Sermon

God's Will - Frank Brancato

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. We appreciate so very much those that have come to be with us

  2. today. And I hope that what we have to

  3. consider would be very encouraging to you and edifying

  4. to you because it's a subject that is extremely relevant.

  5. You know we talked about the idea of God's will John said in

  6. first John chapter 5 that we have confidence in him that if

    1 John 5 chapter mention

  7. we ask him anything according to his will he hears us and that

  8. word here, they're really presupposes a response in other

  9. That means this if we ask something of God and it's

  10. according to his, will he answers us?

  11. Want to talk about this very idea that really is very

  12. relevant to everybody that lives.

  13. What is God's will, what does it actually mean?

  14. Our text is found in James chapter 4, beginning there in

    James 4 chapter mention

  15. verse 13 and James wrote this Come.

  16. Now you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such a

  17. city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit.

  18. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is

  19. your life is? Even a vapor that appears for a

  20. little time and then vanishes away.

  21. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord Wills we shall live and

  22. do this or that, You know, In this passage here, James is

  23. condemning presumptuous planning.

  24. What's that mean presumptuous planning the word?

  25. Presumptuous literally means presuming.

  26. It can also be translated as arrogant or can even be

  27. translated as conceit. What was the problem?

  28. What they were doing is that what he was talking about, is

  29. people that make their plans without the following things.

  30. Two things making your plans in your life. without understanding

  31. the uncertainty of life and taking into consideration God's

  32. Divine Providence, you know, I'll tell you When we take about

  33. the idea of God's will, the question comes up?

  34. Is everything that happens in life?

  35. God's will what about bad things?

  36. What about things that are not happy and things that are not

  37. encouraging in life. What about those things?

  38. What about tragedy that happens in life?

  39. What about all the negative things that happen in life is

  40. everything that happens. Both good and bad God's will.

  41. That's the first thing we want to notice today in just A while.

  42. And number two, we want to look at the idea.

  43. Does everything really happened for a reason?

  44. You know, I've heard people say that my whole life, something

  45. bad happened, something negative happens, whatever it might be.

  46. And sometimes even trivial things like a guy, that is a

  47. starting quarterback and he gets benched for another quarterback.

  48. And he might say these words. Well, everything happens for a

  49. reason. And when I look at the idea or

  50. that statement, this is what people, usually mean, they mean

  51. everything happens for a reason in the greater scheme of things,

  52. in other words, in God's Great, Divine plan, But is that what

  53. that's talking about and does everything actually happen?

  54. For a reason, we want to talk about these things, the idea of

  55. presumptuous planning and we look at our passage found now

  56. going back to James chapter 4. And we'll take a look at verse

    James 4 chapter mention

  57. 13 In this passage. We find that he says come.

  58. Now you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a

  59. city will spend a year there and we're going to buy and sell and

  60. we're going to make a profit couple of things about this.

  61. You've heard me over the years preach about godliness, right?

  62. And there's two things, it's godliness or worldliness being

  63. very general but I'm making a division, it's Godly or it's

  64. worldly. And sometimes we look at the

  65. idea because godliness is demonstrated in righteous

  66. living. So, we look at the idea that

  67. worldliness is all the specific things that fall suit or fall

  68. into what a sinful life might be.

  69. But have you ever stopped to consider that world being?

  70. This can also just be leaving God out of your plans.

  71. You know, the word Godly there, sometimes people talk about

  72. being Godly and they say, oh, this person, there's a lot of

  73. great things, they're really Godly.

  74. It's a godly man, right there. A Godly woman right there, but

  75. godliness. You remember?

  76. And you've heard me say this before godliness is not about

  77. your own personal goodness godliness is having a practical

  78. awareness of God in every aspect of your life.

  79. So worldliness would be not having a practical awareness of

  80. God in every aspect of your life and all the Is that you make?

  81. So, we need to be careful about that.

  82. This is somebody that leaves God out of his plant.

  83. And the very first, two words in there, when he says come now,

  84. really, he might be saying this, it's an expression that is

  85. gaining attention. In other words, it's saying this

  86. listen to what I'm saying. And then he says this you who

  87. say these three words are in the present tense.

  88. He was talking about a habitual activity, it could literally be

  89. written like this. Come now you who keep on.

  90. Saying. In other words, it was a way of

  91. life. It was a manner of life.

  92. The point of Interest here though you know James is talking

  93. about those referring to a Jewish Merchant. take your mind

  94. back to these days and the time of this writing, perhaps, And

  95. there were brand new cities being built and established all

  96. throughout the Roman world. And what Jewish Merchants would

  97. do is they would go to such cities and the higher-ups of

  98. that City would literally say you could have free citizenship

  99. here. You know why?

  100. Because if you're going to have a city, you got to have

  101. citizens. You got to have people, what

  102. brings people Merchants businesses.

  103. So, what they would do, Is they would actually Grant free

  104. citizenship immediately to any Jewish Merchants that might come

  105. there and establish his business.

  106. Why it was going to be great. It's going to bring the people

  107. and James pictures it like this. You lay a map out, right?

  108. You lay a map out and you decide where you're going to go and you

  109. break down where you going to go.

  110. Here's a problem with this kind of philosophy though, if the

  111. plans are uncertain because of we don't know what's going to

  112. happen tomorrow, the uncertainty of life for the Providence of

  113. God, in fact, in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 1, the wise

    Proverbs 27:1

  114. man Abode said, do not boast about tomorrow.

  115. For you. Do not know what a day may bring

  116. forth. Notice this though.

  117. What's wrong with the plan? Great plan, right?

  118. And by the way, I'm not saying don't plan every aspect of life

  119. knows. You got a plan.

  120. My dad used to say those things. Those cliches things over and

  121. over and over and I got to tell you a little annoying when I was

  122. growing up, but it's really true, you know, plan your work

  123. and work your plan, you know a person never really plans to

  124. fail, he just fails to plan. You know, we've all heard that,

  125. but it's all really true. So having a plan is necessary.

  126. It's not the problem, but look at what happens, look at what

  127. he's describing, he's describing a Jewish Merchant for example,

  128. which is a picture of any Christian by the way.

  129. So that means that applies to you and me to watch, he said

  130. what we're going to do is today, or tomorrow, we're going to go

  131. into a city. We're going to pick one from the

  132. map as it were. We're going to stay there about

  133. a year. We're going to buy and sell and

  134. we're going to make a profit. You know, this has a modern ring

  135. too and I think it really does. Sometimes we do this, sometimes

  136. we make our plans like this. But do you remember?

  137. When Jesus gave the parable of the rich fool.

  138. You know, there was nothing wrong with the plan.

  139. He had the right business plan, this is what happened.

  140. I'll be very brief about this but Jesus pictures, a man that

  141. was a fool. He was a rich food and he looked

  142. out and he saw all the crops that were coming in.

  143. He had in abundance, but then he looked back to his Barns and he

  144. said, wait a minute, the barns are already full.

  145. I got nowhere to put all my stuff.

  146. I got nowhere to put all of my crops and all of this that I

  147. have. So he says this, I tell you what

  148. I'm going to do. I'm going to pull down my Barns

  149. and I'm going to build greater sounds great, right?

  150. And then he said this, and then I put all my stuff in it and I'm

  151. going to sit back and I'm going to take my ease.

  152. At a picture of a guy that says, you know what, I got it all

  153. lined up for my retirement. I got all this money, I got all

  154. this stuff. I've got all these Investments

  155. I've made all this stuff. All of a sudden I'm going to sit

  156. back and I'm going to have my Eve's.

  157. Do you know what Jesus said though?

  158. Jesus said that God said Thou fool this night, your soul will

  159. be required of you. You know, the problem was the

  160. problem wasn't the plan. The problem was God was nowhere

  161. in it. God was nowhere in it again

  162. about godliness. It's having a practical

  163. awareness of God in every aspect of your life.

  164. So I'm saying this to everybody if God is the in the Forefront

  165. of your thinking and you have that practical awareness of God

  166. in every aspect of your life, you're going to make your

  167. decisions every single day, based on that God's number one,

  168. I was looking on YouTube on my Smart TV, my office.

  169. And by the way, I have to have that, I have to have, I have to,

  170. I have to have something in the background with everything.

  171. I do in my office, I just have to some people need music.

  172. I got to have something going in the background.

  173. And I saw this little boy. That was a in junior Rodeo is

  174. riding bulls and on the back of his protective vest it said,

  175. make God first and don't come in second.

  176. And I thought, what an interesting, what an interesting

  177. phrase, what an interesting idea and he wasn't mean, don't come

  178. in. Second in the rodeo is, no,

  179. that's not what he was talking about me.

  180. It don't come in second from a spiritual perspective.

  181. I thought that was pretty neat. That little guy had on his back.

  182. If God is number one in your life, everything falls into

  183. place, but when God is removed from your plans, that's when you

  184. have chaos, That's when you have trouble.

  185. This is a very modern, has a modern ring to it.

  186. So here's a reason, here's a reason, the very next verse,

  187. whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is

  188. your life? It is even a vapor that appears

  189. for a little time and then it vanishes away.

  190. You know, I don't like reading the obituaries, I don't like

  191. that. I know a lot of folks, maybe

  192. some of you. I'm not trying to step on your

  193. toes vet to you. I just always thought it was

  194. kind of odd to get up every morning and read the obituary.

  195. It's kind of a bummer. You start off in a real bad real

  196. - day, right? All the people that died.

  197. I asked a guy one time. You've heard others say this,

  198. too because it wasn't exclusive to him or didn't originate with

  199. him. I asked him, why do you read the

  200. obituaries every day? And he said, I read the

  201. obituaries to make sure I'm not in it.

  202. And then he said and I know this that if I'm not in the obituary,

  203. I'm going to have a good day. Have you ever stopped to

  204. consider with the concept of what is your life?

  205. Have you ever stopped to consider that the people that

  206. were in the obituaries on Friday?

  207. All the people that were listed in the obituaries on Friday?

  208. How many of them thought they'd be living today?

  209. How many people thought they would still be here?

  210. Sometimes people are taking tragically other times.

  211. They're taken after long illnesses but suddenly things in

  212. life we find its here. And then tomorrow, it's not we

  213. have no idea. so, that's the reason why you make plans and

  214. you're not guilty of presumptuous planning because

  215. you have to understand the uncertainty of life and the

  216. Providence of God, James says, what's your life?

  217. It's a vapor that appears for a little time and then it vanishes

  218. away in 1st Samuel 20 and verse 3, David said the Jonathan

  219. there's only a step between me and death.

  220. Life is complete compared as a flower that quickly Withers away

  221. and jump. 14, it's represented as being short as a breath.

  222. And as quickly, Vanishing as a cloud job seven, it's compared

  223. to a short Shadow Psalm 102 And the temporary nature of grass,

  224. Psalm 103 and verse 15. We have no idea what tomorrow is

  225. going to bring, so we have to have God in our plans.

  226. So here it is. What then should we say?

  227. We ought to say this according to verse 15 instead, you ought

  228. to say, if the Lord Wills we shall live and do this or that,

  229. Instead of saying tomorrow, we're going to go and do all

  230. this. We have to bring God in the

  231. future in the planet, here's the problem.

  232. The first guy doesn't have God in his plans.

  233. The second guy has got in his plans and put all of it in his

  234. hands. And by the way let me just say

  235. this. Let me just say this when you

  236. live a Godly life and God is the Forefront of your thinking, you

  237. are also doing this. You are putting your life in the

  238. hands of God in both Time and Eternity.

  239. That's number one, and you know what every aspect of your life

  240. will fall into place. If you get the number one thing

  241. wrong, everything else falls apart.

  242. But if you get the number one thing, right, everything falls

  243. as it should. This is a man that plan for his

  244. future as James points out. Without God because we don't

  245. know what tomorrow will bring. A couple years ago when I share

  246. something with you. A couple years ago, my oldest

  247. friend. Not my best friend.

  248. Good friend but my oldest friend.

  249. I grew up with him. His name is Mark, Spencer. and

  250. we Junior Rodeo together when we were little and all of a sudden

  251. we were separate because he lived at Bakersfield.

  252. I live in Ojai and we're separate for a high-school

  253. years. Didn't see each other.

  254. And then all of a sudden one day I'm a freshman at Cal Poly and I

  255. turned the corner and there. He is.

  256. Living in the same student housing place, we picked up

  257. where we left off, buddies went to the rodeos together on the

  258. rodeo, team at Cal Poly and all that.

  259. Okay, so he's my oldest friend and two years ago at the age of

  260. 51. A healthy young man died in his

  261. bed. No reason.

  262. Natural causes. 51. You know, I used to think that

  263. 50 was old when I was in my 20s. I used to think man that's

  264. ancient and the guys is old as dirt.

  265. He's 50 I'm 52. I'm telling you 50 is Young.

  266. It's young, really is. Here was a young man that had no

  267. reason to be alarmed and yet his life was taken like that.

  268. Don't you see the importance of? We're God needs to be in your

  269. life. Where God is in your life.

  270. What you should say is this, if the Lord Wills If the Lord

  271. Wills, you know, I like it. When somebody says, hey, what

  272. are you doing next week? Well, Lord willing.

  273. I'm going to do so and so or what about such as that?

  274. Well, yeah, Lord willing, I love that.

  275. But listen please. And please get this point.

  276. Don't say words repetitiously with no meaning at all.

  277. In fact, what some people can do is they can take words that are

  278. great. Like Lord willing words like

  279. that and make them vain because they say them in a shallow for

  280. more shallow way. Holloway with, no meaning at

  281. all. Let me give you an example.

  282. Here's another phrase. That's often times.

  283. Used out there in the world, and it's used almost vain, because

  284. it's just spoken without thought.

  285. It's the words. Praise God.

  286. I'm going to tell you right now. It's wonderful to praise God.

  287. And we praise God, and honor God with our life.

  288. And we also honor him with our lips.

  289. So praising God, with your lips is a wonderful thing.

  290. But when you say praise God, are you really praising God?

  291. Or are you just saying the words?

  292. Give you an example. You give you happy years ago, I

  293. was talking to a guy at a mission here in Bakersfield, and

  294. he was a preacher of some sort, and I'm not kidding you.

  295. Every everything I said to him, he either said, amen, or praise

  296. God. I'd say something.

  297. Praise God. Well, are you really praising

  298. God? You just saying worse?

  299. I said somebody said, amen. Well, this one about 10 minutes.

  300. I kind of had enough. And I said, well, I got to go,

  301. I'm gonna go have lunch. He said, amen.

  302. Now that really amen. Lunch.

  303. Amen, lunch. Words that are spoken with no

  304. meaning become vain. So we praise God with our lives,

  305. but just saying, praise God does not mean, you're actually

  306. praising God. You see my point.

  307. So when you say Lord willing, or if the Lord Wills, you've got to

  308. meet it. Say something else about that,

  309. though. when you go to prayer, And you pray that be your will.

  310. Please get this, you pray, Be Your Will.

  311. You have to mean that. Sometimes we might say well if

  312. it Be Your Will, but we really want it to be so another way, so

  313. understand this, when you pray, if it be according to your will

  314. with that provision, you are not bending.

  315. God's will toward you. You are submitting.

  316. Your will toward God. You're telling God, whatever you

  317. decide. I'm okay with We pour our pour

  318. out. Our heart with supplication.

  319. We request things of God. Absolutely.

  320. But then we do like Jesus and say if it Be Your Will In other

  321. words, whatever you decide if it's your will I will accept.

  322. I will submit to that's what it's like to pray.

  323. According to God's will you know, Paul understood this

  324. concept and First Corinthians 16 and seventh.

  325. He said for, I do not wish to see you now on the way but I

  326. hope to stay a while with you and they said if the Lord

  327. permits in Acts 18 and 21 it says but took leave of them

  328. saying I must by all means. Keep this coming feast in

  329. Jerusalem. Jerusalem.

  330. But I will return again to you. God willing in First Corinthians

  331. 4 and verse 19. He said, but I will come to you

  332. shortly if the Lord wills. And finally in Hebrews chapter 6

    Hebrews 6 chapter mention

  333. and verse 3 and this, we will know will do if God permits.

  334. So, all that being said, it's hard to know what God's will is.

  335. I like what somebody said, one time.

  336. He said, in all my life, I've come down to two facts. and all

  337. the things that I've studied religiously and all the things

  338. that I have done in that way, I've come down with two facts,

  339. There is a God and I'm not him. And sometimes, we just don't

  340. know what's on the mind of God, his thoughts are greater than

  341. our thoughts. His will is higher than our

  342. will, his ways are higher than our ways.

  343. So, sometimes it's difficult to understand what God's will is.

  344. So here's the question as I laid out in our introduction, Is

  345. everything that happens in life, whether good or bad.

  346. Is it all God's will? What about this?

  347. What about if one person prospers?

  348. Financially does really well, has most stressed financially at

  349. all? And another person doesn't that

  350. God's will? What if somebody goes through a

  351. very tragic thing. That's very hurtful that God's

  352. will. What if people have great losses

  353. in their life, is that God's Will?

  354. And yet over here, somebody really prospers in other ways

  355. too. So here's the question, is

  356. everything that happens. God's will.

  357. Here's my answer. Yes.

  358. Now, I'm going to clarify its you don't think I went off the

  359. reservation. Everything that happens in life.

  360. Is God's will. But not in the same sense. in

  361. fact, God imparts his will or expresses, his will in three

  362. ways stay with me on this number one, there's God's determined

  363. will When you talk about God's determined will you're saying

  364. this God desired it. God caused it and God made it

  365. happen. Okay, God's determined will.

  366. He caught he caused it. He decided he caused it and he

  367. made it happen. Okay, here's some examples.

  368. By the way Creation in Genesis chapter one, in the beginning,

  369. God created the heavens and the earth.

  370. When he created, man, he formed Man Out of the Dust of the earth

  371. and then in all the things that he created, he said let there be

  372. this and there was this let there be that in there was that.

  373. He literally spoke it into existence when he looked down

  374. upon, man, and he said he shouldn't be alone.

  375. I'll make a helper from his rib. He made the woman again.

  376. All of this is God's determined will when man fell in the

  377. garden. By the way, when man fell in the

  378. garden, the plan was already in place.

  379. Oh God wasn't fooled. The Bible says known unto, God

  380. are all his works. Even from the beginning, the

  381. scheme of redemption was already in place.

  382. The Old Law of Moses would be brought in to bring man back to

  383. God as a Schoolmaster or A tutor.

  384. But Colossians says, in Chapter 2, that Jesus would nail the Old

  385. Law to his cross when he died for the sins of the world.

  386. Guess what? All that was in the Redemptive

  387. plan of God, that was God's determined will and in that, he

  388. desired it, he caused it, he made it happen. you know, we

  389. look at the Lord's mission. Jesus spoke of his mission as

  390. being the will of God in John 4:34, Jesus said to them.

    John 4:34

  391. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his

  392. work in John, chapter 5 and verse 30.

    John 5 chapter mention

  393. I can do of myself, nothing, as I hear I judge and my judgment

  394. is righteous because I do not seek my own but the will of the

  395. father who sent me. So, this was God's determined

  396. will and one final thing and I love this because it's great

  397. benefits. It to us.

  398. I don't know if anybody here under the sound of my voice.

  399. Is of Jewish descent. I have no idea.

  400. Maybe there is, I don't know. But there was a time when the,

  401. when the Jews were God's people and God dealt with the nation.

  402. Do you know what God's plan was God's will was God determined

  403. will that when Jesus would die on the cross.

  404. According to Ephesians 3, that Jew and Gentile, that's me, I'm

  405. a gentile. Probably you to Jew and Gentile

  406. alike would be together in one body and that's the church.

  407. God's determined will. He desired it.

  408. He caused it and he made it happen.

  409. But then there's this one, though. there is, it's always

  410. accomplish, there's God's desired or preferred will, and

  411. this is when God desires it, but he does not cause it He does not

  412. cause it. And the reason for that, is he

  413. leaves it up to, man. Did determine whether or not

  414. it's going to happen. I'm going to get to that example

  415. in just a minute. Okay.

  416. But I want to get back to the idea.

  417. I want to get back to the question is everything.

  418. God is everything that happens for a reason.

  419. Okay, several years ago, a as a as a high-school JV High School

  420. head football coach, I had an offensive line coach that was

  421. coaching on my staff. This man was six foot four about

  422. 280 pounds. I gave him a specific task to do

  423. to coach his line. And do his job, I am rule.

  424. Number two, and I was a huge stickler about this.

  425. Okay, huge Don't ever as an assistant coach talk to her

  426. referee ever referees would come up to me and say, hey, tell all

  427. your assistants. They're better seen and not

  428. heard. Tell your assistance have them,

  429. hold a clipboard and keep their mouths shut I never yelled at

  430. Rest by the way ever doesn't help yelling a ref for bad call.

  431. You know what's going to happen? He's human, you probably get

  432. another bad call, okay? So I was a real stickler about

  433. that. This guy would lose his mind and

  434. scream at the refs. And finally, the ref one time

  435. said in one game a home game, he said I'm going to tell you right

  436. now. If you open your mouth, one more

  437. time, I'm throwing your head coach out of the gate.

  438. So we had to have a little sit-down me, and this guy, so we

  439. did. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

  440. I won't do it again. But a week later happen again

  441. and so I'm grinding through the season with this guy and

  442. finally, we get down to the last game and I don't even want to

  443. talk to him, and we got through the game and season was over and

  444. on Monday morning, I called him up on the phone, you know, he

  445. thought it had delusional. He was he thought I got a

  446. promotion to the varsity as a head coach and he thought that I

  447. wanted to meet with him because I was taking him with me to the

  448. varsity, coach, the line. Oh no, we had a different

  449. Meeting, he's sitting there and I said, I got to tell you.

  450. I got to tell you, thank you for your service here.

  451. But we are going in another Direction, you don't happen.

  452. He started crying, seriously crying and he said this, oh, I

  453. guess just everything happens for a reason.

  454. I guess God has a plan. Maybe someday he'll revealed to

  455. me what his plan is and I said, wait a minute, you don't have to

  456. worry about God. You don't have to wait for God.

  457. I got the answer right here. I got it right here.

  458. Sometimes things. Oh there's a reason but it's not

  459. a Divine reason. It's not God's big plan.

  460. Sometimes it's just the ramifications of our own

  461. choices. Talk about God's preferred will.

  462. Examples are man salvation there stopped to consider that God

  463. wants everybody to go to heaven. Everybody think of all the bad

  464. people that have lived in life? God wanted them to repent to God

  465. sent Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world because he

  466. wants everybody to go to heaven. In fact, in 1st Peter, chapter 3

  467. and verse 9, it says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise

  468. as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not

  469. willing that any should perish but that all should come to

  470. repentance. So what does God desire?

  471. What does he prefer? He prefers that everybody would

  472. repent and come to Jesus. But not everybody does.

  473. Do they Matthew 7 and 21 hears, the words of the master hears,

  474. the words of Jesus. And Jesus says, not everyone who

  475. says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but

  476. he, that does, the will of My Father, which is in heaven.

  477. What does God want? He wants everybody to go to

  478. heaven. He desires it.

  479. But he does not cause it because he leaves it up to you and me to

  480. decide. Got to do our part.

  481. That's God's permissive will. And by the way, when this

  482. happens, it's not always accomplished.

  483. The first one is always accomplished.

  484. Okay, first one's always accomplished thirdly though.

  485. There's God's permissive will and this is things that God

  486. allows or permits. He doesn't desire it, he doesn't

  487. purpose it. He neither desires our purposes

  488. it but he allows man in his freedom to bring it to pass.

  489. God's permissive. Will we just talked about some

  490. things that fall into this category?

  491. Sicknesses also fall into the category, disasters, economic

  492. setbacks it's the same thing. By the way, as what James is

  493. talking about, when you say if the Lord Wills, when you say

  494. that, you're saying, if the Lord permits, in other words, here's

  495. my plan, I'm going to do this if the Lord permits things that he

  496. permits are a louse. But I got to tell you, sometimes

  497. things happen folks that God does not.

  498. Plan for that. God does not do.

  499. But it happens. and as long as we live in the flesh and as long

  500. as we live in a place where their sin, There's going to be

  501. things that happen that are very unpleasant.

  502. There's going to be things that often times happen in life that

  503. are unpleasant. And God imparts his will, in

  504. three ways. His determined will.

  505. It always happens. His preferred.

  506. Will, he wants it, but leaves it up to, man, to decide and God's

  507. permissive will things. He allows Somebody might say

  508. well why did God allow it? Let's not do that let's not do

  509. that. Let's not ask the question.

  510. Why it is the off ask theological debate of why don't

  511. do that. Let me tell you what a person of

  512. Faith really will do. A person of faith.

  513. Okay, I won't ask why. Let me say it again.

  514. A person of Faith won't ask why a person of faith will say, I

  515. don't understand. But a person of faith will

  516. submit everything about his will to God, and be okay with what?

  517. He can't know. That's a person of faith.

  518. You got to be okay with what you can't know.

  519. One scholar said one time, one of the greatest proofs of

  520. worldliness in a man's life is when he fails to include God in

  521. his daily activities, that's really the whole point.

  522. Where is God in your life? Here's my last and final point

  523. and it's a question that I know has gone through your mind,

  524. everybody. This goes to everybody's mind

  525. last question last point. Why do bad things happen to us?

  526. Why do bad things happen to good people?

  527. This is not about me, it's not my, I'm just going to use an

  528. example. when I went to the doctor and I was diagnosed with

  529. stage 3 throat, cancer, I remember that the doctor said

  530. Tina and I were sitting there and the doctor said what's a

  531. nice guy like you doing in a place like this?

  532. And in his way in his mind, he was meaning this, that's unfair.

  533. But it really has nothing to do with me in that regard, why do

  534. bad things happen? Bad things.

  535. Happen in life for three reasons.

  536. Personal choice. Somebody else's choice and that

  537. which just falls under natural law.

  538. And by the way, this is because sin is in the world.

  539. Okay, here it is very briefly. Personal choice, my choice, my

  540. Act. My fault.

  541. Okay, I don't care what the world says, I don't care what

  542. the world says. I don't care when somebody says,

  543. it's not your fault. Listen.

  544. If it's my choice, my ACT, it's my fault.

  545. So we don't have a problem with that, right?

  546. We get that. What about this?

  547. What about somebody else's Choice?

  548. Somebody else's Act. Somebody else's fault.

  549. Over 10 years ago is holding a meeting in Kentucky.

  550. Walnut Grove, Kentucky. And there was a young there was

  551. a young mother And she worked at the bank.

  552. Everybody loved her. I remember that because it was

  553. all in the papers is what people talk about when I got there.

  554. And one day she left the bank and she was just driving home to

  555. her husband and kids. She driving right along and

  556. there was a drunk driver coming, the opposite direction crossed

  557. over. The road went head-on and she

  558. died instantly at the scene. And he walked away without a

  559. scratch. Was it her fault?

  560. Nope. It was somebody else's Choice.

  561. It was somebody else's act. It was somebody else's sin.

  562. It was somebody else's fault. But sometimes we have the

  563. ramifications of others choices to third reason, things that are

  564. governed by natural law. And this includes all free will

  565. acts of man. That includes all the Freewill

  566. acts. God does not take away free

  567. will. God could have done anything

  568. that he wanted to do. God could have made me do

  569. anything. He wanted me to do.

  570. That's not what he did. He put everything into place and

  571. he gave me free, will, he gave you free will, that's what he

  572. wants. Don't you see?

  573. That's what this whole thing is about.

  574. He gave you free will, but he wants you to submit to God's

  575. will. So here's really the question.

  576. I don't know what's going on in your life.

  577. I have no idea what your plans are.

  578. I have no idea what you're doing later on today or next week.

  579. Or next month or next year. Whatever your plans are let me

  580. ask you a question. In all of your plans.

  581. Where's God? Is God number one in your life.

  582. Cuz you know what's going to happen one day?

  583. Just like my 51 year-old healthy friend.

  584. You won't be here. Or the Lord just comes back.

  585. So the only thing that matters is the condition of your soul

  586. while you live in this life and nothing else will matter.

  587. If you're not a child of God, you need to be one today.

  588. The Bible says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by

  589. the word of God. After you hear the word of God.

  590. Jesus said, you have a choice. Mark 16:16.

    Mark 16:16

  591. He, that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

  592. He that believeth not shall be damned.

  593. In Luke 13 and 3. Jesus also said, I tell you, no,

  594. but except you repent, you will all likewise perish.

  595. Got to change your life. Jesus said in Matthew, 10:32, if

  596. you'll confess me before men, I will confess you before my

  597. Father, which is in heaven. Acts chapter 8, says, what the

    Acts 8 chapter mention

  598. confession is. I believe that Jesus Christ is

  599. the Son of God, but all of those things are pointing toward the

  600. point of Salvation. It's, when you go down to the

  601. watery grave of baptism that you contact the blood of Jesus and

  602. rise to walk in newness of Life 1st.

  603. Peter 3:21 says the like figure whereunto even baptism Doth also

  604. now save us. We thank you for listening to

  605. our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

  606. Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

  607. information, or you would like to receive a free Bible

  608. correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at her

  609. Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.

  610. Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and

  611. Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.

  612. We would love for you to be our honored guest.