Victim or Victor? - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, July nineteenth. Has the state of the world made you wonder what's going on? You can find peace from the eighth chapter of Romans with a comforting reminder that God is always in control. If I went around the room and said, how many of you, for example, have had things happen in your life that you don't understand?

Not only that, you didn't like it. In fact, you don't understand why God allowed it. In fact, maybe your belief is that if there were a God, He would not have let that happen in my life. Why does He let this happen to children? Why do planes crash? Why do trains crash?

Why do ships sink? Why do all these things happen in life? Where is God?

He's where He's always been. Well, does God know about all those things? He knows everything. Could God stop them?

Yes, He could. Why does He allow them to happen? You and I will never know all the answers to that question, but we can understand much about God if we will start with this. The Bible is the Word of God. It is absolutely true. And so I want you to turn to Romans eight twenty-eight for a moment. Notice what he says. He says, but we know that God, Jehovah God, causes.

Now watch this. Are you listening? Say amen. God is the only thing that exists that's uncaused. He's the only uncaused thing that has ever existed because He is the eternal God. He says God causes all things to work together for good, period. That is not what He says.

And people will quote, well, I know that everything's going to work out for good. The Bible doesn't say that. Oh, yes, it does. It says that in Romans eight twenty-eight.

No, it doesn't. He says He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose. So sometimes things that we see are just God's judgment because they have rejected God and turned away from God. So, He says He causes all things to work together for good.

Now watch this. Are you listening? Some things that God says is good, I would disagree with. Some things that God says are good, I would disagree with. Some things that God says are good, I would disagree with. And you would too. Because you'd say, well, God, I didn't need that.

Haven't you said that to Him? Well, I don't need this in my life, Lord. Well, God, you certainly couldn't be in this.

He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. If that be true, I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision. I have to make a decision.

And when I don't, you have to cut that verse out of the Bible. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. It's either true or it's not true. And if it is true, I'm going to be blessed.

And if it's not, then we have nothing but chaos anyway. And I'm going to be blessed. And then I'm going to say, Oh Lord, I'm going to go into the blessing of God that my son will be with you, and I'm going to have to call upon the Lord and love Him to those who call according to His purpose. Now look at the Sermon on the Mount and look in the six chapter of Matthew. And so, we're talking about this God of ours who is in control of all things and therefore is the source of all of our needs and supplies.

And so in the sixth chapter, He comes to the twenty-fifth verse. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount. And the first verse, verse four, it says, "'For this reason I said to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing it?

Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, nor reap, nor gather in the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. They are not worth much more than day.'"

And then he says, "'And who of you being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

They don't toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon, in all his glory, clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow, thrown to the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat? What will we drink?

What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles,'" that's unbelievers, "'eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things are going to be added to you. So, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for yourself, and all the things that you have to do in your life, for you have to be ready for it. And for all the things that you have to do in your life, for itself, each day has enough trouble of its own.'" Here is the Sovereign of the universe saying, look, not only have I created all of this, not only am I keeping it going, but I am personally involved in your individual life.

I'm personally involved that I care about. God who controls all, cares about all, and is so awesome, He's the resource of everything that all of us need. Now, if you want to be an atheist, be my guest. That is a foolish way to live. Or if you are a deist or a pantist or a materialist, whatever it may be, fatalist, the Bible says that God our heavenly Father is the Creator, created all, He's in control of it, and He cares enough to watch over us. Now, I'm going to talk about something else, for example, because here is another undeniable truth. If I should ask you, do you believe that God is in control of the bad things people do?

Say, oh, no, no, no, God is righteous and holy. I want you to think about this. I want to start here in Genesis, and let's think about this for a moment. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God chose Abraham. And He said, Abraham, out of your loins, I'm going to fill this earth full of your descendants. And so, Abraham has Isaac and Jacob as twelve sons. So, eleven of these sons hate Joseph. They couldn't stand him.

They were jealous of him. So, what does God do? God has a plan. So, God allows and especially having given Joseph these awesome dreams about what's going to happen to him, He allows His brothers who are full of jealousy and hatred to attempt to kill Him. God works through the wickedness of His wicked brothers who try to kill Him.

He not only allows it, God's in this. God's in this, and God's in this, and God's in this, and God's in this, because their hearts are wicked and so God's using them. So, they decide, they think, not to kill Him and they're going to sell Him into slavery. So, these Edomites come along and Ishmaelites and all the folks who are traveling those ways. And so, they buy Him and they take Him to Egypt and they sell Him on the slave block. And so, they go to Egypt and they sell Him on the slave block. And so, they go to Egypt and they sell Him on the slave block. And so, they go to Egypt and they sell Him on the slave block. Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him. Well, God could never be in a seduction. He couldn't be in that.

You don't think so. So, then he gets thrown into prison. Otherwise, he'd have spent the rest of his life as a slave in jail. And so, he goes to Egypt and he gets thrown out of prison. And so, he goes to Egypt and he gets thrown out of prison.

And so, the baker and the butler get thrown out of their positions and they get thrown in jail. And they're talking about these dreams they had. And so, they both have a dream and Joseph said, God can interpret dreams. And so, one of them had a dream and they all had a dream.

And so, Joseph interprets the dream and he says to the baker, He says to the baker, He said, God can interpret dreams. And so, he goes to Egypt and he gets thrown out of prison. And so, the baker and the butler get thrown out of prison. And so, he forgets him.

So, here he is still in prison. How could God be in this young, obedient teenage boy? How could he be into what happens to him? They try to throw him in a pit. They're going to kill him.

They're going to sell him in slavery. They're trying to seduce him. And the butler remembers Joseph. He says, by the way, there's a Hebrew that interpreted a dream for me.

Maybe he could interpret you a dream. They come to Joseph. Now, he's about thirty years of age now. So, from seventeen to thirty, all he's had's hard times.

All hard times. And he interprets a dream and that day he becomes the prime minister of all of Egypt. Now, was God in all that? God was in every single solitary step of that.

And watch this. And then when the famines come, because of Joseph's wisdom and Pharaoh's willingness to listen to him, he brings his whole family from starving to death and brings them down into Egypt. And so, they have this conversation, the Bible says, then his brothers came and fell before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, watch this, this is faith, this is the truth that God wants every one of us to believe. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Where was God? He was back there with those twelve brothers all the way until he became the prime minister of Egypt and he saved that civilization.

And so, when he became the prime minister of Egypt, he said, You know, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that. I'm simply saying all that to say to you that you and I may not understand what God is doing at the time He may be doing it, but He always has a good purpose in mind, always. Through my pain, I've seen awesome good.

Hurt, disappointment, awesome good. And so, I think about that passage. I think about the time when the morning comes, when the saints of God are gathered home, I'll tell the story of how I've overcome and I'll understand it better by and by. God sees your future. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows exactly where you are, what you need. He knows exactly what it takes to make you the person God wants you to be.

And so, when I look at that passage and realize how God worked in his life, I think about the conclusive truth. He says, He's turning all of our circumstances for good when we allow Him to. And when He works in our life, He says, for those who love Him and obey Him. And our circumstances are God's tools by which to do what? To work in our life, to bring us into relationship with Him, to help us to depend upon Him, and to see Him as the source of all the good things that He asks for us.

He is in absolute control. No matter what, He's turning all of our circumstances for good when we allow Him to do what He wants to do. He's turning all of our circumstances for good when we allow Him to do what He wants to do. No matter what's going on today in this world, whether it's tsunamis or whether it's earthquakes or whatever it might be, you say, well, God could never be in that.

You cannot say that with any bit of authority whatsoever. But here's what I want you to see, and this is the main thing. What are the rewarding truths that are wrapped up in the sovereignty of God? Well, the first thing I want you to see is that when I say that, I want you to see that when we acknowledge that He's the sovereign of the universe. When I know that's true, I can live and face anything with far greater trust because I know who's in charge and I know who's going to keep His Word. The second thing is this, and that is we can have a far greater freedom from where He is Jesus talked about over our lives, but we can't have a far greater freedom from where He is Jesus talked about over our lives, because we can't have a far greater freedom from where He is Jesus talked about over our lives. And so, I'm going to say this because my Heavenly Father who created all this, and He says He's the one who makes the grass grow.

He's the one who feeds the birds. If God's making grass grow and if He's making lilies of the field beautiful, and if He's feeding birds, I am not worried about what I'm going to need because sooner or later I'm going to have a far greater freedom from where He is. And so, I'm going to say this because I know that He's the one who makes the grass grow and I know that He's the one who makes the grass grow and I know that He's the one who makes the grass grow and I know enough to know that the toughest and the worst and the most despicable is absolutely good.

When He's got it in His hands, He's going to make it good no matter what. So, it helps us when we come to those times. A third thing that's important here is this, it makes us more patient when we're in the other. I'm going to have all my needs met because I'm going to have all my needs met because the heavenly Father's committed to that.

A fourth thing that's evident here is this, and that is we'll have greater patience in times of adversity. That is if I know that God is in control, that no matter what I'm going through, I'm going to be more patient. Watch this, because I know that there is an end to it when we're the other. I also know that in it all, He's going to be with me because He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. There's not anybody in the world who can promise you that. You say, Oh, I love my husband, I love my children.

You can't promise them that. Only God can say to you, I will never leave you nor forsake you. This is the God who created it all, who has it all in control, who's watching over every single one of His children individually and who knows what's happening in Haiti, knows what's happening in Hawaii, knows what's happening in Japan, knows what's happening in Russia. He is in control of all of it. We can be more patient in our times of adversity because we know He's in control. Now watch this, and if I believe Romans eight twenty-eight, I'll know this, that when God is through with my suffering, when He has accomplished His purpose in my difficulty, hardship and pain, when He's accomplished His purpose in all that, I know that it'll be over.

But I must see Him in it no matter what. And I'll give you an example of something, and I've probably shared this before, but when I was going through a difficult time during the, becoming the pastor of the church and a lot of folks were against me and saying all kinds of things, accuse me of this, that and the other, I remember getting in the prayer room one day because I was hurt really badly, to be honest. People I loved dearly had just turned their back and say things about me they knew weren't true. In the prayer room one day and I thought, God, now you've got to show me how to deal with this. I'm hurt and sometimes I'm angry, God. It's like the Lord said to me, listen carefully. If you will do what I tell you to do, you'll come out of this victoriously. Whatever you hear about you, whatever they do to you, however they may mistreat you and falsely accuse you, you must see every bit of that coming from Me. If you believe I'm in control, you've got to see that's coming from Me. If you will acknowledge that it's coming from me, oh, it may be coming from the people you can't stand or you don't like or they're disappointed in you and hurt you, you've got to see it coming from Me.

They couldn't do it unless I let them. It was one of the greatest lessons I've ever learned. It kept me from being angry anymore. It kept me from being hostile.

It kept me from trying to defend myself, and I just lived right through that knowing that God was going to keep His Word in somehow and someway. I'd walk out there to preach and look around and think, God, there's no way in the world that I can be the pastor of this church. Look at all these folks out here who don't want me. And the truth is, God, I don't even want to be there, pastor. But the truth is, I'm going to do what You say.

I'm going to listen to every bit of it that's coming from You. You see, God in the fact that He is the sovereign controller of this universe will make us very patient in times of adversity and heartache. And then the last thing I would say would be this, and that is, we'll have a greater sense of anticipation of God's work in our life. We are going through difficult times and we don't understand it, but if we are persuaded that He's in control, and if we're persuaded that He's doing something good that we don't understand it, here's what happens. Then you begin to anticipate, how's He going to do this? What good is coming out of this? And you know, I was talking to a family this week and they were telling me about all the things that are going on, losing their business, losing their house, and all the things that were happening that would send anybody into a tailspin. The most awesome sense of peace, and I'm sitting there listening and thinking, thank You, Jesus. They have it together. They say, you know what, we're learning so many wonderful things, we can't wait to see all that God's teaching us, thinking about losing their house, could be losing their business, all these kids in college, all these things that are going on, and talking about how fantastic God is and what He's doing.

You know why? Because they're anchored in the Word of God and anchored in the truth that God is in control of their life. Listen carefully. If you will grasp this truth and accept it as the truth of the Word of God, which it is, you may not be able to understand all that God does in your life, but if you are a child of God, remember this, that whatever He sends, whatever He allows, He has something in mind. You must see it as a tool that God's using in your life to do something fantastic. And when you are able to allow for the truth to dictate in your heart that God is in sovereign control, you can face, you can live through, you can be blessed by far more than you would ever dream.

It is that simple on the one hand, but it's His sovereignty that makes it work. Thank you for listening to This Podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. And don't forget, we have a limited audio series this month titled Songs of Spirit and Truth, God at Work in the Philippines and Indonesia. You can find it at InTouch.org. This Podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. You can find it at InTouch.org.