# God meant it for good

Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Genesis 50:19
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: September 3, 2019

Turn your Bible to Genesis chapter 50, Genesis chapter 50 in God’s Word this morning. The last chapter of the first book of the Bible. If you just open it up, you’ll be in Genesis chapter one, but turn over to chapter 50, the last chapter of that book. We’re running a little short on time. I’ve tried to plan accordingly, but it doesn’t always happen according to my plan, you know. But Genesis chapter 50, and I want you to notice—we’re going to read two verses—I want you to notice a phrase, and then we’ll pray. I can kind of tell the story, and then we’ll get this phrase for a little bit that’s found here in this passage. If you’re there already, would you say amen? Amen. Good deal. Would you please stand if you’re able to, as we read God’s Word together, just out of respect to it? Genesis chapter 50 and verse 19, Genesis 50, verse 19.

Of God’s Word. The Bible says, “Joseph said it to them, ‘Fear not, for am I in the place of God?’” By the way, he’s talking to some people that hurt him very deeply. There’s a good lesson there; we won’t have time to preach on it. He said, “Am I in the place of God?” That’ll help you many times to kind of let go of things. God’s in control. He can handle it all. Joseph tells his brothers, “Am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

Let’s go to the Lord. What a prayer.

Lord, I pray that you would help us, Father, just to get going in this truth and guide me in that. Lord, I sure need your leadership in that. Father, help me to go as long as you want me to, and just say everything you want me to say. Help me to stop when you want me to stop. Lord, the big thing, would you speak to our hearts in the midst of it all? Would you send your Spirit when I cannot? Lord, we’ll brag on you. We’ll thank you. We’ll praise you for what you do. We’re asking for this in Jesus’ name. We’re asking in faith because of Jesus. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Would you travel back with me in your mind and your heart about 3,700 years approximately? We’re traveling back to a young man. His name is Joseph. He’s born into a very dysfunctional family. There are actually four different moms, one dad. This young man is second to the youngest. Dad really favored this young man. He favored him. By the way, favoritism always causes problems, always. Just mark it down: if you favor, you’re going to cause problems.

It caused so much problems that the older brothers—really, the younger brother wasn’t in the picture at this point—the younger brothers, they hated this young man. That’s not his fault that Dad favored him. I don’t know; the Bible doesn’t show us anywhere that he caused that to happen, but just his brothers hated him. It’s a sad thing when siblings hate each other. Parents, can I encourage you to get involved in that? Don’t let them just fight it out; get involved in that.

Those older brothers, they had an opportunity when this young man was 17. They were in a distant place; they were not in their hometown. They were out a little bit, and this young man comes there; he’s 17. Do we have any young men here 17? Brother Tim, you’re 17. All right. Plus, how old are you, Dreshawn? You’re 17? Dreshawn, 17. A young man the same age as Dreshawn. Right, Dreshawn, raise your hand there. I see a young man single looking for a girlfriend if I know him by this guy. No, I’m teasing him. Dreshawn says yes. I’m joking.

But sure enough, this young man is at a distant city. His older brothers are there, and they capture him. And I mean capture him. There’s a little bit of a scuffle. Some of the brothers want to kill him. The oldest, one of the oldest boys, said, “We’re not going to kill him.” The other one said, “I’m so sick of that guy and Dad favoring him. Let’s just kill him.”

Noel is trying to appease, it seems like, the majority of them, and he said, “We’re not going to kill him.” Maybe in God’s divine hand, some people—people that did practice human trafficking, they sold people as slaves—were passing by. Noel’s brother said, “Hey, let’s not kill him. We’ll sell him. We’ll make a little money off of him. We don’t want his blood on our hands.”

Can you imagine if you’re brothers? Can you imagine if your brothers were to sell you? I’ve heard some sad stories down through the years, but can you imagine brothers selling their brother? That’s what happened. This young man, 17 years old, he finds himself in another country. It’d be a little bit equivalent of like finding himself in Mexico, maybe even a little bit farther south.

He’s in this foreign country. Can you imagine this young man? They maybe take him out of a cage that’s on wheels—they’ve been traveling and having all these slaves in this cage. Maybe they pull him out of this cage, and imagine an auction. A lot of people traveling through streets, and they’re auctioning, and they grab this young man, 17 years old, the age of Dreshawn, just a teenage young man, and they drag him out there like a piece of meat. They start selling him.

Can you imagine inside what would be going on? “Dad, I don’t understand it, God. I haven’t done anything wrong. My fault, Dad favored me. My brothers… Lord, why am I here in this foreign country being sold?” Can you imagine what’s going on in his heart and his mind? They auction him off like you would a car.

He ends up—he ends up in a very high-up general’s home, if you will. He’s there for years and years. Many think around about nine, maybe even ten years he’s there in that home. I’m sure he started off on the bottom and climbing up the ladder, and he tried not to be bitter and he tried to do right. Can you imagine? Maybe he was out in some field feeding some animals at first. I don’t know. Maybe he thought, “Why doesn’t Dad try to find me? Surely he’s got some kind of idea.” Imagine all the thoughts he had going through his mind: “My brother trying to kill me. I heard them fighting over me.”

I mean, can you imagine the nightmares he must have had? And I often wonder why he didn’t try to escape. “I’m going to go back home. I can find my way.” The Bible never records that. It wasn’t that far later on his family travels back and forth. This young man, 17, as far as I know, he doesn’t try to escape. He just accepted, “This is where God has me. I understand it all. Why are my brothers hating me? Why am I stuck in this messed-up world?” He just keeps working as a slave, years and years.

Eventually, the five-star general says, “You know that young man, I can trust him.” In fact, he said—he said, “There’s something different about that boy.” He said these exact words: “The Lord is with him.” And that five-star general said, “I can trust that boy,” and he began to put everything in his hands, that young man’s hands. I can imagine that young man thinking, “Well, finally I’ve got a little relief. My world’s been turning upside down. I’ve been taken away from my family. I’ve been a slave all these years. And finally somebody has given me a little validity here.” And finally he began to move up the ranks and began to be a somewhat of an assistant to that five-star general. He’d go out of town; he’d trusted with everything.

Now, I don’t know what it was, but that five-star general’s wife began to look at that young man in a bad way. I don’t know. Maybe her love language was out of service, and he was always there doing all the service in the house and taking care of it. I don’t know. She started liking him, and she began to try to entice him. And that young man said, “I can’t do that. Man, the general trusted me, and my Lord, I’ve been trying to do right, and I can’t do that.” And finally, it was to the point she tempted him, and he ran.

By the way, young men, that’s a wise thing to do: run from the wrong kind of a lady—female, maybe I should say—run. When he did, she had grabbed his jacket and left it there, and she began to cry out, “Hey, sexual harassment! He tried to rape me!”

Can you imagine how the news spread across town? “This slave tried to be with the general’s wife.” Guarantee people believed it, not all, but some. It may have been in the paper. Can you imagine this young man, now in his 20s, saying, “Man, I don’t understand this, Lord. I didn’t do anything wrong. My dad favored me, not my fault. And then the brothers, they hated me, and they almost killed me. I remember that day, and now they’ve sold me. I thought I was kind of getting up somewhere, and now she’s lying about me. People are believing it. It’s all around town.”

I don’t know if the general came back early from his trip. Maybe he was on a military campaign. I don’t know, but he came back. I honestly don’t think he believed it. I think if he believed the report, he had to kill Joseph. Not exactly sure what I went through is my, but he said, “I’ve got to do something about it. Everybody knows about it.” She spread it all around town. And so he had Joseph—we know this—he had that young man in his 20s locked up in a prison, a political prison, Alcatraz, if you will.

The Bible says in Psalm 105 this young man, he’s now maybe in his later 20s, some say around 27, we don’t know. But this young man found himself in prison. He’s got fetters on his feet. Can you imagine him in this jail cell, and he’s got fetters? Psalm 105 says it hurt him in those fetters on his feet. Can you imagine there in that jail cell saying, “Lord, I don’t understand it. I’ve tried to do right, and I’ve tried to serve you, and I’ve tried to walk with you, and everywhere I go, every time I try to get a little bit ahead, it seems like somebody’s there to take me down to the very bottom. Now I’m in prison. My family’s in another country, and I’m here, and this general has turned against me, and his wife’s lying about me, spreading rumors all around town. Everybody looks at me, thinks I’ve been scandalous, and Lord, you know the truth of it all.”

He’s there for at least two years, probably a lot longer there in that prison. I won’t go through the whole story, but through the hand of God, God brought that young man—maybe 26, 27 now—brought him out of the prison. He’s now 30 when this happens. Through just a miraculous change of events, God raises him up to basically the vice president of the country. I would say more powerful than our vice president—kind of the overseer, actually a prime minister of the land. He was the one that did all the workings, and it was almost like Pharaoh was like a king that was just a political figure. Now he had power, but the Bible talks about how this man, 30 years old, could correct the senators of that land.

And this young man, now he’s 30, and he’s really the leader of the world power of this country. And God has taken him from the very bottom and just boom. By the way, when God wants to bless you, all hell can’t stop him from being blessed if God wants to bless you. And I don’t say that lightly. God raises him up way up here on this throne.

And you know the story. Many of you know this: Joseph gets the overseer of the land. There are seven years of economic prosperity. I mean, just wonderful. This man, 30 years old, he’s wise enough through the leadership of the Lord to know, “You better get ready because the economy is about to turn upside down.” And so for seven years, you see these big warehouses over here; he fills up warehouses like that with just food. The property we’re going to look out here in a little bit, right across it, right behind it, there’s a warehouse that’s a food bank, and they just had food all in there. And all across that land, he had filled the warehouses with the food. And for seven years, just storing up food everywhere and anywhere. I think if silos have been all over, they’re full of food that he’s storing up.

Then the seven years of economic chaos. We think it was about two years into it; he’d have been 39 years old. His family back home in America, if you will, they need food. And they need food to the point they’re ready to travel to another country to get food because everybody’s heard, “This guy over there has got the food.”

The brothers come. They stand before God—and just like God can work things out—they stand before their brother. They were talking about killing him years ago. Joseph, this man now 39 years old, he recognizes, “That’s my brothers.” The Bible says eventually, when he reveals himself, he weeps so loud, just sobbing. When he finally reveals himself to his brothers, he’s sobbing, he’s crying so loud. I imagine it was a mansion in that day and time; everybody in the house hears, “Man, what’s going on with the overseer? He’s weeping, just sobbing so loud.” Everybody hears him cry.

He reveals himself. Eventually, he says, “Hey, is Dad okay? I’ve wondered all these years, how’s my Dad? How about my younger brother? How’s my younger brother doing? I thought about him, and he was so little when you sold me.” And he hasn’t said, “How’s my younger brother?” Eventually, he says, “Bring them all over here. I’ll take care of them. I got plenty of food. I’ll take care of my family. Bring them all.”

And eventually, Dad and all the other brothers and their wives and their children, they all move—about 70 people—and begins to grow from there. And this young man, now in his 40s, takes care of them.

What we just read is even past that point. Now he’s an older man; his brothers are older too. Dad had just died. Dad had just died. You know, as sometimes when someone dies, they want to go bury him back in his hometown. They traveled back home; they had the funeral service back home, and they just got back from their home country, the hometown, back over to where he’s an overseer. And the brothers come. And the brothers say, “Hey, hey, don’t kill us. We’re worried.”

They didn’t say this: “We’re worried that Dad’s dead and you’re going to kill us.” And they were bowing before him and said, “Oh, don’t do that.” In fact, they said, “Hey, Dad said, ‘Be good to us when he dies.’” In fact, they were lying, and he knew it. “Take care of us.” This young man now is an older man now. So, “Don’t you get it? I forgave you a long time ago.” One of his children, the meaning of the name was “forgetting my misery.” Joseph never forgot it when he saw his brothers. He remembered him. God forgives and forgets; we can’t forget.

He looks at them and he says, “Brothers, you don’t understand. I forgave you a long time ago.” “Am I not in the place of God?” Then he makes that statement we just read there in verse 20. Incredible statement, verse 20 right there. Let’s read it again, Genesis 50, verse 20: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me.” He said, “I had known all along. I heard you talk about killing me. I know you’re lying about that. I understand all that. I know what’s going on. I’m not a dummy. I know where your mind, your heart was. I’m not, but I understand you thought evil against me. I’m not falling for the lies and all that. I know what’s going on.”

“You thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.” God didn’t want our family, the nation of Israel, to die. God had another plan. God knew this famine would come, and he needed somebody in this foreign country that had all the food available for the family. He said, “You meant it for evil, but God had a different plan.”

Frank, can I say something here? I don’t know what your story is. I guarantee you every person here has got a story, though. I don’t know all your hurts. I don’t know who’s come against you. I don’t know who’s lied about you. I don’t know the tears you’ve shed and the burdens you bear, but God Almighty has a plan in all of that. “You thought evil against me; God had a plan in it.”

I’m not saying God wanted those brothers to do that. I’m not saying God made them do that. They, in their wicked, sinful ways—you thought evil. Evil has to do with sin that hurts other people. God’s not for sin. But God, in his infinite wisdom, he and his foreknowledge knew these sinful men what they would do to their brethren. And God Almighty said, “I will allow that because they have a plan to bring about some good.”

Now, I’m not saying God caused those things, those hurts, those scars in your eyes—excuse me, he hasn’t done it, he hasn’t caused those—but he’s allowed it. Why? One reason—there may be many reasons—but one reason is because he’d like to bring good out of it. God has a plan.

My passion—for years, he had pastored five different churches. God had put his hand on those churches, and every one of them just took off, and many people were saved and lives changed. Yet, as a boy, his dad was an alcoholic, living after the Great Depression right along there, and their business had gone belly up, and he turned to the bottle and he left his mom. Oh, he’d come back sometime. I remember my pastor telling about a time his dad had come back and was hitting on his mom, and he was just a little boy, and he’d run over and try to hug his mom and stop him, and his dad would just push him all the way across the floor. And he ended up in the corner of the room because he wasn’t just a little boy; he couldn’t do anything about it and watched his dad hit his mom. He said, “I remember one of her teeth hitting the floor, the blood.” Yet something about that made that boy turn to the Lord.

He said, in the ghettos of Texas, Dallas, Texas, a big city, he said he’d walked around the world and just didn’t really have anybody. He was alone, and he just prayed to the Lord. Somehow that hurt made him draw nigh to God. And from a very young age, God put his hand on that preacher. And I’m saying, God has a plan. God can bring good out of the hurts and the pains of this sin-cursed world. It’s a messed-up world for him. The Bible calls Satan the god—little ‘g,’ not big ‘G’—the god of this world. He’s a prince of the power of the air. There’s a whole lot of hurt and pain and sickness in this world. And you say, “Preacher, man, what can you do?” You can trust God that God said, “I can bring good out of that evil in this world.” It’s amazing how God can do that. Nobody else can do it like God. Nobody else.

What a classic statement of this young man: “Ye thought evil against me.”

A man was in a boxing incident, an accident blinded him. His name is Morris Frank. He was the one that really propelled and made the Seeing Eye dog popular in America. He traveled to another country and learned about it, and he brought back the dog, and he taught people in America, and hundreds, probably thousands, maybe millions of blind people found freedom. And they had the ability to get out and about because of a dog, and it came in great ways from Morris Frank from a tragedy in his life. A friend, I don’t know what it is in your life, but God Almighty, he allows these things for good.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been better for his brothers to be decent brothers. I’m not saying that, but I’m saying the mix of it all, God Almighty sees our human sinful nature and Satan working. And God, in his foreknowledge, says, “I can put a plan together if you trust me and follow me, and I can bring good out of that.”

I think about Job. Bad enough, Job lost all—he was a wealthy man, and he lost it all. Lost his mansion, lost his job, lost his bank account, lost it all, if you will. Then all ten of his children died. I’ve been with people when their children died; such a tough time. Can you imagine all your children being killed in one day? Can you imagine the heartbreak? Lost all the cheer, and then his health went belly up, and he’s got bad health. And then his most trusted confidant and best friend, his wife, she somewhat turns on him, and God… Well, I understand she was grieving, but she didn’t say, “Why don’t you just curse God and die?”

And then that’s bad enough of all that, but then Job, he’s sitting out by a burning fire—we think by a trash dump. You ever just sit and look at a fire? You’re just worn out; you just look at a fire. Something about a fire. And Job’s out there; he just sat and looked at the fire for seven days, didn’t say a word.

Then all of a sudden, his three quote unquote friends start talking. It would have been better if they didn’t say a word. They start talking and they say, “Well, Job, man, you’ve got some sin in your life. This doesn’t just happen unless there’s a reason. There’s some sin in your life.”

And Job says, “Man, I’m hurting so bad. If I knew there was sin, I’d get it right. Can’t find any sin. I don’t love any sin.” And somebody says, “You’re a liar.” One of them calls him a liar. Another one says, “You’re a hypocrite, Job.”

And yet Job, he starts defending himself. We’re so prone to that. I’m so prone to that. And when he does, his self-righteousness is revealed. I’ve read the book of Job over 20 times plus—I don’t know how many times—but this time I’ve read it as ever before, you could just see Job’s self-righteousness. “Back in the day, I was doing this, and everybody looked at me, and I took care of it.”

The Bible says, “God knows if the proud are far off.” And I’m not criticizing Job; as far as I think, he probably did 100 times better than I would have done. But he did have self-righteousness. And just seeing this time I read it, it just smacked so much of his self-righteousness. And God says, “Job, you can only get so close to me with that self-righteousness, thinking you’ve got it all together and you, you, you, you, you, you.” Finally, at the end of that and the criticism, God begins to speak to Job, and Job is purged of his self-righteousness.

And can I read for you what it says in the last chapter of the book of Job? Job 42:5. Let me just read it for you. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,” Job speaking of God. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.” We have spaceships that land every once in a while. Martians have been coming around here lately. Next verse, Job says, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent on dust and ashes.”

Here’s the thing: After God allowed these things—it was the devil that did it, you study it out, it’s the devil that did it—his friends did it. God allowed all that. And at the end of it, Job was stripped of his self-righteousness. And he said, “Now it’s not like I just hear about God. Now I can see him like never before.”

“Now I used to hear about all the things about God, but now I know him; I can see him. I’m so close, closer than ever been in him.” And he says, “I see how I’m not all that. I thought I was all that; I’m not.” And he’s not so self-righteous now. God allowed that for good: just stripping him of his self-righteousness. And God says, “Now you can see me.” And God says, “Now I can bless you twice as much.” God gave him 10 more children. I don’t know—I don’t know—but I look sometimes at the book of Job. I don’t know how good his first set of children were, to be honest with you. I sure didn’t mention wine a lot. They’re in the oldest brother’s house drinking wine, and I understand that work and used different ways in the Bible, but I don’t know how those first set… He sure was offered a lot of sacrifices for them.

God said, “Let me give you some other children.” By the way, he didn’t lose the first 10; they’re still in eternity. I think they’re saved. Restored his marriage. You say, “How?” Well, you’ve got to live for a pretty good while to have 10 more kids. Blessed his finances twice as much. Blessed his testimony much more than twice, because for thousands of years people get strength and comfort from Job. All these years, all these years, all the good that you and I have gotten had to read in the book of Job. And God said, “I’ll allow that in your life because I can see on the other side the good that comes out of it.”

Friend, I don’t know what else happened in your life, but God has some good. Let me just throw it in. We’re not really going through the outline, but let me just say this: Joseph, this young man—we’re talking about going back to you—“You thought evil against me, but God made it unto good.” He kept living for God through the slave auction and through the slavery and being raised up and then being lied about in prison—all that. The four times the Bible says the Lord was with him. Job never lost his testimony. Two different people, the general and then in prison, they said somebody—two different people said, “The Lord is with that man right there.”

A friend, when you have tragedy in your life, don’t lose your testimony. Don’t turn against God. Don’t get bitter. Don’t say, “Well, fooling on the Bible, trying to live for God doesn’t do me any good.” Don’t do that. Joseph told his brothers God had a reason for all this. He had a plan. God’s got a plan. He likes to bring good out of your tragedy, your sorrows. You might not get it; you might not see it all until you get to heaven.

I think about the lady that’s praying for her husband to get saved. Prayed and prayed and prayed. He wouldn’t get saved. And she got a terminal disease. And sure, people are saying, “Why is she the one that’s sick and not her husband? He’s the one that won’t go to church and won’t get saved.” Yet she died. They thought maybe on her deathbed he could save—he didn’t get saved. Some thought, maybe the funeral would be able to get saved. Everybody had been praying for him to get saved. Yet that night they went home, him and the kids. And there layed in their beds, and the kids couldn’t sleep. Finally, they went in the bedroom: “Dad, Mom always prayed with us. We can’t sleep. Would you pray with us, Dad?”

And Dad broke, started crying and said, “I can’t pray with you kids. I don’t know the Lord; I’m not saved myself.” But he got on his knees, asked Jesus to save him. But it was after that wife was in heaven. You might not understand all the good God’s trying to do until you get to heaven. What a classic statement. This man says, “You thought evil against me, but God, he made it for good.”

Let’s turn our attention just for a second to Jesus Christ. Imagine him on the cross. His hands are pierced—nails. They have him. Humanly, there’s no way off the cross. You can’t reach; his hands are nailed. His feet are nailed. They’re pierced. He’s on that cross, and he’s got a crown of thorns, and blood’s coming down, and they’ve taken a cat o’ nine tails, a whip, and they’ve just filleted him on his raw back, and the meat kind of shifts up and down that old rugged cross, and the wood gets in his raw back, and it hurts, and the pain. And can you imagine Jesus there? Those people—us—because of our sin, we crucified him, and he could say, “Hey, you thought evil against me.”

The crowd crying, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!” But the Father, he meant it unto good, to save much people. Because the only way any person will be saved in eternity past, or the only way anyone will ever be saved, is because Jesus shed his blood across that evil that he was going through, that tragedy, that heartbreak, and taking our sin on him. The reason why he went through that and the reason why the Father allowed that is to save many people.

So you and I, we purchase our own salvation? We can never earn it. We’d have to be perfect. You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. We can put our faith in what Jesus did. And I say, “Hey, friend, I’m not trusting in my goodness. No, no, I’m trusting fully in what Jesus did, in the goodness that he earned on the cross.” It’s when you’re saved, friend.

I think about it. We’re done. What are the things in your life? Would you take them to the Lord? So, “Lord, I’m going to do the best where I’m at just to serve you.” You might be in some corner of the world. You might have pain ever—it’s a way of life for you to be in pain. I don’t understand. I don’t like it all. He just lives with pain all the time. But would you look up to God and say, “No, Lord, all the good you like to bring out of it? I want you to. I’m going to keep living for you.” It may be your grandchildren one day; I don’t know.

This man said, “You meant—you thought evil against me, but the Lord, he meant it unto good.” He had a reason for it. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Our heads are bowed; our eyes are closed. You hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I need to let go of some bitter feelings, some situation. I need to let go of it all. I need to trust you.”

You hear and you say, “Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I need just trust God.” God spoke to me. I need to let go of some things. I need to try. And that’s you, this man let go of some things; he trusts the Lord. God bless you. I see many hands. God bless you. I’m not saying God likes it when we suffer, no longer, but he sees the good that he can bring out of it. God bless you. God bless you. Would there be someone else since we’ve missed? Anybody else? Just let your hand up. “God spoke to my heart. I need to let go. Need to let go of some bitterness, some feelings, some thoughts. Need to trust the Lord.” Anybody else? Anybody else?

God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you. That’s good. Thank you so very much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, there was a time that I trusted in Jesus and what he did on the cross. And I trusted in him and his goodness he earned to save me. There’s a time in my life when I went to Jesus for my salvation. I’ve been saved, born again, on my way to heaven.” If that’s you this morning, you slip your hand up. “Preacher, I know that. I’m saved. I know the way to heaven. I know that.” Slipped it up. I know that. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Many, many hands. Thank you so much. You can put them down.

If you hear this morning, you said, “Preacher, I don’t know. I don’t know that I’ve received the goodness that Jesus earned on that cross, when he went through that evil, he was purchasing salvation. I don’t know that I’ve got it.” I’d love to be a help. Jesus has earned it. It’s free. It’s because he loves us. It’s amazing that it’s free, but it is because he loves you so much. You hear this morning, say, “Preacher, I don’t know that I’m a child of God, saved on my way to heaven. I’m not sure of that.” If that’s you, would you slip your hand up? Just slip it up. “I don’t know that I’m saved, child of God, on the way to heaven.”

All right. Just a moment, we’re going to stand. When we stand, I’m going to have a word of prayer. I’m just going to pray very quickly. As soon as I say amen, we’re going to sing 297, “Gentle Savior.” At that time, if you raised your hand, God spoke to your heart in any way—maybe even if you didn’t raise it—would you come to an old-fashioned altar? Just spend some time with the Lord. Yes, you can spend time with him there, and you see to where you stand. Something special about an old-fashioned altar. Would you just be obedient to his tug, his pull at this time? Let’s all stand, if you would, please. We’re going to have a word of prayer. We’ll sing 297, “Gentle Savior.” As soon as I say amen, don’t wait for anybody else. If God spoke to your heart, would you come?

Lord, thank you for these great Christians, this young man, Joseph. Think about Job. They’re amazing. Lord, help us to follow in their shoes. Lord, you know it’s tough for us to trust you in the midst of tragedy. Help us to do so. Help us to stay faithful serving you. Lord, in the end, we’re excited about seeing the good that you’ll bring out of it. We’ll trust you till that time. In Jesus, let me pray. Amen.

Would you just be obedient as we’re singing? That’s right. God spoke to your heart. Would you be—would you come? Be obedient to the Lord.

Friend, it’s very tough right in the midst of the pain and the agony and the sorrow. Sometimes it just seems like everywhere you look is trouble. It’s tough to trust him. I can’t encourage you—he sees; he knows every part of it. He feels every pain. He understands. He’s been there. Would you just trust him? Would you just stay faithful? Ask him, “Lord, if I have to go through this, would you bring much good out of it?” You’d let him know that. It’s been singing another verse. Would you let him know that?

Original File: Sunday AM Pastor Paul Chisgar