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Tracing God's Plan (the surprise ending)
103 Plays2 years ago
In today's sermon, Tracing God's Plan (the surprise ending), is set to take you on a transformative journey of faith and surrender. Join us as we explore the remarkable story of Joseph and discover that sometimes, the real focus of the narrative may not be who we initially thought. From questioning God's plan to finding happiness in challenges, we'll uncover profound insights into letting go, trusting in God's sovereignty, and bearing the image of Christ. So grab your Bible, take notes, and get ready to embark on a meaningful exploration of God's plan for your life.
Timestamps:
[00:01:00] Gazing into God's Word is impactful.
[00:03:18] Dreams change Joseph's life, causing conflict. He's sold to slavery and thrown into prison.
[00:07:04] Joseph's recognition of God's sovereignty and blessings.
[00:11:25] Joseph seeks revenge, questions his brothers' faith.
[00:13:30] Ten generations from Adam to Noah progress through Seth's lineage. Noah and his family are spared in the flood to deliver the promised seed. Tara's son is Abram.
[00:18:59] Story focuses on Judah, his redemption. God intervenes.
[00:22:30] David's descendant becomes the great Lion King.
[00:24:37] "But God" changes everything. Trust Him.
[00:27:36] Flesh wrong, God designs right perspective. Change.
[00:31:40] "What do you have? Enough for Jesus."
[00:34:08] Let go, trust God, be like Jesus.
[00:37:50] Negotiation, sex life, marriage, vows, expectations
[00:39:35] Surrender to God, love the outcome.
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Transcript
Introduction and Note-taking
00:00:00
Speaker
How many of you have been lying awake waiting for the end of this series this week? You are absolutely lying to your pastor.
00:00:13
Speaker
I've been excited about this because this is the ending. And as we said, it's a surprise ending, I think. Now, when I may get to the end of this and some of you may go, I knew that all along. So that means you get to preach next Sunday. If you're that smart, you can hang in there with me. Hey, let me just talk about something before we dive into the sermon today. If you don't take notes on a regular basis as part of the sermon, I encourage you to do that. And here's why.
Studying God's Word
00:00:40
Speaker
How many of you used a mirror to get ready this morning?
00:00:43
Speaker
Okay. So here's what happened. Some of you looked at the mirror and went, dude, I look good. And you walked out. I mean, you didn't even think twice about it. I mean, you were out of there in like 2.3 seconds. And right now you probably can't even remember what you look like because you were in and out of there so fast. Okay. We can tell because you put extra gel in your hair this morning. The others of you,
00:01:02
Speaker
looked and took a second glance and went that hair's out of place or I didn't I didn't get that spot shaving or I've got a pimple or whatever it is and you leaned in a little closer you gazed a little closer and so what you saw probably sticks in your mind a little bit more because you spent more time there, right? The Bible tells us that the difference between reading the word and studying the word is a quick glance versus gazing into the mirror of God's Word.
00:01:29
Speaker
You see, if you just get a quick glance, if all you hear of the word is me on Sunday morning for 30 or 40 minutes, and you're out of here, then there's a great chance that what you remember next Saturday is very little.
00:01:41
Speaker
You might remember acute saying, you might remember a funny story, but the truth is you're not going to be impacted by God's word in the way you would if you took the notes and spent some time gazing into God's word on a regular basis. This is why as a church, we encourage you not only to take notes and to read the word yourself, but to get into a group with other people, whether that's a D group or a life group, an extra study on Sunday morning with one of our teachers here. We've got an excellent group of teachers.
00:02:07
Speaker
Find a way to keep getting back into the word because the more you love the word the more you love the one who gave you the word and The more you love the one who gave you the word the more excited you're gonna be to see him someday when that time comes, right? Now if you're like me, I'll wake up some mornings. I'm like Another day breathing. Everything's good. There's other days. I'm like oh
00:02:29
Speaker
Lord Jesus, come on quick. I mean, it's just a rough season. It's a tough time. I need you here. You know, I need this. I just need this to be over. But the reason you and I are left here is because of things like this. Because we aren't given the church to be a refuge from life. This is not a place you come and hide out. It's a place where you come and get filled so you can go back and tell the world about all the good things you've been given.
Joseph's Journey
00:02:54
Speaker
All right, so we're going to trace the story out this morning because I am incredibly excited about this. If you haven't been with us over the last six weeks, we've been studying the life of Joseph and let me kind of encapsulate it for you real quickly so we can get to the point of the message this morning.
00:03:09
Speaker
Joseph comes along in Genesis chapter 37. He is one of the 12 sons of a guy by the name of Jacob. We have tracked his life. Basically, there are three different sets of dreams that changed the trajectory of Joseph's life. Number one is the dream that he has. Actually, it's two dreams at the same time, two sets of dreams that he has about his brothers and his father and his mother literally bowing down before him.
00:03:34
Speaker
and he shares those drinks with his family and it gets them on the contrary with his family brings conflict into the family because they're looking at him going seriously you think we're going to bow down to you and because of their anger towards him they not only kind of beat up Joseph and throw him into a pit they didn't sell him into slavery and fake his death and tell his father that he's died well he winds up in the home of Potiphar who is a very prominent leader in Pharaoh's court in Egypt there he has lied about
00:04:03
Speaker
by the wife of Potiphar who desires to have a relationship with him. And because Joseph refused, he's thrown into prison, and that's where the second set of dreams comes in. This is the dream of two of his fellow prisoners, a cupbearer, two pharaoh, and a baker for pharaoh. And as he predicts those dreams, what happened is Joseph gets a reputation among the people of Egypt. He's a guy that can interpret dreams. And while it doesn't play a factor right then and there, except for getting the cupbearer and the baker released from prison,
00:04:32
Speaker
It will come back to play in his favor two years later when the cupbearer remembers him interpreting those dreams and this is where the third set of dreams comes into play. Pharaoh has this set of dreams and he needs an interpreter and the cupbearer says to him, hey, you need to get this guy out of prison. He knows how to do this.
00:04:50
Speaker
And because of those interpretations, we get to the end of the story and Joseph brings his family to Egypt and God uses this to preserve the family of Jacob and the rest of his brothers so that the story of Israel continues in the midst of a very, very bad famine.
God's Sovereignty in Joseph's Life
00:05:06
Speaker
Everybody with me? Alright, so you're gonna have to put on your seat belts. We're gonna go very quickly through a lot of stuff this morning, but I am here to tell you that this whole time you've been bamboozled.
00:05:19
Speaker
The story of Joseph is not about Joseph. I thought you'd never ask. Genesis 45 beginning verse 5 we get this. This is Joseph talking to his brothers shortly after he has revealed himself to them. And it's not working up here so you're going to control back there Cody. Genesis 45 verse 5 it says, and now don't be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here.
00:05:48
Speaker
because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. Sorry, I got to find it in my Bible here. For the famine has been in the land these two years and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. God sent me ahead of you. It's the second time now he's acknowledged that God is in control of this. It isn't the brothers choices that brought this about. This is God working on his favor. He says God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
00:06:17
Speaker
Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of his entire household and ruler over the land of Egypt." And then five chapters later, after Jacob has died, the father's out of the picture. The brothers are starting to sweat a little bit because they go, okay, now that dad is gone,
00:06:36
Speaker
Joseph's really gonna bring the hammer down on us and he may even take our lives Joseph comes along and he says in chapter 50 verse 18 He says his brothers also came to him bow down before him and said we are your slaves But Joseph said to them don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? I
00:06:55
Speaker
You planned evil against me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. Between those two passages that I just read, we hear and see one of the most beautiful demonstrations and affirmations of God's sovereignty over the human events in the world.
00:07:15
Speaker
It's a recognition, a perspective that Joseph brings to his own story that says, you know what, this may look like bad things that are happening to me, but I believe in a God who is over all things, and because of that, I believe he's the one that's writing this story.
00:07:29
Speaker
So go back to Genesis 41. We see an interesting beginning of the story where Joseph is elevated up to second in command of all of Egypt. He is very, very blessed. He's given a wife of one of the pagan priests there. He is blessed with two boys and he gives those two boys Hebrew names.
00:07:48
Speaker
Now, I think there are three reasons why he gives those Hebrew names. The first one is he is saying to the world that is watching him in that moment, including Pharaoh, he is saying to him, I am not Egyptian. I am not a pagan. I still am a follower of the one true God, the covenant making God who made a covenant with my fathers, and I am not leaving behind my heritage.
00:08:10
Speaker
Secondly, he names the first child Manasseh, which literally means forgotten. He's not saying he forgot about his past. He doesn't have the ability to do that. In fact, if you look closely at the story, he's obviously remembered. He's a Hebrew and he also remembers his brothers and his fathers. What he's saying by I forgotten this thing behind me is he's literally saying I choose not to hold on to the past. Why? Because I believe God is writing my story.
00:08:38
Speaker
And when God is writing your story, your past doesn't matter.
Letting Go of the Past
00:08:42
Speaker
Can I just say that a little bit louder? Because I think some of you just missed a really important key to your life right now. When God is writing your future, your past does not matter. There are some of you here today who refuse to let go of your past. It's too good of a crutch. It's too easy of an excuse. You're too easy to wallow in your sorryness and your pitiful state. And you just won't let go of your past. And that's because you don't believe in a God who's big enough to take care of your future.
00:09:08
Speaker
And it's time for you to let go of those things. Guys, can we get away from the excuse of church hurt? You didn't come to follow a church and you didn't come to follow a pastor. You didn't come to follow the people who sit in the chairs next to you. You came to follow a one true righteous holy God and he has not changed in his stature. His character is always perfect, always right. It doesn't make any difference. If I preach good or well or not at all, you have a true holy God to follow. That's why you're here.
00:09:37
Speaker
The third reason I believe he named these Hebrew names is the second child he names Ephraim. Ephraim literally means fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. Joseph says, I have been fruitful in the land of my affliction. Well, that's an odd thing for Joseph to say because Joseph has been blessed the entire time he's been in Egypt. He's been promoted not once but twice to prominent positions. He's been given wealth. He's been given land. He's been given a wife. He now has two kids. It's kind of odd for him to say he's been fruitful in the land of his affliction.
00:10:08
Speaker
But the reason Joseph says that, because Joseph says, this is not what I live for. This is not what I'm pursuing. I'm a child of the covenant. I'm a child of the covenant keeping God. I don't exist to serve Pharaoh. I exist to serve him. Now, when he finally reveals himself to his brothers, here is what does not happen. Okay, this is what does not happen. He does not say, I'm the one you got sent into slavery. I'm the one you wanted to murder.
00:10:38
Speaker
I'm the one you didn't want to bow down to. And oh, by the way, look who you are bowing before right now. He does not say to them, look at me now because you didn't want to look at me in the past. Look at me now how I've been elevated to second in command because God put me here. Look at me now because you didn't want to make anything of me and God has made much of me. He didn't say any of that stuff. That's what you would have said. And the reason I knew you would have said it is because I would have said the same thing.
00:11:07
Speaker
I would have looked at every one of those guys and said, you're a bunch of losers. And look who rules you now. How fast can you get to my bathroom and start cleaning? I mean, seriously, is that your attitude? You guys are sanctimonious. Of course it's your attitude. You would have wanted to get retribution. You would have wanted revenge. You would have tried to find some way to get even with these guys and the way they had treated you. Joseph did not look at his brothers and say, look, when I started dreaming long, long ago,
00:11:36
Speaker
Why did you want to put to death the dreamer? Because didn't you remember that it was because of
God's Promise and Lineage
00:11:42
Speaker
dreams that our father was blessed in Canaan the way he was? It was because of God giving him dreams that the covenant was pushed forward and onward for generations that God spoke to his people through dreams. When my time came to have dreams, why didn't you believe in the same God? That's because the story's not about Joseph.
00:12:06
Speaker
The story's not about Joseph. And you're probably asking, okay, so who's the story about? Well, I'm glad you asked. Take a little journey with me. Let's go back to Genesis. Genesis chapter three, verse 15, if you're writing notes, take that down. God announces a promised seed and a curse against a serpent.
00:12:26
Speaker
you'll remember Adam and Eve make the choice to eat the fruit even though they're instructed not to and God comes in he enters the picture and he says I'm going to issue a curse against the serpent and the seed I'm going to deliver will be the answer for all of man's problems in fact he will stomp the head of Satan well Satan listens and Satan believes what God says by the way is there a problem in the fact that Satan believes what God says but many times we don't
00:12:51
Speaker
Satan believes what God says to the point where he literally causes the first murder to occur to make sure that that seed just can't happen. What am I talking about? Well, the first seeds were Cain and Abel. Cain was a fleshly seed. Cain was a seed that chose his own route. Cain pursued his own desires. Abel, on the other hand, was a seed of the spirit, one that was going to follow God's will. So when Cain killed Abel, Satan thought he had won. The seed of the serpent killed the seed of the woman.
00:13:22
Speaker
But you get to the end of Genesis 4 and verse 5, we see the restoration of the godly seed through another child that is born. His name is Seth. And in chapter 5, we see 10 generations going from Adam to Noah that progressed through the seed of the spirit through that child named Seth. Now, we're at a person that most of us recognize now, Noah, right? Everybody knows about Noah. Little rainstorm, right?
00:13:49
Speaker
Well, in that storm, God chooses to kill the entire earth, the entire population of the earth, with the exception of Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives. You ever ask yourself the question, why save anybody? Why not just wipe them all out and start over? Because guess what? That's what we would have done, right? And God says, no, the reason he doesn't wipe them out and start over is because in order to have a promised seed, you've got to have husbands and wives to deliver the promised seed.
00:14:21
Speaker
So we come to a man named Tara just a few chapters later. Now, most of you may not recognize Tara's name, but you will recognize the name of his son. It's a guy by the name of Abram. Again, if you're taking notes, write down Genesis 11 because God makes a promise to Abram who eventually becomes Abraham. That promise is a covenant that's based on three things. Number one, you're going to have your own land to call yours. Number two, your people will be more numerous than the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore.
00:14:50
Speaker
And number three, from your generations of descendants will come a seed that will bring the hope to all mankind. Now, this is pretty amazing because Abraham and Sarah are as old as dirt, right?
00:15:04
Speaker
And so when that happens, when he delivers that promise to them, they both laugh, especially Sarah. She laughs out loud. She says, there's no way this is happening. So Abraham and Sarah do what most of us do when God tries to do something in our lives. We go, okay, how can I make this happen? How can I orchestrate this? How can I take the reins back from God? Instead of following God's plan, they come up with their plan and we're still dealing with the consequences of their plan.
00:15:32
Speaker
Because Abraham and Sarah's plan is, let's find somebody else to deliver the seed. Wrong answer. Wrong answer indeed. Because God didn't say, I'm going to give you a seed. God said, I'm going to give you the seed. Ishmael, the child that was born to Abraham and his maid servant Hagar, was a seed, but he wasn't the seed.
00:15:56
Speaker
You see, this isn't a story about lineage. This isn't a story about seeds. It's a story about election by a powerful God who's busy writing his story. And this story isn't about Joseph. So we get through the story of Isaac and Isaac becomes an adult himself and he marries Rebecca and Rebecca delivers twins to him. You might remember their names Esau and Jacob.
00:16:27
Speaker
And when Esau and Jacob are born, immediately the world turns its attention to them and says, oh, as we read this story, we know who should get all of the land, who should get all of the blessing, who should get all of the birthright. It's the firstborn, right? Wrong. Because this isn't a story about birth order. It's a story about election. And so God chooses the younger son, the one named Jacob.
00:16:54
Speaker
Fast forward, Jacob meets a girl by the name of Rachel and she becomes the love of his life. He works for her dad for seven years in order to gain her hand in marriage, finally is married to her only to wake up the next morning and find he's sleeping with the younger sister. Which by the way, the Bible describes as the homely one. How would you like that to be your heritage, right?
00:17:18
Speaker
So he marries that sister, but he stays around for seven more years in order to work for the hand of Rachel, because again, this isn't a story about Jacob. This is a story about election. Rachel can't bear children until much later in their marriage, but when she does finally give birth to children, she names the first one Joseph, and the second one she names Benjamin. And sadly, when she has Benjamin, she dies.
00:17:49
Speaker
When she dies, Jacob's heart is torn apart because the love of his life is gone. And so he turns all of his attention, all of his affection on the two boys that his one true love has given him, Joseph and Benjamin. And as you have learned over the last seven weeks in this story, Joseph gets most of the affection. Most of it indeed. So, we get to Genesis 37. Now the Bible tells us that
00:18:18
Speaker
Leah the homely sister that Jacob married also gave birth to six boys. Their names were things like Reuben, Simeon, Levi who would become the chief of all the priests of the Israel tribes, and a boy by the name of Judah.
00:18:40
Speaker
Genesis 37 we're introduced to Joseph for the first time and in Genesis 38 right in the middle of the story we get this story of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar and If you read the story, you know, it's assorted affair. It doesn't go according to the plan It doesn't look like anything would really truly honor God and if you're like me you read it and go wait a minute Why did you just get away from the main plot? Why did you just get away from the main character? Why is this story about Judah and Tamar right in the middle of all this?
00:19:09
Speaker
This is the worst moment in Judah's life. Why put it here? Because this story is not about Joseph. It's actually about Judah. Why showed Judah at such a low point? Because God must redeem Judah for him to take his place as the head of Jacob's family and as the promised seed. So let me take you back to a phrase that you're going to hear very frequently this morning.
00:19:39
Speaker
but God. If you take notes, write down but God because you're going to be reminded how it changes the story and the perspective of our lives. You see, God redeems Judah. Where do we see Judah's redemption? Over in Genesis 43. Genesis 43,
00:20:00
Speaker
Judah is talking with Jacob. If you remember the story, they had to go back home, take with them the supplies that they had gotten on their first trip to Egypt, but they were instructed by Joseph to bring back Benjamin, the youngest brother. And Jacob looks at the brothers and says, no way, you're not taking Benjamin. He's the last son that I love around here. That was kind, right? He says, if he disappears, my world is destroyed.
00:20:27
Speaker
So they sit around and they sit around and finally they get so desperate that Jacob goes back to his sons and says, we've got to have food from Egypt. And in a remarkable act of redemption, Judah looks at his father and says, let the boy go with me. If anything happens, I will be his substitute. I will take his place. The sons arrive in Egypt.
00:20:57
Speaker
And suddenly, Benjamin is put on the spot. He's accused of doing something wrong. He is about to be thrown into prison. And Judah looks at Joseph, who he doesn't yet know is his brother, and he says these words, do not do this. It will kill my father if he doesn't go back home. Take me as his substitute. Put his punishment on me so that my father may be pleased by his redemption.
00:21:25
Speaker
So Judah and the family are spared and Judah goes on to live a pretty long life. And somewhere along the way in his descendants, Judah has a son or great, great grandson. He's by the name of David. David faces Goliath in a story that's very familiar to most of us.
00:21:46
Speaker
that story David walks into a valley to face a guy that's more than twice his size and he accepts a challenge he says to the giant I will take your challenge the giant has said to him if you will fight me if you win we will serve you but if I defeat you then you must serve us David fights as a substitute for God's people he wins victory on behalf of God's people
00:22:12
Speaker
And a new covenant is created that we call the Davidic covenant. Everybody still with me? Because we're fixing to take the last hill in the roller coaster. This is where it gets really, really good and really, really fun. And if you're not geeking out with me, wake up. David has a descendant later on who is a much greater King. He is known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
00:22:42
Speaker
See who the story's about? You see, the New Testament opens with a genealogy in Matthew that screams, the God who made the promise of Genesis 3 that there will be a seed is the God who keeps his promises all the way to the end. And all those times when evil raised its head, all those times when the story had a detour, all those times when it looked like evil was about to win, God was in the background saying, this is my promise, it will be kept.
00:23:08
Speaker
And you can trust me when I say I will keep my promises. Jesus, the promised seed, will crush the head of the serpent. And like his forefathers, David and Judah, Jesus is a substitute on behalf of God's family. He laid down his life for us. He accepted God's wrath for us. He won victory for us as our substitute. So why is Genesis 41 so important?
00:23:35
Speaker
Why do we care what Genesis 45 and Genesis 50 say to us? If you don't get anything else this morning, catch this.
Forgiveness and Perspective
00:23:45
Speaker
God rescued Joseph so that he could rescue Judah so that he could rescue Israel so that he could rescue you and me. The story isn't about Joseph. The story is about Judah and the story of Judah is the story of a God making
00:24:03
Speaker
promises that he keeps to the very end. This is about rescue and redemption. This is about God orchestrating all of history to bring about what we need more than anything else. The first Adam ate and we all died. The last Adam died and we will all eat for eternity in heaven because of his sacrifice.
00:24:33
Speaker
those two words change everything. I don't know where you are this morning and I don't know what your season of your life is, but I would encourage you to go home and take a dry erase marker and write on your mirror at home so that every time you look at your face in the mirror you see, but God.
00:24:50
Speaker
and take a giant post-it note and put it by your phone so that every time the bill collector calls, you see, but God. And write it in the top of your checkbook ledger or on the Facebook screen or wherever you can put it anywhere in your life, but God. Why? Because he changes everything about your situation. You just have to simply trust him and gain his perspective on what's going on in your life and that's where we are in the sermon.
00:25:21
Speaker
But God, you see, Joseph could not have said the words of Genesis 45 or Genesis 50 if he had not fully forgiven his brothers. You can't genuinely embrace someone you have not fully forgiven. And some of you today, your perspective on life is tainted because you're still living in a past that God is forgiven or you're still holding on to a past that God's commanding you to let go.
00:25:51
Speaker
but God. Underline that phrase in your Bible, circle it every time you see it because it's a life-changing phrase. Joseph says, God sent me, not you. God arranged this, not you. Joseph operated his life with divine perspective. Every single one of us in this room have been hurt by someone. Every single one of us will be hurt again by someone.
00:26:21
Speaker
When that happens, your perspective gets clouded. You remember the wrong that was done to you. You remember the unfair treatment. You remember the hateful words. You remember the evil glances. You remember the hushed whispers. You remember all those things that the person did to you when they deliberately hurt you. But God meant it for good. That's radical. Some of you are going, wait a minute, are you telling me because my sister and I haven't spoken in five years?
00:26:52
Speaker
that it's good. That's not what I said. I didn't say it's all good. I said God brings good from all of it. It wasn't the brothers who sent Joseph to Egypt. It was God because God was writing his story. You see, attitude is critical for the Christian.
00:27:13
Speaker
We go through the motions of church. We participate in the religious rituals. We tote around our giant Bibles and flip them open every now and then just to make sure the pages aren't stuck. We sing out loud, some of us a little too loud, and yet we still live by a human perspective. There are many reasons that your perspective may not be right this morning about your situation. You see, when we live by the flesh, we have a human attitude, and it's wrong.
00:27:44
Speaker
But when we live the way God designed us, when we have a right attitude, we look at all of life with a divine perspective. It takes God to make your heart right. It takes God to readjust your vision and help you see what he's up to. So I want to share with you three things about perspective very quickly that hopefully will change your outlook, change your viewpoint on what you're
Intentional Living and Gratitude
00:28:09
Speaker
going through. This season you are in,
00:28:11
Speaker
Because remember what we say around here, you're either in the middle of something or you're on the way out of something or get ready. You're about to go into something, right? Perspective is going to change how you approach these situations. Number one, when you fully understand that where you are is no accident, you will live every moment more intentionally.
00:28:29
Speaker
Where you are is no accident. I don't believe in accidents. I don't believe that the cosmos just align and things happen a certain way. If you're reading a horoscope, tear it up, throw it in your cat's litter box. That's about what it's worth. God ordains mankind's places in life. God ordains the steps of a man. God ordains the plans of a man. God does all these things. There are no accidents. When you not milk off the table this morning, you thought it was accident. It was a God getting you ready for church this morning.
00:29:01
Speaker
Because he was saying to you, there just really aren't any accidents. I may be trying to teach you patience. I may be trying to teach you parental discipline because maybe your kid knocked it over and they need to come clean it up. I may be teaching you lessons and how to look for good and the bad. There could be all kinds of reasons, but there are no accidents in life. Because when you start opening the door to accidents in life, then you start opening the door to the possibility that God might be out of control of some of it. He's just not.
00:29:32
Speaker
He's not. So when somebody pulls out in front of you, live intentionally in that moment. Choose how you are going to respond to it. Don't let the situation define you. Secondly, this goes hand in hand with it. When you sense God's hand in your situation, your perspective will be right. In other words, don't start your day by asking the question, why do I have to be going through this?
00:30:02
Speaker
Why do I have to be in this situation? Why does this have to be happening to me? Why do bad things happen to good people? Don't ask that question. Instead, go, I believe with all my heart I'm going through this because it's a part of God's plan. Because when you see it that way, then you won't wait for the situation to change before you put your full heart into serving God the right way.
00:30:24
Speaker
You don't sit around and go, okay, God, if you could only do this, then I will follow you. If you would only bring this into my life, then I will do this. No, you don't wait. You serve God with all your heart knowing that whatever's next is part of His plan. Everything, part of His plan. There's nothing like an attitude of gratitude to free you up. Nothing like an attitude of gratitude to free you up. And for gratitude, I mean in all situations.
00:30:54
Speaker
There's a very familiar story from most of us who've grown up in church. We've heard this. It's the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. And I love that story read it hundreds of times. Back years ago when I was going through many of my difficult situations and my dark days, God pointed out a part of that story that's very interesting and challenging to me, I think encouraging to me. If you remember the story, there's 5,000 people, Jesus on the hillside, the disciples come to him and say, hey, we got a bunch of hungry people. What do we do? He says, you feed them.
00:31:24
Speaker
They look at him and incredulously and say, have you lost your mind? Jesus, we can't feed these people. It would take lots and lots of salary that we don't have to feed them right now. And Jesus, Jesus is graceful. Jesus is kind. He simply says, what do you have? Again, now I find Jesus, which you would not want. I look at them and go, where were you when I made the lame to walk?
00:31:51
Speaker
Where were you when I made the blind to see? Why have you forgotten about that storm that I calmed on the lake out there when you were sitting in the boat? And oh, by the way, weren't you there when I stopped the funeral because the dead body came to life? Why in the world are you questioning me here again? Have you not seen enough to know that everything in this universe is under my control? But Jesus didn't say that. He just simply said, what do you have?
00:32:21
Speaker
Can you be encouraged today to say this to yourself, whatever I have is enough for Jesus? Whatever I have is enough for him to use me, to send me, to take me where he wants me to go. Whatever I have is enough. I don't have to come up with something more. So if you know the story, they feed the 5,000 to the point where they're going, please, no more, more fish.
00:32:50
Speaker
That was my best Jewish imitation. Was it spot on? Thank you. And so Jesus says to them these powerful words in chapter 6 verse 12 with the book of John. He says go out and collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. Some translations it says gather up all the pieces.
00:33:16
Speaker
For some of you here this morning, that is the most appropriate description of your life. My life is a shambles. My marriage is in pieces. Everything I dreamed would be real is like vapor in my hands. I don't have a single thing to give back to God, except for these pieces.
00:33:45
Speaker
And God puts a smile on his face. He goes, I love pieces. I love pieces. I'm really good with them. Give them to me and watch and see what I will do with you.
Full Surrender to God
00:33:59
Speaker
Don't hold back because you don't think you've got anything to give to him. Whatever it is, is enough. But you have to let it go.
00:34:12
Speaker
Number three, even when there's been evil, you can trust that God is greater still. We've been given one assignment as followers of Jesus Christ, and that is that as long as we live on this earth, we are to bear his image by having his attitude in all we say and do. This is the right response to wrong treatment.
00:34:35
Speaker
And while it seems like it's an overused phrase, the question, what would Jesus do in my situation, is actually the best question to ever ask. What would Jesus do? The problem is our flesh blocks our ability to see God's plan. Or sometimes our selfishness causes us to want our way instead of His. The story of Joseph, no, the story of Judah.
00:35:04
Speaker
proves that the only way to find happiness in our challenges is a faith-filled life that will help us change our perspective on how we live. So here's your question this morning. Here's your challenge for the day. What are you holding back from Jesus? What are you holding back from Jesus? Now immediately some of you are responding and going, Oh, I'm a follower of Jesus have been for years. That's not what I asked you.
00:35:34
Speaker
because I just told you a pretty cool story about 12 followers of Jesus who had literally committed their life to be with him and yet still they were holding back from Jesus. So my question again, this is clear for all of you is what are you holding back from Jesus? I want you to think about one word. One word that's pretty scary. One word that really hurts sometimes when we take it seriously.
00:36:05
Speaker
Surrender. Surrender. Now there's, as I look across this room, there are several veterans in this room. And some of them have actually served in places where conflict has been going on. Maybe one or two of them have actually had the opportunity or responsibility of taking someone prisoner.
00:36:29
Speaker
If I were to invite them up here to ask them to describe that word surrender, what they would tell you is that your hands go up and you give in. Everything. You suddenly come under the control of your captor, right? You don't get to negotiate with them. I'll surrender three days out of seven. I'll give you 24 hours. How about that? No, when you surrender, the man who's got the gun pointed at you is the one who's in charge.
00:36:57
Speaker
The one who has the authority because of what he holds in his hands is the one who gives you the job description. You have one job. Walk to the prison camp. That's it. Surrender. But that's not what you and I do when we surrender here in America. And if I had the ability to take your life and project it up on this screen, I think you'd be really surprised how many times you don't surrender.
00:37:28
Speaker
God, you can have Sunday morning for an hour and a half. It's pretty good. In fact, I'll go all out and I will give you two hours on Sunday night for life group. Rest of it's mine. That's not surrender. That's negotiation. God, you can have the first 10% of my income. That's yours. That's pretty good. That's what we're told to do, right? 10%, it's yours. The rest is mine. No, that's not surrender. That's negotiation.
00:37:58
Speaker
Well, God, what about my sex life? What about my sex life? I'll do pretty good until I'm a certain age. But, I mean, if I'm 24 and I'm still single, surely you can't expect me to stay pure. Yeah, exactly. That's what he asked for. And maybe even some of you here today are going so far as to say, God, I know that we started our marriage by making vows to each other, but you didn't seriously think we were going to keep them all the way, did you?
00:38:28
Speaker
You didn't seriously think that I would stop looking at other women just because I was married. You didn't seriously think that I would stop being negative towards my spouse because we were married. And God says, you're negotiating again.
00:38:46
Speaker
Here's the thing. I asked y'all on purpose at the beginning of the sermon, how many of you are ready to see God? How many of you are ready to see Jesus? And there might have been a few exceptions, but there was this overwhelming. I'm ready to see God. And I've got to say for me and I bet for many of you, the last thing we'd want to do is see God in the middle of our negotiations. So maybe it's time to surrender.
00:39:18
Speaker
Maybe it's time to surrender. All of it. Every bit of it. God's writing your story when you surrender. You basically have three options. You can let the world write your story. I can promise you that's not going to end well. You can write your story. I can almost bet you it's not going to end much better if you do that.
00:39:44
Speaker
or you can take the God who promised in Genesis 3.15 to be our deliverer and our rescuer who shows up at the end of the story victorious and trusted all to him. And I can guarantee you that you're going to love the outcome. But it starts with surrender.
Call to Respond and Pray
00:40:05
Speaker
Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the story that you wrote
00:40:16
Speaker
in the lives of Judah, Joseph, David, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, all of these guys where you were literally orchestrating the lives of these men to get us to this place, to this moment. Father, I just ask right now that in this moment we'd give the only appropriate response to a God that is that powerful.
00:40:46
Speaker
and that we would take our lives and we would surrender them all to you. Our finances, our marriages, our parenting skills, our friendships, our careers, our short term goals and our long term dreams, all given to you.
00:41:14
Speaker
Then we'll find purpose. Then we will find meaning. Then we'll be able to look at even the evil that's in our lives and go, but there is a God who can make it good. But it starts with surrender. It starts here in this moment. So give us courage to respond. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
00:41:41
Speaker
For those of you who are guests, I just want to tell you this. This stage is a place of surrender. Maybe you want to come up here and spend some time on your knees praying. Maybe you want to come with your family, your spouse, a friend. Maybe you want to come and talk to somebody. We've got several people up here who are available to be happy to talk with you, pray with you, answer questions for you. But if God is urging you to do something today, if God has put that word surrender in your heart,
00:42:09
Speaker
The last thing I would encourage you to do is to walk out of here thinking you can take care of it later. So as we sing this morning, respond as he has led you. Let's stand and sing.