Perth
24/08/07
“God the engineer”
Intro: God is in the business of working in & through human lives.
Do you remember that God is the God of the supernatural? Not a mental knowledge but is this truth a part of your daily thinking?
Most of the time we aren’t even aware of it ….. have no comprehension God even knows what’s happening to us.
The Bible’s pict is that God is vigilant to engineer the circumstances of our lives to fulfil His purposes.
*** Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire, told the following story. "A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded by praying: “Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won't feel so lonely.” That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, saying, “If God sent that, I'm sure He also sent a doll!”
And she was right! The Lord knew in advance of that child's sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had moved on the hearts of people in England to include both of those specific articles."
God is at work long b/4 we even know there is a need for him to be working!
The Hand of God has even been at work in your life …… moving things / people / circumstances for the explicit needs & issues of your life & to meet needs in the lives others.
After getting saved many of us can look back & see how God was at work in our lives years b/4 we were saved but ... the really encouraging truth is that He hasn’t stopped working in our lives!
God is engineering the details of human lives to work his by His miraculous power in those lives.
T/n we want to look at how God does his work & consider ‘God the engineer’.
Text: Isa 59:1 (NKJV) 1 Behold, the Lord’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
I want to make three very simple statements about God’s great power to engineer things in our lives.
# 1. God knows what’s going on.
A. There’s nothing about our lives / circ that God is ignorant of.
a. At times when nothing in life or the world makes sense it’s easy to think God doesn’t u/s what’s going on.
i. The big temptation as everything goes wrong is to think God doesn’t know or doesn’t care!
ii. But……God’s apparent silence doesn’t mean God isn’t doing anything or He isn’t involved.
iii. But … God knows everything b/4 it happens, not even the smallest details escape His attention.
*** Greg’s Van. Greg a pioneering pastor under all kinds of financial constraints & his vehicle is getting older & needs updating. He has 5 kids & needs something better than what he’s got. His mother, who is a Christian & really hears from God has been praying for Greg. She calls him one day & asks Greg what kind of a car he wants. Greg however doesn’t really take her too seriously so he begins to rattle off all the details of what he wants. A few days later his mother calls & says God has shown me the car your going to get you. It’s a white van w/ a blue stripe, it’s got seven seats & good paintwork & begins to relate all the details. Not only this but the vehicle is going to be a bargain buy! Then as she’s about to finish she says there’s one more thing too, God has shown me it has some red dust in it too ….. I think it has been up north somewhere.
Greg thanks his mother & laughs to himself & doesn’t think anything more about it. Greg knows that he doesn’t have the money to buy the kind of vehicle his mother has just described to him on the phone, it’s way out of his reach financially.
Not long after this Greg finds out about a Mitsubishi van for sale. He thinks …… this is going to be too much but he has a look anyway. When he sees it the van is white w/ a blue stripe & good paintwork, it has 7 seats, it’s everything his mother described to him a few days b/4. As he is looking around the van his mother’s words are ringing in his ears! But then he remembers the red dust & thinks to himself “Well you almost got it right mum but you missed it w/ the red dust! Then as he lifts up the spare tyre in the back he notices that right in bottom of the spare tyre well there is a handful of red dust!”
Not even the small details of our lives escape God’s attention!
iv. Here’s what Jesus says about God’s intimate knowledge of you & what’s happening in your life.
Matt 10:30 (NKJV) 30… the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
v. In ways we can’t even imagine right now God is moving & working things out in / through our lives.
b. Nothing that happens to us ever catches God by surprise.
i. Even though you may not be prepared for some of the things that happen – God is!
ii. God is watching / listening / waiting / moving things ….. God is ever at work in your life to fulfil what He ultimately wants to do in & through you.
iii. God weaves together both time & circumstances that you are encountering to create the fabric of your life.
B. The Bible makes it clear that we are never out of God’s view even when we are trying to escape him.
a. The psalmist tells us there is nowhere we can go to hide from God’s all seeing eyes.
Psa 139:7 (NKJV) 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
i. God is constantly watching over our lives doing everything in his power to draw us to Himself.
*** In 1997 I was w/ a team of people I had taken to Jakarta, Indonesia on an impact team. We went out late one night to get something to eat. We found a McDonalds open so we decided to eat there. While we were there a while man walked in. Some of the folks in out team called out to him & so he wandered over to talk to us. It was clear he was an Aussie & so we asked where he was from. Perth he said & so I told him I was from Perth originally too. He asked me what we were doing there & so I told him we were a church who had come to hold revival meetings at our Kali Malang church. Then he said which church? I told him the Potter's House Church! He then asked my name & I told him & he immediately said I know you! And I know the pastor too! He was backslider running from God who just happened to be in the same place as us at the same time. In reality God was letting him know …. you can run but you can never hide from Me!
b. Think about Jonah who rebelled against God.
i. In his rebellion Jonah decided to run from God.
Jon 1:3 (NKJV) 3But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
ii. Maybe you’re thinking about running from God …. God has been speaking, you’re hearing his voice, unsaved, backslider, even as a Christian???
iii. You need to know that if you try to run from God He will already be in the place you run to b/4 you get there!
Psa 139:8 (NKJV) 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
iv. God knows what we are going to do even b/4 we think about going!
C. If this is true of those who run from God how much more is God watching over those who run to Him?
a. The Bible tells us that when we obey God every step is carefully measured / ordered by Him.
Psa 37:23 (NKJV) 23The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
# 2. God is totally in control!
A. Even when everything seems to be out of control – God is still in control!
a. God is moving / manipulating / engineering things to have exactly the right people in the right places at exactly the right time.
i. You may be here tonight b/c by ‘coincidence’ you just happened to meet someone on the streets who invited you here.
*** I went to school w/ a kid named Peter A*****n. When I began working I was riding my bicycle home from work one day when my pay packet with my week’s wages fell out of my back pocket. When I got home I reached for my pay & it was gone. Naturally I was upset but w/I the hour a knock came at the front door, it was Peter & he had my pay packet in his hand. It had fallen out of my pocket right in from of his house. He saw the name John on the front & remembered that I rode past his house every day & so he bought it around.
Some years after this Peter A*****n surfaced again when I met him at Rosa Brook in the South West. Peter had gotten saved & was now serving God. I saw him once or twice & then lost contact w/ him.
A couple of years ago now a man whose name I don’t know was standing at the end of the Busselton Jetty (pier) which extends about 1ΒΌ miles (2km) into the sea & deep water. The man who must have been facing some trauma was standing on the very edge of the end of the jetty in despair. He was about to jump into the ocean & end his life but a man who watching walked up behind the man as he was about to jump & grabbed the man. not only did he grab him but he embraced the would-be suicide he began speaking in tongues & crying out to God to bring the man to his senses. That man was Peter A*****n! And the man who was going to commit suicide had a real encounter w/ a God who met him in the moment of his need. It was all b/c God had a man named Peter A*****n in the right place at the right time.
I wonder where Peter A*****n might appear next …… & I wonder how many more Peter A*****n’s God has working for him?
ii. God always has the right people in the right places at just the right time.
b. The Bible speaks about a Shunamite woman in the days of Elisha the prophet of God.
i. B/c of her kindness she God blesses her w/ a son, the son dies but God raises him to life again!
ii. The land where she lives is overtaken w/ a famine & she has to move to a foreign land to survive the famine.
iii. Tragedy after tragedy has overtaken the life of this woman & now she has lost her land after fleeing the famine.
iv. When she returns to her own land her property / everything she owned has been lost ….. her only hope is to make a direct appeal to the king.
v. As she makes this appeal God has just the right people in the right place at the right time!
2 Kin 8:3 - 6 (NKJV) 3It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. 4Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.” 5Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”
vi. God has all the right people in the right places at the right time for you!
c. If God is still in control why do we find our/s sometimes going from one bad situation to worse?
i. Don’t make rash judgments just b/c things don’t seem to be going right.
ii. God promises He is making the elements of your life work together for your ultimate good.
Rom 8:28 (NKJV) 28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
i. Just b/c you don’t u/s everything that is going on in your life right now don’t lose sight of the fact God is the divine engineer of your circumstances.
B. God has people working for you that you don’t even know about.
a. We are completely ignorant of the fact that God is moving in the lives of other people to do things in your life.
i. God is not limited in the resources that He has available to use in your life.
ii. God owns everything & uses everything to work in your life, listen to this…..
Psa 24:1 (NKJV) 1The earth is the LORD’S, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
b. God has people you don’t even know yet they are involved in your life.
i. There are people right now that are praying for you that you don’t even know about.
*** In Oct 2006 my wife & I were in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea staying at a mission guest house while preaching in the Gabutu church in Port Moresby. I met a young Australian man there who was in a team from Wollongong, NSW where I had pastored a church for 6 years b/4 moving to Fiji. It turned out the young man knew a lady in the church. The next night we met another middle aged lady on the same team as the young man. She got talking to us & we told her a little bit about ourselves. Out of the blue she asked us if our daughter happened to have a friend in high school named Brook P***r & we said yes Brook was her best friend. The lady then said to us ….. I know who you are.
In May 2000 I got a call from Brook P***r’s mother Sue who told me that the Fiji Islands have just had a coup which brought down the govt. Sue asked me if I would pray for John & Coral Perry that God would keep them safe & watch over them. The woman then said I was praying for you throughout that time even though I had never met you.
Now here we were by 'sheer chance' (sometimes known as the design of God) meeting in another country where neither of us had lived. Our lives had connected through the engineering of the Great God Of Heaven!!!
ii. The reason why everything in your life hasn’t completely spun out of control is b/c God has people upholding you in prayer b/4 him right now.
# 3. God will make it work!
A. God is able to make everything work.
a. I can’t state the specific details of your life but I can say w/ confidence that God is at work!
TEXT: Isa 59:1 (NKJV) 1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
i. This is not just some ethereal Scripture but a living reality for every one of our lives!
ii. God doesn’t just see / hear, isn’t just at work in the lives of others …. He’s at work in your life!
iii. The very fact that you are hearing these words is proof ….. God wants to let you know He sees / hears & is at work!
*** One pastor I know related to me this incident in his life. He was preaching in a struggling church w/ only a few people battling the problems of years of unfruitfulness. He was so discouraged that he was thinking about throwing in the towel & quitting the ministry. He was thinking to himself why do I bother preaching to this handful of people year after year?
He was catching the train to work early one morning, it was the middle of winter & he was standing on the platform in the dark of the early morning waiting for the train to come. While he was standing there alone a man walked out of the darkness towards him. The man was wearing a jacket w/ a hood & so my friend didn’t get a look at the man’s face. As the man approached him he said to my pastor friend “Whether you preach the gospel to many or whether you preach the gospel to a few; preach the gospel!” After saying this he immediately walked off into the darkness again.
iv. You need to u/s that God hasn’t forgotten about you & He’s still at work in your life / circ even when you think all hope is lost.
B. It’s not enough to know God is at work …. God is the master of tying up the loose ends of our lives.
a. When nothing seems to be making sense God begins to connect everything so that it does make sense.
** Someone has said that “Looking at our lives is like looking at a tapestry …… from this side of eternity it looks like a mass of unrelated tangled threads but on the other side of eternity we see the finished product and what a beautiful scene God has been weaving through the fabric of our lives.”
i. God is going to reveal the hidden & secret things at just the right time ……. Why? To show you how great & awesome He really is!
*** It happened in 1948, just a few days before Christmas. A flash flood ravaged a small town, leaving a gaping hole in the wall of an old church building—right behind the pulpit. The young pastor knew there was no time to fix the damage and decided to make the best of it. But providence was in his favour. The next day he stumbled upon an old lace tablecloth at an auction and bought it for $6.50. His intent was to hang it on the wall to cover the hole—not perfect, but adequate for the occasion.
The next day, while unlocking the building, he noticed an elderly woman on the curb and invited her to come inside for warmth. She nestled into a comfortable pew while he set to work covering the hole. She gasped as he unfolded the worn tablecloth. “That’s mine,” she exclaimed. “It’s my banquet cloth!” And she rushed to the front to show him her initials engraved in one corner. The minister listened as she retold the story of her days in Vienna, Austria, before the war. She fled from the Nazis, but her husband was captured for crimes of treason. She hadn’t seen him since. Although the minister offered her the cloth, she refused. It looked pretty hanging behind the altar, the woman insisted.
After the Christmas service the following Sunday morning, an aging gentleman lingered behind to talk with the young pastor. The cloth behind the pulpit brought back painful memories for him. “Many years ago my wife and I owned such a tablecloth,” he told the pastor. “We lived in Vienna then.” Something told the pastor that this was more than coincidence, so he took the man with him to seek out the woman. Calls were made, and before long the two men were standing on the front steps of her apartment. As the woman opened the door, the young pastor witnessed a reunion more touching than he ever imagined possible—a husband and wife, together again after years of separation.
ii. You may have been through years of darkness trying to make sense of all the pain of the years.
iii. God will certainly cause his light to dawn on everything if you’ll trust Him to work things out in your life.
