The Providence of God

Extend Christian greetings to each one. May the grace and peace of God be with us as we continue in the service here this morning, thinking that it's hard to believe that three months have gone by since we started. Pretty much to the week, three months.

Never had I thought it would take three months before we would be back. But that's just how time goes, goes fast. So we're glad to be here this morning.

Notice that Josh and Sharon aren't here. Hopefully they're well. They're in Canberra this morning.

Okay, good. Just with all the sickness going around, I was hoping that it wasn't sickness. Well, I hope to be somewhat of a, hopefully, an encouragement to us.

An encouragement for our Christian walk. For an opening scripture, I invite you to turn to the book of Romans, chapter 8. And I really only want one verse, but we will read from verse 26 on down to 31. So Romans 8, and we'll begin in verse 26.

Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? So I read that whole passage just to give us a picture. And I trust you form that picture in your mind as you read this passage. It speaks of a relationship.

A close connection between God and his people. A close connection between the Spirit of God and God's people. The Spirit of God making intercession on our behalf according to the will of God, to God, on our behalf.

So we have a fairly, I would say, a fairly good picture of a complete relationship with God and man, given in this little passage. And so the question then is, who or what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, if this is true, if this is how it is, then who or what can be against us? I mean, we have the God of heaven. We have the power of God through the Spirit of God, who knows the mind of God, praying on our behalf according to the will of God.

Who, what can be against us? I think the question isn't, will we face opposition? We will. But who or what shall we be afraid of or fear? What shall overtake us? We have the greatest source of power on our side. And so, yeah, complete picture.

Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father God, we pause here in your presence, and we thank you this morning again that you have not left us to ourselves. You haven't called us unto yourself and then left us to ourselves.

You walk with us. You dwell with us according to your understanding of us. You've given us your Spirit to empower us, to guide us.

And furthermore, it is your Spirit that makes intercession on our behalf. Father, we are awestruck again this morning just to think of your care for your people. We're awestruck with the fatherly heart that you continue to show to us.

And Father, as we continue to look in your word here this morning, we ask that you would indeed breathe it out so that it could bring forth fruit, that you would have something in return from our lives for that great salvation that you have purchased through Jesus Christ, your Son. We ask for your presence. We ask for your blessing.

In Jesus' name. Amen. When we respond to the call of God, we give our lives to God, we become a child of God, we enter into the kingdom of God, 2 Corinthians 5.17 would call us a new creation.

We're not the same person that we used to be, right? We're new. We're different. This includes, it gives us a new outlook in life, doesn't it? I still remember not really paying much attention, and maybe part of this is due to my parents.

We never really traveled. We went from house, from our home to work, and from work back to home. And aside from that, we didn't do much.

The furthest trip I can ever recall making, aside from the move from Canada to South America and South America back to Canada, which I don't recall a whole lot of, but aside from that, the furthest trip living in Canada that I can recall ever making one time was from Elmer to Sarnia. And that was a long trip. I mean, we were far from home.

What is it? An hour and a half? But I remember as an unconverted boy, not really paying attention to nature, but when I became born again, I got a new appreciation. My eyes were opened and I saw things I had never seen before. And so as a child of God, things change.

Behold, we're a new creation. Any man that's in Christ, right? 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says. All things are passed away.

And so I had a new outlook. I had a new appreciation. I've often termed that nature became the theater of God to me.

God uses even that to set us apart from who we were before. It sets us apart from others who are yet not part of the kingdom of God. So as Christians, we should naturally anticipate that we'll have a different outlook than those that are outside of the kingdom of God.

Amen? Why is that? Well, we believe in an unseen, almighty, all-wise, all-knowing, omnipresent God, right? We believe all this. We believe that God is all that and more. Why wouldn't that change our outlook? It has to.

But not only does it change our outlook, it also changes, yes, our view of God, but then also the way we interpret God and the way we respond to God. It changes our vocabulary. And I'm going to use the word interpret life here this morning a little bit.

The way we interpret life. The way we interpret circumstances in life. We all face circumstances.

We face different circumstances at different times. And yet, at the same time, we're all facing circumstances. How do we interpret them as a child of God? It should be different than it was prior to.

Amen? We should be able to see the hand of God in circumstances. But I fear all too often we don't. I fear that all too often the circumstances blur God.

And all we see is circumstances. Can you identify? I'm here to encourage us this morning and tell us that God wants us to see Him. He should be, the circumstances should be that background of the picture that's blurred and God should be up front.

A good photographer blurs the background to zoom in a clear image of the focal. If you have a picture of you as a family taken and there's the background there, you have a background for a reason, but the background is not to be the main focal point. It's not that which people say, oh wow, look at that background.

No, it's supposed to be you as a family. That's what God wants us, how God wants us to view Him amid the thousands of circumstances we face. Can we interpret life that way? Our whole perspective on life and life's circumstances and all that we encounter is to be different than it was prior to.

It's to be different than the people that we know, this neighbor that maybe doesn't know God. Maybe we could go through and face the very same and identical circumstance as the neighbor, but his interpretation and ours should differ. So I want to throw out that challenge to us this morning on how we interpret life's circumstances.

I don't just want to challenge us, but encourage us to see circumstances for the intended purpose that God allows us to face them. So here's the verse that we actually wanted out of this whole passage. Verse 28.

All things work together for good. All circumstances, everything that you and I encounter in life, the Word of God says all things work together for good to those that love God. Do we believe that this morning? And I know we do.

I know you do. I know I do. But sometimes I lose sight of that in the midst of circumstances.

So I want to lift that up this morning. All things work together for good. There's another verse in Psalm 37.

I just was doing the opening thoughts, Brother Cornelius. My mind went to this verse here. Psalm 37, verse 23.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The word good there could be translated righteous. In other words, the footsteps of a child of God, if we want to just put it down where we're at, are ordered by the Lord.

That should synchronize with Romans 8.28 to us. Right? Our footsteps are ordered by the Lord. Now if our footsteps are ordered by the Lord, He's ordering our life.

And as we're going through life, we're facing circumstances. We encounter circumstances. Well, is God not part of those circumstances then? I mean, He's ordering our footsteps.

So let's not lose sight of God in those circumstances. And I know in life we all have pleasant circumstances and we have unpleasant circumstances. We get a mixture.

And it's not so hard to see God in the good circumstances. Although even there we can lose Him. And just, again, focus on the circumstances.

Oh wow, look how good I have it. No, you should be seeing God. We're to acknowledge God in all our ways.

In everything that we encounter in life, good or bad. I mentioned before that even our speech, our vocabulary should change. You know, today, as we interpret life, as people interpret life and the circumstances that they face in life, many, many a person, including Christians, they speak of coincidence.

They speak of luck. They speak of chance. I want to ask us, what is our outlook? How do we respond? How do we respond? What is our vocabulary? What does it sound like? If you listen to yourself, what does your vocabulary sound like in whether they be pleasant or unpleasant circumstances? Do we believe that things that happen in our lives are chance, coincidence, luck? I trust not.

And yet, sometimes we might catch ourselves using terms like, what a coincidence. If God is ordering our footsteps, is it a coincidence? Is it chance? Is it by luck? I think you get what I'm trying to say. God.

God is in it. And when God is in it, it's not coincidence. It's not chance.

It's not luck. I'm going to suggest that is the talk and mentality and interpretation of unbelievers. And Christians have adapted some of that same terminology and mindset.

And I'm not trying to bash anyone that's using those terms. I want us as a people of God to be a called-up people that God wants us to be, and we are to be different. Our speech should glorify God.

Our speech, the way we respond to circumstances, the way we talk about circumstances. If a nonbeliever hears us, they say, whoa, I would have said that was luck. They're giving God credit.

They're acknowledging God. It should draw them to God. And I believe that God puts us and allows us to face all kinds of circumstances for the very purpose of making himself manifest to the world around.

But our response, our interpretation of those circumstances will have a huge impact of how effective it will be. Or we can render it ineffective. Here God had a heart and a purpose, and we responded by saying, what a coincidence.

Where does God get any glory or any credit? I believe, and I know you do too, in a God that arranges events and circumstances. You can call this the providence of God. I wrestled to know what to title the message, but providence was the word that I was thinking of.

You were thinking of concentration, a word, concentration. I was thinking of the word providence. And maybe we'll just simply call it the providence of God.

Think of your life and the different circumstances. Maybe right now you're in the midst of a difficult circumstance. Maybe it's a good circumstance.

Whatever the circumstance is, think of it as the providence of God. Handed to you and me by God. God saying to you and I, here's an opportunity.

Providence. The providence of God. You know, when we were searching for a meeting place to start the Outreach Church, we had different thoughts.

We talked, we prayed, and we searched. We looked around, and we landed here. For the time being.

Luck? Chance? Coincidence? Or is it the providence of God? If, and I know we do, if we have, you know, the need that we had was a building. A meeting house. And if we interpret that now as the providence of God, it helps us rest.

Right? It's just, God provided. We know it's more than likely not permanent, but it was a starting point. It's exactly what we wanted.

Some place to start. Here we are. We had different thoughts that we entertained.

We looked up by. You know, we had different thoughts. But in the end, God provided.

This place. So I want to encourage us with thoughts of, God will continue to provide. Not just in tangible, physical ways, but in all of life.

God wants to provide for you and I. God does provide. God makes opportunity. Gives opportunity.

Sometimes we just fail to interpret that opportunity. God puts something right in front of us. And all we see is a circumstance.

You know what? I think many times, kind of like the children of Israel, there was no need for the children of Israel to wander for 40 years in the wilderness, was there? I mean, to make that trek that they needed to make didn't have to take nearly that long. You and I do something very similar sometimes. We misinterpret or fail to interpret circumstances that God allows us to encounter in life.

And we don't see God. We don't see the hand of God. We see the circumstance.

And we fail. We flunk. Guess what? We just told God, give me another one.

And God continues to give us another opportunity. He wants us to see him. He wants others to see him through us in the circumstance.

Thinking of the providence of God, think of this verse. I'm just going to read it. You can turn there if you want.

Philippians 4.19. But my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Whether it's a future meeting house or this little congregation, or whether it's something personal, and maybe not even physical, maybe it's a spiritual need. Paul was persuaded that God will supply all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.

Turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8. We're going to read the whole chapter. It's not a very long chapter. And we're just going to see how mercifully God provided for his children as they wandered in the wilderness, made that journey.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. It's only 20 verses. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. Now I'll just underscore there, we can't do this on every verse, but I'm just going to underscore and highlight for us here the key in God providing for us all our needs.

The key is, like he told his children of Israel here, is to walk in obedience to him. That is key. So I'll just say, key is to be in a relationship with God.

Verse 2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not. How did God, you remember verse 2 and I'm doing it again. You can't do this on every verse, but again, I'll just ask the question.

How did God, for 40 years, how did he humble them? How did he prove them? How did he prove to them who they really were? And if their heart was really for God? All manner of circumstances. Just highlight that. That's how God did it.

Verse 3. And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these 40 years. Can you imagine walking for 40 years and your feet didn't even swell? I can't.

I can't. It wasn't smooth walking. It wasn't a smooth path.

Naturally, feet should have swelled. That's a long journey. Verse 5. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways, there it is again, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil, olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. Thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Providence of God took care of them through the wilderness wanderings, brings them to this land, gives them this beautiful land, a land that will have everything they need. I want you to remember that I gave this to you.

God says, don't forget that. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to thee to do the good at thy latter end. There is the heart of God. He allowed difficult circumstances only for the good in the end.

God says, I have a good heart for you. And that's still the same today. Painful, difficult, unwanted circumstances, but the end, remember, all things work together for good.

That's the heart of God. Verse 17, And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers as it is this day.

And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. We'll leave that reading there.

It's going to say what God did for Israel back then, he continues to do for his people today. I would encourage you, if it's been a while since you read this account, meditate on it and look for the goodness of God for his people. It does us good.

And the God of the Old Testament is still the God of today. He changes not. So we could spend all morning in this chapter, but we won't.

I'm just going to say what God did for Israel, he'll do for us. And we, as we read here, should be very careful as the people of God to give God credit for what he's done. And one of the ways we do that is by being mindful of how we interpret life circumstances that we face.

I would like to give you a little exercise here now. Think of some needs that you have in your life, or that you see in the church, or that you see in your family. It could be personal, it could be family, it could be church, it could be elsewhere.

Think of some needs. Go ahead and make a list. I'm sure we can all think of some things.

Make a list. Write it down. Do it mentally.

What are some needs? Do you all at least have at least one? At least one? Now, ask yourself, is God aware of this need that I have? Does God know it? Can you see that perhaps, depending on what it is, but if you're a child of God, he's ordered your footsteps. Can you see the hand of God? Do you see that God wants to provide for that need, or those needs that you just generated a list of? Now to the verse that Brother Ben shared with the children here. Take no thought, Jesus says.

Take no thought for your life. Can I say, take no thought for the needs. If there's lack or scarceness of food, that generates a need, right? Jesus says, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink.

Nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. These are very real needs in life. If we don't have them, they're huge.

Food, water, clothing. But then he asked the question, is not life more? Is life not more than meat and the body? More than raiment? More than clothing? If we are to continue reading there, maybe we should. Let's just go to Matthew 6. Maybe we should just read that account.

Matthew 6, and we'll begin in verse 25. I think it's verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink.

Nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Behold, the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubic to his stature? And why take ye thought of raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things. The need that you have.

The list that you generated. Your heavenly Father, our heavenly Father already knows that we have those needs. But the physical needs, the here and the now, to make it through this life are very minor.

Very minor needs compared to the spiritual. But he knows them all. Then he goes on, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

So God promises to us that he'll take care of us. God promises to take care of his own. Precious.

It's an absolute promise. If we make him our goal, our aim, our purpose in life, all these things, these needs, God will meet. And I'm just going to, oftentimes we do this, we qualify it and say God will take care of our needs.

We're not promised that he'll take care of the wants. But the needs, yes. But I'd like you to just, again, go back to Deuteronomy 8 and recall that account.

Notice how God even gave them wants. That's not a promise that he will, but he does even grant unto us at times some of the wants. I am blessed just with the thought of how kind and merciful God is.

We have the promise that our needs will be met, and then he also blesses us by giving us some of our wants. There's no need for God to do that because it's not a need in our life. The children of Israel should have been content with how God was meeting their needs.

That heavenly manna that God showered down would have sustained their lives. No questions, no ands, no ifs, no buts. But oh, we want fish! Oh, we want... You know, they're thinking back to Egypt and all that they ate there.

It's not a need, but God gave them to them. So let's consider, to be honest with you, I read to about 2 1⁄2 pages of my thoughts and notes out, condensed it, and here we are only on page 2 now, and our time is almost up. I'd like to consider the life of Joseph a little bit.

So we'll be covering kind of Genesis 37 through 50, chapters 37 through chapter 50. That's a lot of chapters, 13 chapters. Obviously we can't read all that.

But the life of Joseph is another beautiful illustration of how God provides. Now in the providence of God, we need to remember this. I want to just say this now because I don't know how far we'll get.

God has a plan. God has a purpose. Sometimes God will put us in a circumstance, in a situation, and He has a plan, and He has a purpose.

But we must see Him in that situation. Other times, so God might take me, God might take you and put you over here in someone's life. Sometimes that generates a bit of an awkward situation.

But remember, God has a plan, and God has a purpose. Sometimes God will order your footsteps, and you'll end up over here, and you'll feel like you're walking in hot water. Remember, God has a plan, and God has a purpose.

Maybe you're just going through life, and God takes someone else and puts them in your path. Remember, God has a plan, and God has a purpose. So whether it's God using you, or putting someone else in your path, God has a plan, and God has a purpose.

And we see that very clearly displayed in the life of Joseph. God proved Himself in many, many ways to Joseph, and He still does that for us today. God worked in the details of... You read the account of Joseph there, and there is a lot of detail.

God was in all those details. Those weren't just add-ons. Every detail, I believe, was orchestrated, allowed, given by God to further His plan and His purpose.

Joseph was a mere vessel, a mere vehicle that God used to accomplish His plan and His purpose. This required Joseph to encounter some hard circumstances. Difficult.

We know the account, how he was mistreated by his brothers. All part of God's plan and purpose. So when we think of, oh, you know, we get excited that, hey, God wants to use me, and I'm excited, I want God to use me.

Well, it doesn't always feel so good. It's not always this joyous, feel-good situation. Sometimes it requires mistreatment from others, misunderstandings, hurts from others, things that were said, things that were done.

But remember, God has a plan, and God has a purpose. It's not just chance, it's not luck, it's not coincidence. Not if God's in it.

Does that make sense? All right. Every time that God, so He orders our footsteps, He charts a course for us, we encounter circumstances that, while there are God-given or God-allowed, one or the other, sometimes the circumstances are not that God generated a hurtful, painful, maybe even evil circumstance, but God allowed it. So sometimes God allows circumstances, sometimes He generates circumstances.

But whatever the case is, it is His purpose, His plan, for our good, to accomplish it for our good and for the good of other people. And I'll just say this, too, because we probably won't get there. Any time that God uses us, we allow God to order our footsteps, and God works in us, it never stops with us.

God is not that short-sighted, that He's doing what He's doing just for me. God always has a bigger picture in mind. Sometimes you might benefit the least, if I can say it that way, I might benefit the least from the circumstances God allowed.

Is that okay? Is it okay if others reap the benefits, the blessings, way beyond what you do, at your expense, at your pain, at your hurt? Are you following? Think of Joseph, the blessings and the benefits that others reaped at his expense, so to speak. The story of Joseph is so much bigger than just Joseph. Joseph is this blurred background in the whole story, in God's eyes.

We see Joseph as the prime figure, but in God's eyes, he's this blurred background, because God saw something much brighter, much bigger. And you and I must be okay with being that blurred background, and clap our hands, rejoice in our heart, if God can use us to bless others. But the flesh will recoil at that, many times.

This is not fair! You think of Joseph, where he found himself, being one of the younger of Jacob's children. You think of his brothers. You think of who his father and mother were.

Is that a coincidence? Was it just chance? By chance that his brothers treated him the way they treated him? Oh, I believe the hand of God was in it, all the way through. There's many things in Joseph's life where Joseph had no say, he had nothing to do with. He didn't choose his parents, he didn't choose his siblings, he didn't choose the country he was born in.

There's many things in his life. He couldn't help that he was almost the youngest. It wasn't his doing that he had these dreams.

It was God working in this young man, and then working through this young man. Joseph had nothing, he had no say in these things, really. I mean, he could have refused to walk with God and obey Him, but as far as the circumstances where he found himself, as he had a heart towards God, he didn't create those.

You think Joseph ever felt like, why do I have to do this? Why do I have to suffer this? You think he ever thought like that? In his flesh? I really don't want to. You think maybe he even battled telling the dreams to his family? Especially after the reaction of the first dream, and then come back and tell the second dream? You think he battled maybe a little bit with, when his father says, hey, go check on your brothers. Already knowing the animosity, the hatred that was there.

Circumstances in life were not easy for him. And he was a young boy, young man, a youth. Well, we know Joseph went at the bidding of his father, and if you look at Genesis 37 verses 15 through 17 there, it says that Joseph was out, so he's got this mission to go check on his brothers, and he was found wandering in the field.

Joseph was found wandering in the field. Couldn't find his brothers. He went to where they were supposed to be.

He's in that field, but he can't see his brothers anywhere. So he's just wandering in the field. He had the command of his father, go check on your brothers to see if it's well with them.

Can't find him, so he's wandering in the field. Maybe he was ready to go home. I mean, can't find him.

Well, story could have ended there, but it didn't. In verse 15 it says that a man found him. A man found him, found Joseph.

Pretty interesting, isn't it? A man found him. A man just happens to find Joseph. Just happened.

What a coincidence. Lucky for him, just by chance, a man found Joseph wandering in the fields. No, not lucky for him.

Not a coincidence. This man that found him, and by the way, just as a thought, you think that possibly this man could have been an angel of God? Sent by God? I think possibly could have been. But this man finds Joseph.

It says a certain man, reading verse 15, a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field, and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray to you, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They departed hence, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dotham.

What are the odds of this? A man just happens to find Joseph. In a huge, I picture a huge, wide-open, plain field. Joseph meets with a man that just happened to hear his brothers say, Let us go to Dotham.

What didn't just happen, it was the providence of God. God, whether an actual man or whether an angel in the form of a man, God sent at the right time to his brothers to overhear their conversation. God provided, through this man now, to Joseph, an avenue on how to find his brothers.

How many times have you come across a situation, and you wonder, Why did I encounter this person? Or that person? Only to find out later on, at the time, maybe you didn't even notice, what you said or what you did ministered to a direct need that they had at that time and place. Right there. I think of Sister Crystal here meeting, what's her name? Mrs. Carney.

Mary. Coincidence? No, God had a plan, God had a purpose. We probably don't see it to the fullest extent yet, what that plan and purpose is, or what God wants to accomplish.

But God brought two people together. God brought you there, Crystal, at just the right time for Mary, for that situation. Not coincidence, not luck, not chance, God ordained.

Providence of God for Mary. Well, with the story that goes on, as Joseph lays eyes on his brothers, his brothers see him coming, and right away, because they're still fuming, they're still not liking his brothers, they make this plan to get rid of him. They don't like him coming, checking up on them.

Why is he checking up on us? They end up not killing him, but there just happened to be a caravan coming through, and they sold him. You see how that group of people, that caravan, was God sent? It was the Providence of God. Oh, it looks so wrong from Joseph's perspective.

Where is the hand of God in this? This is not good, this is not right. My brothers are mistreating me. But look at it from God's perspective.

It was, Joseph was God's tool in the making for something much bigger. All things work together for good to those that love God. They sell him, which is a better choice than killing him.

He goes to Egypt. Seven years of rich crops. Joseph gets to enjoy in that labor, taking in that harvest.

Seven years in preparation for seven years of famine. Seven years of leanness. God saw all this way before Joseph was born.

God planned it, God directed it, God brought it to pass in Joseph's life, and so he does with us. You know, I've been asked over the years, when people find out that Susie and I, our family, they all live in the Elmer area, how did you end up in Leamington? Well, all we can say is, God led us there. Did we see everything that we now look back on? No, we didn't see that.

It was actually kind of a scary move. In the sense of, we had no family, we knew no one. Like, not even as much as a cousin.

But we took God and said, we'll follow. We'll go where you want us to go. And we've had many good and unpleasant circumstances alike along the way.

But we're still there today. Started out with a mission in the school. After four years of transition to something else.

Who knows what God wants? But I know he's not done yet. He's not done yet. Sometimes when God provides, leads the way, I think it's safe to say most times we will not see why.

We will not understand why. We just simply take God as leading and follow. Let him order our footsteps.

And then often along the way, we get little glimpses. Little puzzle pieces. Putting them together.

And we see a little bit of the picture of God's plan and purpose. But when is that picture going to be complete? Only when God is done with us and takes us home. In this life, I doubt we'll ever see everything God sees.

Everything God has planned with our lives. But it takes every situation, it takes every circumstance, as it did in Joseph's life, so it does in our life. It takes every one of them for God to accomplish his plan and purpose.

Scripture says in Ephesians 1.11 that God works all things after the counsel of his will. After the counsel of his will. Is there any better counsel than his? He orders everything according to the counsel of his will.

He causes all things to work together for good to those that love him. As we interpret life, as we experience life, we must conclude with the words of Isaiah, where God says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. God's thoughts were not Joseph's thoughts, and Joseph's thoughts were not necessarily God's thoughts all the time.

Joseph had his own wrestling to do. But Joseph, looking back, could see the hand of God in all of it. And we are past 12.

But Joseph's brothers were sore afraid after Joseph had revealed himself to them. Joseph assures them, look, I have nothing against you. Be at peace.

God sent me on ahead of you so that your lives can be spared. And I think they continued to struggle with a guilty conscience, but they were at ease. They were able to rest to a degree at least.

But then when Israel, when Jacob passes away, have you ever noticed they pick this thing back up? Oh, what now? Dad's gone. Surely he's going to be able to get us now. And so being afraid of what Joseph might do to him now, now that Dad's no longer around, they want to seek to make peace.

And Joseph again assures them, look, what, am I God? Why are you afraid of me? And I see there that Joseph didn't nullify their wrongdoing. He acknowledged that they had done wrong, they had done evil. What they did as brothers was not right.

Deal with God, but don't be afraid of me. What you did, take up with God. And he just assures them again.

From a brotherly perspective, just be at peace. I'm not out to get you. You meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

He actually even tells them to save your lives and deliver your lives. He says, yes, you sent me here, but really it wasn't you that sent me to Egypt. It was God.

He saw the hand of God. Three times in Genesis 45, verses 5 through 8, three times Joseph uses the term, God sent me. Even though it was his brother's doing that he was there.

He saw the hand of God in life's circumstances. And that's what I would like to highlight for us. Through all of this, eventually, not only was Israel saved through the famine.

In the grand scheme of things, in the end, the Messiah was born through all of this. And I look at Joseph's life and the different things he encountered, and this is the picture I formed in my mind of his life. It's like a pregnancy in this life, somewhat.

You have nine months of struggle, difficulties, unpleasant feelings. But after the nine months, the time comes, the baby's born, the travail is over. There's the reward.

And as Jesus says, because a man child is born, she forgets the travail, she forgets all the pain. Joseph's life was like that nine-month pregnancy, if I can use that term. Much turmoil, much pain, much unwanted circumstances.

But in the end, a Messiah is born. But guess what? The struggles and the unwanted circumstances only picked up again in the Messiah, when he became flesh. Think of what Christ all endured.

The hand of God in it? Absolutely. So who are we to think life should be easy? Who are we to say, oh yeah, I see the hand of God when things are well. And actually, most times it seems like it's in those difficult times where God really wants to accomplish something.

And that requires us to go through the wringer. Had Joseph not yielded himself, you'd have no nation of Israel. You would have had no word of God.

You would have had no Messiah, which means no salvation for us. So do we appreciate everything that Joseph endured, and the blessings that you and I enjoy today? Can we then also rejoice in our difficulty, our unwanted circumstances in life, and rejoice that others are being blessed as a result? Joseph, in the flesh, did not feel blessed. We're taking like one little note from all of these pages.

Let me read to you, or share with you in short, the testimony of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy. They found themselves taken captive for evangelizing, and their prison conditions were far less than ideal. It is said that Betsy thanked God for their conditions.

And what were their conditions? Fleas and lice in their cell, their barracks, their concentration camp. Betsy, Corrie heard her sister Betsy thank God for the lice and the fleas. And she was convinced that this one Betsy's got wrong.

I mean, how can you thank God? I mean, here we are, we're prisoners, we're in the barracks, if you will, full of fleas and lice, and you thank God? But Corrie came to realize she was right. Because those fleas and those lice, so to speak, kept or opened up those doors, if you will, for them to speak and minister and share with others that were prisoners. And it says that thousands came to faith.

And what happened was the soldiers, the guards, would not enter these quarters because of the fleas and the lice, which gave them free reign to share with others. So the story goes anyway. They had free reign, undisturbed.

So even the fleas, God can use fleas, God can use lice, provided by Him for His work to continue. And we will close. I'd like to close with a song number, in the Christian hymnory it's number 336, so you can turn there if you like.

It's a well-known hymn. I don't know that we sing it very often, but we have sung it. But it's a fairly well-known hymn, written by William Cooper.

It is commonly accepted that this song was written in 1773. And I think if you look at the top of the page there, it does say 1773. And it's believed that William Cooper, he wrote this song after an attempt to commit suicide.

And his attempt was to drown himself in the Aussie at Aumé. So I don't know the area. But as I looked at William Cooper and who he is, it says that he was a man that was greatly afflicted with mental illness and depression for a good portion of his life.

His illness apparently got so severe that he tried to commit suicide, not only once, but three times. And all three times he failed. His attempt failed.

It says, or so I read, that with treatment and the inspiration of a friend of his by the name of John Newton, which we would also know as a songwriter, he began to recover, and as he recovered, he began to write hymns. The hymn, this hymn here, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, has that connotation of, I want to take my life. And he actually, if you read the account, he was actually convinced that he was doing God's will by taking his life.

But three times he failed. And he says, God moves in a mysterious way. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. And then verse 2, we don't have in the hymnory, nor do we have it in the hymns of the church. But I found this second verse in what is apparently the original, and it reads like this.

Deep in unfathomable minds of never-failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain.

God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. So can we interpret life as the providence of God? Even if it comes to us in ways that we think are so wrong, so wrong, it's not fair. May God help us to go through life that way.

God bless you.