THE STUBBORN PURPOSES OF GOD

THE STUBBORN PURPOSES OF GOD Philippians   1:12-14 Aug 23, 1999 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory How far will God go to get His purposes accomplished? Will He let anything stand in His way? Suppose about 250 people incited a crowd of nearly 15,000 to oppose the Lord and His anointed leaders--would God do anything about that so that His purposes would go on? Ask Korah, the Levite, mentioned in Numbers 16. As a direct result of his rebellion, his family and many other families were swallowed up by the earth, his 250 levitical followers were burned alive by fire from heaven and 14,700 of the chosen people died from a plague the Lord sent among them! To what extremes might the Lord go to get His purposes done in the life of a chosen servant when that servant is unwilling? Ask Jonah, the reluctant prophet who at first refused to go and preach in the heathen city of Nineveh when the Lord told him to. When he ran from God's purposes, God sent him through a shipwreck And had him swallowed by a whale. When he repented, God had the whale vomit him back to safety. Finally, Jonah did what the Lord wanted him to do, and the whole city of Nineveh repented, sparing them the judgment of God. God made his purpose clear to the apostle Paul that he would one day preach the gospel in Rome. He wrote to the Romans from Corinth and said, "with all that is in me, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome." Paul is a study in how far God will go to get His purposes accomplished in and through a man. When the circumstances in his life would not accommodate Paul going to Rome as a preacher, God got him to Rome as a prisoner! You can read about the series of events which led up to this arrangement in Acts 21-28. The synopsis of it goes this way: Paul was illegally arrested in Jerusalem (it was previously prophesied to him that if he went to Jerusalem he was facing very serious trouble--but Paul responded to the prophecy this way: "After I've been to Jerusalem, I will also go to Rome." Paul appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen, and he was extradited to Rome. On the way he faced shipwreck, miraculous deliverance, poisonous snakebite and miraculous healing, a three month wait on the island of Malta, and then finally on to Rome to await his trial of appeal before Caesar. God got His purpose done! But what might Paul have thought of all this? To us, ending up as a chained prisoner rather than a charming preacher might have looked like failure. But it didn't look like that to Paul. He had a single mindset--he was concerned to share the gospel with those in Rome. He did not find his joy and fulfillment in ideal circumstances, but in winning others to faith in Jesus. It just did not matter what happened to Paul--he was obsessed only with what might happen through him. And, sure enough, from a prison of house arrest, he was preaching the gospel to Romans. Philippians 1:12-14 - The apostle is writing, you'll remember, back to his beloved friends in Philippi. They had apparently written and sent personally a letter of concern over how Paul was doing, since he was in prison. He writes: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel! As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. Circumstances What Paul is saying is that the believers at Philippi had it all wrong--No, no! I'm not discouraged. Look at what I can do from this prison cell. I can actually preach to the most elite and respected branch of Roman soldiers. Not only that, he even had contact with the officials in Caesar's household! If I were a free, itinerant preacher in the streets of Rome, I would get such little publicity and I could reach only a few here and there. This way, I am widely renowned all over the city--everybody knows my name. And they know that I am in prison for the sake of Christ! What an opening for the gospel! God will get His purposes done, won't He? And in the most unexpected ways! "Here, Paul - I told you I wanted you in Rome--here you are, under house arrest, but you are in Rome. You and I agreed you should preach to Romans, right? Here you are, chained 24 hours a day to a Roman soldier, and every eight hours they change shifts. You get a private audience of one Praetorian green beret for eight hours at a time! You said you wanted the gospel preached in Rome? Well, thanks to your well-publicized imprisonment for Me, the gospel is all over the city!" Did God actually send Paul to prison just to get him to Rome? We really don't know. We do know that Paul himself made the appeal to Caesar which got him to Rome as a prisoner, and we can also figure out that it sounds an awful lot like the devil getting Paul arrested on trumped up charges. Whatever the case, God used it all to get the gospel to Rome through Paul! We can none of us imagine the tragic physical circumstances of young Caleb Ingerson being the perfect will of God. But we do know this--because he had to be taken to Maryland for special tests, a young woman named Linda Kelly from San Francisco who was a also there with her sick child, heard the gospel from Caleb's parents at apparently just the right time and in just the right way, and she accepted Jesus as Savior on May 13 in the waiting room. God is most stubborn about getting his purposes accomplished! He will use even very negative circumstances. By the way, we must not forget that He used the suffering and death of His own divine Son to bring victory for us! So, let's not get so uptight about our circumstances--let's just be faithful to preach the gospel to whomever the Lord chains us to. And let's trust Him that, even though we may not see the fruit, we should just keep preaching the Word! I used to be so frustrated about my family not trusting Christ. Try as I might, I could get nowhere, and I would say, "Lord, put someone else on my heart to pray for and to witness to." One of my sisters, Rita, married a most anti-Christian man several years ago. They asked me to perform the wedding and I agreed to do so, but brought the gospel into the ceremony. Thereafter for years I would pray and try to get the right opening to tell Glenn about Jesus. He avoided, fought, argued and resisted. I all but gave up. And the worst of it was I knew that Rita was close to saying yes to Jesus. Four years ago, Glenn called to tell me he and Rita had come to Christ, were attending a Christian church and were baptized the past Sunday. The Word planted will work in spite of circumstances. Cynicism In verses 15-18, Paul shares an optimism about the power of the gospel that is extreme. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. The latte do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Did you catch that? Paul doesn't care how people hear the gospel, even if the one they hear it from is poking fun at it, as long as the Word gets out! Some people are talking about the gospel in derision, laughing it all over town, but Paul says the Word is getting out! Some are jealous of Paul's notoriety and are poking fun at him because he is in prison because of the gospel, but the Word is getting out! Some are trying to defame Paul because he is a convict, but the Word is getting out! You know, Paul has a lot of confidence in the gospel. He is sure that, even though the motive of the preacher is wrong, once the Word is sown it will bear fruit. Let's not worry so much about the bad press the church and the gospel sometimes get. Last decade was a terrible time for the cause of Christ we all thought, in the wake of the moral failure of several high-profile preachers. But, the dust has all settled and now there is a refreshing new openness to the gospel, in spite of all the cynicism. When I was 19 I was too smart for Jesus. I was visited a couple times by a preacher for whom I had little respect. He wasn't all that smart, he had no answers for my intellectual war on the Bible, and I just didn't like him. But, the Word was being released in my life, and I started attending his church. Meanwhile, as I worked my factory job, late shift, I ate lunch in my car and tuned my radio in to New Orleans - Herbert W. Armstrong the Worldwide Church of God--a cult by any standards. But I heard enough of the gospel to turn my heart to the Lord. Under that conviction, a few months later I was led to Christ and baptized by that country bumpkin preacher! And you know what happened to the Worldwide Church of God since then! May I suggest that we stop bashing anyone who handles the Word of God, no matter how badly we think they are doing, and join Paul in thanking God that whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. I would suggest that we stop bashing Mormons and Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses, and we begin to thank God for the little bit of truth that is being preached, then pray for the rest of the false teaching to get straightened out. I mean, wouldn't it be wonderful if the entire Mormon church suddenly announced, as did the WWCG, that they had been wrong and cultic in their teaching and were coming back to a pure biblical faith, renouncing their devotion to the Book of Mormon as a book equal to the Word of God? (Sometimes I think we're just sure that God loves us a lot more than He loves those people--and that we're more worth saving out of our deluded thinking than they are!) The gospel will not fail if it is released. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11) I would suggest that it is our calling to witness to the grace of the Lord in our lives and experience, and to plant the Word as intelligently and sensitively as we can in the minds and hearts of as many people as we possibly can. The words of our Mission Statement capture it well: We are to SATURATE THE ST. LOUIS METRO-EAST AREA WITH THE GOOD NEWS THAT ANYONE CAN BECOME A FRIEND OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST, AND THEY CAN FIND HEALING AND PURPOSE IN HIM. Are you, like Paul, fool enough to believe God get His purposes done if we will just be faithful to sow the Word? I happened to tune in to a local easy listening radio channel this week to hear Dr. James Dobson's one-minute "Focus on the Family" commentary. that day he spoke about the marvelous design in, of all things, the cocklebur. Did you know that in every one of those prickly little cling-to-your-socks nuisances there are two or three seeds, hoping to fall on just the right ground? The fascinating thing is that they are actually "timed-release"--one of the seeds is genetically determined to germinate in one year, but the next seed is designed to lie dormant for the first year and germinate the second year! Listen, you don't know when the Word you share will bear fruit in someone's heart--all that is up to God--you and I are simply called to plant it. Some plant, some water, but God makes it grow! Intercession There is another powerful means God uses to get His purposes done - prayer - a special kind of intercession for those who are presenting the gospel. In verses 18-26, Paul tells the Philippian Christians again how much he is indebted to them for their faithful intercession for him. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue o rejoice, for I know that through your prayers, and the help given to me by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. He then goes on to ruminate about whether he will live or die, preferring to die and go to be with the Lord. But he sense he will remain in the body so he could continue to encourage the saints there and to preach the gospel to others. One quick exhortation here. I would urge us to be diligent in our praying for one another, and especially for those who are trying to share their faith under less than desirable conditions. Pray for the needs you know of, pass along requests from one to the other (not as chit-chat gossip, but as real fodder for serious intercession). I so appreciate what modern communication through email has done. Instantly, we can know of a need among missionaries anywhere in the world, and can be alerted to pray for them. Do you ever get overwhelmed by all the needs? Let me make a suggestion that will not only keep you effective as an intercessor, but will also keep you sane as you handle a large volume of prayer requests. PRAY NOW. Just as soon as you hear of a need, pray. Don't say, "Well, I'll keep that one in mind and pray later"--you won't. Pray now. If the Lord impresses you as you lift up immediate intercession that you should remain in prayer or even fast for a particular need, then do your follow-up. But, as a first resort, PRAY NOW! Now is when your heart is being touched concerning that need; now is when the request was sent to your attention; now is when you will remember to pray; so PRAY NOW! Here is why we are to intercede--because we want to be in on God's action. As we've seen, God is very dedicated to getting His purposes done, and He will get them done. But He is just as dedicated to using human disciples in the process. Most of the time you are not on the front lines of the ministry in question, but you can always pray for those who are. Your intercession puts you in league with accomplishing the purposes of God. One day my nephew was in the family room with me while I was watching a professional football game. He asked me who was winning and I told him no one yet--the score was tied at zero. He asked me, "Who are you rooting for?" I said I really wasn't rooting for either team. I asked him who he was rooting for, and he told me, "I want to root for whoever is winning. So tell me when one team is winning, and I'll root for them!" God's purposes will win in the earth. When you pray you root for the winning team. Conclusion God is quite stubborn about His purposes getting done, so 1. Trust that He is working out His will when you face adversity. Within weeks of her birth, Fanny Crosby developed an eye infection. Her physician treated it poorly and she was blinded in both eyes within days. She harbored no bitterness, though, against the doctor. In fact, she once said of him, "If I could meet him now, I would say thank you, over and over again for making me blind." She said her blindness was a gift from God that helped her write the over 8,000 songs and hymns that came from her pen. Later she said, even if she could receive treatment for her blindness she would probably refuse it. She said, "Do you realize that the first person I'm going to see is Jesus?!" 2. Trust that He is working out His will when you make mistakes. Sometimes we come under the wrong impression that, if we make even an honest mistake, we render God powerless to use us in accomplishing His purposes. What arrogance! Friends, God is always busy making ALL THINGS work out for good in the lives of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. You can't make a mistake big enough to frustrate God's plans. And if you're repentant, there is no sin you could commit that could keep God from using you to get His will done! He'll just turn it for good! Joseph's brothers were not exactly operating in the will of God when they sold him into slavery--in fact, they were sinning big time. But later, Joseph, one who loved God and was called according to His purpose, could say to them, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good!" Everybody knows that Ivory soap floats. But did you know that years ago it was just another ordinary soap that sank with the rest of them? One day a factory foreman blundered by leaving a batch of new soap unwatched in the cooking vat during the noon hour. his lunch was delayed and the soap overcooked. Rather than report the mistake and run the risk of dismissal, he decided to go ahead and ship it out--after all, it seemed to clean just as well anyway, even though it was so much lighter. The results surprised everyone. The company was deluged, not with complaints, but with more orders for this floating soap. The foreman was not fired, but promoted when he showed the company's chemists how to make their soap float. Blessings from blunders. That's how God gets His purposes done through imperfect people. Trust His goodness and His power in your life, and watch Him turn your floating failures into sacred successes. 3. Trust God and sow where you go. It doesn't matter whom the Lord puts in your path. Share His Word and your word of testimony with them. You don't need to worry about having the perfect circumstances; you don't need to worry about anyone making fun of you or your Lord; JUST SOW THE WORD AND PRAY. GOD WIL GET HIS STUBBORN PURPOSES ACCOMPLISHED..               [Back to Top]