*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

How You Forgive…More | Philemon 15-16

 

Have you ever heard tried to make the best of a bad situation?

Six months ago, Colin Chambers sat down at his laptop to finish a research paper for one of his classes at the University of Buffalo.

Maybe looking for a caffeine boost, he opened some kind of carbonated drink as he began but it exploded all over the place.

After cleaning up and testing some things out he discovered that no matter how many times he pressed the key, the letter M was no longer working on the keyboard of his laptop.

The worst part?

His paper was due in 4 hours.

So, what did he do?

He quickly put together a cover letter to turn in with his paper. 

This is what the letter said:

Colin Chambers

Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize sincerely for the graatical errors you are about to see in this paper.

Colin Chambers

The letter between “L” and “N” in the English alphabet just stopped working on y laptop’s keyboard out of nowhere.

Colin Chambers

I have no other devices to write this paper. I a so sorry, I realize how unprofessional this is, but I have no other choice.

Colin Chambers

Therefore, unfortunately whoever is unlucky enough to be assigned to grading this paper will have to just use their iagination and put that letter where it belongs in all the words without it.

Colin Chambers

Thank you very uch for understanding.

He quickly came up with the idea of opening a previous paper and copied an “M” from there and then proceeded to just cut and paste the letter “M” wherever he needed one.

Of course, that was awkward and time-consuming, so he said:

Colin Chambers

I tried to use every word without the letter “M” in it I could think of.

Since he figured out the cut and paste trick, he didn’t include the cover letter with his paper, but he did show the letter to his professor who seemed to approve of Colin’s creative response to losing his “M”.

There are times in life when we lose more than our “M”, right?

And there are more than a few times when we need to try and make the best of a bad situation.

But that’s not always easy to do, especially if the bad situation involves:

• Our spouse
• Our parents
• Our children
• Our best friend
• Our neighbor
• Our teammate
• Our workmate

How do you make the best of a bad situation with another person?

How do you make the best of things when a relationship goes sour?

The Apostle Paul is going to help us.

Listen to the letter he wrote his friend Philemon beginning with verse 15:

15 For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while,

Who was separated from who?

There was a slave named Onesimus and he had been separated from the home of his owner, Philemon.

“Separated” is an interesting word that Paul uses here because Onesimus actually ran away.

Why did he run away?

Was Philemon a terrible owner?

Probably not. 

Why?

Because Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter.

If Philemon was a harsh and unjust man, more than likely, Paul would have found some other way of communicating with him.

We don’t know why Onesimus ran away, but we know he ran more than 1,000 miles to Rome and in a city of 800,000 people he just “happened” to bump into the Apostle Paul – the same guy who led Philemon to the Lord.

And he heard the same stunning and great news of the gospel from Paul and was saved by the same God who had rescued and redeemed Philemon.

But he was still a runaway slave, and his salvation did not miraculously cancel out the fact that according that society he was a criminal outlaw.

So, at some point Paul told him that he had to go back and make things right with Philemon.

• He had broken the law
• He had broken Philemon’s trust
• He had cost Philemon money
• He had created more work for the other slaves and servants

And later Paul notes he stole something of value from Philemon.

No matter what category you use to look at this story, this was a bad situation and the relationship was sour.

So, how is Paul going to try make the best of this bad situation?

Well, he’s going to use the word “perhaps”.

“Perhaps” is a word that brings possibility into a conversation.

“Honey, perhaps I ate the last piece of red velvet cake that had a yellow post note with your name on it stuck on top of the tinfoil last night after you went to bed as a way to protect you from holiday weight gain.”

“Dad, perhaps me running into the mailbox with the car last weekend provided a way for us to upgrade to the mailbox the Home Owners Association is now recommending.”

“Mrs. Griswold, I know you ordered your convertible in Platinum White and it arrived in Metallic Pea, but perhaps this will help save you money with fewer trips to the car wash.”

By using the word “perhaps” Paul is delicately inviting Philemon to look at Onesimus running away through some different eyes. 

What kind of eyes?

Eyes that look to and trust in the providence of God.

What is the providence of God?

Providence comes from the word “provide” and the word provide means to supply something that is needed, so, we could say that “providence” is the act of providing or the act of supplying something that is needed. 

So, what did Philemon need?

• Did he need to lose money?
• Did he need to have conflict in his home?
• Did he need to have conflict in his business?
• Did he need to have something stolen from him?

Probably not. 

But again, Paul is inviting him to step into this situation with different eyes.

So, Paul is saying:

“Philemon, what if Onesimus being gone for a little while was actually for another reason besides you losing time and energy and money and having to deal with conflict at home and work and even in the community?”

“What if, perhaps, God has been doing something different than what you see and what you feel right now?”

He’s inviting Philemon to consider the providence of God. 

One of the greatest leaders in history was Joseph of Egypt.

His brothers had deceptively sold him into slavery to get rid of him and many years later he was face-to-face with them no longer as a slave but as the second most powerful man in the nation with authority to jail them or execute them.

And what does he say to them in that moment of power and vengeance and justice?

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

• He doesn’t strike them with his fist
• He doesn’t strike them with the long arm of the law
• He doesn’t strike them with a guilt trip or a lecture

He forgives them.

Why?

Because he was believing in and trusting in and relying on and clinging to the providence of God.

Listen to his words again:

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…

What’s behind that statement?

I came across a list this week that is stunning to think about.

Jon Bloom compiled the list and he describes the list this way:

Jon Bloom

…a startling and unnerving level of God’s providential involvement in the details of Joseph’s life.

The list is very long, so, for the sake of time, I’m just going to read some of the list, but I will post a link to the whole list at the end of the sermon notes on the website later today.

If you know little or nothing about Joseph, then I strongly encourage you to read the fascinating story of his life in Genesis chapters 30-50.

But even if you know nothing about him, you can listen to what I’m about to read and get a pretty solid glimpse of God’s plans in his life.

All of these are direct historical and biblical realities that are directly connected to all the of the things that God ultimately meant and worked for good in his life and the lives of others.

Jon Bloom

• Joseph’s place in the birth order of the men used to create the nation of Israel was part of God’s plan
• That means his mother Rachel’s agonizing struggle with infertility was part of God’s plan
• Joseph’s prophetic dreams were part of God’s plan
• His brothers’ jealousy (sibling rivalry and family conflict) was part of God’s plan
• His brothers’ evil, murderous, greedy betrayal of him, and his brother Judah’s part in it, was part of God’s plan
• His brothers’ 20-plus year deception of their father Jacob regarding Joseph was part of God’s plan
• The existence of an evil slave trade at the time was part of God’s plan
• Slave-owner Potiphar’s complicity with the slave trade and his position in Egypt was part of God’s plan
• Joseph’s favor with Potiphar was part of God’s plan
• Potiphar’s wife’s dishonesty was part of God’s plan
• Potiphar’s unjust judgment of Joseph was part of God’s plan
• The particular prison Joseph went to was part of God’s plan
• Joseph’s favor with the prison warden was part of God’s plan
• Pharaoh’s being desperate enough to listen to a Hebrew prisoner was part of God’s plan
• Joseph having discernment of Pharaoh’s dreams was part of God’s plan
• The miraculous amount of immediate trust that Pharaoh placed in Joseph’s interpretation and counsel was part of God’s plan
• The threat of starvation that caused terrible fear and moved Jacob to send his sons to Egypt for grain was part of God’s plan
• The success with which Joseph was able to continue to conceal his identity from his brothers was part of God’s plan
• His brother Judah’s willingness to exchange his life for his other brother Benjamin out of love for his father, and thus initiating his own sale into slavery like he initiated Joseph’s sale into slavery, was part of God’s plan
• Joseph’s timing in revealing himself to his brothers was part of God’s plan

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…

Paul is echoing that same kind of sentiment to Philemon. 

“Philemon, perhaps his running away was meant for good.”

Does that mean that it’s okay to break the law?

No.

Does that mean that it is okay to purposefully, casually, or dramatically:

• Dishonor your boss?
• Dishonor your parents?
• Dishonor your husband?
• Dishonor your wife?
• Dishonor your kids?

No.

It just means that if you are going to profess to be a Christian, a true follower of Jesus Christ, then you must joyfully fight to look and see and read and think and feel toward the rich, beautiful, satisfying, sometimes startling and unnerving providence of God.

Has someone ever come up to you and asked you to do something and you said something like:

• “I’ll see to that.”
• “I’ll take care of that.”

John Piper

…providence is the act of God’s “seeing to” the universe. He’ll see to that.

• When we can’t see
• When we don’t want to see
• When we are angry at what we see

God is seeing to the universe.

But he’s not just seeing.

John Piper

…God never simply sees without acting. He is God. He is not a passive participant in a world that exists without his sustaining it. Wherever God is looking, God is acting.

John Piper

If God perceives, he performs. If he inspects, he effects…When God “sees,” he “sees to.” His seeing is always with a view to doing. Where he patrols, he controls.

Sometimes we don’t like to hear those things. 

They make us uncomfortable. 

We like to think that we are really in control of our lives. 

Or we don’t like the idea that in the midst of this world full of sin and evil and tragedy that there is a God who is acting and yet seems to not be acting to:

• To stop things
• To start things
• To prevent things
• To perform things
• To care for things
• To control things

So, is there an answer to evil and suffering in the world?

Joseph, whose life was marked with evil, suffering, and injustice, would say “yes”.

And what is that answer?

Genesis 50:20

…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…

Many would say that is an ignorant and arrogant and foolish and cruel way to look at sin and evil and tragedy in this world.

And I would completely and totally agree…if it weren’t for Jesus.

You see, Jesus truly has changed all the math of the universe.

On the surface, the most ignorant and arrogant and foolish and cruel thing that has ever happened in the universe is that one Friday afternoon the perfect, innocent Son of the Most High God, died to satisfy the penalty of sin so that teachers and terrorists and pastors and prostitutes and surgeons and scam artists and the blue collar and the white collar and Americans and Russians and Canadians and Cambodians and Democrats and Republicans and red and yellow and black and white and the evil and the harmful and the harmless and the helpless and the hopeless people in your neighborhood and to the uttermost parts of the earth could be rescued and redeemed and set free.

On the surface, it sounds evil, but God meant the crucifixion of Jesus for my good and your good.

Does that make God some kind of parent of cosmic child abuse?

No. 

It simply means that when it comes to the greatest need of your life before you were even born God said:

“I’ll see to that.”

If I’m honest, there are far too many days when I feel like the greatest need of my life is:

• For my wife to do right by me
• For my kids to get into good schools
• For my kids to get good jobs
• For my health to be comfortable and easy
• For my doctor to be some kind of all-knowing god
• For my insurance to cover the costs
• For my car to work right
• For my job to work right
• For my smartphone to work right
• For my stocks to win
• For my candidate to win
• For my team to win

But if I’m really, really honest with my heart I know that the greatest need of my life is that when I breathe my last breath that the wrath of God has already passed over me and will eternally pass over me because I have believed and I am believing and I will believe that the Son of the Most High God gave himself up for me and I am clinging to Jesus as the ultimate answer for any sin or heartache in my life and any evil in this world because on the surface the cross seems like it is evil, but the impact of the cross on the world and the imputation of the cross to my soul was meant for good and is good!

2 Corinthians 4:17

For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory

 

2 Corinthians 4:17

[beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!]

One day:

• Everything in your bank account will cease to be yours
• Everything in your garage will cease to be yours
• Everything in your workshop will cease to be yours
• Everything in your closet will cease to be yours
• Every stressful marriage problem will cease
• Every stressful parenting problem will cease
• Every stressful school situation will cease
• Every stressful job situation will cease
• Every stressful church situation will cease
• Every stressful health situation will cease
• Every tragic news story will cease
• Every criminal commotion will cease
• Every evil activity will cease

But the abundant, excessively surpassing and transcendent blessings and promises of God in and through Jesus Christ will never cease…never!

Someone might say:

“My life is super hard right now and I don’t feel like I’m seeing or feeling those blessings and promises at all!”

C.S. Lewis

They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.

Every single picture about the truth of Jesus points to the amazing reality that heaven will work backwards, and we will be satisfied once and for all and forever. 

That’s exactly the kind truth Paul is trying to pull Philemon to.

So, he says:

“Philemon, what if, perhaps, God has worked out Onesimus running away for good?”

What kind of good?

15 that you would have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

My friends Brad and Jason are brothers and they grew up in the same Southern Baptist Church that my wife grew up in. 

They made professions of faith when they were kids and were baptized and then spent the next 15-20 years lost and dead in their sin because they were not truly saved. 

Brad was converted in his early 30’s and Jason in his mid-20’s and they both serve as pastors now.

A couple of years after they were saved they were sitting together talking at Jason’s house in Fort Worth, Texas, and I can’t remember who said it first but one of them looked at the other and said, “You are a miracle!”

And the other one looked back and said, “You are a miracle, too!”

The Bible tells us that before Christ we are dead in our sins and dead people can’t and don’t save themselves or pull themselves up by their bootstraps – dead sinners must be brought to life!

Being saved is a miracle because like Onesimus our nature is to run away. 

But Paul is pointing Philemon to an important miracle in his life:

The moment he was saved.

And he’s also pointing him to another miracle:

Onesimus had been saved, too!

Paul is trying to help Philemon see that he needs to look up from his letter and with tears in his eyes say to his runaway slave, “You are a miracle!”

And with repentant tears in his eyes Onesimus needs to look back at Philemon and say, “You are a miracle, too!”

Does that mean Onesimus would immediately be released by Philemon from his slavery?

Maybe, maybe not.

But the power of the gospel is always stronger than the power of man or the power of man-made laws and even if none of our earthly circumstances change, we have the power of God at work in us and we have the power of heaven always working in us and around us and even backwards for us.

Joseph knew that to be true because he had seen the faithfulness of God over and over and over and when he didn’t see it with his eyes God helped him see it with his heart.

And the life of Joseph and the life of Paul and the words of Paul to Philemon and Onesimus are trying to speak to us today.

Jon Bloom

The detailed narrative of Joseph’s life, among many other things, is a loving letter from your Good Shepherd –

Jon Bloom

the same Good Shepherd who guided Joseph through green pastures and the valley of the shadow of death, pursuing him with good all the days of his life –

Jon Bloom

to remind you that no matter what you are experiencing, sweet or bitter, good or evil, no matter how long it has lasted, he has not left you alone.

Jon Bloom

He is with you, he is working all things together for good, and he will be with you to the end.

Dow Welsh | November 25, 2018 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-involved-is-god-in-the-details-of-your-life

 

So have you ever tried to make the best of a bad situation ? Ever had a bad situation, and you just you needed to make the best of the situation. There was a student six months ago, university of buffalo. He sat down to do a research paper and maybe to get a little extra caffeine in his body. He decided tto pop open some kind of carbonated drink. And when he did, that drink exploded all over the place. So he began to clean everything up, get everything wiped down and begin to test everything out. And sure enough, as he tested, he discovered that no matter how many times he pressed the letter, m on his keyboard no longer worked. Now, here's the bad part. The bad part was his paper that he was finishing up was due in four hours, and all of a sudden the letter m did not work. So what did he do ? Well, he very creatively came up with a cover letter to put with his paper, and this is what his cover letter said. Before i begin, i would like to take this opportunity to apologize sincerely for the grad ical errors you're about to see in this paper. The letter between l and end in the english alphabet just stopped working on i laptops keyboard out of nowhere. I have no other devices to write this paper. I s so sorry. I realize how unprofessional this is, but i have no other choice. Therefore, unfortunately, whoever is unlucky enough to be assigned degrading this paper will have to just use their wagon ation and put that letter where it belongs. And all the words without it. Thank you very much for understanding. Hey. Now, after he wrote the cover letter, he quickly realized that he could open up an old letter are old old paper that he had written and and he could cut and paste the m from that paper and then just start cutting and pasting and him every time he needed one. Now this was awkward and very time consuming. So he would own to say this. I tried to use every word without the letter in minute i could possibly think of. So with the cut paste trick with the letter m, he decided not to turn in the cover letter with this paper, but he did turn it in any way later on and showed the professor and the professor thought he did a great job in a very difficult situation. It's something when you lose your m, you know, sometimes in life we lose more than our m right. We end up in situations in our life where the situation is bad and we really do need to try to make the best of the situation. But that's not always easy, is it ? In fact, it's even harder when the bad situation involves your spouse or your kids or your parents or your neighbor or your best friend ? Or a teammate or a classmate. Our workmen. So how do you make the best of a bad situation when it involves other people ? How do you make the best of things ? When a relationship goes sour, the apostle paul is going to help us think through that. Listen to his letter to his friend phil eamon, beginning with verse fifteen for perhaps he was, for this reason, separated from you for a while. So who was separated from who ? Well, a ness. Imus was a slave, and he was separated from his owner, phil eamon. Now the word separate. It's kind of interesting that paul uses here because actually a ness imus ran away from philly, man, he wasn't just separated. So why did he run away ? Was salim in a terrible owner ? Probably not. The reason we think that is because paul set a ness imus back to phil eamon with this letter. So if the lehman was a harsh man, if he was an unjust man, if he was a difficult man, paul would have probably found another way to try to communicate. But we do know that own estimates ran away. We don't know why he ran away, but we know he ran about a thousand miles away a little more than that to rome. And in a city of eight hundred thousand people, he just happened to bump into the apostle paul. The man who actually led fa lehman to jesus and a nessim is heard the gospel, the stunning great amazing gospel. He heard the gospel from paul just like the lehman had and the same god who saved and redeemed fa lehman saved and redeemed unnecessary. But he was still a runaway slave. His salvation did not magically and miraculously take away the fact that in that society he was a criminal outlaw. So at some point in the conversation, pulse it. Look, you need to go back and make things right with phil. Eamon, you need to head back a nest. Mus had broken the law. He had broken filaments trust he had cost for lehman money. He created more work for the other slaves and servants in the house. And he needed to go back and make things right. Paul even said that later that he stole something from philly. Man, we don't know what that was, but something of value was actually stolen by a decimus. No matter what category you try to put the story in. This was a strained relationship. This was a bad situation. And there was cem cem sour feelings that we're goingto happen in this relationship. So how is paul going to make the best of this bad situation ? Well, the way he's going to do it is by using the word perhaps the word, perhaps bring some possibility into a conversation. Honey, perhaps i ate the last piece of red velvet cake that was in the refrigerator in tin full with a post it with your name on it. Perhaps i read it and ate it last night in a way to help you not gain weight for the holidays. Perhaps you know that's that's what happened you know with your game dad for perhaps me plowing over the mailbox last weekend with the car just opens up the opportunity for us to upgrade to that new mailbox that the homeowners association has been recommended you know for so long perhaps dad that's that's what happened mrs griswald perhaps i know you ordered that your convertible would be a platinum white and color and it came back metallic pea but you know perhaps ms griswald this is going to save you money and you don't have to go to the car wash is off perhaps it's one of those words that brings possibility into a conversation and paul is not accidentally using the word perhaps in his letter to fill eamon he's trying to get a flame in to look at this whole situation with an s amiss running away and he's trying to get him to look at it with different eyes. What kind of eyes ? Well, he's wanting him tto. Look. Att this through eyes that trust in the providence of god. What is the providence of god ? Well, the word providence comes from the word provide and the word provide means to supply the need for something. So we could think of providence as the act of supplying a need for something. So in this scenario, what did fleeman need ? Did fleeman need tto lose money ? Did fa lehman ito have conflict at his house ? They need to have conflict in his business. Did philly man need to have something stolen from him where these needs in his life ? No. But again, paul's trying to get him to look at these things in a completely different way to see them with the eyes of the providence of god. Paul is saying fill eamon. What if perhaps a ness imus running away was was not just to create problems in your life ? Fleeman. What if perhaps a nessim it's running away has something to do with something you're not seen ? And you're not feeling right now. We've had moments like that, right ? Where what we're seeing and what we're feeling, we're we're not sensing a whole lot of perhaps because it all seems bad in that moment. One of the greatest leaders that ever lived on the planet was a man named joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and very deceptive circumstances. And then, many years later, he found himself standing face to face in front of his brothers. He was no longer a slave. He was now the second most powerful man in all of egypt. He had the ability and the power and the authority to throw them in jail or even execute them. And so what does he say to his brothers in his moment of power and authority and vengeance and justice, what does he say ? Genesis, chapter fifteen, verse twenty. As for you, you met evil against me. But god minute for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. Joseph didn't strike them with his fist. He didn't strike out of them with the long arm of the law. He did not strike out at them with a guilt trip or or some kind of lecture. Know what joseph did in that moment where he had the power was he forgave them in the moment that he could have done whatever he wanted to do what he wanted to do. I was forgetting. Why ? Because he was believing in and trusting in and relying on and clinging to the providence of god. Listen again to his words. As for you, you meant evil against me. But god, a minute for good, most behind that state a lot. I came across the a list about joseph's life. It's ah list that's really just kind of hard to think for. John bloom put the list together, and this is how he described the list. There's a list of a startling and a nerve ing level of god's providential involvement in the details of joseph's life startling and a new nerve ing to see the details of the providence of god behind joseph's statement. It's a long list, so i'm not goingto do everything on the list will post. I will post a link at the end of my sermon. It's on the website later today, so you can go look at the whole list. But it's it's an amazing list, and some of you don't know anything about joseph. And if you don't, then i encourage you. Go read genesis, chapter thirty three fifty. His story is fascinating, but even if you know nothing about joseph, if you just listen to this list, you can catch some glimpses of the plans of god in his and this list is a list of biblical and historical reality. He's. And all of these biblical and historical realities are the exact things that god used for good in joseph's life and the life of other people. So just a few things here. Josephs place in the birth order of the men used to create the nation of israel was part of god's plan. That means his mother rachel's agonizing struggle with infertility was part of god's plan. Jos is prophetic. Dreams were part of god's plan. His brother's jealousy, sibling rivalry, family conflict, none of us have had any of that this week, right ? All of those things were part of god's plan. His brother's evil, murderous, greedy betrayal of him and his brother. Judah's part in it was part of god's plan. His brother's twenty plus year deception of their father, jacob, regarding josef was part of god's plan. The existence of an evil slave trade at the time was part of god's plan. Slave owner pot offers complicity with the slave trade, and his position in egypt was part of god's plan. Joseph's favor with potter for was part of god's plan. Potter firs wife's dishonesty was part of god's plan. Pot offers unjust judgement of joseph was part of god's plan. The particular prison joseph went to was part of god's plan. Joses favor with the prison warden was part of god's plan. Pharaohs being desperate enough to listen to a hebrew prisoner was part of god's plan. Joseph having discernment of pharaoh's dreams was part of god's plan. The miraculously amount of immediate trust that pharaoh placed in joseph's interpretation was part of god's plan. The threat of starvation that calls terrible fear and move jacob to send his sons all the way to egypt for grain was part of god's plan. The success with which joseph was able to continue to conceal his identity from his brothers was part of god's plan. His brother jude is willingness to exchange his life for his other brother, benjamin, out of love for his father and thus initiating his own sail into slavery like he initiated joseph sail into slavery was part of god's plan, and joseph's timing in revealing himself to his brothers was part god's plan. That's not even hold it. This's an amazing picture, and that's what's behind you meant evil against me, but god, god meant it for good. Paul's echoing that same thing. Two. Fa lehman. He's trying to get phil aiming to see flaming. What if a ness imus running away was was meant for good ? Now, does that mean it's okay to break the law ? No, because that's what an sms did by running away. He was breaking the law. Does that mean that it's no big deal for you to purposefully or dramatically are casually dishonor your balls or dishonor your husband or dishonor your wife or dishonor your parents or dishonor your kids or dishonor anybody in a position of authority or friendship in your life ? No, that's not what it means. When paul uses the word, perhaps all he's really trying to do is this. He's trying to get us to see and understand that if we're going to profess to be a christian, that we must because of our profession of faith in jesus, we must fight to look at things through the eyes of god's prop. We must. Has someone ever come up to you asked you to do something and you responded with okay ? I'll take care of that. Or yeah, i'll see to that. John piper writes this providence is the act of god's scene to the universe. Feel see to that whatever it is. Hell seated, see when we can't see when we don't want to see when we're angry at what we see god is seen the university has seen to the universe. He is seen to that. Piper goes own god never simply sees without acting. He is god. He is not a passive participant in a world that exists without his sustaining it. Wherever god is looking, god is acting. If god perceives, he performs. If he inspects, he effects. When god sees, he sees to. His scene is always with a view to doing where he patrols he controls. Sometimes we don't like to hear those things. They make us alone. Comfortable because we like to feel that we are in control of our own lives. We don't like the notion that god or on the flip side, we look at all the sin and all the evil and all the tragedy in the world. And we hear about this god who's always acting on, we say, well, wait a minute. Why isn't he acting to stop this ? Why isn't he acting to prevent this ? Why isn't he starting this and performing this ? Why's he not caring for this and controlling ? In other words, we're like, hey, women, is there an answer for evil and suffering in the world ? There's a lot of answers for evil and suffering in the world will take one here in the life of joseph joseph was someone whose life was full of evil and suffering and difficulties and trials and tribulations in troubles. So what is his answer to all of those things ? Human evil against me, but god minute for good. But that's his answer. His answer was, i'm trusting in the providence of god, even though i don't understand and can't see it. Sometimes i'm trusting. Many would say that is a ignorant, arrogant, foolish, cruel way to think about evil and suffering in the world, and i would completely and totally agree with them except for jesus. So jesus has changed the math of the universe because the most ignorant, arrogant, foolish, cruel thing on the surface is the notion and the reality that the son of the most high god would be crucified to deal with the penalty of sin so that terrorist and teachers and pastors and prostitutes and surgeons and scam artists so that democrats and republicans and americans and russians, canadians and cambodians red and yellow, black and white, those who are able and harmful those who are harmless and helpless and hopeless so that any and all of those folks could be saved and redeemed and rescued and set free now, on the surface, the crucifixion of jesus sounds cruel, but god minute for my good and god minute for your good. Now does that make god some kind of parent of cosmic child abuse ? You know that he would purposely put his son on a cross. Crush him, as the scripture says, for our salvation. Now it doesn't make him an abusive parent. It simply means this that god saw your greatest need and before you were even born, he said, i'll see to that. I will see to them. You know, if i'm honest, there's far too many days and i feel like the greatest need of my life is for my wife to do right by me, for my kids to do right by me, for my kids, do good in school and get a good education and get a good job. There's a lot of days in my life where i think that the most important need in my life is for a health to be good. The most important need in my life is for my doctor to be some kind of all knowing god to know everything that's going on. The most important need in my life is for the insurance to cover all the cost. The most important need in my life is for my car, to work writer, from a phone, to work right or for anything else in my life, just to just a work right. The greatest need in my life is for my stocks to win or for my candidate to win or for my team to win most days. That's really how i think. But if i'm really, really, really honest with myself, i know that the greatest need in my life is that when i breathe my last, that the wrath of god will pass over may. That's the greatest need in my life and the reason that it will is because i have believed and i am believing and i will always believe in the son of the most high god who gave himself up for me and that for every heart ache in my life, for every pain in my life, for every sin in my life, i can look to the cross, this cruel crucifixion of jesus as my greatest hope. And when i see the evil and the sin and the tragedy in the world, i can look to the cross because it is the hope of all hopes over all evil, overall sin, overall tragedy. On the surface, it seems cruel, but the cross was meant for my good and you're good and the cross is good. Second, corinthians, four seventeen this is what paul wrote, reading from the the amplified classic version for our light and momentary affliction. This slight distress of the passing hour. Not just to be fair, when we're in the moments of affliction and distress, they don't feel light, momentary or passing. Which is exactly why paul wrote this for our light, momentary affliction. This slight distress of the passing hour is ever mohr and mohr abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an ever lasting weight of glory. What kind of glory beyond all measure excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations. A vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never too see. Never to see. Just to put that in context, one day everything in your bank account will cease to be yours. More beers. Everything in your garage will cease to be yours. Everything in your workshop will cease to be years. Everything in your closet will cease to be yours. Every stressful situation in your marriage will cease. Every stressful situation with your parents will seize every stressful situation with your kids, will cease every stressful situation at work, a church at home, at school. Wherever it may be, those stressful situations will cease and every tragic and sinful and evil and criminal news story will see. But the abundant, excessively surpassing and transcendent blessings and promises of god in and through jesus christ will never cease never. You may say sounds great, but you don't know what i've been going through this week. And i'm not feeling the promises of god. I'm not. I'm not feeling the blessings of god. Okay, fair enough. The concept's. Lewis, just help our minds a little bit, sis, listen, this they say of some temporal suffering, no future bliss can make up for it. In other words, this's awful right now. So don't talk to me about heaven. I don't hear about heaven. I don't want to hear about jesus in heaven because this stinks now. So he says, some will say, you know, no future bliss will ever make up for this. But then he goes on not knowing that heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. That's an amazing promise of the gospel you see. Every single picture about the truth of jesus christ shows us that this is true run, that this amazing reality is that jesus is working for us right now that jesus has been working for us, that jesus will work for us. And the beauty and the glory of the everlasting truth of the gospel and salvation in jesus christ means that even jesus, it's working backwards for and that one day we will be satisfied once and for all and for him. That's just two years, and that's to god and said that that's what paul's doing. He's he's trying to pull feli me into that. He's trying to get flaming, to look through some different eyes and say, what if perhaps god was working through this kind of gross, frustrating situation with the nest mus and he was doing something for good ? What kind of good could god be doing ? Listen to the rest of verse fifteen and honor the sixteen that you would have him back forever. No longer as a slave, but more than a slave. Ah, beloved brother, especially to me. But how much more to you both in the flesh and in the lord ? My friends, brad and jason, are our brothers. Brad's the oldest, chasen's, the youngest. They grew up in the same southern baptist church that my wife grew up in when they were both around seven, eight, nine years old. I think they made a profession of faith and jesus, they were baptized. And then they spent the next fifteen to twenty years lost and dead in their sins. They were never saved, and their story of conversion is is always humbling. When i remember that, i just happened to be around to watch it and be a part of it, and so fifteen or twenty years later they were they were truly converted, and both of them. Now service is past tres and in a couple of years after they were both saved, they were sitting at jason's house in fort worth, texas, and they were just sitting there talking and i don't know who turned to the other one first and said it, but but one lick of the other and just said to your own miracle and the other one looked back to him, and he said, you're a miracle, too. And they just sat there in stunned joy that they were saved and there was no other explanation than it was a miracle of god that they were sick. Listen, i want you know, if you're saved, it's a miracle. It's a miracle. Because the scripture says that before we're saved, we're dead in our sins and dead people don't save themselves. Dead people don't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Dead people have to be brought to life. And the gospel says that jesus christ, that god has made us alive because, see, we're like ness imus. We would be running running, running away. Paulus pointing for lehman to a miracle in his life when he says, perhaps he's is trying to get the lehman to remember. And you are a miracle. And he's warning for lehman toe toe look up from this letter and with tears in his eyes, he wants to look at his runaway slave, and he wants him to say, oh, nessim is you are a miracle and he wants. So nessim is to look back at the lehman and to repeat the same words. You are a miracle, too. Does that mean that in this fantastic moment of acknowledging their salvation that suddenly a ness imus was no longer going to be a slave ? The philly man was just going to forgive all and remove everything. Maybe, maybe not. But here's the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel is even if nothing in your immediate circumstance changes, your soul has changed forever. The miracle applies, and the miracle of salvation is stronger than any man and stronger than any manmade laws. And the miracle of salvation reminds us that goddess for us he is with us and he is working force even when he's working backwards for us. Joseph knew that to be true. He had experienced it his whole life. He had seen and known and watch the providence of god. And even when he couldn't see it, even when he couldn't feel it, god was gracious and kind to reminding that it was still true. And the story of joseph in the story. Uh, vanessa mus and the story of phil eamon paul's letter all of these stories, all of these words all of this letter are trying to speak to me and to you today as well. John bloom says this. The detailed narrative of joseph's life among many other things, is a loving letter from your good shepherd. He goes on the same good shepherd who got it. Jos. They're green pastures and the valley of the shadow of death pursuing him with good all the days of his life. And why ? Why do we have joseph story written down in the bible for us ? Why do we have this this letter from paul to fa lehman ? This is to remind you that no matter what you are experiencing sweet or better, good or evil, no matter how long it has lasted, god has not left you alone. He is with you. He is working all things together for good, and he will be with you to the end. That is the promise of heaven that works backwards, forward and right now. The most high god through his son, jesus christ will be with you to the end. And then you will never tire of the desire to be with him forever.