Do you ever wonder if God cares for you? I don’t mean that in a big, lofty theological sense where we all would, as a said in the firm, of course he cares. I mean, do you ever wonder if God cares for you, if he is truly able to take care of you, if he wants to take care of you?
The law of averages would say that in this little fellowship here, there are a few. If not more, than a few people confronting circumstances in life that would pose that sort of question. Does God really care? Is God able to take care of me? Well, our text this morning in Acts 18, I hope, will provide you with an answer and with encouragement.
We are journeying through the Book of Acts. Last week, Paul was in Athens. He was speaking first in the marketplace and then in the area off Agus to the Stoics into the Epicureans and whoever else would listen to it. After his speech, he left Athens and traveled some 50 miles west of the city of Corinth. Athens, you remember, was a city that had already peaked and was past its prime in glory.

A genera(on or two ago, it would have been inconceivable for you or I to have a conversa(on
with someone who knew nothing about Jesus. But that is not the case today. A lot has changed
in a rela(vely short period of (me, and as the gap between Chris(anity and our society widens,
we Chris(ans will con(nue to find ourselves encountering situa(ons and aAtudes that were on
a large scale foreign to our parents and grandparents, and yet were very familiar to those faced
by the early church in Acts.

Most of us naturally want to steer clear of disagreement. If we can.
But try as we might, we don’t always get to avoid the icky stuff in
life, nor should we avoid it when it comes to reading, preaching, or
trying to be shaped by the word of God. Our Father. We come before you
now asking that you would prepare our hearts to hear and receive the
beauty and the wisdom of your precious word.

The message of the Gospel is a message of hope. It is a message of hope, not condemnation.
How is it hope? Jesus kept the laws of God perfectly in ways that we cannot. He did it, and he’s willing to take our record of lawlessness and exchange it for his perfect record of obedience. And he endured the judgment of God on the cross, the judgment for our lawlessness. When he hung there and he was killed to atone for our sins. And he rose. Having paid the penalty for our law breaking sin debt in full crushing with his resurrection, the power of sin and death, and extending the promise of everlasting life to all who will believe.

“Well, the deeper we get into the Christian life, the more we should see our faithful Heavenly Father conforming us to the likeness of Jesus. This is the promise of Romans 8:29. For those whom He four knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. It is the will. It is the intention. It is the work of God for us in this life that we become more and more like Jesus.”

Common grace is the grace of God that is experienced by all people everywhere. It is the experience of God’s goodness that is known to believer and unbeliever alike. What Professor John Murray describes as every favor of whatever kind or degree falling short of salvation which this undeserving and sin curse world enjoys at the hand of God.