CrossTrainers

Date: May 26th 2010

Speaker: Jerry Foster

Title: God Built – “Powerful Punks”

We’ve been learning that God is in control over devastating loss, assignments, broken hopes, prolonged waiting,

Today we learn that God is in control over people

Proverbs 21:1 God is turning the hearts of the leaders. This includes presidents, school board members, military dictators, everyone who rules anywhere.

God guides and directs each of them.

With Proverbs 21 in mind, that God can change the hearts and minds of leaders, think about what is going on in our world, about frustration in leaders across the world

Turn to your neighbor – How does that effect the way you look at the world?

Bottom line – They (leaders around the world) serve Him even in their rebellion because they breath because He allows them to breath, they think because He allows them to think

Does God make them sin? No. But He uses their sin for His purposes.

Joseph – Pharaoh was the most powerful man on the earth. He has a dream and Joseph interprets the dream. Joseph became the co leader of Egypt. It all began with a dream, that God made him dream. He couldn’t refuse the dream. That was it, the Pharoah was smack dab in the middle of God’s plan and he didn’t even know it.

Think about it – here is the most powerful man in the world, but he has no power over this dream that troubles him so much. Steve Farrar puts it really well -”God said to the powerful king, ‘dream this you little Egyptian wuss’”

Isaiah 40:12-17 – This passage is so great when we stop to think about God’s control over the nations.

Look at Isaiah 40:17 – Look at all of the powerful nations, they are nothing, they fall under the control of a sovereign God.

Turn to your neighbor – When you look at this verse what does that do to your confidence?

When we look around the world at some of the bad things that happen it can be easy for us to fear.

But we have to remember that God is in control

This makes me want to know the God that is in control. Because if I know the God that is in control, then I am secure.

When we look at the evil and harm that is going on, we have to ask the question – can they do harm? Yes. Can they do harm to a believer without the consent of God? No.

He appoints them and then He can take them out when He wants to.

Isaiah 40:21-26

Probably what we need to do is to read these verses every morning. First the verses, then the newspaper or the news.

Back to Joseph – Why was pharoah a mighty ruler at this time? Because God put him there.

Makes you wonder, what is God up to? What ruler, dictator, evil tyrant is God already working in or about to work through

So God takes this dream, plants in his subconscious and gives it to him in the middle of the night.

He has these two dreams that just haunt him. He calls together all of his helpers and other folks who can’t do anything for him.

Then along comes Joseph. Pharaoh is about to hand over his power to Joseph. Think about it, Potipher did it, the jailer did it, everyone gave their power to Joseph.

So who was in control of this? He didn’t ask for that dream.

“God is in control of powerful people” Steve Farrar

“It’s the most comforting thing in all the world to know that there is a God who is in charge of my life” Steve Farrar

I don’t know about you guys but my human nature is alway trying do to the work to get things to work out right.

I get tired of always pushing and pushing and pushing for things to work out the way I think they should work out.

The reality is that God is in control of my life. I may think that my success is my own but it really was God.

Turn to your neighbor – How do we as believers cooperate with Him and His plan in order to enjoy the maximum benefit?

I need to work harder to stay inside the boundaries of what He is doing.

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, when we see pain or suffering

Its not mine to question why, it is mine to be obedient and to trust Him

Let’s pray. . .

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

CrossTrainers

Date:  March 10th 2010

Speaker: Jerry Foster

Title: Why are you here?

Take a look at Acts 17:24-26 notice the last phrase “the exact places where they should live”

God has chosen for you to live exactly where you are on this time line of human history.  He chose you for this time, this place.

Q: If you believe that, what does that do for you?  What are the ramifications of this?

What is amazing about this time line is that it goes on and on but we are only one little part of it.

1.  We are not accidents

Look at Psalm 139:1-16

Think about what it means that you were “knit together” by God.

David realized that God cared enough for God to “knit” him together and to be near him where ever he could go.

David’s confidence was based on the fact that he was created by God and he was special to Him.

We need this confidence as we look back on our time line.  These things are not accidents.

2.  Our place on the time line was determined by God Himself

God is sovereign over whole time line.  All the good, the bad, every experience is used by God and has a reason.

Jerry talked about when he was at his deepest part of despair, He brought someone along to bring $50 to help him out, it was just the right time on his time line.  It made a huge impact and began a change in him that only God could do.  It was one little dot on one short part of the time line of history but it was a critical point.

When we look back through our experiences we it often becomes painfully clear why God did those things to bring us to this point.

Q: When you look at your life, what evidence do you see that your life is meant for this place and this time?

Q: How do you live your life in the moment?

3.  We are called to a special purpose at a specific time in God’s sovereign design.

Look at Ephesians 2:10

We need to be constantly asking why we are at this point in the time line and what we can do to impact the time line going forward, future generations.

Each one of us is unique and designed for a purpose

We believe that we were created by God, so we can believe that God did so with a purpose, not just for now but for generations to come.

God has a design on this day, this moment, this very second.  He has a design on what is going on in your head right now.

Q: Do you believe that to be true?
Q: How would you describe your unique design
Q: What should you be doing to satisfy that purpose?

(PJ’s Notes from CrossTrainers on 3-10)

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