Serendipity

What a glorious week it has been for me. I mean there has been so much work I have been able to get done at the space up there. Having time to be with my kids and go to lunch with my wife and my daughters. I love what I do. I love being a pastor. But alas Fall break has ended and work calls again. So we keep pushing and keep moving right.

Well if you have been here for this series, hasn’t it been good. I mean we talked about God using broken pots. We talked about last week destroying the boxes with Pastor Jordan. Next week there will be another speaker. You gotta show up to know who it will be.

If you are here today, you are one step ahead of everyone else. Give yourself a high five. Some of yall actually did that. I can’t believe it. lol

What a great day to be here. Today’s message has nothing to do with the past two so you’re in luck in that you don’t have to try and catch up or wonder what I am talking about. Let’s get into the message.

I want each of you to close your eyes and go with me for a moment. The time is 1830. Some of y’all weren’t even born yet. lol Just kidding. You are a scientist. What you have been inspired to do is to figure out is a way to make rubber more durable. It is used right now and considered a miracle substance for the past 20 years. But what is happening is if the rubber gets too hot or too cold it breaks down. I mean too hot and it melts, too cold and it breaks. So you become obsessed with this after you visit a sporting good shop that has plastic life vest. You think to yourself, I can create a better valve for that vest. When you bring it back to the store owner he says you should have invented a better plastic. So you start on that journey. Everyone loves this stuff but because of those two reasons they are going to give up on it. But you believe there is a future so you take it upon yourself to work on it. You are going to make this happen. For the next 5 years, you are sold out to this. You put your family in debt to finance experiments to make the material suitable for industrial use. You moved several times—to New York, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and Connecticut. In short, you went anywhere he could find investors and places to conduct his experiments.

You mixed chemicals into raw rubber in pots and pans in makeshift laboratories that you set up in your kitchen and also in debtors’ prison, where you spent many nights for failing to pay your creditors. You’ve inhaled the fumes of toxic concoctions, including nitric acid, lime, and turpentine, that you mixed together and kneaded into the rubber to make it stable.

There was no stopping you. When you ran out of money to pay for your experiments, you begged or sold your family’s furnishings, even your children’s textbooks. “You spared a set of china teacups, not out of sentiment but because they could double in the evenings as mixing bowls for rubber and turpentine,”.

But as luck would have it, after 9 years of your hard work and determination you mix sulfur and rubber together and drop it on your hot stove. It doesn’t melt as you expect and ruin the stove. And make your wife mad at you. But in fact it hardens. But it is still pliable to use.

That is the story of Charles Goodyear. He would go on 5 years later to patent that invention but unfortunately would experience very little of the wealth that his invention would bring because the automobile industry came too many years later. He died $200,000 in debt because of all the people trying to steal his invention.

Or maybe your name is Constantin Fahlburg. Who one day forgot to wash his hands. In 1879, after a day spent reacting coal tar with phosphorous, ammonia, and other chemicals, he realized at home that his hands tasted sweet. Sweet'N Low, that is. (Stay away)

Or what about this one with Robert Chesebrough. Who was looking to strike it rich in the oil fields, but in 1859 he noticed workers complaining about rod wax, an annoying, waxy substance that gummed up their drilling equipment. Chesebrough called it Vaseline, and he used it to treat cuts and burns. He even ate a spoonful of the stuff every day. 

Here is another story. In 1827, English pharmacist John Walker was stirring a pot of chemicals that included antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate, and then he noticed this dried lump at the end of his mixing stick. Now, he tried to scratch it off, but it burst into flames and the world had it's first prototype of the strikeable match.

This one On one particular hiking trip in 1941, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral found burrs clinging to his pants and also to his dog's fur. On closer inspection, he found that the burr's hooks would cling to anything loop-shaped. If he could only artificially re-create the loops, he might be on to something.

The result: Velcro. A combination of the words "velvet" and "crochet," the material had trouble gaining traction in the fashion industry. But one of its most notable clients in the 1960s was NASA. The agency used the material in flight suits and to help secure items in zero gravity. After that, it became a space-age fashion all its own, allowing kids everywhere to put off learning how to tie shoelaces.

The last one we will discuss. Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming took an August vacation from his day-to-day work in the lab investigating staphylococci, known commonly as staph. Upon his return on Sept. 3, 1928, the perceptive scientist found a strange fungus on a culture he had left in his lab—a fungus that had killed off all surrounding bacteria in the culture. Modern medicine was never the same.

All of these inventions have one thing in common. They are what we call serendipitous inventions.

Serendipity

What does that mean you ask. I am glad you did. Serendipity means this

Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way

Something is beneficial to you but you had no hand in them. It says by chance something happens but you didn’t plan it. You didn’t make it happen. Have any of you ever experienced something like that? I know we have just in this church. This building was a serendipitous moment.

Sonya and I knew we had to find a place. We kept looking and looking around here. We nothing seemed right. we were talking with another pastor about this actually our former pastor. Then out of the blue like: Bam!. Something popped into Sonya’s mind that we should call Beth who is the owner of the daycare here. And just ask her if we can use this space. So I immediately did and bam here we are. We had no hand in any of that. These moments while seemingly have no type of plan in them, I would beg to differ. Here is the number one reason why i beg to differ.

James 1:17 NKJV

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Everything good that happens in your life comes from God. The idea for this buillding was from God. The idea for the sermon series was from God. It has been good right? My wife was from God. My kids were from God. The job I have, was from God. Literally I tested that this week. lol We happen to chalk it up to just dumb luck sometimes but there is no such thing. It is from God.

Let’s look at a few examples of biblical characters that experienced this.

2 Kings 22:1–3 NKJV

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying:

2 Kings

2 Kings 22:8 NKJV

Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

2 Kings 22:10–12 NKJV

Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying,

2 Kings 22:

2 Kings 22:13–17 NKJV

“Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. Then she said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read— because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ ” ’

2 Kings 22:

2 Kings 23:1–3 NKJV

Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant.

Now can you imagine first of all there only being one bible in all the land. And somebody lost it. Somebody took that one and only word of God and put it somewhere and it just got lost. I mean we have the bible everywhere we go. But here they didn’t. They had one. Then imagine being Josiah and you think everything is ok. You are the king and you are doing your best to honor God. You have been 18 years in doing that and someone comes to you and says hey king we just found a book. It looks like the law that was written by Moses. It has been lost until now. So the king says great read it to us. Expecting that he had been doing well all these years. Only to realize that he was failing the test. You ever been there. You have studied for something and you know the material but the material you were studying wasn’t what the test was over. So you are now staring at the test realizing that you are going to fail because you don’t know this.

I can only imagine that is how he felt. He was so distraught that he tore his clothes in shame. The king. He said we have to fix this. We cannot continue going down this path. Man some of yall are saying I bet he wished they hadn’t even found the book. But don’t you want to known? Wouldn’t it be better to know you have termites and can do something about it then to come home and open your door and you are left holding the door knob.

This moment was designed by God to get a man who was trying his best to live with honor towards God back on the actual track in which he had left. He thought he was on the right one but it was this encounter that showed him he wasn’t.

Sometimes God uses these encounters to correct His children.

Another moment we have in scripture is with a man named Moses. Most of you know the story so I want read through it but the gist is this. He is an Egyptian raised Israelite. He murders someone in a field and runs away for fear of the penalty. He winds up being married to a woman and become a shepherd. From prince to shepherd. That will preach. Just not today. But he is for 40 years minding his business. Doing his shepherd thing. Just feeding sheep. Watering sheep. Leading sheep. Then all of a sudden something happens. A bush is on fire and doesn’t burn.

Do you think Moses was looking for a burning bush that day? Do you think he was expecting that? Do you think for one moment he believed that he was about to have an encounter with God that would change his life. Absolutely not. Serendipity. But God had a plan. God had to meet Moses that day. That encounter while seemingly by chance was set in motion by God himself because it was time for Moses’s life plan to take shape.

Sometimes God uses these encounters to set your course.

You thought showing up here was by happenstance. you thought you were coming for some good chili. You thought you were arriving here today because by some dumb luck you stumbled into the building. But what you don’t know is that today was orchestrated because God is reaching out to you to set your life on the course to which has planned for you.

Ephesians 1:3–6 NKJV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1

Ephesians 1:11 NKJV

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

The purpose that God has for your life He makes sure that it happens. I don’t think for a moment that God wanted Moses to run for 40 years but he had a burning bush. I don’t believe that God wanted Peter to disavow knowledge of Jesus but he had a fishing trip. I don’t think that God wanted Jonah to go away from Nineveh but He had a whale. I know God didn’t want Balaam to try and curse the Israelite children so he gave him a donkey. God will use what he has to so you can get back on the course he planned for you.

The final serendipitous moment we have to talk about today is a man by the name of Saul. He is traveling on the road to damascus completely opposed to everything Jesus yet Jesus says you are mine. He meets him on that road and changes his life. but he doesn’t change Paul just for the sake of changing him. He changes him because Paul who is the chief of Jews needs to reach the Gentiles. Paul has to be the one to teach the Jews that they aren’t that special any more that God is calling to all men now. So

Sometimes God uses these encounters to help others.

It may not all be about you. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you have strayed and God needs to correct that or sometimes he just wants to tell you where you are headed. Other times though he is giving you an encounter so that you can in turn help others. So then the question is

What should you do?

Be watchful

YOu need to be ready. You don’t know when these encounters may happen so take head to this verse.

Colossians 4:2 NKJV

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

Col

1 Peter 5:8 NKJV

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

while being watchful

Be on the move

Jesus never showed up one time while a person was sitting on the couch eating bon bons and watching oprah or while they were in the lazy boy with the pizza box on their stomach watching car shows. I am not saying that you can’t relax and veg out but you weren’t designed for that. Even when people were moving the wrong way, they were still moving. 18 verses about a person being lazy and not one is good.

Matthew 25:26 NKJV

“But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.

Finally when you have these moments because you are vigilant and you are moving.

Be ready to obey

Jesus said you shall show me that you love me by being obedient. Obey what he tells you to do.