He Doesn't Work Like You Figured

This morning, let's turn to the book of Genesis, chapter 45. We continue now in the saga of God's faithfulness to His promises and the people that are the subject of that. Isn't this a wonderful Sunday? I love it when we have baptism. I'm beginning to think that, again, the Lord keeps blessing like this. We're going to have to plant another church or something.

I don't know what we're going to do. We're starting to get crowded again. Well, I'm just amazed at the Lord's blessing. All right, take your Bibles. Let's turn to Genesis 45. I'll begin reading in verse 16, and we will read through chapter 46, verse 27.

Genesis 45, 16. When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come and pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me. And I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.

And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, Do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.

To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father he sent as follows, ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, And as they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way.

So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, Joseph is still alive, and he is the ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived and Israel said it is enough Joseph my son is still alive I will go and see him before I die So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here am I. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt and I will also bring you up again and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. Then Jacob set out from Beersheba.

The sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of Canaan and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and the sons of Reuben, Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi, the sons of Simeon, Yemuel, Yamin, Ohad, Yaqin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman, the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the sons of Judah, Ur, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. But Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul, the sons of Issachar, Tola, Puva, Job, and Shimron, the sons of Zebulun, Sered, Elan, and Jalil. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, and Paddan Aram, together with his daughter Dinah. Altogether his sons and his daughters numbered 33. The sons of Gad, Ziphion, Haggai, Shunai, Esbon, Eri, Erodai, and Arolai.

The sons of Asher, Imnah, Ishva, Ishvi, Beriah, with Sarah their sister. And the sons of Beriah, Heber, and Melchio. These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. And these she bore to Jacob, 16 persons. The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph and Benjamin, and to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of An, bore to him.

And the sons of Benjamin Bela Bekar Ashpel Geran Amun El Rosh Mupim Hupim and Ard These are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob 14 persons in all Sons of Dan Hushim Sons of Naphtali, Jaziel, Guni, Jezar, and Shalem. These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, 7 persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were 66 persons in all.

And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70. Let's pray. Father, again now we ask that you open our eyes to the truth of this text, that, Father, your name would be glorified, Christ would be exalted, and we would be changed. Grant that we pray for the glory of your name. help us Lord not just to hear this but then Lord in light of this revelation from you about yourself and about your people you would cause us to look to Christ and to change and to believe as you have called us to do we pray this in Jesus name, Amen your family has lived here for 400 years and now you've been told to move because this is merely a temporary residence that's what the people who left Egypt in the Exodus heard as they left Egypt recall this they left the only land they had ever known they lived there for 400 years certainly life was nearly unbearable under the current pharaoh but this had been their land too now if you want some perspective on that imagine that your family came over on the Mayflower with the pilgrims just imagine that for a moment Your family has come to America on the Mayflower with the pilgrims.

And we are just a few years short of 400 years from that point. So your roots go back to Plymouth Colony. And now you're being told, now you're being told, really, this is only a temporary place. Why don't you think about that? if you're with that original group of refugees leaving Egypt where he had roots for the past 400 years you would probably have some questions is this really God plan for his people why are we here in the first place if God always intended for us to leave why are we leaving Egypt But the narrative we have before us tells the story of the ancestors of these people moving to Egypt.

Now, if that doesn't sound confusing, I don't know what does. That whole thing, that whole 400-year thing, it's just going to Egypt only to leave 400 years later, that just seems so confusing. And 400 years earlier, Jacob surely asks, why are we going to Egypt? Now, let's look at the story so far. It's been quite a story so far. God chose a man, Abraham, as the one who had found this nation.

He gave him some great promises, that this old man and his old wife were going to produce a son, that the son would produce a nation that would inherit the land of Canaan, and that a seed to bless all the nations would come from that particular nation. You remember his son Isaac almost blew it by loving the son who was not the promised one. But God was faithful to his promise. and then the son of promise, Jacob, really messed things up when he left the land and then he started playing favorites with his sons and then the one that he no doubt considered as the promised son is lost to him and then the promise almost gets dashed on the rocks of family dysfunction and starvation.

That's the story so far. but most of all here's what we need to see for the purpose of this part of the story most of all the promise of god to his people revolves around the land of canaan not egypt the promise that god had made all the way back to abraham right jacob's grandpa joseph's great grandpa. Those promises made to Abraham and to his descendants revolved around the land of Canaan. What is going on?

What's going on here? What's going on here is, again, the continuing story of God's determination to fulfill his promise and to fulfill what he promised in that covenant. A family whose future is tied up with the land of Canaan. and must now leave for Egypt. And how will God keep that promise of making a people who will inherit the land of Canaan? You find out as you read the story, it doesn't make a bit of sense to Jacob either.

So let's see again how God uses a confusing situation to fulfill his promise. The first thing, sometimes you wonder whether God is working, don't you? Sometimes you wonder whether God is really working. As the story unfolds, it seems so right. God must be working. Everything just seems so right.

First of all, look at Pharaoh's favor and promise. And forgive me, but I'm not going to read through the text again, okay? You follow along. In those first verses, 16 through 20, you see Pharaoh's favor and promise. Pharaoh's household rejoices over the news that Joseph has been reunited with his brothers. And so out of the joy of the heart, he issues a command to help out his family.

Take provisions home to your father in Canaan and return to Egypt with him and all of your families. And when you return, I will make sure that you have access to all the possessions and the best agricultural land in Egypt. Now when you look at the text, look at verse 18. The best of the land in verse 18. In verse 20, the best of all the land of Egypt.

He there is talking about the good stuff, furniture, houses, clothes, transportation. He's talking about possessions there. He says, come to Egypt and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt. In fact, we have so much here, you can leave all your possessions behind. You don't need to bring anything with you. Okay?

That's what he's saying to them here. and then he says you also have access to the best agricultural land that we have to offer verse 18 again and you shall eat the fat of the land that's him offering them the great agricultural land that they have and so he sends wagons to transport all of those families now if you want to get a picture of this, think about this. You're immigrating to the United States. You and your family, your huge family, are immigrating to the United States And the president hears about it and the president says to you don bring anything with you We got everything you need And then he sends you all his black limousines to pick you up.

That's kind of the picture we have here. Okay? That's what we have going on here. The most powerful man in the world is sending this easy transportation to them so they can come, and he's promising them all the good stuff and the best land. That's what's happening here. Everything's going great.

And then you see the provision of Joseph. Joseph obeys the command of Pharaoh. He sends all the wagons. He sends the message. He even loads up a bunch of donkeys to provide provisions for the journey from there to here. So they don't even have to get there.

They don't have to bring food if they don't want to. They've got enough provisions to make the journey. All supplied by the Pharaoh through Joseph. and of course so you've got the pharaoh's favor and promise you've got joseph's provisions none of that you have joseph's forgiveness verses 22 and 24 right to each and all of them he gave a change of clothes but to benjamin he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes what does that say to you it says that he had actually forgiven his brothers and there are no hard feelings.

He gives them stuff, right? There are no hard feelings between him and them. Now, he favors Benjamin. He has the right to do that. But after what they've been through, he's pretty certain that his brothers aren't going to react with jealousy, right? His brothers are not going to react with jealousy.

By the way, you know, I don't know. This is kind of off the point, but we've always told our children, right, don't expect for us to treat you all the same, because you're not all the same. So, you know, if you think that it's biblical that everybody's got to be treated the same, just look at this passage. Joseph singles out Benjamin because he's the youngest.

He's the favored son. And then, just let's move on. Don't get stuck on that. Remember, we're talking about the forgiveness of Joseph here. He sends some great gifts to his father. Note, good things in verse 23. he sends good things to his father and provisions for the journey and then verse 24 there's this strange statement look at verse 24 do not quarrel on the way I always wondered about that I found out that my daughter and my wife always knew what that meant I felt like saying well you such biblical scholars you preach then Because I couldn figure it out I could not figure that out Well, here's what's going on.

On the way home, and especially when they have to tell the story to dad about what they did to his son, but he's really the ruler of Egypt, what's going to happen, do you think? There's going to be these mutual recriminations. You know, actually, it was your fault. No, no, no. It was your fault. uh-uh, I'm way down on the line. I didn't have anything to do with it.

I was going over there to go to the bathroom when you sold them. I wasn't around, right? And so Joseph knows they're going to get into that, and he says, look, you don't have to do that. They had repented. Joseph had forgiven them. It was over and done.

Just drop it. Don't even need to talk about it anymore. It's a done deal, okay? You've all seen how God has worked. I've forgiven you. Let's just not even talk about it anymore.

Just don't do that. That's what's happening in verse 24. So you have the Pharaoh's promise and favor. You have the provisions by Joseph. You have forgiveness from Joseph. And finally, verses 25 through 28, you have the reunification of the family.

The family's back together again. The boys return home with the good news. And what does it say? Jacob can't hardly handle such good news. As the Hebrews would say, his heart went numb. As we would say, he went into shot.

Right? He couldn't get it. It's like, what? Right? No, no, no, that's not true. Don't play with me like this, boys.

I said, Dad, it's true. It's true. Look at all this stuff. That's from Joseph. Right? And by the way, it's interesting that the narrator does not talk about all the riches.

He talks about Jacob's response. Jacob finally believes them. All those riches did nothing more than convince him that his son was alive. The riches that Joseph sent are not even important to him. The fact is the family is back together. And Jacob determines to see his long lost son.

And so with all this stuff going on we would say surely God must be at work because everything is turning out so well. it must be from God it's a God thing right it's gotta be it gotta be there can be no other answer for this we have the favor the promises and the possessions from the most powerful man in the world Our family has been reunited and our long lost son recovered We have been delivered from starvation and the very shadow of death by all that's been sent to us and all that's open to us. Surely God is at work in all of this to fulfill his covenant promises. You would think so, but Jacob's reaction appears to be, it seems so wrong.

God can't be working in this to fulfill his purpose. Now, why do I say that? Why do I think that's Jacob's reaction? Well, at one point, notice, and we find this in chapter 46 in the first four verses. Let's just look at it. So Israel took his journey.

Remember, that's Jacob. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.

I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. He's reached the most southern spot in this land, the point of no return. To go beyond this point means to step out of the land of promise. You remember in Fellowship of the Rings where Samwise Gamgee says to Frodo, this is it. If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home I've ever been.

At this point, Jacob is saying, if I take one more step, I'm out of the land of promise. I'm not in it anymore. Go past this point, I'm out. Notice, he sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Remember that it's Beersheba where Isaac lived, where he no doubt was brought up. And Jacob no doubt sacrifices on the altar that his father Isaac built.

And by referencing God as the God of his father Isaac, he acknowledges God's call on his family. We are the ones that God has chosen. the God of Isaac is my God. This covenant God is ours. Now why would Jacob seek answers from God? Look, I believe that, do not be afraid to go to the Lord. go down to Egypt, tells us Jacob doesn't want to go. Jacob doesn't want to go.

God has to tell him to leave. Now, why is that? Why do you think that is? Why would he have any doubt? Well, consider this. Abraham, in the face of a famine, did what?

He went to Egypt, and that was a complete disaster. Do you remember? And then when you come to chapter 26, which has been a couple months ago that we were there, when Isaac faced a famine, he was going to go to Egypt, but he was forbidden by God to go to Egypt. Okay? He was forbidden by God to go to Egypt in the face of a famine. God said to Isaac, if you look at it in chapter 26, do not go down to Egypt.

Dwell in the land which I shall tell you. So he goes to where the Philistines are living. and what happens when he goes to that part of the land of Canaan. God then says to him, don't go to Egypt. On top of that, he says, sojourn in this land and I will be with you and will bless you for to you and your offspring I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

What's the message you're getting? don't leave the land and then remember that the covenant God had made with Abraham's family revolved around this land you remember as the cut as the story opens in chapter 12 God is promising Abraham this to your offspring I will give this land and then when he reaffirms the covenant later he says and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Jacob is saying, we're not supposed to leave. I made that mistake one time.

I left. I'm not going to do it again. God's always told our people, stay here. Don't go to Egypt. And besides that, he's telling us this is the land that we're supposed to inherit. And then finally, there's this question.

How is God going to produce the nation that he promises if we take our family from which this nation is supposed to come and we take our family to another nation Egypt What happens when you move to another What happens if you would move to France I guarantee you your grandchildren will be French Will they not? They will have French customs. They will speak French.

They will be assimilated. How could God make a great nation if they assimilate with the Egyptians? so the circumstances seem to indicate that God is working but the revelation of God seems to oppose it seems to say just the opposite don't leave and so you conclude it seems it doesn't seem right it doesn't seem wrong it just seems totally confusing. How in the world is God going to fulfill his promise now?

This is just so confusing. You want me to leave? Well, that brings us to this second point then. You must always believe, even if you don't understand, that God will fulfill his covenant promises. You always have to believe that even when it seems like now that's so wrong or when it seems like oh it seems so right or it's like i don't know what god's doing always remember god will remain faithful to his promises and his purposes you will never deviate from them no matter what no matter whether you can figure it out or not he's going to do what he says he's going to do and in this chapter god assures Jacob that he has not forgotten his covenant and that he is determined to keep those promises.

In fact, God confirms with Jacob that despite all appearances, he indeed is going to fulfill his promises. That's exactly what he's going to do. First of all, note, he appears to Jacob in a vision. You remember if you read the story of Jacob at certain important points, God appears to Jacob in a vision. He appeared to him in a vision when he left the land before.

He appeared to him in a vision then. He appeared to him in a dream in chapter 31 before he returned. So the fact that God shows up says something to Jacob I need this from God He identifies himself as the God of the covenant He says I the God of your father Now that you know when we read that we say why doesn he just say, I'm your God? Why does he say, I'm the God of your father?

Isn't he Jacob's God too? Yes. But he's trying to emphasize the point that I am the one who made this covenant with your father i am the covenant keeping god i am the one who made the covenant i'm the one who's showing up right here and then he makes a promise that jacob must surely recognize as i read through this you know what started what started banging in my mind this sounds a lot like chapter 28 when he's leaving the land before sounds a lot like the same thing look back at chapter 28 he makes a promise that Jacob here he makes a promise here that Jacob surely recognizes you remember when Jacob was leaving the land before in chapter 28 notice what he says here Jacob Jacob he said here am I then he said I am the God the God of your father do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for there I will make you into a great nation I myself will go down with you to Egypt and I will also bring you up again.

Chapter 28. The first time Jacob leaves the land. Chapter 28. Let's look at verse 13. We're in the middle of this vision. Remember the ladder going up and down, the stairway going from heaven to earth and so forth.

And here's what he hears God say. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, and your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I've done what I've promised. Isn't that what he says here? He says, I am with you. Notice chapter 46. Right? I myself will go down with you.

Like he said before, I will go with you. And I will be with you until I bring you back And notice I will be with you until you come back When you dead they going to bury you here But I'll be with you until you come back. Same thing again. When he left the land before, God said, I am with you. So God says the same thing as Jacob once more leaves the land.

Jacob hears God promising his faithfulness to his covenant. He says to Jacob, I'm taking the long road to Canaan. I'm taking the long road. I'm going to fulfill my promises. But you're going to get Canaan as we take this big detour and come back. So he's telling him, I'll keep the promise.

I will be with you when you leave. but he adds something to this a new detail to the promise that he had made in Bethel remember at Bethel there's this little addition to Jacob's part of the covenant I am with you I will be with you I'm going to be with you all the time now he adds another detail in this he says I will make and there there I will make you into a great nation There I'll make you into a great nation. In keeping with my covenant promise to Abraham, I will indeed make of you a great nation, even though it means you're going to live in another nation. I'm going to make you a great nation.

He promises to bring Jacob back to this land. Of course, he's going to be buried there. And he says, and Joseph will close your eyes. Now, what's that all about? That's another way of saying, and you will die peacefully. And Joseph is the one who closed your eyes.

Because you remember what he had said before. This is just the opposite of what Jacob had said before. When he thought that he'd lost his son, and when they were going to take Benjamin, what did he say? He said, my gray hairs will go down in evil to Sheol. I'm going to have a horrible death. And God is saying, actually, no.

You're going to die peacefully. the last confirmation that god gives follows in verses 5 through 27 and you are very thankful i'm not going to read those verses again aren't you what is that all about Why would he list all those people? Because remember, the genealogies are there for a reason. Why would he list all those people? He's simply saying, this is the first flower of the promise I've made of making you a great nation.

Here are 70 people. 70 being the number of perfection. Here are 70 people. I will keep my promise. Here it is. You've got the beginning of a nation already.

And he confirms that he's in the process of fulfilling that promise. So Jacob leads them out of Beersheba in an obvious act of faith. He leaves by faith. He believes that God will do what he says. So even though it looks like the wrong way to go, God remains faithful to his promises. You say, so what?

Okay, great story. Thank you. We're not done yet. Are you willing to believe that God will fulfill every promise and accomplish every purpose of his, even when it seems confusing, even when it seems wrong? Are you still going to believe that God will accomplish his purposes and keep his promise? And right now you're sitting here in the middle of church and going, you bet, I will.

Tomorrow you may say something different. You may be tempted to say something entirely different when the phone rings tomorrow. And you're going to be asking the question, is God really working for my good? Doesn't look like it. Consider how God works. And as we start out on this little bit of a journey, I want you to think about this.

You can't put God in a box. And that box often is my understanding. you can't put God in that box did you hear the Old Testament reading today from Habakkuk did you catch it Habakkuk says God here's what you promised you promised and you said that if people disobey you you're going to bring judgment on them I'm looking all around me and I see evil everywhere where is your judgment you're not keeping your promise why don't you bring justice on these people right isn that what Habakkuk said and what was God answer I will I going to bring the Babylonians And Habakkuk says whoa You can do that Why not? Because they're more evil than we are.

God, you can't take people more evil than us. I must have got this wrong, God. Because you can't take people who are more evil than us to judge us. That just doesn't make sense. Exactly. God's going to keep his promise.

He's going to fulfill his purpose, even if you don't get it. He's still going to do it. He doesn't have to meet the bar of your understanding. Don't put God in that box. I have a friend of mine, been in the ministry for a long time. First time I heard Ron was at a funeral of someone that I knew.

I never knew this guy. He was the pastor who did the funeral. and at this funeral he talked about the fact that when he was a young dad his son went through the neighbor's yard and drowned in the pool and Ron wasn't a believer he started plumbing the depths of evil he started trying to understand that all that brought him to Christ all of that was the beginning steps of bringing him to Christ now does God delight in the death of children? no, but we're going to say what good can come from something like that And I'll tell you what, Ron Renaro would share the gospel with any creature that had breath in him. This was a guy who had a track rack right next to his door where you come into his house.

This guy was a guy who said, I have been, this tragedy took me from where I was to a servant of God who can't get enough of proclaiming the grace of God. You know that God has promised he's going to take every, he's going to gather a people from every tongue, every tribe, and every nation. And all of those from every nation in the world are going to be singing around the Lamb's throne.

And then I think of Albania. Albania was for 500 years subject to the Ottoman Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and it was Muslim. When you look to Albania today, you're in a Muslim country and it looks so strange because they Europeans who are Muslims They not you don look like a typical Muslim by our standards right Not Middle Eastern or anything like that or Asian They're Europeans.

That's because for 500 years, they were under the Ottoman Turks who were Islamic. There were no Christians from Albania. The gospel could not get there. Well, eventually they won their freedom from the Turks only for a few years later to come under the occupation of the Germans and the Italians. And right after that, who took over? The communists.

The communists took over. And I remember in high school reading about this communist country of Albania who was the first communist country to declare, we have wiped out all religion in our country. We are a completely atheist country. All religion, Islamic, Christian, whatever you want to call it, all religion was outlawed and eliminated. we are 100% atheist.

In 1990, the communists fell. There were two professed believers in Christ in that country. Two. Are we then to assume then that there will be two Albanians singing around the throne of the Lamb? No. You know what happened?

Because of the communist atheists, they really ripped up Islam by the roots. And then they said, we've got to have some kind of holidays. So you know what they did? Around New Year's Day, around the New Year's, they introduced a national festival that involved decorating trees and all kinds of festivities. Right? Yeah, that's what they did.

Now that the communists are gone, Islam is there, but it's, you know, it's people who said, well, my grandpa before communists was Muslim. I must be Muslim too. That's the kind of Islam it is. And so I was talking to Samir, a friend of mine from Albania. He and I talk every week. And one week he sent me an email saying, I can't make it.

We've got a Christmas outreach, and I've got to be involved in that. Our church is having a Christmas outreach. And I'm thinking, all right, I know it's nominally Islam, but how do you have a Christmas outreach in a Muslim country? So I said, when I talked to him, I said, Samir, you've got to answer this question. How in the world is it possible to have a Christian outreach in an Islamic country Here what he told me He told me the story about the atheists coming in and giving us this holiday And because the communists were there they uprooted all religion Now there this semi kind of Islam there, but they're free then to use that national holiday to talk about Christ.

Now, today there are now hundreds of followers of Christ in that country. now would you have said God use atheists so that there will be plenty of Albanians singing around the throne of the Lamb is that what you would have done? no it doesn't make sense that's what God does World Magazine is a Christian news magazine some of you know it we get it in one of its issues it called on both Trump and Hillary to step down because of their character issues. Called on them both. Both of you.

You don't deserve to be president. Step down. You should have seen the letters that came to that magazine in the weeks that followed. Right? How could you call on Donald Trump to step down? By trying to dissuade voters from voting for him, you've encouraged the advance of the Antichrist kingdom. if a Republican nominee does not win then we will get a Supreme Court justices who will kill religious liberty shame on you cancel my subscription I'll give my money to more worthy Christian organizations who truly serve Christ what's behind those letters simply this God has to work in certain ways or it's not going to get done if God doesn't have an America like we've always cherished then the kingdom of Christ is going to go down the tubes.

Is it entirely possible that in the confusing political climate in which we now live, America may fail, but Christ's name will be exalted in a way that we've never seen before? Is it possible? Sure it is. Absolutely. You see, you can't fit God in a box. the box of your understanding he's going to accomplish his purposes in ways that you never dreamed and when you try to fit God in a box and he doesn't fit which he never will you start to lose hope.

You lose hope. You forget that God has said He's going to fulfill His promises. It may look wrong. It may look right. It may look totally confusing. No matter what the situation is, by your understanding, God's going to accomplish His purpose and He's going to keep His promises.

Someone says to me, how can you be so sure, Pastor Tim? And my answer will inevitably lead us to the cross. It inevitably has to take us to the cross. The answer to that question takes us to the cross. This is how I can be sure. For example, many places in the Old Testament speak of this Jewish king, this Messiah, this Christ who's going to come, and the Gentile, the nations are going to submit to him.

And so everyone started looking for a powerful Jewish conquering king. Instead they get Jesus. who instead of looking Jewish, breaks all their traditions. They don't understand. This can't be the king. Why Because he We don understand it How can he break all our traditions How can he break all our rules How can he do that and still be our king No he can be it And on top of that, the Gentiles, whom he was supposed to rule, sit in judgment on him.

And they kill him. that does not make any sense at all. But you know what? It was through the very instrument of that shameful, humiliating death at the hands of Gentiles that now the nations are being reconciled to God and coming under the rule of Christ. Doesn't fit the box of my understanding, but that's what God does. in ways that we would never anticipate God fulfills His purpose.

He's promised good. Listen, we say a lot about this promise. God has promised good to all those who call by His name. What is that good to conform to the image of Christ We know that We know that we believe it but do we know it experientially And what we have to do is stop trying to figure out how he going to get that done Because the way he's going to do it will not fit the way you think he ought to do it.

But he has promised, and he will keep that promise, that for all of his children, he will work for their good. You can count on him keeping that promise, even when it just doesn't fit. You've got to believe. He's promised eternal life to all who believe in his Son, the one who is crucified and humiliated. He looks weak as he hangs on that cross. And you can't figure out how God could possibly do anything good through such weakness and cruelty.

But then you're expecting God to work in the way that you understand, aren't you? And He won't do it. And He commands you to believe in Him as your only hope, even as He works in ways that make no sense to you. God help us to believe Him even when we don understand He going to keep His promises Father thank You for Your Word Lord, as I look at this congregation, I can see in these faces, those that I know, many ways that You have worked in ways that are beyond our understanding.

But You have done it. You have kept Your promises, and You always will. father as we leave this text i ask that you help us to see and to believe with all our heart that even if we don't understand even if it doesn't fit the scheme you will fulfill your promises even as jacob looked to you and said god this can't be it just goes against everything that you've done. And yet, Father, you remain faithful to your covenant promises.

Help us to have that kind of faith that will step out in belief, knowing that nothing will keep you from that, from fulfilling your promises. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.