"born By Providence

“Born by Providence”

Matthew 10:27-31

A sermon for 7/04/21

Pastor John Bright

Matthew 10 27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

An old joke -

An auto dealer, facing bankruptcy, was walking along a beach when he kicked a bottle and out popped a genie. "Thanks for setting me free," said the genie. "To show my appreciation, I’ll grant you one wish."

"Okay," said the auto dealer, "I want to be the only foreign car dealer in a major metropolitan market."

"Done!" cried the genie.

Immediately, the dealer found himself in a glass-walled office looking out over a major city. "Quick," he said to his secretary, "tell me who I am."

"You’re the only Cadillac dealer in downtown Tokyo," said the secretary. 😊

SOURCE: The Jokesmith, Bits & Pieces, November 10, 1994, p. 4. Citation: Joel Smith in "Prayer that Gets Results" on www.sermoncentral.com.

There are lots of these kinds of jokes and they all go back to the Aladdin story from the old book known as “The Arabian Nights” or “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.” You know it – the genie is trapped in a lamp and upon being released he becomes the slave of whoever found the lamp. It is so tempting to think of God as the genie and make prayer the act of rubbing the lamp and God has to do whatever we ask. Of course, this is NOT HOW IT WORKS!

Let me give you another way of looking at it. What if we are the genie? Not that we can grant 3 wishes – no, we are the ones enslaved to the owner of the lamp. That would be a fair way to view the founders of our nation. They were being oppressed by a government that was about 4,000 miles away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In that day, it took four to six months to travel in a ship – that was how they got word from their government. No email, no text messages. It was written on paper and sent on a ship. Think about this – how much could change in a few months? What about in a year when you are waiting for a reply?

It was in this world – so strange to us – that the First Continental Congress met in 1774. They represented the thirteen colonies that were begun in the almost two centuries since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in December of 1620. They believed that God had directed them to a place of freedom. That is what our founders were seeking – freedom. So they turned to God – the same God that had delivered the Israelites from Egypt. They needed to be delivered and they believed that was God’s Sovereign Plan.

This was always God’s plan v. 27-28

27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

God designed the whole universe and put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with free will. They chose to disobey God and our world was fallen. The fallenness of mankind is evident in every part of the Bible and in every part of history recorded over the centuries. Here in Matthew, Jesus explains that we have to keep proclaiming – loud and clear – that there is another way to live. If we follow the ways of this world, this culture – it ends in what we call eternal damnation in hell. That’s how God designed it – no matter what a wacky troll on social media wants to say about “a loving god would never send anybody to hell.” That’s right – He doesn’t – we choose to do what sends us to hell. We can also choose the path to eternal life. That’s what we are supposed to shouting from the rooftops! (Are we?)

The founders of our nation were not looking at salvation or damnation – they were focused on Divine Providence. What’s that? I went to my favorite website for concise answers to Christian matters – GotQuestions.org: