INTRODUCTION
• It’s A Wonderful Life Clip
• SLIDE #1
• It is too bad that not every story has a happy ending like the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
• When we are not experiencing joy in life it can be unsettling.
• You sit there and wonder, “Where is God, why is this happening to me, God; do you care that this is happening to me?”
• It is so easy for us to acknowledge that God knows what is best for us when things are going well for us, but as soon as times get tough, it is so tempting to start to question whether God knows what He is doing.
• When we think about God and His place in our lives, it is easy to want to put Him in the position of taking care of my wants, needs, and desires, but is that all God wants to be to you, the big butler in the sky?
• Over the past three weeks we have been exploring the blessings of coming to God’s W-E-L-L for refreshment.
• SLIDE #2
• Work, energy, Lordship.
• Today we start we look at another blessing we receive from God when we come to His WELL for refreshment, His LORDSHIP!
• I hope that you; maybe for the first time, are starting to come to the well and I hope that you are drinking deeply from it.
• We want to take advantage of Christ’s work in the cross that saves us. I believe we would like to be able to rely on His energy to be able to sail to heights never known to us before.
• Accepting God’s Lordship will be one of the more difficult things we will do because it will require something of us, it will require us to relinquish control.
• Accepting God’s lordship means learning to say, “I know God knows what is best.”
• He is sovereign (or supreme ruler). He is good. He will be glorified.
• You’re in good hands with All-State. Possibly, but you are in good hands with our Father. He knows best. So trust His every move for you because He is working for you!
• Some of you remember the old shows on television that honored the father of the house as someone who was to be loved and respected.
• As a matter of fact there was an old show on that ran from 1954 to 1962 called “Father knows Best.”
• Over the years we television has made the position of father a joke.
• God is no joke, He is someone you can love, trust, and respect. He is no bumbling idiot who needs his children to tell him how to do things!
• I want to share three things we need to understand concerning the struggles we face in life and the part God plays. God is there with you, God does care for you.
• Are you thirsty this morning? Come to the WELL of God’s Lordship!
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
No Struggle will come your way apart from God’s…
I. PURPOSE
• SLIDE #4
• God has a purpose for everything that you encounter, even when we cannot understand what it might be.
• There are so many things in life that we do not understand why they happen. Why do good people die, while the criminal on death row dies of old age.
• We can fire questions out to God about things we do not understand for a lifetime.
• So many things seems so senseless, it would seem that at times, God is asleep at the wheel.
• Do we have to understand something for it to work? Do you know how a computer takes a keystroke and then stores a series of them into a document that can be stored on the computer? Whether I understand how it works has zero bearing on whether it works or not.
• I have seen things in life for which I have no good explanation, but the event still happened.
• No struggle will come your way apart from God’s purpose.
• Turn to John 11 with me. In this passage, Jesus finds out that His friend Lazarus was sick. Let us see what Jesus says about it.
• SLIDE #5
• John 11:1–6 (ESV) 1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
• Notice that Jesus waited two extra days to go to His friend. Later in the chapter we have the raising of Lazarus.
• In John 9, Jesus passed by a man blind from birth. The disciples wanted to know why the man was blind; they wanted to know who sinned to cause his blindness, the man or his parents. Jesus gives and interesting response in verse 3.
• SLIDE #6
• John 9:3 (ESV) Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
• This man was blind his whole life. God did not cause him to be blind but rather God was able to use the man’s blindness so others could see the power of God!
• One of the best examples of God’s purpose being carried out in the midst of difficult times comes to us from Genesis 37-50 with the story of Joseph.
• Imagine being the favorite son. You are a good person who has a special gift from God.
• Your brothers hate you. You were so hated that your brothers sold you into slavery.
• You are bought by a man who was the captain of Pharaoh’s bodyguard.
• Yet you prospered, so life was not too bad. You were given total charge over Potiphar’s home.
• Potiphar’s wife start going after you and you are eventually thrown in jail for something you would never even think of doing.
• In jail you prosper and are given total charge of the jail.
• Eventually this man gets the opportunity to interpret some dreams Pharaoh was troubled by and then he ends up ruling Egypt.
• Sound familiar?
• This favorite son, loved by God, sold into slavery, prospers, thrown in jail for something he did not and would not ever think of doing, now ruler of Egypt.
• Eventually there was the famine that Joseph predicted as from Pharaoh’s dream.
• This drove Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to purchase grain.
• Eventually Joseph reveals who he is to his brothers.
• Later they start to fear that Joseph will pay them back when their father dies.
• Here is his response in Genesis 50:20.
• SLIDE #7
• Genesis 50:20 (ESV) As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
• All this happened to Joseph so that God could keep His promise to Abraham and the nation of Israel!
• God has a purpose. I am sure Joseph did not know why things were happening to him as they happened, but God had a purpose for Joseph’s struggles.
• He has a purpose for ours also. We are not alone. God hurts when we hurt, but there are times when we need to go through what we are going through for our benefit or the benefit of others.
• It is not a waste unless we fail to let God use us. Time after time people have turned tragedy into to some kind of blessing others.
• SLIDE #8
No Struggle will come your way apart from God’s…
II. PRESENCE
• Here is something to consider when thinking about God’s presence.
• SLIDE #9
• God is with you always. We need never be lonely. We are not abandoned. God supports us through every difficulty.
• When we are struggling, we need to know we are not suffering alone. God is there, He is hurting with us and for us.
• One of the more difficult aspects of suffering is thinking we are all alone.
• How many times have you been going through a difficult time and then another person comes to your side to encourage you? Did that not make the problem seem a bit easier to bear?
• SLIDE #10
• Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV) 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
• Jesus promised His followers that He would be with them always. He tells them to do all He commanded them and He would be with them.
• We never have to feel like God has left us, we never have to feel like we are left alone to deal with life.
• Those who are parents, do you enjoy, or want to sit back and watch your children suffer? You want to be with them.
• Story of Israel.
• The prophet Isaiah was writing to a people who had been through a lot of bad times.
• Here are God’s people, they have been defeated by the Assyrians, and then later they would be taken captive by the Babylonians.
• These people had to feel like God left them.
• In his book, Isaiah tried in chapters 40-48 to encourage Israel to know that God was still with them.
• SLIDE #11
• Isaiah 43:2–3 (ESV) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
• God was with them all the way!
• God is with you all the way, no struggle will come your way apart from God’s presence!
• SLIDE #12
No Struggle will come your way apart from God’s…
III. PERMISSION
• We do realize that God ALLOWED Jesus to go to the cross. God allowed His people to be enslaved in Egypt so they could learn.
• We need to understand something.
• SLIDE #13
• God sees the bigger picture, and knows what is best for us. When we accept His Lordship through our tough times, God is glorified.
• Why did God allow His Son to suffer? Do you not think He could have put a stop to that at any point?
• When Jesus was betrayed on the Garden of Gethsemane one of His followers drew their sword and cut the ear of the slave of the High Priest off.
• Look at what Jesus said
• SLIDE #14
• Matthew 26:53 (ESV) Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
• God saw the big picture.
• When Jesus was pleading with God to see it there was another way to save man besides Him going to the cross, do you think the Father sat there callously watching, not caring?
• It all happened because God allowed it and because God saw the big picture.
• Story of Job.
• In the book of Job, we have an example of God allowing Satan to put Job through some tough times. God knew Job would stand strong. Satan told God the only reason Job was so faithful was because God had blessed Job so much.
• God knew Job loved Him.
• SLIDE #15
• Job 2:3 (ESV) And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”
• God knows what you need to be able to grow in your faith.
• WE have to let our children experience things that will help them grow.
• When we accept His lordship, we trust that the Captain knows what He is doing!
• God’s ways are always right. They may not make sense to us. They may be mysterious, difficult, and even painful. But they are right.
• SLIDE #16
• Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
• If we do not believe, trust or put our faith in this passage, we will never really make it through the tough times of life.
• WE will never fully trust that God does have our back.
CONCLUSION
• Embracing the concept that Father Knows Best is a difficult one because it requires us to release control to God. It requires us to trust God not only during the good times, but also through the difficult times.
• Here is something that may help!
• Learn to say, I know God knows what is best.”
• Humbly pray, “I trust your lordship. I belong to you. Nothing comes to me that hasn’t already passed through you.”
