Latest / HBCWestminster / 4.18.21 Luke 13:31-35 Pastor Danny Gardner

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4.18.21 Luke 13:31-35 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Allow me to read our text this morning. Like I said, Luke 13 verses 31 to 35. I've titled our message this morning, According to Plan. According to Plan. And if you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to do that now. Allow me to read these verses and then we'll pray and begin. Verse 31 says, At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, Get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them, Go and tell that fox. Behold.
• 0:27
  I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken.
• 0:58
  And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And God, we pray that you would be glorified in the preaching of your word. May it be expounded upon with accuracy and clarity. God, may we receive the truth with eager hearts. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, certainly it has happened.
• 1:26
  in your life where not everything has gone according to plan. Certainly there have been events that have happened differently than you expected. Maybe some things have turned out differently than you imagined. When I was in high school, my dad and I used to mountain bike. We used to enjoy mountain biking, just being outside together and riding around and going to the mountains and doing whatever.
• 1:47
  we were doing that one year up in lake tahoe northern california we were mountain biking together and as we were cruising along you know he in his younger years obviously and i as about a 16 year old or so high school young man i was following behind him we were on this little single track trail mountain bike trail going through the woods above lake tahoe and as we were cruising along and we were really scooting along uh i'm following right behind him a squirrel
• 2:16
  ran down not realizing we were coming and coming so quickly ran down and across that little single track trail that was only this wide you know just wide enough for our tires came across that single track trail just as my dad crossed and he ran it over with his mountain bike just a crazy timing kind of thing and ran that thing over and stopped really quickly but he had obviously pretty severely accidentally but pretty severely hurt this squirrel and and beyond repair it was
• 2:46
  clearly not going to survive having been hit by my dad's bike. And so we pulled off the trail and the squirrel kind of limped along up on top of a rock. And the rock was probably ankle high or so to us, but it was up there on top of this rock and it was clearly suffering. And so my dad said, you know, Danny, I'm looking at this thing, like, what do we do?
• 3:05
  He said, Danny, we need to dispatch the squirrel. We need to put it out of its misery. And so he went and found a large rock and was just going to drop it on the squirrel to kill it. And so he found this large rock and lifted it over his head. And I was just standing nearby and not really thinking anything of it, just watching, you know, and he's holding this rock above his head. And then he just kind of lofted it up in the air and it came down on top of the squirrel.
• 3:32
  What was a little bit unanticipated was the fact that the squirrel was sitting on a flat rock and the rock that my dad had chosen to throw on top of the squirrel was also a pretty flat rock. And so when those two rocks came together, rather than just punching down on the squirrel, it actually pancaked the squirrel and with so much weight and energy that it almost, I don't know, aerosoled it. And you guys, we were both standing right there two feet away.
• 4:01
  And you guys, it was really gross, but it just blew it all over us. I mean, I had squirrel everywhere. You know, we were both feeling bad that we had hurt the squirrel, but the squirrel definitely got the last laugh because it just kind of blew all over us. It was on my face. It was all over my clothes. It was everywhere, all over us. It definitely did not go according to plan. This was just not the way I had imagined it working out.
• 4:29
  You know, church, we console ourselves in times of trouble by saying that God has a plan. We will often try to comfort those who are grieving with something like that. God has a plan. But do you ever wonder if everything is going according to plan?
• 4:45
  Just because God has a plan doesn't necessarily mean that all things are going according to that plan, just like we may make plans, but not everything works out the way that we imagine. Do you ever imagine God standing there holding that big rock above his head and just saying, well, let's see how this goes, you know, and just chucking this thing down? Does that ever feel like things are just running out of God's control? Here's something I'll bet, if you didn't already know the ending, I'll bet you never would have expected.
• 5:16
  that Christ is the very best of us, right? He is the very best human who has ever lived. He was sinless. He was perfect. Jesus was the very best of us, and yet he brings out the very worst in us. Such is our depravity.
• 5:41
  Such is our love of sin that we would rather choose to crucify the Savior than to be saved by him. And who honestly would have seen that coming? It's just not how you would have imagined the story ending. John MacArthur has said this from his birth. Jesus was the target for murderers. Seems like almost everyone wanted him dead.
• 6:07
  It's amazing how many there were given the opportunity who would have murdered him. And the real shock of it is he was without sin, without evil. He was perfection and goodness and holiness. He was compassionate and gracious and benevolent and was offering forgiveness of sin and eternal life. And not only that, MacArthur continues, he offered it not as something to be earned, but to be simply received. It's not even like you have to work for that forgiveness. You could just have it freely.
• 6:36
  He offered the gift of eternal blessing and everlasting joy in heaven, but instead of eagerly embracing him and grasping his salvation with joy and gratitude, which only a few did, and only a few still do, those to whom he offered salvation wanted to kill him. He was constantly pursued to be killed. You know, before Jesus was even born, there were those trying to kill him.
• 7:04
  You may recall his own people, his own kings, his own forefathers, like King Manasseh, who would sacrifice his own sons to false gods. And every one of those sons, as an heir, right, as an heir of David's promise, every one of those sons was potentially the Messiah. This was a satanic attack on the messianic line, trying to exterminate the Messiah before he was even born.
• 7:33
  When he was finally born, Matthew chapter 2, Herod the Great, and in a rage of jealousy and paranoia, attempted to murder the baby Jesus, and untold numbers of baby boys were killed in that fit of jealous rage. Luke chapter 4, when he went back to his own hometown, his own friends and family tried to kill him by throwing him off of a cliff.
• 7:55
  John 2, at the very beginning of his public ministry, the temple authorities wanted him dead because he made a whip of cords and trashed the temple, started turning over the money changers' temples and throwing everybody out, driving everybody out. They wanted him gone. John 5, Jesus healed a paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda. You're like, well, what's controversial about that? I mean, why would you be so mad at him about healing a paralyzed man? That's a great thing. And yet the Jewish people wanted him dead.
• 8:24
  dead because he claimed to do the same work as the Father. John chapter 8, Jesus called himself the I Am and the Jews wanted him dead because he claimed the same name as the Father. John chapter 10, Jesus claimed oneness with God and the Jews wanted him dead because he claimed equality with the Father.
• 8:41
  John chapter 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and the Jews wanted to kill him all the more. And on top of that, they wanted to kill Lazarus too. Because Jesus' popularity among the people was soaring and they couldn't get Lazarus to shut up about the fact that he had gone to heaven. They wanted him dead, even at the end of his life when he was on trial before Pilate. That governor, Pilate, offered to let Jesus go.
• 9:08
  But the crowds demanded his crucifixion. It seems like almost everyone wanted Jesus dead. And unavoidable in our passage this morning is Jesus' resolve. He's very near to the end of his life in Luke 13. We've said this many times. He's within weeks, I think, maybe months of hanging on the cross. He is within weeks of hell's celebrating his death and declaring victory. And yet knowing this, he is clearly undeterred.
• 9:37
  The entire redemptive story can be summed up in this morning's passage. You read this passage, sometimes you're like, man, what does that mean? I don't even get it. But I'll tell you the gist of the passage. It is this, and it's a summation of the entire redemptive work of God. God is accomplishing his work. His enemies are trying to stop him, but his work can't be stopped. That's it. That's the whole thing. You want to know what this means? That's what it means.
• 10:07
  God is going about his work. His enemies are trying to stop it, but his work cannot be stopped. That's pretty much the whole of the redemptive story and the meaning of our text. And so let's turn our attention back to the text. You'll notice in verse 31 that the Pharisees raise what I believe is a false alarm. Look at verse 31 at that very hour. You say, well, what hour is that?
• 10:32
  You'll recall from Luke 9, verse 51, that Jesus had set his face to go to Jerusalem. He is journeying over the course of many months. He is journeying from the north in Galilee down to Jerusalem. And he is probably right now in this passage in Perea, trans-Jordan, across the Jordan, in Perea, on his way, working his way down to Jerusalem, knowing in John 12 that his hour had come.
• 10:55
  The hour of his glorification had come he says in John 12 But we find out that what he meant by glorification was really crucifixion It is time for me to be crucified and so he begins to go down to Jerusalem now more specifically Regarding at that very hour in verse 31 is the context given by verse 22 Okay, so look back up at verse 22 says he went on his way through towns and villages teaching and journeying toward
• 11:23
  Jerusalem. And his most recent message, and what Pastor Sam preached on last week, was that those who follow him, he said, must strive to enter through the narrow door. Strive. Agonize. Fight. In fact, that word for strive, agonizomai, agonize, the same Greek word used in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 11 and 12.
• 11:49
  When it says, pursue righteousness, godliness, love, steadfastness, gentleness, and then he says, fight the good fight of the faith. We all know that one, fight the good fight of the faith. It is the Greek word agonizomai, agonize, agonize over your faith. Remember Jesus' final words from last week when he said,
• 12:12
  that not only would Gentiles be included in the kingdom, right? From south and north and west and east, people from all over will be in God's house. So Gentiles would be included in the kingdom, but he also implied
• 12:26
  that many Jews would not be included in the kingdom. You'll be looking through the glass at the party on the inside, but you'll be left out. And you can imagine the dismay of those Jews who were within earshot when he included the Gentile dogs in their minds, the Gentile dogs, but then excluded many of them. And so look what they do at that very hour. Some Pharisees came to him and said, so they just heard this.
• 12:52
  The Gentiles are in, but many of you are out. And they come to him in verse 31 and said, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. And you may say, well, that's very nice of them. It's nice of those Pharisees to look out for Jesus, to show him some concern. I thought they were the bad guys, but they seem okay to me. Well, church, don't be deceived. There's a possibility their concern was genuine, but I don't think it was. More likely is that they wanted Jesus.
• 13:19
  to leave the region across the Jordan, to leave Perea, where Herod reigned, so that he would fall into the hands of the Jewish religious leaders in Judea, where they could put him to death more easily. They wanted to leave the relative actual safety of Herod's region in order to go into the region that they had more control of. They were hoping that he would leave where it was safe and go to where they could kill him.
• 13:48
  You guys no doubt have heard the story of the gingerbread man, right? And you guys, fairy tales are so weird. Fables are so weird. But the story of this old man and an old lady, right? This husband and wife who could never have kids. And so the wife decides, the old woman decides that she's going to bake a gingerbread boy to be their son.
• 14:10
  Okay. And so she bakes this gingerbread man. All right. And he's baked and he's finished and he comes to life, but he doesn't want us. He doesn't want to obey his parents or whatever. So he leaves, he runs away. And that's where you get that phrase, right? Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me on the gingerbread man because the old man and the old woman are running after the gingerbread boy, their son. Okay. But he doesn't want to obey his parents.
• 14:33
  And so he comes to a cow and a cow wants to eat him because he looks delicious. And so he runs away from the cow. And then he comes to a horse and the same thing. So he runs away from the horse and then pigs and then chickens and whatever, right? And the whole time, run, run as fast as you can. He's got this whole crowd of animals and his parents all chasing after him. Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me. I'm the gingerbread man. But then he comes to a river crossing that he can't get across. There's this river.
• 14:56
  Okay, and so he stuck he's got this whole crowd chasing after him and along comes a fox and the Fox makes him an offer He says this he says I will carry you Across the river. I'll swim you jump on my back and gingerbread man says I'm not falling for that, right? I know up in that mouth region how dangerous it is. And so I'm not I'm not falling for that and the Fox says no No, no, it'll be safe. I'll keep you safe. Just jump on my tail and I'll swim you across the river
• 15:25
  Gingerbread man says, yeah, that sounds pretty good. I'm far away from his mouth. No problem. I jump on the tail. The fox begins to swim. The fox begins to sink, right? And so he says, well, you better get off my tail, jump onto my back. And so the gingerbread man thinks, okay, I'll jump on his back. And then the fox continues to sink more. Well, you better get off my back, come up near my neck. And he begins to sink more. Well, come up near my mouth. And as soon as the gingerbread man did that, wham, the fox ate him. And I don't know what the...
• 15:52
  Moral of the story is supposed to be like kids obey your parents or you'll get eaten by foxes, you know, like I have no idea But I will tell you that that's what this is like Yeah, you can almost hear the Pharisees saying Jesus it's not safe for you here. Come on up here next to our mouth right now You're on the tail. Come on up here closer to our mouth closer to our mouth, right? They are feigning compassion It's a false alarm though Right get up here closer to us because really what they wanted to do
• 16:23
  was to eat him. In Transjordan, where Christ likely was at this point, the Jewish authorities had very little power. They didn't have much power in Perea. In their minds, if Jesus, in a moment of fear, took their advice and fled quickly to Jerusalem thinking that he would be safe, maybe these well-meaning Pharisees would offer him protection up near their mouths.
• 16:47
  Then they could dispose of him quickly and quietly. Do you hear him calling? Come on up. Come on up. Get off our tail. Come up on our back. Come up on our neck. Come up to Judea. That's where our mouth is. They wanted to eat him. Notice what they say. Herod. Herod wants to kill you. Now, that's no surprise. We just talked about everybody wanted to kill him. But why Herod Antipas? Now, Herod Antipas was Herod the Great's son. And he reigned over Galilee and Perea along the eastern side of the Jordan River, like we said. And this Herod wanted to kill Jesus.
• 17:15
  to, and not only kill, but the word that they use, the Greek word the New Testament used though, means to annihilate. He wants to annihilate you. He wants to destroy you, to murder you. And Herod had proven his penchant for murder by beheading John the Baptist, Jesus's own cousin.
• 17:39
  Because John dared to confront Herod Antipas' immoral behavior with his brother's wife. John the Baptist confronted him. He was an immoral man. He had taken his brother's own wife as his own. And so John confronted him and eventually had his head chopped off because of Herod's anger. So what was it about Jesus then that made Herod want to kill him? Perhaps it was because he assumed that Jesus would eventually want to avenge his cousin's death.
• 18:06
  Perhaps he had heard that Jesus could control demons. He feared maybe that Jesus would sick demons on him. Perhaps he was overcome with such guilt and shame over John's murder that it was driving him mad. Perhaps he feared that Jesus would turn his own massive number of followers against Herod and seek to depose him and take his throne. Maybe he was thinking, I'll just do a preemptive strike.
• 18:32
  I'll kill him before he can turn against me. Whatever it was, Jesus didn't fall for the trap. Look at his response in verse 32. And he said to them, go and tell that fox.
• 18:46
  Tell that fox. Now, he was meant to be intimidated, but instead became indignant. And he even called Herod a name. And I'll ask you, church, when did he ever do that? When do you have Jesus calling people names? Now, one time, John the Baptist pointed at the Pharisees and called them a brood of vipers. But Jesus never did. And here, Jesus calls the Jewish king a fox. Why a fox?
• 19:14
  He could have called them a lot of things. Why that one? Well, foxes were known for being destructive. They were cunning and deceptive, and certainly Antipas was those things. But more than that, foxes in ancient times were kind of viewed as insignificant. They were
• 19:32
  More like a nuisance. They were considered a pest. We might say a varmint. He's a varmint. He is not to be taken seriously. Is he a pest? Yes. A nuisance? Yes. Annoying? Yes. But a real threat? Nah, he's a fox. For Jesus to call him a fox, and especially being a king, would have been incredibly demeaning if Jesus were really threatened. And honestly, if he really feared Herod's destructive power, he would have called him a lion.
• 20:03
  A lion is big and untamed and incredibly powerful, but Jesus was the lion, right? And lions do not flee before foxes. Jesus boiled Herod's destructive power down to one of those gnats that annoyingly buzzes around our eyes on a hot summer night.
• 20:30
  And you know, church, this is a good reminder for us. Those who sit on thrones are appointed by God, even today. Those who sit in oval offices are even appointed by God. And he establishes the kingdoms of men at his command and according to his...
• 20:53
  will. And those men and women who sit on those thrones are not always appointed because they are obedient to him and his word. In fact, I believe few are that way. So God is not shocked to learn that the most powerful leaders are not always his own followers. And yet we can trust that God will use even evil rulers for his purpose, the way that he used Herod Antipas.
• 21:23
  You've no doubt heard about the pastor James Coates in Canada, who was recently imprisoned for over a month for doing the very things that we do every Sunday and Wednesday. They weren't doing anything crazy. They were meeting to worship. We do it here at the church in person every Wednesday, every Sunday. That's what they were doing. Canada's COVID restrictions on churches have been much more stringent than ours here in the U.S., although if it weren't for the Supreme Court.
• 21:50
  If you've been following that, restrictions on churches in the U.S. might be a lot different too. It might look a lot more like Canada if the Supreme Court weren't defending us. But for all intents and purposes, churches in this Canadian pastor's region were told that they could not gather. But he felt the spiritual decline of his people. He felt their hurt and loneliness and depression the same way that I felt it among our people when we were not allowed to meet to worship. And so he opened his church doors anyway.
• 22:20
  The pastor, James Coates, was jailed. The church building has been fenced off and condemned. Their congregation now meets underground and in secret in undisclosed locations around the city. And church, just do some simple Google searches. They are thriving.
• 22:38
  Their church thrives. Their building has been taken away. Their pastor has been put in prison. And yet the church is thriving. It is growing. They're meeting underground. Nobody even knows where they are. They're going full-on underground church as if it's in China. But it's not in China. It's in Canada. Canada, our cousins to the north. And so when the time comes that we are under threat, and church, make no mistake, it may come.
• 23:10
  It may come, it may come sooner than we all thought. The time comes when we are under threat and our doors are barricaded and our leaders are told that we must flee for Herod wants to kill us. We can trust in that moment that the Lord is at work. The Lord is at work.
• 23:30
  He is the one who establishes Kings. He is the one who rules over them They do according to his plan and his will now So even when those leaders come against the Lord's Church, he has a plan He knows what he's doing and he is at work. And in fact the promise of verse 32 and 33 is that we cannot be stopped
• 23:51
  The work of God cannot be stopped until it is accomplished. Continue in verse 32. Go and tell that fox, he says, behold, I cast out demons. I perform cures today and tomorrow. The third day I finished my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way. I must, he says. I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following. Jesus just simply says that his work would continue until it is finished. And until the work was finished, he was unstoppable.
• 24:19
  He could not be stopped until his work was finished. That third day reference there was used as an expression of continuation. It was not meant to be a literal three days, but it would be like Jesus saying, I'm going to work today and tomorrow, and I'm going to continue to work as long as it takes for the work to be finished, and no one can stop it. That's what he's saying. Today and tomorrow and the third day, it will be completed, accomplished.
• 24:49
  And beloved church, you know, the Lord makes the same promise to us. He has given us his spirit. He has said that he would be with us until the end of the age. It's the same idea. I'll be with you until the work is done. I've given you a commission to go and make disciples of all nations. And I will send my spirit who will be with you to the very end of the age, all the way to the end when all is.
• 25:14
  accomplished. And church, nothing can stop us until the work of Christ in our lives and through our lives is completed. And then Jesus says something really peculiar in verses 33 and 34 when he says this, for it cannot be, verse 33, it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.
• 25:42
  It's like he almost says this proverbially, right? It sounds like a proverb. Like the murder of prophets was so frequent in Jerusalem that it just became assumed that if a prophet was going to be killed, it would probably happen in God's holy city. And what a horrible thing to be known for. Cities are known for a lot of things. I mean, cities like people kind of have reputations. Los Angeles is known for beaches and sunshine. I mean, Hollywood is known for movies.
• 26:11
  Las Vegas is Sin City. Seattle is rain and coffee. New York is money and taxi cabs. Denver, the mountains, and unfortunately, probably marijuana. I mean, those are the two things that we're most known for. Jerusalem? Profit killers. That was their reputation. And unfortunately, their reputation had been earned. A reading of the Old Testament.
• 26:38
  gives reminders of the wicked kings like Manasseh and Jehoiakim, both of whom, and I quote, filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Those kings went on killing sprees in their own city, the city of Jerusalem, murdering those who spoke on behalf of the Lord.
• 27:01
  The prophet Isaiah was stuffed inside of a hollow log and then sawn in half in order to set an example of what happens to the prophets of his day. Consider for just a moment Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 36 in reference to the prophets. Hebrews 11, 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two.
• 27:27
  They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. And so frequently were prophets killed in God's holy city that it almost became like a badge of authenticity. Like it was legitimizing their prophetic ministry. Like if a prophet wasn't killed in Jerusalem, then his credentials were maybe in question. And Jesus knew he would not be left out.
• 27:58
  So his response makes sense. You can almost hear his voice. Flee from Herod? Herod's a puppet. He's a nuisance. He's a gnat. And besides, I'm not going to be killed out here in the desert in Perea in obscurity. I will be killed in front of everyone in the holy city itself, just like those prophets who have come before me.
• 28:21
  Do you hear his determination there? His resolve? You cannot stop what I'm doing until I'm done. Yes, I will die in Jerusalem. That is coming. I'm not going to die out here in Perea, and so I'm not falling for the trap. Herod wants to kill me. He can't kill me. Not until the work is finished. You notice, finally, in verses 34 and 35, a disastrous prediction, but you also see
• 28:51
  Christ's heart of compassion, even for those who have already rejected him. This is a beautiful picture here. Christ loves those who have already rejected him. You'll recall for a moment Pastor Sam's sermon from last Sunday, referencing J.C. Ryle when he said that there would be a time when the throne of grace, so marvelously available for millennia to any who would partake, would be taken down.
• 29:20
  The throne of grace would be taken down and the throne of judgment would be established in its place. And look what he says in verse 34. Jesus says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Look what he says. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. You feel the urgency of that.
• 29:46
  imminent judgment. Jesus knows that the throne of grace is being taken down and the throne of judgment put up in its place and he feels the urgency of that judgment and his heart breaks over those who would reject him. Our Savior has compassion on those he knew would kill him and we must remember church as we consider stories like James Coates and the church in Canada and all of that that's going on in our country now.
• 30:15
  We must remember, church, that those who oppose the gospel are not our enemies. Those who think differently than us or value what is different than us, those who argue with us, those who vote differently than us, those who would close our doors and fence our property and even maybe carry us off to jail, they are not our enemies. Rather, they are the very ones we must pray for.
• 30:46
  the heart of the savior in this regard how i would have longed for how i longed for you how i would have gathered your children together i would have loved to do that i would have pulled you all in and we must pray that god would allow us the grace and spiritual fortitude to love those who even stand against us and then look what he says in verse 34 but he says you were not willing you were not willing christ was willing but the people were not
• 31:16
  We find that Christ is much more willing to save than men are willing to be saved. Have you noticed that? He will save anybody. The truth is people don't want to be saved. And if you're listening this morning, and I don't know where everybody is, you know what people all over the country listening to these, I don't know where you are, where you are spiritually, where you're at on your spiritual journey. But if you're listening to this this morning and you're wearing a heavy burden of guilt and shame over your past sin.
• 31:47
  then may I urge you, come to Jesus. He is willing to save. Consider the promise of John chapter 6 and verse 37. Whoever comes to me, he says simply, I will never cast out. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And he concludes with this in verse 35. Behold, your house is forsaken, right? Because they had rejected their savior.
• 32:15
  and so their house is laid desolate their lives are a mess their lives are in ruins and i tell you you will not see me until i say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and he concludes with a reference to what we know as palm sunday palm sunday when christ is heralded as messiah upon his entrance into the very city that would only five days later hang him on a cross and on that day when he is hung on a cross he would declare his mission over
• 32:45
  by saying it is finished. Does God have a plan? Yes, he has a plan. And it may seem like things do not always go according to that plan. It may seem like he's just holding that rock up in the air, wondering what's going to happen to the squirrel. But our text this morning promises that his plan cannot be stopped until all is accomplished. And Lord, I pray that we would take heart this morning knowing
• 33:15
  that you know what you're doing, Lord, and that you cannot be stopped and even we cannot be stopped until your work in us and through us is finished. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.