God's Providence: Orchestrating Life's Details with Purpose
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
We believe The Bible teaches That God is a good God And he is a powerful God If God If the God of the Bible Is powerful But he's not good That's terrifying You know people Who have authority in your life They have authority They have power But they're not good It's a terrifying recipe Disastrous We believe in a God That's both good and powerful If we have a God That's good But not powerful That's called weak Impotent We believe And uphold both truths That God is good And powerful And he's orchestrating His plan One detail At a time. [00:38:54] (37 seconds)
One of the things that I see all throughout Genesis Is that the patriarchs and the matriarchs They were a hot mess Pastor Tony has this phrase It's a deeply profound Deeply spiritual Deeply significant phrase That he uses when he describes Some of the patriarchs And the matriarchs The men and the women And the old times He goes They're the worst He goes They are the worst And I say it a lot now And every time I say it I give him a quarter Abraham was like Abraham is Sarah And one time He goes And he doesn't want to tell This leader That Sarah was his wife Because He was afraid for his life He goes She's my sister Come on Abraham. [00:50:44] (46 seconds)
But in Genesis 24 You get the feeling That Abraham's all in with God He sends out a servant And he says This is what you gotta do You gotta find a bride For my son Isaac She can't be of the Canaanites She's gotta be from the family And she's gotta come back here While he roots it in the covenant That God gave to him In verse 7 Look at it Chapter 24 verse 7 He roots it in the covenant That God gave to him Abraham is growing He was not I mean really He's growing In terms of his belief And his trust And his faithfulness And an obedience to God Why? Living things Living things grow Christians grow People who are spiritually alive Grow. [00:51:44] (41 seconds)
You wonder why Month after month Year after year Decade after decade You don't have growth You don't love the things of God You don't wanna be with the people of God You don't wanna confess sin You don't wanna tell people about Jesus You have angst You wanna know why? Perhaps you're dead In your sins And you need to be made alive By Jesus Just like a guy did In the first service You'll have a moment here In just a little bit To do that So the servant leaves Abraham And he goes To this place It was 400 miles away He takes 10 camels with him And then He has A prayer It's the first recorded prayer In the Old Testament Again Another implication I think it's a truth That we can glean. [00:52:54] (43 seconds)
He prays A very specific prayer In chapter 24 Verse 12 The direct translation Of what he prays Is Make it happen Lord Make it happen Lord Here's what he prays God I pray That when I go To the watering hole Which is kinda like The town Everybody It was like The most expedient way To meet people Everybody's going there Everybody's getting water And he goes When I go there Let there be a woman From my master's family Who's gonna ask me Would you like some water Y 'all that's a very specific prayer Isn't it What did he want Well the prayer tells us What he wanted He wanted a woman Who was from Abraham's family tribe Who Specifically Is gonna ask What. [00:53:38] (46 seconds)
He's not like you and he's not like me. God stands above us. He's transcendent, awesome, mighty, perfect. And God never lies. So some of you got some church hurt and you're here. I wanna tell you, I'm thankful that you're here. God is not like us. He never lies. He's faithful to his word. He's providential. He's orchestrating. He's playing one detail at a time. We would call that providence. Providence. There's a catechism question. It's a way to teach yourselves truth and doctrine about the Bible. And then here's a question from the Heidelberg Catechism many, many years ago. What is the providence of God? It'll be on the screens. What is the providence of God? Here's the answer to the question. Providence is the almighty and ever -present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them kindly, benevolently, that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things in fact come to us not by chance, but from his fatherly hand. [00:57:39] (69 seconds)
They have this exchange and she decides to go with the servant and then she meets her eventual husband, Isaac, and at the very end of chapter 24, they are comforted. And one of the things that we believe that God is saying through the penmanship of Moses and that the Spirit of God is saying right now through his word is that God is bringing about every detail of his plan perfectly and on time, perfectly and on time. [00:58:58] (27 seconds)
It's interesting in verses 26 to 27, the servant sees God clearly answering his prayer and he's moved to worship. He says that he praised God. There's been a lot of things that have happened here at Grace in the last several weeks. Maybe this is your first time, you're thinking, what happened? There are a lot of people who were not believers, not Christians, and God gave them spiritual awareness and they became believers in Jesus, dozens of people. I mean, I'm still a little dumbfounded by what God has done and is doing and has done and is gonna do in a moment. [00:59:25] (34 seconds)
He sees God answer his prayer. Make it happen is the direct translation there in verse 12. Make it happen. I got a lost son. God, save him. Make it happen. God, I need to be reconciled with my wife or my husband. Would you do that? Make it happen. God, I need a job. Would you make it happen? God, I need peace in my life. Make it happen. And he said, make it happen. And God made it happen. Pray specific prayers. Pray prayers of expectancy. Believe that when you pray, God hears and he's gonna answer you. [01:00:29] (29 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
One of the things that I see all throughout Genesis Is that the patriarchs and the matriarchs They were a hot mess Pastor Tony has this phrase It's a deeply profound Deeply spiritual Deeply significant phrase That he uses when he describes Some of the patriarchs And the matriarchs The men and the women And the old times He goes They're the worst He goes They are the worst And I say it a lot now And every time I say it I give him a quarter Abraham was like Abraham is Sarah And one time He goes And he doesn't want to tell This leader That Sarah was his wife Because He was afraid for his life He goes She's my sister Come on Abraham. [00:50:44] (46 seconds)
But in Genesis 24 You get the feeling That Abraham's all in with God He sends out a servant And he says This is what you gotta do You gotta find a bride For my son Isaac She can't be of the Canaanites She's gotta be from the family And she's gotta come back here While he roots it in the covenant That God gave to him In verse 7 Look at it Chapter 24 verse 7 He roots it in the covenant That God gave to him Abraham is growing He was not I mean really He's growing In terms of his belief And his trust And his faithfulness And an obedience to God Why? Living things Living things grow Christians grow People who are spiritually alive Grow. [00:51:44] (41 seconds)
You wonder why Month after month Year after year Decade after decade You don't have growth You don't love the things of God You don't wanna be with the people of God You don't wanna confess sin You don't wanna tell people about Jesus You have angst You wanna know why? Perhaps you're dead In your sins And you need to be made alive By Jesus Just like a guy did In the first service You'll have a moment here In just a little bit To do that So the servant leaves Abraham And he goes To this place It was 400 miles away He takes 10 camels with him And then He has A prayer It's the first recorded prayer In the Old Testament Again Another implication I think it's a truth That we can glean. [00:52:54] (43 seconds)
He prays A very specific prayer In chapter 24 Verse 12 The direct translation Of what he prays Is Make it happen Lord Make it happen Lord Here's what he prays God I pray That when I go To the watering hole Which is kinda like The town Everybody It was like The most expedient way To meet people Everybody's going there Everybody's getting water And he goes When I go there Let there be a woman From my master's family Who's gonna ask me Would you like some water Y 'all that's a very specific prayer Isn't it What did he want Well the prayer tells us What he wanted He wanted a woman Who was from Abraham's family tribe Who Specifically Is gonna ask What. [00:53:38] (46 seconds)
He's not like you and he's not like me. God stands above us. He's transcendent, awesome, mighty, perfect. And God never lies. So some of you got some church hurt and you're here. I wanna tell you, I'm thankful that you're here. God is not like us. He never lies. He's faithful to his word. He's providential. He's orchestrating. He's playing one detail at a time. We would call that providence. Providence. There's a catechism question. It's a way to teach yourselves truth and doctrine about the Bible. And then here's a question from the Heidelberg Catechism many, many years ago. What is the providence of God? It'll be on the screens. What is the providence of God? Here's the answer to the question. Providence is the almighty and ever -present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them kindly, benevolently, that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things in fact come to us not by chance, but from his fatherly hand. [00:57:39] (69 seconds)
They have this exchange and she decides to go with the servant and then she meets her eventual husband, Isaac, and at the very end of chapter 24, they are comforted. And one of the things that we believe that God is saying through the penmanship of Moses and that the Spirit of God is saying right now through his word is that God is bringing about every detail of his plan perfectly and on time, perfectly and on time. [00:58:58] (27 seconds)
It's interesting in verses 26 to 27, the servant sees God clearly answering his prayer and he's moved to worship. He says that he praised God. There's been a lot of things that have happened here at Grace in the last several weeks. Maybe this is your first time, you're thinking, what happened? There are a lot of people who were not believers, not Christians, and God gave them spiritual awareness and they became believers in Jesus, dozens of people. I mean, I'm still a little dumbfounded by what God has done and is doing and has done and is gonna do in a moment. [00:59:25] (34 seconds)
He sees God answer his prayer. Make it happen is the direct translation there in verse 12. Make it happen. I got a lost son. God, save him. Make it happen. God, I need to be reconciled with my wife or my husband. Would you do that? Make it happen. God, I need a job. Would you make it happen? God, I need peace in my life. Make it happen. And he said, make it happen. And God made it happen. Pray specific prayers. Pray prayers of expectancy. Believe that when you pray, God hears and he's gonna answer you. [01:00:29] (29 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from May 03, 2025. Do you have any questions about it?