Mark 14:12-16 Daily Drugeries and Divine Appointments

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
We'll be in Mark, chapter 14 today.
Mark, chapter 14, verse 12.
All right, well, today has atitle.

(00:36):
It doesn't happen all the time,but it just came to me.
Title Daily Drudgery and DivineAppointment.
See Daily Drudgery and DivineAppointment.
Okay, I'll get in here.
All right, divine Appointmentis what we're talking about
today.
In normal everydayness of life,christian perspective is that

(00:58):
God has a special and peculiarpurpose and plan.
A lot of big words in there.
Life is divinely designed.
It's not a chance.
Now we are coming close to thecross in our account.
Here we are we could sayThursday of that Passion Week

(01:21):
and we are getting close here tothe Last Supper.
That's what's being planned inour passage today.
Let's look at verse 12.
We'll just read a little bit, Ithink up to verse 16, so not
much today.
Now, on the first day ofunleavened bread, when they

(01:42):
killed the Passover lamb, hisdisciples said to him where do
you want us to go and preparethat you may eat the Passover?
And he sent out two of hisdisciples and said to them go
into the city and a man willmeet you carrying a pitcher of
water.
Follow him wherever he goes in.

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Say to the master of the house.
The teacher says where is theguest room in which I may eat
the Passover with my disciples?
Then he will show you a largeupper room, furnished and
prepared, there make ready forus.
So his disciples went out andcame into the city and found it,

(02:24):
just as he had said to them,and they prepared the Passover.
So here we are, thursday, andthe disciples are looking for
where should we prepare thisPassover meal.
One thing to kind of look at aswe're getting close to the cross

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is the issue of time.
This is just kind of atechnical note here.
The issue of time can be kindof tricky in the Bible because
not all cultures consider timethe same way.
In the Gospels we're mixingseveral different ways of
considering time.
Well, there's a way we look attime right.

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New Year's Eve comes around andwe do the countdown at midnight.
Three, two, one, happy New Yearand our time.
Many times the day starts atmidnight.
Now, not many of us do thingsat midnight other than New
Year's Eve, but you know, thecalendar changes.
The day changes at midnight.
Now, not many of us do thingsat midnight other than New
Year's Eve, but the calendarchanges.
The day changes at midnight Forthe Romans.

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Their way of looking at time, wesee, comes into play on the
cross a lot.
They considered the day tostart at midnight for sure.
That's when it flipped over.
The calendar flipped over butthe workday started at six.
So when you see time from aRoman perspective, like on the
cross, we see that it was theninth hour when Jesus died on

(03:59):
the cross.
That would be 3 pm.
You start at 6 am when theworkday started and you count
your nine hours and you get to 3pm.
So the Romans could considertime on that kind of schedule.
The Jews consider time sunset tosunset.

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The day starts when the sungoes down.
The next day starts.
So we look at this and the daystarts on Thursday.
Friday would start when the sungoes down on Thursday, totally
different way than way we wouldlook at time.
So Thursday night when thisPassover feast happens, it's

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really Friday in the mind of theJew.
It's good to keep these thingsin mind as we look at time
because it can get a little bitconfusing.
Now Passover we see here verse12.
Let's just look at our accountNow.
The first day of unleavenedbread, when they killed the

(05:07):
Passover lamb.
The Passover, you'll remember,was that Independence Day
celebration where the Jewsremembered God's deliverance
from Egypt.
And they did it by sacrificinga lamb.
Remember, god said I'm going togo through the land.
Death will go through the land,death to the firstborn.

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And wherever I see the blood ofthe lamb on the door, I'll pass
over.
And so this whole independencehappened there, with the killing
of the firstborn, but thedeliverance of the firstborn
through the blood of the lamb.
So they remember this by thefeast, the Passover feast.
It's an independence day.
Now they're totally dependenton the Romans at this point, but

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they're still able to celebratethis feast of remembering God's
deliverance.
And Jesus' disciples ask Jesuswhat's the plan and where do you
want us to prepare for thePassover feast?
Now they're not thinking farahead.
I like this because I'm aprocrastinator, but it's that

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night that they're going to havethis feast.
And they're just now saying,well, where should we go prepare
for this feast?
Saying, well, where should wego prepare for this feast?
And there's this plan.
And notice, as we've looked atit, it involves a little bit of
prophecy, right?

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Jesus doesn't just say, well,I'm glad you asked, I have it
all figured out, you know.
And you know, go talk to thisguy.
I've talked to him.
It doesn't work that way.
You see, it's a prophetic planhere, as Jesus says.
Well, here's how it's going togo down.
You're going to go into thecity and you're going to see a
guy, a guy with a pitcher ofwater.

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Follow that guy to the house.
When he goes into the house, Iwant you to go in there and ask
the master of the house where'sthe room that we can celebrate
this Passover?
And Jesus gives them this wholeprophetic thing of how they're
going to find a room.
Now it seems rather simple,though, because in verse 16, the

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disciples went out.
Notice, they went out, they didwhat Jesus said.
They came into the city andthey found it just as Jesus had
said to them, and they preparedit.
So it seems rather simple inthe end, because the disciples
find it exactly the way Jesussaid, and they did it.
Now this is a practical thing.

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We see, preparing the PassoverWe'll see some more practical
stuff here.
Today Seems rather simple, butwhen you pull back and look at
it, in this daily drudgery ofplanning and getting water and
things like that, there is thisdivine appointment.
Jesus has a divine plan the waythings are going to go down and

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he gives it to them Noticethere by telling them about this
servant carrying water.
We assume that this guy was aservant, because men typically
not my idea, this is the way itwent down in those days men
typically didn't do things likeget water unless they were
servants.
That was typically a woman'sjob.

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So this guy is most obviouslysome kind of servant.
He goes to a room it's a biggerplace, honestly, it's a bigger
house so probably somebody whois rather well-to-do.
But the servant is part of theplan and it's the normal daily

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drudgery of getting water.
He was going about his businessand I point that out because
this is something of applicationfor all of us.
We all have a daily drudgery.
We might call it the grind.
Right, it's our job.
Now, some of us enjoy what wedo.
Maybe you enjoy what you do andso you would never call it that

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.
But you know, the funny thingis that anything that you do for
an amount of time, it becomesdrudgery to some degree it
becomes a grind.
What you do, the chores of life, the errands of life, school,
that's a grind, sometimes rightNot right now because it's
summer, but you know it's thatfeeling of this is just what I

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do.
I don't know too many of usthat are like Snow White, that
wake up, you know, and thebutterflies and the birds are
tweeting.
We just go it's anotherbeautiful day to do what I meant
to do.
It's just something that we do.
I point that out because it's soeasy to resent the normalcy of
what we do, the drudgery of whatwe do.

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But I think it's interestingand we'll see this over and over
again in the Bible, and we'llsee this over and over again in
the Bible that it's in thenormal drudgery of life that God
orchestrates divineappointments Every single time,
across the board.
It's in the normal everydaythings that God orchestrates

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divine appointments.
Divine appointment that's avery Christianese thing to say.
Right, that's a very Biblething to say.
That doesn't even make sense.
But you know what I mean.
Right, it's a Christian thingto say.
A divine appointment that Godhas a plan.
And we can picture it God'splanner, calendar Before

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smartphones.
Right, you had the planner, youknow calendar kind of thing
that you would buy in the newyear and you'd write down the
things that you had planned.
God has a planner.
So it seems Now, because he'sGod, it's not quite that simple,
right, because he's omniscient,right, god knows everything.

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It's not so simple as God justplans the days of our life.
There's this thing of free will,right, I'm a big advocate of
free will.
You have a choice to come heretoday or not to come.
You have a choice to do thethings that you do Every single
day.
You have free will.
I think we see that prettyclearly.

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But for God, he knows, healready knows the beginning and
the end.
That's kind of one of thosethings we see about him.
So when we look at God'scalendar, it's all filled with
the things that we would end updoing.
Did God determine it?
Well, maybe right, did wedecide it?

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It seems that way.
So our brain can kind of hurtover these things.
It's kind of a God issue, so wekind of have to loose grip that
.
But check this out.
Here's what David says in Psalm139, verse 14.
Psalm 139, verse 14.
I will praise you, for I amfearfully and wonderfully made.

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Marvelous are your works and mysoul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden fromyou.
When I was made in secret andyou skillfully wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth, youreyes saw my substance being yet
unformed.
And in your book they are allwritten the days fashioned for

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me when as yet there were noneof them.
So David looks at this ideabefore I was even born, you were
there forming me, right?
The prophet Jeremiah hearssomething really similar to this
.
He says before you were born, Iordained you a prophet to the
nations.
And David says the same thinghere's God making us before we

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were born.
And he goes here's why I'vemade you the way I've made you.
All the characteristics.
He puts them in us.
He goes it's not just because Iwanted to make you the way I
made you, it's because I have aplan.
And David here looking at it,he says in your book, god, I
don't know where that book is,it's not a literal book, I don't
think in this case.
But he says all your days arefashioned for me.

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God, not only do you make me,but you make the plan for my
life.
Now again, how does it work?
We'll let that play out in life, but there is this idea that
God has a plan for our lives.
It's established.
He's made us for that plan.
There's no accidents and we'llget into it.

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But the days are divinelyappointed.
Sometimes, it would seem Godlets us peek into what these
appointments are all about, butI think a lot of times we'll
just have to wait and see.
But here's another verse thatkind of says this Ephesians 2.10

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.
It's one you know, and listento this if you could.
Ephesians 2.10, for we are hisworkmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works.
That's interesting.
God makes us the idea there isthat we're his poema, his work
of art.
Right, you know thatworkmanship.

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We're created in Christ Jesusfor good works.
Now check this out which Godprepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.
So that's a huge truth.
God creates us for good things,and those good things he's
already figured out beforehand.
Now we're looking at this fromthis really distinct perspective

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that God has a plan, divinewill.
Now, the thing we see aboutthis and this is where my brain
started to go all over the placethis morning is that through
the Bible you see this over andover again.
I think it would be great toread the Bible with this in mind
.
God's plan, how God works outhis plan.

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Let me just share a couple withyou.
Try to tune in all right.
Genesis 24, an example of thisit's Abraham.
He already has his son Isaac,and he sends his servant,
eleazar, to go get his son awife.
That's the way it worked backthen, right?
And Eleazar, the servant.

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He prays when he gets there tofind his master's son a wife and
he says this it's good to prayin times like this.
Now, let it be that the youngwoman to whom I say please let
down your pitcher that I maydrink, and she says drink, I
will also give your camels adrink.

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That's pretty huge, right, lether be the drink.
I will also give your camels adrink.
That's pretty huge, right.
Let her be the one that you'veappointed for your servant,
isaac.
And by this I will know thatyou have shown kindness to my
master.
So it's a pretty tall orderhere, right?
Eleazar comes to this well andhe says I want to know that I'm
doing what God wants me to do,that this is a person God wants

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Isaac to have as a wife.
And he says God, when I getthere, let it be that when I ask
somebody for a drink, that shesays oh, I'll give you a drink
and I'll give your camels adrink too.
That's no small order, right Toyou know.
Put a bucket down in a well andgather water.

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And we find out that, as he wassaying this, verse 15 says,
before he had finished speaking,that, behold, rebecca came and
the whole thing goes down.
Right, it's the right time, theright place.
And Eleazar says, hey, can yougive me a drink?
Rebecca says, sure, and I'lljust get water for your camels

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too.
And he sits there and he justgoes.
Whoa, how did this just workout so completely?
It was confirmation, but it wasa divine appointment, right,
normal, everyday thing forRebecca to get water.
And she came at the right timeand she had the right heart and

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says this totally extravagantthing, I'm going to get water
for your camels.
And it changed the rest of herlife, right, not an accident,
notice, joseph had one of thesethings, had a bunch of these
things actually, joseph, inGenesis 37, it's always tripped
me out.
Genesis 37, joseph is sent tocheck on his brothers.

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Things don't go well after thatpoint.
He gets thrown in a pit and allthese things.
That's part of the process.
But Joseph is sent to check onhis brothers.
Now, in chapter 37, there'sthis one point that has always
just tripped me out, becausehe's walking in a field.
It literally says this he'swalking in a field.
Picture Joseph in a field ofwhatever wheat you know.

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And in the middle of this fieldhe runs into this guy.
It says, and he says where aremy brothers?
Have you seen them?
Oh, yeah, I heard them.
They said they were going toDothan.
And so Joseph goes to Dothan.
Now you look at that and gowell, that's weird.
What is that doing there?
Random guy in a random fieldpops up and says yeah, they're

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over there.
Well, because from that pointand maybe this isn't the best
example of God's leading, butfrom that point Joseph's life
went on a totally differenttrajectory.
When he found his brothers,they threw him in a pit right,
they sold him to some passingIshmaelites, he was sold to
Potiphar and time goes on.

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Process of everything, hebecomes second in command over
Egypt.
There's a lot that goes on inthe middle of that, by the way.
But you look and you go whatdid this guy?
Why is he wandering around inthis field?
I think I mean the Bible givesus that occurrence.
I think it was specifically tosay Joseph go over there.
And he did.

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Now, it wasn't a pretty storyuntil the very end, but it was a
divine appointment in thedrudgery of life, right Walking
through a field, right time,right place.
You could look at Moses in thebook of Exodus.
I mean we see his birth and hispreservation and all that kind
of stuff and you could point outplenty in that.

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But he ends up getting a job,so to speak, taking care of
sheep in the desert.
And there comes a point whereone of his sheep wanders away
and he follows it and he turnsaside and he sees this burning
bush and you look and you go.
You know taking care of sheepis not what I would want to do.

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I've done that in elementaryschool.
I did it at a camp we went to.
It wasn't fun For two days.
It was not fun cleaning upafter sheep.
But he was in the right placeat the right time for the right
occurrence.
You could look at Joshua, hisassistant.
He was there as an assistantand the whole purpose was that

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he would eventually lead God'speople into the promised land.
You could look at Ruth.
You can do a deep dive into thebook of Ruth this summer and
find just God's divineappointments.
Some of them are really uglyright.
Some death involved there inthe book of Ruth, there in the
book of Ruth.
But you know her familysituation, having Naomi as a

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mother-in-law.
It changed the course of herlife and really it ended up
being a part of the DNA of Jesusfrom the book of Ruth.
And so you look at this, it'sjust like playing the ball where
it lies kind of situations andGod works.
David, her grandson just acouple more because there's so

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many of them.
David, her grandson 1 Samuel 17.
His father, jesse, says son, Iwant you to go check on your
brothers, I want you to bringthese 10 cheeses Great study on
the 10 cheeses there in 1 Samuel17.

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But David is sent as amessenger to his brothers with
10 cheeses I don't know whatkind of cheeses they were, but
cheeses.
And while he's there, goliathcomes out and starts storming
about send me somebody to fight.
You fight me, you cow, you know.

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And David says God could dothis and you know the story.
But it changed the course ofhis life.
And how did it come about?
Was when he was delivering 10cheeses?
Right, he was faithful with thethings that were in front of
him, the drudgery of doing that.

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He was faithful to it and itwas all part of the plan.
Now one last one and we'll turn,just so you guys stay awake.
The book of Esther.
Because it is so pointed, thebook of Esther.
We might need a couple secondsto find the book of Esther.
Because it is so pointed, thebook of Esther, we might need a
couple seconds to find the bookof Esther.
I guess it's before the Psalms.

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There's Nehemiah, ezra,nehemiah and Esther, right?
Is that how it goes?
Is it after Nehemiah?
There it is Esther, chapter 4.
We want to see it in black andwhite here.
Esther is an interesting book.
The name of God never mentionedPeople.

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Some have a problem with thisbecause God's name is never
mentioned there in the book ofEsther.
But you know the story.
Weird stuff happens in the bookof Esther.
Esther is one of the captivesof Israel, there in the Persian
empire, and there becomes a needfor a new queen.
Right, vashti drops the balland the king says we need a new

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queen and there's a contest tofind a new queen.
That's what you do in thePersian empire, I guess.
And Esther becomes the nextqueen.
Well, while Esther is queen, aplan is hatched by evil Haman
right Haman to exterminate theJews.

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It's happened many times, right?
It's happening today, right, aplan to exterminate God's people
.
And the plan is found out.
And Esther is the one that, itseems, should go to the king and
petition for her people.
She's nervous, right, becauseyou don't just walk into the

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king, even when you're the queen, you don't just do that.
You could die if he's not in agood mood.
And her cousin, mordecai, Ithink in chapter 4, verse 13.
Esther's not so sure about thisgoing to the king thing.
Mordecai says this.
Mordecai told them to answerEsther.

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Esther, do not think in yourheart that you will escape in
the king's palace any more thanall the other Jews, for if you
remain completely silent at thistime, relief and deliverance
will arise for the Jews fromanother place, but you and your
father's house will perish.

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Now check this out.
Yet who knows whether you havecome to the kingdom for such a
time as this.
And you look at the whole storyof Esther and what Mordecai says
is profound here.
He says, esther, you might beright here right now for this

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exact thing to bring deliveranceto your people.
And you go.
Well, yeah, she's queen, I mean, at least that's a pretty nice
thing, but she was just doingwhat was in front of her Right
and there's that idea thatperhaps and I will say more than
perhaps, exactly that perhapsand I will say more than perhaps

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exactly God had her right whereshe was doing what she was
doing for that exact moment.
No accident, because that's theway God works, that's what all
this means that we're looking at.
There's just no accidents.
Now, that's deep theologyreally.
I'm not very deep, but that'sdeep theology.
That's kind of like God has aplan, you know, because God
knows everything and all thesethings.

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But I think we need to realizethat in our lives, that even in
the normal everyday things, godhas a profound plan for you.
It's good to remember thatevery single day, a divine
appointment.
Let's go back to verse 16,because you didn't think we

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would go back to Mark 14, verse16.
So Jesus lets them know it'sgonna go down like this, and it
did.
But look at verse 16.
This is kind of the process.
So his disciples went out.
That's obedience, right, hisdisciples went out, they went to

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it.
Now, you know, maybe theyweren't so surprised by these
kinds of things from Jesusbecause he did it a few times.
Right, go into the city.
You'll find a horse, a donkeytied, get it.
If they ask, say this.
You know, it did kind of happenthis way sometimes, but the
deal is they actually obeyed,they went out, they got out of

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bed in the morning, they didwhat was in front of them.
It started with obedience.
I think, adding to thisobedience, we do it because of
this mystical nature of life,that life is not an accident.
Your day is not just a waste oftime.
There's a plan.
So this perspective adds toobedience.

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God, you know what you want andI want to obey.
Now this happens in prettyprofound ways sometimes in our
life.
Right, maybe it was a new joband you had the opportunity for
a new job in your life and youprayed about it and you just had
this peace.
I think this is what God wantsme to do and you step out and

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it's profound.
New job, new thing In myministry life I went to a place
called Santee.
I came to Texas and both ofthose times I just had to step
out and say God, I think youmight have a reason for us to go
to these places and, lookingback, it was right.
Sometimes it's profound likethat, but sometimes it's just

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more general.
And listen, sometimes it's moregeneral, it's just playing the
ball where it lies.
It's a job that we have andwe're to do it.
It's family to raise, and we doit.
It's a class to go to and we doit.
You know it's grandkids and wepray for them, right, and we can

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look at those things and thespecific is really exciting and
the everyday is kind of likeit's a drudgery.
But remember that God might haveyou in a place that you're in
for such a time as this, thatyou're in for such a time as
this.
God has a plan and sometimes inthese daily acts we see the

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calendar just kind of flippingby, right as they used to be the
calendars.
You flip by.
I don't know what is this allabout, but just to stay faithful
to that, to do the thing that'sin front of you.
Faithfulness is important.
So they went out Notice there inverse 16, his disciples went

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out, they came into the city andthey found it, just as he had
said.
So they found it, exactly howJesus had said.
They discovered it was a divineappointment.
I mean no joke here, the divineappointment, the guy with the
picture.
We follow him.
We found a room.
Now this is all pretty amazing.

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We don't have time for it, butyou look at this, and Josephus
tells us, in a few years afterthis, that the city of Jerusalem
, during Passover, had twomillion people in it because
everybody came to Jerusalem atthat point.
So picture the miracle of thiswhole thing.
The city is packed, everybody'sdoing the same thing they're

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eating feasts, they'reout-of-towners eating feasts,
and it's the day of the feast,and there's this dude walking
around with a pitcher, and he'sgot a room that's not taken.
That's kind of a miracle, right, and it happens just the way
Jesus said.
We find it happens just the wayGod has planned.

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It happens just the way God hasplanned, and I think some of
these things we see in ourlifetime, right, some of these
things go down and you look andyou go, wow, that was a divine
appointment.
I think that person I talked toin line at the DMV, or whatever
it's called here, you knowdivine appointment.
You know that person I ran intoat the store, you know divine

(30:44):
appointment.
Some of these things, though, Ithink will be the business of
heaven.
Maybe, right, I don't know thatwe're going to be watching VHS
tapes up in heaven.
You know, picture it that way.
Sometimes we're going to watchour life.
It seems kind of distressingmaybe, but you know, I think in
heaven we'll have plenty of timeto go remember.

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Remember that one conversationyou had, remember that one smile
you gave to that person Savetheir life.
Whoa, you know, and we'll see.
But the idea here is to befaithful.
That's hard, daily drudgeryfaithful.

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Here's a couple of verses.
We'll read one and turn to one,then we'll be done.
Listen to this Galatians 6, 8.
Sorry, galatians 6, 9.
And let us not grow weary.
Now listen to it.
Let us not grow weary whiledoing good, for in due season we

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shall reap if we do not loseheart.
That's a promise, right?
Don't grow weary in well-doing.
The drudgery of life is verytiring For us adults.
We all nod our heads.
Right, it's tiring, but don'tgrow weary while doing good.
In due season you shall reap ifyou do not lose heart.

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Let's turn to one last place,and this could easily be our
benediction for today Ephesians,chapter 3, verse 20.
Chapter 3, verse 20.
And it's kind of a prayer.
Paul says, ephesians 3.20,.

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Now to him who is able to doexceedingly, abundantly, above
all, we ask or think, and it'sjust another promise of who God
is.
Think about it.
He's able to do exceedinglyabundantly, above all we can ask
or think I'm not even sure ifthat's proper English right.

(33:08):
That's a lot of words, a lot ofwords in one little area
Exceedingly abundantly, aboveall we can ask or think.
He could have just said God cando above everything we can ask
or think.
God can do above everything wecan ask or think, but he said
exceedingly abundantly, aboveall we can ask or think.

(33:30):
I think we hold on to that inour normal everyday life, this
faith.
God as I do what's in front ofme, god, you'll do exceedingly
abundantly, above all I can askor think.
We may not see it till heaven,but we trust that God will do it
.
So, god, in the little thingsof life, there's big things in

(33:53):
life and those seem exciting.
But it's the little things oflife and the daily drudgery.
But it's the little things oflife and the daily drudgery, god
, I pray that we wouldn't missthe idea that you have a plan
for what we do Now, the peoplethat we talk to, the way that we
love the truth that we tell,the way that we patiently endure

(34:17):
.
God, you have a way of workinggood things and God, we can
trust that in these thingsyou'll do exceedingly,
abundantly.
Above all, we can ask or think,because you're just that good
God.
You don't give us this life towaste.
God, we're here for a purpose.

(34:37):
God, help us to rest in that.
Even today we give you allthese things in Jesus' name,
amen.