Jeff Durbin || Discerning the Will of the Sovereign God

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We are in our series at Apology at Church, Wisdom from Above, God's Divine Wisdom and Instruction.

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This powerful book, the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 16. Today, discerning the will of the sovereign

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God. So various passages here.

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Proverbs 16, one, three through four, nine and 33.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the

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Lord. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

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The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

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Verse nine. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

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In verse 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the

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Lord. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's praise his people. Lord, we come before you as your people, acknowledging first and foremost,

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Lord, our thankfulness to you for the gift of eternal life. You save sinners.

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Lord, we are unworthy of you. We fall short. We violate your law.

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And yet you come to seek and save that which is lost. Lord, you know our frame.

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You know our failures as men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, children.

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You came for the sick. And so Lord Jesus, we cling to you and your righteousness.

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We have nothing else. We thank you that you count us righteous apart from our works, and that you will never count our sins against us.

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You separate our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. Lord, we come before you in your word today to hear from you as forgiven people, as your children that you save by your grace and mercy and love.

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Lord, we have nothing else, nothing to boast in. And so Lord, as in ourselves, unworthy people, we're holding your word, this gift of your speech, your revelation to us, your holy words.

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We do pray that you move by your spirit today to teach your church, instruct us, grow us, renew our minds, heal our hearts.

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Speak to us, God, by your word today through your spirit. And as always,

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Lord, we do ask that you would get the pastor out of the way, that people would not remember me, they would remember you and your word and what you've instructed.

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Let this be abiding treasure from you, God. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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Now there's so much more, this is challenging, truly a challenging one as a pastor, because there's so much in the book of Proverbs that highlights the same truths.

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But it's not just in the book of Proverbs, this is thematic and it is something that is unique to biblical revelation.

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And I think oftentimes as reformed people, as reformed believers who have a commitment to the authority of scripture, to the law of God, to the primacy of scripture, to reformation theology, that God is sovereign over all things from the beginning to the end,

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I think oftentimes we may not recognize just the true value, power, significance of this particular truth that you see running throughout the entire

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Bible, that God is fully sovereign, that he has a sovereign will, that he's all powerful, that he knows all things, that he has a decree in history, that he actually determines the ends as well as the means, that he's in control of all things.

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And I think oftentimes we just sort of get jaded to that, I think as reformed believers. It's such a powerful truth and we say it all the time, we know the right things to say, soli deo gloria, to God alone be the glory in all things, that God is the sovereign, he's the determiner, that everything ultimately is leading to his glory, so that we worship and honor him for all eternity and enjoy him for all eternity.

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It's this unique revelation in history and I think we get jaded to it, we forget just how powerful this is.

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Even amongst professing Christian communities and different denominations, they might have a view that yeah,

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God is all powerful, he knows all things, but he's not quite totally sovereign, not fully sovereign over all things.

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They might have particular traditions and philosophies that kind of get in a way of all of that message in scripture about the total sovereignty of God, that he is good and he is love and he is just and he is merciful and all powerful and all knowing, and that he actually has a decree in history that he says, this is where things are gonna go and this is what's determined.

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No one's gonna thwart me or stop my purposes or get in the way of my will, but Christians might have, and yes, they are

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Christians, that they hold to the essentials of the gospel, some kind of tradition or philosophy that gets in the way of the glorious truth of the sovereignty of God and his powerful providence in history and so you come to texts like these in Proverbs 16 and they are meant to change us.

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It's meant to really change you. It's meant to actually have an impact in your life when you're trying to figure out, where do

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I go? What am I supposed to do? How do I navigate this thing? And I have questions,

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God, I'm confused, God, or there's challenges and there's sickness and disease and death. Whatever the case may be, this is supposed to shape us.

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This is treasure. Right here, it's treasure meant to be able to draw from in the day of struggle and adversity and darkness and conflict.

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This is supposed to be treasure, more valuable, as the writer of Proverbs says, more valuable than gold and silver.

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This is what you're supposed to be accumulating, this kind of treasure. You're gonna need this.

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Proverbs 16, the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. He's sovereign.

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You might be the one saying, this is where I wanna go, this is what I wanna do, I'm putting it before the

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Lord. In the end, the answer's from the Lord. He's the one that determines. And that's a good thing, because that means that everything has purpose.

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There's no chaos. Nothing is meaningless, although oftentimes in the fallen world, if we admit it, every day sometimes feel, it feels like things are meaningless and chaotic and out of place and disjointed and this isn't working, and it feels like God is not in this at all.

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He's far away. It feels like that, but here's wisdom from above. You remember this, God is saying, you plan, but I'll determine,

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I'll decide. And what we know about the character of God and the nature of God, that's supposed to give us confidence and hope and trust and comfort.

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We need to think as we acknowledge these truths, these promises, and there's a variety of them, not just in Proverbs, but through the whole scriptures.

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We're gonna try our best today to give you a solid foundation. We have to first start with this, the unique nature of the

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God of the Bible. Again, because we get jaded to these truths. We're not oftentimes saying, okay,

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I've investigated all these other religious traditions and man -made religions, and I know what they believe about their gods and how their gods work.

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We haven't done all that. Maybe we just take it for granted, but this is completely unique. The God of the

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Bible is totally unique, and that's, by the way, why he's so offensive to the gods of men, because he is not like them, can't be compared to them in so many ways.

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Think about the unique nature of the God of the Bible as you come to these texts about the sovereignty of God, the sovereign will of God, the providence of God, his control over all of history and all things.

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The God of the Bible is omnipotent. What's that mean? Omnipotent.

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What's it mean? You can talk. All -powerful. Omnipotent. Something is potent.

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It's powerful. Omnipotent. He is all -powerful. He is omnipresent.

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What's that mean? Everywhere present at all times, all present, ever present.

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He is, and this is unique, he is the eternal God. That's something we can't even fathom as creatures, right?

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I mean, at a certain point, I've used this example as much as possible. At a certain point, you can try to teach algebra to a classroom filled with cockroaches, but at a certain point, the creatureliness of the cockroach breaks down, right?

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They're just not gonna get it. And the same way you come to a truth like this, you can affirm it. You can say,

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I believe it. I know what that means conceptually, that God is from eternity into eternity, but there's no way to fully comprehend that as creatures, but that's the truth of scripture, and it's completely unique.

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God is eternal. He's not part of the created order. He's not subject to it.

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Nothing's above him that he's sort of trying to hold to, or he needs to yield to these kinds of laws out there.

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There's something that was before him. No, it's completely unique, and it's something we can't fathom.

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You can't comprehend it. You'll never fully understand it, but we know it's true from everlasting to everlasting.

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You are God. He's the eternal God. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. You're not gonna get it.

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Scripture says that he's holy. He's righteous. His character is good and perfect. And by the way, that's why his law is so meaningful and enduring and everlasting as well, because his law is a reflection of his own character and nature.

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Now think about what's the substance of the law of God. What's Jesus say are the two greatest commandments? What are they?

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First is love who? Love God. Then it's what? Love neighbor. Every commandment in the law of God is built upon love for God, love for neighbor, which by the way also means that that's enduring, because if we're called in a new covenant to love

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God and to love neighbor, that means that the law of God's abiding and relevant, because all the law of God is about loving

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God and loving neighbor. But think about the character of God. He is holy, holy, holy.

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And so what he calls us to is based upon a reflection of his own nature and character and holiness.

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And so he's the measure. He's the reference point of what is good. So as an example, what is scripture say?

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That God is love. And what's it say? Love does no harm to what?

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Its neighbor. Love does no harm to its neighbor. And so you think the substance of the law of God, like why do these things in scripture?

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God commands this, but not that. Well, ultimately, because it's based upon the character of God. Love does no harm to its neighbor.

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And so why don't we do this sin, that sin, this sin, because love does no harm to its neighbor and God is love.

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He's the reference point. Everything comes from that. And so God is holy. God is just, equal scales, equal scales.

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God is just. He doesn't throw away his law or his standards. He's not capricious.

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And that's what you see in the religions of mankind. They can't get it right because we are unjust. And so when they try to create a

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God in their own image, their God ends up being unjust, violating his own law, violating his own standards or their own standards.

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God is totally unique. God is love. But here is a powerful one in scripture in terms of the unique nature of the

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God of the Bible. God is sovereign, sovereign over all things.

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He's not confused by things. He's not surprised by things. He doesn't have to look through history to learn anything, to make a decision as to what will

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I do based upon some action of a creature? How am I gonna figure this thing out? God is completely sovereign.

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And think about this as you go to these texts about the sovereignty of God and the providence of God and his control over all things and the comfort we have in the decisions that we make, that God has a purpose in it.

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Think about this God, this unique God, in contrast to the gods, the false gods of human imagination.

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Just think about it. And this is in terms of let's take away being jaded and just so familiar with this that we forget how beautiful and how powerful it is.

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Think about the false gods of human imagination. They look like us. They look like us.

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You find, give me the religion. Let's unpack it. Let's talk about their gods and talk about what they do, how they act, where they came from, their origins, story, all of that.

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And you'll see that they look like us. Somehow down the line, you're gonna see they look a lot like us.

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It's interesting, because here's a interesting play on this. One of the things that I have always brought with me when we're out doing evangelism to the local

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Latter -day Saints. This is a, it's Mesa, Arizona. This is the East Valley. Mormonism is gonna come up a lot here because it's a huge community around us.

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And we love them, and we've seen God save so many of them. But I always go when I'm doing evangelism with the

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Latter -day Saints, and I bring a book called By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus. By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus.

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And it's a powerful book because it has this full -color pull -out thing of the papyrus from which

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Joseph Smith, Jr., the prophet of Mormonism, said that he was translating the book of Abraham into English.

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And so there was this sort of traveling museum exhibit that was coming through Ohio.

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And this guy who had the exhibit was trying to sell this stuff. It's like a traveling museum.

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And it was all these Egyptian artifacts inside this museum. And one of the artifacts was this papyrus.

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Now at the time, the Rosetta Stone information hadn't made it over to the U .S. yet. And so Egyptian was a dead language.

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I mean, any one of us at the time could have taken this scroll and said, oh,

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I can read this. It says such and such. And nobody would have been able to confirm or deny it because again, that information hadn't come over yet.

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But there were pieces missing from this papyrus and all the rest. And so Joseph Smith comes in and he says, oh, lo and behold, look what

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God has done. This is from the book of Abraham. This is from By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus.

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Abraham, God has brought this to us. And the Latter -day Saints in that area pulled together actually a substantial amount of money to buy this piece.

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And Michael Chandler, the guy who was selling this stuff was like, oh yeah, yeah, this is great. He's got it.

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He's translating it right. This is great. He made some serious cash off of selling this piece to the

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Latter -day Saints. And it costs a pretty penny. And Joseph Smith says, God brought this to us. This is

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By His Own Hand. Abraham, here's the papyrus. He's preserved it for us. But there were pieces missing.

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Now, if you were today to get a quad, and that's what the Mormons carry. It's the

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Bible, Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants. Inside there, you'll see the book called the

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Pearl of Great Price. And to this very day, if you look inside the Pearl of Great Price, you'll see little facsimiles, little pictures of what was in that scroll that Joseph translated from.

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Those pictures are different than what the papyrus actually was. We've come to discover that not only is this not from Abraham, it's not from his time.

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It's actually a fairly common pagan or Egyptian funerary text that was rolled up and put behind the heads of dead people to help them breathe into the afterlife.

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Joseph Smith didn't have a clue what he was looking at. And because there were pieces missing, Joseph Smith started to pencil in what he thought was missing.

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And he says, oh, this is Abraham gonna slay his son and all these different things. He was clueless.

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Actually, what it was was the Book of the Dead. And it had like, check this out, it had like, if memory serves, like Osiris and Isis coming together to copulate and to produce the crocodile god

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Sobek. And what's interesting is that you look at something like that, and you're like, okay, clearly a false prophet defrauded the

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Mormon people, didn't get one word right in the translation, obviously.

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But he didn't even know what the pictures really were. But amazingly, it's like, that's straight 100 proof paganism.

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Osiris, Isis, the crocodile god Sobek, that's the religions of mankind. They look like us, they do what we do, they reproduce, have other gods, they have origin stories.

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But you know what's amazing? Is you look at that and you go, no, this was straight paganism, bro. Look, junior, you didn't get it right.

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And what's amazing is that you transfer that into Joseph Smith's religion, and what'd you get there?

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In the Pearl of Great Price, it's all about how the gods created. In the beginning, the gods.

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In the beginning, the gods. It's paganism here, paganism there. And you know what's amazing, is you leap into Mormonism and what is it?

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It's this endless regression of gods. They look like us.

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They're not sovereign over anything. See, that's what I'm saying. We take this glorious truth for granted.

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Even in the Latter -day Saints, though they borrow our language and they co -opt what we say, they talk like us, they use our language, they've got mommy gods and daddy gods.

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Their god reproduces to create other little gods that work their way to become gods one day.

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And you go, okay, so the god of this world, how did he get like that? Well, just like you.

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He went through the same process as you. He had a god before him, he was a spirit child, and he comes into the world and he sins, he learns, he grows, he becomes a god through exaltation, and then the same process begins with you.

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And so you ask the question, well, if he had to learn he's not the all -knowing god, is he?

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And the answer is no, he wasn't. And also, isn't there a god above him?

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Does he still worship that god? Or like, how does all that work and where'd that god get his power from?

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And like, who's the ultimate god in this story? And one of the Mormon prophets and apostles said that there are more gods than there is matter.

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That's a lot of gods. And here's my point. The uniqueness of the biblical god who gives us these glorious truths versus the false gods of the imagination of humanity, their gods look just like us.

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They sin like us. Find the religion and you'll find that god sinning in some way, violating some objective standard.

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It might just be right on the page and blatant. They're limited like us. The false gods of humanity are limited like us.

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They can't say these things. They're not in control of all things. Oftentimes, they're part of the created order itself.

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They're part of this stuff. They're made from the same stuff. They're limited, created.

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They're limited in their knowledge. They don't know all things. They don't decree the future. They're limited in their power.

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Their gods fight with one another and argue with one another. They don't control the future.

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They don't accomplish their purposes. Take that as you lay down the glorious truths here from Proverbs 16.

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Take that all in and let it be the comfort to your soul.

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Go to Isaiah 46 to see God speaking of this very thing. Isaiah 46. Now, if you haven't done so yet,

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I encourage you, for the sake of your soul and your comfort in a fallen world, to read

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Isaiah chapters 40 through 46. In Isaiah 46, starting in verse 8, here's what

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God's word says. It says, remember this and stand firm.

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Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am

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God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.

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And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.

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I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it.

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This is the God that we're talking about. These are his words. So when he says, you have these plans, but it's for me.

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It's my ultimate decision. God is the sovereign, the eternal God. And his challenge, by the way, in this section here, is that he is denouncing the false gods of humanity.

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He is confronting them. He is challenging them. And he is mocking them. Your gods, you build with the stuff that I made.

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That's a summary. You build your gods with the things that I made. And then you bow down and you worship it.

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And it's made from the stuff that I made. And your gods can't tell you the future. They don't see.

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They don't hear. They don't know. Your gods can't tell you the future. They're not in control of it. God's saying,

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I am. I'm the one that decrees the future, holds the future together. And God even challenges the other way.

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You know we've said this so many times because it's powerful. Your gods can't tell you the past and why it happens.

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You might be able to read a history book, brothers and sisters, and say, oh, this happened. And this is the person involved.

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And it was at this day, at that time. The God of the Bible can tell you not just what happened, but why, meaning everything has a purpose.

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Everything has a purpose. And that's the unique God of the Bible. He's totally sovereign, which, by the way, is supposed to be our comfort in the midst of darkness and hardships, conflict, disease, death.

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He declares the end from the beginning. From birds to the flowers of the field to your life and your breath and the color of your hair,

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He's sovereign. And if you know Him, if you belong to Him, if you're in Christ, if you're called a child, then the answer is

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He loves me and He has a purpose. And all things work together for good. For those who are loved by God and called according to what?

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What? His what? His purpose. Don't lose that, brothers and sisters.

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Don't let all the talk of Reformed theology and doctrines of grace and all those things just become something that is just this thing in your head that you can just spout off and you can defend with the scriptures.

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It has to be something that transforms me, changed my life, and changes the way that I actually face down the evil of this world, the difficulties and challenges of this world.

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It's supposed to be the comfort of my soul. So to understand,

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I think, the power of this wisdom from God in Proverbs 16, there's various verses, we do need to look at a couple of things.

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Now, I've recommended this to you so many times before. If you don't have it in your library, get it in your library.

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If you don't want to pay for it, just Google search Lorraine Bettner, cool name, coolest name ever.

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Lorraine Bettner, he's a dude, believe it or not. Lorraine Bettner.

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And the work is called Predestination. It is so powerful.

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It's just filled with so much scripture. I'm pulling this from Bettner's work. It's just the scriptures he just sort of lines up.

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And I want to make sure that we have this underneath us. And so get that book. Again, it's free, online, PDF. But do, if you can, get a hard copy of it.

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The first thing Bettner points out, a couple of different parts that support what we're seeing here in Proverbs chapter 16.

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That is, number one, that God has a plan. God has a plan. And number one,

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God's plan is eternal. Various scriptures here. I'm not going to give every single one from his work.

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But 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, it is God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.

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God has a plan. Psalm 33, 11, the counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever.

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The thoughts of his heart to all generations. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10,

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I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done.

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And we just had Jerry read the psalm today from, it's a familiar one,

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Psalm 139, verse 16. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance.

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And in thy book they were all written, even the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them.

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That's the unique God that we worship. Number two, Bender points out that God's plan, according to scripture, is unchangeable.

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Isaiah 14, 24, Yahweh of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass.

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And as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Keep that verse in your hearts and your minds.

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These are the promises of God. And here's the decision you have to make. God is either a liar, he changes, he can't be trusted, or these are the words of the holy, righteous, blameless, just, perfect God.

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He never changes. His word is true. And his scripture says God cannot lie. So if God makes a promise in his word to us as his people, us as his church, he makes a promise about the world, the word of God is clear, that he has sworn, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass.

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And as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Next point, the divine plan includes the future acts of men.

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John 6, 64, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray him.

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Matthew 20, verses 18 and 19, behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the

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Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify. In the third day, he shall be raised up.

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The fourth point, Bender points out, is the divine plan includes, this is important, it includes the fortuitous events or, quote, chance happenings of life.

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The first verse is what we have here in Proverbs. We've already read it. Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of Yahweh.

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In Job 36, 32, he covereth his hands with the lightning, and giveth it a charge that it strikes the mark.

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Even the lightning strike is in the hands of our sovereign God. Every event, the macro stuff, the overarching stuff that we all understand in terms of this divine plan of redemption, but also in the micro events, those small events that seem like that's chance, that's fortuitous, that's not in the hands of God, right?

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According to scripture, he's that sovereign. Number five, some events are recorded as fixed or inevitably certain.

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Luke 22, 22, for the son of man indeed goeth as it hath been determined, but woe unto that man through whom he is betrayed.

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We have a lot of the, the, and hath, and all this, because Lorraine Butner, older book, and this is great stuff.

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So I just didn't change it. It sounds beautiful. And finally, even the sinful acts of men are included in the plan and are overruled for good.

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Genesis 50, verse two, in Joseph's case, he says to his brothers, as for you, you meant evil against me,

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Joseph, but God meant it for good. You meant evil.

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It was in your heart. It was your decision. You wanted this. You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.

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He's that kind of sovereign. Isaiah 45, seven, I form the light and create darkness.

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God says, this is the God of the Bible. I make peace and create evil.

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I am Yahweh that doeth all these things. Amos three, verse six, shall evil befall a city and Yahweh hath not done it.

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These are the words of God. Listen, these are also, by the way, the words of God that make many an evangelical slightly uncomfortable, slightly uncomfortable, that God is so totally sovereign, he's sovereign over the things that we would say are the good things, the blessing things, the garden things, but he's also sovereign in his judgments in history over the evil in the world and the fallenness in the world, but by the way, take heart,

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Christian, because if you're a child of God, that means whatever evil befalls you in this world is first strained through the sovereign hand of God.

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There are no purposeless incidents in this world. Everything has a purpose. Everything has meaning.

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It's not time and chance acting on matter. It's not sound and fury signifying nothing.

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All things in the hands of a sovereign God, who is, and here's where your comfort is, good.

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He's good. No one will ever be able to say to God on the last day,

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Lord, you were wrong, you were in error, you misstepped. God, you did me wrong, you were unjust in some way.

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That'll never be said before the throne of God. Next, Boettner points out the sovereignty of God.

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Again, just a smattering of verses to put underneath us here, guys. Daniel 4 .35, he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand or say unto him, what have you done?

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Ephesians 1 .11, in whom we were made a heritage.

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That's the church, God's people. We were made a heritage having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will.

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There's our hope. Isaiah 14 .24

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and 27, Yahweh of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I have fought, so shall it come to pass.

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For Yahweh of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? It's a rhetorical question, nobody.

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And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Who's gonna stop him? Who's gonna thwart

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God's purposes? Who's gonna make his plan fall into shambles? Who's gonna stop him?

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Who's gonna stop his almighty hand? If he's purposed it, if he's promised it, it's gonna take place.

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He's ordained it. He keeps his promises. And what's the scripture say? It's our hope. He says,

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I'm the Lord, I do not change. Therefore, because I don't change, you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

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You're not consumed because I don't change. His promises are sure. And finally,

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Bettner points out the providence of God. This, I love. On nature or the physical world,

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Exodus 9 .26, he maketh his son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.

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I'm sorry, that's Matthew 5 .45. Do we see it that way?

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Like, I think we, because we've been able to, because of the Christian worldview and the explosion of science that the

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Christian worldview gave rise to, we look at things in the world around us and we say, I think we know the mechanics of that now, right?

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We talk about the rotation of the earth and we talk about the distance of the moon from the earth and the sun. We talk about orbits and we talk about heat and we understand like, oh,

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I know why the sun is doing that track across the sky. We understand the mechanics of the thing.

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And we look down today and you look at the human cell and the just insane mechanics of the thing, the engine, the movements, the things moving from one thing to the other with little legs kind of crawling, like bringing stuff to the location.

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And you're like, this is the craziest thing ever. And you look at that and you say, okay, so we understand the mechanics of now. And it kind of, you can sort of like lose the power and the awe of it all because you're like,

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I understand the mechanics. But it says here that God is the one who causes the sun to go where it goes.

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Do we see it that way? Do you look up at the moon at night? Do you ever look at that moon and just stop and allow that?

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Do we allow it to actually be what God calls it to be? Like something that shouts to us about the glory of God, that he is the one that's holding this entire universe together, including every cell in your body.

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He carries it along and that every morning when that sun is rising, it is our father in heaven who's responsible for it.

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And he hangs the moon in the sky and it's God just holding it there. If he were to stop his hold on that, the universe falls apart and it goes the same for your life, your breath, your heartbeat.

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Just pause and think about what this says to us in this moment you're in, that breath borrowed from God, that heart in your chest beating only because he sustains it, only because he's holding it together.

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In a moment, he could call you home. In a moment, he could cause it all to stop.

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You and I wake up in the morning, eyes open, breathing, putting our feet on the ground, standing up, gravity holding us down just like it did when we went to bed only because God's sustaining the universe.

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And that breath is from God and that day is from God. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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That's all from God. He sustains the sun and the rain is falling down. We have the rain, we don't have the rain.

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In the end, biblical worldview says that's from God. It's his determination on whether or not that rain falls.

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It's his, it's in his hands. Next, Bender points out even on the animal creation.

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In Matthew 10, 29, Jesus says, are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

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It's meaningless, nothing. And not one of them shall fall to the ground without your father.

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That kind of people say meticulous providence, meticulous sovereignty. Yeah, it sounds just like that, doesn't it?

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That no bird falls from the branch of a tree dead to the ground apart from our father's will and his knowledge of it, it's his determination.

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Down to the things you and I don't even care about. I don't pay any attention to that. Who's driving around in Phoenix and sees a bird fall from a tree and you're like, oh my gosh, like you just, you know, no one's caring about these things, it's meaningless.

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Two sparrows sold for a penny, it's like nothing. That's the point Jesus is saying, the thing you care nothing about, it's meaningless to you.

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It doesn't matter to you. It's totally insignificant, it means nothing. Your father in heaven knows and not one of those is falling from the branch unless your father has determined it.

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That's what Jesus says, even over the animals, the animal creation. Even down to what animals can do.

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In Daniel 6, 22, my God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion's mouths that they may not hurt me.

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Even down to that kind of sovereignty and control and the holding back of evil and disaster.

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Even down to nations. Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket and are accounted as a small dust of the balance.

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Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. Isaiah 40, verse 15.

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He changeth the times and the seasons, he removes the kings and sets up kings. We're like, oh, thank you

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God for that. Woo, Kamala, thank you, Lord. Wow, that's not, that's by the way, not a,

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I'm not saying anything about any particular candidate except how absolutely crazy one was, for sure.

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Glad you enjoyed that because you know it's true. Next, sovereign even over the individual men.

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This is great. It says, the king's heart is in the hand of Yahweh as the water courses.

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He turns it wherever he wills. Proverbs 21, one. And finally, the free acts of men.

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It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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That's, by the way, a common verse that's used by people totally out of context to say somehow that you have to earn your salvation.

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What's the text say before that it says, to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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And people say, ah, see, you can lose your salvation. It's like, that doesn't say that. It's one chapter after,

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Paul says in chapter one, that he that began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

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So how are we gonna now put Paul against Paul's words in one chapter? No, what's powerful, he says to the church, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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And every Christian must do that. And it says this, watch. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

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So work it out, but guess what? In the end, it's God in you doing it.

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By the way, that's how you know also somebody was never in Christ because if they fall away from the faith, they deny Christ, and no good works come from their life, what's it mean?

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God wasn't in you working anything. So we could go on, but get that work in a bless your life predestination by Bettner.

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Great smattering of verses and sort of a coherent way of working through these glorious truths.

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He's totally sovereign, he has a plan, the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. Let's go back to the text again.

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Proverbs 16, the plans of the heart belong to me, but the answer of the tongue is from the

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Lord. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

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The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the

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Lord. In light of these texts, it's important to have our hearts and minds, brothers and sisters, settle on a few things.

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You have a plan and you should. Wisdom from above tells you that.

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There's so much in here we've already done in terms of working hard, not being slothful, look to the ants, all those things.

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Have a plan, discern your way, think ahead of yourself. Yes, all of that, that's wisdom.

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We're time -bound creatures, God's put us in his world. We have his word as the guide, but we still need to make decisions.

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And where do I go and what do I do? How do I live in this world? What's God calling me to? What am I supposed to do?

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We see that you have a plan and here's the hope. God's purpose will be accomplished.

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Now they have a plan in terms of the people around you in your life, for good or for evil.

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You can have the good people around you that have a plan for your life and have instruction for your life or have things they wanna do to your life or in your life.

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And even the evil people that wanna hurt you or persecute you or vilify you and harm you in some way.

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They have a plan for good or for evil.

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But God's purpose will be accomplished. Just think about the story of Joseph here, it's important.

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I wanna give you a biblical story because it's anchored in scripture. If you don't know it, get to know it. Think about the story of Joseph here in terms of like people around you plotting and having a plan to harm you or to do something to you in some way that's gonna devastate you, destroy you.

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And it completely had to feel like to Joseph that God is the farthest thing from me.

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In Genesis 37 verse 18, starting there, you can see the brothers doing this absolutely undeniably abominable and wicked thing to their brother.

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He comes trotting along. He's wearing that stupid coat dad gave him, that coat of many colors.

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And they're like, look, here's the dreamer. Here's the dreamer. Let's kill him and let's take his inheritance.

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And so they take their own brother, take that stupid coat off of him. That's like the first thing they wanna do.

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Throw him into the pit and Reuben stops him, thank God. He's their own flesh, we can't kill our brother.

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And so what do they do? Well, the next best thing, let's sell him into slavery. And so they do that.

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All right, we won't kill him. We'll sell him into slavery. So they sell him into slavery. He gets to Egypt and what happens when he's there?

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Things are looking good. All right, he's doing well. All right, that was bad, terrible experience. Got family hurt, whatever people wanna call it today.

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Like, you know, bad family. We're not on good terms, but at least I'm alive here and now

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I'm in Potiphar's house. Things are going well for Joseph in Potiphar's house. Next thing he does is he runs into a wicked, wicked woman in Potiphar's house.

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And apparently Joseph was a looker or something and Potiphar's wife, you know, trying to, there's children in the room.

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And so he is amazingly so righteous and godly in the midst of suffering and a terrible situation now.

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Family tried to kill me in slavery, now I'm here. And now this wicked woman is trying to do things with Joseph and he's so godly and so righteous that he does what we're all supposed to do in those situations and does what?

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He flees. What's scripture say? Flees sexual immorality. Joseph was all about that before that was even written in the

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New Testament. Flees sexual immorality, Joseph, he flees. And she gets a piece of his clothing and she lies and does what a lot of the

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Me Too women do. Sorry, I'm gonna get in trouble for that one. The false accusations of rape.

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Yes, that happens. It happens today. People are exonerated today.

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Years after a woman makes an accusation, it's as old as the hills. Potiphar's wife did it to Joseph.

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He tried to rape me. And so now they take Joseph, all right, family tries to kill him, you're in slavery, things are looking up.

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And now, dungeon. And so now he's in a dungeon. His life, you know what, at a certain point you go like, what kind of thoughts are going through Joseph's mind like in that whole journey?

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Like how many times was he like, God, what is going on? What is actually happening?

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Or do you even love me? Do you care about me? You're the farthest thing. Are you even watching me?

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Are you busy doing something else? So those thoughts as a human being, I imagine had to go through his mind. I think if we're honest, they'd go through most of our minds.

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Like where are you in this circumstance? So now I'm not gonna do the entire story here, but now

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Joseph all of a sudden goes from family trying to kill him, slavery to Egypt. Now he's in a dungeon to now he's like second in command in all of Egypt.

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God now has him saving all of Egypt and the surrounding nations. Now his family who tried to kill him has to come into Egypt to rescue.

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And here's Joseph now, many years later, it was years of confusion for Joseph.

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It had to be, it had to be. Years of confusion. And now his brothers are in front of him.

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I do want you to see this part of the text. Go to Genesis 45.

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That moment, Genesis 45,

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Joseph breaks down. He reveals himself to his brothers. Starting in verse four, it says, so Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please.

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And they came near and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

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Listen to this grace, listen to this grace. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.

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For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there'll be neither plowing nor harvest and God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.

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So it was not God, not you who sent me here, but God. We have to understand that that's the way of this world.

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That's the way that God works out his perfect will. Actually, however, they did want to hurt

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Joseph. They did do those things. They weren't robots and God wasn't nudging them along the way saying, be really bad to Joseph.

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As a matter of fact, what would have happened if Reuben hadn't have stepped in? What would have happened? They would have killed their brother.

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It's what they wanted to do. It was the sovereign hand of God who actually preserves

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Joseph's life and stops them from killing their brother, so they did. And he even says in 50, chapter 50, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

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These were your plans. But in the end, Joseph is saying here, it wasn't you who sent me here.

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It was God to do what? To save your sorry, to give you a future, to give you life, to preserve you.

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It's a sovereign God. So when you think about what God's word is saying here to us in Proverbs chapter 16 and his various verses, you have a plan, but God's purpose will be accomplished.

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They have a plan, but God's purpose will be accomplished. Your circumstances may seem overwhelming and impossible, but according to scripture,

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God's purpose will be accomplished. Even if it seems ultimately impossible, ultimately impossible, the murder of Jesus.

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What was involved in that? Evil, a lot of evil, plotting, lies, injustice, bloodshed, pain, murder, and death.

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And what is the prayer of the church in Acts 4, 27 and 28? What is it? God predestined that.

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Predestined what? The murder of Jesus. They thought they were conquering the son of the living God. They thought they were destroying the whole thing.

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And they were only doing what God permitted them to do to ultimately bring the victory and redemption and salvation of each and every one of us.

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The lies, the manipulation, the injustice, the pain, the bloodshed, the evil, the wickedness of that day is insane.

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It is insane to look at a man, even if you hate him, dying on this cross, bleeding and suffocating, trembling and shaking, the pain right there, and to sit at the foot of the cross and see this human being.

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Where's your humanity, just the humanity? You could hate him, but even the humanity to say, I'll let him suffer in silence, but there at the cross reviling him and just making fun of him, calling him names and doing all the most evil things.

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It's evil and God planned all of it for our salvation. That's what scripture teaches.

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Now, how do we walk in the light of these truths?

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How do we discern the will of the sovereign God in our lives? The will of the sovereign

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God in our lives. The first thing I wanna say is, I think we need to look at a couple of things. This is, I think, biblical counsel, wise counsel.

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Okay, God is the sovereign over all things. We make plans, but he's the one that directs our steps. Every detail is in his hands.

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He's destined everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. He's that kind of sovereign God. But how do

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I, as a believer walking with God in light of these truths, discern the will of God for my life?

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How do I walk in the light of these truths? I think the first thing is when we're making decisions and we're making plans, we do the obvious.

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The obvious. This should be the instinctive thing every single time. These are the words of God, amen?

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There's three of you that believe that. Good, okay. These are the words of God, amen? So we have to see all of life through the lens of scripture as the reference point.

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What does my God say to this? Does my father in heaven have something to say about this thing that I'm contemplating or the thing

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I'm trying to figure out? What am I gonna do here? We ask the first question, is it biblical? Has God spoken to this?

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What are the words of God about this? Or is there something in the arena of this in terms of principle that I can follow and that can be my guide here?

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What does God say? What does scripture say? Is it biblical? So we think about some scriptures. Jesus says, John 17, 17, your word is truth.

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I wanna walk in the truth. I wanna be led by the truth. I wanna make sure my path is secure in the truth.

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And so we have to say, is it biblical? John 17, 17. Psalm 119, 105 says, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

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So you're asking questions. First thing, I wanna make a plan. I wanna go a certain direction. As a believer,

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God is sovereign. He's gonna direct my steps, but I'm making those plans. I have the comfort that everything has a purpose and nothing's gonna thwart

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God's purposes. Should I date this unbeliever? What if I date them for the purposes of leading them to Jesus?

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How many times have you heard that lame excuse? Like missionary dating goes really well for people.

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You know, I've been a pastor for a while, apparently not long enough. Pastor James, like I say, you're still young.

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When you've been in, he's as old as Moses. So when he's like, I'm just, I've got the pulpit so I get to do it.

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When you've been in ministry for 700 years like me, then you can, okay, I'm sorry.

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But I've been a pastor for a while, for a couple of years. And I can't tell you how many times, how many times somebody will say like,

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I really want a husband, I really want a wife. And then somehow they get connected to somebody that's not a believer. And they're like, you know,

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I don't know if they're a believer, I think they're close. And there's always like an excuse, right? Like, they were, we were in the car together and they were changing the channel.

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And for like 10 seconds, it stopped on Caleb. I think he's close or so, you know, something.

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He watched a Lifetime movie with me and that's kind of close, right? Something like that. It's always an excuse, but I gotta tell you, in the time that I've been a pastor and I've sat with people who have ultimately abandoned the faith, honestly, abandoned the faith.

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I've seen it so many times, abandoned their commitment to Christ, their faith in Christ, or fallen into sin.

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There's always been excuses. I'm gonna lead them to Christ. I'll be a missionary to them. You know, this is gonna work out, but it's always, it's always the other way around in terms of influence.

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I have never not, I'm not saying that God hasn't saved relationships where, you know, one believer ends up leading the other one to Christ.

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That happens, but God's striking straight blows with crooked sticks doesn't mean you should go looking for crooked sticks, amen?

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It's always the other way around. In my experience, it's that unbeliever ends up influencing them to turn away from their faith or to do sinful things.

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And so what's the will of God for my life? What do I do in this relationship search? I'm trying to find someone to marry.

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I wanna marry someone who loves Jesus and I wanna have that marriage that glorifies God. But should

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I date this unbeliever? The answer is what? Full stop, what's the answer? No. I'm trying to determine the plan for my life.

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Should I try to figure this thing out with this unbeliever? The answer is no. Do not be unequally yoked.

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The word of God is clear on that. The answer is no, no, no. It's gonna be the same answer next Sunday.

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No. It doesn't matter what your excuse is. No. Stop taking fire into your chest or you're gonna get burned.

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God is telling you, that's not my plan for you. He has a prescriptive will. Here are the way things are.

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This is how you live. Should I date an unbeliever? Is it biblical? The answer is no. Should I divorce my wife because she's always talking back to me?

01:00:07

What's the answer to that? No. Some of you were real quiet on that one.

01:00:13

You're like, should I entertain this gossip?

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What does the word of God say? No. But then it gets more complicated. So we're trying to make a decision. We have a path, okay?

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Now I know that I make the plans. God directs my steps. He's sovereign over everything, every detail of the world.

01:00:35

Everything has its purpose. All right, but I still have to make a decision here. I'm trying to decide what I'm doing between building this business or taking this job or that job.

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We have to ask the question, is it sinful? Just wade through it. Sometimes it's completely obvious.

01:00:51

Sometimes it's not so obvious. Is it sinful? Will it lead to sin?

01:00:59

I got a choice between two paths in terms of a job or a decision to make, start a business. But as I look and I think ahead,

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Lord, help me to make this plan to glorify your name. I wanna put this before you. You direct my steps. I'm gonna do this for your glory.

01:01:12

And I'm thinking about both. And I'm thinking, like, will one or the other actually lead to temptation or lead me into sin?

01:01:17

Like, for example, as a guy. You know, if I take this path, will I have lots of opportunities to just be alone with various women in different contexts?

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And this one over here, I'll be a little safer. So think about that in terms of what is the will of God for my life?

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What does he say? I'll make a decision and making a plan before the Lord for his glory. This one will be a little safer.

01:01:38

This one, I'll have more accountability. This one, I'm more protected. Will it lead to sin? Will I be asked to compromise?

01:01:45

I got a path to take. I gotta go two different directions. In which path will

01:01:50

I be really asked to compromise the most? Will I be asked to manipulate people in terms of like a sales job or giving somebody a product of some sort?

01:01:59

Am I gonna manipulate people? Am I gonna harm people? There are, I think

01:02:05

I mentioned to you guys before, before I actually fully opened my own martial arts school many, many years ago, there was a little space, a little window where I needed to make a little bit of money before all the money dropped so I can open the school.

01:02:19

And I ended up just like, just like, and pick a place just to make some extra cash for food before the, again, the money dropped for my business to open.

01:02:28

And I just needed a little extra and ended up picking this place and I was on the phone for like a week at this place or two weeks.

01:02:34

And then I came my last day, the day I was supposed to get a paycheck, the whole reason I did this thing and the

01:02:41

FBI was in the parking lot and police and all the rest and it turns out the whole thing was fake. I didn't know that.

01:02:48

I was trying to do the right thing and feed my family and just work as a man over this two week time period.

01:02:54

And it turns out the business was totally fraudulent. They were lying and not selling what they said they were selling.

01:03:00

And I didn't get paid either. That really stunk. But God took care of me. God took care of me, took care of us.

01:03:08

Will I be asked to compromise? So you make the plans, but God has a purpose. Number two, in terms of determining the will of God for my life, considering that God is sovereign, that he has a plan, that he accomplishes his purposes, ask the next question as you're trying to decide and make a plan, trusting in the

01:03:28

Lord's purposes, what are the circumstances that God has provided? What are the circumstances around me?

01:03:35

If we believe that God is sovereign in control of all things and he has a perfect fatherly providence in our lives, then that means wherever he is guiding for me to go, he is providing for me to go.

01:03:50

It seems kind of like a pithy slogan, but actually it's pretty good. It's true, it's biblical. Wherever he guides, he provides.

01:03:57

And so you look at your circumstances and you're saying, Lord, I'm weighing this and I don't know exactly what to do. I'm making the plans.

01:04:03

I'm trusting in your purpose. I'm yielding to your word. But you're looking around at yourself and you're saying, what are the circumstances that God has provided in my life?

01:04:12

Is he asking me to trust him in a certain way, in a certain path where I've got to take big risks? He may be doing that, but he's gonna provide along the way.

01:04:21

But what are the circumstances? Where is he guiding? What doors is he shutting? What doors is he opening?

01:04:27

He's providing where he's guiding. Next, and I think this is important to ask as we plan for the future and we trust in God's purposes, what is the desire of your heart as a believer?

01:04:41

What's the desire of your heart? And the reason I bring this up is because if we believe that God is sovereign and we believe that God is all powerful and we believe that God has a purpose and we believe that God loves me and we believe

01:04:55

God calls me his child and he's carrying me along to some purpose for his glory in my life, we do have to believe that God is going to fix certain things in us to prepare us for what he's called us to.

01:05:08

Do you believe that? That he's gonna raise you up? That he's gonna train you? That he's gonna give you certain giftings?

01:05:15

And for whatever he's calling you, for whatever purpose, for his glory, he's put stuff in you and passions in you and desires in you that are unique to you and it's what he's called you to.

01:05:26

For example, there are some people in this room that are really, really good at building things, putting things together, like my son -in -law.

01:05:37

He just loves to stay underneath a car for like, I think he would live there if you let him just to put things together.

01:05:45

He loves to build things. Whenever something's broken in my house, I call him because he loves it.

01:05:51

Like if something's broken in my house, I get angry because I don't know what I'm doing.

01:05:57

But when I tell him, hey, this is broken, can you help me figure it out? He's like, yes. And he's like skipping a step. He's like, watch me fix this.

01:06:03

And he's like, this nerd, and he knows

01:06:08

I mean that in the most loving way, he will be listening for hours, for hours to the most dry and boring, it's just audio.

01:06:21

There's no visual. It's just a dude explaining like engines and they're broken. And it's just hours of someone talking about like how planes fly and aerodynamics and engine and wind speed and all these different things.

01:06:33

It's just audio. It's playing for hours. I'm like, what really is wrong with you is the question.

01:06:38

But we need guys like that. We need that. It's a passion he has. I don't have it.

01:06:44

I have different passions. I have a different calling. And that's an amazing thing that God has gifted us in that way.

01:06:51

This guy can cook. He, right? He can, it is an insane gift.

01:06:58

I encourage you to find your way to his house or have him come to your house to do what he did at my house.

01:07:07

Insane. And I can cook too, but like, not like this guy. It is some kind of miracle, magical thing.

01:07:15

I think he sold his soul. Maybe it's something, there's something going on here. I don't know what it was.

01:07:20

I don't know what you did, but you're asking a question like, where should I go? What should I do? You should be asking the question also what passions and desires has

01:07:28

God put in my heart? Because if God is raising you up, if his plan for you is to send you as a missionary to India, he's not gonna give you a passion and intense love for Chinese people.

01:07:43

He sends, he does that for the people he's sending to China, right? And he gives a love for the

01:07:49

Indian people to the person that he's sending to India, right? Some people think like my particular love and passion for Latter -day

01:07:57

Saints, I've had people all the time say, and it's, I get a little offended when they say it because I love the people so much.

01:08:02

They'll say, you know, I just think I don't even care. Like they, you know what, their beliefs are horrible and stupid stuff. I say, just leave the

01:08:08

Mormons be. I'm like, you better shut your mouth because, but it's just because I have a passion for it is where God has put me.

01:08:14

It's what he has in me. And so you need to look at that. And so as you're discerning the will of God for your life and you're making your plans, you say, first and foremost, what does

01:08:21

God say? Is it biblical? Number two, what are the circumstances that God has provided around me?

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You need to pay attention to those. The third thing is, what is the desire of your heart? I believe as a

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Christian, you have to actually put that before the Lord and say to God, Lord, you give me this gift.

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I don't want to bury it. I want to use it for your glory and for your kingdom. Lord, help me with this.

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I want to use this. Put me on the path where I use this for your glory in the greatest way. Like, let me come before your throne on the last day and put it all before you.

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Look what interest I got on this for you, God. Look how I built it up. Look what I made you, God. Look what

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I made you. And so you have to look at the desire of your heart as a believer. Ask God. And finally, when determining the will of God for our life, the will of the sovereign

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God for our life, we can filter through, and this is so important, godly counsel. You're in Proverbs.

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Go to Proverbs 15. Proverbs 15. Godly counsel.

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Be willing to listen to God's people, wise people around you, people who know the word of God. Maybe people with some gray hair in Jesus.

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Proverbs 15, 22. Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors, they succeed.

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Now move over to Proverbs 24, six through seven. For by wise guidance, you can wage your war, and in an abundance of counselors, there is victory.

01:09:56

These are the words of God. So we know what God says about his plans, his sovereignty, his providence.

01:10:03

We know that God says you make the plans, but it's the answer from the Lord. He's the one that determines it. He's gonna guide your path and your steps.

01:10:09

There's always a purpose. There's always meaning. You have a Father who loves you and has provided the beginning and the end for you, even all the things in the middle, the big things of your life, the small things of your life, the little steps, the turn here or the turn there.

01:10:24

God has ordained all of it. He's prepared everything.

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You know, oftentimes I think we're afraid to ask for counsel around us because we know what we want to do.

01:10:45

We think we have it all together. We think we know the right move, but God is telling you to get the counselors, get the wisdom, get the

01:10:55

God and the people around you, and close your mouth for a minute and listen. Listen. The abundance of counselors, there's wisdom, there is success.

01:11:05

Be willing to listen as a child of God to say, I wanna know what this godly woman has to say to me.

01:11:12

She's been in Jesus for 40 years. She's walked through trials and difficulties and fires, and she's been in his word the whole time.

01:11:20

I'm gonna ask her, what's her counsel to me? You might be blown away as to how

01:11:27

God uses her in your life through God's spirit and the word of God to just completely instruct you and help you and give you confidence and peace.

01:11:35

And men especially, be willing to sit with a group of men who know Jesus and have walked with him and say, tell me, tell me where I'm wrong.

01:11:42

Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Tell me what I'm not seeing. What am I supposed to do? Let me say to you,

01:11:49

I'm an unworthy man of myself. I would have never given, I've said oftentimes,

01:11:56

God thinks way too highly of me. I mean that. I would have never chosen myself for this, and I wasn't pursuing the role of a pastor, and I never, ever, ever, ever thought of planting a church.

01:12:08

It was never in my mind, never crossed my mind to plant a church. As a matter of fact, when the opportunity came up and it started like becoming clear

01:12:18

God was calling us to it, I resisted a hard resist against God.

01:12:25

No, I'm not doing that. I don't want to be the guy that plants a church. I want to just serve with other pastors and serve with other men, and everyone in my life who knows me will testify to that fact.

01:12:36

I never wanted to do something like this. I didn't feel worthy of it, for sure, but I also didn't want to be that guy that plants a church.

01:12:47

I didn't want to be seen as the guy who was pursuing planting a church. I didn't want that. And what it was was the circumstances that God had brought into my life and Pastor Luke's life, the circumstances that he brought into our family's life,

01:13:01

Candy and Cheryl, he brought those circumstances into our life. He made it abundantly clear. Of course it was biblical.

01:13:08

Of course we needed to care for these people coming out of the hospital. Yes, yes, and yes, but I was saying, no,

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God, I will not. And it took about five or six godly men that I truly honor and respect, godly men who knew

01:13:24

Jesus, walked with him to come into my life and speak into my life and challenge me as a minister and to call me to faithfulness to God over what

01:13:36

God was obviously doing in our lives and what he was calling together. It was wise counselors who came into my life and said, this is clear from the

01:13:48

Lord. Here's what God is doing in your life. You need to yield to the Lord and finally the thing that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was one of the men

01:13:56

I respected the most, who I knew the most and loved. He called me one day and he said, Jeff, if you don't plant this church, you're in sin against God.

01:14:06

I took that to heart and took that very seriously. But I wanna say this, the only reason that this church exists today, well, one of the many reasons, but a real reason that this church exists today and you're here and your families are here.

01:14:19

Some of you guys have gotten married here and have children here. It's because godly counselors came into my life and had me pay attention to what

01:14:26

God was doing and what I was called to do as a minister. Godly counselors that challenged me and took me out of a place where I said, never in a million years will

01:14:36

I take that step. And they said, Jeff, if you don't do it, you're sinning against God. It's obviously what he's doing here.

01:14:42

You have to do it. So in summary, when you think about the various passages from Proverbs 16 there,

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I think the place that lands for all of us is this, Romans 8, 28. God causes what things?

01:15:01

All things. To work together for what? For good. For those who love

01:15:08

God and are the called according to what? His purpose. Hey, it sounds like this revelation is from the same

01:15:17

God. Right? We're seeing everything, same message, same

01:15:22

God through and through, from Genesis to Revelation, the Proverbs to Romans, the explanation of the gospel.

01:15:30

Same God. He causes all things to work together for good in my pain, in my conflict, in my chaos, in my disease, and in my death.

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Sola Deo Gloria. Let's pray. Thank you,

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God, that you're the sovereign. Thank you, God, for your word. Thank you for the gift of your revelation.

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God, we trust you. Lord, renew our minds. Help us. Help us to trust you and be comforted in these things.

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Renew us, heal us, strengthen our hands and feet, and praise you,