Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Providence Made Practical │ Msg 2144 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Providence Made Practical │ Msg 2144 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: For those of us who believe in the goodness and
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  Speaker 1: the greatness of God, his providence over all things in
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  Speaker 1: our lives offers comfort and encouragement, even when we're at
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  Speaker 1: our wits end and we have no idea even what
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  Speaker 1: to pray for. Again, God's providence offers comfort to our
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  Speaker 1: confused hearts. Now the question is how our lives are
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  Speaker 1: in the hands of a sovereign God. Never forget that
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  Speaker 1: he attends to every detail. Furthermore, he's never caught off
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  Speaker 1: guard by what you and I would call tragedies. Furthermore,
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  Speaker 1: he causes all things to work together for good and
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  Speaker 1: for his glory. God's providence has practical implications for our
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  Speaker 1: everyday life lives, as we learn to rest in His
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  Speaker 1: sovereignty rather than resist it. And haven't we all done that?
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  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul penned some of the most comforting truths
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  Speaker 1: in all of his writings in the final verses of
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  Speaker 1: Romans Chapter eight. In fact, they're the favorite verses of
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  Speaker 1: many Christians. Let me read you his words from verses
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  Speaker 1: twenty six through thirty of Romans eight. In the same way,
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  Speaker 1: the spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not
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  Speaker 1: know how to pray as we should, But the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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  Speaker 1: And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind
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  Speaker 1: of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints
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  Speaker 1: according to the will of God. And we know that
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  Speaker 1: God causes all things to work together for good, to
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  Speaker 1: those who love God, to those who are called according
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  Speaker 1: to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew, He also
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  Speaker 1: predestined to become conformed to the image of his son,
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  Speaker 1: so that he would be the first born among many brethren.
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  Speaker 1: And these whom he predestined he also called, and these
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  Speaker 1: whom he called he also justified, And these whom he justified,
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  Speaker 1: he also glorified.
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  Speaker 2: If you visit with us today without the Lord Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 2: let me urge you to remember that there is nothing
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  Speaker 2: you can give God that will in some way bring
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  Speaker 2: favor to you in his eyes. God really is giving
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  Speaker 2: you a gift, and that gift is his son, Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: And I urge you today rather than giving that you
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  Speaker 2: receive His gift, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 2: our Lord. If you know the Lord, then your responsibility
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  Speaker 2: includes the opportunity to give. It is not only an
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  Speaker 2: act of privilege, but it also is an obligation of
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  Speaker 2: God's people. And we give today to sustain the work
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  Speaker 2: of ministry for the greater glory of our God. May
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  Speaker 2: we pray thank you, Father, for the pleasure of serving you,
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  Speaker 2: for the joy of knowing you still call men and
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  Speaker 2: women into ministry. And we pray that your hand will
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  Speaker 2: rest upon these we have set apart for your greater glory.
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  Speaker 2: And now for these gifts we commit to you in
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  Speaker 2: the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. And everyone said, Amen,
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  Speaker 2: I have no idea what you are facing today. Chances
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  Speaker 2: are good. Down in the depths of your soul, where
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  Speaker 2: you entertain your innermost thoughts, the one sitting next to
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  Speaker 2: you does not know of that struggle. Quite likely those
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  Speaker 2: who are members of your own family are not aware
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  Speaker 2: of those wrestlings in the deep recesses of your life.
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  Speaker 2: You would expect me to say this, and I say
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  Speaker 2: it in spite of that. Honestly, God is the only
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  Speaker 2: one who knows you, and the living God who made you,
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  Speaker 2: the one who brought you to where you are at
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  Speaker 2: this moment. In reality, only the two of you know.
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  Speaker 2: It's true for me as well. You have no idea
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  Speaker 2: what I am facing personally in the deep recesses of
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  Speaker 2: my life. There are things known only between God and me,
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  Speaker 2: And because that's true, often the wrestlings accompanying those things
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  Speaker 2: cannot be put into words. In many ways, we are
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  Speaker 2: not free to share them, knowing that they cannot be
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  Speaker 2: entered into fully by anyone else, or perhaps with a
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  Speaker 2: little compassion here or understanding there, but not deeply, not fully.
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  Speaker 2: The great truth in the Scriptures is that God knows everything.
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  Speaker 2: Theologians call this divine omniscience omniscience. God is not discovering.
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  Speaker 2: God is not learning. God is not watching and then
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  Speaker 2: adapting his plan to fit what might help make us comfortable.
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  Speaker 2: God's plan is set, his knowledge is thorough. Because both
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  Speaker 2: are true, we can rest only when we rest in
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  Speaker 2: that plan. Aw Towzer, in a fine work titled The
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  Speaker 2: Knowledge of the Holy writes this of divine omniscience, God
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  Speaker 2: perfectly knows himself, and being the source and author of
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  Speaker 2: all things, it follows that he knows all that can
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  Speaker 2: be known, And this he knows instantly and with a
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  Speaker 2: fullness of perfection, that includes every possible item of knowledge
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  Speaker 2: concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in
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  Speaker 2: the universe at any time in the past, or that
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  Speaker 2: may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn, he continues,
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  Speaker 2: Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing
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  Speaker 2: better than any other thing, but all things equally well.
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  Speaker 2: He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed.
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  Speaker 2: He never wonders about anything, nor does he seek information
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  Speaker 2: or ask questions. He continues, How unutterably sweet is the
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  Speaker 2: knowledge that our heavenly Father knows us completely. No tale
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  Speaker 2: bearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an
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  Speaker 2: accusation stick, No forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of
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  Speaker 2: some hidden closet to abash us or expose our past.
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  Speaker 2: No unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light
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  Speaker 2: to turn God away from us. Since he knows us
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  Speaker 2: utterly before we knew him, and called us to himself
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  Speaker 2: in the full knowledge of everything that was against us,
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  Speaker 2: How good is that he knows it all? And what
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  Speaker 2: makes it even better is the one who knows us
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  Speaker 2: that well, loves us with a love that cannot be
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  Speaker 2: put into human words. Surrounded and enveloped, surrounded by and
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  Speaker 2: enveloped in a compassion that cannot be described. Keep that
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  Speaker 2: in mind as you track with me through the rest
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  Speaker 2: of this message, because you will be tempted to doubt it.
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  Speaker 2: Since God knows all of these things, and since God
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  Speaker 2: is good to the core and never can be anything
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  Speaker 2: but good, and since God is full of mercy and compassion,
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  Speaker 2: his plan that is underway is wrapped in all of
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  Speaker 2: those eternal attributes. All of those Now, then suddenly we
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  Speaker 2: move from the vertical to the horizontal, And I ask
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  Speaker 2: you right now to think. Think about one thing in
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  Speaker 2: your life that is beyond you. One struggle, one addiction
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  Speaker 2: you can't break, one test you dread, one fact that
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  Speaker 2: call you to struggle and wrestle keeps you awake at night.
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  Speaker 2: One thing that haunts you like a ghost. Put that
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  Speaker 2: one thing from your mind through a pen or pencil
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  Speaker 2: alongside Verse twenty eight of Romans, Chapter eight. Will you
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  Speaker 2: do that? Pull out a pen now before you write
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  Speaker 2: it out. We're a nosy bunch here, So before you
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  Speaker 2: write it out, just put initials there. Okay, you n
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  Speaker 2: emp might be unemployment, but use something else because somebody
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  Speaker 2: will notice you wrote that. You might put the initials
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  Speaker 2: of a person that is so difficult. No matter how
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  Speaker 2: hard you try, you can't seem to penetrate that relationship
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  Speaker 2: and resolve that conflict. Put the initials of that person there.
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  Speaker 2: You choose the one thing in your mind right now
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  Speaker 2: that you can't find escape from or an answer to.
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  Speaker 2: You write it down now, then, having done so, below
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  Speaker 2: it right today's date. I want you someday in the
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  Speaker 2: future to come back to this alongside Romans eight twenty eight,
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  Speaker 2: and from the perspective of the passing of time, just
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  Speaker 2: that simple perspective, you will have gained a number of
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  Speaker 2: things right now that you lack, but for now it
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  Speaker 2: is beyond you. It is in the category of what
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  Speaker 2: you might call an impossibility. I understand that I am
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  Speaker 2: in this city where I live the fixer. I fix people.
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  Speaker 2: I work for years to fix my wife and realized
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  Speaker 2: that's not too successful. So I went to work on
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  Speaker 2: fixing my children, and then as they married, I thought,
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  Speaker 2: now it's my task to fix their spouses. That certainly
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  Speaker 2: didn't work. And then I began on grandkids, and that
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  Speaker 2: isn't working either. Now I am fixing congregational members, I
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  Speaker 2: am fixing board members, I am fixing staff members. I
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  Speaker 2: am with Tony and cheek, having a little fun with you.
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  Speaker 2: I can fix nobody. I can't even fix me. I
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  Speaker 2: heard that, honey, She said, amen under her breath. I
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  Speaker 2: cannot fix me now if I'm a change for a
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  Speaker 2: moment from the ridiculous to the sublime. God fixes everything everyone.
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  Speaker 2: He has never met his match. He has never come
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  Speaker 2: to an obstacle he can't scale. He's never come to
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  Speaker 2: a situation he can't penetrate, never come to a problem
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  Speaker 2: he can't solve, never come to a situation that absolutely
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  Speaker 2: defies resolution. That is why God can write what he
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  Speaker 2: does in the twenty eighth verse of Romans eight. Because
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  Speaker 2: he knows all, able to fix all in his time
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  Speaker 2: and according to his plan. We can count on the
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  Speaker 2: truth of this verse, even though don't miss this, even
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  Speaker 2: though we can never fully understand it. Now, we don't
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  Speaker 2: like that because we like understand. We not only like fixing,
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  Speaker 2: we like understanding. And when we don't understand, then we
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  Speaker 2: begin to accuse God of not being fair. And the
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  Speaker 2: world is full of people like that. They're called fools
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  Speaker 2: in the scriptures. But that's another subject. Romans Chapter eight,
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  Speaker 2: verse twenty five will tell you part of the reason
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  Speaker 2: we wrestle like we do with the plan of God.
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  Speaker 2: We do not see. I have those words underscored in
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  Speaker 2: my Bible, Romans eight twenty five. We hope for what
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  Speaker 2: we do not see. Looking to the future, beyond this second,
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  Speaker 2: this moment of the present, we do not see a
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  Speaker 2: thing in the future we think we do. We plan
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  Speaker 2: for the future, we budget for the future, we make
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  Speaker 2: arrangements for the future. We do not know. We cannot
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  Speaker 2: see there. And because we cannot see and he can
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  Speaker 2: see it all, we can trust him. But there's another
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  Speaker 2: Because we do not see, we tend to turn to him,
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  Speaker 2: waiting and praying. However, there are times we can't even pray.
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  Speaker 2: Next verse in the same way, the spirit helps our weakness,
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  Speaker 2: for we do not know how to pray as we should.
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  Speaker 2: That's the next thing to underline. Not only do we
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  Speaker 2: not see, we do not know. Let it say what
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  Speaker 2: it says, don't try to change it, don't soften it.
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  Speaker 2: You and I do not see. So we wait and
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  Speaker 2: we pray, and we keep waiting and we keep praying,
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  Speaker 2: and it doesn't change like we want it to change.
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  Speaker 2: And on top of that, it gets to the place
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  Speaker 2: where our weakness is so great. We can't even put
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  Speaker 2: our prayers into words because we do not know what
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  Speaker 2: is best. Many of the things that many of you
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  Speaker 2: wrote do not have some prayer attached to it. You
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  Speaker 2: don't know what to do about it. You don't know
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  Speaker 2: the answer to it. You don't know anyone else who
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  Speaker 2: knows the answer to it. That's why it's so profound.
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  Speaker 2: And so what do we do? We groan? That's what
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  Speaker 2: the verse states. The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings
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  Speaker 2: too deep for words. I've often been tempted to ask
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  Speaker 2: congregations all together, just grown together, just sigh together. On
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  Speaker 2: times in our deepest, most arduous, the difficult times, we
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  Speaker 2: just sigh. We just grown. And then, out of the
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  Speaker 2: midst of this impossible setting where we do not see
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  Speaker 2: and we do not know, we're given an unconditional promise.
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  Speaker 2: What does that mean? It means this is what God
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  Speaker 2: will do and is doing, apart from anything you do
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  Speaker 2: or don't do. It is without condition. There's no if.
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  Speaker 2: If you do this, then God will do that. This
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  Speaker 2: is an unconditional promise to his children. Now, before we
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  Speaker 2: can appreciate it, let's understand we tend to focus on
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  Speaker 2: the immediate, because God focuses on the ultimate. We're in
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  Speaker 2: the here and now. God is in the forever. See
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  Speaker 2: we see today's X ray from the physician. God sees tomorrow,
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  Speaker 2: the next day, and the year to come, and the
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  Speaker 2: years to come. We are panic sitting in the chair
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  Speaker 2: in the office, in the medical office of our physician.
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  Speaker 2: God is not panic. God is not biting his nails.
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  Speaker 2: God is not nervous. God is not unsure. All we
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  Speaker 2: know at this moment is this is what it says.
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  Speaker 2: And the doctor has used the sea word, and we
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  Speaker 2: break out in a sweat because we can't see beyond
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  Speaker 2: the cancer, the moment the word is used, or whatever
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  Speaker 2: may be the situation that is marked in the margin
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  Speaker 2: of your Bible, we see the immediate. God focuses on
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  Speaker 2: the ultimate. We also forget that our knowledge is limited.
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  Speaker 2: In God's is unlimited. He can do anything with anyone
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  Speaker 2: at any time. That's the great thing about our God.
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  Speaker 2: He is truly networked. He is connected at any moment
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  Speaker 2: he wants to use any person or any event he pleases.
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  Speaker 2: It gets used. Now the Verse, this great verse that's
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  Speaker 2: for years been for some point of rest and relief
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  Speaker 2: and for others a point of struggle and argument. And
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  Speaker 2: we know that God causes all things to work together
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  Speaker 2: for good to those who love God, to those who
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  Speaker 2: were called according to His purpose. Start with the first
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  Speaker 2: two words we know. Beside those words, put these words.
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  Speaker 2: This promise is to be claimed, not ignored. God wrote
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  Speaker 2: this promise in his word, to be claimed, not simply
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  Speaker 2: read so. At the risk of being a little pedantic,
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  Speaker 2: the verse does.
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  Speaker 3: Not say we hope, we guess, we suppose, we feel,
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  Speaker 3: we pray, we wish, we're told.
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  Speaker 2: It says we know. The term used for no is
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  Speaker 2: the Greek word for absolute, unshakable confidence. Our confidence is
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  Speaker 2: not in our situation. Our confidence is not in our
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  Speaker 2: working things out. Our confidence is not in someone else
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  Speaker 2: working things out. It is in God himself. We know
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  Speaker 2: that He is at work. We know, and in knowing this,
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  Speaker 2: it becomes the connecting link between God's working and the
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  Speaker 2: solution to our situation. It's the link, and I hang
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  Speaker 2: on to it by knowledge. I know it, I repeat
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  Speaker 2: it to myself, I read it, I say it to myself.
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  Speaker 2: If I refuse to know this doctrine regarding God, then
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  Speaker 2: I will never rest through the situation in which I
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  Speaker 2: find myself, I will never find rest in it. Now.
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  Speaker 2: The second God causes, God causes those next two words.
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  Speaker 2: So let's put it this way. The project is God's,
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  Speaker 2: not ours. The project is God's not ours. We think
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  Speaker 2: the situation is our situation. It's God's situation, since he
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  Speaker 2: knows all, and since he loves us with an infinite
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  Speaker 2: amount of love, and since he is good to the
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  Speaker 2: core and fill with compassion. The situation in which I
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  Speaker 2: find myself is the place for God to do his
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  Speaker 2: best work. It's the platform of his sovereign working. He's
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  Speaker 2: at work on my clay, He's at work on my life.
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  Speaker 2: Hold your place and look at Jeremiah chapter eighteen. The
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  Speaker 2: prophet is given an assignment, and it reads strangely to us,
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  Speaker 2: But in those days it would have been a very
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  Speaker 2: common assignment. God says to his prophet, arise and go
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  Speaker 2: down to the potter's house, and there I shall announce
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  Speaker 2: my words to you. Now for a moment, I would
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  Speaker 2: venture to say that most people hearing me now have
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  Speaker 2: never once been in a potter's house. You have probably
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  Speaker 2: never seen a potter at work. You've read of it,
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  Speaker 2: you've seen pictures of it, you've heard about it. But
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  Speaker 2: in those days it was as common as the local
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  Speaker 2: service station, because every village had potters houses, because everyone
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  Speaker 2: had something to carry. In those days. There wasn't plastic
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  Speaker 2: bags located at the local Albertson's or Kroger's store. There
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  Speaker 2: weren't boxes that you could buy down at the at
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  Speaker 2: the UH joint down the road. It's a good word
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  Speaker 2: to fall back on when you can't think of ups.
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  Speaker 2: There weren't cardboard boxes. There were there were, there were jars,
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  Speaker 2: there were There were potters who made jars and and
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  Speaker 2: containers and pots. That was the most common thing, and
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  Speaker 2: or even carried water on their heads. If you carried something,
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  Speaker 2: you needed a pot. So he went down to the
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  Speaker 2: familiar place, and he looked again at what he must
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  Speaker 2: have seen since he was a little boy playing in
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  Speaker 2: the in the streets of the of the town where
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  Speaker 2: he was raised. Go to the potter's house. And I
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  Speaker 2: went down to the potter's house, and there he was
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  Speaker 2: making something on the wheel. Watch closely. But the vessel
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  Speaker 2: that he was making of clay was spoilt in the
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  Speaker 2: hand of the potter, so he remade it into another
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  Speaker 2: vessel as it pleased the potter to make. Then the
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  Speaker 2: word of the Lord came to me, saying, can I not,
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  Speaker 2: O House of Israel? Deal with you as this potter does,
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  Speaker 2: declares the Lord behold like the clay in the potter's hand.
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  Speaker 2: So are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
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  Speaker 2: That's as far as we'll read. But before you turn back,
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  Speaker 2: would you allow me substitute your name for house of
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  Speaker 2: Israel and then read the verse again? Can I not
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  Speaker 2: put your name there? Deal with you as this potter does?
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  Speaker 2: Declares the Lord behold like the clay in the potter's hand,
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  Speaker 2: So were you? So were you in my hand? Again
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  Speaker 2: your name. Eugene Peterson, in his book Run with the Horses,
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  Speaker 2: writes this of the potter's house and the potter's skill.
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah's imagination went to work as he stood before this
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  Speaker 2: potter with his lump of clay and his wheel. Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: had seen potters at work all his life, but today
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  Speaker 2: he saw something else. He saw God at work making
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  Speaker 2: a people for his glory, a people of God, persons
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  Speaker 2: created in the image of God, necessary, but not only necessary,
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  Speaker 2: each one also beautiful and beautiful, but not only beautiful,
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  Speaker 2: each one also necessary, Each human being is an inseparable
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  Speaker 2: union of necessity and freedom. There is no human being
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  Speaker 2: who is not useful with a part to play in
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  Speaker 2: what God is doing. May I read it again? You
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  Speaker 2: belong in that picture. There is no human being who
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  Speaker 2: is not useful with a part to play in what
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  Speaker 2: God is doing. And there is no human being who
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  Speaker 2: is not unique, with special lines and colors and forms
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  Speaker 2: distinct from anyone else. All this came clear to Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: in the potter's house, the brute fact of the clay,
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  Speaker 2: lumpish and inert, shaped for a purpose by the hands
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  Speaker 2: of the potter, and then as it took shape, the
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  Speaker 2: realization of the uniquely designed individuality and wide ranging usefulness
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: it would acquire as a finished pot, painted and baked
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: and glazed. God shapes us for his eternal purposes, and
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: he begins right here. Jeremiah continued to obs, What would
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the potter now do, Kick the wheel and go off
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: in a sulk, throw the clay at the cat, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: go to the market and purchase another brand. Neither he
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: the potter to do. God needs, kneads, God needs and
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: presses pushes and pulls. The creative work starts over again, patiently, skillfully.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: God doesn't give up. God doesn't throw away what is spoiled,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: that includes your life and mine. No matter how bruising
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: the past has been, no matter how deep the pain,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: no matter how wrong the actions, no matter how long
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: the addiction, you are not a spoiled product. You are
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: being reshaped. And Romans eight twenty eight is the statement
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: clearing the reshaping. Because God is causing it to happen.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: He knows it all. He is good to the core,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: He is enveloped in compassion, and because of his mercy,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: he never stops working on your clay, never never takes
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: a vacation, never takes the night or day off, even
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: when we slumber and sleep. Our master is at work
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: on us and in us. God's causing it to happen.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: The project is really his, not ours. Now back to
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Romans eight twenty eight, we know God causes all things
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: to work together. The plan is total, not partial. The
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: plan is total not partial. This is the part that's
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: so difficult to get our heads around because of our
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: limited perspectives. We see now God sees forever we see today.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: God sees twenty years from now we see our little world.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: God sees a broader circle that includes who knows how
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: many people will be impacted. The plan is total, not partial.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: I love the word all all things work together, Douglas
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Moo writes. Nothing will touch our lives that is not
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: under the control and direction of our heavenly Father. Everything
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: we do and say, everything people do to us or
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: say about us, every experience we will ever have, all
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: are sovereignly used by God for our good. We will
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: not always understand how the things we experience work to good,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: and we certainly will not always enjoy them. But we
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: do know that nothing comes into our lives that God
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: does not allow and use for his beneficent purposes. I've
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: said for years that we live our lives under the
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: mya hands of God, and nothing touches us that is
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: not allowed to pass through the fingers of those hands. Nothing, nothing,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: nothing you could name, nothing you could put in the
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: margin of your Bible, falls in a category that's outside
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the realm of what God has allowed, permitted, or in
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: fact directed. He is in charge of it all, all
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of it. Now for a moment, look back at the
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: initials you put beside your twenty eight verse. It includes
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: that as well, right there in your own handwriting. You
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: put that down. And now, to make it even more
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: delightful and amazing and mysterious, it all works together for good.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: I can just feel the chill that came up some
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: people's spines. You're telling me what happened to me was good. No,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not. I didn't say that. I said it worked
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: together for good. Much of what happens isn't good. Much
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: of what happens is downright wrong and unfair. Much of
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: what happens is brutal, shocking, demoralizing. But in God's overall plan,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: which is like a massive panoramic umbrella, God is at work,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: doing his work and carrying out his plan. And you
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: can always count on this, Your heavenly Father will never
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: allow anything to cross your path that will work to
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: your detriment. Ever, ever, you will not read this in
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: the media. You will not hear about this at school.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: You will not run across this in the neighborhood conversation.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: This comes from the scriptures. This is the vertical perspective life.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: John Oxenham wrote it in these words, titling it God's handwriting.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: He writes in characters too grand for our short sight
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: to understand. We catch but broken strokes and try to
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: fathom all the mystery of withered hopes, of death, of life,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: the endless war, the useless strife. But there, with larger,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: clearer sight, we shall see this. His way was right.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: What's God working on? What's the purpose of it all?
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: What's the underlying plan? Verse twenty nine. Those whom he
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: of his son. Don't read any further. Those whom he foreknew.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: We've just said he knows all things. He knows all
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: about us. He has predestined to become conformed to the
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: image of his son. John Stott put it in these
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: words in the simplest possible terms. God's purpose is for
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: his people. God's purpose for his people is that we
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: should become like Jesus. That's why it's happened. That's why
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the pain continues, that's why the struggle goes on. That's
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: why you're at a loss to explain it. He is
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: shaping your clay to look like Jesus. I read one
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: time of a great sculptor who was working on a
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: massive piece of marble with plans to sculpt a massive
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: lion's head. The public came and went walking by, shaking
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: their heads, wondering how in the world he could sculpt
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: the lion's head out of that shapeless block of marble.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: His answer was simple. He smiled and said, I just
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: chip away everything that doesn't look like a lion's head.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: God chips away at everything that doesn't look like Jesus.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of it in your life, and
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: there's a ton of it in mine. He chipped away
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: last year. It's something in my life that didn't look
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: at all like Jesus. He's shipping away right now. It's
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: something that is not like Jesus. And he knows what
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: he's doing, and he has to do it in me.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: There's no other way Jesus will emerge. There's no other
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: way the image will come out. It has to be
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: like this. If it didn't, he would not be doing it.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: But his plan is to conform me, is to conform
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: you to the image of his son. God knows we
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: need more images like his son on this planet. He
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: needs us to speak for him, he needs us to
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: represent him, he needs us to stand for him. He
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: needs us to be his representatives, so he doesn't quit
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: with just foreknowing. Look at the William Charles Robinson calls
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: this the five links and the golden chain that tie
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: together the acts of God. Look, he foreknew us keep
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: reading verse twenty nine. He predestined us, keep reading. Verse thirty.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: He called us keep reading. Verse thirty. He justified us,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: continue reading. He also glorified us. He foreknew. He predestined,
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: he called, he justified, he glorified. It's his project. He's
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: all over it. He isn't gonna quit. He knows the plan.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: There's Philippians one six written all over this verse. So
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: began a good work, and you will accomplish it, working
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: at it till the day of Jesus Christ. Now let
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: me tell you the truth here. I have not always
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: embraced this doctrine. There was a time in my life,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: especially during my early years in ministry, and Cynthia could
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: tell you better than anyone else today, when I really
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: struggled with God's eternal purposes and his predestined plan, and
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: his calling and his working and all of this, I
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: could see only the cruelty, only the hardship, only the
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: pain the disappointment, the things people were going through, the
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: blood and the guts of life, and I remember wrestling
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: with it and wrestling with it. So my first response
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: to God's providence initially was rejection, just rejection, why because
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: it didn't square with my horizontal plan of God, my
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: picture of God. I thought of him as an old
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: man with a long beard, a lot of older than
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: anybody else, but a lot like other people, but just older.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Then I realize it's not at all like us. Isaiah writes,
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: his ways are higher than my ways, and his thoughts
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: greater than my thoughts. Isaiah fifty five eight and nine
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: state that my thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: neither are your ways My ways. My ways are higher
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: I began then to tolerate it, since I can't reject its.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: God it's got it in his word. I'll tolerate it.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's true here, but it's not so true there.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Then I had trouble with trying to define almost sovereign.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: It's like I'm almost a husband years or he ain't.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: You are, or you aren't sovereign. He's sovereign. Then I
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: need to embrace it, and so do you, and let
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: it be. One of my mentors used to say, we
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: spend too much time trying to unscrew the inscrutable. Don't
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: go there. You know, the great tragedy is that this
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: truth will lie dormant. Listen to me, now, this truth
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: will be like gold, and if you're not careful, you'll
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: just fiddle around with the wrappings and miss the gift.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: You'll miss the gold. Listen to this true story. Some
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: years ago, my family and I were visiting the city
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: of Bedford, England, a little west of where we were
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: living in Cambridge. In the heart of Bedford stands a
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: larger than life statue of the famed seventeenth century author
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: John Bunyan. In fact, so imposing is the size of
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: that sculpture that some prankster has painted bold, gigantic white
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: footsteps from the edifice all the way to the public toilets.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: The message implied, sarcastically or otherwise, that Bunyan still lives.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Any reader of literature knows that though Bunyan has long
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: been dead, his brilliant work Pilgrim's Progress, does indeed live on.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: That book has been translated into more languages than any
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: other book in history, with the exception of the Bible.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: We wandered through the museum built to his memory, where
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: there was exhibited a copy of the book in every
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: language in which it has been printed. We were quite
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: impressed by the people of various nationalities engrossed in the display,
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: walking from room to room studying the exhibit. As I
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: was leaving, I commented to the woman at the front desk,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: isn't it amazing that a simple little book from the
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: hands of a mender of pots and pans has won
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: such worldwide acclaim. She paused and said, I suppose that
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: is true, but I must confess that I haven't read it.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: If there hadn't been a hard floor beneath me, I
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: would have voluntarily fainted. Unable to help myself, I asked her,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: why not I found it too difficult, I suppose, came
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: the very dispassionate reply. If shock were to be measured
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: along a scale, at this point I was nearly off
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: the chart. What does one say to the person who
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: sells tickets to a museum the existence of which is
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: owed to one book, while she herself has left the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: work unread. Recommended that for the sake of sheer curiosity,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: if not propriety, she might at least try the children's
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: version so she could get a mild taste of what
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: the interest was all about. And then the clincher. What
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: a remarkable illustration of self inflicted poverty. It is possible
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: to hold a treasure in your hand but be ignorant
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: of it and go for the wrapping instead. This proximity
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: to truth and distance from its worth is repeated innumerable
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: numbers of times in our lives. In Chesterton's words, we
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: hold the dust and let the gold go free. You
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: have the gold in this book. You have the gold
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: in this verse. It is the gold of life. It
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: is golden. It will hold you together when nothing else will.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Don't just fiddle with the rappings. Come to terms with
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: what it's saying to you Personally apply it directly to
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: those initial words in the margin of your Bible, and
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: understand God's preserved it for you today today, knowing that
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: you may not have another day to live, Today claim it.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe bow our heads together. You've heard enough about God
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: to know whether or not you and here on speaking terms,
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: the good news is the one who knows you the
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: best loves you the most. Had he wanted to get
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: rid of you, he would have done that. Long ago.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Nothing all that great has happened from you and your life.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: He could have done that, but he chose not to.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: And by his grace, he's brought you to today for
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: a purpose, and that purpose is beyond your comprehension and mine.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: He has a plan to make you like Jesus, but
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: it has to start with where Jesus died for you.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: That's the cross. That's the cross. That's the cross where
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: he paid the complete payment for your sins. He died
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: with open arms as if to say, come to me,
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: all you who were overburdened, will give you rest. Trust me,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Believe in me, Believe in me. Trust him. Now now
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: let us help you. If you need help doing that,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: come to the prayer room. If that will help, meet
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: with our soul care people. If that will help, talk
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: to me down front, if that will help. Come. Lord God,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: forgive us for the years spent playing with ribbon and
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: paper in the wrappings, missing the gift of this golden statement.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your person, Thank you that you have
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: given us yourself and your son, and with him, your
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: plan for our lives, find us willing moldable lumps of clay,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: desirous of being fitted and shaped for the master's use.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: I ask it in Jesus' name. Everyone said amen. The
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: preceding message, Providence Made Practical was copyrighted in two thousand
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: and seven, twenty ten, and twenty twenty five, and the
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five by Charles
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: rswin Dahld, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. The duplication
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.