Review:
Listen to Incomparably SovereignWhen I believe God is sovereign...
- I believe He uses trials for Good! (Acts 8:1-4)
- I believe He can save Anyone! (Acts 8:1, 3)
- I believe He has Work for me to do. (Acts 8:5-8)
Review: Gal 4:13 | Phil 1:12
Suffering is a vehicle to witness!!
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
Put up your Bibles with me.
00:03-00:05
We're going to be in Acts 8.
00:06-00:10
Acts 8, we're going to be picking up in the first verse.
00:11-00:15
And let's just pause and pray as we turn our hearts to God's Word.
00:16-00:19
Father, just now we were about to turn to Your Word.
00:20-00:30
And we are going to be talking about in some very personal and emotional matters.
00:32-00:37
We're going to be talking about an area, Father, that I know that I certainly need to grow and mature.
00:39-00:46
I'm sure I have some brothers and sisters here today who would say this is an area where they need to grow and mature.
00:47-00:54
So I pray, Father, that You would engage our hearts in this subject, but I also pray that You would engage our minds.
00:55-01:02
I pray, Father, that this theology that we discussed doesn't become some academic exercise that was interesting.
01:02-01:04
And here's a couple of things I learned at church.
01:05-01:17
I pray, Father, that this theology would lead us to know and understand You in a deeper, greater way.
01:19-01:27
If we can gaze upon your beauty, we might understand the way that you interact with man.
01:29-01:31
We ask your Holy Spirit be our Teacher.
01:31-01:34
I don't have it in me.
01:36-01:37
I don't have the words.
01:39-01:42
It has to be Your Word, and it has to be the power of Your Spirit.
01:42-01:44
Father, that's what we ask for right now.
01:47-01:48
Engage us with Your truth.
01:50-01:51
We pray in Jesus' name.
01:52-01:55
For all of God's people said, Amen.
01:56-01:57
Acts chapter 8, are you there?
01:59-02:04
We have been talking for the past few weeks about a man named Stephen.
02:06-02:12
If you recall, Stephen was a minister in the church.
02:13-02:23
certain Hellenistic Jews when they couldn't debate well with Stephen, they spread some false rumors about him accusing him of blasphemy.
02:23-02:28
And Stephen was put on trial for the council.
02:30-02:32
And remember, we saw Stephen's sermon.
02:32-02:36
He said to the religious leaders of his day, "You're just like your ancestors.
02:36-02:40
You rebel against God and you reject everyone that God sends.
02:42-02:46
and now God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, and you've rejected Him too.
02:48-02:51
Furious, they dragged Stephen out of the city.
02:52-02:53
We saw this last week.
02:53-02:55
They stoned him.
02:55-02:57
This was not a legal execution.
02:58-02:59
This was a mob attack.
03:01-03:07
This passage in Acts 8 is beginning a shift in the book of Acts.
03:07-03:11
A shift that results from the fallout about Stephen's murder.
03:13-03:18
Now, we are so blessed to have God's Word because we have God's perspective on the event.
03:19-03:29
But could you imagine if we didn't have God's Word on the event, but we just had a secular, historical account of what happened that day?
03:30-03:37
I'm sure today we would be sitting around talking about Stephen's death using a certain word.
03:39-03:40
Pointless.
03:41-03:42
It was a pointless death.
03:43-03:44
I mean, think about Stephen.
03:44-03:48
He had literally everything going for him.
03:49-03:50
He was a leader in the church.
03:50-03:52
He was respected in the church.
03:52-03:53
He was this young man.
03:53-03:55
He was angel-faced.
03:56-03:57
And a great speaker.
03:57-03:58
He knew his Old Testament.
03:58-04:01
He knew the Scriptures frontwards and backwards.
04:03-04:06
And here's a man who had We have every single thing going for him.
04:07-04:11
And as far as I can tell from Scripture, this might have been the first sermon he ever preached.
04:12-04:12
I don't know.
04:13-04:14
But that's the first one we have recorded.
04:14-04:18
And it was also the last one we have recorded from Stephen.
04:20-04:20
Cut down.
04:22-04:24
Seems kind of pointless, doesn't it?
04:25-04:30
Or maybe we would use the word "senseless." Why in the world would that happen?
04:32-04:33
It's like a failure, doesn't it?
04:35-04:42
Because we're going to see in this passage after Stephen was killed, it sparked persecution that actually scattered the church.
04:43-04:46
We can look at this event and say this was an epic fail.
04:46-04:50
The church was doing so well in Jerusalem and it was growing.
04:50-04:51
The people were coming to Christ.
04:52-04:55
And then one of the ministers gets killed and the church scatters.
04:55-04:58
And what an epic fail!
04:59-05:00
Pointless, right?
05:02-05:05
Well, this is where the rubber meets the road.
05:07-05:21
Because today we're going to see in the passage something that we've talked about several times over the past few months, especially when we went through "Incomparable God" - our series through Isaiah.
05:21-05:23
We spent a whole message just on this one topic.
05:25-05:26
We're going to be talking about sovereignty.
05:28-05:31
Sovereignty - what does it mean God is sovereign.
05:32-05:33
We throw that word around.
05:33-05:34
I'd like to remind you of the definition.
05:34-05:38
The word "sovereign" literally means "solely reigns." That's what it means.
05:39-05:41
It means that God is in control.
05:41-05:46
God is in charge over every single molecule in the universe.
05:46-05:47
God is in charge.
05:48-05:52
Over every single event in the universe, God is in charge.
05:52-05:53
He solely reigns.
05:53-05:55
God doesn't sit on a council.
05:56-05:59
God doesn't have people advising Him.
05:59-06:05
"Well, you know, Lord, here's how I think you should conduct matters." God doesn't have that, because God doesn't need that.
06:06-06:09
He solely reigns in perfect wisdom.
06:10-06:19
So when we look at this passage today, and as we examine our own lives, we really have two choices.
06:21-06:26
Either God is sovereign, or He is not.
06:29-06:38
And typically in the church, being around people, God gets credit for sovereignty when the good things happen.
06:40-06:44
But we are very shy about giving God credit for sovereignty when the bad things happen.
06:45-06:45
True or false?
06:46-06:46
True or false, right?
06:47-06:51
When the good things happen, it's like, "God caused that!
06:51-06:51
Who brought that?
06:52-06:57
And then when something bad happens, we start to wonder.
06:59-07:00
Where was God? Right?
07:01-07:02
Where was God on that one?
07:03-07:04
Doesn't He know?
07:06-07:12
For example, you get that job that you applied for that you wanted.
07:13-07:14
God gave me that job!
07:15-07:18
Wasn't it awesome that in God's sovereignty He gave me that job?
07:19-07:20
What about when you lose your job?
07:22-07:23
Was God sovereign over that too?
07:25-07:28
You know, you get that raise at work.
07:29-07:30
God's sovereignty!
07:32-07:34
God got me this raise!
07:35-07:36
God gets credit for that.
07:36-07:40
What about when your job forces you to take a pay cut?
07:42-07:43
Was God sovereign over that too?
07:46-07:48
You meet that special someone and got married.
07:49-07:50
for so many young people.
07:50-07:54
God just brought that person into my life and God gets credit for the sovereignty there.
07:55-07:57
What about the person that wants to get married?
07:57-08:01
That wants to meet that person and God hasn't brought that person into their life yet?
08:02-08:05
Has God sovereign over that as well?
08:06-08:08
What about with having children?
08:10-08:12
The biggest demographic of our church is babies, right?
08:12-08:19
And I preach one sermon on marital intimacy Everybody applies that one.
08:22-08:25
And we have so many babies in our church.
08:26-08:28
And the Lord gave us a baby.
08:29-08:30
Yes, absolutely He did.
08:32-08:34
What about the couples that want a baby?
08:35-08:36
And the Lord hasn't provided.
08:37-08:43
The question is, is God sovereign over that just as He was sovereign over the people that received the baby?
08:45-08:46
So is God sovereign?
08:47-08:48
God sovereign all the time.
08:48-08:50
Is God sovereign over all things?
08:50-08:59
You know Romans 8, 28, we can quote it, and we know that God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
08:59-09:00
All things?
09:00-09:00
Really?
09:01-09:04
That's the big word in question in that verse, isn't it?
09:04-09:04
All things.
09:04-09:05
Is it really all things?
09:06-09:11
Is God really working all things together for good?
09:13-09:13
All things.
09:15-09:26
many, many years ago, a good friend of mine from high school - his sister - died in a horrible car accident.
09:29-09:44
I was a young believer at the time, still learning some things about God, still learning some things about sovereignty, and I look back in this event and I can say absolutely before you that I said the right thing, I said it at the wrong time.
09:46-09:57
But I remember being at my friend's house after the funeral, and a bunch of his sister's friends were over, and a bunch of family was over, and something came up about God.
10:00-10:06
And I said something along the lines - I can't remember exactly what I said, but I remember the response for sure.
10:07-10:11
I said something along the lines of, well, God has a reason for everything.
10:13-10:22
I'll never forget this deceased girl's - one of her very good friends - as soon as I said that, wailing.
10:24-10:25
Wailing.
10:26-10:34
She said, "What possible reason would God have for allowing this to happen?" I didn't have an answer.
10:37-10:41
Her words echo in my heart to this day.
10:43-10:44
She verbalized them.
10:47-10:52
So often in situations like that, even if we don't verbalize them, we'll internalize them.
10:53-10:53
Why?
10:53-10:59
What possible motivation could God have for allowing something like that?
11:01-11:31
That was not the time for me to say what I said, though the words are true. I don't need to know the reason to know that there is a reason. And this passage we're looking at today shows us that even when things look as bad as they can get, God is still at work. It's time for us to examine what we believe about God's sovereignty.
11:33-11:38
On your outline, "When I believe God is sovereign," here's three things that are true, OK?
11:38-11:42
"When I believe God is sovereign," we're going to write down three things.
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Number one, write this down.
11:45-11:50
"When I believe God is sovereign, I believe He uses trials for good." Let's look at the text.
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Verse 1 says, "And Saul approved of his execution." We talked about that last week.
11:57-12:10
Remember, as the council was stoning Stephen outside the city, Luke mentions, as he wrote the book of Acts under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke mentions that there's a young man named Saul that was watching the coats.
12:10-12:11
That was a common practice.
12:11-12:33
You know, sort of like, "Hold my things, I got work to do." Luke mentions, "There's a man named Saul holding the coats," and then in verse 1 he says, "And Saul approved of his execution." You know, Luke is driving a point, and we're going to talk about this here in a couple minutes, but it wasn't as if Saul was like, "Okay, I'll watch your coach, but I'm not really crazy about what's happening." He was standing there going, "Get him.
12:34-12:34
Kill him.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
12:37-12:42
Yeah." Approving of the council's actions, approving of Stephen's execution.
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It says, "And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.
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and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
13:00-13:07
So far in Acts, the persecution was only after the church leaders, the apostles and Stephen.
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We saw the leaders targeted.
13:08-13:13
Now in the book of Acts we see the whole church was under attack.
13:15-13:24
Now when it says in verse 1, they were all scattered, It doesn't mean that every single Christian in Jerusalem was scattered.
13:24-13:25
Well, how do you know that?
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Because we still see the Jerusalem church in Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 11, Acts chapter 15, Acts chapter 21.
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There's still a church in Jerusalem and your Bible says that the apostles stayed.
13:37-13:43
Okay, so when the Bible says "all there," it doesn't mean that every single Christian left Jerusalem.
13:44-13:48
It just meant church at large was scattered over the area.
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Does that make sense?
13:51-13:59
Also notice it talks about where they spread, interestingly enough, throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.
13:59-14:00
Does that sound familiar?
14:01-14:02
Does that sound familiar?
14:04-14:07
You remember what Jesus said back in the beginning before He ascended?
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He says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in, remember, Jerusalem?
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What's next?
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Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
14:26-14:29
And at this point next, you could say Jerusalem, checked, right?
14:30-14:32
They were witnesses in Jerusalem.
14:34-14:37
Now they are witnesses in the very next two places that Jesus mentioned, Judea and Samaria.
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This is the church spreading.
14:42-14:46
The apostles stayed behind, but the plan that Jesus laid out was moving forward.
14:46-14:47
Look at verse 2.
14:49-15:02
"Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him." And I want you to note here that Stephen is honored, not blamed.
15:03-15:03
Okay?
15:05-15:09
I think it would have been really easy for the church to blame Stephen at this point, Don't you?
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I don't really have to sell you on that.
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We live in a day where everybody's offended by everything.
15:15-15:19
Could you imagine what Facebook would have looked like in this day, had it existed?
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Stephen should have kept his mouth shut.
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You know, Stephen goes firing Brimstone on the council.
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What did he think was going to happen?
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Now the church is ruined because Stephen couldn't keep his mouth shut.
15:36-15:39
Why didn't Stephen - why didn't he just water it down a little bit?
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Why didn't he sugarcoat it?
15:40-15:43
Why didn't he just ease up on the Gospel a little bit?
15:43-15:45
Why didn't he try to find some middle ground with the council?
15:46-15:51
Why didn't he play golf with the high priest and get to know him a little bit before he came in with the hard truth?
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Why did Stephen do that?
15:53-15:54
Why did he do that?
15:55-15:56
Look what he did.
15:57-16:00
Everything was going great, and look what Stephen did.
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You see, if those comments were circulating, you have to see in your Bible coming from the church.
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It says the devout men were making lamentation.
16:10-16:11
They were mourning Him.
16:11-16:12
They were honoring Him.
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The devout people were not blaming Him.
16:16-16:23
So often we are looking for someone to blame when God is actually working.
16:23-16:24
I'm going to talk about that in a second.
16:25-16:26
Look at verse 3.
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It says, "But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
16:40-16:40
The end.
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It looks like Acts could have ended there.
16:45-16:48
Jesus had this plan to build His church.
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At this point in the book of Acts, it looks like Luke could have just wrote "the end," except it wasn't the end.
16:59-17:00
Because look at verse 4.
17:01-17:12
He says, "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the Word." This was not the church's intended vision.
17:13-17:30
You know, the persecution would come, and "Honey, good news, we're going on a mission trip." "When are we leaving?" "We're leaving now." "We're going to Samaria to preach." That wasn't the church's intended vision, This was Jesus' vision from the beginning.
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This was how He made it come about.
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I would have liked to have seen the look on Satan's face.
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It says the scattered believers preached.
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Satan thought at this point, church is done.
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Church is done. Church was going great.
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Church is scattered.
17:48-17:53
Now all of a sudden, we don't have just a bunch of people in one area talking about Jesus.
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Now all of a sudden, we have people all over the region We're talking about Jesus.
17:59-18:00
We're talking about a backfire.
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Note that comfort does nothing for the church.
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With this persecution coming upon the church and this hardship and these trials, comfort does nothing for the church.
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This is a proven fact.
18:14-18:17
In times of comfort in the church, you're going to find less prayer.
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A church that is comfortable and has all the needs met and isn't facing persecution doesn't feel compelled to pray.
18:26-18:32
It's also proven that there's less giving when the church is comfortable.
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We would think that there'd be less giving when there's hardship, but that is emphatically untrue.
18:39-18:48
Giving is worship, and you find more and deeper and greater expressions of worship when the church is going through hardship.
18:49-18:55
At this point in the Jerusalem church, It's so easy to just settle in.
18:55-19:00
I mean, if Stephen wasn't executed, can't you just imagine how the rest of the book of Acts would look?
19:00-19:10
The church grew, and they built greater buildings with air conditioner and big screens and state-of-the-art surround sound and HD and The End.
19:11-19:13
It would have been so easy for them to just settle in.
19:14-19:15
Like, hey, our thing's working great here.
19:15-19:16
People are getting saved.
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And everybody seems to be happy.
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and things are moving here in the church.
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It was never God's plan to just keep that little bit of leaven in that part of the loaf.
19:32-19:34
The plan was always to spread.
19:36-19:37
God's plan was bigger.
19:38-19:51
And for some reason, a reason that after more than 20 years of following Christ, I just confess before you, I don't understand completely.
19:53-19:56
But for some reason, God chooses to accomplish His work.
19:57-20:01
Some of His greatest work, He chooses to accomplish through hardship and suffering.
20:03-20:05
I've read the Bible. I understand the Bible.
20:07-20:09
I understand the head thing.
20:11-20:19
It's just very hard for me to understand sometimes God would choose to use hardship.
20:23-20:23
But He does.
20:26-20:32
And when I struggle with the question, I have to remind myself that He is God, and I am not.
20:35-20:38
In fact, Jesus actually told us this is exactly what was going to happen.
20:38-20:41
I want you to listen to Luke 21, verses 12 and 13.
20:42-20:58
Jesus said, "But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for My name's sake." This is exactly what was happening.
20:58-21:00
I want you to hear the next thing that Jesus says.
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This is so key.
21:02-21:04
Listen to the next thing Jesus says.
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"This will be your opportunity to bear witness." Did you catch that?
21:11-21:17
Jesus said they are going to drag you, persecute you, they're going to put you on trial.
21:20-21:20
Why?
21:21-21:25
Jesus said this is going to be your opportunity to bear witness.
21:26-21:27
So here's what Jesus was saying.
21:28-21:30
This would be a great thing to write down.
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Because even if you don't need it now, you're going to need this in 15 minutes or a week.
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You're going to need this.
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Write this down.
21:38-21:40
Suffering is a vehicle to witness.
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Suffering is a vehicle to witness.
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God wants you to witness.
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So many times, the way that God's going to get you to the place in which He wants you to witness, the vehicle to get you there is usually suffering.
21:59-22:00
Still not convinced?
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I want you to jot some references down.
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Book of Genesis.
22:05-22:13
God let Joseph suffer in prison to eventually save all of Israel.
22:15-22:18
And I want you to notice that Joseph didn't blame his brothers.
22:18-22:22
You remember the end of the story when Joseph was reunited with his family.
22:22-22:22
Do you remember what he said?
22:23-22:25
"You stupid jerk sold me out!
22:26-22:28
You stupid jerk!" He didn't blame.
22:29-22:31
He saw God's sovereignty.
22:31-22:44
He said, "You meant it for harm, but God meant it for good." An entire nation was saved, and God accomplished this purpose by allowing a righteous man, Joseph, to suffer in prison.
22:46-22:54
Galatians 4.13, the Apostle Paul says that he preached the gospel to them because of a bodily ailment.
22:55-23:00
Meaning this, the Apostle Paul, we don't have all the details, but here's the details we do have.
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And also, Paul ended up going to this southern glacier region and preaching and planting four churches all because of a physical ailment.
23:10-23:11
He got sick.
23:11-23:17
Some people say it was an eye problem, or I don't know if he had the gout, or I don't know what his problem was exactly.
23:17-23:17
He doesn't say.
23:19-23:26
But God used his physical suffering as a vehicle to take him to preach and plant those churches.
23:28-23:30
Paul didn't blame God for that.
23:31-23:31
"You know what, God?
23:32-23:39
I'd be so much more effective in ministry if I didn't have this stupid health problem." He saw God's sovereignty.
23:39-23:45
He said, "You used this health problem to bring people to Christ." You see that?
23:46-23:46
Still not convinced?
23:47-23:47
Alright.
23:48-23:49
Philippians 1:12.
23:50-24:00
The Apostle Paul said his suffering in prison has "served to advance the Gospel." I could feel like they got a raw deal with me, Paul.
24:02-24:05
Here's a preacher who spent so much of his life in prison.
24:06-24:11
It would be real easy for Paul to be sitting in the prison singing, "Stupid government!
24:12-24:14
I didn't do anything wrong!
24:14-24:20
I don't know why I'm being punished for this!" He didn't sit around looking for somebody to blame.
24:20-24:22
He saw God's sovereignty.
24:23-24:27
And he said this imprisonment has served to advance the Gospel.
24:29-24:30
Are you still not convinced?
24:33-24:35
How about the cross of Jesus Christ?
24:38-24:45
Jesus would have had every right while on the cross to say, "Those foolish religious leaders don't get it!
24:45-24:48
How can they know the Scriptures and not recognize Me?
24:48-24:50
How can they be so stupid?
24:51-25:56
Why is this happening to Me?" Jesus never said any of those things he knew and trusted his father's sovereignty. That God allowed Jesus to suffer so that sure salvation could be purchased. So that you could have the promise of eternal life. God allowed his son to suffer for that. I was talking with Mark Ford before service, he comes and prays with me, before the service, and we just had this conversation. I wouldn't let my son suffer for you. Either of my sons. If it was down to they suffer or you suffer, it's going to be you suffering every time. I wouldn't give one of my kids for you. I wouldn't give one of my kids for anybody. That's what makes the love of God so extraordinary because He was willing to let His son die. God used suffering as a vehicle, and in Jesus' case not just to witness but to purchase salvation.
25:59-26:17
So are you convinced now? We'll find out if you're convinced. We'll find out. Like when will we find out? We'll find out when you're at the hospital and you've just experienced an injury or a close family member was injured or you need to go through a surgery of some type.
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We'll find out if you're blaming God or if you're trusting God's sovereignty.
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I can tell you stories of people in this church that through hospital experiences had opportunity to witness God using suffering as a vehicle for witness.
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You trust God's sovereignty when you're at that new job you didn't want to get.
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"I love my old job. I don't know why Are you looking for blame?
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Or are you trusting God's sovereignty?
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What about that new address?
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We've had a lot of that in our church.
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People that had to move for work, for vocational reasons.
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Is that something you blame someone for?
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"I would have liked to stay in this area." I just had this conversation with a guy a couple of weeks ago.
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"I wish I could have stayed there.
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I didn't want to move." I didn't want to move. I love the church and I love the area.
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I didn't want to move.
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He wasn't looking for someone to blame.
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He's trusting God's sovereignty.
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God has me here for a reason.
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Yes, I love the church. Yes, I love the area.
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But I understand that God has me here for a reason.
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Don't wallow in blame.
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God will use whatever trial you're going through for good.
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It's going to be a vehicle to witness.
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When I believe God is sovereign, I believe that He uses trials for good.
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Secondly, quickly, when I believe God is sovereign, I believe He can save anyone.
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Again, just jumping back to verses 1-3 again.
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Saul approved of His execution.
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Verse 3, Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house.
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He dragged off men and women and submitted them to prison.
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Heartless.
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So we - tracing Saul's story - he went from watching the coats - chapter 7, verse 58 - to approving, to actively, hands-on, involved in persecuting the church.
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And we know the rest of Saul's story.
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Just imagine what was going through the church's mind at the time.
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the rest of the story so we'll read this oh yeah he becomes the Apostle Paul like a page later okay yeah we know that but imagine living through this and watching this man's life what would you have thought about him this guy's gonna be public enemy of the church forever this guy's never gonna get it this is the the worst guy on the planet and the church thought that you flip over to to Acts 9 when Paul does get saved.
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Like the church didn't believe it.
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Keep this guy away from us.
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We know what he's about.
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They were afraid.
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They didn't believe he was legit saved.
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He's getting worse.
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He's further and further and further from God.
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And I'd just like to remind you here that we all have people in our lives that we think will never get it.
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Do you have somebody like that in your life?
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Do you have somebody like that in your life?
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This guy's never going to get it.
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This guy is never going to get it.
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This guy's never going to come to Christ.
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To my shame, I have said that about people in the past.
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You see somebody that hates the church and hates Jesus and looks for every opportunity to blaspheme - to my shame, I've said that.
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Like, that guy's never going to get it.
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No, really, Jeff.
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that underhanded co-worker, that atheist and proud family member, that "I went to church once and I hated it" friend.
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Paul forever stands as proof that God can save anyone.
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Sometimes I wonder if Paul's association with Luke as Luke was under inspiration of the Holy Spirit writing the book of Revelation this account of Paul was like, "Can you leave that part out?" Saul was ravaging the church. Can you use a different word other than ravaging?
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Maybe Paul was giving the church dirty looks or something like that.
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But I think under inspiration of the Holy Spirit we have this testimony to show us that if God can save this guy, God can save anyone.
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God does not lack the power to regenerate any debt doesn't lack the power when i'm tempted to write someone off easy for me i've been keeping a journal since i was sixteen and there are times i just one out go through it when i was a teenager i was not on the track to become a pastor it's just leave it at that I look at these and I'm like, "Who wrote this?" I can't believe that...
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I mean, it's my writing, and I signed off on it, but I can't believe this is even me.
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When I'm tempted to write someone off, all I need to do is look in the mirror and say, "God saved that guy." "God's grace was greater than this guy's." It's kind of funny sometimes because last week i told you the story last week about it being at the dance of the guy was trying to kill me get rid of that story that goes you know switchblade between the ribs like i i guess they must call and take the rest of the story you know i met up with carl years later i show up for bible study at the prison and carl comes and i just see him looking at me and looking at me and looking at me about doing ministry in your hometown.
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It's a good thing, but it's also an embarrassing thing.
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Because he wasn't the only person from high school that I had in prison ministry.
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And I'd have people come in, and they're like, aren't you Jeff Miller?
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And I'm like, I know where this is going.
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Like, yeah.
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Didn't you go to Cardin City?
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Like, yeah.
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Like, what are you doing here?
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I'm like, I'm here for Bible study.
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They're like, "You! You're here for Bible study! Really?" And, like, last person they would expect to see there with a Bible ready to tell them about Jesus.
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The point is, if God can save me, God can save somebody like Saul.
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God can save anyone.
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So don't write anyone off, okay?
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Pray for them. Look for opportunities to witness.
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but above all, you need to trust the power of the Gospel.
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God is sovereign.
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He can save anyone.
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Finally, when I believe that God is sovereign, I believe He has work for me to do.
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I believe He has work for me to do.
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Look at verse 5.
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It says, "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ." Okay, now this Philip - this isn't the Apostle Philip.
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This is the Philip from Acts 6, verse 5.
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He was one of the seven named ministers.
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Remember that?
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Let's pick seven people to help serve these widows.
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Philip was on that list.
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And it says that he went to Samaria.
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Now Samaria was about 40 miles north of Jerusalem.
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And a little history about Samaria because it's very relevant.
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It was actually the capital of northern Israel.
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after the Assyrians conquered northern Israel in about 722 B.C., the Jews intermarried with other peoples and it resulted in a people group that was half-Jewish.
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And most of the pure-blooded Jews hated these half-blooded Jews.
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That's why when you go through the Gospels when it talks about the Samaritans, You know, the parable of the good Samaritan?
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When Jesus' audience heard the word "Samaritan," they didn't get warm fuzzies.
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Like, I love stories about Samaritans.
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That was intentionally provocative.
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Because they hated Samaritans.
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You're a half-breed.
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That kind of thing.
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That's exactly where Philip went.
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He proclaimed the Gospel.
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He went to Samaria.
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I was reading this this week and I was wondering, do you think Philip ever felt like God disappointed him?
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The last mention of Philip was with Stephen in Acts 6.5.
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And I'm not reading into the text here, okay?
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I'm not going to try to paint you some picture that the Bible doesn't paint.
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I don't know how deep their friendship was.
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Maybe Philip was just a little bit Philip and Stephen were best friends.
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Maybe they couldn't stand to be around each other.
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I don't know.
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But here's something that I do know for sure because of what God's Word tells us.
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I know that they knew each other.
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I know that they served together.
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And I know that Philip knows he was driven out of Jerusalem because of the persecution resulting from Stephen's death.
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Philip would have had plenty of motivation to quit ministry.
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Think of everything he had just experienced-- the persecution, his co-worker Stephen's death, being displaced, but he still preached.
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Death can be a very crippling thing for those of us that are left behind.
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and many of us here have experienced.
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Death, from our perspective, has come way too soon.
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But I want to lovingly encourage you in Christ that as the mission continues, we can let death discourage us, or we can let death motivate us.
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Because look at verse 6.
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It says, "And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip.
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When they heard him, they saw the signs that he did.
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Unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them.
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And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
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So there was much joy in the city.
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So I would encourage you to believe in God's sovereignty, that even in the aftermath of death, don't stop.
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Like Philip, God still has work for you to do.
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He still has something for you to do.
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And you can let that death of that close person discourage you, you can let it motivate you.
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And I have to wonder how much of Stephen's death was a motivator for Philip.
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So as I close, as I said at the beginning, we've talked so much about sovereignty, and we've defined it, and we've studied Bible passages.
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I want to close by answering a question.
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what does sovereignty look like?
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I saw a picture of what sovereignty looks like, actually, a couple of years ago.
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A friend of mine took me to a John Piper conference on-- it was on God's sovereignty through raising children with special needs or any type of disability.
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But this friend of mine and I went to Minneapolis.
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He said, "Hey, have you ever been to the Mall of America?" And I said, "No, I've actually never been to Minneapolis before." And he goes, "Well, you've got to check this place out.
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How many people have been to the Mall of America?
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Anybody been there?
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One?
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Just one?
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OK, well, isn't that place incredible?
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It's got like a roller coaster in the mall.
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OK, and I'm not like real big on malls.
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I really don't care.
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But this place has like-- it has like Kennywood.
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is inside the mall.
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And I don't just mean like the little train that goes around Santa's thing or whatever.
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I'm talking about a whole amusement park is inside this mall.
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It's absolutely incredible.
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Well, they have a LEGO store.
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And as we were walking by the store, walking really close, there was a-- I looked at that for a second, and I thought, That is some abstract art right there.
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Actually, it's kind of ugly.
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It's kind of a mess.
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See, when I was standing up close to this picture, I found out I was actually standing too close to the picture, because none of this makes sense.
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It just looks like a mess.
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And I took several steps backwards, And this is what I saw.
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This is the same picture.
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I was just standing really, really, really, really close to it.
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When I stepped back, I saw the big picture.
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And what I saw when I stepped back was-- it all makes sense now.
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You see, every little piece that you look at in this picture when you're up close - every little piece is senseless and messy and it doesn't seem to add up.
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What's this all about?
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But when you take a step back, you see how every piece is part of a beautiful picture.
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And I want to encourage you, church, There is so much in your life that is like the first picture.
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There's so much in your life that is like this picture.
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You're too close to it and you have this small, limited picture of what is happening.
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But if you could step back and see this from God's perspective, your senseless little piece is actually part of something bigger and beautiful.
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And even though we don't see the big picture now, by faith we know that it exists.
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By faith, we're going to trust God in His sovereignty to make our little messy piece of the picture part Father in heaven, there is so much about you that we don't understand.
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Your word tells us that your ways are higher than our ways.
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Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
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And yes, there is a sense in which we have your word, we study your word, and we understand so much about you, but there is a sense in which we don't understand.
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when we come to talk about Your sovereignty and Your purposes so much bigger than our little minds can even fathom.
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So Father, I pray today, my brothers and sisters here, I pray today for eyes of faith.
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Your Word tells us that we walk by faith, not by sight.
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And so many times in our lives we just look at our immediate circumstances We can look at the hardship from persecution.
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We can look at the death of someone close to us.
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We can look at suddenly being displaced.
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We can look at things that Your Word describes.
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We look at them like they're horrible things and they're bad things, but through Your Word we see that suffering really is a vehicle to witness.
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Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here the next time they find themselves, the next time we find ourselves in a place where we don't want to be, experiencing a hardship that we didn't sign up for.
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Give us eyes of faith to see that perhaps this is the vehicle that you're using to be witnesses. This is a vehicle that you're using that we might bring glory to your name.
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We believe. Help our unbelief. We pray in Jesus' name.
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everyone through our website. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at harvestpittsburgnorth.org/giving. And be sure to be back here next week as we continue to dig deep into God's Word.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 8:1-8
Concerning Stephen’s death and the persecution fallout, how would you describe God’s involvement in that? Did God actively “CAUSE” Stephen’s death and the persecution? Did God just “ALLOW” it?
Consider your answer to number 1 above. What is God’s involvement in a trial you are facing right now? Is He causing it, allowing it, unaware of it… what?
Why do you think God so often chooses to use suffering to accomplish His purposes?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for faith to trust God’s sovereignty and purposes through whatever trial you are going through.