Consider The Donkey (Mark 11:1-10- Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org Consider The Donkey

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I saw the
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Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from every sin.
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Those who look on Him are radiant, they'll never be ashamed, they'll never be ashamed.
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This poor man cried, as the Lord heard me, and saved me from my enemies.
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The Son of God surrounds His saints,
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He'll deliver them, He'll deliver them.
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Magnify the Lord, magnify the Lord with me.
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Come exalt His name together, glorify the
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Lord with me. Come exalt
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His name forever. Oh, taste and see that the
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Lord is good. Oh, blessed is He who hides a king.
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Oh, fear the Lord, oh the Lord who saves.
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He'll give you everything, He'll give you everything. Magnify the
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Lord, magnify the Lord with me.
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Come exalt His name together, glorify the
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Lord with me. Come exalt
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His name forever. Let us bless the
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Lord every day and night. Let us bless the
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Lord every day and night. Never ending praise, may our voices rise.
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Let us bless the Lord every day and night.
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Never ending praise, every day and night.
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Never ending praise, may our voices rise. Magnify the
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Lord with me. Come exalt
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His name together, glorify the
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Lord with me. Come exalt
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His name forever. He is an amazing
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God that we stand here before and sing praises to His name. Let's continue to exalt
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His name together by singing a song that talks about all that Jesus is.
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There is a truth older than the ages.
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There is a promise of things yet to come.
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There is one born for our salvation,
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Jesus. There is a light that overwhelms the darkness.
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There is a kingdom that forever reigns.
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There is freedom from the chains that bind us,
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Jesus, Jesus. Who walks on the waters.
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Who speaks to the sea. Who stands in the fire beside me.
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He roars like a lion. He fled as the lamb.
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He carries my healing in His hands,
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Jesus. There is a name
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I call in times of trouble. There is a song that comforts in the night.
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There is a voice that calms the storm that rages.
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It's Jesus, Jesus.
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Who walks on the waters. Who speaks to the sea.
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Who stands in the fire beside me.
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He roars like a lion. He fled as the lamb.
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He carries my healing in His hands,
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Jesus. Messiah, my
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Savior. There is power in Your name.
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You're my rock and my Redeemer.
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There is power in Your name.
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In Your name. You walk on the waters.
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You speak to the sea. You stand in the fire beside me.
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You roar like a lion. You fled as the lamb.
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You carry my healing in Your hands, God. You walk on the waters.
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You speak to the sea. You stand in the fire beside me.
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You roar like a lion. You fled as the lamb.
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You carry my healing in Your hands,
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Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
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The morning had dawned clear and bright. As Jesus told His disciples, today
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I will enter Jerusalem. As He led them toward the city gates, an amazing thing happened.
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The crowd around Jesus became bigger and bigger. Hundreds and thousands of people poured out of the city to welcome
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Him, cheering and shouting. They called Him the Son of David. It was a welcome fit for a king.
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Just outside Jerusalem, there was a wooded hillside called the Mount of Olives. When Jesus reached this place,
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He sent two of His disciples to get a donkey. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.
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Many of the people tore palm branches off the nearby trees and waved the palms for Jesus. The people saw
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Jesus as their king, the one that would deliver them from the Romans. But Jesus was not that kind of king.
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He rode a donkey to show the people that He was on a mission of peace. When Jesus entered
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Jerusalem, it seemed the whole city was shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is
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He who comes in the name of the Lord. Even as the people cheered,
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Jesus knew that they would soon betray Him and kill Him, and that He would rise from the dead.
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Today, Jesus is seated on His heavenly throne, ruling and governing His church from heaven.
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The way Christ governs His church is through the Holy Spirit that regenerates and sanctifies the heart of those who believe and trust in Christ for personal forgiveness of sin.
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Join me as we sing, Crown Him with Many Crowns. Crown Him with many crowns
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The Lamb upon His throne The calf of Bethlehem drowns
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All music but its own
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Awake, my soul, and sing
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Of Him who was thy matchless
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King Through all eternity
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Majesty, Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings, O come, adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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Thine, who triumphed o 'er the grave
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And was victorious in Thy strife
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O 'er those He came to save His glory now we sing
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Of Him who died in the time of night
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Who died eternal life to reign
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Majesty, Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings, O come, adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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All hail, Redeemer, hail
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For He has died for me
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His praise and glory shall not fail
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Throughout eternity All hail,
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Redeemer, hail For He has died for me
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His praise and glory shall not fail
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Throughout eternity Majesty, Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings, O come, adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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Praise God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore
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He is the God who reigns forevermore You may be seated Good morning
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Let's pray And we'll pray the scripture from Psalm 127
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As we open this morning Father God, your word says to us
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Unless the Lord builds the house Those who build it labor in vain
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Unless the Lord watches over the city The watchman stays awake in vain It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest
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Eating the bread of anxious toil For he gives to his beloved sleep
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Father, we thank you for this word And we pray that this morning You would teach us to rest in you
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Teach us to sleep in peace Teach us to know you as the
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God Who holds the entire world in your hands Help us to trust your plan
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Help us to turn our eyes to Jesus And look full in his wondrous face
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Pray Lord that you would help me now as I preach That I would be faithful to your word And that your word would come forth with power
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I pray for those who hear That their hearts would learn to trust more deeply
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In you this day In Jesus' name we pray, amen So when
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I applied for this job As senior pastor, this role
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I filled out the application With kind of an introductory paragraph
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And what I talked about Is how I always sleep well at night Because I have a high view of God And his sovereign plan
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I know he has things in control So even when things get tough And when bad things happen
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I usually sleep really well at night Because I know that God is still in control
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And I think that's a very important thing For us all to hear How God is in control But you know last week
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I did not sleep well at night Especially beginning Kind of the middle of the week
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Tuesday night, Wednesday night I would wake up after sleeping for an hour or so And then lay there most of the night
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Just thinking and working out problems And praying and trying to put my mind at ease
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And you guys know how it is When you can't sleep You think about trying to go to sleep And that makes you not sleep
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Well this was happening to me On Tuesday night and Wednesday night Until Thursday came along And I knew
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I needed to drive home From South Carolina in the morning A ten hour drive So I really needed to get sleep
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On Thursday night You understand? But that night I went to bed late
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Because of an emergency that had happened And it was midnight And I finally drifted to sleep
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When at one o 'clock in the morning I woke up In the hotel room
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In which I was sleeping There was a crash So loud
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It caused me to literally Leap out of the bed I clenched my fist
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Like this So tight that it hurt for the entire day That followed And I ran to the other room
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Because that crash came from within the hotel room I was expecting To have to throw down So my fist was going to be
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My firepower And as I ran into the adjoining room There was nobody
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Praise God But a picture Was shattered on the floor
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What had happened was A picture had fallen off the wall And landed on the faucet of the sink
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Which was metal And just completely shattered Well After that happened
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I laid back down They were
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Saucers Just looking at the ceiling I was shot full with adrenaline I was unable to even close my eyes
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Let alone sleep For about two hours Finally, three o 'clock in the morning I start to feel drowsy And about three thirty
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I think I'm about to fall asleep When all of a sudden I hear the clanging of a gong
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It sounds like Joshua Out there crying for war I look out the window of the hotel
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And next to the cracker barrel There is The recycling truck
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And he has come to Unload the recycling bin So he's lifting this thing And trying to shake loose
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The cardboard boxes But evidently they're packed A little too tight Because I am not exaggerating
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I think he bangs this thing Ninety five times Just It's just echoing Reverberating through the entire hotel
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And I'm just Now my eyes are just complete saucers I lay back down At three thirty
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By four o 'clock I'm not tired at all And I realize
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Maybe it's not just a random thing That the picture fell off the wall And the truck began to Empty the recycling bin
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At three thirty in the morning There's a plan In every little thing that happens
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At four o 'clock I stopped trying to sleep And I said Speak Lord Your servant is listening
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And I didn't get sleepy From four o 'clock to seven thirty When we got up and drove I never slept
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But during those three hours of the night When I was listening I communed with God Closer than I have
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I think in years It was the sweetest time I read scripture I prayed I met with him
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And he spoke to me And he ministered to my heart And he put my heart at ease And when I drove home
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I didn't even feel tired There is a doctrine
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That I want to teach you this morning Think of it over against miracles
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A miracle Like walking on water
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Or something that just can't happen In the natural order The doctrine of providence
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Unlike miracles Refers to everything That happens Providence Is God at work in our world
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Not doing a miracle But in every picture That falls from the wall Every recycling truck
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That shows up at three thirty In the morning When you go to an end
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And it falls from the sky Every hair on your head That's numbered
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The doctrine is providence Providence means That God is working a sovereign plan
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In every little thing that happens In fact, I'd like to modify The word providence With an adjective
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That you also need to know And that is meticulous providence Meticulous providence
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Is that doctrine Down to the smallest detail
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The littlest thing In your life That happens God is in control of that too
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Meticulous providence Is a crucial doctrine For all of us to understand It's how we learn to trust in God I'd like to ask you this morning
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To turn to Mark chapter eleven Verses one to ten For a story about meticulous providence
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And this story features an animal I want this animal To become for you
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A symbol of meticulous providence Maybe you have wrongly Associated this animal
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With a wicked, evil Political party That slaughters babies in the womb
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And seeks to change the gender Of human beings Which is an impossibility Groomers As they have been called
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And that animal of course Is the donkey Rather than understanding
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The donkey as a symbol Of evil In fact it was God who made donkeys And just like the rainbow
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Which is his symbol Of patience with a sinful world According to Genesis The donkey is a symbol
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Of God's providence His meticulous providence
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So we're going to read the story And I want you to think about it In the same way that Jesus Told us to think about He said, consider the lilies
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Of the field They neither spin nor toil And yet they're clothed
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More beautifully than Solomon Consider the birds of the air They don't work
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And yet the Father feeds them And you're worth more than Birds In the same way
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Consider the donkey Think about the donkey He is going to teach us lessons today
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About meticulous providence Let's read it Mark 11 1 -10 And when they drew near to Jerusalem To Bethphage and Bethany At the
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Mount of Olives Jesus sent two of his disciples And said to them Go into the village in front of you
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And immediately As you enter it You will find
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A colt tied A colt of course Is a baby donkey That has never sat
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Untie it and bring it If anyone says to you Why are you doing this Say the
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Lord has need of it And will send it back here immediately And they went away
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And found a colt tied at a door Outside in the street And they untied it And some of those standing there
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Said to them What are you doing Untying the donkey The colt And they brought the colt to Jesus And threw their cloaks on it
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And he sat on it And many spread their cloaks On the road And others spread leafy branches
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That they had cut from the fields And those who went before And those who followed
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Were shouting Hosanna Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord Blessed is the coming kingdom
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Of our father David Hosanna in the highest In this story
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Knows next to nothing But like the birds of the air
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And the lilies of the field The donkey teaches us To trust that God is always
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Working his sovereign will And when you learn that When you come to trust The will of God His sovereign plan
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Meticulous providence Then you become useful And fit for service to the king
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So we're going to talk about today Let's take it bit by bit First I want you to understand That the donkey knows next to nothing
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It's marked by its stupidity It's a dumb animal It doesn't speak
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It doesn't know It's just along for the ride In the story He has an owner that ties him up And here comes somebody else
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And he goes with them And then all of a sudden The donkey comes running
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He doesn't know what's happening He's just along for the ride
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And yet he is crucial To the story He knows very little
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Lesson You know only marginally
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Slightly fractionally more Than a donkey We only know
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If you want to compare us In our knowledge of things With God And with a donkey
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We are very close to the donkey And very far from God And yet we're often confused by this
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We have this little problem Called pride Especially spiritual pride
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There was once a spiritual man Who knew things He knew
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That the food offered to idols Is nothing but meat
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So he's free to eat it He had this spiritual knowledge But in 1
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Corinthians 8 Verses 1 to 3 Paul actually invites him
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To reconsider what he knows Because knowledge puffs up But love edifies
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And while his knowledge was true The food offered to an idol Is nothing and it's not going to hurt you to eat it
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Love would dictate That he not Eat that food From the temple
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In front of others Because if he goes outside of the temple to bail And just eats that food He could cause his brother to stumble
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So if you think you know something You should check To make sure That you really know what you think you know
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Pride sets in to all of us And we need to be reminded from the donkey That we know much less
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Than we think we know 1 Corinthians 8 So turn with me to Numbers 22 For a stark illustration
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Of this story Which I hope you never forget Many of you will remember the story from Sunday school
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But maybe you never knew the meaning It is the story of Balaam's donkey
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A talking donkey And the point of it talking Is to say Balaam needed to be taught something
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About his own spiritual pride Let me set up the story Balaam is a false prophet
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Of a wicked God Offering to bail And yet God decides
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To use this false prophet To bless the people of Israel Now Balak is a wicked
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Moabite ruler And he sees the Israelites down in the valley And he decides
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Let me hire the false prophet Balaam To come and curse the people Come and curse them
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Well look at verse 6 of Numbers 22 Balak says come now
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Curse this people for me Since they are too mighty for me Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them
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And drive them from the land For I know Here's the spiritual pride
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What he knows He thinks he knows That he whom you bless is blessed
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And he whom you curse is cursed Balak has faith
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In the will of Balaam The false prophet Whoever Balaam curses
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Is going to be cursed He's seen it happen With this divination, this sorcery He believes in it And whoever
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Balaam blesses Is always blessed So thinks Balak Now the interesting part of the story here
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Is that Balaam And gives him instructions So for a time Balaam begins to hear from the true
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God And the true God tells him Don't go with these people So he says no
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Well they come back And they press on him He prays again This time God says yes go with them
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But you are only to say What I tell you to say Balaam is now hearing from God And in his spiritual pride
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He goes Determined to say only What God tells him to say He's doing well
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And yet There is pride in his heart He thinks more highly of himself
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Than he ought to think Because the pressure that's going to come upon Balaam When he gets on top of that mountain
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Would have been more than he could take He's going to have to say some things That are going to make
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Balak want to kill him So interesting story But enough to say Let's turn to Numbers 22 verse 21
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Balaam rose in the morning And saddled his donkey And went with the princes of Moab All is well
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Let's hear a lesson from the donkey But God's anger was kindled Because he went
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Now hold on God told him to go So there's a problem here What did
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God told him to do? Answer, his heart is still wicked He's going in his own strength
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He's going puffed up In the knowledge that he's going to go speak for God But he doesn't have the fortitude
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He doesn't have the Holy Spirit He's not genuinely a regenerate person Okay, so we go on Verse 22
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And the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way As his adversary Now he was riding on the donkey
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With him And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord Standing in the road
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With the drawn sword in his hand And the donkey turned aside Out of the road
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And went into the field And Balaam struck the donkey To turn her into the road
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Look at that Here's Balaam He's riding on his donkey And all of a sudden
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It veers off into the field Circumstances turn for Balaam And all of a sudden
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What is his reaction? It is rage It is anger
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He turns and he turns against The problem as he sees it
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Which is the donkey He strikes the donkey Gets it back on the road Okay, keep going Verse 24
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Then the angel of the Lord stood In a narrow path between the vineyards With a wall on either side
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And when the donkey saw The angel of the Lord She pushed against the wall And pressed
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Balaam's foot Against the wall Now he's really mad
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This donkey Just hurt my leg He's feeling the pain He's angry
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Like me laying in the middle of the night Who hung that picture on the wall? Why did they just stick it on there?
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It's a vibrating wall Because of the air conditioner It's going to fall one day Mad, angry
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So what does he do? He struck her again Verse 26
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Then the angel of the Lord went ahead And stood in a narrow place Where there was no way to turn
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Either to the right or to the left When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord She laid down under Balaam And Balaam's anger was kindled And he struck the donkey
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With his staff Kids, listen up This is where the story gets interesting
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If there's any children in the room Verse 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey And she said to Balaam What have
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I done to you That you have struck me these three times? And now you know he's filled with rage
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Because he just answers right back He's red with rage To the point where he doesn't even consider
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Okay, my donkey just talked to me He says, because you have made a fool of me
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What's causing him such angst? Well, he's going along with the princes of Moab And he can't even handle his own donkey
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The donkey steers off the road The donkey crashes him into the wall Now it's sitting down He's making a fool of him
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The donkey is making him look bad His pride is wounded The princes of Moab Think he's a fool
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And so The donkey said to Balaam Well, sorry, look at verse 29
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Balaam said to the donkey Because you've made a fool of me I wish I had a sword in my hand
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For then I would kill you It's getting heated here between the donkey And Balaam Verse 30
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And the donkey said to Balaam Am I not your donkey? On which you have ridden all your life long to this day
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Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said No No Is it ordinary that In the middle of the night
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The picture just falls off the wall? No, lord Is it ordinary
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That the recycling truck Comes like a clanging cymbal In the middle of the night?
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No Stop and consider The events that happen in your life
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Maybe it's not That you're a victim Maybe God Has a plan in every little detail
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That happens to you Now his eyes will be open Look at this 31
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And he saw the angel of the Lord Standing in the way With his drawn sword in his hand And he bowed down And fell on his face
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And the angel of the Lord said to him Why have you struck your donkey These three times?
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Behold, I have come out to oppose you Because your way is perverse Before me
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The donkey saw me And turned aside before me These three times If she had not turned aside from me
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I would have killed you And let her live Balaam thought he knew much
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But that donkey just saved his life How little he knew We have such a small
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Perspective Of the grand scheme of God in the universe We don't know what he's doing
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Nor are we owed that knowledge From the creator of all things The starting point to understanding
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The providence of God Is to humble yourself In the knowledge that you have
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Or the knowledge that you think you have The story of Balaam's donkey
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Is a story of humiliation Taking a prideful man
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And humbling him Before a holy God Now later we'll learn from the book of Revelation That Balaam did in fact
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Go and do God's will On the mountaintop When Balak Tried to get him to curse
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Israel What did he do? He blessed them He tried again on a different mountain
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Curse Israel So Balaam blessed him A third time And once again
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God speaks through Balaam To bless the people From Revelation 2 .14
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To the church in Pergamum We learn that Balaam Unlocked the weakness of the people of Israel That rather than trying to kill them
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Just infiltrate Go and teach them To worship idols Go and send your young women
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To sleep with the young men Sexual immorality And so that's how
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Balak and the Moabites And many other surrounding peoples Actually did conquer Israel in a sense
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That they were sent into captivity Because of their sin All of this to say
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Balaam was a false prophet Who led Israel into sin But when
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God wanted to speak through him He could speak through even him And the message of the donkey
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Is that The pride of man Puffs up Knowledge puffs up All of us need to understand
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Whatever we think we know about theology Whatever cup of water
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We've been given Is like A drop
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In the ocean The ocean of who God is And how big he is And what there is to know of him
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And yet what we have is sure The scripture that teaches us And the knowledge that we do have Is sure and real
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We're not postmodern thinking that we know nothing But what God has spoken we know Deuteronomy 29, 29
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The secret things belong to the Lord our God Hear that And all those things which are revealed
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Belong to us And to our children forever So the first point is a point of humility The donkey teaches us
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That we know next to nothing Compared to the infinite mind of God Now the second point
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Is the main one today And that is meticulous providence The donkey teaches us
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To trust God's plan To trust his plan Go back with me to Mark chapter 11
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And I think this is the main point Of Mark 11 This meticulous providence of God Notice in verse 2
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The disciples are told To go into the village in front of you And immediately as you enter it
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You will Find a colt You will, you will
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You will It does not say you might Or I hope It says you will
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From the perspective of God His plan Will happen
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This is the point Now put yourself in the shoes of the disciple You were just sent
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To a city and you're told When you get there there's going to be a donkey tied At one of the houses
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Right at the beginning of the city And you're told what to do You're supposed to take it and untie it
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Well this is Kind of a scary assignment First of all
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What if there's no donkey? How am I supposed to bring back a donkey? What if the owner
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Got sick And decided to go home? And there's no donkey tied
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Where I was hoping it would be Or What if I get there And I start untying the donkey
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And the owner comes running at me With his fist clenched And says kill me
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This is a weird assignment I can't just take his donkey And yet that's precisely what he was told to do
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Now look at verse 3 It says if anyone says to you If, if, if From our perspective
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There are counterfactuals in life If you do this Then that will happen
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If you go to get this donkey And you start to untie it Somebody might ask you
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What you're doing Or it's possible That nobody will see it And you'll just walk off without it
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From our perspective There are ifs in life There are choices that we make
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And if you do this thing That will happen If you do another thing Something else will happen These are real choices that we make
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But ask yourself this question From God's perspective
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Was it possible That there wouldn't have been a donkey tied there? I'm stroking my beard here
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Theological thinking here Philosophical Is it possible
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That nobody would have come out And asked this question Of course we know the answer is This was ordained by God So look what happens in verse 4
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They went away And found a colt tied at a door Outside in the street
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And they untied it And some of those standing there Said to them What are you doing
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Untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said And they let them go
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I'm here to tell you That in the meticulous providence of God That was destined to happen
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In fact in Zechariah chapter 9 Verse 9 A prophet more than 400 years ahead of time
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Said that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem Not on a white steed
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But on a donkey It was prophesied And because of this
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It was certain to happen Because God's word never returns void Zechariah 9, 9 and 10
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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem Behold, your
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King is coming to you This is the triumphal entry Righteous and having salvation is he
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Humble And mounted on a donkey On a colt It has to be a young male donkey
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Just a year or so old No one had ever sat on this donkey Because the prophet said on a colt
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The full of a donkey I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the war horse from Jerusalem This is not a conquering king
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The war horse is not at play here But rather a donkey The battle bow shall be cut off And he shall speak peace to the nations
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His rule shall be from sea to sea And from the river to the ends of the earth The prophet foresaw
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Jesus In his triumphal entry Riding on a young donkey
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And it was destined that this donkey would be there I want to teach you
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How the theologian spoke Of meticulous providence The Presbyterians in 1646
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Wrote it this way In the Westminster Confession of Faith They said
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God from all eternity Did by the most wise and holy counsel of his will
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Freely and unchangeably Ordain whatsoever comes to pass
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That's a strong statement Every picture that falls from the wall Every bird that falls from the sky
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Every hair that falls from your head Was ordained just as it happened
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And you say wait a minute I don't like that because philosophically in my mind I have trouble with that idea
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It feels like you're making me a puppet Like a marionette doll That God just bounces around What about my real choices?
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Can't I change things? Can't my minds
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As they're called Could have answered that question for us? Well they went on to say
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Yet so as thereby Neither is God the author of sin God is not the author of sin
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Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures There is creaturely will
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The man who tied up his donkey
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He was doing that because he wanted to go inside the saloon And have a drink He was walking along and he tied up his donkey
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He's making real choices And the disciples make a real choice to obey And they go and they find a donkey
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They're not puppets They're making real creaturely choices in this world
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They also said Nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away
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But rather established In other words Under this divine decree The secret will of God Within this world in which we live
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There are secondary causes If I choose to start running the aisles today
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Like a Pentecostal I could choose to do that right now And you guys would just be
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Your eyes would be as wide as me When that picture crashed What is he doing? And then run right out the door
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Nobody would be here again next week would you? I hope not I could make that choice right now and do it
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I have a real choice to do that or not And yet it is ordained that I will stand here
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And preach God's word These two things are compatible
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The will of man in real choices And the sovereign will of God over all things
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Pastor John, our associate pastor He calls himself a Cal -Arminian Calvinist -Arminian
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Both and He sees the sovereignty of God But also there is a real creaturely will
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I don't call myself that I think that's highly confusing But I call myself a compatibilist
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As they did here These ideas are compatible They are not fighting each other Spurgeon said it's like railroad tracks
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That run parallel And we don't understand how they ever merge together But somewhere far off in the distance
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Somewhere in heaven They're together in heaven
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God understands how they fit Now somebody here will say You just read a
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Presbyterian statement of faith I'm not a Presbyterian, I'm a Baptist I'm more of a
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Baptist My parents are members at Idyllwild Baptist Church Southern Baptist Church in Tampa Did you know
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That in 1689 Here's how the Baptists wrote it God has decreed
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In himself From all eternity By the most wise and holy counsel
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Of his own will Freely and unchangeably All things
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Whatsoever comes to pass Same language as the Presbyterians Yet so as thereby is
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God Neither the author of sin Nor has fellowship with any therein Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature
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Nor is liberty or contingency Of second causes taken away Big theology here
01:00:08
Saying the same thing In fact, sounds like plagiarism to me Pretty much stole the language
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So this is what the theologian says But I want
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Bible Don't tell me what the scholars say I want the
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Bible What does the Bible say? Proverbs 16 .33
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The casting of the lot into the lap It's every decision is from the
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Lord The most seemingly random thing That could be imagined
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In fact, it's definitionally random When you want to do a random choice Let's cast lots
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Let's roll the dice That's how Matthias was chosen in Acts chapter 1 It's seemingly random
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But it could have been That the other was taken To be the twelfth apostle No, it's every decision is from the
01:01:06
Lord What's random to us Is not random to him Meticulous providence in this world
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Proverbs 16 .33 Ephesians 1 .11 God works all things
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According to the counsel of his will Now that's in the context of predestination To life But it doesn't only refer
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To the predestination of people It refers to all things
01:01:32
All means all Remember Nebuchadnezzar? In his spiritual pride
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He thought he built Babylon But God wanted to humble Nebuchadnezzar And so he turned him into a donkey
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In a sense He made him go out in the field And eat grass Was it seven years,
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I think? Seven years Finally after that humiliation
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Nebuchadnezzar was given back his right mind And in that moment of clarity
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He speaks these words from Daniel 4 34 and 35
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At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar Isn't it cool that we have words from Nebuchadnezzar?
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Through God Lifted my eyes to heaven And my reason returned to me
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And I blessed the Most High And praised and honored Him Who lives forever For His dominion is an everlasting dominion
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And His kingdom endures From generation to generation All the inhabitants of the earth
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Are accounted as nothing And hear this He does according to His will
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Among the hosts of heaven And among the inhabitants Of the earth And he goes on to say
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And none can stay His hand Or say to Him What have you done?
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Nebuchadnezzar got it There's a God in heaven With a sovereign will That no one can thwart
01:03:05
You can't trick Him You can't undo His plan Even with your sin
01:03:11
You say, wait a minute God's not the author of sin Right, sinners are the author of sin
01:03:17
And they're responsible for it Pilate was responsible For sending
01:03:22
Jesus to the cross In His creaturely will His own sinful desire He wanted to preserve
01:03:28
His place in Rome He didn't want Rome coming down on Him He just wanted peace Washed His hands of it
01:03:35
Herod wanted to be the king Over Israel And here's this contender And Herod in his pride
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Mocked the true king Put a crown of thorns on his head Put a purple robe on him He wanted to be the king
01:03:53
The Jews Rejected their own Messiah They wanted A conquering king
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A Messiah who would deliver them from Rome Instead He came humbly And so they shouted
01:04:06
Crucify, crucify That's their sinful will The Gentiles The Romans They're operating by their own will, right?
01:04:16
What are the soldiers doing? Whatever they're told And so People operating in their own will
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Are sinning And yet Acts 4, 27 and 28
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Acts chapter 4, verse 27 and 28 Mentions those four groups
01:04:40
And how each of them did What they wanted to do And then in the 28th verse Says they did what
01:04:46
His hand and plan Predestined to occur You see the both hand?
01:04:55
God has a sovereign will Meticulous providence Over everything that happens Including the most sinful
01:05:01
Evil thing that was ever done In the history of the world The perfect pure lamb of God Delivered up by sinners
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Acts 2, 23 According to the definite plan Of Almighty God It's both hand
01:05:16
This is the lesson of the donkey We need to trust His sovereign plan
01:05:25
Worrying Anxious Thinking of ways to control things
01:05:31
As we all sometimes do We need to be reminded When you lay there First of all read
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Psalm 27 Psalm 127 Second of all Remember the lesson of the donkey
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He just went according to the plan of God God had it all worked out All things according to the purpose of His will
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And lastly And I'll be quick with this The donkey then is useful Until you come to understand
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Who God is And that He is in control Isaiah 1, 3 says
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The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib But Israel doesn't get it
01:06:12
When you begin to understand What the donkey knows His owner The plan of God Because now you don't think
01:06:23
That you can do it It says in Mark 11 Verse 7
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They brought the colt to Jesus And threw their cloaks on it And He sat on it He was useful to the king
01:06:36
He was useful in the triumphal entry To serve the king of kings
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What made Him useful Is that He was humble Willing to do whatever it was that God wanted
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And trusting the plan of God And being with it This is huge You will not be useful
01:06:57
In the kingdom Until you're willing to bear burdens To bear the burdens of hurting people
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Think of my wife right now Who just the last few days Has stayed up Night after night with a dying woman
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And their family to minister Trusting the providence of God And this woman went home to be with the
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Lord At 3 o 'clock this morning To bear the burdens Of another
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Only if like the donkey You're humble To trust that God has a plan So we grieve but not like those
01:07:33
Who have no hope Listen Every morning I try to kneel before the Father And offer myself anew to Him But every time
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I do My back hurts Probably because I was a basketball player Trying to dunk when it's not really
01:07:48
In the genetic material But my back hurts every morning
01:07:55
And sometimes I think Why does my back hurt? I'm only in my 40s Imagine what it's going to be like When I'm in my 50s and 60s and 70s 80s
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Lord willing Why does my back hurt? If we understand the meticulous providence of God We don't say
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Woe is me My back hurts I'm such a victim I've got a bad back
01:08:17
Goes into spasms I'm no use to the king If that's how
01:08:22
I think But if I like Paul say This thorn in my flesh
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Is from God A messenger of Satan See Satan is the instrument of evil
01:08:36
That God allows But it's God Who's allowing this for His purpose In order that His strength
01:08:41
Would be made perfect in my weakness You can clap Couple of you got it going
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This is all of it We have these pains in this life And the burdens of this life
01:08:56
If you look at it From the perspective of man You will blame the owner of the donkey
01:09:04
Or fear the owner of the donkey You will blame circumstances
01:09:09
And be all out of sorts But the man who can trust the plan of God Will recognize he's at work in the burden
01:09:16
And then you can bear the burden And the burden of others That donkey was useful to the master
01:09:22
Because he understood The master's plan He trusted God's providence
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His meticulous providence So in closing These are the lessons of the donkey
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First of all You know less than you think you do God could speak through that donkey To tell you what you need to hear
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Humble yourself Before God Constantly learning
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Humble yourself Secondly, meticulous providence The donkey, he knows his owner
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He trusts, he just goes with it Trust the plan of God And thirdly
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You need to bear burdens The pains of this life Are fitting you for ministry
01:10:07
His strength made perfect in weakness Not by might nor by power But by my spirit
01:10:12
Says the Lord of hosts Turn with me to Psalm 127 I'm going to read these two verses again
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I open with this prayer And our prayer is that we would learn To trust his meticulous providence
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Psalm 127 Just verses 1 and 2 In closing I'm glad to hear all these pages rustling
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Not everybody's using the devices, right? Which is fine if you use your phone But I like when you bring
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Your phone to your book Unless the Lord builds the house Those who build it
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Labor in vain Unless the Lord watches over the city The watchman stays awake
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In vain It is in vain that you rise up early And go late to rest
01:11:10
Eating the bread of anxious toil For he gives to his beloved Sleep Amen, let's pray
01:11:20
Father, thank you so much For teaching us Through such a humble creature
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As that donkey that you made Thank you for speaking To us this morning
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To humble us in our spiritual pride To teach us about your meticulous providence
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And to fit us For service to the King We pray,
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Lord, that you would help us to trust Lord, we believe In your unbelief We pray that we would not be anxious
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About anything, but in everything By prayer and petition Make our requests known to God With thanksgiving
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Lord, we claim the promise that the peace of God Will guard our hearts In Christ Jesus Thank you for your providence
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And we trust you In all the struggles that we're going through So much pain
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In this world We trust your sovereign plan And we look to you
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In Jesus' name, amen Let's stand and sing What gift of grace
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Is Jesus my Redeemer There is no more
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For heaven now to give He is my joy
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My righteousness and freedom My steadfast love
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My deep and boundless peace To this
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I hold My hope is only Jesus For my life
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Is wholly bound to His Oh, how strange and divine
01:13:27
I can see all is mine Yet not I Look through Christ in me
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Night is dark
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But I am not forsaken For by my side
01:13:56
The Savior, He will stay I labor on In weakness and in joys
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For in my need My power is displayed
01:14:15
To this I hold My shepherd will defend me
01:14:22
Through the deepest valley You will lead
01:14:29
Oh, the night has been won And I shall overcome
01:14:36
Yet not I Look through Christ in me
01:14:53
Fate I tread A shore
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The price it has been paid The sun
01:15:10
That suffered for my water Was raised
01:15:17
To overthrow the grave To this
01:15:22
I hold My hope has been defeated
01:15:28
Jesus now and ever is my plea
01:15:35
Oh, the chains are released I can see
01:15:40
I am free Yet not I Look through Christ in me
01:15:51
With every breath I long to follow Jesus With every breath
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I long to follow Jesus For He has said
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That He will bring me home And day by day
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I know He will renew me Until I stand
01:16:23
With joy before Him To this
01:16:28
I hold My hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to Him When the race is complete
01:16:45
Still my lips shall repeat Yet not I Look through Christ in me
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When the race is complete Shall repeat
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Yet not I Look through Christ in me
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Praise God for that. In closing, I'm going to read these words from Jude and then
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I'm going to close in prayer. I want to pray especially, and all of you join me in praying for a dear girl, one of Abby's teammates there named
01:18:02
Rachel who lost her mom this morning at 3 a .m. And also praying for the father there and the rest of the family.
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So these words are, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy and only
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God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.
01:18:28
Amen. And Father God, we come to you now for this dear girl Rachel and for John and this church praise in Jesus' name that you would be the
01:18:37
God of all comfort to them and to the rest of the family that you would surround them with your love that they would know your sovereign plan and your will.
01:18:49
As it concludes the resurrection of the dead we grieve but not like those who have no hope. We pray for the hope of this family to rise up in the gospel looking to Christ who rose from the dead and promised to bring us up with Him.
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We pray for them now in Jesus' name. And Lord as we go we ask that we would go forth walking in the fullness of your power by the means of grace that we would do your will and trusting that you are working your sovereign plan.