26 Does God Know What He's Doing?!

Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:

"Does God Know What He's Doing?!"

God has chosen you and God has chosen me - are we SURE
God knows what He's doing. What's He doing with people like us -
admittedly imperfect, flawed, sinful.
However, God called "the chief of sinners" as the Apostle Paul
described himself to develop the church and make it grow - the church to
which Paul had laid waste, entering house after house where the Christians
were meeting dragging them off to prison. God turned him around in his
tracks on the Damascus Road and the rest is history. God does things
His Way, and His way is usually diametrically opposed to ours for the
most part.
I am a person without spatial sense - north, south, east and west
are foreign concepts. I always wanted to learn to fly, but if the Tower told
me to fly in a northeasterly direction, it would take me five minutes to
figure out where that was. No, I can't get lost in an elevator (!), but I can
tell you this. When I get turned around in an area and have to decide
which way to go, I decide which way I think it is, then turn the other way!
It almost always works!
Applying this to the way we do things and the decisions we make
- consider that more often than not, God would not choose what we
choose. And when we choose what God would choose, we can find
ourselves faced with some real challenges.
Consider the car dealer that was featured on the evening news
with Katie Couric. He found a homeless person sleeping in one of his
cars. What did he do? He did what God would do - he hired him. He
became one of his best salesmen. The salesman, who had been homeless
had a friend in dire straits whose son, it seemed was going to be the one to
suffer with his father's inability to provide a healthy environment, so the
dealer hired him to become the lot attendant and from that time on became
a mentor to the boy. He befriended a couple who with their children
needed help - needed a place to stay. By the end of the day they were in
an apartment and the man was on his payroll. The two men that he had
hired onto his staff as salesmen were now the number one and number
two producers of sales.
Soon, a lot of people heard about his unusual hiring practices and
thought what he was doing was wonderful - but only a handful bought
cars as a result. However, many handfuls of people came for help!
Wouldm't you know! The dealer has stretched every resource to do
everything he could - with the help of a very supportive wife. They're not
rich, but they are deep in the satisfaction of knowing their lives make a
difference in the lives of others. They are happy and content.
Jesus came to make a difference in your life and mine. And he
does that if an when you make specific decision to team up with Him and
be a follower.
Dr. Schuler, on the Hour of Power this last week, interviewed
Aurelio, who had come from Cuba to pursue the American Dream. He
did a good job of it, starting several businesses, selling one of them for 60
million dollars. He now HAD the American Dream, but it was not as
fulfilling as he had assumed. He felt empty inside. He had no center for
his life, no Abiding Presence. Not that he didn't know about Jesus. When
asked about Jesus he told what he knew ; Jesus was born at Christmas
and died at Easter!
When the concept of a Living Jesus who walks beside us was
explained to him, he asked Jesus to walk with Him, to be the Abiding,
Holy Presence in His Life The restlessness ceased and the peace began.
We are a Relationship Religion. We are alone until we connect
ourself with the Love which is at the very Center of Everything. When
Aurelio made that dedication of Himself to Jesus, his life was permeated
with a sense of being loved by God - by Everthing that Is.
In the same way, God showered his Love and Presence upon
Racehoss, Big Emma's Boy. Racehoss grew up in a violent home and
was a repeat offender in the Texas prison system. The all-too-familiar
cycle emerged: prison, parole, offense, prison. Racehoss learned cunning
survival skills in an environment of extreme brutality. But one day in the
hellish darkness of solitary confinement, the boy experienced God's
acceptance, even of him who had been rejected by family and society.
Here's how Race Sample tells the story:
The slamming of the two steel doors still rang in my ears.
Sitting naked on the slab in pitch-black silence, I hung my head as
the tears bounded off the floor onto my feet...Sweat poured. Gritting
my teeth, I hugged and rocked myself, trying to squeeze my head
against the unyielding concrete....I mauled myself, scratching and
tearing my body. Slumped, exhausted on the slab I covered my
face with both hands and cried out, "Help me, God! Help meeee!!..."
A ray of light between my fingers. Slowly uncovering my face, the
whole cell was illuminated like a 40-watt bulb was turned on. The
soft light soothed, and I no longer was afraid. Engulfed by a
Presence, I felt it reassuring me. No pressure any more. I breathed
freely. I had never felts such well-being, so good, in all my life.
Safe. Loved....An the voice within talked through the pit of my
belly, "Don'cha worry about a thing. But you must tell them about
me." I lay back on the slab. A change had taken place. Never
before had I felt so totally loved. That's really all I ever wanted.
The biggest need in my life fulfilled in an instant. And I loved that
Presence back.
My dedication of myself to Jesus was not so dramatic or
mysterious, but no less effective. My whole life and future changed as a
result of that decision. What was mysterious about it - something to
marvel at - was that I was an Ohio teenager, living in New York State and
working in Pennsylvania - just for the summer. The missionary who invited
me to follow Jesus was from California, living in New York State - and
working, temporarily at a fruit packing plant where I worked in Pennsylvania.
I marvel at how God used these temporary circumstances to bring our
meeting about.
I read this week that "You know you're old when you've lost
all your marvels - (that's with a "V" and in Victor.")
Hopefully, you are not old - that the marvel of the Living Jesus is
very much a part of your thinking and believing. Fortunately, we are
becoming more able to delve into the realms of the mystical.
Have you read Ninety Minutes In Heaven? Rev. Don Piper
was on his way home from a church conference when his car was struck
by a semi. He was pronounced dead, his body covered with a tarp while
they waited for the jaws of life to extricate the remains. Another preacher,
on his way home from the same conference stopped to offer help and
despite being told by the EMT's that he was very, very dead, crawled
under the wreckage, put his hand on
Don's shoulder and began to pray for him. Then he began singing hymns.
That's when there was really something to marvel at - when he started to
sing "What A Friend We Have in Jesus, the dead man started singing with
him!
But for ninety minutes he had been dead - or rather, he was alive
- in heaven, surround by loved ones and friends, enjoying the magnificent
light and the sense of pure peace and the most glorious music he had ever
heard. He said, "A light enveloped me, with a brilliance beyond
earthly comprehension or description. Only that. I n my next
moment of awareness, I was standing in Heaven."
He goes on to say, "I'm thoroughly convinced that God
answers prayer. Answered prayer is why I'm still alive. I have an
unquestionable belief that God still is in the miracle business. Too
many people read about the supernatural in the Bible and think,
That's the way it was in biblical times. I'm convinced that God
continues to do the more-than-ordinary,"
A walk with Jesus is no ordinary walk. It can walk you right into
where you have never been before - everything from hiring the homeless
to hobnobbing with heaven's inhabitants.
Think of the disciples, Peter, James and John who walked in on
Jesus who was talking to none other than Moses and Elijah.
Whenever there was an experience that bordered or crossed over
the line into the mystical, Jesus always chose those who were open to it -
could deal with it - and it always seemed to be these three - Peter, James
and John..
Does he choose you? Could he choose you if you made the
simple step to believe that what happened in Bible times can happen in
our own
What would happen if you were to live by this mantra: Expect a
miracle? What if you were to cancel out "coincidences" in your life and
vote for marvels instead? God Knows what He's doing and He's
doing it all the time. The question is "Are we able to see and experience
what he's doing?"
In telling the story of his 25 yr. old son, Eric, Fred Zimmerman
touched on several mystical things. As his son prepared to finish his last
two weeks of training at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy, he and
his father were talking . Eric was standing on the sidewalk with the street
light glowing behind him. It gave the picture of a halo of which light around
his head. "Eric was talking about Christmas presents and his
graduation from the academy and my coming down to see him
graduate. I was thinking of reply when all of a sudden my complete
thought process went blank and a voice said to me: "Eric is going
to die. Be prepared." It was definitive, authoritative, precise, to
the point - and I got the impression there was not a thing I could do
about it."
A week after he graduated, his parents wakened at two in the
morning knowing something was wrong. Later they found that was the
time he suffered a fatal accident. As they heard the news, Eric touched
her on the shoulder and said. "It's Eric. Sorry, Mom, so sorry." Then
he was gone.
Forty-five days later, at home, and on the way into another room,
Fred felt a tremendous squeeze and hug on both sides of his body that
stopped him in his tracks. "Eric appeared right in front of my face,
smiling ,and the whole rooms was full of energy. It's like the
molecules, atoms, and air are all moving at a tremendous speed. It
was forceful, explosive, loving, highly energized, the most
exhilarating experience that I have ever had! I hugged Eric...My
mind was ecstatic, lucid, fully awake and aware of that was
happening. I could see the tremendous love in the complete
environment that Eric brought with him. I knew this was real, on
purpose, planned by Eric. Eric Zimmerman was in full and complete
control for the ten-plus seconds of his visit. I saw a view of eternity,
and believe me, it is a wonderful loving, totally uncomplaining, joyful
world."
As you get to know Jesus, as you invite Him to walk with you
daily,
he will chose you as worthy to enter into the mysterious world of the
Spirit, where Love reigns supreme -where the Light shines and there is no
darkness at all
Let us pray: O Lord, in these sacred moments call each of us to
walk with you. Speak specially and persuasively to those who have not
before accepted your invitation to wal with them. Make your invitation
clear. Strengthen their resolove to make this a day of marvel and mystery
- a day of beginning that has no end.
Speak to those os us who have been your followers for sometime,
struggling to balance all the demands put upon us by the daily return with
Your need to spead the Love and Presence of Christ in the world.,
Straighten out our pririties. Let the excitemenet of discipleship overcome
us and lead us.
Now, O Lord those who wish to dedicate themselves to your
Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to those who wish to rededicate their
lives to him will repeat these words after me.
O LORD MY GOD, THIS DAY, I DEDICATE MYSELF TO
YOU.
O LORD, FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT
O GOD, GIVE ME THE GRACE OF A DAILY WALK WITH
THE LIVING JESUS.
USE ME FOR YOUR GOOD AND BLESS ME WITH YOUR
SPIRIT. LET ME WALK IN YOUR WAYS.
AMEN

Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 16 2007 10:30 a, m. I Tim. 1:12-17, Lk., 15:1-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.