Tadda lived a very active life in Baltimore, Maryland.
On July 30, 1967, at the age of 17,
she dove into the Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water.
She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae
and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down.
During her two years of rehabilitation,
she experienced anger, deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts.
In occupational therapy, she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth,
which is also how she writes when she does not rely on voice recognition software.
In 2010, she underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy after being diagnosed
with stage-free breast cancer.
In 2018, she was diagnosed with a malignant nodule near the site of her original cancer.
Radiation treatments were successful, and as of July 2019, she has been cancer-free.
What you may ask, does any of that have to do with Romans 8, 28?
Permit me to answer by saying that what we look at proximately, God sees ultimately.
She founded an organization called Johnny and Friends
to accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community.
She has the longest running program in Christian broadcasting,
heard daily on 1,000 radio outlets.
In partnership with an organization called Wounded Warriors and Wheels for the World,
they refurbish mobility devices by volunteers in prison,
and they ship them overseas to developing nations.
She served on the National Council on Disability under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush,
and was a co-sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
an accomplished author, prolific speaker, and international advisor.
She is often asked, after being confined to a wheelchair for almost 60 years,
she is often asked, why does God allow suffering?
Her answer is, God allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.
All things work together for good to them that love God,
and to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans chapter 8 and verse number 28 is one of the most memorized and quoted scriptures in the New Testament.
This scripture brings comfort, it brings direction, and hope to many Christians every day.
Sadly, however, it is also one of the most misquoted and misunderstood verses in scripture as well.
In the Syrian Orthodox Church, there is a negative reasoning called via negativa,
which is a negative way of reasoning about the truth,
going at it by talking about what it is not in order to get at what it really is.
People often quote the part of the verse that they like,
and leave out the real sense of the text.
But brothers and sisters, when you leave out the sense of the text,
you do hermeneutical malpractice.
Romans 828 does not mean that we can live any way we choose, and God will clean up our mess.
All things work together for good, but you got to read on.
To them who love God, who obey God, who trust God, who follow God, who are committed to God,
things will not work out for you if you don't love God.
I wish I had somebody to help me preach it.
We are quick to misquote this passage of scripture because we think that whatever we do,
God will just come along and make it right.
All things work together for good only for those who love God,
and to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Besides Psalm 23 and John 316, this may be the most beloved scripture,
the most beloved promise in all of the Bible.
But I want you to look with me, brothers and sisters, that this Romans 828 has in it confidence.
Paul said, we know.
He's not guessing.
He's not hypothesizing.
It's not wishful thinking.
It's not hocus pocus.
It's not magic.
It's not crystals.
It's not a guru.
It's not getting your fortune told.
It's not reading your horoscope.
I know.
And as a believer,
there are some things you ought to know.
Paul says, we know that if this earthly house,
I wish I had a Bible reader of this tabernacle is dissolved.
We have another building, a house not made with hands,
but eternal in the we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
I know in whom I have believed.
And I know that he's able to keep that,
which I have committed unto him against that.
We know that all things.
He's not speaking with the editorial we.
Or the magisterial we.
He is speaking inclusively of all of us who are believers.
Brothers and sisters, it is not mere conjecture.
It is not mere opinion.
It is a declaration of absolute certainty.
This is one of the five occasions in Romans
where the apostle Paul says that we know something.
Romans chapter two and verse two,
we know that God's judgment against those who do such things
is based on truth.
Romans chapter three and verse 19,
we know that whatever the law says,
it says to those who are under the law.
Romans chapter seven and verse 14 says,
we know that the law is spiritual.
Romans chapter eight and verse 22,
we know that the whole creation has been groaning
as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Romans 828, we know that all things work together for good.
To them that love God and to those who are the called
according to his purpose.
The word Paul uses here gives us our English word
for the Greek word synergy.
All things work together, synergy.
Synergism is a cooperative venture
where two people are working in tandem
or two people are walking in agreement.
They are in synergy.
Listen, Paul is not saying that all things are good
because there's nothing good about cancer.
There's nothing good about ALS.
There's nothing good about sex trafficking.
There's nothing good about domestic violence.
But all things are working together for good.
That is the ultimate purpose is a good purpose.
And here, my beloved, the confidence
is based on the fact that the promise is as good as the God who
made it.
I said the promise is as good as the God who made it.
Let me see if I can help you get that.
I got one or two nephews who are my God sons.
And one or two of them have had one or two refreshments too
many and have gotten in trouble with the law.
And they spent some time in college.
All right.
And so when they went to school, I said, if you need me, call me.
And so they've called me.
And the operator said, a collect call from my nephew.
I ain't going to call his name because that ain't none of your
business.
That's my business.
I don't get in your family mess.
You got some crackheads in your family too.
And so they said, collect call from so and so for Terran.
I said, he's not here, operator.
They said, come on, that's me, man.
Come on, bro.
Don't do that.
I got to say to click.
Because the promise is only good as the one who made it.
I was lying when I made the promise.
Somebody helped me preach it.
But when God makes a promise, you can go to sleep tonight.
Because not only is he willing, but he's able.
Somebody here who went through it last year, but God brought you out,
helped me testify that he will come through.
And the only folk who can shout right in through here is folk who
ain't talking about what you heard.
You ain't talking about what they're talking about on television.
I've seen the lightning flash.
I wish I had some noise here.
I've watched God open a door for me.
I've seen God pay some bills for me.
I know that God can put down some enemies.
God has made a way for me already.
And if he doesn't do anything else,
I'm going to shout about what he's already done.
Confidence.
F. B. Meyer said that any promise of God should fail.
The heavens would clothe themselves in cyclones.
The sun, the moon, and the stars were real from their courses.
The universe would rock.
And the hallowed wind would moan to a ruined creation.
If it were possible for God to tell a lie.
I have confidence.
We know.
But not only is there confidence in the text.
In the same one verse is completeness.
We know that all things.
A good working definition for all is all.
Everything.
Everything in the life of the child of God is working for your good.
Jeremiah says, I know the plans that I have for you.
I wish I had a Bible reader.
Plans to prosper.
To give you a future.
And a hope.
Even things you do not understand are things you don't even like.
God is working it for your good.
What things, river?
Sweet things.
Like family.
Friends.
A job.
A warm bed to sleep in.
A job tomorrow morning.
God is working that thing.
And then God even uses sorrowful things.
The death of your mother.
The loss of income.
Cancer that comes in your body.
A debilitating sickness that keeps you from being all that you want to be.
Tears that come in your eyes.
Because only eyes that have been washed by tears can see what God is getting ready to do next.
Somebody should have shouted right there.
Only eyes that have been washed by tears can see what God is getting ready to do next.
Because what you have already been through is not to be compared to what you've already overcome.
We are more than conquerors.
Sweet things.
Sorrowful things.
Satanic things.
Sometimes evil just happens.
You didn't do anything to get sick.
You didn't do anything for trouble to come your way.
You didn't talk about anybody for people to lie on you.
Sometimes folks just don't like you because you look good.
Sometimes they just hate on you because you're pretty.
They can't stand you because you dress well.
They don't like you because you represent yourself properly.
They can't stand how you talk.
They don't like your voice.
They don't like your hair.
They can't stand you because your shoes match your bag.
They don't like you because you shout on Sunday morning.
They get mad because you teach Sunday school.
You're well spoken.
Listen, don't let anybody bear the light of your potential under the bushel of their expectation.
I'm not in this world for you to like me.
If God be far, who can be against us?
Lord is my light.
I feel like preaching a minute.
And my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, I wish I had a witness.
Even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh.
Just before they got to me, they stumbled and they fell.
No holds should encamp against me.
In this will I be confident.
One thing, have I desired a below?
That will I seek after that army dwell in the house of the Lord for in the time of trouble.
Have I got a witness?
He shall hide me.
Sweet thing.
Sorrowful thing.
Satanic thing.
Sinful thing.
Most of the stuff that happened to us was caused by us.
Sometimes you ain't barren no cross.
You're reaping a crop.
Some of the stuff you planted in your 20s.
Coming back to haunt you in your 60s.
I need somebody to help me here.
Some of us who have gotten up here in the 60 club, you can help me testify.
If I had known I would have lived this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
But now if it ain't your hip, it's your back.
If it ain't your back, it's your elbow.
Because when you was in your 20s, you was backing that thing up.
And dropping it like it's hot.
And now you're trying to pick it up because it's cold.
But God can use that for you to tell some young person who ain't got no sense.
You better sit down.
You better take care of yourself.
Have I got a witness here?
If I had known then what I know now.
If I had the sense in my teens that I have in my 60s, you know how far I'd be up the road.
But thank God for grace.
Mercy.
He looked beyond my faults.
Hey.
Thank you Jesus.
Thank you that I didn't die in my foolishness.
Thank you that you let me live so I could learn some sense.
I could have been dead.
Sleeping in my grave.
Listen, beloved.
I'm trying to hurry here.
If you belong to Christ, he is behind every situation that you face.
He had to pass across his desk to receive his approval before it could come to you.
The Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, suffered from deep depression.
He was the leader of the Protestant Reformation and he was a preacher of some renown.
But he suffered from debilitating depression.
His wife, try as she might.
She could not get him out of his dull drums.
So one day Mrs. Luther came to the breakfast table before Martin Luther got up dressed all in black.
Martin Luther came to the table and asked her whatever in the world is the matter.
She said to him, God is dead.
Martin Luther shouted at her, God is not dead.
That's blasphemous.
Never speak that again.
She said, what's the difference in speaking it and acting it?
He got out of his depression from that day.
If God is not dead, then act like it.
Talk like it. Walk like it.
Smile like it.
Shout like it.
Laugh like it.
Give him glory like it.
If God is alive, you ought to be alive.
Let the redeemed of the Lord.
Say so.
Let everything that has breath, Dr. A. Lewis Patterson used to say, and good sense, praise the Lord.
That's not only a confidence and a cause in this text, but there's a condition in the text.
All things work together for good.
Here's the condition. To them who love God.
The promise is not for everybody.
Only those who love God can claim the promise.
Don't talk about, I love God.
I just don't go to church.
Because you can love God. You don't have to be long to know. Yes, you do.
Stop that crazy talk right now.
I love God, but I just don't love the truth. How can you love God whom you never see?
And hate your brothers and sisters that you see every day. The Bible says you're a liar.
And the truth is not in you.
So I'm talking about, I love God, but you don't have to go to church to be a Christian.
Let me tell you how much sense that made.
You don't have to go to work to get paid.
See how that works for you tomorrow morning.
No, call your bosses. Hey, hey boss.
I ain't coming to work. I can't go. I ain't going to work today.
See how that works for you when you have to come get benevolence from the church.
Because there is no such thing as a person who loves God and does not obey God.
See how quiet you got right there?
Because if you love me, Jesus said, you will do the things that I say.
The promise is not for everybody. It is for those who are the call.
That word, the called, theologically means the effectually call.
That is a general call and there is an effectual call.
The general call is going to hedges and the highways and whosoever will let him come and drink from the fountain of life freely.
God is calling that that that call is for everybody.
He wills that none should perish, but that all should come to everlasting life.
That's the general call that God has on everybody and some hear it and some don't.
But the ones who hear it hear an effectual call.
Meaning that the call of God is so effectual that it pours into an irresistible grace.
So that when you hear it, you might want to rebel against it.
But it's so irresistible, it draws you in.
You didn't get it.
Jeremiah said it like this.
It's like fire.
Shut up in my bowl.
My elders down in Louisiana put it like this. I said I wasn't going to tell nobody.
But I can't keep it.
You're going to help me increase this, won't you?
Somebody here this morning might not have felt like coming to church,
but the irresistible pull of the grace of God got you out of bed,
made you put on all those clothes, drive all this way to sit in the pew that you said last Sunday
for me to tell you the same thing I told you three Sundays ago.
He died.
Didn't he die?
You're going to help me increase this, won't you?
Because the grace of God is so irresistible, it just draws you in.
All things work together for good.
To them that love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.
I'm through. Those who are called according to His purpose.
This is not a verse designed to make you happy.
God did not send Jesus to make you happy.
Crown Royal can do that.
A good shot of gin can do that.
That's what I heard. I don't particularly prescribe.
We can do that.
God almost shouted in the back when I said God's purpose in turning everything to good is not to bless you,
to make you happy or to make you wealthy.
God is doing all that he does in your life and mind to make us like Jesus.
He will continue to shape you until you reflect His image perfectly.
This is John 3 and 2 says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
But we know that when He comes, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Now I need somebody has a clothes who had some setbacks last year.
You are a failure too of sickness and you are still feeling the effects of the surgery.
Or you are still going through the aftermath of what you've already come through.
And every once in a while it makes you nervous and you get queasy because you might have to go through something else this year.
And so you are anxious and your heart is troubled.
I've got some good news for you this morning.
Just like God was good last year.
That same God will keep you this year.
Just like God brought you out last year.
God ain't through opening doors for you.
God healed on last year. You think that same God does not have the same healing power?
God is still opening doors.
God is still making a way.
God is still making the sun shine in your life.
God is still moving dark clouds out of your way.
God is still able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can even ask or think.
According to the power that is at work in you.
I need somebody here who is on the other side of your situation.
You were nervous before you had to go through it.
Now that you are on the other side of it.
Your testimony is it was nobody.
But Jesus, you had some down days last year.
But look back over your life and see how God kept you.
You could have lost your mind. You could have lost your job.
You could have lost your health. But God is good all the time.
God is always looking out for you.
God is always making a way out of no way.
God is always sheltering you.
God is always protecting you.
God is always putting food on your table.
Clothes on your back.
Money in your pocket.
Making a way out of no way.
But you got to stay with God and trust him for everything you need in your life.
I wish I had one or two more witnesses.
Maybe you saw it on television this past Friday.
That was an Alaskan Airlines flight.
On the way from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.
And 16,000 feet in the air, the door came off of that airline.
And Boeing has grounded all of their 737 fleet.
Trying to discover what was the malfunction that caused the door to come off of that airplane.
At 16,000 feet.
And by the grace of God, nobody was sucked out of that plane.
Oxygen masks came down because the cabin got depressurized.
They put on their oxygen masks and the pilot safely landed the plane.
But they took all of the 737s out of commission.
Trying to find out what the problem was.
Let me see if I can help somebody right here.
You might be going through a storm this year.
Your cabin might depressurize.
But by the grace of God, oxygen masks will come down.
I'm not talking about a literal oxygen mask.
I'm talking about grace.
I'm talking about mercy.
I'm talking about the goodness of God will come down to where you are.
And if you keep your seat, God will not have to take the ship out of commission.
Boeing took the 737s out of commission.
But we are not on an Alaskan airline ship.
We are not on United Airlines.
We are not on American Airlines.
We are not on Southwest Airlines.
Thank God we are not on Spirit Airlines.
But we are on the old ship of Zion.
She has landed.
Many a thousand.
She will land.
Many more.
Is there anybody here?
No, there's no danger in the water.
And the reason why there's no danger in the water is because Jesus is our captain.
You better get on board.
Right on when you grab somebody.
Tell them I don't know.
You know what you have to go through?
Come on, use your preaching voice.
I don't know what your tomorrow looks like.
But if you keep your hand in the Lord's hand, He will.
Yes, He will.
He will.
Yes, He will.
He will.
I know He's all right.
He will go to the hospital with you.
He will go in the courtroom with you.
He will go to the HR office with you.
He will go to the bank with you.
He will.
He will make a way out of no way.
Won't He do it?
Why don't you ask somebody?
Shake somebody's hand.
Tell them be not.
Dismayed.
Whatever.
Be tired.
God will.
I know He's all right.
Take this home with you.
I don't know about tomorrow.
I'll just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from expansion.
For His skies may turn to grain.
I wish I had a witness.
I don't worry about my future.
Can I get a witness here?
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I walk beside Him.
Oh, He knows what life ahead.
Can I get somebody to help me here?
Tomorrow I don't seem to understand.
I don't know.
I know who holds tomorrow.
I don't know.
I'm not guessing.
I'm not hoping.
I'm not wishing.
I know.
He holds.
He holds my hand.