Do You Trust God?

Thank you to the Quartet for the beautiful rendition. Beautiful music and beautiful message. Thank you guys very much for your offering of music to God. Brethren, back when I was teaching school, one of the things that we used to do every year at the very beginning of the school year was an assignment that really wasn't scientifically related at all.

Kind of bought me a little time to get jumped into curriculum and get to know the kids a little bit as well. But what it was was it was a situation where I would have them sit down and I would help them to kind of understand the purpose of why we were sitting down and even beginning with this idea of education. I'd have them take out a blank piece of paper. They'd have a blank piece of paper on the desk. And what I would ask them to do is to press pause at that moment in their life. Right in that moment, at 14, 13, whatever age they were, press pause.

And then what we were going to do is we were going to fast forward the movie of their life 20 years into the future.

So for perspective, based on the age of the kids that I taught, what we're talking about is 33 or 34 years old or in their words, OOOOOOLD.

They couldn't believe it. Oh, I'm going to just might as well be dead. No, it's 30 guys. It's only 33 or 34 years old.

But what I asked them to do in that moment, now that we fast forwarded to the point of 33 or 34, 20 years into the future, is I asked them to hit the play button.

And what I want them to do is I want them to creatively write a day in their life, based on their 33 or their 34-year-old self.

From the moment their eyes wake up in the morning until the moment they close them at night, what I have them do is write as much detail as humanly possible into that story.

I want to hear things like, are they married? Do they have children? What kind of car do they drive? Where do they work? What do they do?

Are they swinging in and grabbing a coffee on the way to work? They go out to eat for dinner. How big is the house that they live in? What sort of life have they built for themselves?

In short, what I'm really asking them to do is to dream a little bit. To dream a little bit. To think about what life is going to be.

We spend a full class day on this, typically. And the kids do enjoy it. They really did enjoy that assignment. They would laugh, they'd smile, they'd share their stories.

They'd kind of elbow each other like, oh, how many kids? Stuff like that.

But then what we would do is we would cue the reality check. And this is the reason why I did this. I would let them down gently, and we would start to share out a few of those stories.

I'd start taking notes on what I would hear them say. We'd look at the size of the house. We'd look at the car. We'd look at the life.

And what we'd do is compare that against the paycheck of what it is that they wanted to do.

4,000 square foot house in the west hills of Portland. Brand new Range Rover, leased, of course. Consistently going out to eat at the finest dining establishments in Portland. Getting Starbucks every single morning, all on a registered nurse's salary.

And you have that moment where you start to now factor in taxes. You factor in the house payment, the car payment. We factor in the unseen costs. We talk utilities. We talk student loan payments, insurance.

And the kids watch in horror as their money dissolves away from them, as they're seeing all these numbers disappear. One of my absolute favorite quotes in the entirety of the time that we ever did this was, 20%?! Why does the government need 20% of my money?!

Now you're getting it. Now you're getting it. Out of the mouth of babes, right?

But they watch this pile of money just slip through their fingers and they see quite quickly that the lifestyles that are modeled for them in movies and television just aren't aligned to reality.

Now I don't do this to crush kids' dreams. That's a beneficial side effect. But I let them know. I let them know.

The goal of this whole thing is to show them what the real world looks like.

So that they can be that much more motivated to be successful and work towards what it is that they want to see.

To consider taking those harder classes, pushing themselves through college so that the salary on the other side might have a couple extra zeros in it as that is disappearing.

To push them toward whatever it is they want to do in the trades or whatever it is that they want to do.

But to then think about modestly living within those means and finding something to do in their life that makes them happy.

You know, whatever path we take, whatever life we consider, whether we push for the bigger salary, the bigger life, or whether we push for a modest life with a career that fulfills us, it doesn't tend to stop us from dreaming.

It doesn't tend to stop us from thinking about bigger, better things. We plot, we plan, we have places that we want to be, we have things we want to do, we have a life that we want to lead.

Maybe it involves a drift boat in ample days on the river. Maybe that's just me.

But does all of our plotting and does all of our planning leave room for God's will in our life?

As we put our plans together, are we leaving space for God to do in our life what God wills in our life?

And what if God's plan for our life is very different than the plan that we've set up for ourselves?

What if God chooses to put us somewhere that, pfft, we never would have personally chosen?

Do we trust Him when those things take place? Do we consistently trust Him? Not for protection necessarily, though we certainly do.

Not for blessings necessarily, but do we trust God to dream for us?

To dream a life that we might not have even thought of for us? To take our life in a direction that we'd never even considered, we'd never seen, never anticipated?

Do you trust God? It's the title of the message today, for the sermon today. Do you trust God?

Often when we read the Bible, we dig into the preserved stories of major and minor characters in Scripture.

It's really easy, I think, at times, and I've mentioned this before, that in addition to them being Bible characters, and kind of examples for us today, that they are people first and foremost. They are people first and foremost.

They experience all the same people things that we experience. They experience fear. They have uncertainty. They have doubt.

They have all these challenges that come up. But they also had dreams. They had aspirations. They had goals.

They also had trials, struggles, and difficulties in their lives.

Sometimes those struggles, those different dreams, maybe that they had, their goals, sometimes those are made aware to us as the reader.

But other times we have no idea. We have no idea. It just doesn't tell us. We don't know what they dreamed for. We don't know what they hoped for.

We don't know what they may have wished for in their life.

Sometimes the dreams and the hopes that we are aware that they may have had ended up not being the things that actually happened in their lives.

They may have desired one thing, but God had other plans. Let's begin by turning over to the book of Proverbs today. I'd like to establish this concept scripturally. Proverbs 19, and we'll go ahead and turn to verse 21 of Proverbs 19.

Proverbs 19 and verse 21. Proverbs 19 verse 21 says, There are many plans in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the Lord's counsel, that will stand.

Some translations put it that the Lord's the purpose of the Lord, the purpose of the Lord, that shall stand.

Just a few pages earlier, you can jot it in your notes if you'd like. Proverbs 16 and verse 9.

God inspires to be written, a man's heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps.

Mankind can plan, they can plot, they have dreams, they have aspirations, they have goals, but at times in our lives, God has other plans.

There's an old Yiddish proverb that says, man plans and God laughs.

Man plans and God laughs. And that does not mean that God is capricious. It does not mean that God has it out for us, or he's somehow making fun of what it is that we want to do.

It's that he wants more for us, and that he sees the bigger picture. He sees the bigger picture.

Look at Jeremiah. You want to turn over to Jeremiah? Jeremiah 29 and verse 11.

Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. We can see that there are plans that God has for his people.

Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. It gives an idea of what it is that God thinks towards us.

Kind of the way that he interacts, the way that he considers us as his people, and what it is that he is kind of dreaming or planning or thinking of for us as his people.

Now, within context, he's speaking now to Judah, contextually. But this is a principle that's in place for us as well.

Jeremiah 29 and verse 11 says, God has plans for us. He thinks of us. He hopes for us. He dreams for us. And, scripturally, when we take a look at the pages of our Bible and we read through God's Word, we see example after example after example of regular folks.

They got thrust into situations that were so far out of their control, all they could do was hold on with white knuckles as God ripped them through these things that took place in their lives.

Quite often, these were places that they never, ever would have chosen for themselves. But yet, God places them in a situation for them to achieve his purposes in their life and as part of the bigger picture.

At the time that we have left today, I'd like to take a look at three examples, specific examples, and analyze some of these individuals as we consider the situations that they found themselves in, and then consider where does that put us in the modern church today?

Are we willing to let God dream for us in today's day and age? Are we willing to let him direct our steps to direct our path? Do you trust? Do you trust in God?

Let's begin today by turning over to the book of Esther. We've been working through the book of Esther in our Bible study, and so some of this is going to be familiar as we've gone through this.

But to the book of Esther, when you think of a person who was thrust into a position that they would not have chosen for themselves, one of the first to come to mind is Hadassah, a young Jewish girl who would become far more well known as Esther.

Throughout chapter one, we see the introduction to Esther's story. In Esther one, we see the introduction to the story. The book picks up with an introduction to the story of King Xerxes I, known as Xerxes the Great, King Ahasuerus, and his wife, Queen Vashti.

Queen Vashti was exceedingly beautiful. Queen Vashti was a beautiful woman. And in the midst of a festival of drunken debauchery, Xerxes commanded his eunuchs to bring Queen Vashti before him and all of his drunken men, and Queen Vashti said, absolutely not.

I will not be paraded in this manner before these drunken men. King Xerxes of Persia at that time was a king, or you might even say emperor in that case, of 127 provinces that stretched clear from India all the way down to Ethiopia.

At the time, at its peak, Persia ruled 44% of the globe. It was the largest empire the world had seen to date. And it was not a man to be trifled with. He was likely intoxicated. He had just been disrespected in front of a number of other men.

And the situation had to be dealt with immediately. So he asks the princes present, what should I do? What does the law say of this? What does the law of the Medes and the Persians say?

And the princes were concerned what might happen if other women in the kingdom caught wind of the fact that Queen Vashti said, no thank you.

What would happen if all the other women in the kingdom said no thank you when their husbands made ridiculous requests? What are we going to do? That's kind of what this became. And they decided we've got to do something about this. And they said, I know. Remove her as queen. Put her away. Put her away, Xerxes.

And that ruling, as you know, because of the Medes and the Persians, became codified as law. It became a law that now had to be upheld and was irrevocable.

And so Vashti was put away. Some suggest that she was killed. Some suggest she simply went back into the harem and just stayed as part of the harem, never to speak to the king ever again.

We don't know. We just don't know from history. But enter now Hadassah, chapter 2. Chapter 2 of Esther. Esther 2 in verse 1, it says, Esther 2, verse 5, it says, So it came to pass when the king's commandment and his decree were heard, when many maidens were gathered together into Shushin, the palace. Josephus says it was 400 young women that were brought into Shushin to vie for this.

The Miss Universe pageant, I guess, in a sense. But they came to vie for the king's favor. But they were brought into the king's house to the custody of a guy, the keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him. And she obtained kindness of him. And he speedily gave her things for purification with her portions, the seven maidens who were meat to be given out of her, the king's house. And he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women.

So here we have Hadassah. She's an orphan. Parents are dead. She's being raised by Mordecai in exile, kind of. They could have gone back at that point in time. There were some options to return at that point in time. But there in Persia, after Babylon had sacked Persia, or I'm sorry, after Babylon was sacked by Persia, the Jews that are there are living mostly in exile after the fall of Judah. What would the dreams and what would the aspirations of a young Jewish woman be at that time and in that place? What could she have expected? What would her life have been as an orphan? In that scenario, in that nation, in that way, what could she have expected? Maybe, I mean, most young women think about the man they're going to marry. Maybe she was thinking about the man that she would find and eventually marry. Maybe she considered an occupation. Maybe she thought, well, I could be this or I could be that. I could do this. Maybe she longed to return to this homeland that she heard so much about. What were Esther's dreams? What were her goals? What were her aspirations? I'd be willing to place a wager that becoming part of Xerxes' harem was not one of them. Just a guess. That that was so not on her bingo card as far as what life was going to hold for her. And I can guarantee that becoming Queen of Persia was definitely not on her radar. This young orphan girl becoming the queen of one of the largest empires in history.

As the story progresses, she's chosen by Xerxes to become queen. The rest of the story centers on this plot that was hatched by Haman, a newly appointed vizier to kill the Jews throughout Persia. The law had been codified by the king. It stood, and without some sort of an intervention, many of the Jews would die.

And so Mordecai and Esther talk about the implications. They talk about what this means. The ramifications of this plot and her part in it all. Mordecai suggests that she go into the king and make supplication for the people. That was not something that you did at that point in time in history in this empire. You did not come before the king without being beckoned or summoned to come before the king.

You were called into the king's presence. You didn't just barge in uninvited, even if you're the queen. So verse 11 of Esther 4, it says, That is the law. If you come before the king without being beckoned in that way or summoned in that way, you would be put to death unless... It says, She hasn't even seen the king in 30 days. It's been a month since she'd even come into his presence.

Mordecai says, Esther, this may well be the very purpose for why you have found yourself in this place at this time. Where else can relief come from you? Or come from if you won't intercede on behalf of your people to your husband? Esther says in verse 15, she's bade, return the answer unto Mordecai. It says, That her present in Shushan says, And I think this is such an incredible statement.

She simply says, if I perish, I perish. She says, I will do this, and if I die, I die. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Uncertain outcome. Completely uncertain outcome at this point. There's no guarantee of success in this attempt. No guarantee whatsoever. The people fasted. We know the rest of the story. She goes in before the king. The king accepts the intrusion.

He allows her to live. He listens to her. He listens to her. We see Haman's plot is ultimately defeated. Mordecai is honored. Haman is killed. And Mordecai is promoted to the chief vizier. The second in command of all of the kingdom of Persia. They go through this process of defending themselves against those who wish to do them harm. Esther may not have planned any of this for her life. She may not have planned any of these things. But God had dreamed for her.

God had dreamed for her. And a young orphaned Jewish girl of what some estimate no older than 14 became the queen of the largest empire in the world at that time. God had dreamed an impossible life for her. What had been her thoughts as these things are falling into place? I mean, we know that she was not certain of what would happen when she came before the king. She said, if I die, I die.

But how did she feel when the rest of this roller coaster was taking place? As she's being brought before the king. She's being brought into the harem. She's going to the king. Suddenly she's queen. Suddenly she's in front of him going, I sure hope this works. Think about where your thoughts would have been in the midst of all of these things.

Do you think she had some uncertainties? Suppose she had some doubts? I can imagine at times she was probably scared. But verse 16 is incredible. It sums up her outlook. It says, She says, She fasted. She placed her trust in God. She trusted that he had brought her to that place for that reason, even though that place may have been a place she had never planned for herself. And in the process of all of this, her people were delivered. She had a life that was very different.

We don't know how good it was. We don't know how bad it was. We just don't know. There's a lot of that story that's not told. But her people lived. Her people were protected. Let's take a look at the example of Amos. Let's take a look at the example of Amos. You can start turning over there, if you'd like, to the book of Amos. Amos, whose name comes from the Hebrew, wrote a mas, which means to carry a burden. Amos was given a prophetic message to take to Jeroboam, the king of Israel.

Amos was not born a prophet. In fact, he didn't wish to be one either. In fact, you can kind of see in the language that he uses in his own words. If you want to go over to Amos 7, we'll begin over there. Amos 7. And we'll begin in verse 14 of Amos 7. Amos 7, verse 14.

Just prior to this passage, as we get into verse 14 here, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, had recounted his interaction with Amos. He reported to Jeroboam that Amos had predicted Jeroboam's death and ultimately the captivity of the land of Israel. So much so that the people could not bear the words that they'd heard. They didn't want to listen. They're thinking, what do you mean?

We don't want any of this to happen. We don't like that. Amaziah told him to get lost. Literally, get out of here, you seer! Get lost. We don't want you here. Don't tell us words we don't want to hear. We only want to hear words that we want to hear. Don't give us the truth. We want to hear what we want to hear. He says, go eat your bread in Judah and prophesy there.

He says, don't ever come back here again. Amos, in verse 14, says the following. Amos, in verse 14, says, Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor was I the son of a prophet. He said, but I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. The Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people Israel.

Now therefore, he says to Amaziah, hear the word of the Lord. You say, do not prophesy against Israel and do not spout against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus says the Lord, your wife shall be a harlot in the city, your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, your land shall be divided by survey line, and you shall die in a defiled land, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land.

Amos says, all right, you want me to get lost? Well, here's what God says about that. Amos, in no uncertain terms, tells Amaziah, look, pal, I'm not a prophet, or I wasn't a prophet, rather. I wasn't born into this. So I'm just a herdsman. I'm just a herdsman, just a farmer. I'm a tender and dresser of sycamore figs. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not one of these professional prophets. I'm just a shepherd. I'm just a farmer.

But Amos tells Amaziah, he says, God had other plans for me. God had other plans. He took me from my herds. He took me from my flocks. He took me from the figs that I attended and said, go and prophesy to Israel, so I'm going to do just that. He says, oh, and by the way, Amaziah, you're going to die in a foreign land, and Israel's going to be taken captive. Kind of a little parting shot there as they go.

But Amos burned with the message that he was given. He boldly preached it throughout Israel. But he was a man, just like any one of us. He was a man. He had dreams. He had goals. Perhaps he wished, and I'm putting dreams and goals into Amos's mouth here, but maybe he wished to increase his flocks and herds.

Maybe he was just excited about getting more flocks, more herds, increasing the number of young, you know, young lambs and young sheep. Maybe he wanted to increase the yields of his crops, increase the number of summer figs that he could tend, serve God as humbly as he could while he was doing these things. But God again had other plans. God plucked Amos from his life of comfort, and he sent him as a prophet to Israel to pronounce Israel's destruction. He was pulled from this life of comfort and sent to pronounce Israel's destruction. He had no formal training in the role.

He had no authority beyond what God had provided him to be able to pronounce that message. Amos was just a regular guy, a regular guy whom God picked up and said, Amos, I need you to go do this. And Amos thankfully didn't run away and end up in the belly of a fish. Right? He followed through on the burden that he was given. But even though he was just a regular guy, God saw a talent in Amos that he could use, something beyond just tending sheep and sycamore figs.

There is tradition, there's a tradition that holds that Amos met a violent end at the hands of Jeroboam, that Jeroboam had Amos killed. There's no specific historical account that tells us that that's the case or not. But what we do know is that Amos stepped beyond his comfort level, and he left a very powerful message for God's people then and today. Our final example, if you would turn over to 2 Kings 4, is the example of the Shunammite woman.

The example of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 is an incredible example, and it's a powerful example. We'll pick up the interaction of this woman in Elisha in 2 Kings 4, and we'll go ahead and begin in verse 8. Verse 8 of 2 Kings 4.

2 Kings 4. We'll grab it in verse 8. It says, Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunamm, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. So while he's out and about, and he's doing his thing, this woman was like, Please come eat. You need food. Okay, Elisha, you need to eat something. Please come in here and eat. And then at that point it was like, well, okay, we'll stop in here and grab some food each time that we come through. It says, she said to her husband, Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God who passes by us regularly. Please let us make a small upper room on the wall, and let us put a bed for him there, and a table, and a chair, and a lampstand. So it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in here. And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room, and he lay down there. So we see this, you know, particular case, this introduction of the Shunammite woman. She's a person with great hospitality. She was wealthy, it seems. She was married to an older man with no children. She certainly had the ability to provide, in this case, to provide him a room in their home. And Elisha was so impressed with her example of hospitality that he wished to bless her for her generosity. He wished to bless her. Verse 12.

So Gehazi answered. So Gehazi answers. And he said, actually, she has no son. And her husband is old. And so he said, call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway, and then she said, about this time, next year, you shall embrace a son. She said, no, my Lord, man of God, do not lie to your maidservant. But the woman conceived, and she bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her. So this woman was childish. What were her dreams? You can tell in her response to Elisha. She says, don't lie to me. Don't tell me something that's not going to come true. I know my situation. We've been trying. This isn't working. Right?

What were her dreams? What were her aspirations? Maybe at one point in time, she had desired a family, but it just wasn't really in the cards. Her childbearing years had come and gone. She wasn't blessed with children. Likely, at some point, she just gave up on that. And she settled into whatever life her and her husband had created for themselves. She was faithful. She was generous. She desired to help other people.

But what we see is that God had other plans for her. He gave her a son. He provides her with the promise of a child through Elisha's declaration. Now, she was probably surprised. Right? We see Sarah was surprised when that happened to her. So there was likely some surprise there. It seems like when she was told, she was pretty overcome with emotion. Kind of almost hear it in her words in verse 16.

But it was something that was unexpected. It was something that she probably hoped for for many years. We continue with the story of verse 18. Verse 17, rather. The woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her. And the child grew. And now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said to his father, my head, my head. And so he said to a servant, carry him to his mother.

When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon and then died.

Verse 21. She went up and she laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. The boy that she was gifted with was dead. It's gone.

She takes him upstairs. She lays him on Elisha's bed, in the room that was made up for Elisha. It says, shut the door upon him, and she went out.

She called her husband. She said, send me. I pray thee. It says, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.

So he said, why are you going to him today? It's not the new moon, nor it's the Sabbath. And she said, it is well. Just give me the donkey. Give me some people. I'm going to go do this, okay? It says, then she saddled a donkey. She said to her servant, drive and go forward. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. So this donkey is being driven full tilt. She is going as quick as this thing will go. Which, if you've ever tried to ride a donkey or have a donkey involved, you know there's some negotiation that sometimes has to take place.

Verse 25, so she departed and she went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And so it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look, the Shunammite woman.

Please run now to meet her and say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, actually, let's stop there for just a second. You know, Lycia kind of thought that it was odd for her to be coming to see him too. In fact, he's asking, what's wrong? Are you well? Are your husband well? Is your child well? What's going on? This is not the normal time that you would be coming to see me. What's the story here? Verse 27, now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet and Gehazi came near to push her away. And the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. Verse 28, she said, did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me?

She says to Lycia, did I ask for any of this? I didn't ask you for any of this. I didn't ask you for a son, only to then lose him.

Did I not say, please don't lie to me? Lycia now is picking up what she's saying. He's perceiving what's going on. Verse 29, he said to Gehazi, get yourself ready, take my staff in your hand and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him, but lay my staff on the face of the child. Mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And so he arose and he followed her. And now Gehazi went on ahead of them. He laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. And therefore he went back to meet him and told him, saying, the child has not yet awakened.

Staff wasn't enough. Staff wasn't enough. Now it's possible, speculation, is it possible God didn't want Gehazi to think that somehow he did it? You know, by putting the staff... Gehazi had some issues of his own. Is that one of those things that God didn't want him to think that he had done? And to be able to prove here that the power resided in Elisha.

Verse 32, when Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. He went in, therefore, shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Verse 34, he went up and he lay on the child. He put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands. And he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and he walked back and forth in the house and again went up and stretched himself out on him. And then the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes.

He goes on, says he called Gehazi and he said, call the Shunammite woman. So he called to her and when she came to him, he said, pick up your son. So she went in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground and she picked up her son and she went out. You know, you read through that. It's kind of a strange method, a strange process in that sense. But it's a testament to the power that God granted to Elisha as his prophet. What God did through Elisha. In fact, there's another account in Elisha's life, or rather Elisha's death, in which a man that was hastily tossed into Elisha's tombs, or tomb, rather, returns to life again. He pops back up after being tossed in because he'd come in contact with the bones of Elisha.

God granted incredible power to Elisha through this process. But the point is, the Shunomite woman didn't ask for a son. But God had other plans. Not only did he deliver to her a son, he returned the son to life. He gave her not only an opportunity to raise a child, but an opportunity for his power to be exhibited.

As we look into the situation, can you imagine what's going through her mind? As she's going to Elisha, hoping and praying that this is going to work, being completely uncertain. No idea whatsoever whether this is going to work or not. Having the trust to go and place that trust in God in that way.

As we move into the more modern church, the same pattern follows. Zechariah, like the Shunomite woman, had largely settled into the idea that he wouldn't have a successor. His wife Elizabeth was barren. He served in the temple. Maybe she sold items at market. They had no plans for children. Maybe it was a dream at one point in time, but that ship had sailed.

Yet they were blessed with a child who became John the Baptist. They were blessed with a child who became John the Baptist. They had likely settled for being childless, but God had other plans. The apostles were all different men with different backgrounds. Fishermen, tax collectors, tent makers, just regular folks that had been called to something more. They probably had their own dreams, their own goals, their own aspirations. You know, John and James probably had every plan to follow in their father's footsteps and take over the fishing fleet.

James died by Herod's sword. John lived into his, we can guess, his mid to late 90s. You never know what God has planned for a person's life. Timothy, Onesimus, Priscilla, Aquila, Dorcas, Stephen. You know, the list goes on. God had plans for each of these individuals. God dreamed for them. He had goals. He had aspirations. And he had plans for these men and women that would ultimately achieve his purposes. Romans 8, verse 28, discusses this. You'd like to jot it in your notes.

Romans 8, verse 28 discusses this. It tells us that those who are gods are called according to his purpose. They're called according to his purpose. The reason why that person was selected. It's the reason why that person was chosen. God saw something in them. He chose them for a purpose. Maybe we might say in the case of our discussion today that God had a dream for their life. God had something specific planned that he was going to work through them as he dreamed for their life.

Ephesians 1, verse 11, talks about the same concept. It talks about how we are ultimately called according to his purposes. Ephesians 1, verse 11, talks about how we were called according to his purposes, that God has plans for us. Ephesians 1, verse 11, says, In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

This isn't predestination as the churches of the world preach predestination. It's not what this is talking about. It's talking about this idea that God has chosen the ones who would receive salvation from the beginning. That's not what it's talking about. That it's fate in some way, shape, or form. Nothing that they decide can change it. No sin that they commit can move them from this chosen status.

That's not what Ephesians 1, verse 11 is saying. What it's saying is that God has chosen individuals to call in this life. Those that he has chosen, those he has selected, will be given an opportunity. They may have talents, they may have gifts that he can use. But the choice, the choice is theirs. We all have free will. The choice is theirs. You're all sitting in this room because you've been called.

You've listened to something at one point that got you thinking. Maybe you watched a World Tomorrow program or a Beyond Today telecast, or for some of you, you remember listening to Mr. Armstrong's voice on the radio out there on the early days of the radio program. It got you thinking. You started to maybe read a piece of literature that brought you to a point, but God has called you, and God has brought you in accordance with Ephesians 1, verse 11 and Romans 8, 28.

He has called you according to His purposes. Can't forget, you know, we didn't choose this. Now, we kind of did, I guess, in the sense that you had a decision to make when that call came in that sense. Our choice was to respond to the calling that we received. It's our choice. Just because God wants something for you doesn't negate your free will.

It's our decision. It's our choice. Let's go to Matthew 19. Matthew 19.

Matthew 19, there's an example of a young person that we see here beginning in verse 20. Well, it's an early part of verse 20, pretty much about 16 on. We'll pick it up in 20 with the story of the rich young ruler here.

Matthew 19, and we'll pick it up in verse 20.

After he's gone through this process of coming to Christ and asking the question of what must I do to obtain eternal life, he says, you know, keep the commandments, which commandments? Young man said to him, verse 20, all these things, all these things you've said I've kept from my youth, what do I still lack?

He says, I've been doing this my entire life. I've been keeping these things, been keeping these commandments my entire life. What do I still lack?

Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

You know, God dreamed for this young man, too. He had a dream for him as well. He was young, he was successful, he understood the law, he was knowledgeable, would have likely made a wonderful disciple.

And maybe, we don't know his story down the road, maybe he did eventually. We don't know, for sure.

But it seems, at least at this point in time, he loved his money and his possessions and his things just a little bit more than these other things.

God maybe dreamed a life of discipleship for him. Maybe he dreamed of life as a service as a bishop or a deacon. We don't know. We don't know.

What potential was left there on the side of the road in Judea? What potential was left right there on the side of the road? What had God dreamed for this young man?

And yet, he refuses the calling, at least in that moment, instead focusing on remaining where he is, remaining comfortable, goals, aspirations.

God has a really uncanny way of stepping into people's lives and asking them to leave everything they felt dear.

You see that pattern replicated throughout Scripture so many times. God just steps in and says, look, I need you to just leave everything.

I mean, in the case of the rich young ruler, it was his possessions. But each and every one of us have that one little thing in our life where we're like, you know, that's a bridge too far.

And for each person, it's not going to be the same thing. It's going to be different. It's going to be different.

But what potential was left there on the side of that road in Judea?

God told Abraham to step out. He told Noah to step out. Moses, Gideon, David, Mary. And he's doing the same thing with each of us, too.

He's asking us to leave comfort in a way behind.

We know their responses. We've seen their stories. We can read the Bible and see how they responded.

What about us? How will we respond? Will we yield? Will we let his purpose for us stand? Or will we stay in that place of comfort?

Our comfort zones can be a really difficult place for us to work with. They provide us a place to rest.

They provide us a place to not experience great deals of stress. They give us a place to feel comfortable, to feel safe. They're cozy.

And as a result, we don't like to leave them very often. We don't like to step into the zones that are outside of our comfort zone, those zones of risk, and those zones of danger.

There's an article in the Huffington Post I'd like to share with you here real quick, that wonderful journalistic thing that is the Huffington Post.

But it's a decent article in the sense of this concept, right? I wouldn't base much else off the Huffington Post.

But it says as follows, written by Kevin Klychis. It says, the only thing your comfort zone is really guarding you from is success.

He says, push past the fear, recognize that achieving your dreams is worth the price of being temporarily uncomfortable.

He says, despite what you were taught growing up, being comfortable is bad.

Many people envision a lifestyle where they can achieve success without having to step outside of their comfort zone.

He goes, that is delusional. If you want to make progress with your dreams, you have to do things that scare you.

Let me tell you why. People marvel at great ideas, but ideas are useless on their own.

It says they require action to come into fruition. And he said, sadly, most ideas never make it past the conception stage.

I'm reading a book by Tim Ferriss right now. One of the quotes he keeps talking about is, that crazy idea is a disruptive technology the next morning.

It's like, that crazy idea is only a crazy idea for one day, and then the next day it changes the world.

And oftentimes it never makes it to that point. People ask, nuts! Forget that.

But he says, we can blame our comfort zones for this. Here's why. Ideas can be created within the safety of your own home, but making connections with other people and marketing your ideas to the world, that requires you entering uncharted territory.

It means putting yourself out there and risking failure. And that is petrifying. So much so that people convince themselves they have other things to do instead.

He says, the lesson is simple. Your comfort zone doesn't care about your success. Its main priority is making sure you don't have to do anything that you're not already familiar with.

He says, all the more reason to ignore it. We have to get uncomfortable sometimes to grow.

When God brought his people into growth in his life, it required being firmly uncomfortable 98% of the time, stepping way out of their comfort zones into these zones of risk.

God may offer us opportunities that we're not comfortable with. He may provide us with things that we didn't necessarily realize we even needed.

But it's in those times where we have to step back and take stock. Trials may be a blessing in disguise.

And what God does with our life as a result is a blessing. Setbacks might be a set up for something in the future.

God may be dreaming for us. God may be working in our life even though we may not recognize it right away.

And much like many of those going through it at the time, oftentimes it doesn't feel like much of a blessing in the moment.

In David's life, think about David for a minute. David's life, God's dream for David, God's dream for David, was to fight a giant and to get chased by Saul until he became king.

That was God's dream for David. That's what God brought David to.

In the case of Mary's life, God's dream was for her to be the mother of Christ, except she wasn't married.

And it looked by all intents and purposes like something was going on that shouldn't have been.

Yet God dreamed mightily for both her and Joseph. They both became incredible characters in the pages of Scripture.

So what can we do? What can we do when we're thinking and rattling these things around and considering these things of how God is working in our lives?

I'm going to give you three quick things that we'll end with today, just that we can help to seek God's will and to allow us to dream more effectively in our lives today.

The first thing that we can do is we can be praying to God to help us see the places in our lives where he's asking us or providing us with opportunities to develop our talents further.

Secondly, we can be praying for God to show us his will in our lives, to give us the strength to step out on faith and pursue his will as he opens these doors in our lives.

Thirdly, and lastly, we can recognize that not every dream that God has for us is huge. Sometimes the dreams are small things, and sometimes the huge thing is just a lot of small things.

And then eventually, it is huge. It's massive. And it's a big thing on the other end. Maybe God is just providing us initially with something simple that's just going to stretch us out of our comfort zone a little bit.

Maybe it's a conversation. Maybe it's an opportunity to serve somebody. Maybe it's an opportunity to connect or network with someone that later on becomes this much bigger thing. We have no idea, but in life at times there are doors that are slightly open, and we kind of push on them, kind of feel out whether or not this door seems to be opening or not.

Not every dream that God has for us is huge, but with God dreaming for us, those possibilities are endless. Hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath.

Thank you.