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The Weekend Pulpit: God's Unsettling Work · Enjoying the Journey

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There is no substitute for the faithful preaching and teaching
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of the Word of God. Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey,
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Scott Pauley guides us through a brief, practical study
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of Scripture. But on The Weekend Pulpit, we are privileged to share
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full-length Bible messages from the early years of Scott's preaching
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ministry. These sermons were recorded live in local churches or gospel
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meetings. It is our prayer that as you listen, the timeless truths
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of God's Word will strengthen your faith, encourage your heart,
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and draw you closer to Christ today.
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I'd like for you to open the word
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of God with me, please, in the New Testament to the book of 1 Peter
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chapter number 5. 1 Peter 5 is a very familiar
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portion of scripture to most believers, but I want to draw your attention to
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a word that is often overlooked, frankly,
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a word sometimes we'd like to overlook, but every word
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of scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and the Lord has
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given it to us for a reason. In 1 Peter chapter 5 and
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verse number 7, we read these beautiful, beautiful words,
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casting all your care upon him,
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for he careth for you. Be sober,
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be vigilant, because your adversary the devil,
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as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
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may devour. Resist steadfast in the faith,
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knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
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in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of
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all grace, who hath called us unto his
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eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
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after, after that ye have
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suffered a while, make you perfect.
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Establish, strengthen, settle you.
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To him be glory and dominion forever and
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ever. Amen.
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My favorite word in verse 10 is the word settle.
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It's my favorite word. It's my favorite because that's the way
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I like my life to be. I like it all to be settled.
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You ever think about how many times we use the word?
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I hear people say, if I can just get my finances settled.
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If we can just get settled in this new house.
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If we could just get our family situation settled. If I could just
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get settled on what to do about this particular decision.
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If we could just get this disagreement settled.
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I'll tell you why that is, because none of us like upheaval.
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None of us like uprooting. None of us like uncertainty. None of us like
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unsettledness. We all like to be settled.
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I am glad to report to you that our God is a God that does
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settle things. Psalm 119 says, forever, O Lord,
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thy word is settled in heaven. I want you to know
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the book I just read to you from is settled for all eternity.
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There's not a single promise in it God is not going to fulfill.
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There's not a single principle in it that is not true. There's not a single
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word in it that is even a shade of falsehood. Every word of it
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is forever settled in heaven because we have a God that settles his word.
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God has settled the gospel. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae in
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Colossians chapter 1 and said, if you continue in the faith grounded and
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Settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
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I want you to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a settled fact.
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Jesus Christ did die on the cross for our sins. He was buried,
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and blessed be God, he did rise again from the dead.
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If you're here today and you do not know that your sins are forgiven,
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that Jesus Christ is your Savior, and you're on your way to heaven,
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I want you to know the thing you have to settle this day is
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where you'll spend eternity. As a 5-year-old boy, I settled
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that fact, and I want you to know that this day as I stand before
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you, I'm glad that the old account was settled long ago.
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My sins have been forgiven. My name is written down in the Lamb's Book of
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Life in heaven. This is a settled fact.
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But while the word settle is my favorite word, it's not the word I want
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to speak to you on. I'd like for you to take your pen and in
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verse number 10, I'd like for you to circle this word,
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after. I don't like that word.
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God says, I will establish, I will strengthen,
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I will settle you, but I'll do it after
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ye have suffered a while. You see, what we want to do, we want to
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skip the divine order. We want to jump one of God's steps. I like
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the settling, but I don't like the suffering. I like all
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the establishing and strengthening, but I don't want to wait till the
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after part. I don't have to get through all of that. I want to jump
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straight to the happy ending. And God says, that's not the way I work.
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As a matter of fact, I want to submit to you this morning that the
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same God that settles things also unsettles things. And oftentimes
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he unsettles our circumstances so that he can settle our souls.
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You see, we have this idea if we could just get life organized If
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we could just get life in its proper place, if we could just get all
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the wrinkles worked out, if we could just iron all the problems out, if we
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could just put so-and-so in their place, if we could just straighten out something,
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then life would settle down. I just want you to know you're going to get
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that settled and something else is going to crop up. There's never going to be
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a time in life where everything is perfectly settled until
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one day we enter the presence of Jesus Christ and are
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with him for all eternity. But I want you to know, while circumstances
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get unsettled, God is at work.
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Hudson Taylor, the famed missionary to China,
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sat at tea one afternoon with a young missionary who was about
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to embark and go out to the field to reach the heathen for Christ.
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And after talking to him for some time, he startled him.
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They were in the middle of a conversation, and Taylor reached over and,
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as hard as he could, smacked his hand on the table,
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and every teacup on the table rattled and shook,
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and tea spilled everywhere.
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Hudson Taylor said to this young man whose eyes were wide open by this time,
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he said, Young man, when you begin to do a work for God,
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the trials will come like blows.
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And when they come, the only thing
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that will come out is what's in the
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cup. And I want you to know that as the blows
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come, as the trials come,
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as the unsettling takes place, as the table
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is shaken and the teacups are overturned, the only thing
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that comes out of the life of a believer is the grace
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of Jesus Christ. Which God has given
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to us. May I show you first of all the principle? Here's the principle.
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Would you write it down? The principle is that God always brings
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the settling after the unsettling.
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It's always after. As a matter of fact, I want you to go back a
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couple pages to 1 Peter chapter 1 and look at verse number 1.
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Notice who he's writing to. Peter,
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an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers.
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Strangers? Literally, to the outcasts.
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Notice the next word, scattered.
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You know, I like God's gathering work, but I don't like God's scattering
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work so much. I like God's familiar
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work, but I don't like God's strange work so much,
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but I want you to know that in the strangeness and in the
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scattering and in the suffering and in the unsettling
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of life, our God does not
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change, and God is actively at work
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in the lives of his children. It's an interesting word,
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this word scattered, because Peter is writing not to believers
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who are comfortably seated in a beautiful air-conditioned auditorium.
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He's not writing to people whose lives are completely under control.
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He's not writing to people that are familiar territory. He's not
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writing to people that have everything worked out. No, he's writing to people that due
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to persecution for their faith have been scattered all over
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Asia, and there they are away from home.
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There they are unsettled,
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and Peter writes to them and says, I love this,
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Casting all your care upon him,
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for he careth for you. You see,
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this has always been the way that God works. There he is.
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There's Noah. He's got a job. He's got a family. He's got a life.
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He has some standing in the community, and suddenly God says something
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very unsettling to him. God says, I'm going to destroy the whole
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world. Everything you know and everything
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you're familiar with, I'm going to destroy it with a flood of water. I want
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you to build an ark to save you and to save your family. And Noah's
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whole world was turned upside down. God was doing his unsettling
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work in Noah's life, but after,
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after all of that, God settled Noah
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and gave him a new start and a fresh lease on life.
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As he came off that ark in peace with God and had
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the privilege with a clean earth to start over again. This is
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God's way. He unsettles before he settles.
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There's Abram and Sarah living in Ur of the Chaldees, and God says to
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them, get out of here. Pack a few things, get your bags,
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and get out of here, and don't ever come back. Well, Lord, where are we
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going? You're going to someplace I'll show you. Well, Lord, aren't you going to give
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us a map? Nope. Aren't you going to tell us where we're going? Nope.
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I'm going to tell you something, that's unsettling. In the midst
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of all that unsettling, God sends him out and settles him in the land of
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promise and makes of him the mightiest nation that has
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ever existed on the face of this earth. Out of him many nations
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would come because God does his unsettling work and then
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God does his settling work. Joseph had a good life.
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He's got a nice coat on. He's daddy's favorite
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and life is good until the day that the teacups were shaken.
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Suddenly he finds himself in a pit and now on a camel on his way
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to Egypt and now in Potiphar's house in unfamiliar territory and now in a prison
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for several years, lied about and falsely accused. What is God
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doing? God is unsettling him.
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God's unsettling him so that he can settle him.
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And God's going to make of Joseph a mighty leader in the land of Egypt
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and use him that through him nation of Israel might be preserved
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and provided for in the midst of famine. This is just God's way.
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God deported Daniel. God deported Daniel. God sent
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him down into Babylon. God sent him to the den of lions,
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unsettling him, changing his name and changing his food
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and changing his circumstances and changing his language, changing it
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all so that God could do something so mighty through him that
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the leader of the most pagan nation on the face of the earth would stop
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and say, the God of Daniel and the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
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is indeed the true and the living God.
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This is God's way. God unsettled Esther
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when he sent her in with fear and trepidation into the presence
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of the king without being summoned, not knowing whether she would live
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or die. If I perish, I perish. That's unsettling.
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But after God's unsettling work, God established,
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God strengthened, and God settled her for her
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good and her people's good and the glory of
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Almighty God. God took David and let
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him run for his life. He'd already been anointed king.
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The oil had already run down his head.
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But now it's not oil. Sweat. He's running
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from cave to cave. He's hiding for his
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life and wondering if all that God
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said would actually come to pass. He's unsettled.
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But before God could settle him, he had to unsettle him.
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And in the end, David sits on the throne of the United
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Kingdom of Israel, and God uses him in a mighty way.
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Because this is the way God does his work.
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An angel shows up in the middle of the night and tells a little teenage
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girl named Mary and in another location a young man by the name of Joseph
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that they're going to have a baby, though they've never been together. It's a miraculous
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virgin birth, and they're unsettled about it. How can this be?
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That's unsettling. But I want you to know after all that unsettling,
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God settled them as the most honored parents
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in the history of the world. The mother of my
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Lord, she is called. This is God's way.
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Saul, God's going to change his life and make him the Apostle Paul, the great
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Apostle of the Gentiles, but before he can settle him in that way,
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he has to unsettle him. And there a light shines from heaven and he falls
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to the ground and he says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
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God is unsettling his life. So that he can settle him
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in the end. Peter's so cocky and full of himself,
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and he says, Lord, I'll go even with you to death.
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And Jesus says the most unsettling thing to Peter he'd ever heard.
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No, Peter. No, you won't go with me there.
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Actually, what you're going to do is you're going to curse and swear and deny
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you even know me. Peter said, Lord, It's not going to happen.
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And Jesus says, yes, it is.
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And it happened. And there he is sitting
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somewhere alone weeping bitterly,
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unsettled. I love this, but just days
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later, days later, he's going to stand on the
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day of Pentecost and preach and 3,000 people are going to get saved.
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You know why? Because God does his unsettling
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work. Before God does his settling work.
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The church in Jerusalem, man, they were going great guns, and thousands are being saved
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and added to the church, and man, God is at work, and suddenly
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persecution comes and they were scattered everywhere.
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Has God stopped doing his work? Oh, no, he's actually intensified his work.
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Has God failed to be good? No, God's being very good, and not just to
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the church in Jerusalem but to the entire world. He unsettled the church in Jerusalem
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so he could settle churches all over the world.
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This is God's way. For the last
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several weeks, our pastor has gone through an unsettling.
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You know why? Because there's a God in heaven that has
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such a great future for this pastor and for this church
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that he had to unsettle so that he could settle us to be everything
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that God wants us to be. This is the way God does
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his work, friends. And I'm telling you, this principle
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is not just true for everybody else. No, no, this principle is true
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for us. I've been reading a book recently on
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a number of the presidents and their parents. It's a very interesting book,
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and I ran across this letter the other day, a letter that Abigail Adams
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wrote to her son John Quincy Adams when he was but 12 years old,
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12 years of age. She puts him on a boat for Britain,
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and she doesn't know if she'll ever see him again, and war has broken out,
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and things are happening at a fast pace, and she wonders what
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will become of her son. She writes him a letter, and here are the words
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she says to her son, John Quincy Adams, the habits of
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a vigorous mind are formed in contending
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with difficulties. Great necessities
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call out great virtues. We want
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the great virtues without the great necessities. We want the great mind and heart
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and blessing of God without the great difficulties, but I'm telling you,
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God doesn't work that way. He never has and he never will.
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There's John,
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John, the beloved Apostle John who leaned on Jesus' breast at supper,
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John who followed closely to the Lord, not afar off, John who was standing
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at the cross When Jesus died, John, whose heart was bursting with passion for
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his Savior, exiled,
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exiled to the Isle of Patmos. And you've got to think that the first day
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John showed up on the Isle of Patmos all alone and sitting on the desert
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sands, he's wondering, is God through with him?
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I'm going to tell you something.
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God was about to do something on the Isle of Patmos nobody had ever seen
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before. Can you imagine him being in the Spirit on the Lord's Day? By the
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way, I hope we're in the Spirit here on the Lord's Day. Can you imagine
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when God rolled back the canopy of heaven and let John enter in and see
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all the things that God has prepared for us? See, God was doing
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his unsettling work before God did his settling work,
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and I submit to you that God's greatest work is always done after an
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unsettling. There's an interesting word here in verse number
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9. Notice it, please. The Bible says, knowing that the same, what's that word?
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Afflictions. I don't like that word. No, no, give me comfort and give
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me ease, but please don't give me afflictions. But wait a minute, God uses
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afflictions as his instrument. Go back with me to Psalm 119
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for just a moment. Let me show you what the psalmist had to say about
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afflictions. Psalm 119 and verse 67,
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he writes these words, before I was
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afflicted, I went astray.
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But now, I've written in the margin of my Bible, after.
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But now. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, verse 67,
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but now have I kept thy word. After I was
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afflicted, I kept God's word. Look at verse 71, it is good for me that
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I've been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.
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Lord, this is too big for me. Lord, this is too great for me.
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Lord, this burden, I can't bear it. Wait a minute. Casting all your
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care upon him. For he careth for you. God sent the affliction and God's
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going to give you the grace. Look at verse number 75, I know, O Lord,
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that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness
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hast afflicted me. You want
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to see a sweet Christian? You find
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them. You find somebody with the joy of Jesus on their countenance and you find
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somebody that's strong in the Lord. You find somebody God's using. And I promise you,
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without exception, it's somebody that's gone through
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some unsettling work.
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Years ago when I started working under Pastor, I remember him saying
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to me that if God will ever use you, the Lord will put you through
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things and allow you to have things to deal with that you wouldn't choose,
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but God will choose them for you. And I thought, boy, I hope that's not
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true of me. You know what I've learned? It's true of everybody. And what
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God chooses for him is not what God chooses for me, and what God chooses
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for me is not what God chooses for you. But God will choose something
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to bring the grace out of that cup. God will choose something
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to bring the blessing and his purpose to be fulfilled.
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God will choose some unsettling in your life.
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And while I'm preaching right now, some of you are thinking exactly what it is.
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You know what it is, and God's shaking it up. And you've blamed the
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devil, and you've blamed everybody else, and you've blamed your own ignorance. But wait a
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minute, see God in that unsettling. There's a God in heaven
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that has you in the palm of his hand, and he is at work at
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this moment. Please don't forget what I'm about to say. For a Christian,
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unsettling is not uncertainty.
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My circumstances may be unsettled, but my God is very certain.
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Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you
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will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. I know whom I have believed
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and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
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that day. Look, friends, we do have a certain future because we
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have a certain God.
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Years ago, Herbert Lockyer preached a famous sermon. He entitled
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it Dark Threads the Weaver Needs.
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I've been thinking about that this week. I don't like the dark threads in the
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tapestry of my life, but if it's going to be beautiful, if it's going to
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be what God wants it to be, then occasionally the Lord reaches over on the
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shelf and grabs a dark and he starts to weave it in. I say,
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Lord, that hurts. Lord, I don't like that.
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Lord, a different color. Lord, a different thread. Lord, a different
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way. And God says, no, this is my way.
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I was reading a book yesterday by Richard
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Sibbes, the old Puritan, On the Bruised Reed. It's a classic book
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about the work of our Christ.
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Sibbes said something and it hit me like a ton of bricks. He said,
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God always wounds before he heals. And then he made
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this statement. He said, the greatest assurances always come after the greatest doubts.
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Oh, I don't like doubt,
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but I sure like the assurance on the other side. And I don't like
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fear, but I love the presence God brings to a trembling heart.
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And I don't like trouble, but I like God's deliverances.
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And if you're going to have the blessing on the end, then you must
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go through this principle. The Lord always unsettles before
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he settles. May I show you a second thing? You're in the Old Testament.
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Would you go with me to Jeremiah for just a moment? Jeremiah chapter number 48.
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We're headed back to our text in just a moment, but I want to show
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you secondly a picture of this. You know, the Lord always used object lessons
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to reveal his truth, and he does so in Jeremiah chapter 48.
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It's not Moab that I'm interested in. It's Israel, God's children, but I want
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you to see something. Look at Jeremiah 48, verse 11. He says of Moab,
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Moab hath been at ease from his youth.
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Could I stop right there and say that ease has become the national god of
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America? We just want it easy, everything easy.
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Our forefathers dealt with such difficulty and such danger
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and such turmoil and trial, and we know nothing of that today,
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and we complain over inconveniences, and we fuss
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over the lack of ease. I want you to know something. Just because you got
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it easy does not mean things are what they ought to be.
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Notice what else he says, and he hath settled
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on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
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neither hath he gone into captivity. Therefore, his taste
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remained in him and his scent is not changed.
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There's a word picture here.
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In Eastern culture, when they wanted to make wine
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and they wanted it to be good, sweet fruit of the vine,
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they would take the pulp, they would take the thick part,
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they would take the dregs, and they would put them in a vessel, and they
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would allow the juice to sit on top of those dregs as long as possible
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because the longer it sat on the lees, the longer it was settled
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on the lees, the sweeter it got, the better it tasted, the better it
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smelled. And God said, all right,
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I've let you have it your way. I've let you have a life of
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ease. For all these years, you've never gone into captivity, not once. That's interesting,
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isn't it? Israel was going in and out of captivity all the time. Moab never
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went into captivity, not one time. They had it easy.
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They were settled. Life was good.
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So you'd think on the other side, surely they'd come out sweet, right? No,
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no. No, they came out after being settled on the lees. They came
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out after sitting in quiet. They came out after rest. They came out after no
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trouble, a bitter stench in the nostrils of a holy God.
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He says to them, look, please, you have not been emptied from
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vessel to vessel.
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I never poured you out once. I just let you sit still and be quiet
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and enjoy life. And look how you've turned out.
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You say, what does that mean? I want you to think in opposition to that
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what God did with Israel. Israel was
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never allowed to get settled. God said
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to Abram, Abram, I want you to leave Ur of the Chaldees and I want
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you to go to a land that you don't even know, and God poured him
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out. Boy, that was tough.
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They finally got in the land of Canaan. We're here, Lord. We're here. We made
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it. We arrived. And God says, great, I'm going to send you down to Egypt.
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Lord, we don't want to stay in Egypt. We're supposed to be back up in
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Canaan. Yes, but you're going to have to be in Egypt for a little while.
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And God was pouring them from vessel to vessel.
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And then one day God said, all right, I'm going to take you out of
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Egypt. And God pours them out and he pours them into the wilderness, and for
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40 years they walk around that wilderness And they learn things about God and they
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learn things about themselves and they're being poured from vessel to vessel.
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And finally God pours them back into the homeland, back into the land of Canaan
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and they say, oh, we're here, and they got settled and
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they sinned against the Lord and God said, well, I've got to shake it up
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again. And God empties them into Babylon.
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He pours them out. By the way, it's interesting.
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Israel was dealing with idolatry, so you know what God did? God gave them what
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they wanted, and he sent them into captivity to the most idolatrous nation on
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the face of the earth. You'd think idolaters mixed with
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idolaters would make more idolaters, but it didn't. God sent his children into
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Babylonian captivity, and they come out the most monotheistic people that
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have ever lived on this planet. God cured them.
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God knew exactly what he was doing. They sit in Babylon
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for a number of years and they think, maybe God's through with us. They're unsettled
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and the Lord says, no, I'm going to pour you back into the homeland and
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back into the land of Israel. They go. Watch me, please.
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What is God doing pouring them from vessel to vessel?
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Please listen to me. God makes
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his people differently than the world makes theirs.
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The world says, get settled. Get a nice house. Have a good family. Get a
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good job. Make a lot of money. Put a lot of money away for retirement.
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Just get things settled. But I want you to know that's not the answer
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to living the life of faith. No, God says,
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I'm going to let some turmoil and trouble come into your life. I'm going to
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pour you from vessel to vessel. Watch please, because every time God poured them from
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vessel to vessel, you know what he was doing? He was removing some more of
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the dregs. He was removing some more of the lees. He, he was removing
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some more of that pulp that didn't need to be in their life so that
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in the end God would bring forth a nation, the nation of Israel, that would
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bring him the greatest glory in this world. This is the picture
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of God unsettling so
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that he can settle. By the way,
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that's what Jesus did.
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He comes to a manger because they're
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away from home, unsettled.
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There wasn't a place in the inn,
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Unsettled. They take the little baby and they run into Egypt.
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Unsettled. They bring him back.
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He grows up. His own brothers and sisters rejected
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him. Unsettled. He never
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had his own house. He never had a place to
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lay his head, never.
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When everybody else went to their houses at night, he went to the Garden of
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Gethsemane alone,
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unsettled. They rejected
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him. They despised him. They hated him. They said, Crucify him!
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Unsettled. But I want you to know this
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morning that that same Christ
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who for 33 and a half years was so unsettled it seemed
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on this earth, is settled today.
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He is seated at the right hand of the heavenly Father ruling and reigning over
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this earth. He's making intercession for us. He's preparing a place for
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us. He's coming again for us. Someday every knee will bow, every tongue
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confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
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the Father. God did his unsettling work so
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that he could do his settling work. There is a principle
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and there is a picture of it. There's a peril
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in it. I want you to go back with me to our text in 1
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Peter chapter 5 because unsettled times
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bring inherent dangers. Here's the problem with
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all of us. We get a little unsettled. Things start changing.
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Circumstances are turned upside down. The best-laid plans
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don't come to pass. Hopes are dashed and dreams are gone, and suddenly we
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start thinking God has given up. And so we think,
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well, we'll just give up.
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Notice in the context of dealing with this suffering, he says to
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them in verse 7, casting all your care upon him,
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for he careth for you. I want
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you to remember this. As surely as in verse 7 there's somebody that loves you,
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in verse 8 there's somebody that hates you. As surely
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as God is working through unsettledness, the devil is
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also at work. Anytime God is at work, the devil is at work.
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Anything that God has ordained, the devil is opposing.
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The Lord is trying to use it to sift things out
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of our life that shouldn't be there. The devil's trying to lie to us just
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like he did Eve and turn it around on God and make us get out
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of the will of God during unsettledness. You know when people get
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out of church? When things are unsettled.
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You know when people quit reading their Bible and praying? When things are unsettled.
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You know when people quit on a marriage? When things are unsettled.
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It ought to be the exact opposite. In unsettled times, we ought to run to
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the Lord, but our nature, our flesh says, things are all messed up.
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Quit on this. Let me try something else, and we quit too
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early. By the way, as surely as God
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loves you, the devil does hate you. You know why he hates you? He doesn't
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hate you because you're important. He hates you because you're important to God.
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He's not trying to destroy you because you're somebody. He's trying to destroy you
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because he knows if he can destroy your life and your family and your
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spirit, he can hurt the heart of the God who loved you so much he
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gave his Son for you. So what are you going to
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do in unsettled times? Number 1,
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cast all your care on him. Just roll it on Jesus.
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Would you write this statement in the margin of your Bible somewhere?
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You may be unsettled, but he
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Sometimes I look at things in my life and I think, what a mess.
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How did I get to this? How did this happen?
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Why on earth did I end up with this mess?
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But from God's vantage point in eternity,
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He looks at the past, the present, the future, and God says, it's okay,
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son. I'm working through this.
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And sometimes I just have to say, Lord, I can't
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deal with this, and the Lord says, it's all right. Just roll that
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on me. A Sunday school teacher asked her class,
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she was teaching on the portion of Scripture where Jesus said, come unto me all
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ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke
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upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of
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heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. And she asked her little Sunday
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school class of boys and girls, she said, Boys and girls, does anybody know what
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that yoke is? And one little girl raised her hand and said, I know what
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it is. She said, That yoke is God's arm around us.
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I like that. And the Father says, I know you can't
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deal with this. You just roll that on me. In unsettled times and
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perilous times, Cast it on Christ. Number 2,
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guard against the devil. Verse 8, be sober,
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be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
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walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Stop.
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God is never in the devouring business. He may have an unsettling work,
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but the devil wants to take unsettledness and make it devouring.
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You know what the word devour means? It means to make disappear. Listen to me,
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friends. When God gets through with his unsettling work, It hadn't
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disappeared. No, it's beautiful. When he finally gets done
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with it, it's perfect. The devil wants to take it and turn it
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around and make you just disappear. And here's the lie he tells.
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Look in verse 9, whom resist steadfast in the faith,
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knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
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the world. You know what the devil does? The devil says, you're the only person
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going through this.
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You're the only person that's ever been this low.
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Nobody else at the Temple Baptist Church is dealing with this.
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You've served God faithfully all these years and look what it got you.
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There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man,
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but God is faithful who will not suffer
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you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation also
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make a way to escape that you may be able to bear
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it. I was reading this verse this morning after
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having studied for this message this morning. I was reading this verse and a word
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jumped off the page at me. In verse 9, he says, the same afflictions are
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accomplished. I always read that like this,
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other people are going through it. That's not what it means. The word accomplished here
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literally means finished. It's over.
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It's past. Peter writes to him and says, what you're going
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through right now, There are other people that have not only gone through
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the same thing, God gave them grace. They came out the other side
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in victory, and you will too. It's accomplished.
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What you're dealing with right now is not forever,
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and that's why he says in verse number 10, here's a third thing. Not only
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cast it on the Lord and guard against the devil, but depend on the God
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of all grace. Look at verse 10, but the God of all grace. Don't you
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love all?
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How many of you have some unsettling thing right now? Anything, don't tell me what
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it is, but there's some unsettling thing in your life. Would you raise your hand
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big and high? Well, God has all grace for that. But the God
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of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
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Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered a while, make you perfect,
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establish, strengthen, settle you. Notice this little phrase,
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suffered a while. I got some good
35:36
news for you this morning, church. It won't last forever. When you're
35:40
in the middle of it, you think it's going to. It's never going
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to end. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. You're not going to
35:46
make it. You're not going to live. Yes, you are. God, look please,
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God sets the time. There's a beginning
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time and there's an ending time, and God says, after you've suffered a while.
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Listen to me, please. If you're still in the while,
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then you still have grace. Somebody says,
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will the grace ever run out? No, God's grace is all-sufficient. It'll never run
36:08
out. It's superabounding grace, but I'm going to tell you this. I can guarantee you
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there's enough for the while you're in, and you can depend on it.
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Could I remind you of this? It is God's unsettling
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work. We blame the devil for everything. I can't
36:25
believe how the devil's treating me. I can't believe— wait a minute. It's not the
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devil. He's the adversary trying to devour you, but God's the
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God using the suffering to settle you in the end.
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That brings me to one final thought. Not only do you see here the principle
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and the picture and the peril, please don't miss verse 11.
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Here's the purpose, to him be
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glory and dominion forever and ever.
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Amen. I just got to tell you that my purpose and God's purpose sometimes get
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crossed. You know what I want? I want a good life.
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I want my children to be happy. I want to have plenty of money to
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spend. I just want it all settled. That's what I want.
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In my flesh, that's all I want. I just want it settled.
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And so I work and connive and scheme, plan my own life.
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Order my own plans and stand back, feel pretty proud of myself and
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say, well, I got that figured out. But if that happened and
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God let that go, the only person that
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would get any glory from that would be me. So God
37:36
comes in to perfectly laid plans, shakes them all up.
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And I say, Lord, please don't do this. Please don't mess up what
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I've done. Please don't change what I have laid out.
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And God unsettles it, and God pours me from vessel
37:54
to vessel, and every time he pours, he purges, and he's getting more of the
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dregs out. And in the end, God brings something forth sweeter and
38:02
stronger, more beautiful and more blessed than I ever could. And people come along,
38:06
and they look at the finished product, and they say,
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Scott Pauley couldn't have done that. God must have done that.
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And God gets the glory. I want
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to ask you a question this morning. Are you more concerned about your ease or
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his glory?
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What's your purpose?
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Andrew Murray was
38:37
dealing with some very difficult problems, interestingly enough, with his back.
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He was laid up for weeks and weeks and weeks in England for a period
38:45
of time. He was in an upstairs apartment trying to recuperate,
38:49
and the little maid that helped him came into his room
38:52
one morning and she said, Mr. Murray, I'm sorry to interrupt you,
38:56
but she said, there's a lady that's come to the house and she said she's
38:59
frantic and anxious and troubled and she wants to know about a problem
39:04
she has. Do you have any advice for her?
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Andrew Murray, lying in his bed with a pen
39:12
and a piece of paper in front of him, had been writing some things out
39:15
just about what God was teaching him. He glanced
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down at the piece of paper and he took it and he folded it up
39:22
and he handed it to the maid and he said, you hand this to her
39:25
and tell her this is something God just taught me.
39:28
Maybe it'll help her. She carried the paper downstairs
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and handed it to the young woman who was so fearful frantic,
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and the young girl opened the piece of paper and read these words,
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I am here by God's appointment,
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in His keeping, under His training,
39:52
for His time.
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And I don't know where you are today, and I don't know how topsy-turvy life
39:58
has become and how unsettled you are, But I want you to know something.
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You're here by God's appointment,
40:07
under his care,
40:10
for his training, and in his time.
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And after ye have suffered a while,
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he will make you perfect, establish,
40:24
strengthen,
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Settle you.
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If this Bible message has been used of God in your life or
40:45
we can pray for you in some definite way, please contact
40:49
us at enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message
40:53
with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible
40:57
messages, please visit Dr. Scott Pauley's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is
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the Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful
41:04
to attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday.
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Thank you for listening to The Weekend Pulpit, and don't miss Enjoying
41:12
the Journey daily devotional podcast each Monday through Friday.