Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Providence Made Practical │ Msg 55 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Providence Made Practical │ Msg 55 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Willi and Ray were a couple of West Texas ranchers,
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  Speaker 1: and they met at the feed store one afternoon. Had
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: some problems with my hurd, said Willie. My prize bull
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  Speaker 1: went impotent, but the vet came over and gave him
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  Speaker 1: some special medicine, and now he seems to be doing
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  Speaker 1: just fine. Several weeks later, Willy and Ray met again
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  Speaker 1: at the same feed store. Hey, Willie, said, Ray, now
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  Speaker 1: my bull's having problems. What was that medicine the vet prescribed.
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  Speaker 1: I don't remember the name, will he said, but kind
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  Speaker 1: of tastes like chocolate. We all need a little strong
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  Speaker 1: medicine every once in a while for some of you.
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  Speaker 1: Had taken you a week to learn out a laugh,
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  Speaker 1: and hopefully you'll never stop, because I think fun is sacred,
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  Speaker 1: and I think there's too little of it in a church.
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  Speaker 1: And for some reason the laughter wound up in the
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  Speaker 1: bar down the street, left the church. It is never
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  Speaker 1: meant to be like that. I hope you take back
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  Speaker 1: with you the fun of knowing Jesus. It isn't all fun,
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  Speaker 1: but a lot of it is. One of the people
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  Speaker 1: at our table had been to another conference, and she
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  Speaker 1: made the interesting comment those people I thought they were
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  Speaker 1: having fun. We thought that was a humorous comment. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of folks think they're having fun when it isn't fun.
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  Speaker 1: It's just sort of a smile spread over rigidity and fear,
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  Speaker 1: and that's unfortunate. If there's one thing I hope that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord uses sent me to do is to bring
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  Speaker 1: back the joy that has for some reason fled the
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  Speaker 1: presence of the house and the people of God. All
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  Speaker 1: of you have great senses of humor. Some of you
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  Speaker 1: haven't found out about it yet, and others of you
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  Speaker 1: your face hasn't learned it yet. But little by little
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  Speaker 1: you're learning to enjoy life a lot more in taking
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  Speaker 1: yourself a lot less seriously. This does not mean we
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  Speaker 1: don't take God seriously. If you got that message, you
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  Speaker 1: missed the point. It's your problem, not ours. You got
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  Speaker 1: the message that by having joy in your life you
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  Speaker 1: somehow take God frivolously. I'm sorry if we left that impression,
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  Speaker 1: or if you formed that false impression. In my life,
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  Speaker 1: those who have taken God most seriously and a balanced
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  Speaker 1: way have helped me laugh more and feel shame less.
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  Speaker 1: I've never found that shame has ever helped me do
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  Speaker 1: anything well. And so we come today to the peak
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  Speaker 1: of the letter to the Romans, Paul mentioned the Reformation Conference.
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  Speaker 1: We did the tour we did across Czech Republic and
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  Speaker 1: then into Germany and down into Switzerland. When we finished it,
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  Speaker 1: Sentt and I were exhausted. We were so glad we
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  Speaker 1: had set aside another week to slip away. As the
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  Speaker 1: conferees went on home. We rented a little car and
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  Speaker 1: we drove up to Interlocking, which obviously means in between
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  Speaker 1: the lakes, little Swiss village. If you ever have an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to be at Interlocked, say yes. And we were
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  Speaker 1: there for about a week. It was great. Right outside
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  Speaker 1: our hotel window was a snowcap peek the young frowl.
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  Speaker 1: Young Frowl starts with a j young frowl, and we
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  Speaker 1: look at it every morning. We looked at it every day.
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  Speaker 1: We saw it every night. And I as we walk
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  Speaker 1: the streets of inter Locket, I wanted to say to
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  Speaker 1: the people who lived that, if you look at that lately,
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  Speaker 1: But of course they lived there, and it's you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's like living their Pike's Peak or some place related
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  Speaker 1: to the Rockies, and and you no longer see it
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  Speaker 1: as it as it is, and there's a cable car
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  Speaker 1: that takes you up, and it's one of those cable
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  Speaker 1: cars that just you know, at such an angle you
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  Speaker 1: don't want to look back. And then you change cars
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  Speaker 1: at a certain elevation, and about the nose level, you
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  Speaker 1: go up another section and you go even higher, and
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  Speaker 1: then finally you get off it. You're in this absolutely
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  Speaker 1: pristine place, few little shops, but most of all places
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  Speaker 1: to sit and think. And you look down where we
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  Speaker 1: were in the little village and the lakes, and as
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  Speaker 1: we sat there, we did some reflecting, and we often
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  Speaker 1: do that together, sort of reviewed the trip and then
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  Speaker 1: rehearse things in our lives. It's a great moment. But
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  Speaker 1: from that vantage point, the beauty of Interlock was enhanced,
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  Speaker 1: it was embellished because of the heights. Romans eight will
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  Speaker 1: do that for you the last few verses in the chapter. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: we're too familiar with the words and not familiar enough
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  Speaker 1: with the truth they hold for us. And so let
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  Speaker 1: me say at the outset, I know that you know
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  Speaker 1: Romans eight twenty eight, and I know that your lips
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  Speaker 1: will move when I read the words, but I would
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  Speaker 1: ask that today you see them for the first time
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  Speaker 1: that you allow your mind to just like a like
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  Speaker 1: a chalkboard, just erase a lot of the stuff and
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  Speaker 1: just let it. Let it be a new writing, Let
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  Speaker 1: it be a new expression of truth. Because I don't
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  Speaker 1: know where you are in your life. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what you go home to. There may be trouble at work.
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  Speaker 1: You may be facing the threat of unemployment. There may
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  Speaker 1: be a recurring worry that will plague you at the
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  Speaker 1: airport before you even get on the plane. I hope not.
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  Speaker 1: But there may be maybe a problem you've created you
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  Speaker 1: haven't yet resolved, an offense you've caused that you've not reconciled,
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  Speaker 1: Maybe an addiction you've not yet recovered from. Who knows
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  Speaker 1: how many alcoholics are in our group, God help you
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  Speaker 1: through it, or how many of you struggled with prescription
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  Speaker 1: drugs and you're abusing them and nobody knows. One of
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  Speaker 1: my best friends mother finally died, and he said the
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  Speaker 1: last and he named the years, those years of her
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  Speaker 1: life addicted to prescription drugs. He just wept what he
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  Speaker 1: thought about how her life could have been different. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: one of your daughters has gotten pregnant and she's not
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  Speaker 1: married and others of you have a way son or daughter,
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  Speaker 1: and you never dreamed it would be like that, whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is, if it would help you. And I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how you are about writing in your Bible, but
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  Speaker 1: every once in my Bible is all marked up, and
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  Speaker 1: every once in a while I just like changing Bible,
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  Speaker 1: just to get rid of the old markings and come
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  Speaker 1: up with some new ones. And I'd like you to
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  Speaker 1: think about. If you don't want to do it, maybe
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  Speaker 1: do it later. If you don't want to do it now,
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  Speaker 1: just put a little beside Romans eight twenty eight. Put
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  Speaker 1: some abbreviated words, maybe just the first words. Might just
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  Speaker 1: read you n e MP for unemployment. It might be
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  Speaker 1: off or an offense. It might be the initials of
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  Speaker 1: your son or your daughter. And put a date there.
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  Speaker 1: Put the date down, and we're going to get to
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  Speaker 1: verse twenty eight. When we get there, I want you
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  Speaker 1: to focus on that which you've written in the margin,
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  Speaker 1: at least the margin of your mind, if not your Bible.
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  Speaker 1: We've been through chapter six, we've grieved. Through chapter seven,
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  Speaker 1: we felt the wretchedness of the battle, especially those we've lost.
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  Speaker 1: We've saw the beauty of the Holy Spirit coming and
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  Speaker 1: the freedom he brings, and the joy brings, and the
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  Speaker 1: refreshment he brings, and the power he enables us to
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  Speaker 1: have the chapter eight, and then we realize it isn't
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  Speaker 1: all just flying through spiritual space. We've touched on suffering
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  Speaker 1: the groanings, some of which cannot be uttered in words.
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  Speaker 1: In the middle of chapter eight, now Paul knew where
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  Speaker 1: it was going, as the spirit was leading him to
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  Speaker 1: write this, bringing us to the peak of the mountain
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  Speaker 1: at twenty eight through thirty nine. In verse twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: we read something that maybe you missed earlier. We do
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  Speaker 1: not see. If we hope for what we do not see,
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  Speaker 1: I've marked that in my Bible. In fact, I've circled it.
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  Speaker 1: We do not see. In verse twenty six, we read
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  Speaker 1: the words we do not know. See them in there.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes those words kind of lie down in the grass
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  Speaker 1: of the other words and lie hidden. When you come
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  Speaker 1: across things like this, take notice of them. Become a
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  Speaker 1: careful student of words we do not see and we
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  Speaker 1: do not know. There lies our problem we uh in
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  Speaker 1: today's words, we just often don't get it. We just
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  Speaker 1: don't get it. Here's the problem. Let me put it
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  Speaker 1: to you simply We're gonna make providence very practical. First,
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  Speaker 1: we tend to focus on the immediate. God always focuses
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  Speaker 1: on the ultimate. We look at the now, God looks
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  Speaker 1: at the forever, and by grasping some of the view
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  Speaker 1: from the pinnacle Heights of Romans eight, our perspective will
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  Speaker 1: shift from the now to the ultimate, to the forever.
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  Speaker 1: We tend to focus on the immediate, and God focuses
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  Speaker 1: on the ultimate. Here's the second problem. We tend to
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  Speaker 1: forget that our knowledge is limited and God's is unlimited.
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  Speaker 1: We tend to forget that we only see a little thimble.
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  Speaker 1: God sees the ocean. God sees the whole picture. We
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  Speaker 1: look at this little space of dirt calls out called
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  Speaker 1: our world, and we forget that He's got the universe
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  Speaker 1: in his grasp, and therefore truth be told. We don't
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  Speaker 1: think God's thoughts. In fact, God at our best moments
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  Speaker 1: is sort of like an old man with a beard,
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  Speaker 1: you know, in the old map, standing in the north going,
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  Speaker 1: blowing that wind across the map. He isn't an old man,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't have a beard, he isn't blowing the north
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  Speaker 1: wind with his mouth. He is our sovereign God, of
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  Speaker 1: the heavenlies and our personal father. Hold your place in
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  Speaker 1: Romans eight, and look back at Isaiah fifty five. Isaiah
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  Speaker 1: fifty five, verse eight. God is speaking. That's why the
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  Speaker 1: capital appears before the pronoun My for my thoughts are
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  Speaker 1: not your thoughts, little you. Why for my thoughts God's
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  Speaker 1: thoughts are not our thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways.
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  Speaker 1: Please never forget that my ways and your ways are
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  Speaker 1: not the same. Here it is here are the heights.
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  Speaker 1: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, my
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  Speaker 1: ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts. And therein lies the wrestling. Because our goal
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  Speaker 1: is often an immediate and quick relief, an easy solution
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  Speaker 1: to often profound things God is doing. We rush to judgment,
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  Speaker 1: or we hurry to fix it, and we need to
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  Speaker 1: let it be, Let it go, let it stand. Sarah
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  Speaker 1: reminded us today takes time. Takes time. Back to Romans aid,
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  Speaker 1: we are now thinking through God's providence. You're thinking about
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  Speaker 1: what it is that you are facing in the immediate,
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  Speaker 1: if not soon to be future. We do not see
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  Speaker 1: verse twenty five. We do not know verse twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: but we do know this. That's circled in my Bible.
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  Speaker 1: We know now this promise is to be claimed, not ignored.
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  Speaker 1: It is an unconditional promise. Does not say we hope,
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  Speaker 1: does not say we guess, does not say we feel,
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  Speaker 1: does not say we pray. It does not say we
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  Speaker 1: are told. It says we know. We know this. It
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  Speaker 1: is a term in the original for an absolute, unshakable confidence,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely certain of this, not a confidence in our situation
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  Speaker 1: or in our working things out, or in some kind
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  Speaker 1: of blind fate. It is in God himself. He is
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  Speaker 1: at work. I know he is at work. I know,
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  Speaker 1: beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God himself is
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  Speaker 1: in charge. He's doing what I cannot do, and probably
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  Speaker 1: what I would not do if I could, because I
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  Speaker 1: don't think like he thinks. My ways are not his ways.
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  Speaker 1: We know we know God causes. So the project is
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  Speaker 1: not ours, it's God's. The project meaning our lives, the
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  Speaker 1: development of our inner character. It is not our stuff,
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  Speaker 1: It's God's stuff. We're back at the heights again. We're
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  Speaker 1: looking down on it all, and God is in charge,
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  Speaker 1: and God is at work, and God is shaping, and
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  Speaker 1: God is molding, and God is breaking and God is
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  Speaker 1: crushing and God is rebuilding, and it is all his project.
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  Speaker 1: We know that turned to Jeremiah eighteen. It's really worth
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  Speaker 1: the turn, if you will take your time to do that,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah eighteen. I'm going to read for you these first
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  Speaker 1: somewhat familiar six verses, the word which came to Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: from the Lord, saying, arise and go down to the
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  Speaker 1: potter's house, and there I shall announce my words to you.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting. It's a place we've never been. Chances are
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  Speaker 1: really good. You don't have a potter's house in your city,
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  Speaker 1: in your village, you've probably never been to one. You
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  Speaker 1: maybe have never seen a potter's wheel. It's not uncommon
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  Speaker 1: in the twenty first century, but in those days it's
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  Speaker 1: very common. Every neighborhood, certainly every village had a potter's house.
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  Speaker 1: Potter's wheel was very familiar. One of the most important
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  Speaker 1: objects that first found its way to a home were
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  Speaker 1: containers made in a potter on a potter's wheel. So
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  Speaker 1: he goes to a familiar place, and so Jeremiah knows
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  Speaker 1: right where it is, says, I went down to the
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  Speaker 1: potter's house, and there he was making something on the wheel.
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  Speaker 1: But the vessel that he was making of clay was
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  Speaker 1: spoiled in the hand of the potter. You talk about
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  Speaker 1: a song needing to be written, write this one, you songsters,
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  Speaker 1: you gifted musicians. Start at the wheel and work out.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a potter working, and he finds that the
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  Speaker 1: clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter. So
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  Speaker 1: there's something of a flaw, there's something not right, not correct.
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  Speaker 1: So what did he do? We read here that he
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  Speaker 1: remade it into another vessel as it pleased him. See,
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  Speaker 1: the clay is his project. It's his project. He knows
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  Speaker 1: in his mind what he wants to come from this
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  Speaker 1: lump of clay, and it's not shaping as he planned it.
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  Speaker 1: So he reshapes it and he does it as it
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  Speaker 1: pleases him. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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  Speaker 1: can I not oh House of Israel, and if you
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  Speaker 1: would not mind doing it, replace House of Israel with
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  Speaker 1: your name. Can I not Oh Barb? Can I not
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  Speaker 1: Oh Sarah? Can I not Oh Buddy? Can I not
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  Speaker 1: Oh David? Can I not Oh Paul? Can I not
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  Speaker 1: Oh Shirley? Can I not Oh Chuck? Can I not
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  Speaker 1: Oh Angela? Can I not oh Cynthia, Can I not
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  Speaker 1: deal with you as this potter does, declares the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's that I said we need strong medicine. Here's
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  Speaker 1: some strong medicine. Behold like the clay in the potter's hand.
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  Speaker 1: So are you in my hand? Oh, there's your name again.
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  Speaker 1: Eugene Peterson writes this love what he says in his
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  Speaker 1: book Run with the Horses. Jeremiah's imagination went to work
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  Speaker 1: as he stood before the potter with his lump of
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  Speaker 1: clay and his wheel. Jeremiah had seen potters at work
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  Speaker 1: all his life, but today he saw something else. He
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  Speaker 1: saw God at work making a people for his glory,
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  Speaker 1: a people of God. Persons created in the image of God.
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  Speaker 1: Necessary but not only necessary, each one also beautiful and beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: but not only beautiful, each one also necessary. Each human
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  Speaker 1: being is an inseparable union of necessity and freedom. There's
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  Speaker 1: no human being who is not useful with a part
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  Speaker 1: to play in what God is doing. It's easy for
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  Speaker 1: me to run on and read the rest of it.
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  Speaker 1: But let me ask you. Realize that some of you
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  Speaker 1: would have to say, no, I don't feel all that useful.
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  Speaker 1: I can't plan cruise conferences. Nobody would show up to
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  Speaker 1: hear me, and you're gonna sit there and talk yourself
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  Speaker 1: out of what we just read. And who am I?
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  Speaker 1: He's got three kids running the round. Wait, three kids.
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  Speaker 1: They're the LinkedIn and shadow of your character. They're your world,
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  Speaker 1: they're your life, They're an extension of you. There are
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  Speaker 1: God's plan in the clay of your life. You're his project,
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  Speaker 1: and you're beautiful to work with and to shape, and
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  Speaker 1: you're necessary in his plan. He's easily able to just
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  Speaker 1: toss you off the table, push you off the wheel.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't do that. There's no human being who is
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  Speaker 1: not uned with special lines and colors and forms distinct
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  Speaker 1: from everyone else. All this came clear to Jeremiah in
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  Speaker 1: the Potter's house. God shapes us, writes Peterson, for his
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  Speaker 1: eternal purposes, and he begins right here, right here. Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: continued to observe. What would the potter do now when
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  Speaker 1: he found the clay? Imperfect, kick the wheel and go
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  Speaker 1: off and sulk, throw the clay on at the cat,
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  Speaker 1: and go to the market. Purchase another lump, another brand.
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  Speaker 1: Neither he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed
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  Speaker 1: good to the potter to do. God needs k n
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  Speaker 1: e A DS. God needs and presses and pushes and pulls.
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  Speaker 1: The creative work starts over and patiently, skillfully. God doesn't
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  Speaker 1: give up. You found that out, haven't you? You found
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  Speaker 1: that out. He hasn't run away from you. He hasn't
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  Speaker 1: abandoned you. God doesn't throw away what is spoiled. Under
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  Speaker 1: a different image. George Herbert saw and said the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Storms are the triumph of his art Romans eight twenty eight.
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  Speaker 1: We know, we have confidence, we have no doubt that
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  Speaker 1: God causes. Here we go to the here's the medicine,
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  Speaker 1: here's the strong medicine. All things work together. The plan
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  Speaker 1: is total, not partial. This is the part that's so difficult,
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  Speaker 1: fault to get our heads around because of our limited perspective.
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  Speaker 1: Remember what I said, We see it now, and God
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  Speaker 1: sees it forever. We're working on this date, and God's
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  Speaker 1: working on twenty twenty. And when you're gone two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and fifty five, there's an eternal continuum. It goes on
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  Speaker 1: and on. Look at this, All things work together to
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  Speaker 1: work together Romans eleven thirty three. Or the depth of
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  Speaker 1: the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
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  Speaker 1: How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways like
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  Speaker 1: a maze. To us they are like depths that have
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  Speaker 1: never been plumbed. But to him it's clear. He's the potter.
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  Speaker 1: He's at work, He's shaping and changing us. All of
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  Speaker 1: it works together. Donald Barnhouse, pastor of Yesteryear in Philadelphia,
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  Speaker 1: wrote this in his seventh volume of Romans. There is
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  Speaker 1: no will or act of creatures, men, angels, or demons
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  Speaker 1: that can do other than work for our good. No
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  Speaker 1: dog can mark against us, no man can speak or
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  Speaker 1: act against us. No sinister power of evil can be
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  Speaker 1: against us. But all must be for our good. There
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  Speaker 1: is no phenomenon of nature fire, flood, storm, earthquake that
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: can work us ultimate ill. The law of gravity cannot
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: trip us up or cause anything to fall upon us
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: unless it has first been sifted through the will of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: God's purpose for our good. Every experience of our individual's circumstances,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: whether temptations or whatever, concerns us, humbles us forces us
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to rely on him who alone can satisfy all things
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: work together for our good. Otherwise the Lord would not
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: permit them that does something to us. When we believe
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: that for me, it takes away any hint of bitterness.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: It stops me before I plan to retaliate, and we
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: can be very good at retaliating. The old nature has
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: creative ideas that he just feeds us. They did that
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: against you. Hey, here's the plan. And then we set
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: in motion a very carefully laid plan that comes from
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the flesh. Whereas when I see this for what it
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: really says, I don't go there. The spirit of God
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: works within me and restrains that stops me from doing that,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: because all those things work together for good, for good.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: The purpose is good, not evil. The purpose is for
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: our benefit, not our harm. Right now it looks like
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: only crushing. But God's plan is the reshaping. It's the
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: clay on the wheel, and it's for those who are
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: called according to his purpose. John Oxenham wrote this, and
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: he titled it God's handwriting. He writes in characters too
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: grand for our short sight to understand. We catch but
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: broken strokes and try to fathom all the mystery of
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: withered hopes, of death, of life, the endless war, the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: useless strife. But there, with larger, clearer sight, we shall
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: see this. His way was right, His way was right.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't my mother die at age sixty three and
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: never live to see my children growing up, never even
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: know never even know of two of them. It's amazing.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Why would my dad, fifteen years older than my mother,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: lived nine years longer? And just why? Why would why
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: would Cynthia's mother diets at forty six and never never
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: really enter into the blossoming and blooming of our adult lives.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Sometimes Cynthia says with a sigh, I so miss her.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: She would have loved it. She would have been right
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: down here, right here on the front going. Yes, they
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: loved me from the moment they saw me. They were
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: a little admittedly they were a little gullible, but they
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I asked their daughter to marry me when their daughter
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: was sixteen. It's legal in Arkansas, but in Texas it's not.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: You know, what kind of plan is that? Why? Why
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: was your mother like she was? Why was your father?
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: It's all part of the Potter's wheel. If you deny that,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: you deny all things. So what I can ask why?
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I don't really have to have an answer. It's profound.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: I got questions right now that you know. Like one
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of the guys said, when I get to heaven, That's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to ask. You know the good thing.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: We don't need to ask. We'll know in heaven. It's
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: not going to be a big Bible study. People have
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the idel M a Bible in it. Oh, you really won't.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: We'll know as we are known. It'll all become clear,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and it's there we will understand the next couple of verses.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: The theologians have argued over for centuries. All of it
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: works together for good to those who love God and
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: watch it now. We're gonna take the cable car all
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: the way to the top. We're going all the way
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: to the top of Young Fraul right now, watch it,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: those who for whom he foreknew. That's the first stop.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: He predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Don't stop with predestined. Go to the rest of it
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: That's why it all works together. That's why that loss
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: in your life works together for the game. A part
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of it predestined to be conformed to the image of
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: his son, that he would be the first born among
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he called. That's
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: the next stop on the cable car up. And speaking
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of calling those whom he called, he justified, he declared righteous,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and those whom he declared righteous, he glorified. It's his plan.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: None of his children will wind up unglorified. Now to
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: him who is able to guard us from stumbling, and
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: present us faultless before his presence with exceeding great joy.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: To hear the word faultless before his presence with exceedingly
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: great joy. Laughter in heaven, or whatever will be the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: sound of joy, it will certainly include music. Oh my,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: we see that in the revelation, exceeding great joy to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: whom he glory forever and ever and ever and ever
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: and ever. When I do that benediction, I just do
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: for riend. About eight or ten times. Congregation has learned
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: to just sit and wait till I'm through with it, forevers,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: just forever and ever and ever and ever and ever
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and ever and ever and ever and ever. That's our God,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and he is at work today with that in mind.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: That magnificent this is that take away the sting of
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: today and the dread of tomorrow. The worry about whether
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: you're going to catch your flight home. Please, there's another one.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: They make other flights. You may not get your seat,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you may not have gotten your cabin. I have to
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: stop and give you this quick story. My sister is
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: involved with Women of Faith. My sister's doing a lot
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: better now that she's out of the Betty Ford Clinic.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: I just don't let all of you know that. But boy,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: you want to hear what she says about me, for
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you look at me like that. I'm nuts over her. Anyway.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Lucy crazy as a loon, but absolutely wonderful. Loved her
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: all my life. Anyway, she and Women of Faith lived
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: near us, and they're all a part of our church.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: You imagine that they sit in what is called the
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: little riser section, and the people around it called the
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: bowling team. The bowling team that shows up. So they
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: all get there. And anyway, they were at a conference
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: that had been overbooked, okay. So they got all these
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: women that came to this conference, and they were about
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: five eight thousand, more like twenty thousand tickets more. They
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: sold more, okay, and so they didn't have seats for everybody,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: so they put some into other places, and they had
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: to have a close circuit TV and had to move
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: chairs all the way down to the front. So the
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: people on the front row are like this, and they
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: didn't like it because they had planned to be there
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: for eight ten months, maybe they signed up a year ago.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: And so they've been fussing all through the conference. I
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: didn't get the chair I wanted, and i didn't get
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the seat out I have and I've been a part
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of Women of Faith forever and just wait till I
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: have a chance to write my letter. And so they,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: you know how you grumble and all that stuff that
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: goes on. And so here's Mary Graham, who was the MC,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: makes the announcement that says we're sorry you didn't get
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: the place you didn't So it didn't help. They just
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: kept grumbling. It just kept fussing, and the night went past,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: and the next day they're going to start their program
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: on Saturday, and they're still fussing. And somebody comes to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Mary and says, Mary, uh, you got to say something.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Mary said, I've said something. Yeah, but they're still fussing
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna have a mutiny. I mean, some people
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: talking about suing us and Mary's Oh my god. So
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: she thinks, what can I do? I've already made my announcement.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: It looks over she realizes Johnny Ericson Tadda is going
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to be the speaker, and so she walks over and says, Johnny,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I'll never do this any other time, but to day,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of desperate. Could you help me? Johnny says sure.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: She says, would you help us make the announcement that
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: we're sorry that people weren't able to have the seat
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: they wanted? And she said sure. So they rolled Johnny
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: up and she sat in front of the microphone and
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: she said, I understand that some of you are not
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: pleased with the chairs that you're sitting in. I understand
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: so to about fifty thousand of my dear friends who
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: are disabled. I've been in this chair since nineteen sixty
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: nine and it's the chair God designed for me. And
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: she said, this would be a great time for all
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: of us just to be great. Boy, Mary says, I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: mean mutinely removed. Why perspective, it's the young fraul view
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: of life. In light of that, I said, anywhere since
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I'm able to walk out of here. By the way,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Johnny Erickson is the real deal. She's the real deal.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Thank God for her for who she is and what
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: she does. Since and I were sitting next to her
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: at a bookseller's deal, and I've always been kind of
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in awe of her, and she loves me in spite
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: of me. And we're sitting there together, and her assistant
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: had to leave to take a phone call, and they
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: served our meal, and Johnny looked over at me and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: smiled and said, Chuck, would you feed me? Mush, Yeah,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I'll feed you. I'll do anything for you. Think of
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the vulnerability and the humility of asking someone to feed you.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: It's all perspective, not a hand of pride, not a
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: bit of reluctance. Why Johnny's come to terms with Romans
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: eight twenty eight thirty nine. Look at the questions that follow,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: we'll just sort of click them off. What shall we
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: say to these things? Since God is for us? Who's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: against us? The point is, what does it matter who's
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: against us? He who did not spare his own son,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: but delivered him over for us all, how will he
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: not also freely give us all things? There's the all
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: things again? Having given us his son, wouldn't he give
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: you whatever else that's best for you. If you go
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to Namon Marcus to Bob quote, is it too much
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: to ask him to put it in a plastic bag.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I think they'd be willing to put it in a
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: bag for you now that they provided this, now that
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: you have Christ, all these other things that occupy your time,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: and he isn't he going to give you the things
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that are best? Sure? Who will bring a charge against
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: God's elect It is a forensic word calling us before
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the judge. Who is going to judge you? Why God
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: is the one who has declared us righteous? Here's another question.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Who is the one who condemns you? Why he answers
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, And he gives the gospel died, was raised,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: was ascended? Is that the right hand of the Father
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: interceding for us? Who will then separate us from the
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: love of Christ? And he names all the possibilities, all
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: the things that you spend you and I spend my
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: time fretting over tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, naked as periled
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: sword verse thirty seven. And all these things we overwhelmingly conquer,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: You know the great thought. We're sheep who conquer you.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: May create you just sheep. Best we can do. Dogs
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: can bark, and bears can growl sheep, and we try
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: to make our sheep look so great. You know, we
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: comb our wool, try to clean up our pen. You
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: just sheep. Get over it, you ladies. When you get older,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: think of that tilly where we're all heading. I'm convinced
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: neither death, nor life, nor angels, m principalities, things present,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: things to come, powers, hyph depth, or any other created
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: thing separate us from the love of God, which is
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. Can we say amen? Can we say it?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Nothing will separate us time as a result of a tragedy,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: we say, they just lost it all. No, no, no, no,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: didn't lose it all. Philip melanth And died in fifteen sixty,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: fourteen years after his colleague Martin Luther had passed. How
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: he loved Martin Luther, and as he died, he had
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: these words, these very words on his lips that I've
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: just read exactly one hundred years later. It seemed that
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: everything that could happen was happening against the people of God,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: especially John Bunyan. He had been preaching and was about
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to go to jail again for publicly declaring Christ set
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: at his desk in a deep depression, worrying a bit
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: about his future. By his own admission, he wrote, I
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: remember that I was sitting in a neighbor's home, very sad,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: and that word came to me. If God before us,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: who can be against us? That was a help to me.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: And while in prison he wrote Grace Abounding to the
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Chief of Sinners. Some years later, sixteen seventy eight, he
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: published his best known of allegories of Pilgrim's progress. Died
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: ten years later with these words on his lips about together. Please,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: our time now is done, but in some ways it's
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: never done. We will meet again and again and again.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Each time he turned to Romans six and seven and eight.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: We have bonded together. The journey has been beautiful and
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: ship elegant. The time in his matchless word has been
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of inestimable value. This may be the moment for you,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: if you've never ever trusted in the Savior, to turn
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: to him. I can assure you you will die. You
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: will die. At that point. You will not be asked
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: about your status or bank account, your reputation, your morality.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: How often you attended church. You will not be asked
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: about good needs. You will not be queried about how
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: good a father and mother you were, a good son
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: or daughter. You will stand face to face with your maker,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: and you will give account whether you have trusted in
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ while you are on this earth.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: The answer is yes, you enter into the joy of
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: a lord. If the answer is no, the future is
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: beyond tragic, forever and ever and ever and ever. Having
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: been to the heights, now we confess to you that
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: we must live on this earth. And while living in
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: our circumstances, there are those very real things that could
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: steal our joy and preoccupy us and make us think
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: that it's all futile or we're of little account. Remind us,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: in those quiet and unexpected moments that we are on
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: the Potter's wheel, and we are the clay, and we
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: are in your hands, and you are at work causing
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: all things to work together for good and the Savior's name.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: We pray everybody said amen.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: The preceding message, Providence Made Practical was copyrighted in two
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: thousand eight, and the sound recording was copyrighted in two
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: thousand fifteen by Charles r. Swindall Inc. All rights are
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: reserved world wide