THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD
1- PLAN OF GOD
2- PURPOSE OF GOD
3- PROMISE OF GOD
Proverbs 16:9
Psalms 62:5-8
I remember back a few years ago Bro. Joe Arthur was telling this story about him being at a camp meeting.
He said that this church they were in was fancy, I mean you are talking about real fancy, everything in it was polished and shiny and glittery.
Members there drove fancy cars and wore fancy cloths and Bro. Joe and Bro Lance Carpenter didn’t even know why they were invited there.
He just guessed everyone else cancelled on them because he was just a redneck in this fancy place.
Bro. Joe noticed that three woman came walking in, they were three ladies, one was the mom and the other two were her daughters. If you had ever had the pleasure hearing them or seeing them you know what I mean.
You see these ladies come out from the hill here in Alabama. I mean deep in those woods too! They don’t wear fancy clothes or fancy hairdo’s or even a fancy car.
These three ladies are about as plain as you can get here.
Well Bro. Lance was called up to sing and as he got to the microphone, he said, “ I believe the Lord wants the Henderson’s to come up here and sing tonight”
Bro Joe said a man was sitting next to him and this guy had five (5) earned degrees from a university. I mean there was so much education that he just got uncomfortable. Remember Bro. Joe is just a redneck and he just can’t help it.
So Bro. Lance called on the Henderson’s.
That old fancy educated crowd eyeballed them as they got up to sing. Everything they sing they sing a- Capella, meaning they don’t need no music playing.
That Mama threw back her head and let out the first line of that song, “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus”, them two daughters join right in there with their mama, and that man with those 5 degrees sitting right there next to him, he got up and ran around that place about 5 times, he shouted, he was a praising God….listen about 50 people started shouting too.
And Bro Joe said to himself…” That right there is against everything that this world says you got to have to be happy”
I want to tell you this, The Holy Ghost made the difference, I said the Holy Ghost made the difference.
Don’t ever let some knot head preacher talk you out of singing about Heaven, glory to God…sing about it!
This generation I preach to needs to hear a whole lot about it.
Because we are living in the nasty here and now.
And thank God for the sweet bye and bye.
When you have the Holy Ghost in you, when you see reality, you hookup to that which is not real, you don’t really want to hook up to that, you just endure that.
You may not enjoy it, but you endure it.
Today I want to read this text here and just testify for a few minutes.
Proverbs 16:9
9 - A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Psalms 62:5-8
5 - My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.
6 - He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved.
7 - In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
8 - Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
I want to use for a subject – The Providence of God.
I’m glad God knows all about me, he knows all about you too. He knows where we are in the storms, the adversities and the falls, the uprisings, he knows all of this.
WE some time think God does not have a plan for us when thing are happening in our lives that seems there is not a light at the end of the tunnel.
But God knows all that and he cares.
Our problem may just be a sovereign affliction, you realize that is coming from a providential hand of God. That doesn’t work by afterthoughts but works by forethought!
Sometimes we need to understand this was sent by a loving God to mature your faith in him as God.
When God gets through with his plan and his purpose, I will understand His promise.
God can take beauty and bring that beauty out of the ashes.
God can get glory out of gloom.
God can bring victory out of defeat.
The worse thing that has ever happened to us in the providence and plan of the Almighty God, it can be turned out to be one of the greatest things that has ever happened to us.
David sad in the Book of Psalms, (119:71) “It was good for me that I have been afflicted”.
Want to remind you today ladies and gentlemen that Roman 8:28 is still the inspired Word of the living God, “That all things work together to them that love God”
We may not understand it, we may not can figure it out but God has a plan, and when he is finished with His plan for our lives we will be better off than when we went in.
I’m glad today that my life rest in the hands of a merciful God that knows my name and he knows my nature and he’s never a day late or a dollar short.
He has this way in the whirlwind and the storms, he is not in worry land. He is the calm in the midst of the storm.
Aren’t you glad God has a plan for our lives today? He is a just God and that is just how he operates.
How do you know preacher God has a plan a purpose and a promise for us? Because as Job said in the Old Testament, as the dark clouds were all around him in the times of afflictions, Job, said “I know my redeemer liveth”
Now that “ITH” in the Greek just means now and forever. It never keeps running out, it just keeps going on and on.
I don’t know about you but I do know that my plan and purpose is in the hands of a mighty God and He does love me.
WE do not serve a dead God, We serve a God that is alive and He is real and he is Holy and He is still on the throne today and forever!
As long as God is alive, he will work everything out for His glory and yours.
IF GOD WAS DEAD HE COULDN’T DO ANYTHING.
IF GOD WAS DEAD HE COULDN’T ANSWER PRAYERS
IF GOD WAS DEAD HE COULDN'T STILL STORMS
IF GOD WAS DEAD HE COULDN’T MEET NEEDS
IF GOD WAS DEAD HE COULDN’T WALK ON WATER
BUT BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A WAVE WALKER
BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A TABLE SPREADER
BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A PEACE SPEAKER
BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A NEED MEETER
BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A PRAYER ANSWERER
BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE HE IS A BURDEN LIFTER, AND A PROBLEM SOLVER, AND A JOY BRINGER AND A HEART CALMER AND A NERVE SETTLER.
Listen church he is alive!
We may be sinking in the despair of diversity but he comes to our ship in the 4th watch of the night, walking on the water saying, “ IT IS I, BE NOT AFRAID”
Aren’t you glad today that if you are saved there is somebody that is Holy and Pure and Sovereign and Eternal and He lives in us?
I’m going to make it through this valley because He has a plan for me and God will not fail!
Well, he is not even sick, He ain’t even feeling bad, he is still alive and he is alive in me.
He is not some bald-headed incense smoking totem pole
He doesn’t live in a shrine, nor a smoke filled Mosque.
He is not even attached to a crucifix around somebody’s neck.
He’s not in the Manger, he is not on the cross, he is defiantly not in the cemetery.
You might be saying then, Where is he…..WELL
You might say you don’t look like much to me, but you are looking at the outside but the Psalmists said in Psalms 45:13
The king's daughter is all glorious within” It’s not what I have on the outside, it’s who I have on the inside, I know where He is, He is inside me and has a plan for my life.
I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR
He is in the world today, I know he is risen, whatever men may say, I’ve seen His hand of mercy.
I’ve heard His voice of cheer.
And just in time I need Him He is always there.
He is alive today and his plan are perfect because He is still God and He is still Holy and He is still on the Throne.
Circumstances may change, storms may change and the wind may change but God won’t change!
He told the profit Malachi, “I am the Lord and I change not”
He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
He is healing for our past, help for our present and hope for our future, he got all the territory covered.
Somebody said to me, “Pray for me preacher”, God only knows what I am going through. Well that’s all that needs to know anyways.
God knows our uprising, he knows our down sittings and a sparrow does not even fall from the heavens without God knowing it.
God knows all about us, he knows our frame, he knows our needs!
I mean when your church does not understand you, when family does not understand you, when your preacher does not understand you, but somewhere in the shadows is the lovely Lord Jesus Christ, the sympathizing Saviour is there and He understands all about it.
He does more than understands, He cares!
I’ve met some breathen that cared but they didn’t understand, I’ve meet some that understood but didn’t care.
I’m glad when the breather don’t understand and when the people don’t understand, aren’t you glad there a lovely Lord Jesus and he is in touch, he’s acquainted, He’s well informed.
I’m telling you God knows your pain and your sorrow.
He knows the problem, He knows where you are at, He saw you weeping by the well side, He saw you sleeping under the tree. He saw you looking on the top of the mountains. He knows, God knows the plan to get you back on that refreshing path.
God does not have luck or chance or happenings!
We’re living in the plan of God, where living in the Providence of God, I’m telling you God is still on the throne today.
Oh I’ve heard it, pray for me preacher, I’ve run into some bad luck, No- You just ran into an handful of purpose.
God has a plan, God has a purpose, I still believe God’s got a purpose for His people.
I do not believe God is on the throne this morning wringing his hands out, saying to the angels, “what am I going to do next”, He saw the end before the beginning even got cranked up.
But let’s look at the purpose of God for a minute here.
Lazarus is sick and they send for Jesus, the Bible said He abode for 4 days.
Somebody said, well why didn’t he hurry up? When you created time, you do not have to be bound by it.
Somebody said that this boy is sick, when you are the great physician you don’t have to get in a hurry.
If your patient dies before you get there, he is also the resurrection and the life.
And by the way, as sovereign and Holy as He is, He didn’t even have to go to Bethany, He could have just spoke way over there and God would have healed him over there.
But…to show he had a purpose, he just took his time.
I want you to know, when they didn’t see him, he was heading in that direction.
Oh yea, I said I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing happened yet. He’s heading your way.
Just keep saying Jesus, Jesus, he will show up.
And when he gets there He will know what to do.
When He came into town, little old Martha came running out to him and said, if you would have been here, he would not have died, but I know he will be raised in the resurrection””
She told the truth, - She might have had a bad attitude, but what she said was true.
You can’t die around the resurrection
Jesus had to die first before the two thieves could have died.
I mean an undertaker’s worse nightmare is for Jesus to show up at one of his services. When Jesus shows up he would have to give a cash refund. You listening to me – You can’t die around the resurrection.
YOU CAN’T STARVE TO DEATH AROUND THE BREAD OF LIFE.
YOU CAN’T WALK IN DARKNESS AROUND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
YOU CAN’T BE IN ERROR WHEN YOU ARE SHAKING HANDS WITH THE TRUTH.
YOU CAN’T BUMP AROUND IN THE DARK, WHEN YOU ARE WALKING IN THE WAY.
Listen Martha said, if you would have been here he would not have died. Then she said, my brother, I know he is going to be live in the resurrection….
…Jesus looked down into Martha eyes and said Honey read my lips, “I am the resurrection”
Little ole Mary came running out there, weeping at the feet of Jesus.
Then she felt something hit her hand, and she looked up (well glory I felt a breeze come through) She looked up and he was a weeping too.
She was a weeping and Jesus was a weeping, her tears got to mingling with His tears and his tears got to mingling with her tears.
Then Jesus went to strutting!!!!!! And Jesus was standing there glowing in the Spirit!
I want to tell you something here, when Jesus comes to your Bethany and starts weeping with you and glowing in the Holy Ghost you better look out son, Your Lazarus is going to get up and go walking around.
Aren’t you glad today Jesus has got a plan and a purpose for our lives?
You may say that I look like a mess, and I may look like a horrible piece of flesh but God got a plan, God’s got a purpose and when He is finished, when the fire is at its hottest as Job said, “I shall come forth as gold”
Aren’t you glad God is still in control this morning in your life?
God is aware of our storms.
Turn with me to James 1:12
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
When the temptations has passed, when the trial has passed, notice here, we shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised.
When God says there is a promise, honey you can write it in stone, you can bookmark it, you can rest easy that it’s true and blue. He is no Indian giver, He is God and He can’t lie or tell a story.
The promise of God is, “If we love him, the crown of life is awaiting you and me”
One day we are going to get out of here, we are going to have a new body, another country where we will never have any more storms.
I remind you this morning, that Jesus is a coming back for His children.
It seems like in the year 20_22_, we don’t believe that any more. It does not thrill us like it used to.
I remember back in those old revivals, on Monday they would preach on the 10 commandments, On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday it would be on Hell, then Saturday it was Second Coming night!
Man, they went to shouting it out that night, just because somebody said Jesus was a coming back!
I know in 20_22_ and apostasy gone to the devil, but I just heard from Heaven and he is still a coming back!
I know the promise of God will be fulfilled and I am looking toward that Eastern sky.
Hey, your neighbors might think you are crazy since you got saved, They think you done got mixed up with pone of those cults.
I ain’t got no pink lemonade with me, and we ain’t looking for some comet in the sky but I am looking for a cloud coming in from the East.
They think you went down to this church where them Baptist act like a bunch of Holy Rollers and you’ve been brainwashed by that outfit.
I don’t see nobody brainwashed, but I see do see people that are Blood Washed!!!!
You neighbors think you are crazy, you go to church Sunday Morning, Sunday Might, Wednesday Night just to hear them scream and yell at you and you even give them money to do it!
The all see you leave and they say, “There they go, those right-wingers there they go to that meeting.
I want to tell you something, I’d rather be on the right wing, serving God, reading the right Bible, living the right life than being on the left side and be left behind when the Lord comes back.
One of these days Jesus is a coming back through the air and those same neighbors will be say”There they go, there they go!!!
Church while they are saying there they go there will be another side in the portals of glory saying, “Here they come, here they come”
It ain’t over yet, He’s not forgot about us, he’s not forsaken us, and He is still a coming for the church of the living God.
All I can tell you to do, when you are in a storm, just drop an anchor and trust in the captain because He’s God and He will never leave you.
God’s Providence and His plan and his purpose and his promise are true and real, just trust him.
I don’t know this morning what all your needs are but God does.
You may need to find a place in this alter just to ask God to give you that direction in your life.
Tell Him you need a plan
Tell Him you need a purpose
Oh, God I need that promise.
Is there a storm in your life? Trust the Saviour, I promise you, he won’t fail you.
