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[0:00] Let's pray.

[0:30] As a gift from our church in our hopes that you'll continue to be reading God's Word. If you are in Ezra chapter 6, would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together again, verses 1 through 15.

[0:46] Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. And in Ekbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written, a record.

[1:02] In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. Let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained.

[1:18] Its height shall be 60 cubits, and its breadth 60 cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury, and also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place.

[1:42] You shall put them in the house of God. Now, therefore, Tat and I, governor of the province beyond the river, and Shethar Bozenai and your associates, the governors who are in the province beyond the river, keep away.

[1:57] Let the work of this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God.

[2:13] The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province beyond the river. And whatever is needed, bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require, let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

[2:44] Also, I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.

[2:59] May the God who has caused his name to dwell therefore overthrow any king or people who shall put a hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem.

[3:13] I, Darius, make a decree. Let it be done with all diligence. Then according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tatnai, the governor of the province beyond the river, Shetharbozani and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered.

[3:31] And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edu. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

[3:50] And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

[4:01] May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated? One of the most legendary and debated home runs in Major League Baseball history took place in the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs.

[4:26] The home run came in game three with the Yankees and the Cubs tied four to four in the top of the fifth. With one out, Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, the King of Crash, the Colossus of Clout, the great Bambino stepped to the plate.

[4:51] The Babe had already hit a three-run home run in the first inning of that game and the Chicago Cubs players on the bench were hurling, mercilessly hurling insult after insult at the Babe, hoping to engage him in some kind of psychological warfare to take his mind and his focus off the game.

[5:17] And in between every pitch, Babe Ruth would look at that dugout and he'd give it right back to those players. Then with two balls and two strikes, Babe Ruth, a left-handed hitter, extended his right arm and with two fingers, he seemed to be pointing in the direction of center field.

[5:42] He got into his batting stance and he launched the next pitch over the center field fence, giving the Yankees the lead.

[5:53] Ruth's team would go on to win that game and the next game winning the World Series. But it is that home run that is most remembered and it is known in baseball folklore as the called shot.

[6:10] The called shot. After the game, when Ruth seemed to foreordain his home run, he was asked by reporters if in fact he was pointing at the center field fence and he said that he was.

[6:26] However, Charlie Root, the Cubs pitcher who gave up the dinger, protested the Babe's prowess to call his shot, saying that Ruth raised two fingers to the crowd, signaling that he had two strikes and one left before he was out.

[6:44] And all these years later, people still argue about whether or not Babe Ruth called his shot. I remember summers playing baseball in the backyard with my friends.

[6:58] And at some point, all of us took a turn trying to call our shot with miserable outcomes. That's actually really hard to do.

[7:11] Human beings don't have the ability to decree whatever they desire to come to pass, but God can. We see that truth declared and accomplished all throughout the pages of our Bibles.

[7:27] If God decrees it, God makes it happen. In the beginning, God speaks. He decrees creation into existence.

[7:41] God forms man in his image. God blesses Adam and Eve with all that they need, but with one prohibition, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[7:56] Satan, a fallen angel, tempts Eve, who tempts Adam, to question God's trustworthiness and God's goodness. They disobey God. They sin. Then in Genesis 3, God arrives in the Garden of Eden.

[8:11] He calls out to Adam and Eve who are hiding from him and who have attempted to cover their shame with leaves that they had made. The Garden of Eden then becomes God's courtroom as he pronounces judgment against the man, against the woman, and against Satan.

[8:33] And it's God's judgment of Satan that I want to draw your attention to this morning in Genesis 3, 15. God says to the adversary, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

[8:50] He, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Theologians refer to this declaration as the proto-evangelium.

[9:02] It's a fancy word which means the first gospel. Satan will bruise the heel of the offspring of the woman, but he will deliver the fatal blow in this struggle to Satan's head.

[9:18] Now, the heel is a very sensitive part of the human body, isn't it? Have you ever stepped on a Lego with your bare feet? That really hurts.

[9:32] It's incredibly painful. It puts you down on the ground or it puts you at least looking for a couch that you can lay on as you agonize because the pain is intense.

[9:44] It's excruciating for a time, for a time, for a brief time. The Bible says sinful men orchestrated the horrific death of Jesus as he suffered on the cross.

[10:02] On the cross, Jesus bore the wrath of God the Father for our sins until it was finished. This looked like defeat.

[10:14] However, in God's infinite wisdom and in his divine plan, Jesus, the divine and eternal Son of God, was fulfilling the called shot that we just read about in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15.

[10:29] Through the evil actions of men, the divine plan of God was fulfilled as Jesus bled and died and rose again, atoning for the sins of those who believe in him.

[10:41] If God decrees it, God makes it happen. And although God in no way is the author of evil, He uses evil acts and evil people to accomplish His plan and fulfill what He has decreed for His glory and His good.

[11:00] I'm going to say that again. God, though He is not the author of evil, uses evil actions and evil people to accomplish His plan and to fulfill His decreed will for His glory and for our good.

[11:22] In Acts chapter 2, Jesus has ascended back to heaven and just as promised, the Holy Spirit comes and Peter, Jesus' disciple, is filled with the Spirit and He begins to preach the gospel.

[11:39] Look with me at what He said, what He preached in Acts chapter 2, verses 22 through 23. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus, see this, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

[12:16] This truth that God uses evil actions of sinful people to accomplish what He has decreed to fulfill His redemptive plan is one we see all throughout the Bible.

[12:29] Another example of this, Genesis 45, Joseph addresses his brother's evil actions and intentions which, remember, sent him into slavery, which eventually led him into prison before he ascended to become the second most powerful man in all of Egypt where God used him to save his family from famine.

[12:51] And look at what He says to His evil brothers in Genesis 45, 6 through 8. For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

[13:04] And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it is not you who sent me here but God.

[13:17] He made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. And then in Genesis 50, 20, He says to them, as for you, all these bad things, right, that you did to me.

[13:35] You meant evil against me but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

[13:47] We see this truth in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1, 8 through 10, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

[14:10] Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. He, God, delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us.

[14:23] On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. God is not the author of evil but He is not limited in His capacity to use it. This should come as good news to us.

[14:38] Knowing that nothing, no one, can frustrate the divine will of the one who works all things together for the good.

[14:49] As we read in Romans 8, 28, God keeps His word. God fulfills His promises. No matter how strong the opposition may appear, no matter how difficult the difficulties are that we endure as we take up the cross and follow Jesus in our Christian lives, God's people can always rest assured of this truth, which is the main idea for this morning's sermon.

[15:16] What God decrees will come to pass for His glory and our good. What God decrees will come to pass for His glory and our good.

[15:28] As we've seen, the Bible teaches that God turns Satan's efforts against God's people into blessing for them. Satan's scheme to execute Jesus, but in the end, that scheme fulfilled God's decree to crush Him.

[15:45] How frustrating is that? If you are one of God's opponents, the cross and the empty tomb display God's glory, which is also for our good.

[15:57] God will do this in your life too. There is no setback, no tragedy, no disappointment, and no defeat that God can't use to bless you, Christian.

[16:12] We need to understand that truth and we see that truth in Ezra chapter 6. Satan, if you recall, used the Samaritans to discourage God's people from rebuilding the temple.

[16:26] He used politicians and rulers to issue laws which prohibited God's people from obeying God's commands. And as we saw last week, though God's people are commanded to obey the government, if the laws of the land issued by sinful people cause God's people to disobey God, then God's people must choose to obey God without fear and live unafraid of the cost.

[16:58] In Ezra chapter 5, God sent prophets with a message from Him. They preached God's word to God's people who had disobeyed His command for 16 years.

[17:13] the people responded to the word of God preached by God's prophets and they got back to work. They chose to trust that God would accomplish what He had decreed for His glory and for their good.

[17:33] As was the case for God's people then, so is the case for God's people today. We live in a culture that continually puts pressure on Christians to conform to their ways, to their beliefs, and to keep our faith to ourselves.

[17:51] But Jesus told us, He commanded us to go and to speak and to share the gospel and to make disciples, to proclaim what God has decreed, to preach the gospel in the hopes that whosoever will will be saved by God.

[18:09] We shouldn't fear opposition. Jesus has won. We must be people of good courage, continuing to fight the good fight, trusting that even in dark times, God works all things together for the good.

[18:26] As He moves us closer and closer to the day that He has decreed, when Jesus returns, and we will be with Him in glory and dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, which has no temple, a day when we will be in the eternal presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the true temple forever.

[18:48] How good is that? And so in this text, we see three ways that God's decrees come to pass for His glory and our good.

[19:00] The first way, in verses 1 through 5, God's decrees preserve us for His glory and our good. God's decrees preserve us for His glory and our good.

[19:13] So again, after receiving notice of the conflict that was taking place in Jerusalem regarding the Jews and their refusal to stop building the temple, they got back to work and there was opposition again to that and there's a letter sent to Darius and this is what Darius says, Darius acts.

[19:33] Again, in verses 1 through 5, then Darius the king made a decree and search was made in Babylonia in the house of the archives where the documents were stored and in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written, a record.

[19:51] In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered and let its foundations be retained.

[20:05] He goes on to explain how it should be built and that all the gold and the vessels that were taken by Nebuchadnezzar should be returned and brought back. He says, you shall put them all back into the house of God.

[20:18] Now, Darius is the one here issuing the decrees, but we see God at work here, don't we? Darius allows the reconstruction work of the temple to continue as he orders a search to locate the decree that Cyrus had issued, the decree that was now in question.

[20:44] And recall, it was God who originally stirred Cyrus to make this decree in the first place. And then it was preserved over the years in the archives in Ecbatana.

[20:59] That's not a coincidence. But here's the best part of this whole affair. The governors of the region of Jerusalem ruling under Persian authority had ordered the rebuilding project to stop.

[21:18] They sent a letter to Darius thinking that they would persuade him to their side. But not only does Darius tell the Jews to keep working on the temple while the search for Cyrus' original decree commenced, look at what happens in verse 8.

[21:39] Moreover, he says, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of the house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province beyond the river.

[22:00] Cyrus had originally blessed the returning exiles with what they needed to begin rebuilding the temple. And now here, Darius orders that the Jews' opponents, the governors who are under his rule, who opposed this work, used the money they collected in taxes to further fund the temple's construction.

[22:28] Stop and consider that. If it weren't for opposition, these funds would not have been allotted for this purpose.

[22:41] In the end, the opponents to the rebuilding of the temple succeeded only in getting the work financed. That's awesome.

[22:53] God's opponents were used to preserve the work and ensure that the temple would be rebuilt. We see God work in the same way in many cases in the Bible.

[23:09] One of those cases is in the life of Moses. Following Pharaoh's decree to kill all newborn Hebrew boys in an act of faith and civil disobedience, Moses' mother placed him in a basket and sent him down the Nile River as his sister followed at a distance.

[23:34] God's sovereign hand guided that little ark, that little basket to Pharaoh's daughter who adopted Moses as her son and hired Moses' mother to take care of him.

[23:52] She received her son back and not only that, she received support from Pharaoh's household to raise this son that they tried to kill.

[24:06] How awesome is that? Ephesians 3 20 tells us how awesome God is and how he works. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us.

[24:26] In moments where we are tempted to believe that the opposition is too great or that hope seems lost, we have this example from Ezra, we have the example of Moses, and ultimately we have the example of Jesus whose death purchased our freedom from sin and its eternal consequences.

[24:50] In your moments of despair, understanding that God is, understand I should say, that God is still at work. He is still sovereign, and whatever the opposition you're facing may be, whoever they may be, no matter what they are saying or what they might do, He will preserve you as you persevere in faith.

[25:22] I think I've shared this story before. When I was freshly graduated from college after squeezing six years into four to get that done, I got a job working in a warehouse with the man who was my Sunday school teacher growing up.

[25:41] And I was telling him that, you know, I know I'm called to ministry, and I know that as part of that I need to go to seminary. And, you know, he had taken me out to lunch one day, and I was telling him that, and he looked at me and he said, you barely passed college.

[26:02] What makes you think that you can pass seminary? And, man, those words were really discouraging, but you know what I recognize now?

[26:14] Those were words that I needed to hear because it fueled a fire within me that I didn't have before to press on, to pursue God's will for my life.

[26:28] God's decrees preserve us for His glory and our good. Now, the second way, God's decrees protect us for His glory and our good.

[26:44] Verses 6 and 7 again say, now therefore Tatnai, governor of the province beyond the river, Shethar Bozanai and your associates are in the province beyond the river. Keep away. Let the work of this house of God alone.

[26:58] Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild the house of God on its site. God through Darius issued a decree for the opponents of God's people to keep away.

[27:12] Leave them alone. Stop harassing them. It's like in a way they get to hang a do not disturb sign on the door of the temple.

[27:22] Don't you love those things when you go to a hotel? Last year the convention was in New Orleans and Danny and I went. We had an eight hour delay in Dallas.

[27:37] We got to New Orleans and the guy who picked us up was listening to some kind of fortune teller on the radio and finally we explained who we were and what we were there to do.

[27:49] Weary as we were and he turned his fortune telling off. We got to the hotel at a sometime around 3.30 or so in the morning and the system was down.

[28:02] So we waited in the lobby until four o'clock and sometime after 4 a.m. we finally got to our room. And the first thing I did was look for that do not disturb sign and put it on our door.

[28:18] Look the people of God had been disobedient they were weary from the opposition that they had faced for 16 years they disobeyed him as they bowed their knee to the law of the land.

[28:35] But God in his grace he preserved them and he protected them. Now they were obeying him.

[28:46] They were not only funded by their opponents but protected from them as well. What amazing turn of events. It gets even better for them. In verses 8 through 12 again moreover Darius says I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God.

[29:06] The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue the tribute of the province beyond the river and whatever is needed bulls rams sheep burnt offerings to the God of heaven wheat salt wine or oil all the priests of Jerusalem require let them have it day by day give it to them without fail that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict a beam shall be pulled from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall become a dunghill may the God who caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem I Darius make a decree let diligence before I go on to the completion of the work of the temple I want to stop here and ask you to put yourselves in the shoes of those who were threatened and intimidated to stop the rebuilding efforts back in

[30:20] Ezra chapter 5 verses 1 through 4 remember the opponents of God came to them and told them to stop and then they asked them for their names they were going to send their names to Darius thinking that they were going to get in big trouble if you would have been one of those people what would you have done would you have given them a fake name I hope not maybe you would have given them their name given them your name and you know!

[30:56] it's easy it's easier I should say to be courageous when there's not an imminent threat but imagine you did give them your name and as the days grew and you knew that letter was on its way to Darius and by this time he's probably read it would you be filled with fear worry and anxiety maybe even you know expressing your concerns to others with pessimistic words shouldn't have done that we're doomed why did we do that acting as if there was no hope you know the next time you're about to say something pessimistic remember that God does work all things together for the good of those who love him he uses the actions of sinful men to bring him glory for our good and again I can't help but point us to the cross here

[31:58] Darius agreed that anyone who interrupted the construction the reconstruction of the temple be impaled on a beam taken from their own house God in his love his grace his mercy sent his son to crush Satan head by having him impaled to a beam to a cross the most wicked action ever committed by sinful people in the end accomplished the greatest good for all people God saves those who at one point opposed him and he saves them through the death and the resurrection of his divine son in

[32:58] Christ we are clothed in his righteousness we are shielded we are protected from anyone or anything who would attempt to separate us from the love of God the apostle Paul again faced all kinds of opposition in his life but he understood that whether it was a thorn in the flesh persecution from his opponents and the subsequent beatings and imprisonments that he faced he knew he trusted he had a race to run and until he reached the finish line God would protect him I love Philippians 1 21 through 23 he says for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain if I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me yet which I shall choose I cannot tell I am hard pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account he had experienced

[34:04] God sovereignly at work to preserve him and to protect him and he knew that God would do the same for all who trust in him! Philippians 1 6 he writes and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ he was sure of that are you sure of that are you sure that the work he began in you when he saved you he will complete even in the good times it's easy but more difficult more more hard I should say is in the difficult times do you believe that that God who began a good work in you when he saved you by faith in Jesus Christ his son even in the bad times and the hard times that he still has you that he still keeps you and that the work that he began in you is a work that he will complete you know the worst thing

[35:22] I think one of the worst things that can happen to an athlete on a team is when their coach stops coaching them when a coach stops coaching one of his players what that signals is that he doesn't think that they can get any better they're just kind of there they are what they are and so he stops pushing them he stops encouraging them because in his mind they've reached their full potential and that's it and you know sometimes I think we think of God like that that God works in a similar way that eventually after all the times that we've sinned and we failed that he'll just say that's it that's it you've reached your full potential I have nothing else for you I have no further use for you listen to me

[36:24] God isn't like that God is not like that if he was I know that I wouldn't be here right now preaching this sermon to you God does not quit on his people when we are tempted to quit as the people of God and Ezra did for 16 years we have this truth to remind us once again that God doesn't quit and he provides us with the protection and the encouragement that we need that we do not grow weary in doing good as we press on towards the finish line of this life looking forward to the glory that awaits us on the other side of it in heaven God's decrees preserve!

[37:18] us protect! us and third we see God's decrees prosper us for his glory and our good verses 13 through 15 again says then according to the word sent by Darius the king Tatanai the governor of the province beyond the river Shethar Bozanai and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered and the elders elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edu and here's what we really want we need to see here this is what Ezra is signaling to us here they finished their building by decree of God the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes the king of Persia who is behind all of this God is and this house was finished on the third day the portable tabernacle later became the temple where God's presence dwelt in the holy of holies amongst his people the temple was the place where God's people were commanded to come and to worship him and to present their sacrifices to him but the tabernacle the temple all those things those temples the tabernacle temple and everything surrounding those things they all were pointing to something future and

[38:53] Zachariah who was one of those who prophesied to God's people during this time said in chapter 2 verse 10 of his prophecy sing and rejoice oh daughter of Zion for behold this is God speaking I come and I will dwell in your midst declares the Lord and that prophecy was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ who as God tabernacled with us when the eternal word became flesh and dwelt in our midst the veil in the temple which separated God's presence and the holy of holies was ripped in two as Jesus flesh had been ripped on the cross

[39:54] Jesus is the better temple and all people are commanded to come to him in order to worship and serve the one true God and understand this as well that when we are saved we undergo a transformation we have been spiritually united to the body of Christ and salvation and as a result of that he causes his spirit the Holy Spirit to indwell us thus making us temples of God 1 Corinthians 6 19 through 20 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body glorify

[40:57] God in your body are you seeking God's glory truly or are you using God's glory to get a little bit for yourself it's kind of like when people photobomb pictures I know I'm digging I'm sharing stuff that I just can't every time I think of stealing glory I think of people who photobomb pictures so for example at Falls Creek there was a really nice picture of some of our boys in the tabernacle and I saw my wife taking a picture and I knew that I was going to be in the shot and I was probably a couple of rows behind them and so I made this really stupid face and I showed her the picture later and I was like zoom in right here what sometimes I think that's what we do to God or do with God we can be of the mind that you know

[41:59] I'm going to serve here Lord and I'm going to do this for you Lord I'm going to share the gospel with this person Lord but really in a way I think we kind of want to photobomb the whole thing like hey I was there I did it I should receive truly committed to seeking God's glory his glory alone is that true of you or not is that true of us as a church and all that we're doing and all of our meetings is truly the purpose behind it all that you know God would be glorified in this and if not there's a problem that needs changing what we should all want is that in our community as we gather and as we meet that the gospel will prosper here and will prosper in our community through us but in the end it's

[43:15] God who gets the glory for all of that and it should be our prayer that it would be apparent to each person here and to each person that we minister to that it's God who is doing it through us so here's how I think we should adjust to what we've heard pursue God's glory for your good in all your ways acknowledge him in all your doing seek to be obedient to his will pursue him pursue his will that he would be glorified and you will find that in the end that will also be for your good one closing story many of you have heard my testimony before but but I know that God works all things together for the good even really painful difficult hard things

[44:16] I'm the youngest of four children my between my two older sisters my parents had a son and his name was Stevie and after Stevie was one year old he got incredibly sick and he had to be hospitalized and while he was in the hospital my mom would stay in his room and she would talk about how much agony he was in as he just squirmed and as he just could not get better and felt horrible and how painful that was for her to watch my dad was with my older sister down in the waiting room and my sister is an extrovert she is good at making small talk and even at that age she struck up a conversation with a lady who was there with her husband who was visiting a church member who was in the hospital and when that man his name was Gail Milhoff came down into that waiting room he heard the story about why my father and why my sister were there and he pulled out a notebook or something to write with and he said to my dad

[45:29] I go to a church we pray for people can I have your name and your number so that we can be praying for you throughout my brother's sickness Gail Milhoff would call my dad week after week how is your son how are you doing my brother died wasn't much older than one years old my parents through that man came to church heard the gospel it's the church I grew up in my entire life though my brother only lived for one year he had a purpose and his purpose is for God's glory and it's been for my good does it take away the pain from my mother and father no but they know their son lives and they've gotten to see through the past

[46:32] I've been here 41 years my sisters who are older they've gotten to see through their children and their children's children that God uses all things together for the good so I don't know what you're struggling with I don't know what difficulty you're facing I don't know what road you might travel as you follow Christ what opposition you may face but I hope and I pray that you remember this message that you remember God's word that you remember his faithfulness and his goodness that he truly is a God who works all things together for the good and we have this promise from him that in Christ the work he began in us will reach its completion and the day will come when we will stand before him in glory and he will dry all of our tears and we'll understand and we'll know and man it will be worth it if you don't know

[47:41] Jesus I hope that today you've heard the gospel and I bad things may seem to be in our culture as a whole God is sovereign God is at work and everything is moving towards the plan that he foreordained in the very beginning trust him pursue him obey him he works all things together for the good let's pray father

[48:43] I pray that this truth that we see all throughout your word this truth that Lord you have all things under control that God you are progressively moving us towards the end that you have foreordained from the beginning that God you are not a God who ever panics you're a God who doesn't know what it feels like to be anxious about the future because God you you have it all under your control you Lord are the creator of all things and Lord we have this truth and we see it most evident in the cross of your son Jesus that even when things look hopeless that even when it looks like your people have been defeated that ultimately what you were doing was the greatest good that could ever be done providing a sacrifice to atone for our sins that by faith in your son

[50:01] Jesus we are saved and have eternal life God you know every person in this room by name you know what opposition they may be facing you know what is causing them to have anxious thoughts God I pray that you would through your word continue to remind them that you're a God who keeps what he saves you're a God who who finishes what he starts and I pray that they would continue to pursue you in trust knowing Lord that you work all things together for your glory and for our good in Jesus name we pray amen Thank you.