I'm going to read a passage from
Jeremiah that you all know. And perhaps have. Hung on to in times of sorrow
or sadness or need or distress. Jeremiah, chapter twenty nine. And verse eleven. For I know. Aren't you glad God knows? I
know, no uncertainties with Him, the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an
expected end. Literally, in some translations,
it reads like this, for I know the plans that I have for you. It's a good thing to know that
God has plans. I was looking for a set of plans
that I could bring today, and I found the plans to 70 Seneca
Street. Very detailed plans. You know,
if Mr. Trangale, the architect of these
plans, could draw this. If there's an architect or a
man who is a man of plans and draws plans, think about what
a planner God is. And if you look at these plans,
there are so many details. So many details. Your life is
made up of a lot of details with God. What a great thing it is
to know the great architect. To know that you're not simply
the makeup of gas and dust, the accidental formation of a human
being, but that before you were formed in your mother's belly,
God knew you and God loved you. God had chosen you. There was
no possibility of you getting some infant disease that would
take your life. God knew the end from the beginning
and the beginning from the end. And all of the details in between. The great passage that we hang
on to is this. And we know. The people of God. And we know. I don't know this
lady that sent the $75,000. In fact, she had only given $35. to Grace Centers of Hope before
we got this check. But God knew her. God is a God
who plans and purposes for His people. This is the only thing
that will keep this church. This is the only thing that will
keep us unified and together. That we are what we are by the
grace of God. And God's grace will keep you
from ugliness The Master is always talking about grace. Because
if I don't, you won't be gracious. You and I have to be reminded
over and over of the pit from which we were digged. From where
God found us. If you're not careful, without
grace you'll be judging somebody. Instead of saying, there go I,
but for the grace of God. We're all prone to wander. Lord,
I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Isn't that true? Because in our flesh dwells no
good thing. I'm glad God is an active God. Even today, if God doesn't walk
the aisles of this church and come where you are, you came
here hellbound, you'll leave here hellbound. God is not sitting
waiting for you. He's an act of God. In fact,
if God's not with us, if God's not with us, who is? And what would we do? And what
will we do? So important to have a consciousness
of the presence of God. So important for God to be in
this place today. Otherwise, Our tendency would
be at this church to be Calvinistic. Calvinistic. Become proud and
haughty over a truth that ought to humble us and cause us to
bow down in gratitude. For instance, why would God choose
you? Or choose me? Something I'm very
much conscious of every day is this. And I was talking with
a friend of mine. The older we were talking together about this,
the older we get, the more amazed we are at God. God would have elected us. God
would put His love and affections upon us. And all of this before
the foundation of the world. for I formed thee in thy mother's
belly." I predetermined that you were going to be a prophet,
Jeremiah. So don't be afraid of their faces, Jeremiah. Always
remember, I chose you and I have a plan for you. Or think about this, that we
really do know this. And I wish we did because there's
really a dark side. This will help those of you who
come to Christ and relapse fallen down or messed up. God has a purpose for you. And
God saw you falling down. God saw the dark side. The main
thing is for you to know that you know you're His. And then you can humbly come
before Him and say, I messed up, Lord. I am a mess up. And it's Your grace and Your
mercy that keeps me. And I praise You for it. Because
if you think you're something, you're nothing. While you're
defending yourself, you really have no defense. Amen to that. God's providence. God has thoughts toward you,
little elect, today. You've been chosen of God. Or
if you're here and without Christ, but there's a longing in your
heart to know Him. You're convicted of your sin.
And you feel the wooing of the Holy Spirit. The truth is, God
loved you before the foundation of the world. Or you would never
experience that. Let me give you a good reason
to come to Christ. You want to. If you want to, come to Christ. Because He's worked on your wanter.
Otherwise, you'd never want to come to Christ. If you want to
be in the house of God, if something strangely has come over you,
where once you loved crack cocaine, and now there's desire to sit
under the Gospel. God did all of that in His plan and purpose. I know
the thoughts. And those thoughts can't be,
and that plan can't be quenched. or stopped, God's purpose is
going to come to pass and I'm happy about that. You know, some
things happen to me and I don't understand why they happened
at all. I don't. But I do know this,
that God has a purpose. And somehow He can take the worst
and turn it out for my good. And I always tell this, The worst
thing that man could have done was when God came to earth, we
killed Him. And yet, that is the very means
by which we're saved. God took that evil and the depravity
of man and turned it to my good. I'm redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb. That's the God of the Bible. And He's at work. God
is at work. He sends us tokens of His love
and blessings. We need to be watching for them.
Especially when it seems life's on the dark side. When life's
on the dark side, nothing is working out. God can use your
going to prison. Amen. Some of you are stubborn
as a jackass and God has to get your attention. God has to hit you with a two
before. You're a wild asses cult that only Jesus can contain. I remember this one guy in the
Bible that ran off from his owner and stole and ended up in Rome
and got locked up and thrown into prison. And guess who was
in the prison cell with him? The Apostle Paul. The story of
Philemon and Onesimus. Do you think that was an accident
or was that the providence of God? God is at work. We know that all things work
together for good. For good. All things, all things,
black and white, good and bad, all things, God can take the
worst of you and turn it to good. That's the kind of God He is.
And you say, now, Pastor, it sounds like you're condoning
sin and that God blesses sin. No, God blesses in spite of your
sins. God is the One that authored
this place. This is a God place. And God
set this whole thing up for you, isn't that so? For the salvation
of His people. I think about this so often.
And it's so clear in the Bible. the providence of God. How God
is on His throne and He has this architectural plan for every
one of His elect. And every detail, every detail
is coming to pass. I don't care where you are in
life or what's going on in your life. God's got a plan. And God's
got a purpose. When you're down, when you're
depressed, When you don't think you can take another step, God
has His thoughts toward you and His plan for you. Well, the Bible says, He that
endureth to the end shall be saved. Yes, and it says greater
is He that's in you than he that's in the world. You got a built-in
generator, ever ready battery that just keeps on keeping on
called the Holy Spirit of God that will not withdraw from you.
There is no reason for you to be down and out. I love these
passages in Isaiah that says this, that our God declares the
end from the beginning. He knows the end from the beginning
and He declares it. And from ancient times that are
not yet done, saying, My counsel, My plan, My purpose shall stand. And I will do all my pleasure."
God says, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm holy. I can do what I want to do. You say, well, why does God? Who are you? You're certainly
not holy. Do you know whatever God does
is right? Whatever God does is just and
whatever God does is good. It's true. Watch this. He said,
I'll do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man that executes my counsel from a far country. God had a
rebellious prophet who was hiding in a cave and said, I quit. And
he got up there and he was so depressed, he forgot to eat. And he got hungry. And God took
a buzzard and fed him. You know, it's not like a ravenous
bird. It's not like a buzzard to feed
someone else. Right? God is so big he can take
a bird that does not have the nature to give away and feed
his prophet who's as mean as hell hiding in a cave. Isn't that something? God is
good to me and to you when we don't deserve it. When you give up on God, He's
never given up on you. And a person who gives up on
God is so sorry. You are so sorry. Just self-pitying
me, me, me, me, me, me. You smell like a skunk and are
wallowed in the stables of sin and blaming God and everybody
else. And God's been good to you. God's
been good to you. He says, I have spoken it. I
will also bring it to pass. God, before the foundation of
the world, chose a people and predestinated them to repentance
and faith in Jesus Christ. And He's going to bring it to
pass. You can't outrun God. You can't outthink God. And God
will find you wherever you're hiding. And some of you have
some great hiding spots. Some of you down in Lodi Bar
with your fig leaf aprons. Some of you in church. You know,
I think the greatest miracles of salvation don't happen in
the hood. They happen in the fancy church
house. Church members, goody two-shoes, tithing, mean, hateful,
religious, Baptist. Or whatever you are. Just haughty. You've heard me
say this many times, people are always saying, you know, you
know, preacher, pastor, reverend, it's hard over there where you
are. Oh, no, it's not. I know what we have here. Most
pastors don't know what they have in their church. Some of
you haven't been in church long enough to find out there's a
lot of devils in church. And people have been immersed,
sprinkled, poured, and ducked, and they got their self-righteous
certificate. Think they're better than everybody
else? I don't want to be a pastor in the suburbs. I could be a
pastor in the suburbs. I know that kind of talk. I want to be in the herd with
a bunch of no-good-for-nothing sinners that need the blood of
Jesus Christ. I've spoken and I will also bring
its pass. You know, I'm so excited about
what God is going to do. I know what He's going to do.
We're in the bud stage of something so glorious and so big. Even
the turning of a city. You may think this sounds haughty,
but it's not haughty at all. I believe God's going to do something
in this city because of this message that I'm preaching today
in this church. I mean that. I know He's going
to do that. Such cargo, it's going to be
like a bomb. Boom! Wait, what? They did what? Well, they'll
never finish it. They'll never finish it. Oh,
no. The old clutch cargo. Grace Gospel
Fellowship meeting house is going to sparkle. It's going to be
the house of God. God has predetermined it to be
so. I'm sure now. I'm absolutely
positive. Doesn't mean there's not going
to be any bumps in the road. There'll be bumps. In fact, if
you read the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah saw the mass destruction
of Jerusalem. The walls were broken down. And
he had this burden to go back and build the wall. And when
he got back there, Sanballat and his crew said things like
this, Who are these feeble Jews trying to build this wall? It's
all garbage. There's nothing to build on.
And then they began to build the wall. And it made the enemy
even more angry. And Jerusalem was established.
My friends, God's been doing something here for a while now. And I don't mean this in a haughty
way, but myself and the elders, we've been true to the gospel.
We're holding out. with the gospel. We're glorifying
God. And God inhabits the praise of His people. I know this. We
have nothing. We're not a wealthy church. Most
of the time we're running almost a little below budget. But then
God gets a little lady to send a check for $75,000 that none
of us know. And I'll tell you this, you know,
God is good. All the time. God will give us favor. Look
at God's providence. And throughout Scripture. You
know, in the Bible, there was this Ethiopian eunuch. Philip
was in a big revival meeting in Samaria. And all kinds of
wonders and miracles would happen. And the angel of the Lord, and
remember who the angel of the Lord is, the angel of the Lord
appeared to Philip and said, I want you to leave this big
revival and go down into a deserted place. Now you'd think Philip
would have said, huh? I mean, look what's happening
here. But Philip followed the Lord. And here is an African
guy, the Ethiopian unit, who's been to Jerusalem to worship.
And guess what? Here goes Philip. He's left the
revival. He's gone down into a deserted
place where there's nobody. And here comes the Ethiopian
eunuch in a chariot. And he's reading Isaiah 53. I call it the gospel according
to Isaiah 53. And he's reading those passages,
says, there was one who was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquity. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes were healed. And Philip and him meet up. And
Philip says, what are you reading? He says, Isaiah 53. He said,
do you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I except
some man show me? And Philip got up into the chariot
and the Bible said he preached unto him Jesus. And he got baptized,
saying he believed in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Now, you think that was an accident or the providence
of God? You always ought to see God in your own salvation, right? What are the details? What are
the thoughts and the plans that God worked out in your life to
get you to Christ? To bring you to Christ? Say,
you know, Pastor, I just don't have a testimony. If you're saved,
you've got a testimony. Not a bragamony, but you've got
a testimony. How the Lord brought you. And
how He sustained you. And what a miracle it is. First
church I was pastoring, some folks came who had never heard
grace. and were just overjoyed the first time they heard the
message of God's grace. And this guy came up to me and
he said this to me, you know, I've never heard election and
predestination, but I know my testimony. And what you preached
this morning is my testimony. I didn't first come to God. He
first came to me. He found me in a hard spot, in
a mess. And He drew me to Himself. It's
our testimony. That's why you say amen when
you hear grace. If you get mad, I would check
it out. If you don't want to give God
all the glory, check it out. You may think you have someone
that you don't. Because whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do, do it to the glory of God, right? Or Lydia,
the seller of purple. Paul was on his missionary journey.
They were going to go into Asia, remember? They were going to
go into Asia. And the Holy Spirit came to Paul and said, I forbid
you to go into Asia. Yeah, I forbid you. And he went
to Philippi. And guess who was there? Lydia, who had come to sell her
goods of purple. Now, you think the detail is
not good here? It's really good. If Paul had
gone into Asia, then the seller of purple, Lydia, she had left
the country. So the Holy Spirit said, no,
you can't go over there because you've got an appointment over
here with Lydia, whose heart God opened. Does anybody see
that? Let me give you one more. Jesus
on one occasion said this, I must need to go through Samaria. Now,
wait a minute. The disciples tried to explain
to them, we're going over here to this other city. If you go
through Samaria, it's out of your way. He didn't say, I'd
like to go through Samaria. He said, I must. You see, he
had an appointment there. And this lady who was not a nice
lady, she was really messed up. I mean, she'd been doing the
no-no. And Jesus met her and he had to get the disciples out
of the way because the disciples wouldn't want him talking to
a lady like this. So he finally convinced the disciples to go
to McDonald's and pick up some hamburgers. He wanted to get
them out of the way. And here comes a lady carrying
her water bottle. Right. Jesus said, I got some
water. You drink of it, you'll never
thirst again. She said, evermore, give me that water. Right. How
did he draw you? What was the circumstances? What
was his plan and thought? There is no need for us. And
I'm preaching to myself and I preached to myself yesterday. We fret
about so much. Instead of, alright, I did all
I could. Right? I did all I could. I was
accountable and responsible. I did all I could and it didn't
work out that way. Instead of just making ourselves sick. I
don't care how bad you are and what you've done. If you're God's,
He's got a plan for you. Get over yourself! And then, just kind of relax. A little bit. I try to practice
what I preach, but I'm not very good at it. Ever notice this
about something in your life? You think, okay, alright Lord,
now, I don't understand why that happened. I don't understand
it at all, so I'm going to leave it right with You. Right. And You won't go five minutes,
go boing. I should have. I might have.
I could have. Right? That's the way it goes. I would like to be filled with
the fullness of God. I would like to trust Him. I
would like to believe that today He holds the reins. And nothing's going to happen
to me except it's in the purpose and plan of God. And anything
that does happen, He can bring good out of it. You know, those of you who have
lost children, you never get over that. It just doesn't seem
natural for children to die before their parents. And probably there's
not a week that goes by, and especially as we're headed toward
August. That's when Pam had the wreck.
I think about things like Well, he'd be 43 or things like... I wonder why that happened. Do you ever have any thoughts
like, I wonder why this is happening? Well, it's for your good and
God's glory. You say, oh, well, you mean evil? I mean anything. The devil is God's devil. Oh, God can block the devil.
God's in charge of the devil. He's going to chain him up and
throw him in the pit one day. But God lets the devil do a lot
of things permissive right now. But one day he's going to lock
him up. But right now, a lot of mess that he causes, God takes
that mess and uses it for good. Yeah? So, whoever you are, whatever
your addiction, whatever's going on in your life, God is greater. And God loves you, child of God.
I hear this all the time. all the time, not by just a few
people, a lot of people. Why is God doing this to me? Now, what you're saying is that
God has out the ugly stick and He's trying to beat the hell
out of you. That's it. You're saying He's an abusive
parent. And God is not an abusive parent.
God does not abuse His kids. Amen. And let me tell you something
else. Now, other people would do this.
But God does not remind you of your dirt. You learn from your
dirt. That's right. But the dirt is
gone. It's gone. It's not under the blood. It's
gone. Do you know... I'm going to get
in trouble here for sure, probably, by some church people. But God
loved David just as much as when he was in bed with Bathsheba
as He ever loved. There he goes again. He's giving
us all a license to commit adultery. And you know my saying to that,
you don't need a license. You never ask for one. You don't say, now, God, I'm
going to go out and commit adultery. I'd like to sign and get my license
for that. Or anything else we do, right?
But God took that. And that baby died. And I'll
tell you where I find comfort. Because in the Word of God, David
said this after his baby died, I can't bring my baby back, but
I can go to my baby. See, that's important to me.
That's important to me. And I kind of claim that God
put that in His Word just for Pam and I. Or at least we were
one of the people. You think about a baby that dies
in the crib from crib death. The parents had nothing to do
with that. That baby dies. Why? Why? Right? We all have whines. And if we don't have Romans 8,
28, and if we don't believe that God is on His throne and He has
the plans, you're a whole mess. The only way you're going to
make through your mess is this way. Otherwise, you're totally
a wreck. Okay, I don't know why this mess
is happening, and it is a mess. And it's as black as it can be.
But I know that my God is able to take this black mess and use
it for my good. It's true. It's the only way you're going
to get through it. The way I get through things
is I'm just going to trust God with it. You know, the truth
is that real elders, real pastors wrestle with people. And sometimes
we not only wrestle with people, we wrestle with the Lord. Moses
said things like this. Well, if you're going to kill
them, kill me too. That's a real intercessor. Lord, don't kill
them. And I know some of you think
I talk to you like I want to kill you, but it's preventative. It's just preventative. Try to
wake up. Right. I wonder if there's anybody
here. You know, you've done mess. And,
of course, you're blaming everybody else. And then, you know, the
Lord takes care of all the mess. And then you're about three or
four years down the road and you look back and you say, how
on earth did people put up with me? God should have squashed
me like a bug. And you find that the people
who love you the most tell you the truth. The wonderful providence of God.
So I say to you today, predestination is not a bad thing. You better
thank God for predestination. Yeah, just thank God. I'm so
glad He holds the reins. And my life is not a runaway.
And every once in a while, He says, whoa! You're running too fast. Or he'll
dig a ditch. I've had this experience many
times. He's dug a ditch and he says, you can go that far, but
no further, buddy. And I've seen the ditch and looked
over. And thank God for digging the ditch. Yeah. The providence of God. We don't
understand life. Isn't life confusing? Well, sure
it is. It's confusing. Because sin entered
the world. But our God is on the throne
and does whatsoever He will. And whatever He does is right.
When God turns you around, saves you by His grace, it's right.
And it's just because He sent His only begotten Son into the
world to pay your sin debt. And He did. Do you know all blessings
All blessings were bought and paid for by the blood of Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all blessings in heavenly places. Every blessing
God ordained, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Don't get haughty about you doing
something good. Because whatever comes out of
you good, God just put in you. Otherwise, no good would come
out of you. And we are what we are by the
grace of God. Amen. And isn't it a thrilling
thing for God to pour out grace and to use you? My prayer is,
Lord, just use me. I want you to use me. I don't
say this much. Here, and you probably, some
of you have never heard me say this, but I wonder if there's
somebody here, seldom do I do this, who's wandered. I mean, you're the Lord's, but
you have wandered, you have drifted. You know, drifting is so, so
silent. That's what this country's done.
We've drifted. While the people of God slept,
the country's drifted. Now we're in a big mess. Drifting
is the most silent way of going over the falls. If you're in
a boat on the Niagara River and your anchor doesn't hold. Many
of us have drifted far from the shore. And maybe you want to
come home. Right? Do you know the doors
open and the lights on? Yeah. God leaves the lights on
for you. And to His children, come home.
Come home. Maybe you just want to make it
clean as a child of God. Maybe dedicate yourself again,
just simply say, I've wondered, I've really messed up. I just
want to be right with God. I'm talking to those of you who
are saved. In the old church, we used to call it rededicate.
I don't use re, just dedicate. You just feel you need to come
clean. This is a It's like a drop. We're
doing a drop. I'm doing a drop on you today. You're not clean? There's going
to be a line. You'd like for there not to be
a line. And you don't have to do that before people unless
you want to. But I found out sometimes it's good just to confess
it right out loud to people. I've sinned. I'm sorry. I've
asked the Lord to forgive me. He's forgiven me. And I want
you all to know it. That encourages folks, don't
you think? You're here without Christ. Trust Christ.