Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've got a captain who knows how to guide the ship,
and you've got a captain who knows how to deliver
you to your destination safely. Because even though the storm
they need it for bad, God means it for good
to all who love Him and who are called to
His purpose. So lead luck alone, get you some providence
(00:25):
so you can have confidence in the circumstances of life.
What today, I want to change your vocabulary. I want
(00:46):
to walk you away from a thing called luck. I'm
gonna give you a new word. For some perhaps it's
a new word, but it's it's.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The right word. Word I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
From the Life of Joseph is a word pronounce providence.
You've heard it providence, Rhode Island. They came up with
the word providence for Rhode Island off of this word.
Providence is a subset of another word. So let me
(01:25):
give you the first word because providence comes underneath it.
The second most important thing you need to know in
your Christian experience. The first important. The first thing you
need to know in your Christian experience is the Gospel.
You need to know how to come to faith in
Jesus Christ. For your eternal destiny for your salvation. That's
(01:46):
the most important thing to know. But the second thing
you need to know is about God's sovereignty sovereignty. One Timothy,
chapter six, verse fifteen says that God is sovereign. That is,
he is the absolute ruler, controller, and sustainer of his creation.
(02:10):
That's sovereignty. It's the ultimate ruler, the person who.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Has the last say so.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And here it is nothing sits outside of God's sovereignty.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
There are no events over which he does not rule.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
There are no things. If it is created, he runs it.
That sovereignty, the ultimate ruler over all of his creation.
Underneath sovereignty is a word that couples with it, and that's.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
The word providence.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Providence is the way God arranges things to achieve his
sovereign purposes.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Sovereignty is his rulership.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Providence is how He hooks things up, integrates things, connects things,
detaches things, arranges things in order to wind up at
the sovereign goal to which he is moving.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So providence is the arrangement.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That facilitates sovereignty. The Bible is clear that our God
is sovereign and that he does all things. Ephesians one
verse eleven, after the counsel of his own will that
his purposes can never be thwarted.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
The scripture is clear that he is ruler over all.
He's sovereign. Now here it is.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You cannot simultaneously have sovereignty and luck. The two can
never coexist because luck is random events that occur that
shape things. But if you have a sovereign God who
controls everything, you can't have random events that shape anything.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So you can't have sovereignty and luck. You can't hit both.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And the way God works out what you and I
might call luck is through providence, that is arranging things
so that they come together or disconnect as.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
He so chooses.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So I want you to begin to moon walk from
luck and begin to make your way toward providence. We
have watched Joseph's life and it is filled with ups
and downs. Either a coat, one day, he's in a pit,
(05:01):
the next day he's got a good job. One day
he's accused of rape, the next day he's in prison.
He's forgotten, he's remembered. I mean, this guy is going
through stuff. It looks like one day he's one day
(05:22):
he's got good luck, the next day he's got bad luck.
But look at how Joseph looked at his life in
verse nineteen and twenty. But Joseph said to them, do
not be afraid, for I am in God's place.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
As for you.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You meant to evil against me, but God meant it
for good in order to bring about this present result,
to preserve many people alive.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You know what he just said. God did this on purpose.
What looked like an unlucky day and a lucky day.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Was God fulfilling his purpose to bring me to my destiny.
If you ever get providence the subset of sovereignty, and
move away from luck, you will begin to view life differently.
(06:26):
Sovereignty must be the foundation and his provident you're working.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
We'll talk about that by.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Which you now begin to live and look at the
events that shape your life so that you can arrive
at your divinely ordained destiny. But if you start with
the foundation that God is sovereign and that he providentially
(06:54):
arranges things to accomplish his goal, you have laid a
foundation through which to look at the complexities of life
that comes your way. What you and I and others
may look at as random events are actually orchestrated events
(07:16):
in the purpose and plan of God.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Let's put it another way.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
This mysterious thing called providence means God is sitting behind
the steering wheel of history, and sometimes he's on the
main highway. Other times he's driving down back alley. Sometimes
it looks like he's going the wrong way on a
one way street, but he's steering the steering wheel of history.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
To arrive at a destination. Now, let's get this straight.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Sovereignty and his providence, how he hooks things up, is
not merely related to the big things that happen. See,
we look at the big things and we say, well,
give the God within it. God wasn't minute because it
was a big because it affected me greatly. Sovereignty is
so complete and prominence is so intricate that God includes
(08:11):
the details. That's why Matthew Ten says that God knows
every hair that's on your head and when it comes out,
and he says he knows every sparrow that falls out
of a tree. So when we talk about the sovereign
(08:33):
providence of God, we're talking about not only that he
controls the big things that get our undivided attention, but
the little things we don't think twice about now. I
know you like to think the devil is in the details,
but God says, I'm in the details because sovereignty covers everything,
(08:55):
and providence is how he hooks the everything up in
order to arise at his specific purpose. Because God is sovereign,
he is never caught by surprise, and he never says, oops,
that one got away from me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
He doesn't do that.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Because if he's controlling the big and the little, that
means he's not surprised by anything.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
What shots you was long known by him.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So here is the word. The word is providence, God
arranging things. So let me help you right now about providence.
The Bible says in Romans, chapter eleven, verse thirty three.
God says that his ways are unsearchable. You can't google
(09:53):
his providence. You cannot sit at your computer and google
God's way.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And get the intricate.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Details of how he does what he does, because it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Is past finding out.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So don't be surprised when God doesn't make sense. He's
not supposed to because his ways are not our ways,
and his thoughts are now our thoughts, and they're not
even close as high as the heavens are above the earth.
Isaiah fifty five says, so is the gap between God's
thinking and God's our thinking. God's ways and our ways.
(10:37):
And you cannot figure He is the unfigure outable God.
The only things you can figure out is what he
decides to tell you. And Deuteronomy twenty nine twenty nine
says he doesn't tell you everything. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
He says in verse twenty.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God
meant it for good.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh, please stick with that word meant.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
They did his brothers, his family did evil against him.
And he says, and you meant it for evil. You
messed up my life on purpose. You plan to sell
me as a slave. You plan to tell my daddy
I was killed by an animal. You plan to ruin
my life. Anybody in here where somebody planned to mess
(11:26):
you up. I mean they pre planned that thing, They
thought about that thing, He says, Ask for you, you
meant it for evil, But then he uses the word
meant again, but God meant it for good. Providence includes
(11:47):
good and bad. God is sovereign. Nothing happens outside of
his rule. But within God's sovereignty he created freedom. Freedom
means you get to choose. There's no freedom without choice.
You're free to say yes or no, to go or stay.
(12:10):
God created freedom, but he's also sovereign. So how can
he be sovereign and control everything and at the same
time create freedom. Because freedom means I can do good
or bad. I can be righteous or unrighteous, I can be.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Evil or not.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
We've all done both because we are free. God is sovereign.
He's created boundaries, but he's also created freedom.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That freedom allows.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You to do bad or good, to be right or wrong,
but he limits how free He lets free go because
when you step on his line. When you step on
the line, the whistle blows. So God keeps his sovereignty
(13:00):
while allowing freedom.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Now watch this.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Because God is sovereign in his providential connecting of things,
he either causes all things that happen or allows them
to happen if he didn't cause it. God cannot sin.
God cannot endorse sin, but what he will do is
(13:27):
use it. He cannot do evil, but he will use
evil to accomplish his purposes. Because Joseph says, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it the it that
you meant for evil, He meant it for good. Let's
(13:48):
put it another way, God, use your mess in my
life to bring me to this location is because you
messed over me. I'm fulfilling my destiny. It's because you
were trying to do me in I'm in God's place.
See when you got a sovereign God like that who
(14:08):
can take folk messing over you to bring you the
way he wants you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
You don't want to hang out with luck.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You want to hang out with Providence, because Providence is
how he arranges it for it to happen. Look, God
is so good at his providential work of hooking stuff
up and arranging stuff in order to accomplish your sovereign purposes.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Luke twenty two.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Jesus told Peter, the devil has asked permission to mess
up your life to sif you like wheat, and permission
has been granted.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So the devil is not just the devil.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The devil is God's devil because even he only gets
to be a good devil by permission.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's how sovereign God is.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The devil doesn't even get to be good at his
job without a divine Okay, I know that's messing with you,
but we've got to deal with the fact that God
is sovereign. He says, you meant it for evil. You
were out to get me, But God used that thing
(15:27):
to bring me to this location. And when you're dealing
with the providence of God, watch this now. You never
see all there is. You never see all that's taking place.
You never see all the details that God is working
out behind the scenes. In fact, what you do see
(15:49):
often doesn't connect. They are parts that don't seem to
relate to one another. That's because God is always doing
more than one thing at a time. He's dealing with
fifty million things at the same time. That's what makes
him such a using, unique being. He can take billions
of people at.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The same time.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And connect everything in order to accomplish our purpose and
his destiny in our lives.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And he's doing it all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But because we can't see it, sometimes it doesn't look
like he's doing a thing. Sometimes it looks like he's sleep.
Sometimes it looks like the phone is busy. Sometimes it
looks like he's on vacation. That's because all you see
is what you see, and if all you see is
what you see, you do not see all there is
to be seen.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
He says, you.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Meant it for evil, but God meant it for good
in order to accomplish his purposes. Don't think that the
King of kings and Lord of laws and the sovereign
of the universe can't run over a situation that gets
in his way. And as long as you have a
(16:57):
sovereign God who controls providential activity, that means the people,
the problems, and the circumstances in your life don't.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Have the last word.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Because God can run over anything that gets in his way.
His position demands it providence, the sovereign hand of God
ruling and overruling all things.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You meant it for evil.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But the idea here is that God, in his providential working,
takes good and bad to bring about I like this
the present result. What is his present result? This man
has reached his destiny. He's in the place God was
taking him all the time. It took him twenty two
years to get here. When we started he was seventeen.
This is twenty two years later, So it took him
(17:58):
twenty two years to a the spot. Because we don't
arrive at our destiny overnight. Very few people arrived. That
depends on what God's purposes are, and whether we're cooperating
or contradicting those purposes, whether we're walking with him or
walking against him, which can affect the delay or the
development of our destiny. Our goal through this series is
(18:21):
for everybody to end your life having reached your destiny,
even if it meant evil had.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
To be used to get you there.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Now. I know some of you are thinking, well, what
if you the one that did the evil. That's another
sermon for another day. But God never endorses it, but
he does use it. Here's the goal of God's providence.
(18:54):
You know the scripture well, Romans eight twenty eight. All
things worked together for good to them who love God
and who are called according to his purposes. All things
work together for good to those who love God and
are called according to his purposes. God's goal in our
destiny is always his glory and our good. God is
(19:19):
the master weaver, and things are really as they appear.
You have to know that. A statement in this story.
I love this statement. Joseph's father. He says this, he
thinks Joseph is dead. Benjamin, his son, is being held
(19:43):
hostage by Joseph. For those who read the story, they're
getting ready to lose Simeon. They're hungry because there's a
famine in the land. And Jacob did, like many of us,
when everything is going wrong, he threw up his hands
and said, all these things are against me. You ever
felt like that nothing's right, everything's wrong, and what's broke
(20:05):
gets broken.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Just everything is just wrong. He says, all these things
are against me. Little did he do.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Joseph was fine, prince in Egypt. Benjamin was fine, Joseph
taking care of him. Simeon was gonna be fine, and
they were all getting ready to go off to Egypt
to eat. Because you never see all that God is
doing when you're looking at it. You only see that
peace that he wants to show you. Right now, you.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Say, why won't you show me the whole thing?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So that you learn to walk by faith and not
by sight, So that you and I learned to walk
by faith and not by sight.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We had a cruise to Alaska.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was a Cruiser of the Earth Alternative, our National Ministry.
We had a cruise for our donors and we went
to Alaska. A number of years ago. We went to Alaska,
and on our way back, the captain said, we're gonna
hit a storm. Cap said, we're gonna hit a storm,
and it might be might be a rough storm. And
boy was at a rough storm. Because we were in
(21:19):
a storm and it was dark outside. Sister Evans picked
up the telephone and said, I want to speak to
the captain. I sat on the side of the bed
and went, old Lord, She said, I want to speak
to the captain. The lady said, the captain cannot come
(21:43):
right now. We're trying to weather this storm. He cannot
come right now. I'm so sorry, because you know this
is turbulent, so we cannot come right now. She said, well,
I just want to know he told us he knew
we were gonna go into the storm. He could have
gone through the inside passage and bypassed being directly out
(22:04):
in the open ocean in this storm, and we could
have bypassed a lot of this storm.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
That was an option. But he didn't take it inside back.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
He took us and we have two hundred guests on
the boat and they having this miserable experience because the
captain didn't.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Go the safer, smoother route. He took the And I
want to know why he would do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That and give us this much discomfort. The lady said, well,
I'll relate a message to the captain, but he can't
come to the phone right now. It's a Serian situation
we're in. So the phone was hung up. I took
a deep breath. A few minutes later, the phone rang
(22:41):
and it was the assistant to the captain, and the
assistant to the captain told us to have an assist.
The captain said, this is rough, and I know it's bad,
but you need to understand one thing. This ship was
built with this storm in mind. When we were in
(23:02):
dry dock and we were putting this baby together, we
knew we would hear a day like this. We knew
we would hit a day when there would be all
the world would collapse and there would be a storm
like this, and all of that was taken into consideration
before we ever launched. So even though it's uncomfortable, and
even though it's difficult, I just.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Want you to know that you're gonna reach.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Your destination safely, even though it's difficult sailing right now.
Because of what was built here and because of who's
in charge here, we gonna get you from where we
took you back to where you came from.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And you're gonna get that safely.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You may be on rough seas right now, you may
be in turbulence right now, it may be dark right now,
but your trial all is on a ship that was
built with.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
This trial in mind.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Cause you got a captain who knows how to weather
the storm. You've got a captain who he knows how
to guide the ship, and you've got a captain who
knows how to deliver you to your destination safely. Because
even though the storm they mean it for bad, God
means it for good to all who love Him and
(24:16):
who are called to His purpose.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So leave luck alone. Get you some.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Providence so you can have confidence in the circumstances of life.
I know it feels like luck, but the biblical word
is providence. Providence is the mysterious way in which God
(24:42):
interconnects people, places, things, and thoughts in order to bring
about his desired result. Sometimes privateence happens with big things,
other times with small things. But they're always significant things
because because they change the direction of your detour.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So keep your.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Eyes open for God's interaction and intervention in life's circumstances,
unpredictable and unexpected, yet always shifting.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
A direction in life. When God is at.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Providentially working in your life, then you will know he's
taking you on a different path to an outcome that
will bring you closer to your destiny. I'm standing here
(26:18):
in Alaska, one of the most glorious places in God's
great creation, and I want to invite you to join
me in our urban alternative family for the Alaskan Cruise.
We're going to have a magnificent time in God's Word
and in God's creation. We're going to enjoy great fellowship,
(26:40):
great fun, great food, and I'm looking forward to meeting
and greeting you on our Tua, Alaskan Cruise. Register to
be there. Can't wait to be with you. Two
You've got a captain who knows how to guide the ship,
and you've got a captain who knows how to deliver
you to your destination safely. Because even though the storm
they need it for bad, God means it for good
to all who love Him and who are called to
His purpose. So lead luck alone, get you some providence
(00:25):
so you can have confidence in the circumstances of life.
What today, I want to change your vocabulary. I want
(00:46):
to walk you away from a thing called luck. I'm
gonna give you a new word. For some perhaps it's
a new word, but it's it's.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The right word. Word I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
From the Life of Joseph is a word pronounce providence.
You've heard it providence, Rhode Island. They came up with
the word providence for Rhode Island off of this word.
Providence is a subset of another word. So let me
(01:25):
give you the first word because providence comes underneath it.
The second most important thing you need to know in
your Christian experience. The first important. The first thing you
need to know in your Christian experience is the Gospel.
You need to know how to come to faith in
Jesus Christ. For your eternal destiny for your salvation. That's
(01:46):
the most important thing to know. But the second thing
you need to know is about God's sovereignty sovereignty. One Timothy,
chapter six, verse fifteen says that God is sovereign. That is,
he is the absolute ruler, controller, and sustainer of his creation.
(02:10):
That's sovereignty. It's the ultimate ruler, the person who.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Has the last say so.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And here it is nothing sits outside of God's sovereignty.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
There are no events over which he does not rule.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
There are no things. If it is created, he runs it.
That sovereignty, the ultimate ruler over all of his creation.
Underneath sovereignty is a word that couples with it, and that's.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
The word providence.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Providence is the way God arranges things to achieve his
sovereign purposes.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Sovereignty is his rulership.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Providence is how He hooks things up, integrates things, connects things,
detaches things, arranges things in order to wind up at
the sovereign goal to which he is moving.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So providence is the arrangement.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That facilitates sovereignty. The Bible is clear that our God
is sovereign and that he does all things. Ephesians one
verse eleven, after the counsel of his own will that
his purposes can never be thwarted.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
The scripture is clear that he is ruler over all.
He's sovereign. Now here it is.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You cannot simultaneously have sovereignty and luck. The two can
never coexist because luck is random events that occur that
shape things. But if you have a sovereign God who
controls everything, you can't have random events that shape anything.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So you can't have sovereignty and luck. You can't hit both.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And the way God works out what you and I
might call luck is through providence, that is arranging things
so that they come together or disconnect as.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
He so chooses.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So I want you to begin to moon walk from
luck and begin to make your way toward providence. We
have watched Joseph's life and it is filled with ups
and downs. Either a coat, one day, he's in a pit,
(05:01):
the next day he's got a good job. One day
he's accused of rape, the next day he's in prison.
He's forgotten, he's remembered. I mean, this guy is going
through stuff. It looks like one day he's one day
(05:22):
he's got good luck, the next day he's got bad luck.
But look at how Joseph looked at his life in
verse nineteen and twenty. But Joseph said to them, do
not be afraid, for I am in God's place.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
As for you.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You meant to evil against me, but God meant it
for good in order to bring about this present result,
to preserve many people alive.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You know what he just said. God did this on purpose.
What looked like an unlucky day and a lucky day.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Was God fulfilling his purpose to bring me to my destiny.
If you ever get providence the subset of sovereignty, and
move away from luck, you will begin to view life differently.
(06:26):
Sovereignty must be the foundation and his provident you're working.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
We'll talk about that by.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Which you now begin to live and look at the
events that shape your life so that you can arrive
at your divinely ordained destiny. But if you start with
the foundation that God is sovereign and that he providentially
(06:54):
arranges things to accomplish his goal, you have laid a
foundation through which to look at the complexities of life
that comes your way. What you and I and others
may look at as random events are actually orchestrated events
(07:16):
in the purpose and plan of God.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Let's put it another way.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
This mysterious thing called providence means God is sitting behind
the steering wheel of history, and sometimes he's on the
main highway. Other times he's driving down back alley. Sometimes
it looks like he's going the wrong way on a
one way street, but he's steering the steering wheel of history.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
To arrive at a destination. Now, let's get this straight.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Sovereignty and his providence, how he hooks things up, is
not merely related to the big things that happen. See,
we look at the big things and we say, well,
give the God within it. God wasn't minute because it
was a big because it affected me greatly. Sovereignty is
so complete and prominence is so intricate that God includes
(08:11):
the details. That's why Matthew Ten says that God knows
every hair that's on your head and when it comes out,
and he says he knows every sparrow that falls out
of a tree. So when we talk about the sovereign
(08:33):
providence of God, we're talking about not only that he
controls the big things that get our undivided attention, but
the little things we don't think twice about now. I
know you like to think the devil is in the details,
but God says, I'm in the details because sovereignty covers everything,
(08:55):
and providence is how he hooks the everything up in
order to arise at his specific purpose. Because God is sovereign,
he is never caught by surprise, and he never says, oops,
that one got away from me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
He doesn't do that.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Because if he's controlling the big and the little, that
means he's not surprised by anything.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
What shots you was long known by him.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
So here is the word. The word is providence, God
arranging things. So let me help you right now about providence.
The Bible says in Romans, chapter eleven, verse thirty three.
God says that his ways are unsearchable. You can't google
(09:53):
his providence. You cannot sit at your computer and google
God's way.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And get the intricate.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Details of how he does what he does, because it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Is past finding out.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So don't be surprised when God doesn't make sense. He's
not supposed to because his ways are not our ways,
and his thoughts are now our thoughts, and they're not
even close as high as the heavens are above the earth.
Isaiah fifty five says, so is the gap between God's
thinking and God's our thinking. God's ways and our ways.
(10:37):
And you cannot figure He is the unfigure outable God.
The only things you can figure out is what he
decides to tell you. And Deuteronomy twenty nine twenty nine
says he doesn't tell you everything. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
He says in verse twenty.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God
meant it for good.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh, please stick with that word meant.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
They did his brothers, his family did evil against him.
And he says, and you meant it for evil. You
messed up my life on purpose. You plan to sell
me as a slave. You plan to tell my daddy
I was killed by an animal. You plan to ruin
my life. Anybody in here where somebody planned to mess
(11:26):
you up. I mean they pre planned that thing, They
thought about that thing, He says, Ask for you, you
meant it for evil, But then he uses the word
meant again, but God meant it for good. Providence includes
(11:47):
good and bad. God is sovereign. Nothing happens outside of
his rule. But within God's sovereignty he created freedom. Freedom
means you get to choose. There's no freedom without choice.
You're free to say yes or no, to go or stay.
(12:10):
God created freedom, but he's also sovereign. So how can
he be sovereign and control everything and at the same
time create freedom. Because freedom means I can do good
or bad. I can be righteous or unrighteous, I can be.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Evil or not.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
We've all done both because we are free. God is sovereign.
He's created boundaries, but he's also created freedom.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That freedom allows.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You to do bad or good, to be right or wrong,
but he limits how free He lets free go because
when you step on his line. When you step on
the line, the whistle blows. So God keeps his sovereignty
(13:00):
while allowing freedom.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Now watch this.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Because God is sovereign in his providential connecting of things,
he either causes all things that happen or allows them
to happen if he didn't cause it. God cannot sin.
God cannot endorse sin, but what he will do is
(13:27):
use it. He cannot do evil, but he will use
evil to accomplish his purposes. Because Joseph says, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it the it that
you meant for evil, He meant it for good. Let's
(13:48):
put it another way, God, use your mess in my
life to bring me to this location is because you
messed over me. I'm fulfilling my destiny. It's because you
were trying to do me in I'm in God's place.
See when you got a sovereign God like that who
(14:08):
can take folk messing over you to bring you the
way he wants you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
You don't want to hang out with luck.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You want to hang out with Providence, because Providence is
how he arranges it for it to happen. Look, God
is so good at his providential work of hooking stuff
up and arranging stuff in order to accomplish your sovereign purposes.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Luke twenty two.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Jesus told Peter, the devil has asked permission to mess
up your life to sif you like wheat, and permission
has been granted.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So the devil is not just the devil.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
The devil is God's devil because even he only gets
to be a good devil by permission.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's how sovereign God is.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The devil doesn't even get to be good at his
job without a divine Okay, I know that's messing with you,
but we've got to deal with the fact that God
is sovereign. He says, you meant it for evil. You
were out to get me, But God used that thing
(15:27):
to bring me to this location. And when you're dealing
with the providence of God, watch this now. You never
see all there is. You never see all that's taking place.
You never see all the details that God is working
out behind the scenes. In fact, what you do see
(15:49):
often doesn't connect. They are parts that don't seem to
relate to one another. That's because God is always doing
more than one thing at a time. He's dealing with
fifty million things at the same time. That's what makes
him such a using, unique being. He can take billions
of people at.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The same time.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
And connect everything in order to accomplish our purpose and
his destiny in our lives.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And he's doing it all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But because we can't see it, sometimes it doesn't look
like he's doing a thing. Sometimes it looks like he's sleep.
Sometimes it looks like the phone is busy. Sometimes it
looks like he's on vacation. That's because all you see
is what you see, and if all you see is
what you see, you do not see all there is
to be seen.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
He says, you.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Meant it for evil, but God meant it for good
in order to accomplish his purposes. Don't think that the
King of kings and Lord of laws and the sovereign
of the universe can't run over a situation that gets
in his way. And as long as you have a
(16:57):
sovereign God who controls providential activity, that means the people,
the problems, and the circumstances in your life don't.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Have the last word.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Because God can run over anything that gets in his way.
His position demands it providence, the sovereign hand of God
ruling and overruling all things.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You meant it for evil.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But the idea here is that God, in his providential working,
takes good and bad to bring about I like this
the present result. What is his present result? This man
has reached his destiny. He's in the place God was
taking him all the time. It took him twenty two
years to get here. When we started he was seventeen.
This is twenty two years later, So it took him
(17:58):
twenty two years to a the spot. Because we don't
arrive at our destiny overnight. Very few people arrived. That
depends on what God's purposes are, and whether we're cooperating
or contradicting those purposes, whether we're walking with him or
walking against him, which can affect the delay or the
development of our destiny. Our goal through this series is
(18:21):
for everybody to end your life having reached your destiny,
even if it meant evil had.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
To be used to get you there.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Now. I know some of you are thinking, well, what
if you the one that did the evil. That's another
sermon for another day. But God never endorses it, but
he does use it. Here's the goal of God's providence.
(18:54):
You know the scripture well, Romans eight twenty eight. All
things worked together for good to them who love God
and who are called according to his purposes. All things
work together for good to those who love God and
are called according to his purposes. God's goal in our
destiny is always his glory and our good. God is
(19:19):
the master weaver, and things are really as they appear.
You have to know that. A statement in this story.
I love this statement. Joseph's father. He says this, he
thinks Joseph is dead. Benjamin, his son, is being held
(19:43):
hostage by Joseph. For those who read the story, they're
getting ready to lose Simeon. They're hungry because there's a
famine in the land. And Jacob did, like many of us,
when everything is going wrong, he threw up his hands
and said, all these things are against me. You ever
felt like that nothing's right, everything's wrong, and what's broke
(20:05):
gets broken.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Just everything is just wrong. He says, all these things
are against me. Little did he do.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Joseph was fine, prince in Egypt. Benjamin was fine, Joseph
taking care of him. Simeon was gonna be fine, and
they were all getting ready to go off to Egypt
to eat. Because you never see all that God is
doing when you're looking at it. You only see that
peace that he wants to show you. Right now, you.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Say, why won't you show me the whole thing?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So that you learn to walk by faith and not
by sight, So that you and I learned to walk
by faith and not by sight.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
We had a cruise to Alaska.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was a Cruiser of the Earth Alternative, our National Ministry.
We had a cruise for our donors and we went
to Alaska. A number of years ago. We went to Alaska,
and on our way back, the captain said, we're gonna
hit a storm. Cap said, we're gonna hit a storm,
and it might be might be a rough storm. And
boy was at a rough storm. Because we were in
(21:19):
a storm and it was dark outside. Sister Evans picked
up the telephone and said, I want to speak to
the captain. I sat on the side of the bed
and went, old Lord, She said, I want to speak
to the captain. The lady said, the captain cannot come
(21:43):
right now. We're trying to weather this storm. He cannot
come right now. I'm so sorry, because you know this
is turbulent, so we cannot come right now. She said, well,
I just want to know he told us he knew
we were gonna go into the storm. He could have
gone through the inside passage and bypassed being directly out
(22:04):
in the open ocean in this storm, and we could
have bypassed a lot of this storm.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
That was an option. But he didn't take it inside back.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
He took us and we have two hundred guests on
the boat and they having this miserable experience because the
captain didn't.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Go the safer, smoother route. He took the And I
want to know why he would do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That and give us this much discomfort. The lady said, well,
I'll relate a message to the captain, but he can't
come to the phone right now. It's a Serian situation
we're in. So the phone was hung up. I took
a deep breath. A few minutes later, the phone rang
(22:41):
and it was the assistant to the captain, and the
assistant to the captain told us to have an assist.
The captain said, this is rough, and I know it's bad,
but you need to understand one thing. This ship was
built with this storm in mind. When we were in
(23:02):
dry dock and we were putting this baby together, we
knew we would hear a day like this. We knew
we would hit a day when there would be all
the world would collapse and there would be a storm
like this, and all of that was taken into consideration
before we ever launched. So even though it's uncomfortable, and
even though it's difficult, I just.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Want you to know that you're gonna reach.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Your destination safely, even though it's difficult sailing right now.
Because of what was built here and because of who's
in charge here, we gonna get you from where we
took you back to where you came from.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And you're gonna get that safely.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You may be on rough seas right now, you may
be in turbulence right now, it may be dark right now,
but your trial all is on a ship that was
built with.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
This trial in mind.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Cause you got a captain who knows how to weather
the storm. You've got a captain who he knows how
to guide the ship, and you've got a captain who
knows how to deliver you to your destination safely. Because
even though the storm they mean it for bad, God
means it for good to all who love Him and
(24:16):
who are called to His purpose.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So leave luck alone. Get you some.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Providence so you can have confidence in the circumstances of life.
I know it feels like luck, but the biblical word
is providence. Providence is the mysterious way in which God
(24:42):
interconnects people, places, things, and thoughts in order to bring
about his desired result. Sometimes privateence happens with big things,
other times with small things. But they're always significant things
because because they change the direction of your detour.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So keep your.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Eyes open for God's interaction and intervention in life's circumstances,
unpredictable and unexpected, yet always shifting.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
A direction in life. When God is at.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Providentially working in your life, then you will know he's
taking you on a different path to an outcome that
will bring you closer to your destiny. I'm standing here
(26:18):
in Alaska, one of the most glorious places in God's
great creation, and I want to invite you to join
me in our urban alternative family for the Alaskan Cruise.
We're going to have a magnificent time in God's Word
and in God's creation. We're going to enjoy great fellowship,
(26:40):
great fun, great food, and I'm looking forward to meeting
and greeting you on our Tua, Alaskan Cruise. Register to
be there. Can't wait to be with you. Two
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