Can This Be Right?
What does tomorrow look like? What will you be doing? It is impossible to know what your future holds. With that being said then we should be able to realize that our today’s are not always easy to understand. Have you ever ridden with someone to a place you had never been? They turn left and right and go through signal lights and they get on freeways and go down country roads and you have no clue as to whether they are lost or not because you do not know where you are going yourself. You may know what the destination is but the way to travel there is not in your knowledge. Life is that same way in regards to God’s plan for your life. You may know what God has called you to do or what He has promised to do in your life but that doesn’t mean you know the way to get there. What it does mean is that you need to trust God with the journey. Take the turns in life that He directs you to take, go through the doors that he opens and just have faith in Him… He knows the way. Right off of the bat today let me tell you that God wants you to know that He knows where you are at. He is aware of your situation in life and He does not need you to understand He just needs you to have faith in Him.
Does it ever seem life is hard to figure out? You have things that take place and you just do not see how they could help you in life in anyway. You struggle to see how that they could in anyway ever work in your favor.
This does not mean that everything you are going through is bad. You see your future is made up of your good and bad moments in life. They are all an ingredient of who you are and where you go. Now there are times when you are in a bad situation because of bad decisions that you have made and you need to get out of where you are. Not everything in life is a direct will of God, sometimes they are the direct opposite of God’s plan and you need to reverse it. But today is not about your bad choices and the results of them. Today is about having faith no matter where you are in life and understanding this…
You may be right in the middle of a making. (David made a king and not just taken and given a kingdom)
David was not anointed and given a kingdom. David was anointed, set apart, called for a purpose.
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Sam 16:6-7
Samuel has come to David’s house looking for the man who God has called as king. The first one Samuel sees is the one he thought was to be king. He looked the part, but we see something here about how God sees things.
People judge by what they see on the outside, God looks at the heart and this includes you. God was not looking for who was the biggest and best and He is still not looking for that today. God is looking for the heart that will follow after Him.
People look at what they have done while God looks at what they will do. We are so quick to limit our future by our past. We look at others and see their past decisions and mistakes and we want to judge them by their yesterdays and deny them a brighter tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong because our past should be considered in certain matters but that does not mean that we can only go as far as we have been.
Every single one of you needs to know that today God is willing to look at your heart and not your to past to decide your future. He sees in you what no one else has the ability to see .
11 Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” “Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives.” 12 So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the LORD said, “This is the one; anoint him.”1 Samuel 16:11-12
So here we see the youngest one, the last one that anyone of them would have considered came into the house and God pointed to him and told Samuel “This is the one; anoint him” And Samuel was obedient to God and took the flask of oil and anointed David as the next king of Israel. And the Bible says that the power of the Holy Spirit came on him powerfully from that day on! I want you to be aware of something here. This was not because of anything that David had done it was because God saw his heart and He knew what He could do with a man who had a heart like that. Today your prayer needs to be just what David prayed in Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a loyal spirit within me.
David understood that he was called and anointed because of his heart not his ability or stature. He did not want God to count his sins against him.
So from this part of the sermon what I want you to know is that your past is not as important as your heart. That your past is not what decides your future. And what you need to offer God is a heart after Him and what he will offer you is His anointing that will change your life in powerful ways.
Now the other thing this morning that I want you to hear and understand is about your past and your today not limiting your tomorrows. For you to have a real faith in God in your journey. You may not understand where you are and why you are there. You may not understand why you are going through what you are going through. You may not know why God has brought you where He has, but you need to have faith to complete the trip. You need to trust Him. He can do some pretty amazing things in ways you would not have thought of.
This past week I was reviewing the events of the past two weeks and I was just simply amazed at how God worked. So many things I would have done differently at the time but I just trusted God. And we have seen God open up doors that have just been incredible. We have found ourselves in places we could not have gotten to on our own. Things and places we would not have imagined before they came about.
So today no matter where you are in life let me tell you the thing to make sure of. Is that you are trusting God. That you are not moving without Him. That you are not just doing what seems good to you but you are allowing Him to direct your steps. You see the Bible says that there is a way that seems right to a man but it leads to death. You cannot just trust in your own understanding. And just because it is impossible to see how any good could come of something that doesn’t mean it won’t.
Have you ever looked at the story of Joseph? If you really look at his life and try to picture how hard it must have been on him. You can see where he could have doubted, been confused and maybe mad at God or struggling with faith. His life and events of it would make your life seem super smooth by comparison.
Joseph had a dad who loved him and a good life. God then gave him a couple of dreams and his life went south from there. It would no doubt be hard for him to see how any good could come out of the life he was living and impossible for him to understand how God was involved in any of this.
In Genesis 36 you will see where his own brothers talked about killing him and then they decided to leave him a pit to die of starvation and then changed their mind and sold him into slavery. Now talk about family troubles. Joseph is sold as a slave by his own brothers. What do you think was going through his head as he traveled off as a slave with these people who bought him. He had not rights and no family, no friends and not much chance of a future. It would have been hard to stay positive and believe that somehow life would turn good. But he kept his heart right with God. He did not allow his lack of understanding of the situation cause him to turn his heart from God.
Then he has good fortune to be bought by Potiphar who was an officer for the pharoh of Egypt. Joseph did not turn his back of God and God did not turn His back on him. God blessed all that Joseph touched and he had favor with Potiphar and his life was going good. Then Potiphar’s wife had a thing for Joseph and tried to seduce him but Joseph refused. He knew it was wrong and that it would be a great sin against God. One day she made another attempt and he fled the house but his cloak remained and she made up a story that he tried to rape her and he is thrown into prison. Can you imagine how hard it would be to see the good in the moment?
The he is in prison and interprets a dream for a baker and cup-bearer. The dreams come to pass but the cup-bearer forgets about Joseph and so times goes on. The cup-bearer was supposed to talk to the pharoh about Joseph and how he was wrongfully imprisoned but he didn’t. Another setback for Joseph, another reason to question God… yet he remained faithful.
Then two full years later the pharoh has a dream that no one can interpret. The cup bearer remembers Joseph and tells the pharoh of how that Joseph had interpreted his dream while in prison. The pharoh calls for Joseph and Joseph interprets the dream and the pharoh makes him ruler over everything in all the land except for the pharoh himself. The dream was of 7 good years and then 7 famine years.
Continue the story here….
So his family came and bowed before him and his attitude could have been look who has the last laugh now but it wasn’t. His heart remained right and knew that all of these things took place just so God could get him into the position to save his family. There is no way that he could have imagined while in the pit or in the prison that God was working the plan out like this. But you see sometimes in life.
You may be right in the middle of a making
Today you may not know why you are going through what you are going through. It may be hard to see any good in what you are facing. It might be easy to have despair, to be discouraged or to have doubt, but what you need is a clean heart. What you need is faith in God and not in what can be seen. You need to know that no matter how you have struggled in the past God will not limit your future by it. No matter what others see when they look at you God is examining the heart. This also goes for you that look great on the outside to the world around you but God sees the inside.
So here is the question… can you trust God? Can you give Him your heart? Would you like the Holy Spirit to empower you from this day forth? Lets pray.
