The Principle of God's Purpose

Paul wrote in Romans 8:28: "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. Some versions say, "God causes all things to work together for good." When we accept Christ as our Savior, He then becomes the architect of our future. He designs, directs, and coordinates every minute detail of our life so that we can become the person he intends us to be.

The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis reminds us of this. If you remember, His brothers sold him into slavery and told their father he had died. Joseph then became a slave to a man named Potipher. He was then put in prison because Potipher's wife accused him of sexual assault. He was innocent, of course. But God working through these seemingly horrible and certainly stress-inducing events to accomplish a greater purpose for Joseph's life. Joseph eventually became the second-in-command in Egypt. He was able to save the country from economic ruin brought on by the effects of a disastrous drought. But he was also able to save his entire family as well. When his brothers came to him, they pleaded with him, "Please don't seek revenge against us," Joseph said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people." (Genesis 50:20 NLT)

God has a purpose for your life and knows exactly how to orchestrate the events of your life to accomplish His purpose. And His purpose is far greater than anything you could purpose for yourself! And let me just reassure you of one thing...you don't have to understand all the details of God's purpose for your life to be a part of it. You just have to trust him.

So when it appears that random things are happening in my life, I often remind myself that there's no such thing as random events for my life. God has a plan. He has a purpose. He's working all things together for good.And when I trust in his purpose, stress loses its power.

The Principle of God's Presence

If you were to ask the average Christian in America, "Is God always with us?" you would get an affirmative answer. It's a slam dunk. No way we get that one wrong. On a theological level, we Christians believe in the omnipresence of God. He is everywhere at the same time. We can't hardly wrap our heads around that, but we believe it!

On a practical level, however, so often we live our lives as if we don't believe. Craig Groeschel, of LifeChurch.tv uses the term Christian Atheist to describe someone who believes in God, but lives as though God doesn't exist. Many people live their lives that way. They live their lives as if they are all alone. Sure God is there, but He is distant and removed from their daily lives. He's not paying attention to their situation. Occasionally, He makes His rounds and checks in on them, but most of the time they are left to experience life by themselves.

If you live your life that way, no wonder you're stressed!

The Bible teaches us that God is with us, and His presence brings us the antithesis of stress...REST! God told Moses in Exodus 33:14:  "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." When we find ourselves stressed, that stress serves as a warning sign that we have drifted from the presence of God. He is not over there; He is right here. And the promise is that His presence will give us rest!

Want a New Testament Scripture to remind us of His presence. Let's look at the first of our three passages from Romans 8. In Romans 8:35, we are asked, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or diSTRESS (emphasis mine), or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”. The next verse resounds with a loud "NO!"

Why? Verses 38-39, remind of God's presence:  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Follow the logic: If nothing can separate us, then He is with us. If He is with us, what does He give us? Rest!

He is with us all time. He is here to stay. Nothing can change that. It's the principle of God's presence.

The Principle of Outlook

What does it mean to live life to the fullest? I use this phrase a lot, because Jesus used it, yet I meet so few people who actually experience it. Jesus said, "I came to give life—life in all its fullness." (John 10:10 NCV) Other translations say that he came that we might live "life more abundantly."

Why do so many of us miss this? That's what our new sermon series is all about. For the next four sermons we are going to be looking at how to experience a deeper, fuller life.

This week we are going to look at the most important thing to experience life in it's fullest. In order to experience the abundant life, we must learn how to conquer stress. We often us the term stress management. But I can tell you that I am not interested in managing stress. I am interested in eradicating it! I don't want to learn how to live with stress. I want to learn how to live without it!

Research on stress indicates that its influence on our dopamine levels and brain activities cause a lot of things to happen. When we are stressed, food doesn't taste as good, the sun doesn't shine as bright, music doesn't sound as good, jokes are as funny, the air doesn't smell as fresh, and the pastor's sermon isn't nearly as good!

Stress is the deeper life's biggest enemy. The irony about stress is that, most of the time, its power is only imagined. The reality is, most of what we stress out about...really doesn't matter! Now obviously, if you are in a life-threatening situation, stress is warranted. I mean, if you are traveling on I-24 going down Monteagle Mountain and your brakes fail, you ought to stress a little.

The problem is though, many of us have conditioned ourselves to stress out in situations that are not dangerous, in fact, they are not really that important. Things as mundane as the traffic, food orders that are wrong, being interrupted at work, or the internet goes down.

Now really? In the grand scheme of things, do these things really warrant that much stress? Are they really worth a fight-or-flight mode? A tragically, some people live their entire lives in fight-or-flight. Unfortunately, you can't be in fight-or-flight mode and experience the abundant life at the same time.

That's what this sermon is all about, learning how to eradicate stress from our lives.

As I said earlier, most of our stress is caused by misperceptions. So if we want to eradicate it's power on our lives, we need to develop right thinking. So this week, we are going to look three principles from the Romans 8 that will enable us to overcome stress. But let me begin today by just reminding you of the greatst principle of all. 1 John 4:4 says, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."  This verse reminds us that even when the world is falling apart all around you, you don't have to worry, because you have the Spirit of God living in you. And God's power is greater than any chaos that exists in the world.

From "I'm So Sorry" To "God's So Great"

The second miracle I want to share with you comes from Don Womack. A few months ago, Don went to his doctor to have a small skin cancer removed from his face. Don has had several of those removed through the years, so he didn't think much about it. But a few days later, the doctor called Don, and Don's wife, Joyce, answered the phone. The doctor began with "I'm so sorry". That's not a good way to begin a conversation with your doctor!

He then proceeded to tell Joyce that the cancer was wrapped around a nerve in Don's face that led directly to his brain. Over and over he said, "I'm so sorry."

He scheduled Don to come back in for another MRI to see exactly how bad the situation was. But over the weekend, we began to pray for Don. Don's attitude was amazing. He said, "I've lived a long good life, and if it's my time to go, I'm ready. And if God wants to heal me, I'm ready."

We continued to pray throughout the weekend. When Don went back to the doctor for the follow up, he was amazed. He told Don, in essence, that it was there last week, wrapped around that nerve...but it's gone!" He basically told Don that he had thought Don wouldn't have long to live.

He suggested that Don follow up with some radiation on the spot just to be safe. He told Don that it wouldn't hurt, but it would make him tired. Don is now on about day 15 of the 20-something day treatment. Don told us Sunday, "I don't feel any different than I ever do!" (Of course, he added, and you just have to know Don's sense of humor, "I told the doctor that I was always tired anyway.")

We are so grateful for Don's amazing miracle of healing. God is great and greatly to be praised!

A Father's Diligence; A Son's Redemption

As most of you know, in July, 2011, I challenged our church people to put to paper seven miracles they would like God to do for them. I then asked them to pray throughout the upcoming year concerning those miracles. On Sunday, August 5, 2012, we spent our Sunday Morning listening to testimony after testimony of miracles that God had performed. In fact, the testimonies lasted for an hour and a half!  Over the next few days I want to share some of those miracles with you. It is not that the ones I share are more important that others, but I just felt impressed to share these.

For almost twenty years, almost every time I asked for prayer requests, whether in our corporate worship services or in small group meetings, Charles Wooten would say, "Remember my children." He was referring to some of his children who had strayed from their relationship with the Lord. Occasionally, he would say, "Remember my children to be saved." I have heard that request almost twice a week for nineteen years, but I know he has made that request and prayed for the salvation of his children for many more years than that. You see, Charles is in his nineties.

On Wednesday, August 1, 2012, Charles came to our weekly Wednesday morning Bible Study, and he smiled and said, "I have something I need to tell you. Frank (that's one of his sons) got saved yesterday!" Frank had called his dad and told him that the day before, a young lady was talking to Frank and asked him to pray for her. Frank told his dad, "I knew I wasn't saved and I couldn't pray for her until I prayed for myself." So before he prayed for the young lady, Frank asked Jesus into his heart! The answer to a decades-long prayer request!

But that is not the end of the story. Charles told me that story on Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, Charles received a phone call and Frank had a massive heart attack and was in the hospital unconscious. On Friday, Frank passed from this world, but as a result of that prayer on Tuesday, he entered into an eternal home prepared by the Master!

Now Frank, Charles, nor any of us had any idea what would happen on Thursday. But God did! And I am convinced, that because of His great love, He sent a little girl to ask Frank to pray for her. God is always reaching out to us, always trying to make every effort to bring salvation into our life.

So Charles has experienced one of those amazing Christian contradictions. While he is sad over the loss of Frank, he also rejoices because he knows Frank is now in the presence of Jesus...all because a little girl wanted prayer (and a diligent Father kept praying for his children)!

Never quit praying. Never quit trusting. Keep believing. While you may not see God's answer this moment, who know's what might happen?