God's Sovereign Plan: Grace, Redemption, and the Cross

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Genesis 3:15** - "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
2. **Genesis 12:1-3** - "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'"
3. **Exodus 1:1-7** - "These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them."

#### Observation Questions
1. What promise did God make in Genesis 3:15, and how does it relate to the overall theme of redemption?
2. In Genesis 12:1-3, what specific promises did God make to Abram? How do these promises demonstrate God's plan for redemption?
3. According to Exodus 1:1-7, how did the Israelites' situation in Egypt change over time? What does this indicate about God's plan? [25:49]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does the promise in Genesis 3:15 foreshadow the coming of Jesus and His role in God's redemptive plan?
2. What does the story of Abram and Sarah teach us about God's methods and His sovereign power? How does this challenge our expectations of how God should work? [37:59]
3. How can the period of enslavement in Egypt be seen as part of God's intricate plan for redemption? What does this teach us about the role of suffering and hardship in God's plan? [47:09]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you experienced hardship or suffering. How did you see God's hand at work in that situation, even if it was not immediately apparent? [48:32]
2. God's plan often defies human expectations, as seen in the story of Abram and Sarah. How can you cultivate trust in God's plan, especially when it doesn't align with your own expectations? [37:59]
3. The sermon emphasized the importance of acknowledging our limitations and trusting in God's wisdom. What are some practical steps you can take to recognize and accept your limitations in your daily life? [50:19]
4. The cross is central to our understanding of God's plan. How does reflecting on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus help you navigate your own struggles and doubts? [01:00:49]
5. The sermon called for a response of faith, repentance, and connection with the church. What specific steps can you take this week to deepen your faith and strengthen your connection with your church community? [01:05:29]
6. How can you use the story of God's faithfulness in your life to encourage others who may be struggling with their own faith journey? [01:05:29]
7. Identify one area in your life where you need to trust God's plan more fully. What is one action you can take this week to surrender that area to Him? [48:32]

Day 1: Embracing Grace Amidst Judgment
Grace is present even when judgment seems overwhelming. The narrative of humanity's fall is not merely a story of condemnation but also one of hope and promise. From the moment of rebellion, a redemptive plan was set in motion, one that was neither distant nor abstract but would manifest in the flesh through Jesus Christ. This plan, foreshadowed in the promise of one who would crush the serpent's head, reveals a God who is not content to leave creation in a state of brokenness but is actively working towards restoration and healing.

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). This prophecy speaks of the tangible and gritty reality of God's plan, a plan that would take shape in the very fabric of human history, altering its course forever.

Reflection: How have you experienced God's grace in a time when you felt only judgment was deserved? Reflect on a moment when you saw hope in the midst of a difficult situation. [35:04]

Day 2: God's Power Beyond Human Limits
The story of Abram and Sarah is a testament to God's ability to work beyond the constraints of human expectation and ability. Despite their advanced age and Sarah's barrenness, God's promise to make a great nation from Abram's descendants stood firm. This narrative invites reflection on the nature of divine power, which operates independently of human strength or capability. It is a reminder that God's plans are not limited by what is humanly possible but are instead a demonstration of His sovereignty and might.

"And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). Abram's faith in God's promise, despite his circumstances, is a powerful example of trust in God's sovereign power.

Reflection: Can you identify an area in your life where you need to trust God's power over your own understanding or ability? How can you exercise faith like Abram's in your current circumstances? [37:59]

Day 3: Finding Purpose in Suffering
The enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt, a period marked by suffering and hardship, was not an aberration but a crucial part of God's redemptive plan. This historical event teaches that trials and tribulations can be instrumental in the unfolding of God's purposes. It is a call to trust in God's sovereignty, even when the path leads through valleys of pain and struggle, knowing that such experiences can be the very means by which God's promises are fulfilled.

"I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75). This verse acknowledges that God's purposes in suffering are rooted in His righteousness and faithfulness.

Reflection: Reflect on a time of hardship in your life. How might that experience have been part of a larger plan for growth or preparation for something else? [47:09]

Day 4: Wisdom Beyond Information
In an age where information is readily accessible, it is crucial to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom. Acknowledging human limitations is essential to understanding and trusting in God's plan, which often transcends human reasoning. This humility allows for a deeper reliance on God, whose ways are higher and whose plans are not confined to the scope of human understanding.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). This passage reminds us that divine wisdom surpasses human knowledge and that God's plans are beyond our comprehension.

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you have relied more on your own understanding than on God's wisdom? How can you seek God's guidance in this area today? [50:19]

Day 5: The Cross as the Fulcrum of Redemption
The crucifixion, a moment that appeared to be the ultimate defeat, was in fact the pivotal act in God's redemptive plan. Through the cross, Jesus fulfilled the promise to crush the serpent's head, and the resurrection that followed marked the victory over sin and death. This central event in Christian faith is a powerful demonstration of God's love and commitment to heal what was broken by sin.

"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8). This verse captures the essence of the cross, where Jesus' humility and obedience led to the fulfillment of God's plan for redemption.

Reflection: How does the reality of the cross and resurrection shape your understanding of God's love for you? In what ways can you live out the victory of the resurrection in your daily life? [01:00:49]

Good morning again, everyone. We're so glad that you're here with us today. We want to welcome our Smarter Campus. Glad you are connected there. I got to see some of you guys at our volunteer appreciation picnic yesterday. It was good to see you there. A lot of volunteers from both campuses. A lot of you were able to be there. We were able to celebrate and thank you for all the work that you do. Let's give them a round of applause right now. All of our volunteers do such a great job.

Well, if you would, go ahead and get your Bibles out. Turn to Exodus chapter 1. You may not know it, but you signed up for a six-month-long college course in Exodus. You say, "I didn't sign up for anything." Well, you showed up, so you signed up. That's the way that works. So if you miss any of these, we post them on our YouTube channel. You can go back and catch them. But we want you to be here for every one that you possibly can. But we're glad we can have that archive of those messages in the series in case you do have to be out of town or miss one for some reason because of sickness or something like that.

What we're going to do in this series is go directly through from the beginning to the end of the book of Exodus. Last week, we did an overview. So if you missed that, you can go back and catch that. We did an overview where we looked at five major themes that we're going to be looking at that are repeated over and over again throughout the book of Exodus. And today, we're going to dive into chapter 1, verse 1. We're going to start at the very beginning.

Now, Exodus is the second book in the first five books of the Bible, which together are called what? Do you remember from last week? Very good. Pentateuch. And the Pentateuch is that five books of the law in the beginning of the Bible. Exodus is the second book, but they're all taken together, really, in order to get the whole picture, the whole story. You look at all five books. Each book kind of stands independently as well. You can study them independently. But they have references to things that are being talked about in the other books, too. So it's really one story broken down into these five different books in the beginning of the Bible there.

Oftentimes, what's going to happen in Exodus as we go through this study is we're going to read something that is unbelievably significant, but you're not going to realize how significant it is without knowing the whole story, without knowing the big picture. And that's true with the verses we're going to be looking at today. I have often read through these first seven verses of Exodus chapter 1 and not made the connection that I needed to make with the big story, with the whole story of what's being talked about here. So I'm going to help us connect the dots today on understanding how these first seven verses connect to something very eventful, very powerful, very significant in God's story for the redemption of mankind. That's a big deal.

And so, really, I'm only going to have two points today. You're thinking, all right, short sermon. Don't get your hopes up. Two points and then one remaining time, we're going to look at how we respond to these two things, okay? So the two points, I'm going to give them to you right away, all right? These are my two points. The first one is, God is working a good plan. Point one. Point two is that when God is working out His plan, it rarely plays out the way we think it's going to. God's plan rarely plays out the way we think it's going to play out. We get this picture in our mind, this idea of how we think it ought to work, and God rarely does it the way we're thinking that He's going to do it. And then we're going to talk about how that applies to us and how we respond to that at the very end, okay? So, those are my two points.

Let's pick up here. Exodus chapter 1, beginning with verse 1. Open up your Bibles, pull it up on your smartphone or tablet. We'll put the verses up on the screen if you don't have that with you today, all right? These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Whose parents would name them Gad? All right, here we go. The descendants of Jacob numbered 70 in all. Joseph was already in Egypt.

Now, Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. So, here's the thing. I want you to remember one number that sticks out there. He's talking about the number of the people that went into Egypt. How many? What's the number? 70. Very good. You didn't know you were going to have to do math? But that's an easy number to remember. I want you to stick that in your head, okay? What's the number? I'm going to ask you later. I want to hear you, okay? I'm going to ask you to tell me that number again because it's significant in what we're talking about here. There were 70 that went in. And 70 is important because of what God's big story is here, what God is doing here in this story.

Now, I know you didn't think you'd have to do any math. It reminded me of a worker that returned from his visit to the doctor, and one of his co-workers asked him how he made out at the doctor, and he said, "Oh, not too bad. The doctor told me I have math dyslexia." And the co-worker said, "Well, gee, that sounds pretty bad." He said, "Actually, the doctor told me it's not something to worry about. It's pretty common. 17 out of 5 people have it." So I'm not going to ask you to do any figuring. And if you've got math dyslexia, it's going to be fine. What's the number you're going to remember? 70. Very good.

Okay. So here's what's happening here. We have the people of Israel in Egypt. We saw that they showed up as how many? 70. Now we read in verse 7. Look at verse 7 again. It says, "The Israelites were exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, and became so numerous that the land was filled with them." They were exceedingly fruitful. They're growing as a people. So that brings us to point 1. God is working a good plan. This is not coincidence. This is by the plan of God.

Now, as Christians, we are not deists. If you're here today as a Christian, as a Christ follower, we're not deists. Deism, a deist is referring to an intellectual kind of position. It came around in the 17th and 18th century where the intellectuals of the day decided that it just stood to reason that there is a creator God. When you looked at the earth and how intricate it is, when you looked at the human body, how intricate and complicated that is, when you look at the stars and the planets and all that, it's so complicated, logic would tell you there has to be a God. But deism believes that this God created everything, set it in motion, and then stepped back and just lets it play out. And he's not involved in all their inner workings and everyday happenings of life on the earth.

There have been people who were kind of noted deists over the years around the world. And so they say they believe in God. But they don't believe in God the way the Bible depicts God as having this story that he's very active in after he created everything that he created. See, if there is this spectrum of belief and deists are on this end, Christians are on the other end. Here's what we believe about God. He's always up in our business. He's always up in our business. He's always involved. He's always actively working. And the good times and the bad times and the joys and the sorrows and the disappointments and the hurts and the pains and in the celebrations, he's there involved in all of that. It's part of how we are in his story that he is working out. And it's a good plan. It's a good story. It has a great ending to it. And he's not absent. He's there, present, working through the story.

We believe God is always intervening. He's always actively at work. He is in our space. He's in our joy and our sorrow, our life and our death, our maneuvering, our settings. We believe the Bible says that kings and rulers are put in place to serve the God of creation. Highs and lows are given to us because of God's sovereign reign for his glory and for our joy.

So here's what I want to show you. I want to get us into this story, this narrative, because here's what we see. God creates right back in Genesis one. God creates everything that exists today in our world, heavens and the earth. He created it all. And when he created it, if you go back and read the account, day one, he saw it and it was what? Good. Day two, he saw it and it was good all the way through. He saw it. He created it and it was good. And then we get to he created human beings. Right. And we have the record where he created Adam and then he saw it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. And he created Eve and he said it was very good. Right. It was really good. And I'm glad he got to that step where he added Eve to the mix. I think that's very good. Because man's not good alone. It's good to have that.

So here we have God doing his good work in his story and his plan. It's a good plan. And here we go. He created all of this. But then here's what happens in Genesis three. We have this record where this man and this woman before Genesis three. It says they were naked and unashamed. Before Genesis three, they were naked and there was no shame at all about it. There was no hiding. There was no, "Oh no, you saw," none of that. Now, when I was thinking about that, how to illustrate that, I thought about little babies, right? Little babies could be naked with no shame at all. Have you ever changed a baby's diaper? They're not like, "Oh no," right? You open up the diaper. There's a mess there. They don't care. They're just like, "Clean it up," right? There's no shame whatsoever over there. But it's not long into life that we begin to pull back and cover up and hide things. And it's really got nothing to do with physical nakedness. It's got to do with exposure of sin before a holy God. We know that that needs to be hidden and needs to be covered before a holy God. And so shame begins to come into the picture.

Remember after Genesis three, when they ate the fruit they were not supposed to eat of in rebellion against God, what was the first thing they tried to do? Hide from God, right? Now, the reason I bring that up is because there's this great verse in Genesis three, verse fifteen, where God is actually pronouncing judgment on human beings and all of his creation and Satan himself, the serpent who brought about this deception where they committed this sin, this rebellion against God. He's bringing judgment on the whole deal. And we often think of God's judgment and his wrath being all-consuming. But notice something here that he puts into the judgment. In verse fifteen, he says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." Now, why is that a big deal? It's because it's the first messianic prophecy in scripture.

Now, think about that. As soon as we rebelled, it went into sin and we're now going to be under the punishment and the curse of sin. Immediately, right away in the story, God says, "But I'm going to fix this for you. I'm going to unravel the mess that you made. I've got a plan already in place." He wasn't caught off guard by what we did and by what the serpent did. He had already planned before the foundation of the world that Jesus would be the lamb that would be slain for our redemption. You see his compassion in this? Sin has to be punished, but he's already saying, "I've got a plan to take care of this. I've got a plan that I'm working. It's a good plan so that this curse will not be something that destroys you completely. It will be something I work in to save you from the consequences of your sin." This is the first shadow of what would come in Jesus Christ and the pronouncement of judgment on creation.

Now think about the grace of God in that. Here's the pronouncement of judgment in the midst of our rebellion. It fractured all that was good, all that was beautiful that God said, "It's good, it's good, it's good." And we fractured that. We broke that with our sin. We brought some things into that that God never wanted to be into that. And it messed it up and God immediately says, "But I've got this beautiful plan. I'm going to take care of this. I'm going to do this for you so that you don't have to suffer the eternal consequences of the choice that you made. I'm going to get you out of this mess." What he says about it is pretty stunning too. It's not going to be some sort of ethereal spirit, angel-driven kind of thing. It's going to be grimy. It's going to have flesh on it. One will be born of a woman and he will crush the serpent's head, but the serpent will strike his heel. Now I like the odds of that battle. Don't you? The serpent's going to be able to do what? Strike his heel. That's bad. That's painful. But what's he going to do to the serpent? He's going to crush his head. He's going to destroy the serpent and the work and the plan of the serpent. That's much better than striking the heel and causing some pain. And so God is saying, "I've got this plan."

Now let's pick up, last week we looked at this verse in Genesis 12, a little bit further down, beginning in verse 1. The Lord had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse and all the people on the earth will be blessed through you." So God's got this plan and this promise. Now we're a little further down the road and he says to Abram, "Abram, through you, I'm going to carry out this plan. I'm going to keep this promise. This good plan that I've got to unravel the mess that we've made, you've made with your sin. I'm going to take care of that and Abram, I've chosen you to be one I will work through, through your descendants to bring about the fulfillment of this plan to provide the grace and the forgiveness that we need because we rebelled and committed this sin."

Now that's an interesting promise that God has just made. When he says this to Abram, you have to realize, Abram is an old man. His wife is an older woman. She has been barren her whole life, not able to have children, and now they're old. And God says, "Just the guy I'm looking for, just the couple I need to do this plan." You know, God often does that because it shows his power is the only thing that can make this happen, right? His presence, his plan, his power can only be worked out because of you. Not because of him, not because of us. His plan doesn't depend on us. He is going to work out this plan in his power, in his way. So you get this promise coming in a way that doesn't make any sense. Really old man with a really old wife who's been barren her whole life and God's going, "I'm going to make a great nation out of you." Which leads to the second point. Remember the second point? God's plan is rarely what we think. Who would have thought? Well, God's going to raise up his kingdom. He's going to raise up this great nation. He's going to use an old man and an old woman who is barren and that's how he's going to do it. We never would have picked that, would we? We never would have thought that's a great plan, God. You should do it that way. We never would have thought of that as the way God was going to carry out this plan. And yet he makes this promise to Abram.

Now a little later on in Genesis 15, now you think this is a study on Exodus, but why are we in Genesis? Because they connect, right? It's the big story. It's God's plan. And I want you to see how it connects to what we read in Exodus. In Genesis 15, beginning with verse 1, Abram still doesn't have any descendants yet. And he's very concerned about it. No blood descendants. So he says in verse 1, "After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram." And you know, Abram later, his name is changed to Abraham. "I am your shield, your very great reward." But Abram said, "Sovereign Lord." I like that he calls him Sovereign Lord. Because he's acknowledging you're the one in control, right? You're the one that has all authority, all power, right? What can you give me since I remain childless? And the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus. Now Eliezer was one of his servants. If you don't have any children, then the way they worked in that culture was your chief servant or somebody in your household that you entrusted your household care to would be the one that got the inheritance. And he doesn't have any descendants at this point. So he's saying, "God, I don't know how this is going to work. The only one I've got is one of my servants here in the household. How's that going to work?" And Abram said, "You've given me no children, so a servant of my household will be my heir." Then the word of the Lord came to him. "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky. Count the stars, if indeed you can count them." And then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abraham believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness. We're made righteous by our faith in God and what God can do, not in us and what we can do.

And so God says, "Oh, Abraham, why are you so worried? You're going to actually have a son. I'm going to give you that son that I promised you." Because when God has a plan, his good plan, nothing in this world can stop it, friends. Nothing in this world can keep God from fulfilling his plan. Even an old, barren couple with no children who think they can't ever have children, that can't stop the plan of God. So he says to them, "You're going to have a son, your own flesh and blood." Abram went back in the tent and told Sarah, his wife, what the Lord told him. You know what she did? She laughed. She said, "Are you crazy, Abram? I'm 90 years old. I'm not having a baby." She laughed. Because it seemed just ridiculous. This plan sounds crazy, doesn't it? But God's plan is rarely what we think it's going to be. It rarely plays out the way we think it's going to play out. It rarely works the way we think it is going to work or even should work.

So if you look down further in the story, when Abraham dies, he dies clutching these promises that God made to him. And he has one son that was born to his wife in her old age. One son. What did God promise Abram? You're going to have a son. He's going to be the one through which I keep this promise. He said, "You remember all those stars you looked at and tried to count? Now out in that place where they were encamped, there was no street lights or anything like that. So when you looked up to see the stars, you could really see a lot of stars. And he said, 'Abram, you're deceived. Your descendants are going to outnumber the stars you can see with your naked eye when you look up into the sky.' Thousands upon thousands that you can see with your naked eye. Your descendants will outnumber that." And he died with one son that God had promised that he would have.

Now here's something else you've got to know about Abram and his family. When you think that God doesn't always work his plan the way you think he's going to. Abram's family was a mess. If you go back and read the account of Abram and his family in Genesis, you're going to find out this is the most dysfunctional family you've ever seen in your life. It could have been a reality TV show, except it wouldn't have been fit for television. And you're thinking, "Oh, no, it couldn't be as dysfunctional as my family." Go back and read it, and then you'll send me a text or an email this week that says, "I'm sorry, Pastor, you're right. This family is more dysfunctional than my family ever could be." And yet when God says, "I've got this plan, and I've chosen you, Abraham." Dysfunctional, old, hasn't had any kids. Somebody you never would have picked with this crazy family of his. And God says, "Yeah, but I got this. Even with all that mess. Even with all the things you think make it not feasible for me to do this the way I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it."

You see, the plans of God rarely play out the way we think they're going to. All right. I'm going to test you again. How many came into Egypt? Oh, what a good student group. I love it. You signed up for the course, and you're paying attention. Some of you are taking notes. That's great. All right. Here we go. One son to how many in Egypt now? Seventy. Oh, do you think a plan's at work here? You think God's up to something here? Right? And then we see verse 7 of Exodus chapter 1. The Israelites were what? Exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly. This is in Egypt. This is in slavery. This is under bondage. But they were exceedingly fruitful. Huh. The whole land was filled with them.

Twelve chapters later, we get a sense of just how exceedingly fruitful they were. Look at verse 37 of Exodus 12. The Israelites journeyed from Amses to Succoth. There were about, how many? Six hundred thousand. Six hundred thousand men on foot besides women and children. One son, seventy, went into Egypt. How many have they got now? Oh, no, just six hundred thousand men. That's not counting the women and children. Most scholars estimate by the time they end up being freed by Pharaoh to leave the land, they have about 3.5 million people in the land. Why? Spend $20,000 discharging their names, their names on earth and waiting. Your children are still going to be Kara before you die and what do you have to do with your family? You won't have it. What's the purpose now? You cannot go and find out all about it until the Israelites were free. Bring them in with you to the land. That's about the disciples from our past and what they ate.

The Israelites were not afraid. They were not afraid. They were not afraid. Who would have guessed that God's plan would have included or would have been played out through them being taken into bondage into slavery in a foreign country? Who would have thought that's what God's plan was ahead of time? Well, Abram should have thought it because God gave him that information ahead of time in Genesis 15. Verse 12 says, "As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. The Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own. They will be enslaved and mistreated there.'" How long did he say they were going to be there? 400 years. You know how long they were in Egypt? 430 years, just like God said. He says, "But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions." When they came out, what did they have? Great possessions that they gave them to get them out of their land.

"You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age, and in the fourth generation of your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." Egypt was foretold by God as part of his plan. That was part of the discipline God had for them as a people because of their rebellion, but it was still included in his plan. God's plans rarely play out the way we think they're going to play out. Rarely happen the way we think they're going to play out. They rarely happen the way we think they're going to happen. Play out. They rarely happen the way we think they ought to happen. Who would have picked 400 years of slavery for the people of God as a part of God's plan to redeem the world from sin? But you were told it was coming. You would have thought, "I can't be possible, God. Would this happen to this people?" But it was part of God's plan. It was part of how God was going to do what he promised he was going to do, even when nobody thought that's what God would do or should do.

Here's my point as Christ followers today, as the children of God today, we should never be surprised as believers when difficulty comes into our lives because even that can be part of God's plan, part of how God is working his story, part of how God is bringing us out of something into something better that he wants for us. You see, God is bringing them out. He had the plan not just for them to be there, but to bring them out of there too and to bring them out better than they went into there before. Don't be surprised when part of God's plan allows for you and me to suffer some negative things here in our lives in this world. Jesus told them about, I mean, God told Abram about Egypt before they went. Jesus told us clearly, "In this world you will have what?" But he also added, "But take heart because I have overcome the world." It's part of his plan. His plan is not just to allow the trouble, but it's to overcome the trouble through him and his power. And who gets the glory for that? He does. Who does that point people to? Him. And how do we learn to appreciate his mercy and his love if all we had was good things that ever happened to us? How much would we really depend on God in the long run? We would not. That's human nature, and God knows us well because he made us well.

That leads to the last thing, and that's how our response to God's plan should look. How should we respond when we know this about God? God's faithfulness, God's plan, that it's a good plan, but it doesn't play out the way we think. How should we respond to that? I've got three things we need to do. The first one is this: we have to acknowledge our limitations. That's hard. We human beings, every generation has thought there are young people sitting here today who think this. We're smarter than our parents or our grandparents ever were. We know more. We understand more about how things work and what life is all about. They don't have a clue. We think we're getting smarter and smarter and smarter. Instead, what's really happening is we're getting more and more information that's not making us smarter. It's just giving us more information. We have access to more information than we've ever had before at our fingertips, right? The internet changed things dramatically in our world. Now we've got access electronically, over the air. If you don't know something, what do you do? Google it. I should get a kickback from Google for that. We just Google it, and then we know. And we think we're so smart. The only thing you were smart enough to do was Google it. Even us old people have learned to do that, right? It doesn't make us smarter than the generations before us.

So what happens is as we start thinking we don't have limitations like the people before us, so we don't need God as much as they did. We could function without God. We don't need God. But instead, what he's called us to do is to acknowledge our limitations so that we will turn to God. He is sovereign, and he's leading in ways that are for his glory and for my good, even when I can't see it. Even when I think I don't need it, he's still doing it because nothing we say or do, believe or don't believe can change God from fulfilling the plan that he promised he was going to fulfill. He's still working his plan today. He has a plan, and it's good. And we may not understand it, why this happens or that happens, but we're limited.

See, here's the thing about God. If he's the God of the Bible as he claims to be, and I believe he is, then he knows all things, past, present, and future. He sees all things at the same time. He is outside of time. That's how he exists. He's the God of the Bible, and he's the God of the world. He exists, and so he has knowledge and wisdom and understanding that no generation of human beings could ever acquire, no matter how advanced we think we are. And so we have to acknowledge our limitations if we're going to see and believe in and trust God's plan in our lives. God is actively involved in this big story to redeem and restore what was broken in the fall that we read about in Genesis 3, and he's also very much a part of that story and that plan that he has. He wants us to be understanding that God is still working that plan in us and through us today to bring about the redemption of lost mankind, to bring healing to the brokenness that sin has brought into the world. And he has chosen to work through a group of believers called Christians in a place called the church today around the world as a part of that redeeming plan to fix the brokenness of our sin. That's why it's important to not only be a believer but to be a believer connected to the church and the work and the mission of the church because that's part of God's intricate plan for redeeming lost mankind. He wants you to be a part of that plan, but we have to be willing to acknowledge our limitations.

That also means that when something happens to us, we have to be willing to acknowledge our limitations. What happens to us or people that we love that we just don't understand at all, that we have to admit our limitations keep us from understanding it. That God does things we're never going to understand. He allows things we're never going to understand. He is at work in ways we can never understand. That's part of what makes him God and us not God. We're not God. We're limited, but God is not.

The second step we need to take is we have to learn to understand that we're not God. We're limited, but God is not. The second step we need to take is to read scripture honestly instead of trying to make it say what we want it to say. We have this way of pulling scriptures out of context and putting them on plaques and on bumper stickers and using them as a slogan for things that it doesn't really say. I'm going to give you one of my favorite examples, and some of you aren't going to like it, and I just have to accept that. Philippians 4:13, a lot of you know this verse. In one translation, it says that the word of God is, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Right? A more accurate translation is, "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." You know why? Because even if we put it on a bumper sticker and put it on a wall in our house on a plaque, it doesn't say what some people are trying to say it says. You have to look at it honestly within the context of what Paul is talking about there. You know what he says before that verse? "I've learned to be content whether I have a lot or whether I have a little. I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength." He's not saying I can do anything because Christ will give me the strength to do it. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, "I have learned that Jesus is enough no matter what my circumstances are. I can trust him. I can depend on him, and he will never let me down." That's what that verse means, not that you can just do anything because Christ gives you strength. I can't play center in the NBA. I don't care how much strength God gives me. That's not going to happen because that's not even what God wants for me, right? Why should I try to claim a verse that's not even talking about what I'm saying? And that's what we do with that verse over and over again. We've got to learn to be more honest with scripture. He's not saying no bad things will ever happen to you because you all good things with Christ. Well, of course, Christ wants good things for you, but sometimes that involves some struggle, some hard things to get you to the good place that he's trying to take you to.

Here's another one we pull out of context. I saw this one recently on a plaque at a house. It says this: "Habakkuk 1:5, 'Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed, for I'm going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.'" Doesn't that sound remarkable? Doesn't that sound amazing? Look, God's going to do some amazing things that even if I told you ahead of time, you wouldn't even believe it. You couldn't comprehend it. You couldn't grasp it. Hallelujah, praise God. Do it, God. You know what he's talking about? Captivity and bondage that he's about to send them into. That's what he's talking about in that verse. But we pluck it out of the context of the rest of the Bible, and we try to make it say something about the gospel, and we try to make it say something it's not saying at all. And when we do that, we have this false impression of the plan of God that he's only going to let good things come to you as part of his plan, that it's always going to be good, it's always going to work the way you want it to, and you're always going to have what you want to have. And you attend some churches long enough, they will convince you through their teaching that is God's plan for you. But they've taken scripture and pulled it completely out of context to make it say things it does not say. That's why we've got to learn to read scripture honestly because it doesn't always say what you want it to say. And we don't always hear what God wants us to hear because we have this preconceived notion that God, if it's his plan, it'll all be good all the time. It's like this song says, it's popular in Christian music today, "If it's not good now for you, then God's not done yet." Well, that's not true. Maybe God's not done, but he is working through things that aren't good. That is part of the good plan of God is even working through the things that aren't so good. And yes, he's not done yet. He is bringing you to something better. You can claim that. That is scripture. That is true. But there's going to be some not-so-good things sometimes along the way to get you to that good thing that he's taking you into, just like Egypt was not good for the Israelites in a lot of ways, was it? It was part of God's good plan, absolutely. It was part of the good plan for the Israelites, and it was part of the good plan for the world for us that he was leading to something so much better, and that is that we would put our trust in God in his provision so that we could be saved and have the promise of eternity with him.

There's one final thing we need to do. We have to remember the cross. We have to learn to acknowledge our limitations. We've got to read scripture honestly, and we have to remember the cross. Think about this for a moment. When Jesus came, the people were wondering, "Is this Messiah the Messiah?" Right? Is he the one? And Jesus started doing some things that were convincing them he's the Messiah. He's the one. He was teaching like nobody else ever taught with wisdom and understanding that nobody else had. He was doing miracles that no one else had ever done or could do ever in front of them where they could see it and understand this is God doing this through him. And so they're becoming more and more convinced this has got to be him. This has got to be the Messiah. This has got to be Genesis 3:15. He's here to crush the head of the serpent. He's here to—he may be his heel may be stricken by the serpent, but he's here to crush the head of the serpent. It's here. It's our victory. It's our deliverance. And then they watched as Jesus was arrested, was taken through the mockery of a trial, how he was beaten and flogged, how he was stripped naked, bleeding, nailed to a cross, and they watched him die there. And they immediately thought, "This can't be the plan. This can't be the one. God would not let this happen. God would not treat his son this way. God would not allow himself to be killed on a cross and humiliated like this. That is certainly not God's plan." But it was in that very humiliation, it was in that very beating, it was in that very nailing and dying on the cross that Jesus crushes the head of the serpent right there when he dies on that cross for our sin.

You see how we misunderstand God's plan so many times? Anytime something bad happens, anytime something happens we don't think should, doesn't go the way we want it to go, we don't get what we want, and as we grieve, we don't think single and ungrateful yet again. We're prepared for ten. Once again, we're never going to do what you're doing. Whenever something changes, you're going to—it's a plan. You're very—can do it. It's a plan. We have to—but there's another reason these. We're going to believe in Jesus the first time he came here in the new season's in the extraordinarily, the crux of the crucifixion. And why did he bring himself here as an upstart leader of the crust that said he was actually anyway coming to be a missionter? Obviously, there was a lot of this story of scripture conversation, and there was a lot of it, and he was just there talking hard. He had a great power. He was so I kept going through through the—does God love you? Look to the cross. Does God care about you? Look at the cross. Has God forgotten about me? Look where? At the cross. You see, God's plan included the cross. It included that brutal beating. It included that humiliation that he suffered, that agony hanging in the hot sun, bleeding and dying for us. That was God's plan to crush the head of the serpent. He had to take the wrath of the guilt of sin upon himself on our behalf. But guess where that was taking Jesus and taking us to? The resurrection, to the victory, to the absolute fulfillment of the promise of redemption and the healing of all that was broken in Genesis 3 when we rebelled and fell into sin. It was all redeemed through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Exodus was a part of that plan, and your life right now is a part of that plan that God has for you.

That's why we have communion in our churches all around the world at every service. You know why? Because in our struggles and our doubts, where do we need to look every time? The—and this time around the table is when we come back to the cross. We come back to the shed blood, to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ because the plan of God required the payment for sin. And we remember that God loved, so loved the world, so loved you, so loved me every time we take this communion meal that he gave the body and the blood of his son so that we can be a part of that communion meal and we can be saved.

Maybe there's somebody here today you've been struggling. You're at a place where you're not sure if God cares or loves or he's even there for you. Friends, I want you to know where you are right now is not unnoticed by God. He sees you. He knows you. He has a plan for you, and it's a good plan. And you may not understand why you are where you are, but it's brought you to the cross, and it's brought you to the cross, and it's brought you to the cross, and it's brought you to this place today, whether you're online at the Smyrna campus or here at the Antioch campus. It's brought you to this place where you have the opportunity because of his plan to find redemption through the blood of Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you that in Christ we can see more of your plan being played out. As we look back, we can see how you were at work the whole time, even in the bad things, the good or the bad, everything in between. You are working. You're sovereign. You are involved, and you're going to be a part of the cross, and you're still doing that today in every life that's hearing this message today. May we acknowledge your presence and your power and your plan for us so that we don't get so discouraged and we give up, so that we don't turn against you, so that we don't miss the opportunity to understand that you're taking us where you want us to be so you can reward us with that plan for eternal life that you want for us all.

Father, I pray for those who may need to make steps of decision and obedience today that your spirit would work. They would be prompted to take the steps they need to take wherever they are in that plan right now, Father, that they would take the step of coming to you in faith, repenting of sin. If they've not yet been baptized, they would be baptized in the Christ. If they have to connect with your church and your plan for the redemption of the world and how they can be used in that plan, may they take those steps even today is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.

So we stand and sing, we invite you to come right up front while we're singing if you have steps of obedience you need to take.

Let's go have a seat, please? Except you, young lady. Come right up here, okay? Step right up here to this mic, okay? How tall did you think we were when you set this mic up? No, I'm just kidding. Tell everybody your name. Veronica. Veronica comes today to make a profession of her faith in Christ and to be baptized into Christ. Yeah. And Tito is your cousin, is that right? And Tito's going to baptize her into Christ. Tito is our youth pastor here, and we're just so thankful to have this decision today. For our benefit, I'm going to ask you to repeat a profession of your faith, okay?

I believe. I believe. That Jesus is the Christ. That Jesus is the Christ. He's the Son of the Living God. The Son of the Living God. And I do accept him. And I do accept him. As my Lord and my Savior. As my Lord and my Savior. Amen. God bless you. Congratulations. Tito, you want to take her back? We'll get ready for the baptism. All right, we have other decisions. Come on up here. Yes. Tell everybody your name. Kathy. I've been coming for a few weeks now, and she said, "How long do I have to keep coming to be a member?" I said, "You can do it right away." She said, "Well, what do I do?" I said, "Just come up front, and we'll welcome you as a member." And Kathy, I know you come as a believer that's already baptized. I'm going to ask you, if you would, for our benefit, just to repeat a profession of your faith.

Yes. I believe. I believe. That Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. He's the Son of the Living God. Amen. Amen. That's okay. I like it when it's serious, right? When it's on your heart like that. You believe He's the Son of the Living God? He is the Son of the Living God. Amen. God bless you. He's your Savior. We're so thankful to welcome you as a part of our family here. If you want to hang out for a few minutes after the service, we want to take your picture, okay? And get your info. Make sure we get your membership certificate, okay? Thank you so much. We also have a couple of folks coming for prayer requests. Tammy, come on up. You've asked for prayer. Your father-in-law, is that correct? Yes. Having some health problems and then also needing someone that he can bring in under him to work with them. What's the ministry of the job? All right. That's great. We'll pray for him. Mel, if you would come on up too. Mel comes today asking for prayers for him and his family as they go through a time of grief and the passing of your mom, right? Yes. Yes. And so it's never easy. I don't care what age it is or what the circumstances, it's always hard when you have that separation physically from the person that has so impacted your life that you love and that you know loves you. So I want us to be praying for Mel and for his family through this. Let's pray together for both of these needs.

Father, we just come to you in the name of Jesus. We boldly approach your throne of grace as you invite us to do through your son, Jesus, to find the help that we need. We pray for both of these circumstances, for Tammy's father-in-law, for Mel and his family. We know, Father, you're present, you're powerful, you have a plan, and your power is greater than anything we face. And you bring good things even out of the hard things. And that's what we pray for in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. I think we're ready for the baptism. Then we'll do the communion. Are we ready? Not yet. Let's go ahead and do communion. All right. There you go. Don't rub it in. Amen. What a great celebration today. We're thankful. Anytime someone makes that decision, the kingdom of God continues to grow. We're so thankful you're here to celebrate with us today. If you would like to continue worshiping through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes available, one in the back of the house. One in the back of the house. One in the back of the house. One in the back of the auditorium. One in the hallway as you exit the auditorium. They're mounted on posts there as a slot in the top. You can drop your offerings in the top slot of those boxes. You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com or scan the QR code in your bulletin shell. It'll take you to that page to give online, and you can mail in your offerings to the church office. Either way you do it, it's an act of worship, and it's a way to support the work and the ministry of the church.

Before we go today, we have a few announcements. Is Jeremy here? I didn't see Jeremy come in. There he is. Come on up here, man. Dude's running late today, but he was here. Jeremy's going to lead us in a few announcements and then close us out with prayer. Thank you, buddy.

"We have to admit our limitations keep us from understanding it. God does things we're never going to understand. He allows things we're never going to understand. He is at work in ways we can never understand. That's part of what makes Him God and us not God. We're not God; we're limited, but God is not." [54:40](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"God's plans rarely play out the way we think they're going to play out. They rarely happen the way we think they ought to happen. Who would have picked 400 years of slavery for the people of God as a part of God's plan to redeem the world from sin? But it was part of God's plan, part of how God was going to do what He promised He was going to do, even when nobody thought that's what God would do or should do." [47:09](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"God is bringing them out; He had the plan not just for them to be there but to bring them out of there too, and to bring them out better than they went into there before. Don't be surprised when part of God's plan allows for you and me to suffer some negative things here in our lives in this world." [48:32](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"We have to acknowledge our limitations. That's hard. We human beings, every generation has thought this. We're smarter than our parents or our grandparents ever were. We know more, we understand more about how things work, and what life is all about. They don't have a clue. We think we're getting smarter and smarter, instead, what's really happening is we're getting more and more information." [50:19](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"God is actively involved in this big story to redeem and restore what was broken in the fall that we read about in Genesis 3, and He's also very much a part of that story and that plan that He has. He wants us to be understanding that God is still working that plan in us and through us today to bring about the redemption of lost mankind." [53:30](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"Here's the pronouncement of judgment in the midst of our rebellion. It fractured all that was good, all that was beautiful that God said, it's good, it's good, it's good. And we fractured that. We broke that with our sin. We brought some things into that that God never wanted to be into that. And it messed it up and God immediately says, but I've got this beautiful plan." [35:04](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"God often does that because it shows His power is the only thing that can make this happen, right? His presence, His plan, His power can only be worked out because of you. Not because of Him, not because of us. His plan doesn't depend on us. He is going to work out this plan in His power, in His way." [37:59](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)



"Does God love you? Look to the cross. Does God care about you? Look at the cross. Has God forgotten about me? Look where? At the cross. You see, God's plan included the cross. It included that brutal beating. It included that humiliation that He suffered, that agony hanging in the hot sun, bleeding and dying for us. That was God's plan to crush the head of the serpent." [01:04:00](Make clip | Crop for social media | Crop + Caption)